Lewis and the kittens Part 2

Lewis is doing suprisingly well with the kittens, except for this one weird thing. He likes to bite them on their necks, but they don't seem to mind. They don't try to run away from him and I don't think he hurts them, he just grabs their skin. In the video below, if you turn up the volume, you can hear the kitten purring (when the camera gets right in his face) after he bites it. Strange.

Lewis and the kittens

This weekend we did the big switcheroo with the cats, so now everyone is in their final forever home. That means my parents finally finished their kitchen remodeling project and now have Kate the momma cat living with them. And Lewis is back home with the two remaining kittens, and no one is living in the garage any more. Kate is doing okay at my parents house. She was coming out of heat (again) the first day, but appears to be done with that now. Mom says she sleeps a lot, but is doing fine and will even jump on the couch to sit and let mom pet her. She's coome a long way since i first trapped her in April! I still need to get her spayed, which will happen hopefully this week, once she is dried up from nursing those kittens.

Lewis and the kittens are doing really well too. I can't tell the kittens apart anymore, so I just call them the twins or the brothers. i need to figure out a way to mark them so I know who is who. Lewis has been super good and hasn't attacked them at all. They have tried attacking him a few times, but not much comes of it. The kittens like to hiss at him when he gets too close, but their little baby hiss is not very frightening. And I don't really think they are afraid of him because they follow him around instead of trying to hide from him. This morning they were all running races chasing each other around the house. I'm hoping lewis will enjoy having some new friends around to play with and make his life a little more interesting. Here's a little video of the three of them playing on Saturday, their first full day together:

cat in heat

Katie is in heat. I ended up taking Lewis to stay with my parents and letting Katie and the remaining two kittens into the house to stay tonight. She is miserable, pacing and rolling on the floor and sticking her butt in the air. I thought at least she could be more comfortable in the air conditioned carpeted house instead of the hot garage. And I think the kittens need a break from her while she is in this state, so at least there are place they can run and hide :)

The good news is that apparently cats in heat are very affectionate. She keeps coming up to me and has been letting me pet her alot (the first time she's been okay with petting) and even let me pick her up to move her. I'm hoping this whole episode will speed up the weaning process, make her more comfortable with petting, and then I can take her in to get her spayed soon.

Here's a pic of Willie and Topher resting (the only time they are still enough for a picture) from about a week ago.

The meeting of the cats

The blood has dried and my face doesn't sting anymore, but I won't be trying to introduce Lewis and Kate again for a long time.

Katie had kind of a crazy day yesterday. Her second kitten left to go to it's new home, she had lots of new visitors she had never met, and we had loud fireworks in the evening. Today things were calmer, but I think she has noticed the missing two kittens as she was crying some today off and on. She always calmed down when I would go in the garage, so I think she just wanted some company.

This afternoon I decided to try to introduce Kate to Lewis. I put the two remaining kittens in the carrier (which made Katie meow a little bit, but she didn't get too upset). Then I opened the garage door, went inside and picked up Lewis while he watched Kate. Kate immediately came inside, squatted really close to the floor with all of her claws out, and looked at Lewis ready to attack. Lewis scratched his way out of my arms and jumped to the floor ready to attack back. I quickly pushed Katie back in the garage, let the kittens out of the carrier, and closed the door. Then I came back in and noticed blood dripping down my neck from where Lewis scratched my face. It wasn't too bad, just a small battle wound. I went back out to check on Kate and the kittens later and they were doing fine. I'm not sure what my next plan of action will be though....

Here is Topher (formerly Number 3), taking his afternoon nap on the boxes.

And here is Willie (formerly Number 1), taking his afternoon nap on the chair...

And here is Lewis taking his afternoon nap by my side while I work on the computer :)

Number 2 gets a new home!

Just a day after Number 4 got a new home, Abbey and her brother Colton arrived to pick up Number 2 and take him to his new home in Hutchinson. Rafiki (formerly Number 2) will be going home to live with Taj, another playful cat in need of a new playmate, so I'm sure he will fit right in!

Katie seems to be adjusting pretty well to having two of her babies gone. She cried a little bit tonight as she looked around for them, but seemed to settle down pretty quickly once I went to check on her. Tomorrow I'm thinking about introducing Katie and Lewis to see how that goes....

Number 4 gets a new home!!!

Today was a special day for Number 4 - he got to have a bath, get his nails trimmed, meet his new mom, and go to his new home! Here is a photo of Ninja (formerly Number 4) with his new mom Erin. Below are some photos from his bath with Marla. It was little scary for him, but he was very brave and did just fine.

Playing in the house

The kittens are really getting big now! I let them play in the house for a couple of hours today because it was getting stuffy in the garage again. Lewis took a nap locked in my room upstairs. Here's a photo of mamma and Number 2 on the stairs, and then a short video of clip of Number 4 playing on the stairs.