Developing a Routine

The "Super Litter" continues to do well. Everyone is growing and while weight gains were slow yesterday, everyone is moving in the the right direction. Miss Caroline and Miss Maryland are developing a routine. Both use the same nest box and nurse kittens from either litter. They will each take a few minutes to leave the nest box in charge of the sister mom and eat, stretch, dig in the litter box or just have a snooze without kittens latched on. In today's picture you can see both moms cuddled up with an assortment of kittens nursing.

I am developing a routine as well. Evenings are for kitten care. In addition to feeding and litter box, I will sometimes wash the floor, usually change and launder the bedding, weigh and check each kitten and spend some time encouraging the moms. Both Miss Caroline and Miss Maryland enjoy following me around during these duties and they are happy to get to explore the laundry room which is directly off the kitten room. It is critical that we keep things as clean as possible, little kittens have very fragile immune systems. The kitten room is quarantined from my home team and the babies will be separated from the other adults for many weeks. Visitors must wash their hands, leave their shoes outside and remove or cover any clothing that has been exposed to other animals. Once I have everything neat and tidy, meds delivered and food freshened I just sit and watch this squirming mass of tiny little lives. I could watch them all night long.

Litter Update: Miss Caroline has one golden brown tabby, one black with white chest, one tortie, one orange with white chest and face, and two nearly identical all orange kittens! I tried to use colored yarn to distingish them but it didn't work. I guess I'll go back to food color. They will get names tonight.