My first set of 3 adopted kittens this year

As I write this Crusoe is perched on my shoulder, he is one of the 3^rd set of 3 kittens I have adopted this year. From no cats to going through 9 kittens, we have 6 left. 3 outside cats and 3 inside. This is the story of the first 3.

We have outside dogs, Mugsey who was from a yard in Biloxi MS after Katrina, well way after Katrina, he was rescued but I’m sure someone else would have taken him, he’s a yellow lab from a golden retriever and a big black lab. Our dog Skeeter (terrier, griffin?) was my dads dog, my daughter got her for him when she left home in 99 and Skeeter was old then, she was a rescue from the shelter. The people who had her before gave her up because she bit small children, just nipped them. She gave that up after Jacob was crawling around growling @ her, he was imitating her and they would fight over being closer to grandpa, she was finally intimidated and quit considering biting anybody human. Skeeter has to be @ least 15 now.

One night in May of this year the dogs were raising a terrible ruckus over by an old old log cabin across the driveway, I went over there and there’s a mean little kitten, little is the operative word here, hissing and spitting and growling @ the dogs, holding them @ bay quite well. I took it to the house, came to my senses and took it back to the log cabin, I put it up on straw where it would be warm on the second story thinking mama cat would find it. We have no cats, I think this was a neighbors cat or a wild cat. Next morning I go up to check on the kitten. It’s belly is not so full, it’s colder and no mama, hasn’t seen mama all night, I can tell. So I take it in the house, I think I used cows milk and an eye dropper @ first. Next night the same thing happens, this kitten is a duplicate but with an EMPTY belly. I finally invested in kitten bottles and formula. The next day was Saturday, I said I’m going to get the ladder and see where these kittens came from and see if perhaps there’s more or the mama. There was one more, he wasn’t in such good shape but after 24 hr of formula and a warm place to sleep he perked right up. They were eating every 2 hours @ first and then 4 hours and then they let me sleep 8 hr after a week or so. They slept by the bed in a laundry basket till they kept waking up all the time to be fed. I wasn’t working @ the time obviously. I did go to work when they were about 4-5 weeks old, I fed kittens before I went to work and immediately after I got home for awhile.

My bichon in the house HATES cats so I watched him, the video of them playing is on my video’s on the first page of blog, he became fairly friendly, he only chases the kittens from littler # 2 when we get to that story you might see why. The kittens learned to poop when I washed them with a washrag or a paper towel outside, for a couple weeks that was the first thing I did every morning and then made kitten formula. I was SO glad when they started eating cat food. They did learn to use the litter box quickly but we couldn’t nap on the couch in the family room anymore because we were just a large play toy in the middle of the night, noses and ears were really good things to bat @.

We named them Meany, he’s the one we have that survived and was the first kitten that put up such a fight the dogs were afraid of him, There was the name of the second kitten because he looked just like Meany and he was just there, Sluggo was the 3^rd one, big wide black stripes on a grey cat and so very friendly, he ate the most and slept the most. One day there was only one kitten outside after we put them out @ 8 weeks or so, my husband mentioned it to his mom and dad and they wanted to know if the other kittens were grey, seems that Sluggo had ridden on the pickup motor over to his mom and dads house one day. I went to get him and he was the best passenger I’d ever had, was SO very happy to see me. We don’t know what happened to There, I presume he was maybe on the pickup motor and jumped down along the way. Sluggo disappeared when the kids were fishing @ the pond on Labor Day, don’t know if he saw the bright lights of the little town ½ mile away or a coyote got him but I haven’t seen him since. So we just have Meany left of those kittens and he is anything but mean. He looks about 7/8 grown but is only 8 or 9 months old.

And thus started our ever increasing cat population. We haven't had cats for years since the late 90s but we are quickly becoming a cat oriented household, I pound on hoods or feed cats before I start vehicles and buy more cat food I think than I do dog food. We've graduated to 9 lives for the bigger cats, I couldn't get any special kitty last time, they eat off of a shelf outside so the dogs don't help themselves so all kittens have to be able to jump on the shelf. These inside are ready to go out but I just can't bring myself to do it yet. Feeding the cats on a shelf outside has improved the dogs health drastically. Our old dog Skeeter? She can climb up there if I give the cats turkey or ham broth, it's a miracle!