Kitten update

Two kittens, one gray female and the gray and white boy, found a new home with a friend of mine. A few days after taking them home, he called me and said, "I thought you gave me kittens." I said, "I did. What's up?" Then he tells me, "They're not kittens; they're terrorists!" We both started laughing. Apparently, Madison and Taylor (he's a history prof, hence the presidential names) keep him busy!

I've got two kittens myself, one of the black and white boys and the other gray girl. My little girl's name is Gracie. I can't even tell you why that stuck on her, but from the time she was little bitty and I had to bottle feed her, she was my little Gracie May. I'm having trouble naming my boy, though. Right now, I'm trying out Billy, as in Billy the Kid or Billy Bad-Ass, depending on what he's doing at the moment. I'm not fond of the name, but nothing else that I've tried has worked. If anyone who reads this has a suggestion, I'm listening.

The other black and white boy, Spike, unfortunately, had a liver and/or cardiac problem and didn't make it. We sweated it for a while, worrying that he had FIP, but all of the tests for it came back negative. I made the very hard decision to put him to sleep on Wednesday. I've lost a number of pets over the years, and I've got a 13-year-old dog right now whom I know won't be around a lot longer. The decision is always difficult, but this one was almost unbearable. I think it's because he was just a baby and never really had a chance. I'm tearing up just thinking of him.

I'm working on introducing Billy and Gracie to the dogs and my other cat. The dogs find the kittens fascinating. The dogs don't seem to have a desire to kill the kittens--thank goodness!--but I do worry that because they are so much bigger than the kittens that they'll hurt them just by stepping on them. So, kitten-doggie playtime is monitored very closely.

I'm off to spend some time doing the much dreaded housework. What a horrid way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

KIttens!

Last week, my friend Tara called me and told me that she and her family had found a litter of five kittens in a piece of heavy machinery that had been bought at auction. There was a wee note of panic in her voice--she and her folks have never had a cat--so I volunteered to take the kittens off her hands. I foolishly thought that it would be easy to give these kittens away. WRONG! I've got one taker and two maybes. I'm praying that the maybes turn into yeses.

The babies are very cute, though, and I do enjoy taking care of them. They were three to four weeks old when I got them last week, and just a little bit malnourished. They've more than made up for the hunger they had when I got them, though. They're getting four meals a day now, with kitten milk added to help moisten it. The smallest one, who did have to be bottle fed for a couple of days, weighed three-quarters of a pound at the vet's office Tuesday, while the biggest one weighed a pound and a half.