LostWoods Blog

I know I’ve been neglecting the blog the past few days. Sorry! I’ve spent a lot of time in the past couple days working on some things related to NFCFA and didn’t make the time to write here. And then I wrote this last night and forget to click on the Publish button! But fun things have been happening here at LostWoods.

The Winter Gifts are all eating solid food and drinking water like pros. That means they are also going potty on their own instead of being stimulated to potty and being cleaned up by Kefira. So it’s time for them to learn about litter boxes. This is the time when I have to confine them to a smaller space most of the time so they’ll use a box for elimination instead of just finding a corner and going there. At night they are still being confined to the kennel, but during the day they had been free to roam our carpeted bedroom.

So yesterday I confined them to our bathroom by putting a baby gate in the doorway. Kefira could come and go; the babies couldn’t. I thought.

Last evening, Keona, seeing Ken in the bedroom, decided she needed to be with her people. And over the gate she went. She was soon followed by the other kittens, so Ken took down the gate and once again they had run of our room. This doesn’t usually happen until about 6-7 weeks, so these little ones are precocious. I had one other litter where the girls (Diara and Makana of the Gifts) could get over the gate at four weeks. Regalo, Bozidar, and Brasen didn’t figure it out as quickly, but once a couple of the kittens in a litter can get over the gate, we take it down. We don’t like taking chances on someone falling from the top of the gate and getting hurt.

Unfortunately, this is bad news for Kefira. I still want the babies confined to the bathroon in the daytime, so it means I need to close the door. And Kefira has to be shut in there with them. She spends almost all her time in the same room as them anyway, so it’s not that bad. However, she does like coming downstairs to eat, drink and use the litter box — and to occasionally hang out with us. Oh well. At least this will only last for a few days. The babies are already using the litter boxes, so it won’t be long before I trust them to be consistent. Then they will have run of the house, since baby gates are no obstacle to their adventures.

I took Avi and Polgara in for health certificates yesterday and they will be leaving later this week, weather permitting. I’ll be sad to see them go as they are both very sweet cats. Polgara is a big love bug and likes nothing more than lying on my chest early in the morning, purring and kneading away in pure contentment. Jeremy is sad to see her go — he’d have liked to keep her for himself, but he’s years away from having a home of his own to have a cat. And unfortunately, if she continues living him, Ken will count her against my limit of cats. So it’s best she goes to someone who will love her and spoil her even more than we do. Avi is a very playful and loving girl. She makes me laugh with her high energy bounding up and across the bed. I swear she never goes anywhere without bouncing! She’ll pounce on something, then bounce off the other direction, then bounce back and attack something else. She’s so funny!

Piglets. That’s what Ohanna and Natane are. They absolutely love their wet food and eat until their little tummies are full and round. Ohanna was even trying to steal some of Natane’s food right out of his mouth last night! Keona and Isadora aren’t as intested. When Kefira is standing there eating wet food along with Ohanna and Natane, Keona and Izzy beg her to let them nurse. But soon they, too, will want to eat solid food.

I’m going to put the baby gate up in our doorway this evening. Ohanna has decided to follow me down the hall. Since the hall leads to the stairs and an open railing, I don’t want them out there until they are a little bigger. The railing along the balcony above the entry is cat proof. Well, as cat-proof as anything can be. I bought some plexiglass and attached it to the railing. That way the kittens won’t get to playing up there and fall off the balcony. The stairs are open, though, so an adventurous kitten could fall off there. It doesn’t take them long to figure out that they can go up the outside of the railing and get up to the balcony on the scary (for me) side of the railing. But by the time they do that, they are big enough to not be so wobbly and I don’t worry about them falling.

With the weekend coming up, I’ll once again be trying to get some new pictures of the bigger cats and my uncooperative Rand-man. Other than that, it’s going to be another weekend of chores, playing with kittens, and catching up. Hope you all have a good one!

The Winter Gifts are four weeks old today and discovering more and more of their world all the time. Tonight’s treat was their first chance to taste wet food. Ohanna and Natane dove into it like they hadn’t eaten all day. Once Natane’s tummy was full, he then carefully licked the food off his front paws — he’d been standing on the edge of the plate and had food all over them. Four week pictures are on the website. Keona is the only one who posed well for me. The others were nearly impossible.

Ohanna has become very adventurous, sweet, curious, and brave in the past couple days. Last night she went on an adventure under our bed. Unfortunately, she got behind an underbed storage box and couldn’t find her way back out. We heard her crying, so I looked for her. Once she was located — in a spot I couldn’t quite reach — I talked to her until she followed my voice out from under the bed. Since then, she’s gone under the bed several times and this evening she went wandering the other direction and ended up behind the door. Adventurous.

This morning I unzipped the door to the kennel and the babies came over to me as has become their habit. Ohanna sat there staring at me while I was talking so I reached down to pet her. Immediately her little motor started up and she purred and purred. She’s the first one whose purred for me (I’ve heard them all purring while nursing), although Isadora was purring for me this evening, too. Sweet.

I’ve put a number of toys in their kennel (their bedroom, I call it) for them to check out. All of them are starting to notice the toys and try to play with them. Ohanna’s favorite seem to be the pink mouse and the pink ball that rattles. The other kittens also have their favorites. Keona tonight was batting at one of the other balls. Natane likes them all. Isadora was paying attention to the teaser I was waving. Won’t be long before they actually watch the teaser and I can take decent pictures of them. Curious.

And Ohanna demonstrated today that she is ready to take on the world. Well, that’s what she thinks when she’s not getting lost under the bed or behind the door. After purring for me, she hopped back into the kennel and was batting at toys, her sisters, and her brother. Uncle Spaz — who loves the kittens — was sitting in the kennel watching them. Ohanna ran up to him and batted his front leg. He kinda looked at her like she was crazy and moved away. She followed him and batted at his side, then ran off like she’d done something really naughty. Yes. Brave.

They are all exploring around the room, but they go back to their bedroom for naps and to cuddle with Kefira. It is fascinating to see them growing and changing almost daily. This is what makes having kittens in the house the most fun and rewarding.

Other stuff… I added two pictures of Shira, the Queen of Everything, to yesterday’s post. Comet has been neutered now and his info moved to the Alters page on the web site. I also added him to the Available Adults page. Comet is a total lover boy — he gives kisses! — with people, but he’s always picked on Gwena. Gwena is rather shy  — or maybe she’s just meek — and will not stand up to Comet. As a result, he’s taken full advantage of that and she is now afraid of him. He also doesn’t get along with Beau, so the best thing for all concerned is to find him a home where he can love and be loved, without causing trouble for other cats. He loves McCoy, and we think he’d do well with a kitten — and as the kitten grew up (like McCoy has) they’d be fine together. But we don’t think he’d do well going into a home with another adult. He’s great around children. Brenda’s son Grant was four when we got Comet and Comet has always been very tolerant of being picked up and hauled around by Grant. So if any of you are looking for a big, sweet, handsome lover boy cat, let me know.

Assorted news and pictures…

First, a new couple pictures of the beautiful Polgara. She is one of the prettiest girls we’ve had around here. I LOVE her eyes and her lynx tips.

I tried to get new pictures of Taiba but she was extremely uncooperative. I’ll keep trying. I have a new picture of Avi that is very cute. I’ll add it to the website tonight. Like Taiba, Rand declined requests from the papparazzi to pose, so I’m hoping to get a new one of him this evening before I do website updates.

Shira celebrated her 7th birthday over the weekend. We bought some deli turkey for her (Shira loves turkey) and refilled the mouse toy with catnip. She was silly all weekend — playing like she was seven months instead of seven years old. She also was somewhat willing to pose and so I have some new pictures of the Queen of Everything. I’ll try to remember to add them to this post tonight. Don’t have them at work with me or I’d do it now.

I moved the Winter Gifts to our bedroom on Sunday. They are in the big kennel, but I leave it unzipped in the daytime so they can come out and explore. Within half an hour, Keona and Izzy were out roaming the bedroom. Ohanna and Natane weren’t far behind. At night I zip up the front door, but leave the top open for Kefira to come and go. In the morning I unzip it. As soon as the door is open, the kittens come tumbling out, ready to begin a new day of discovery. Izzy is the adventurous one in the bunch, along with Natane. The two of them are nearly always first out and go the furthest. Ohanna is the one who pays the most attention to me. When she hears my voice, she stares and stares at me. The others look at me, but they are easily distracted. She will watch me for a minute or two, rather than just seconds. Natane has been trying to climb on my lap lately. Friendly, adventurous little guy. Keona seems to be a little quieter, although still adventurous. She’s been all the way to the door of the bedroom, and when she’s off exploring, she’ll often ignore her Kefira-mom’s calls to come back.

I think I will be putting both Natane and Ohanna on hold to see how they develop, with them possibly going as show and breeding cats. They are all going to have very nice heads. It’s the rest that I’m waiting to see.