Our new additions

Three weeks ago, we decided to foster a mother cat and her two kittens. They were rescued from Animal Control by my sister (the county vet) the day that the mother gave birth to her babies. Animal Control was planning to euthanize the mother the next day. My sister just couldn't let that happen, as it was obvious that the mother was going to be a very good caregiver to her babies and she had just gone through labor and delivery. Knowing that we were looking for a kitten (I had given Sophie to a new family after determining that she just wasn't adjusting well to our noisy household), my sister asked me if we would be interested in fostering this little family until the babies were weaned. By that time, maybe we would decide to keep one of the little kittens. Below is a picture of the little guys (both boys) when they were about one week old:


Since that time, we have named everyone and they are doing so well. We have fallen in love with Mia (as in Mama Mia) and are sure that she is going to become a permanent resident of our home. Sam loves her kitties so much and shows them to everyone that comes in our house (even Steve when he comes home from work).

Mia seems to want to be around us at all times. She is the friendliest cat E.V.E.R. and is so playful. She jumps on our laps (and even on the laps of our company that comes to visit) without any reservations. My sister estimates that she is less than a year old ... and maybe that explains the playfulness that she still exuberates.

Mia likes to be part of the action

We moved the family to a box about a week ago in order to contain the growing (and exploring) little ones. They have managed to stay in the box very well, but I anticipate that it will soon be time to retire the box and begin weaning because the boys are starting to become a lot more active.

I started getting the kittens used to milk from a saucer this week. It is still an ongoing process and one that has to be monitored closely to avoid 1) Mia drinking all of the milk herself, 2) the kittens tracking the milk all over the kitchen and 3) Sam dipping her own fingers in the sticky milk and making a tremendous mess.

Watson (on the left) and Mendel (on the right)

Both of the boys were named after famous scientists. Watson was partially responsible for characterizing the double helix structure of DNA and Mendel was famous for his research in the inheritance of genetic traits.

We are not sure which kitten we will be keeping yet. I would love to keep the whole family together, but it's a bit much to take on three cats at the same time. We'll just see how it goes ...