This morning, I was able to get images of all three litters of kittens!
In the sun room, it was easier to get video than still shots.
All of Butterscotch’s babies have their eyes open now.
You can even hear Butterscotch purring as I took the video! The shake at the end there was her finally pushing her way under my hand to get to her kittens. :-)
Beep Beep seemed really happy to see me. I gave them both treats, right next to them, so they wouldn’t have to leave their babies to eat them. Butterscotch came out anyways, but she is not as into the treats as much as Beep Beep, who started looking for more! :-)
I was so happy to hear Beep Beep purring away as I pet her – and even got to touch one her kittens!
While putting food out for the cats outside, I checked on Rosencrantz as well. She ran off when I came close to the old dog house, so when I put the kibble out, I put some right outside the opening.
It’s not as easy to get pictures of these ones. :-D
By the time I came back from putting the bird seed out, she was happily eating the cat food by her kittens, instead of the food by the house, so I think she appreciated the gesture. :-)
On a hunch, I decided to check on the mamas in the sun room just a moment ago.
The new box nest did the trick.
We have four more kittens.
I didn’t have my phone at first, so I missed getting a picture of all of them while Beep Beep came out to eat the treats I brought for them. When I came back, I could only see these two. I wasn’t going to disturb her any more than this, just to get pictures.
She was quite content for me to lift up the blanket and check on her.
What a difference from last year. Both of them kept moving their babies after we figured out where they were, until the kittens were too big and mobile to do it anymore. Now, they are good with me reaching right in and petting them (and, in the case of Butterscotch right now, her babies, too).
That makes 12 kittens in total, unless there is another litter somewhere we don’t know about.
Part of my morning rounds now includes checking on kittens and mamas. I am happy to say that Rosencrantz is showing no signs of wanting to move her kittens anywhere. When I check on her, I stand to the side of the dog house, stick my phone camera into an opening, and try and see through the screen. This morning, Rosencrantz ran out, but she did not go far. I snapped a quick picture, then stepped aside, calling to her a bit. She was comfortable enough to go back in to her kittens.
I still have some hope of being able to bring Rosencrantz and her babies into the “maternity ward.”
While visiting with Butterscotch and Beep Beep earlier, they both went into the old kitchen while I topped up their food and water and grabbed the bird and deer feed. Butterscotch even let me pick her up and cuddle her for a bit, before she went back to her kittens, but I’d managed to get a quick picture while she was out.
I am now kind of concerned. And confused. (slight graphic warning)
The girls and I made a trip into the city today, and when we got back, I made sure to visit the mamas and kittens in the sun room.
Two of the kittens have their eyes open! The orange and white tabby does not, and I couldn’t see the face of the tuxedo to tell one way or the other.
They are so adorable!!!
In other news, we are finally ready to get the trees done. All of them, not just a half-job. I made the call this morning, and they will come out within the next two weeks.
So two live trees that are putting the house as risk and one dead tree that is a risk of falling onto the power lines will come down completely. Then the power lines will be cleared of branches the whole way. They will be bringing a chipper to do the small stuff, and we will be keeping the wood (there was the option of them taking the wood away, if we wanted).
We’re thinking about what the next big job (money wise, at least) should be a priority. It will mostly likely be to rent a heavy duty chipper for a week, and clear out the piles of branches all over the place. Getting a quote to get the driveway done with fresh gravel is also on the list, but as much as it could use it now, this will likely be a next year thing.
With Butterscotch staying in the box nest I had hope Beep Beep would use to have her babies in, I decided to move the kittens in with her.
The next time I saw Butterscotch, she was where the kittens had been. Now, she’s hiding under the swing bench.
This mama wants her alone time!
I had put treats on the pillow to tempt the mamas to use it, but Butterscotch has been ignoring them. Beep Beep loves them, but won’t go in where the kittens are.
We are at the point where we’re expecting Beep Beep to have her kittens any time. She is also so very cuddly, while Butterscotch has become less so. It used to be the other way around. I think Butterscotch is ticked off at us for closing her up in the sun room. :-D
My husband went out to visit the cats in the sun room, and found the kittens squirming around on the floor!
He put them back in their spot and told me about it, so I made them a new bed. Hopefully, the walls will be enough to keep them from rolling off the bench seat they are on.
Unless Butterscotch is the reason they were down. She’s been using the box next I made in hopes that Beep Beep will have her kittens there. I thought she might have tried to move her kittens there, but when I went in later, I found her in the box, and the kittens on the swing bench.
The theory is that mama needs a break from the babies. :-D
While mama was snoozing in the box, her babies were snoozing on the bench. Even when they started mewing as I moved them, Butterscotch stayed right were she was!
Today, we finally got our monthly shop in the city done. We got the main shopping done at Costco, and still had energy enough to take in a couple more stores. It made for a long, achy day. I forgot to take pain killers before we left. Ah, well.
We encountered a couple of strange things in the process. The first was at Costco, when we stopped to look at a food dehydrator. I had one but passed it on before the move, and will be wanting to replace it by the time we start gardening. The one on display was tipped over on its side, so while we were maneuvering it around so we could see it properly, we got a good look at the settings.
We both did double takes.
Living food? What on earth is “living food” supposed to be? It’s already got settings for yogurt, so not bacteria, and bread, so not yeast. I’m familiar with the raw food diets and the claims about enzymes, but there’s fruit and vegetable settings there, too. I’ve even been doing searches, and I’ve found a Living Food Institute, living food as a brand name for, among other things, dehydrators, and raw food diets that define living foods as “all natural and uncooked.” Which doesn’t explain having its own setting.
Very strange! :-D
Then as we were heading into another grocery store for things we don’t want to buy in bulk, we walked past a cart corral and spotted this…
Someone left their liverwurst behind, and there it sits, all sad and lonely. Strange, indeed! :-D
It was a productive shop, though the Costco was very busy for a Tuesday morning! My daughter and I were both pretty sore and tired by the time we got home. My younger daughter had a shift today; we dropped her off, then headed straight to the city. One of the things we got were cat treats for the mamas in the sun room, so before I headed out again to pick her up, I took some time to sit in the sun room with them.
Beep Beep could not get enough cuddles!
I spread cat treats in different areas, including the box nest I hope Beep Beep will use when she has her babies, as well as tucking some under the blanket for Butterscotch. She would be in this picture, too, if the blanket were lifted up. :-D Beep Beep was a real greedy guts and ate up all the other treats, then came over to me and demanded all of my attention!
Having a heavily pregnant cat try and roll around on your stomach and chest is truly amusing.
And painful. She kept slipping, and she has very sharp claws!
I’m happy to say that, by the end of the day, I could see that both cats had used the litter box. I was really hoping they wouldn’t find the litter too odd and just used the floor or something. I’m also happy to say that Butterscotch seems quite okay with me being around her and the kittens, and purrs up a storm when I reach under the blanket to pet her, and even touch her babies. They are so adorable!!!
There is one thing about having them in the sun room that makes things less convenient; we can’t go outside through it right now. I don’t want to take a chance of either of the mamas getting out. The bags of outside cat food are kept in the old kitchen, but the deer/bird feed is in a bin in the sun room. That means getting the cat food from the old kitchen, then walking through the house to the main doorway, then back to the sun room, from the outside, to the cat’s food and water bowls. Then going back through the house, the old kitchen and into the sun room, to get a bucket of feed for the birds and deer. I don’t mind, but it is kinda funny.
I was almost finished the last bag of deer feed, so on the way to getting my daughter I stopped to pick up more feed. I am now switching away from the deer feed (which is a mix of mostly oats and sunflower seeds) to straight black oil seed. I don’t expect the deer to be coming by as often, now that things are greening up and food is more available in the bush, and the birds prefer the black oil seeds. The deer are more than happy to eat it, too, so it’s win-win. :-)
