Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Litter 5! Litter 5!

The ARL has been absolutely swamped with kittens, so I took home four of them on Saturday. They're supposed to all be from the same litter, but one of them looks a week older than the rest. They're three weeks old. They weren't eating the soft food the shelter sent home with me, so we went out and bought a can of milk replacer. Expensive stuff!

Since they're so young, I'm not sure what their genders are. There's a calico one,
a grey tabby, and two white and grey kittens. The tabby is the older one. It's less social; it hisses sometimes when we try to pick it up. Maybe its genetic family was more feral then its adoptive litter.

Since they're so young, I wasn't confident in their litter habits, so I've been penning them up on when I'm not in the room. They seem to be doing pretty well so far, but I'll be happier to let them run about the room unsupervised in another week.

They sleep, eat, and beat the heck out of each other. That's their routine. They also love to climb the cushions and bite... well... just about everything. Including my hand! I'm hoping they grow out of that soon. They're clumsy little things, too falling off the cushions, accidentally stepping in their food or in the water dish. "Lil' Wet Foot," I should call the calico. At least she's making a habit of licking her feet.

Immortalized in Pixels

It was with great shock and dismay that I learned today that Cara Mel did not survive her spaying procedure. Having grown up with spayed cats and known many people with spayed cats, I had never known of a single case in which there were complications, let alone a spaying operation that turned fatal. One of the reasons I chose not to adopt my foster cats was because I didn't want to watch them grow old and die. Now this.

Cara Mel is actually the second of my fosters to die. The first was in my first litter. There were originally six kittens, and one died shortly after I took them home. The kitten was apparently very sick when I got her. The shelter clinic was closed, so I could either take her to an emergency vet who would have little chance of saving her, or try to make her comfortable until the clinic opened or she died. Watching that kitten die was the saddest thing that I had ever done. Yes, I have been more depressed before, more miserable, but never from a single act.

Cara Mel and her kittens were my longest fosters. I took great pleasure from watching her interact with her kittens and the rest of the house. She was very inquisitive, she seemed to want to know everything that was going on, but she never stopped watching out for her kittens. She was a good mother and a good cat. Cara Mel will be missed.

A Letter from Cara Mel

To my future family,

Please adopt me soon. I'm such a sweety I know we'll get along just fine. I enjoy company. I'll follow you around the house and watch everything you do, but I don't jump up on things (much) and I don't beg at the table, (just watch). I'm a little confused about where my kittens have gone. (Adopt one with me! I'll take care of him/her and we'll keep each other company.) To get over my loss, I might pretend that your dirty socks are my kittens. I'll talk to them and carry them around with me so that I know they're safe.

I loved to use this scratcher in my foster home. Please get me one like it. I'm a bit of a litter flinger, but I'm better with litter pellets like these. Also, I love these salmon treats, but I'm not too picky!

Adopt me and I will love you forever... and sort your socks!

Purrs and Snuggles,

Cara Mel

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A note to my regular readers: Cara Mel has been listed on PetFinder, and her profile links to Kitty Fest. We don't list the kittens because they'll be adopted from the shelter quickly and without the need of internet publicity.

As with All Good Things...

I've given Cara free range of the house while keeping the kittens in the laundry room. I tried putting them in the kitchen, but I got tired of moving all their stuff, and the kittens seem more comfortable in the room in which they spent most of their lives. Cara's been kind of funny about the change. She'll walk around the house calling to them, as if she's forgotten that they can't get out of the laundry room. She has also taken to carrying around my dirty socks while making what sounds like the I have a prize for you sound. For the last time: my socks neither smell nor taste like dead rats.

Cara's been uber curious about everything, looking in the garbage even when there's no food in it, looking out the window, just looking around. I made vegetable fried rice last night, and I tried soy bean pods for the first time. The pods were too tough to eat, so we were throwing them away, and Cara kept snatching the pods out of the trash to eat them. Weirdo.

Cara Mel and her kitties are going back to the shelter Monday to be fixed and put up for adoption. I'm going to miss them. Cara's been extremely fun to take care of. If it weren't for K's allergies, I think I'd keep Cara Mel and Absinth (the kitten formerly known as Pernod).

Trying out the New Camera

We decided to rename "Godiva" as "Caroline," but this is not meant to imply that she is in any way inferior to Bailey. Bailey likes my camera. Pernod Absinth thinks it's pretty cool. Caroline is a little more interested in other things... ... like wrestling her brother. Bailey watches Caroline beat up a towel... ... and then decides to take on a shirt. The shirt wins. Here's Pernod Absinth taking on a somewhat livelier opponent. Cara loves her babies, but they can be exhausting.

Grainy Footage

K was nice enough to hold the laptop while I snapped some pictures with the webcam. Unlike my Fab Five photos, these images look on par with the photographic evidence of Bigfoot. Kudos to anyone who spots a flying saucer. The webcam is good for still life, and these kittens are only still when they're sleeping.Here's Pernod Absinth scratching his ear. I promise he doesn't have fleas. I've never seen a cat with quite that coloring, like a charcoal tabby. My dad was quite taken with Pernod Absinth (who's name he supplied).This is Bailey at the heel of K's slipper. What a cutie! When compared to Godiva Caroline, he's got a little more brown on his face and a little less white on his forehead. In Exhibit A, you can clearly see the plaintiff, Ms. Cara Mel, having her tail assaulted by one of the defendants - Lord Bailey and Lady Godiva Caroline. This is the only photographic evidence that we have of the attack, so it will be up to their testimony to determine the guilty party. Unfortunately, all three parties are refusing to talk.I think that's Godiva Caroline under Pernod Absinth.Pernod Absinth and Bailey are in the foreground, Cara and Godiva Caroline against the wall.

In a final note, I did break down and buy a camera from Amazon.com. I expect its arrival by the end of the week.

Mmm... Intoxicating

I wish I had more pictures. I would, but I broke my camera/phone shortly after I took that last batch. Also, I've been working obsessively over the last two weeks to create a presentable tutoring website. (I taught myself enough html and css to make a website that was none too shabby, and then I found out that google pages hates outside formatting. I had to micromanage every single tag to get it to come out the way I wanted, and I still can't change the website's background color.)

Anyway, Cara Mel and her kittens are all healthy. When the kittens opened their eyes two weeks ago, their eyes were solid black. A few days ago I noticed some color in there - their eyes are turning blue, and yesterday I had the vet tech sex the kittens for me when I had them in for their shots.

• Bailey - brown-grey tabby and white, male: Bailey likes sleeping, nursing, and chewing on his sister.


• "Lady" Godiva Caroline - brown-grey tabby and white, female: Godiva Caroline likes sleeping, nursing, and chewing on Bailey.


• Pernod Absinth - charcoal, male(?): Pernod Absinth is either the adventurous one or the mama's boy. He was the first to go out of the sleeping den and walk around on his wobbly legs, and comes over to check me out when Cara Mel is soaking up the luvin'.

Maybe I'll steel Kyle's phone to get some pictures this weekend... or maybe I'll break down and buy a camera.