Week 5 Momma's One Night Vacation

Welcome Back Cat Corner-ians,

It is week five and everyone is at least a pound now!!!  These chubby fluff balls loves to run and prance and jump and play and wrestle and love love love to pull the cuffs of my pants.  Any time I come into the foster room all the kittens run around my feet and pull at the cuffs of my pants with their teeth until I sit or lay on the floor so they can play with their favorite toy...the ME jungle gym. 

​​In terms of weaning it's going really well!!  At first they just wanted to make messes.  They didn't have much interest in food beyond playing.  Then I realized hmm maybe they didn't like the taste as much so we switched flavors and BAM kittens eating!  Even though on paper they may have had a "rough" beginning I keep forgetting that these babies are SPOILED!!!  They were born in a shelter so a safe warm place, they've never known cold or hunger like many others animals we unfortunately encounter at the shelter.  They even have had a healthy mom every day from their beginning so when it came to moving from the milk bar to wet food it better be darn yummy or it's not worth their time!  After the flavor switch slowly like dominoes one by one they became interested.

That isn't to say they are completely off the milk bar though...UGH!!  On Monday night of this week the Milk Bar (Momma Cat Easter) was rudely taken away by me to go to Cat Corner for the night to be Spayed the next day.  The babies should be moving on from the milk bar and do not NEED it anymore and Easter really does NEED to have a reduction in hormone surges.  So Tuesday was the magic spay day.

If you are familiar with our little foster family you know Easter isn't the friendliest, so getting her in a crate for the spay date was fun. She is the tinkle queen when she gets nervous and there was pee pee everywhere!  Once we got to cat corner though she settled.

Post Spay Image (Drugs Still In System)

One of the Cat Corner board members went to pick up Easter after her Spay while I was at work and she was still very loopy and apparently when she gets a little loopy she's very affectionate! So even though I still haven't gotten to touch her at least someone has accomplished the white whale tasked and pet and loved on Easter besides her babies!  Rumor has it she's super soft.

As for the babies they were less than pleased with Mom's absence she was gone for less than 24 hours approx 20 hours to be exact but they through a huge fit!  They love Mom dearly and it was life altering that she was away so we did our best to push through.

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The night I brought Easter to Cat Corner (Monday) prior to the Spay the babies had to be without her for a night.  The always sleep with her at night, be it for warmth or comfort.  In preparation for her being away I took an old cat bed opened it and put a heating pad inside.  I figured that would be enough...I was wrong.  All of us slept on the couch with the bed on my lap, the kittens didn't just want the warm they wanted a bigger creature I had to substitute.  You'll see they eventually fell asleep but I had an awful neck pain from the odd sleep.  Remember told you they are spoiled!

The next day I put the bed int he foster room with them to play.  Usually during the day they are the least needy in terms of Mom or me.  They run and play and sleep wherever they plop down.  I have even walked in after work and found a kitten with a paw in the food dish head on the carpet.  Wherever they drop is where they stay during the day.  It was clear though they missed Momma though because I walked in after work and found Cadbury all by himself on the bed snuggled up as he does with Mom.

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I picked up Easter and she was very groggy and for her safety I put her in the crate with the door closed Tuesday night.  The kittens would be able to see Mom but no touching.  I know even though they don't NEED the milk bar anymore they often will still nurse.  On a freshly cut open tummy that's not what Mom needed, so I made sure Easter had all the essentials and the kittens would leave her be.  She was very groggy but by the time I got her home an in her place she was back to her hissing way so no snuggles for me...I missed my window.

That night I was woken at around 2:30 AM by a terrible screeching cry.  Worried Easter pulled a stitch or something terrible had happened to a kitten I bolted out of bed to run into the room.  Paas had attempted to break in to the crate to see Mom and climbed on top of the crate to do so...she fell and got stuck between the wall and the crate.  She may have been there for a while before she called for help.  She looked so pathetic, but I explained to her NO MILK BAR!!!  I freed her and got her snuggled for bed.  The next morning I found her crying at the door again.

After 24 hours of post surgery recovery I finally let the kittens see Mom.  From my observations it seemed that they missed her a lot more than she missed them, but they are a lot of work so she probably welcomed the break even if it meant taking out her bits.  As soon as I opened the door all the kittens ran in and began to groom her and snuggled against her and napped.  They have been very affectionate with her and she has been grooming them a lot too.

As for any changes there was a brief hope that maybe Easter without surging hormones would be easier to work with and possibly easier to determine if she is Semi feral or has just been a stray for a long time.  She shows characteristics of each of those titles so it's so hard to say.  It's only been a few days but her growling has significantly decreased!  I'm cautiously optimistic that's a good sign, but also since it's only been a few days that could be recovery not permanent change.  See you next week!

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Post 24 hour Recovery Mom Snuggles