With the kittens getting more mobile, it was time to clean up the sun room as much as we could. Moving out the furniture to wash the concrete floor is not in the cards while we are using it as a kitten maternity ward, but I definitely needed to move things around so I could bring the cat cave box to floor level, and get the broken glass out from behind and under the plastic couch.

I decided the best way to accomplish this was to put all the kittens together into a box, but the box into the old kitchen, then open the sun room up. This allowed the moms to finally go outside, while the kittens were safe in the (much cooler!) old kitchen.

Which meant I had to do continue more clean up in the old kitchen. Specifically, the corner beside the wood burning cook stove that the cats keep getting into and mucking about.

I ended up filling 3 garbage bags of some gross stuff, plus a recycling bag that will go for electronic disposal. On top of that is stuff that will need to be put into storage, and stuff that will be kept. I’ll post more about that later; come back tomorrow for a guessing game photo! :-D

But first… kittens!

This is the smaller box nest that we made for Beep Beep to give birth in, but Butterscotch moved her babies into, instead. That pillow and cat bed are just covered in cat fur! *L*

With my daughter’s help, we got the gridwall off the top of the cat cave we created for the winter, and put it back into storage with the others in the old kitchen. Once that was clear, I could start moving things around more easily, and without needing help. The crocheted blankets, floor mat and bath transfer chair went outside to be hosed down.

The floor mat was immediately claimed by a very pregnant Guildenstern (or Rosencrantz?), with Doom Guy keeping her company. I had the doors to the sun room and old kitchen open, and we had cats all over the place, checking things out!

Except Beep Beep and Butterscotch. They eagerly took off. Butterscotch came back rather quickly, but it’s 9 in the evening now, and still no sign of Beep Beep.

When I finished cleaning things up, I brought the kittens back into the sun room, putting all of them into the bigger box nest so I could set up the smaller box again.

Butterscotch ended up nursing all of the babies. Well. Almost. Butterscotch has only 6 teats, so she can’t nurse all 8 of them at once.

After moving the kittens back into the sun room, but before Butterscotch came back, I left the outside doors open, so it wouldn’t get too hot in there, while I put the crocheted blankets on the clothes line to hose them down.

I ended up having to close the door, because they were running around so much, one of them found the open doorway and started going outside!

It was one of Butterscotch’s babies, and she was back by then, so I closed her up inside again. Her babies continued to explore, and one of them discovered the smaller food bowl.

Yes, he started eating! Sort of. He wasn’t figuring out that “chewing” thing and was basically swallowing pieces of kibble, then coughing them back up again. :-( So we took him out of the food.

This was his first solid food!

Later on, after everything we done and poor Butterscotch was being engulfed in kittens, I went looking around for Beep Beep.

I never found her, but someone else found me.

Doom Guy wanted up.

As you can see, he was not messing around with that!

He never made it all the way up, but I now have a new batch of scratches on my leg. :-D

I’m sure Beep Beep will be back soon enough. If nothing else, she’ll be feeling the need to nurse soon.

I’m so glad to finally be able to get the sun room cleaned up as much as I could, even if it wasn’t as much as I wanted to.

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow to play the guessing game!

The Re-Farmer