15th April 2009
What a difference a few days makes! The CK’s are everywhere! Two days ago Talek decided to be the first out of the basket and as we have seen with so many litters before, once one kitten decides to do something the others rapidly follow, and so it was only a few minutes later that all four kittens were tentatively wandering around the floor, carefully sniffing and exploring. Of course the next day they were up to speed and really don’t feel any nervousness now about running around their area.
We don’t believe in penning kittens, but until the babies are litter trained we do find that sectioning off an area of the lounge with the puppy pen stops them developing the bad habit of using any dark corner as a litter tray! It also ensures their safety when they are so small from our very playful spaniel! It won’t be long before the pen isn’t needed as the babies will just be able to climb over it anyway!
Last night Trinny stayed downstairs with her kittens – until 7am when one by one they were unceremoniously plonked down next to me in bed. Needless to say I was late for work because I spent half an hour just playing with them and watching them play – the CK’s were pouncing on each other, jumping on each other’s tails and trying hard to catch them – unsuccessfully! Trinny tried to wash Jago but the lad wasn’t in the mood – he in turn just tried to grab his mums ears between his paws and bite them! He didn’t win though because Trinny just pinned him down and gave him a darned good washing anyway!
This lunchtime I decided to offer the kittens some milk/baby rice mixture, which is what we always start to wean the babies with. I started with Talek as the biggest and boldest kitten. Well !! You’d have thought I was trying to poison him! The face he pulled had to be seen to be believed! Jago next with a very similar reaction, bless them both!! Piran is a little smaller than the other two boys and so I didn’t think for one minute he would be ready to try any food from my fingers but wow! He
licked, and licked…….then sunk his very sharp teeth into a mushy lump of rice which unfortunately was on the end of my finger! I was delighted though that he showed a good interest. Karensa probably caused me the most amusement because she too was clearly not impressed….she shut her eyes and literally shuddered, but then ate some! She kept doing this and it was just like when I was little and knew I had to eat the disgusting boiled cabbage served up for school dinners!
This evening I will offer a little food again, and when all the kittens are happy to eat from my fingers I will start to add some meat to the mixture!
I was determined to get photos on tonight, but since 4pm I have been waiting for the CK’s to wake up – and they haven’t! I will try to add some later, however bad they are!
