7-8 Weeks Old

Sadly, we said good bye to Oreo when she was 8 weeks old.  We found a really good home for her.  I took this picture the day that she left.  She was posing like a little princess.

For the other kittens it was business as usual.

The business of clobbering each other...

...and the business of being super cute and cuddly.

5-6 Weeks Old

It's not easy to get kittens to pose.  I happened to find them all like this one day (minus one) and they all held still long enough for a little photo shoot.  It was awesome!

The boys have now named all of the kittens.  This is Oreo.  She is a gorgeous, fluffy girl with fur a lot longer than the others.  As a younger kitten she was very playful, but as an older kitten she became somewhat aloof, as though she was too mature to play with the kids.

This is Socks (she has white covered paws--hence socks).  She is a pretty girl with the shortest fur of the bunch.  She was the runt of the litter and the most timid.  Not to be rude, or anything, but she's a bit of a crybaby.  But she can still hold her own when she wants to.

This is Shoes (he doesn't have white covered paws--hence, shoes).  He is the most gregarious of the bunch.  He is usually the first to greet us when we go outside and he loves to attack our feet (and anything else) and be petted and loved.

This is Tigre.  When the kittens first got out of their box and began to explore, he seemed the most precocious, being the first to do things, such as go up and down the stair and run around.  However, he is also very timid, shying away when we try to pet him (but not as timid as Socks).

This is Hunter, who was not around for our photo shoot and consequently I have had a much harder time getting a decent picture of him.  He began as the largest kitten of the litter (but Shoes has now caught up to him) and he was the first one to open his eyes.  He is also a friendly kitty.

It only took a week of being out of their box for all the kittens to get skilled on their legs.  It is so fun to watch them running, jumping, and attacking (especially each other).

First Explorations

Shortly after my last kitten post, the boys decided to help the kittens out of their box and let them go exploring for the first time.  Within a day or two of this, all of the kittens had figured out how to get out on their own.  After that, they hardly ever went back into the box, choosing other places to sleep, and wouldn't stay in for long if we put them in.

They were still a little awkward and slow on their feet, and so adorable.

4 Weeks Old

The kittens are getting more and more cute.

Most of them now pull themselves up on the sides of the box, but still have not figured out how to climb out.

They pounce on each other, bite (they now have tiny teeth coming in), swat, and tumble around.

It's a lot of fun to sit and watch them.

2 Weeks Old

The kittens are now two weeks old.

They all have their eyes open and are beginning to crawl a tiny bit on their wobbly legs rather than squirming around.  It is interesting that the large orange kitten had his (actually, we don't know which are boys and which are girls. We need to look up how to tell.) eyes open nearly a whole week before any of the other kittens opened their eyes.

This morning when I first saw them, all of the kittens were sitting up in their box looking around.  It made me laugh because up until their eyes were open, all they would do was squirm and nuzzle around, feeling with their noses and whiskers.  So it was funny to see all of them sitting there, looking this way and that.

Enjoy!

One Week Old

Tonight a little before midnight marks one week since the kittens were born.

They are getting bigger and sleeping more on their own.  For the first few days of their lives, they seemed almost constantly latched on to Cali, or squirming around in pursuit of latching onto Cali.  The last few days Cali has been able to leave them a lot more and they are content to sleep in a little pile by themselves.

Cali never goes far, though.

The first few days after they were born, we did not touch them because we wanted to be sure that Cali bonded with them and we had read that sometimes a cat will reject her kittens if they are handled too soon.  I began letting the boys touch and hold the kittens a couple of days ago.  It's important for the kittens to get used to human contact so that they will be friendly pets.  And the boys have been dying to feel their soft fur.

Below, Junior is holding the largest kitten of the litter.

Today we just noticed that it is beginning to open it's eyes.

What a good mama!

1 1/2 Days Old

Do you want to see more kitten pictures?  Here you are.

This is one of the kittens' favorite daily activities:

New Arrivals

We purposefully did not get Cali fixed because I thought it would be cool for the kids to experience the miracle of birth through her.  A month or so ago, we noticed that Cali was getting a little bulge.  (The below picture is from a few weeks ago.)

This past week she looked especially large, and awkward.  Then yesterday, she was acting a little differently, whining and meowing a lot (though she has always been a little whiny), and even hissing at Brandon, when she has never hissed at any of us.  In the evening I put a sheet and some towels inside a box, she climbed in, and within fifteen minutes she was giving birth.  Here they are, about 12 hours later.

She gave birth to six kittens, but one did not make it.  I think five out of six is pretty good for a new mommy cat.  It's hard to believe that all of these kittens were in Cali's belly less than a day ago.  I'm surprised she didn't whine more.

PS.  These are the only kittens that Cali will have, as she will be having surgery soon after this.

PPS.  We no longer have Cali's brother, Jet.  He disappeared and we don't know what happened to him.