Yesterday I just happened to check my messages between classes, and wouldn't you know, there was one from my apartment management asking for my help again. Four baby kittens were found on a currently empty apartment's porch, and could I do something about them? I called to find out that their eyes were open, but they were very small. The manager said they were hissing, but otherwise mostly just huddling together. They had them in a shopping basket with a towel.(Seriously-- when I showed up and found a shopping basket full of kittens? Cutest thing ever. Too bad I didn't have my camera.)
So I promised I'd be there as soon as I could and spent the next lecture trying to re-configure my day's schedule deciding if I had enough supplies at home to start the Baby-Kitten Process again. (What? Doesn't everyone have powdered Kitten Replacement Milk, baby food and syringes (sans needle, of course) in their pantry?)
Clearly these were kittens who had not met humans before as no matter what you do they hiss. The cutest part was when they hiss in between taking sips of milk from the syringe. "sip, sip, slurp, hiss-hiss, slurp, hiss, sip."
I'm not much good at determining kittens' sexes, but my friend F (Beatrice's mommy!) joined me and agreed with my guesses that there are two girls and two boys. All four took milk several times yesterday, and today I got them eating baby food, too (with gusto!) We cleaned out their ears (ew!) and got most of the goop off of their eyes and noses (ew) and gave them baths. The poor things were so dirty that they immediately turned their bath water grey and gross. They will need baths again today, but that's because of the food that gets on them when they eat/dribble.
They're already starting to show individual personalities. The polka-dot one is generally anti-people. The grey-almost-tuxie is the friendliest, calmest, and fell asleep on my stomach last night. The most-tabby one is an adventurer and explorer, and the slightly-less-tabby one is a hider.
One of the office people said she'd probably like to adopt one when they're old enough. Fingers crossed on that. And the office people also promised to help me find homes for these guys.
Here's hoping I can help them grow up and be strong. :)
More of the initial pictures here.
I'm about to fall over from the cuteness overload. It sounds like the new management is getting on board with your colony, or is it?
ReplyDeleteI want to hug them and squeeze them and NAME THEM GEORGE!
ReplyDelete@Eve: They're adorable-- until you pick them up and they're so tiny and soft and fluffy and then they're dangerously adorable.
ReplyDelete@Worsted Witch-- well, they do need names. But I suspect naming all of them George would be just as confusing as them currently having no names. :)
i need to stop reading these posts. i want to (a) adopt all the kittens, (b) nibble on their kitten ears, and (c) nibble on their adorable little kitten feet, all having the overall result of (d) me dying of cute overload :)
ReplyDelete@Mousecanknit: I end up ded-from-cyoote every time I walk into my bathroom! (And these kittens are so tiny that their itsy bitsy wee feet are the widdlest things ever!)
ReplyDelete