Kittens Upon Kittens!

From Christie: 

I have mentioned Madge in previous videos, and there's more Madge news today.  

For those of you who need an update, our neighborhood cat genealogy expert, Tia, said she believes Madge to be Juvy's daughter from a previous litter.  Madge had kittens about a month ago.  She eventually moved the kittens to our front yard (in a bush).  One day when I was taking Juvy to the vet, there was a horrible mewling, and I looked around to see who it was.  There was a teeeny tiiiny little Siamese kitten walking around with a terrible eye infection, all dirty.  Of course, I just scooped him up and took him on my lap to the vet with me.  He and all his three siblings had very bad eye infections and fleas.  Poor babies.  :(  Tia's dude, Chris, and Greg built an enclosure last Tuesday, and the kittens have been living there since then.  They got treated for the fleas and they get eye medicine twice per day, and Madge is usually sitting on top of their enclosure hissing and growling at us.  We are planning to trap Madge and have her spayed this coming week - no more litters from her!  We will slowly clean this neighborhood up and have only cats we know are not going to reproduce.

If any of you have the same problem with feral cats everywhere, here is a link to information about the trap, spay/neuter, and release programs ($25 donation per cat for the whole thing, with free services available for those who can't afford the donation - also, Greg and I will help with those donations because we believe in the cause of no new feral cats!)

Anyhow, after a week of letting the fleas die from treatment and the kittens get used to us, we decided they needed to be CLEANED!!!  They were filthy.  But now they're adorable, fluffy, and happy!  We are looking for homes for them, as well as for Juvy's kittens.  If we can't find any, we'll be spaying/neutering them and letting them live outside.  It might not be the most awesome life for a cat, but at least they will have food and water and nice people around, and they won't be making more kittens without homes.

We have named them all after characters from one of our favorite British sitcoms, "As Time Goes By."

Here are some photos of the process (they're amazingly cute!):

This is Lionel:

Lionel getting clean!  So tiny.

Stephen drying out.

Curious Judith:

Allistair!  He's the friendliest - maybe because I've been handling him the longest (since I picked him up first and transported him to the vet in my lap and everything - and no, I didn't find any fleas in my car yet . . . ) or maybe because he just has that sort of personality.  

Allistair getting dry.  Look at his HUGE Siamese ears!  I've never played with a Siamese kitten before (and I've never had a Siamese cat in my family, either!  Greg has a thing for them.)

 

An Allistair burrito!

Awwwwww . . . they're amazing!

And on to our videos for the day!

Here are Orca and Ermine playing in the laundry basket (clean laundry, of COURSE!)

And here's Orca attacking my hair!

Have a great week!