LostWoods Blog

The Belgariad Babies are two weeks old already. It seems like yesterday I was watching that big litter be born. Oh wait, yesterday I was watching the Mallorean Babies be born! Anyway, new pictures of the BBs are on the website. Two week weights:

Taiba - 8.1 oz

Lelldorin - 7.9 oz

Belgarath - 8.7 oz

Garion - 9.3 oz

Kheldar - 8.8 oz

Ce’Nedra - 8.2 oz

Polgara - 7.9 oz

In other news, notice the background on the blog — it now uses the LostWoods website background! Whee! My next goal is to figure out the header, then mess around with some plugins. In between taking pictures of kittens (my new full time job when I’m home after my real job!) and trying to keep up with housework and such… And don’t forget, I still have Deb’s site to finish. Guess I’d better get to work on that.

Brief update this morning as I have a ton of things to do at work. Doncha just hate it when what you need to do interferes with what you want to do? Zakath gained .6 oz over night while his sister Cyradis gained .4 oz. Talia is happily nursing them in their bed, with no moving them around. The kittens have warm, fat little bodies and seem to be very content. Cyradis is mouthier than her brother when I pick them up — tortie-tude already!

Welcome to the Mallorean Babies, Zakath (the Emperor of Mallorea) and Cyradis (the Seeress of Kell)! Talia spent most of the day in her birthing bed thinking about having babies and finally decided to do something about it late this afternoon. She delivered them in her usual Drama Queen fashion, screaming with each birth. They are good sized (Zakath - 4.2 oz and Cyradis - 3.8 oz) and have taken to the milk bar like pros. Talia didn’t much like me borrowing them for photos, but I managed to take a few of each kitten and have posted them on the website. Here’s one of Mama-Talia and her contented, hungry kittens.

… and with a sore back, I might add. Talia’s kittens still have not arrived. She has been playing with me, getting me to spend hours on the floor, sitting beside the birthing bed petting her. She also does not think I should sleep all night, so she wakes me up with head butts (that girl is serious about her head butts!) and paw pats to my cheek. Then she runs over to her bed and looks expectantly at me. Since this is exactly how she behaves when delivery is imminent, I can’t ignore her for long. It might be the real thing. Or not. Talia has been digging around at her bed, washing herself a lot, and generally acting like she’s settling down to have kittens. But after an hour or two, she’ll get up, stretch, and decide she’d like to have a bite to eat. Or a new view of the world from the floor outside the closet. Or she falls asleep, leaving me wondering why I’M not asleep. But if I go back to bed, she’s right there, giving me head butts.

I didn’t write yesterday, as we spent nearly the entire day working on the new gardens. We’d been out to Tizer Gardens Friday evening to get some ideas — and ideas we got! I suspect in years to come our gardens will expand and fill more space than we originally planned. We also founds some plants that we decided must be added to the landscape. The people out there were very friendly and kept showing us more and more things that we really have to have. We didn’t buy anything there Friday evening, but will be back in a week or two to get a bird’s nest spruce and a couple of crab apple trees. We did get a bunch of plants at Home Depot both Friday evening and Saturday morning and have mostly completed two of the five current flower gardens. Well, sorta complete. We mostly planted perennials which will grow and fill out the beds and over time I’m sure we’ll add or change some of the plants. One of the beds we didn’t do is the rose bed. With any luck that will get done next weekend or one night this week. Ken needs to order more garden soil for his herb garden and we think we’ll buy some wildflower seed from Tizer to do the last bed. Last for this year anyway…

Since I spent all day yesterday outside, with occasional trips in to check on Talia and do laundry, I have a ton of stuff to do around the house today. The weather is cloudy and cooler, so I don’t mind being inside as much as I would if we had another gorgeous day like yesterday. So off to the salt mines!

Talia’s little Mallorean Babies have not arrived yet. She has spent some time in her bed, purring away, but isn’t ready to have them. Maybe tonight.

Yesterday at lunch I went home to check on her. I sat down in the closet by her bed and she came over to me for some loves. I decided this was as good a time as any to clip the hair on her tummy so her kittens would have an easier time finding her nipples to nurse. So I turned her over on my lap to see her tummy. Talia likes to be combed, but she’s not crazy about me holding her belly up. But yesterday as I was rubbing her tummy and clipping the hair, she leaned her head against my chest and stayed there, happily purring. I was able to get all the hair trimmed and noticed her milk is already coming in. The babies’ arrival should happen soon.

The BBs continue to grow and thrive. I’ve continued to supplement them a couple times a day. Finished up with the carton of formula and now am giving them kitten glop. Do they love it! They know that I will feed them sometimes. The other night as I sat on the floor with them, they all came over by my leg and were trying to find food. I had to laugh at them trying to nurse at my thigh.

That’s about all the news from LostWoods this morning so I’ll close now.

Today is day 63 of Talia’s pregnancy. She looks big and round, but nothing like the Cantaloupe, so I’m guessing three or four kittens will be arriving soon. She’s now confined to the guest room. I’ll go home at lunch time and check on her, but I’m expecting a night time delivery. Except for the Travelers, Talia has had her babies at night every time. These babies’ names are going to be from the Mallorean, to go with Kali’s Belgariad Babies.

We spent a chunk of time yesterday evening hauling rocks from a neighbor’s yard to ours. Kaye is taking out a little retaining wall made of rock. We are collecting rock for the various landscaping projects we have in mind for the next few years. So it’s a match made in heaven – Kaye gets help hauling off unwanted rock; we don’t have to pay for rock.  Ken’s been working on the flower beds on the side of the house and we’re putting some of the rocks in there — striving for a natural mountain garden sort of look. I think tonight I’ll get some more plants so we can start planting in there. We still need to haul dirt and compost into the other three beds that Ken and Jeremy dug out and get them planted, too. And we need to plant a few more trees. Then we’ll be done for this summer — well, except for watering, weeding, fertilizing…

The Leprechauns are nine weeks old today. Only five more weeks until they are old enough to go to their new homes. I’d been referring to them as the little kittens - compared to Fin, the big kitten. But now that the BBs are here, we have large, medium and small kittens. I suppose when Talia’s babies arrive they’ll be the extra smalls because I won’t quite be able to call the BBs medium — although they are growing bigger every day.

The Leprechauns discovered the cat tree in the dining room last week and now spend most of their time playing and sleeping there. Kefira, being the incredible mom she is, still doesn’t like to let her babies out of her sight, so most often you’ll see them on one or more of the levels playing, sleeping, and just hanging out, while Kefira will be lounging on another level keeping an eye on them. She even nurses them up there. It’s a funny sight, since the platforms aren’t that big. There’s barely room for an adult cat to sleep on them, let alone an adult nursing three nine week old kittens!

I was feeling sad about them no longer sleeping in our bed at night so a couple nights ago I went downstairs and carried them all up to bed about midnight. At 4:00 I received a reminder as to why it’s better that they are no longer sleeping with us. Once awake the little terrors leap off the bed, climb back on the bed, run over the top of sleeping humans, pounce on each other, and hold wild wrestling matches. Sleep? What’s that? If I put them down on the floor that just encourages them to come back and pounce on me, because obviously I want to play. So I’m no longer feeling bad because they aren’t sleeping in our bed. But Beth, this does deal a set back to my efforts to convince Keiran to be a lap cat. He won’t hold still long enough to be a lap cat!

I’ve noticed that when the kittens get to be about 8-9 weeks old they all go through a stage of being much too busy to come to bed with us at night. Then about 12 weeks they decide that cuddling with lisa-mom and Ken-dad is kinda nice again — just in time to make me miss them even more when they leave.

The Leprechauns 9 week weights:

Catriona - 31.6

Keegan - 27.5

Keiran - 35.5

Cati invites you to stop and smell the flowers — and go to their page to see their latest pictures.

Last night was the series finale of The Gilmore Girls.  Sigh… I’ve spent my Tuesday nights in Stars Hollow for years now, peeking into the lives of Lorelai and Rory Gilmore and all the characters (and I mean that in the nicest sense) living in that little television town. It’s been funny. It’s been sad. It’s been maddening. It’s been almost like family…  And now it feels like my favorite tv family has moved away. Sure, I’ll be able to reminisce about old times (that is, watch them on dvd), and maybe there will be little visits with Lauren and Alexis when they appear in movies or perhaps another television show in the future. But it won’t be the same. I’ll miss the fast paced talk, the snappy comebacks, the sarcastic wit (that drove my husband so nuts that he had to leave the room — he’s not a big fan of sarcasm), the cultural references… I’ll miss the Girls.

Last night’s episode wasn’t the best of the series by far. But we did get to have one last laugh at Taylor trying to control everything. Kirk carried on with yet more Jack-of-all-trades jobs. Babette and Miss Patty were just as gossipy, but sweet, as ever. Emily was her usual tough, abrasive self, but showed the vulnerability we’ve come to know lies under that grande dame facade. Richard… well, was I the only one who teared up a little when he made that little speech to Lorelai? And Luke… yes, we’re left with the hope that he and Lorelai are going to end up together — something we’ve all known was the right place for them from the beginning.

I’m going to miss the Girls.

 (I warned you that there’d be the occasional non-cat post!)

I’m sure that some of the people that I’ve invited to visit this site don’t know much about blogs. (me included…) So I thought I ought to put something in here to explain how to leave comments if you want.  Just click on Comments below the post (even if it says No Comments) .  You’ll then see the post followed by some text boxes. Fill in your name, email, and your comment and submit. The first time you leave a comment it will be moderated — that is, I’ll have to approve the post — but after that you should be good to go.

Yesterday Kali moved the BBs from the kennel to the closet behind the kennel. Oh well. The closet is safe and warm, so as long as all of them are together I’m okay with that. So yesterday evening I put a blanket on the floor under them. Ha! Kali moved them about a foot away OFF the blanket. Fleece is fine for her to sleep on when it’s on Ken and my bed, but not suitable for her babies.

Hmmm… I wonder if it’s too warm for her? I keep the heat in the guest room up around 80 so the kittens won’t get chilled. Kittens are born with a body temp around 95 and without the ability to regulate their body temp so they depend on mom, their litter mates, and their surroundings to stay warm. Over the first couple weeks their body temp gradually increases to a normal of 101. Besides keeping the room extra warm, I use a Snuggle Safe in their bed so they have something warm to cuddle up to if mama isn’t there. With Kali moving the babies so much, predicting where the Snuggle Safe should be has been tough.  I also think that is contributing to her moving them — she doesn’t seem to want to be anywhere near the Snuggle Safe. More evidence that she’s getting too warm. Too bad. The kittens need the warmth and Kali will be fine, if a little uncomfortable.

I heard from my friend Carole last night. Carole and her fiance own a handsome black wegie named Java. She’d written awhile back to say Java wasn’t doing well. It was about the time all the news broke about the pet food recalls. Carole didn’t think he’d eaten any of the recalled foods, but his symptoms indicated kidney issues — very suspect considering the timing. Well it turns out he did eat at least one of the foods — one that wasn’t recalled until much later. Java is hanging in there, but it’s been a difficult and expensive ordeal, with no promises that he is over the worst yet. My thoughts and prayers are with Carole, Chet, and Java.

The pet food recalls have been very disturbing. Information was slow coming out. Recalls were made over a period of time, with the list being updated almost daily. How do you know what’s going on without searching all the food sites daily? Well, one site that is very useful is: http://www.itchmo.com/ You can subscribe to an alert service through them and get notices via email.  There’s also a fair amount of news, pet care info, and fun stuff on the Itchmo site. Another good factual site is: http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/petfood.html

So now you’re up to date on the recalls… what do you feed your cat? Since I’m running out of time — yes, I need to do some real work :-)  — I’ll write more about that later.