LostWoods Blog

Basia’s mama Tori is called “Stink” because she’s spoiled so rotten she stinks. I suspect, when all is said and done, that her LostWoods grandchildren are going to even more deserving of that name than she is!

Seely is already terribly spoiled, as is Corliss. Fayne is coming along, and I’m working on Allegra. Allegra is still a little reserved, but I think between Basia giving her QoE lessons and me giving her snuggles, it won’t be long before she comes over to the dark side, too.

Two nights ago I was lying on the floor talking to Basia. When she’s not busy with the kittens, she likes to come out and snuggle up to me. Sometimes the kittens come out and snuggle up to her while she’s snuggling with me. She’s loves that. I think that would be her first choice for raising the babies — all of us snuggling together. Anyway, Buzzy was standing in front of me. Seely came out of the kennel, walked under Basia — stretching up to rub against her tummy as he did — then came over to me, plopped down by my arm, rolled over and started batting at me. Purring the entire time.

Fayne is nearly as funny and cute with me. Apparently having taken a cue from Seely, he likes to bat at my fingers and at the edges of my clothing. The other night he was wrestling with the end of the belt from my robe. Fayne is less likely to let me just love on him — he wants to PLAY! Corliss is still insisting that if I’m holding him, I must have a bottle of kitten glop for him and he searches everywhere for it. He purrs while he’s doing it, but it’s clear he thinks I’m a great source of food.

Speaking of food… Corliss is still the most interested in solid food. And interested is something of an understatement. Enthusiastic is probably a better word. When I set down the plate of wet food, he buries his face in the food and goes crazy eating. I don’t even put glop in it now — he LOVES wet food. Fayne will eat solid food sometimes. Allegra and Seely are still not interested, but I’m not concerned about it. We’ve had litters that don’t start eating solid food until five weeks or so and these little ones are only three and a half weeks old. Allegra, Fayne, and Corliss are all drinking water — although they aren’t too skilled at it yet. Still a lot of snorting going on when they accidently get their little noses in the water, too.

Allegra does like to climb on me and from time to time — when I’m sitting with my legs crossed — she’ll climb into the space between my legs and snuggle up. She’s quiet. Unlike Fayne and Corliss who almost always have something to say when I pick them up, she just looks at me with those big eyes when I hold her.

If you turn up the sound when you’re watching the kitten cam, you may hear the kittens and Basia talking. Basia is the most vocal one right now. She’s been talking to the kittens a lot. Basia is being a wonderful mother — she has even been mostly foregoing the opportunity to have some “me time” outside the bedroom the last few days. Last night I let her out for a little bit and I went to take a bath. When I got out of the tub, she was sitting impatiently at the door, waiting for me to let her go back to the kittens. She was not very happy about being away from them that long. They, on the other hand, were contentedly sleeping until their mama-Basia ran over chirping and woke them up.

I am planning to move them to our bedroom again this weekend. Hopefully Kali is over thinking they should be hers (she’s less intent on getting in the office to snuggle with them now) and they’ll be able to stay. It won’t be long before they are able to climb up on the bed and join us at night. And I’m pretty sure that Seely will be there the second he figures out how to climb up there.  

Sometimes the stars line up and you not only see the sweetest sight ever, but you have the camera handy to capture the moment to share with others. Last night I’d just finished up my blog post and was ready to call it a night. I went over to say goodnight to Basia and the kittens and just had to smile at what I saw.

This is one of those pictures that warms one’s heart and reminds us why we breed cats at all. Is there anything sweeter than mama and her babies?

Seely has become the little adventurer/runaway. He has been coming out of the kennel a lot now — especially if he hears my voice. He made it clear across the room lickety split this afternoon when he apparently decided that he was going to follow me wherever I went — and I was making for the door. And so did he!

I’ve been seeing a lot more activity and play by the kittens the last few days. The best times to watch them is in the morning — fairly early — and in the late afternoon or early evening. Contrary to what a lot of people believe, cats are not nocturnal. They are naturally crepuscular. That is, they are most active around dawn and dusk. We refer to those times at our house as “crazy cat hour”, but often it is several bursts of insanity and activity in the morning and evening. Anyway, if you’re watching the Kitten Cam and they are playing, it is almost guaranteed to make you laugh. They are so funny at this age — so brave and ferocious, so terribly awkward and clueless!

I’m a day late with pictures — somehow time just got away from me yesterday. So in hopes you’ll forgive me, here are bonus shots of each kitten. Their official three week photos are on the website.

Seely is the most outgoing of the kittens. He is always coming out to see me. Part of that is he is hoping for food, but unlike Corliss, he doesn’t seem to take it quite so personally when I don’t. He is starting to wrestle more with Fayne and is getting around on all fours very well. H’s the most coordinated of the bunch.

Allegra is the quietest of the kittens, but showing some sparks of a naughty personality. This afternoon when Dr Jennifer was here visiting them, Allegra was rolling around and batting at her mama-Basia’s face and ears. She and Fayne like to play together at times, too. Allegra is the least likely to cry when I pick her up. Either she’s already used to being handled (somewhat) or just is quiet, like I said.

Fayne… noticing I keep mentioning him when it comes to playing? That’s because he’s the most playful so far. He was the first to start discovering his littermates make good playmates and he’s usually the one who starts the games. When he’s not playing, he’s started checking out solid food and is trying to drink water. His drinking skills need some work, but he’s very persistent in his efforts.

Corliss still thinks I’m the source of the best ever food in the whole world, even though I’m not giving him bottles any more. However, I do bring solid food — canned food mixed with kitten glop — twice a day. He thinks that is about as good as the stuff in the bottles. (He does love his kitten glop!) He’s still the smallest of the litter, but I hope his solid food eating skills — much more advanced than his siblings — will narrow the gap.

They are all developing very well. I keep hearing from kitten cam watchers that they are getting so BIG! To me, they are still tiny little things, but I see them every day in person so I don’t think their growth is as noticeable to me. They are growing nicely, though. I can hardly believe they are already three weeks old. Seems like just yesterday they were born.

After not having phone or internet almost all of yesterday, our cable provider (we get phone, internet & cable tv through the same company) came out last night and tested our signal. The signal was deemed “too weak”. So the technician proceeded to replace nearly all the cable inside and outside the house. We now have working phones and internet again! Whoo-hoo! And that means the return of the Kitten Cam just in time to watch the babies start playing, learning to eat, and other fun things.

The kennel is back in the hippo room after two nights in our bedroom. First, it suddenly got cold here again and our bedroom is usually only about 60 in cold weather. (By choice — I like it cool!) Second, a certain cat who shall remain nameless, but is the mother-in-law I wrote about yesterday  decided this morning that she was not happy just taking care of the kittens in the kennel. Twice she stole Corliss and carried him off to other places in the bedroom. Now, while I don’t mind her helping take care of the babies, I do mind terribly that she thinks she should steal them and keep them all to herself. Third, Basia kept running back to the hippo room every chance she got — she didn’t seem all that happy with the kittens in our room. So she and her babies are back in the hippo room. She acts happy. Kali can’t steal kittens. And that room is warmer for the kittens. I’ll try moving them to our room on Sunday or maybe next week sometime. They can’t live in the hippo room forever!

Now a non-cat related photo, although it does apply to my comment that it got colder again. Here’s a picture of part of the tree outside my boss’s window. Doesn’t the snow at the tips of the branches look like flowers?

Well… first let me apologize for the lack of Kitten Cam this morning. It’s a long story… and it sounds a lot like whining… so I’ll just tell you that I’m going home at lunch time to see if I can bring it to life then. Cross your fingers. Like you, I’m suffering from kitten cam withdrawal.

If you read the comments on yesterday’s post or were watching when Kali decided to visit the kittens, you know that she has decided to help out. Yesterday morning I’d opened the door to the hippo room to say good morning to Basia and the kittens. Basia ran out. Kali ran in. Kali went straight to the kennel and settled herself in to take care of the babies. A couple minutes later I opened the door to see if Buzzy wanted to come back. She did. And then she discovered Kali with the babies.

What?! Buzzy immediately settled back in with them, looking at Kali with suspicion. Kali went on purring and washing the babies. A couple of the kittens tried to nurse, but quickly realized Kali had no milk, while Mama-Basia had plenty. So they went to nursing while Kali watched and washed them. I didn’t let Kali stay when I left for work.

When I got home last night, I moved the kittens, Basia, and the kennel to our bedroom. Kali immediately moved in with them and has hardly budged since. She did chase off Peanut when he came to look — Kali is very protective of her kittens — and apparently her grandkittens, too! I don’t think Basia knows quite what to think of all this. She’s tolerating Kali, but she keeps giving her looks like she wishes she’d just go away. Buzzy says she’s doing quite alright without her mother-in-law’s help, thank you very much! (That’s not a slam against mother-in-laws — there are many sweet, helpful, and awesome MILs out there, including mine!)

So here are some pictures from yesterday — offered up in place of the Kitten Cam  this morning.

Okay, faithful blog readers, this your chance to voice an opinion. I moved the camera tonight so it’s less of a view from the top of the kennel and more a view from the end. What do you think? The problem I was having was if the kittens and Basia moved to one end or the other, the camera wouldn’t pick them up part of the time. This solves that, but the view is maybe not quite as good for watching them wrestle around. Thoughts?

The next dilemma will be when they start leaving the kennel regularly — a time not that far away. I still need to figure out how to feed everyone’s kitten cam addiction (yes, including mine) while allowing the kittens their freedom. I’m already thinking about it so maybe by the time that happens, I’ll have a solution. I’ll try…

I think that’s what the kittens are thinking these days as I’m seeing lots more interaction between the four of them. They are staying awake more and have started to try to play or wrestle or something. I’ve also seen a couple of them licking at their paws — not very effectively, but it just goes to show how instinctual grooming is for cats.

They are all doing very well. Corliss has assumed the crown of Piggy Boy — at least for Saturday night. He had done such a good job of both nursing and convincing me that he’d starve if he didn’t get fed from the bottle, that he gained 30 grams in one day! He has now caught up to Allegra and I swear he’s doing his best to catch the other boys, too. The rest of the kittens are not slacking off — they, too, are steadily gaining weight.

Corliss and Seely — and to a lesser extent Allegra – are absolutely convinced that I’m their mother as much as Basia is. Despite that fact that I’m not feeding them very often (Corliss only got to eat from the bottle twice today), as soon as they hear my voice at the front of the kennel, they are climbing out and climbing all over me. Corliss gets so excited that his whole body quivers as he begs to be fed and searches all over for that wonderful food he just knows I must have.

Seely is winning the coordination race at the moment. He is already doing fairly well at getting up on all fours and walking instead of crawling. Oh, he doesn’t do it for long, but he is improving rapidly. The other three are mostly still crawling rather than walking. Fayne is the most interested in playing, so far. I see him trying to wrestle with Allegra often and batting at his brothers from time to time as well.

Speaking of playing… I saw Basia trying to wrestle with Allegra the other day, too. She was gentle with her daughter, but I get the distinct impression that Basia is already starting Allegra’s QoE training. LOL! She’s going to make sure Allegra is tough enough to keep up with those brothers of hers.

So to finish up tonight’s post, here are a couple of pictures you won’t see on the website. First, Buzzy and the babies.

And here’s a sweet shot of Seely I took the other day as he was sitting at the door of the kennel watching me.

I took new pictures of the kittens this afternoon and they are on the website. They were surprisingly cooperative — well, as cooperative as two week old kittens can be. The only one I didn’t really get a good picture of was Allegra. They are all growing like little weeds. I didn’t feed Corliss in the middle of the night last night and he was very happy to see me this morning. But I also saw him nursing several times, so I think he’s finally getting the right idea. Still he loves the bottle and gets very excited about me feeding him.

That’s about it for tonight. Go see the new pictures!

Another Friday has arrived and four fat babies are celebrating the beginning of another week of life. All of them are gaining well, even Corliss. I’ve seen him on the web cam, bellied up to the milk bar, so I think he’s nursing. And it seems that every time I come in to feed him, his tummy already feels nice and round. But he always acts like he hasn’t been fed in days — poor starving little cat! I think he’s a big sneak now — refusing to nurse when I’m around so I’ll give him the yummy stuff in the bottle. And I do. I think tonight I’m going to not get up at 1 and feed him. See how he does over night without that extra bottle. If I’m right about him nursing, that will add incentive to his efforts to seek out Basia on his own for nourishment. If I’m wrong, I’ll give him a little extra all day long to make up for it and go back to the middle of the night feedings for awhile longer.

I’ll take pictures sometimes tomorrow and get the website updated. They are looking more and more like kittens now that their eyes are open. If you’ve been watching much on the Kitten Cam, you’ve seen them — Fayne especially — staying awake a little more and starting to attempt to play. I’m going to try to adjust where I have the main web cam sitting so I can get more of the kennel in view at one time now that they are moving around so much. I know when I’m checking in on them from work I hate it when they are out of sight or I can only see a little bit of them in the top or bottom of the picture.