Last week was rough. We were both sick to varying degrees, and the addition of the new kittens was really weighing heavily. At first we were afraid to let the kittens into the cellar so we closed the door and brought the litter boxes upstairs. This had one major positive effect: after months of sleeping in the basement, Decatur was forced to come up to our bedroom (though she slept in the closet most of the time). But most of the kittens had diarrhea, the litter boxes were beyond gross, and we started thinking that even crazy cat ladies are better prepared than us.
But we got things under control eventually. A pal of mine works for a rescue group and was kind enough to give us some dewormer for the kittens. A better brand of cat litter helped control things in between cleanings (which I now do twice a day, with patrols throughout the day). The kittens have settled in and are all quite happy to be here. Well, all except Monkey.
Monkey, the lone female in a sea of boy kittens, she's still pretty skeptical of her human hosts. She's getting better though and spent a good deal of last evening playing with the other kittens.
Rusty, the orange kitten, has almost totally been tamed. The only thing he doesn't like is being picked up. But hey, a lotta cats don't like being picked up. His two brothers (Baby Bones and Ira) remain standoffish, which bugs me since they're getting really big and I am dubious of the market for full-grown cats who don't like people.
Chester, the Russian Blue kitten, is also super tame. He is darned cute and will be difficult to part with. I wish his sister (Monkey) would come around, as they really should be adopted out together.
Shoehorn, the gray tabby kitten, is also doing very well. He's a bit skittish, but will accept petting and has been sleeping on the couch next to us.
Ira, the darker of the gray tabby brothers, soooo wants to be a housecat. I can see it in his eyes when we're playing with the other kittens. But alas, he has a psychological block he has been unable to overcome that prevents him from allowing us to touch him. Still, he has been pouncing on our toes while we're in bed, so I think his defection is imminent.
Baby Bones, named for his resemblance to Mr Bones, has been the slowest to progress. This is odd since he was the first of Gladys' kitten to come into the house over a month ago. Perhaps he's too self-sufficient, or maybe he's just too smart for us. He knows that eventually I'll put out food for him, and he gets a lot of attention from the other cats. So maybe he thinks there's no reason to make nice with the humans. I'll think of something!
Which is what we intend to do with Gladys' kittens as well. But I'm wondering if I should start pimping them out now, while they're still somewhat young. Are there people out there who want the challenge of taming semi-feral kittens? It's kind of a pain, but it's been rewarding, at least with the orange kitten. I fear that their chances for adoption drop significantly when they get to be full grown, so I'm keen on getting them out of the house toot sweet. This would be better in the long run anyway, since my taming might not stick when they have to go to a new house. I wish cats could understand English, so you could just explain why it's in their best interests to get with the program now!
Anyway, I need to begin construction on some bad-weather cat shelters. Lucky for me, I live in a neighborhood literally surrounded by 99 Cent stores, so it shan't be hard to pick up some big storage bins. But I gotta relocate some of these cats to the back yard; I get enough needling from the neighborhood kids as it is without having the areaway full of cat condos (lately I've been getting "Dude! Kitty, kitty, kitty!" in my direction.)
