LostWoods Blog

I’m back! And I’m so far behind!

The trip to Texas was absolutely wonderful. On the wegie side of things, there were 15 NFCs at the show – nine in championship, one kitten, and five alters. Nine willing slaves (including me) attended to their every whim. Supreme cake was eaten in celebration of LostWoods Colyn and Tretap Malcolm of KSNorskatt. Basia posed for some professional photos, which turned out beautifully. I’ll post some show results later as I’m just going to do a quick post now. (Not only am I behind at home, I’m behind at work, too!) On the people side, I enjoyed visiting with my sister and brother-in-law who live in Wichita Falls. All in all, a great weekend, even if Buzzy is a pathetic loser cat. LOL! (An explanation of that will be forthcoming. I do NOT really think that Basia is a loser!)

I did get to see, cuddle, and photograph the Warrior Cats in Colorado last week on the way to Texas. I have some nice shots, including a litter shot, to post to the site. Here’s a cute picture of Dawnflower to whet your appetite.

I’ll get their eight week and nine week pictures posted this evening to the website. If you miss them because I expect I’ll be posting 10 week pictures either tomorrow night or Friday night, just go to their individual pages to catch up.

I have not taken pictures of the Melons yet. That’s another thing on the agenda for tonight. They grew like little weeds while I was gone and are wandering around the room on voyages of discovery. Four of the five are nearly a pound already. Ken was kind enough to weigh them for me on Sunday so I’d have an accurate three week weight record.

That’s all for now ’cause I really do need to get back to work. Today’s trivia: http://www.funtrivia.com/email/play.cfm?egroup=323149&tmp=1216771508

I just finished updating the website with the Melons two week photos. Insert usual whining about how I hate to take pictures of two, three, and four week old kittens… Sondra is continuing to have issues with her computer, so although she has taken the eight weeks pictures of the Warrior Kittens, she is unable to send them to me. So as soon as I have them, I’ll get them posted and let you know.

A little bit of Melon Madness over the weekend… I was cleaning Ken’s and my bedroom when her came Kali, carrying Charlie (Charentais) and deposited him in my closet. Taiba was playing with her crinkle ball in the bathtub and came to see what all the commotion was about. Kali had a little chat with her daughter and left the room. Taiba stretched herself out in the closet next to Charlie and proceeded to get acquainted. Notice she brought her toy with her in case he wanted to play.

Next Taiba gave her little brother a kiss.

And as all good babysitters do, she made sure to check to see if his bottom needed to be cleaned.

Over the next ten minutes or so, Kali came back twice to make sure Taiba was taking proper care of Charlie and, apparently being satisfied, then went back across the hall to the other babies. Eventually Charlie got hungry and started complaining loudly.

I picked him up to take him back to Kali and as I walked off, Taiba was running at my feet meowing as loudly as Charlie, “Put him down! Bring him back! I’LL take care of him!” But I thought it was better to give him back to his mother so he could eat.

I wondered if this was the first of the latest round of moving kittens — deciding they needed to be in my closet — but Kali still has them all in the guest room closet for now. Probably when I get back from Texas next week I’ll move them into the kennel in our bedroom. Time to start spending more time with them and getting them used to the normal commotion of a household.

Today’s trivia: http://www.funtrivia.com/email/play.cfm?egroup=323149&tmp=1215993906

I’m looking forward to the weekend. As usual, I have tons of chores to do around the house. And add to the list some work in the run. Somehow –  I think the tree we put in there caused it — we got a small tear in the netting that makes the “roof” of the run. And Fin has discovered if he climbs up the tree he can wiggle through and be free. I went out last night to feed him and the GKs and he was missing. I walked around looking for him and calling his name, but I couldn’t find him. I went back in the house and opened up all the windows (they have screens — nobody could escape) so I’d hear him if he came up by the house. Finny has always been rather talkative.

Luckily, about half an hour later I heard him on the front porch and when I opened the door, he came running in, eager to see me and the other cats. I was so relieved. I had a bad day yesterday and I think it would have been about more than I could take to have him disappear for good. That does remind me, however, that I still haven’t written the post about what to do if your cat does get out and run off. So maybe next week I’ll try to get that done.

Other weekend chores include getting all my cat show stuff cleaned (yes, it’s all still in the suitcase from the trip to Chehalis!) and repacked for the trip to Wichita Falls next week. I leave on Thursday to drive to Colorado. On Friday Brenda and her son, Grant, will join me for the rest of the drive. We’ll head back to CO after the show on Sunday night.

Pictures… Sondra took photos of the Warrior Cats yesterday evening. But… her husband took the computer in to be fixed this morning, so I’ll probably get the pictures from her tonight or tomorrow. I’ll get them up as soon as I can. I can’t wait to see the kittens in person next week!

Today’s trivia: http://www.funtrivia.com/email/play.cfm?egroup=323149&tmp=1215734709

I took a few pictures yesterday evening of Fin’s run. It’s not as nice as I hope it will be in the future. We have a big blue wooden box under the window for access into the stud room. I hope to replace it with something more fitting for the natural environment. And I have plans to add a small pond and waterfall to the corner of the run — hopefully yet this summer. Anyway, here they are:

 And here are a few pictures of Finny enjoying his run.

And last, here’s Donut, the garage kitty. (aka Tucker) Caboose did not grace us with her presence when I was taking pictures, so a new one of her will have to wait.

Today’s trivia: http://www.funtrivia.com/email/play.cfm?egroup=323149&tmp=1215648307

On Monday evening I noticed that Charlie’s (aka Charentais) tail looked funny. Upon close examination, it looked like it had been chewed on. I don’t know if Kali did it moving him - although she hasn’t moved them since Friday - or if maybe she got overzealous cleaning him. Whatever the cause, I was a little worried about it. Ever since, I’ve been making sure it’s clean so no infection sets in and it looks like it is healing okay. I can feel a little kink now, so no show career for Charlie. Chances are he wouldn’t have been a show cat anyway — not all that many of my cats go to show or breeding homes — but that doesn’t mean I like ruling out that possibility when a kitten is a week old.

The Melons continue to gain weight, with Honey still in the lead at a lovely 9.9 oz this morning. Since my hopes are for them to be 16 oz at 4 weeks, I’d say she’s well on her way to achieving that goal. The rest aren’t much behind her. Kali is now allowed to leave the room for some “me time” since she has quit moving the kittens. The other cats — most of them anyway — have inspected the kittens and now pretty much ignore them. (No, I don’t think one of the other cats injured Charlie’s tail. The injury happened before anyone else was allowed to spend time in their room.) Uncle Spaz (Dilan) is the exception to ignoring them, as he likes to go lie in the closet with them all and grooms the kittens from time to time. I think Kali appreciates the company. When he’s there, she’ll lie beside him — often with her head on his body — and nurse the kittens, content as can be. Yes, I need to get a picture of that.  

Today’s trivia link:  http://www.funtrivia.com/email/play.cfm?egroup=323149&tmp=1215561910

Hope you’re enjoying it. A group I belong to - Hippolotofus - has a private, ongoing game where we compete against each other. Month before last (the first month we played) I came in second. Last month I won for the month. This month I’m currently in 10th place… what can I say? The recent questions and categories have been hard!

It was a very busy weekend but I did find time to update the website with the pictures of the Warrior Cats that Sondra sent Friday evening and with the one week photos of the Melons I took yesterday afternoon. Sondra’s site (Rockatts) is also updated with the photos of the F-Litter and the Warrior Cats.

As you’ll see in the Melons’ pictures, all of their eyes are opening. Actually, Honeydew’s eyes started opening on the first day and were pretty much completely open by day five. Galia’s were about a day behind Honey’s and are also wide open. I might also note that Honey & Galia are the biggest of the litter and weigh nearly 9 oz this morning. Girls rule! LOL! But everyone is doing well, gaining weight, wiggling around the closet. Yes, I said closet. Kali has finally seen the light and has allowed the kittens to remain in the closet for three days without moving them. The last time they were under the bed was Friday afternoon. All is well in the melon patch.

Something fun for the day — if you like trivia. I get an email every Monday through Friday with a fun trivia quiz in it. Ten quick questions that are usually pretty easy, but I do learn things from it. Just for fun. If you want to play, click on this link: http://www.funtrivia.com/email/play.cfm?egroup=323149&tmp=1215389111 then play. I don’t know if you have to create a login to play. If you want to save your scores, I think you do have to have a free account. Anyway, if anyone wants to play each day, I’ll try to make a habit of posting the link in the blog. Hey! That’s a way to get me to post every day. Well at least M-F. Off to work now.

No new pictures of the Warrior Cats yet. Sondra was in Nebraska until last night and had a lot of catching up to do today. You know how it is when you’ve been away for nearly a week. She says she’ll try to get the pictures done tomorrow, despite the holiday. If so, I’ll get them posted if I have time. We are having friends over in the afternoon and evening — and of course, I have to clean like a mad woman in the morning, plus buy all the groceries for the festivities.

The Melons are thriving. Honey is the biggest of the litter right now, despite being the smallest at birth. She apparently has found the best spot at the milk bar. Kali is allowing the kittens to stay in the closet part of the time. Then she changes her mind and back under the bed they go. But I’ve decided I won’t win the war without moving the bed out of the room, so as long as the babies are doing well, I’ll live with having to wiggle under the bed to retrieve kittens for their daily weigh in.

Oh, a fun thing before I call it a night. Check out www.mybadkitties.com. Probably 18 or more years ago my sister-in-law Susie gave me a poster of the “Bad Kitties”. I loved it ’cause it made me laugh. After a number of moves from apartment to house to townhome to house the poster either disappeared or got so shabby I threw it out. But I always remembered it. While in Chehalis at the cat show one of the vendors had a couple of the Bad Kitties t-shirts, but she didn’t have the one I wanted in my size. So I went on a quest to find them online and found the artist’s website. There are a bunch of different drawings — all hilarious, if you ask me! Brenda and I have ordered some and will be showing them off at upcoming cat shows.

And in case I don’t write tomorrow –

Happy Independence Day!

No, it’s not anything scary under the bed — unless you upset Kali — then she can be a little scary. At least to the other cats. She’s extremely protective of the kittens. And her kittens are under the bed.

Yesterday evening when I get home from work I moved the kittens back to a different part of the closet instead of caging them with their mother in a kennel. The idea was that Kali would have a little more room to stretch out and it’s further from the door, so more private. My plan seemed to be working. Kali left them there and they were all piled up in a sleepy, contented pile when I went to bed about 10. Kali was out patroling around the bedroom, inspecting for enemies.  All was well.

This morning the kittens were back under the bed. I stretched out on my belly and reached under the bed to retrieve them for their morning weigh in. (One definite problem with this is that I end up at work with even more cat hair on me than usual — my front covered from neck to ankles with cat fur.) I weighed them all and put them back in the closet. I’m fairly certain they won’t be there when I get home. So much for my idea of moving them to a “better” part of the closet. At least the bedroom isn’t chilly and the floor is carpeted. So it should be warm enough for them wherever they are. I just don’t like taking chances with the babies health and safety. This evening I’ll try out something Betty suggested. (Thanks, Betty!) 

As for their weights, everyone except Pepino is over 5 oz now. Everyone, including Pepino, had nice gains today — all about .5 - .7 ounces. In between being carried around they must be eating well.

Other stuff… Taiba did just fine with the spay surgery Friday. She spent the night and I picked her up Saturday morning. All day Saturday she avoided me, taking off if she saw me heading her way. Poor thing was probably worried I’d scoop her up and take her to have something else terrible done. But by Saturday night she was sleeping on the bed with us. She’s healing quickly and acting like her usual energetic self.  

And last, my daughter sent me a link to a cat game show which a friend sent to her. So if any of you want to be on tv and maybe win a million dollars, load up your cat and head off to an audition near you.

http://www.meowmix.com/think_like_cat/theGames.htm

All the information about the audition process is in the Terms and Conditions. Good luck!

I went to bed on Saturday night after doing my usual check of Kali. She was acting just like she did all week. Greet me at the door, run to the closet purring, sit in the closet washing herself and purring… I sat with her for a little bit then called it a night.

Sunday morning I went in to check on her first thing and she did not greet me at the door. Instead, when I looked in the closet, there was Kali with five brand new kittens! They were all cleaned up, dry, and contentedly nursing. Kali was purring with pride. I guess she wanted to remind me that cats have been delivering their babies without human supervision for a lot longer than I’ve been around!

So, introducing The Melons:

Pepino - brown mackerel tabby & white boy - 3.9 oz / 110 gr

Honeydew - blue-cream mackerel patch tabby (torbie) & white girl - 3.8 oz / 105 gr

Charentais - black & white boy - 4.2 oz / 118 gr

Galia - black & white girl - 4.2 oz / 120 gr

Crenshaw - brown mackerel tabby & white boy - 3.8 oz /108 gr

The babies’ pictures are on the web site so you can see their cute little faces. And yes, I know that Pepino is not a true melon, but it’s such a cute name!

They’ve all gained weight since yesterday, with Crenshaw and Honeydew leading the pack with .8 oz (about 20 gr) gains. Our only issue is Kali’s desire to put them under the bed. She delivered them in the closet, on the housebreaking pads and blankets I’d put in there for just that purpose. But now, she thinks they should be under the bed. Next to the wall. Right in the middle so it’s hard for me to reach them. When I move them back to the closet she doesn’t immediately move them back under the bed. She stays in the closet with them, nursing them, washing them, acting perfectly happy. BUT… as soon as I leave the room, under the bed they go!

Tonight I think I will be taking the large kennel up there and caging her. I hate to do it. But I don’t want the babies under the bed. It’s too big a space for the babies to wiggle around in and I worry about them getting separated from mom and siblings, getting a chill, and dying. I’d rather make Kali a little unhappy than lose a kitten. It’s not like it’s cold in there — it was in the 90s here yesterday and the bedroom was about 78 or so. (We don’t have a/c so we rely on closing the house up in the daytime, then opening windows and running fans at night. So I just don’t open the window in that room.)

One last thing to make you smile this morning. Basia has taken a liking to two big stuffed hippos in the hippo room. She has been taking her afternoon snoozes in there, cuddled up to them.

Sondra left for a few days in Nebraska, but before she hit the road, she took new pictures of the Warrior Kittens and her F Litter. So last night I updated the websites (mine and hers) with new pictures. They are all so cute! When I saw the pictures yesterday I wanted so badly to go to the airport and hop a plane to Colorado so I could give them cuddles in person. July 17th is way too far away! Here’s a bonus shot of Dawnflower.

I dropped off Taiba to be spayed today. She wasn’t very happy with me. She’d spent the night in the bathroom alone with her bed, a bowl of water, and a toy — which she put in the bowl of water. She didn’t like being alone. She didn’t like missing breakfast this morning. And she didn’t like being confined to the dark bathroom. Poor baby! But I should have taken her in to be spayed months ago. Next month when we go to Wichita Falls she’ll go along and her new owners will meet us at the show to pick her up. Yes, after all this time, Miss Opinionated, Talkative, Messy, Sweet Taiba has a new home.

No baby Melons  yet. I don’t really expect them until next week, but Kali is so big and clumsy that she’s been confined to the bedroom earlier than I’d usually confine a girl. She spends a lot of time napping under the bed (just like Talia!) except when I’m there and then she runs to the closet, purring. Yes, I’m just sure she and Talia had that conversation! She’s also eating like a pig, downing a can of wet food morning and evening, plus gobbling her dry food and drinking lots of water. From the looks of her, she eating for more than a few babies.