I forgot to take progress photos of the kittens, all I got were a couple of quick shots I took on the way out of the house this morning. They have advanced quite a bit in just the past few days. All of them have their eyes open, and they're moving around a lot more. They're still not quite like cats yet, more like highly-educated guinea pigs.
One interesting thing that happened was the introduction of a new kitten. Jessie is fostering some orphaned kittens and has one who was refusing the bottle. It seemed that the bottle was just too foreign for the kitten and she really needed a real mom cat's equipment. The kitten is around 3 weeks old, so i should be able to eat solid food soon. But things had gotten so bad for her that she had to be tube fed the night before she came over. So Jessie brought this tiny kitten over and introduced her to Lucy.
Lucy didn't seem to notice at all that this wasn't one of her kittens. She may have been a little hesitant but she wasn't hostile at all. The kitten knew the deal immediately and sought out a nipple, and again Lucy didn't mind. She nursed on her a bit, then we put her in with the other kittens, who also didn't notice a stranger walked among them.
The kitten nursed some more, falling asleep while still attached. Jessie got her to take some kitten formula, so it seemed the experiment was a success. She was hoping the kitten would get 'jumpstarted' by Lucy's milk and would be more accepting of food, even bottle forumla. Here's hoping the little guy keeps it up; she's gonna make for a pretty cute kitten, she's totally cat-shaped now but she's smaller than our guinea-pig kittens.
If all goes well, I'll start discussing more about backyard landscaping soon. tonight we're hitting another nursery for more plants; I think it's gonna take a lot of vegetation to make our yard pleasant.
