Old Latest - March 8 - March 12, 2009
March 12, 2009 - She
kept doing it yesterday. Right under my nose. I finally saw
how she was doing it, so at least I'm relieved that she wasn't
squeezing through a 1 1/2 inch gap.
It's a 3 inch gap, equally too small for my own cats to get through,
between the side of the bed and the wall, near the head. I can't
see or feel any hole back there to get into the underside of the bed,
but there clearly must be one. I stuffed the opening I found with
towels and pillows, but she still tried. I kept putting the
kittens back and she kept carrying them off again. I had to shut
them in the cage any time I couldn't keep a constant watch.
I got her to sit still in my lap to be brushed for a while, for the
first time. I'm not having much success with getting her used to
her nails being trimmed though. And I'd really like to get her
nails trimmed.
I hope her new person appreciates all my efforts to get her scratching
post trained. She has a tendency to scratch my carpet (My brand
new carpet -- I just got a new RV about 2 months ago) when I pet her
and, really oddly, while she drinks water.
When I came home, the cage was empty and Cougar and Kids were no where
to be found. I live in an RV and there just aren't that many
places a cat can go. The only hidden places I could think of were
under the couch and under the reclining chair and they weren't there.
For a moment I thought, "They're famous and someone has kidnapped them
and is holding them for ransom." I saw my cellphone was
flickering with a message. The kidnapper's demands? No, it
was an automated message from my pharmacy.
"Is there any way they could be under my bed?" I thought. This is
an RV bed, not a regular one. There's about one inch
between the bottom and the floor, all of 1 1/2 inches inches toward the
head of the bed, and I took a pic to prove it. I started poking
around and heard a kitten squeak.
Once you get under that tiny clearance, it does open up under there, up
into the slide mechanism. Not what I would think of as a good
kitten nest. But, I've got to hand it to her, if she was looking
for a place to put the kittens that only she could get to, she found
it. She's so small, only she could squeeze under there, although
I still don't see how even she could do it. There's no way
any of my cats can do it, not even
my formerly-tiny Abigail. Did she even do it with a kitten in her mouth? Or somehow pull the kittens in after her?
Due to the (really stupid) design of this bed, I'd have to do some
major disassembly to get in there. The bed lifts up into a
"storage area" about 2 inches deep, which is too small for me to even
bother to use. The one good thing I can say about it is that the
plywood was so thin that, although I couldn't get to the screws
that held it in place, they ripped right through the cover when I
pulled.
Sure
enough, they were in there, but to the very back where I couldn't reach. But Cougar had already decamped and the
kittens were in no apparent distress, so I just waited and coaxed and
eventually, they got to where I could reach them.
Hmm. Maybe Cougar wasn't trying to put The Kids to bed with me the other night but was trying to put them under the bed.
So, now what do I do? Even if i put towels or something in the
gap under the bed, what would she do next? Put them under or up
inside the couch or recliner? I'd be afraid to move those for
fear of hurting the kittens. I guess I'd better keep them shut in
the condo when I can't watch. I hate to do it as I like her
having the freedom of the house. But I think it would be
best. Although, at this point, I wouldn't put it past her to have
the ability to teleport herself and the kittens out of a latched cat
condo, possibly to another planet.
March 10, 2009-
Took this pic of The Kids this morning while I was cage cleaning.
It's a good thing I bought lots of new camera batteries
yesterday. At the rate these guys are being cute, I can see I'm
going to go through a lot of them.
I'm going to have take more videos, too. My jaw was on the floor
watching Cougar play yesterday. She had found a toy, not anything
with catnip, bells or rattles, and was batting it around almost like a
sighted cat. My internet connection is pretty slow, but I
uploaded one "take" onto YouTube. I'm hoping to get a friend to edit together some video to have something better to show you all.
I keep coming from my bedroom to find one or both kittens outside of
their nest. I haven't seen it happen, so I don't know if the
kittens are getting out by themselves or Cougar is moving them.
I've put in a barrier, about 6 inches high, that should keep them in
for a while. Cougar had no trouble at all getting used to it.
March 9, 2009
- I think she didn't like having to make the decision between sleeping
with me and sleeping with the babies. I woke up hearing a kitten
crying rather close to me. She must have carried it up the steps and
it was on the floor by my bed. Well, that's sweet in theory, but I
don't want to roll over on a kitten in bed or step on one when I get up
in the night. I shut them up in their condo for the night.
I suppose she is getting fond of me, too. She's almost always in the
same room I am, near me. She doesn't often ask for attention but does
seem to want to just be close.
I need to backtrack a little and fill in some news between the intros I
wrote in their stories and the present. Cougar and both kittens
have homes waiting for them when they're ready to be separated.
Cougar surprised most of us by getting her milk back, weeks after she
had been spayed, so now I have even less work to do in caring for the
kittens. I'm not sure if she'd really producing enough milk,
though. Besides, I opened a Giant Economy Sized can of KMR when
the kittens arrived, so I might as well use it up. So I'm still
bottle-feeding the kittens, but they aren't taking as much as they
would be if that were all they were getting.
It's not just how well Cougar gets around that surprises me. I've
heard stories (and heard a few more in response to her story) about
other blind cats. Sometimes an owner won't even realize their cat
has gone blind until they start moving furniture around. But
Cougar has only been blind for less than a month, and only been in my
house for a little over a week, much of that time either shut in her
condo or not wanting to leave the condo to take care of The Kids.
Yet she has been bold about exploring from the first, has no trouble
standing up to my cats when they get too close, and is more outgoing
with strangers than any of my own cats.
March 8, 2009
- Cougar slept with me part of last night. It took her only one
try before she got comfortable with jumping on and off of my bed.
I'm afraid my bed is generally a bit crowded with me and my 4 cats,
but, hey, she's small.
The kittens, who looked so identical, except for size and gender, are
now easier to tell apart. Agatha is just a little lighter than
Cuthbert now.
They're 15 days old today, and I've had them 2 weeks, so today was the
major weigh-in. The Mighty Cuthbert is up to 12 and a half
ounces. Agatha's still lagging behind at only 11. They were
only 4.5 and 4 when I got them a week ago.
I took them to WAG on Friday so they could have a look at her spay
incision site which the kittens have been nursing on. While it
was okay, they suggested I bring her back on Mon for a recheck. I
volunteer at WAG Mon, Thurs and Fri for about 4 hours a day, so, as
long as I'm going anyway, I might as well. Cougar is amazingly
relaxed about these changes of environment. I would have thought
that, being blind, they'd upset her, but it doesn't seem to.
Friday, she stayed in "Toby's playhouse" -- a large cage in the dog
room for the use of one of WAG's resident cats, but she doesn't use it
anyway.