fluffballs 1,2,3,4 & 5

 Here are the kittens, they are now three weeks old.

 Their eyes are open.
While I knew kittens were born with their eyes closed,
I had no idea that they only crawled around that they can't walk yet.
I had now idea about a lot of things- very naive when it comes to baby kittens,
they are much more dependent that baby sheep or goats!

This one has been nicknamed Mini-me because it looks just like Maggie.

 They crawl around the box all over the top of each other and make tiny little mewing noises

There is a grey tabby like the dad, a white one, a black and white one like Maggie and two are a mixture of their mum and dad and look very similar- we call them the twins even though they were born number 3 and 5.

This one has been nicknamed Snowbell after the white cat in Stuart Little.
This is the cat the kids want to keep, but we have told them they can only keep it if it's a female.
We haven't yet worked out how to sex them with any certainty.
We are thinking we might have to take photos so we can study them up close for a long period without upsetting the kittens and compare them to the photos we got off the internet.

This one has been nicknamed "Grey"- original isn't it!


Here is one of the twins - it is not easy to take photos of these little guys, they don't smile when you tell them or look the right way- a bit like babies I suppose!

I don't think it will be long before they are strong enough and big enough to climb out of their box!

bundles of joy

These 5 little fur balls made their entrance into the world yesterday.

(NB those little brown circles are dry cat food that B4 put in the box in case Maggie got hungry)

Our naughty Maggie escaped one night, had a one night stand with a strange cat and got herself knocked up!

VCH wanted to send her off to a home for unwed mothers but we said no we should support those kind of gals and so looked after her until time.

Thankfully despite being a single mum she is proving to be a very good mother and looking after her babies very well.

This is so cute!

maggie's mouse

Our little Maggie is growing up and has been catching rodents.

She caught one the other day and before we could stop her took it to her favourite place where she keeps all her treasures- under the lounge! 

B3 cleaned it out last Friday when we were doing housework and he found lots of stuffed animals and socks etc all placed there by Maggie!

The baby rat was still alive at this stage so the last thing we wanted was for it to get loose in the house! 

Ewww!!! Yuck!!!

So one of the kids managed to get her and the creature outside, then after she killed it she tried to bring it in again!

Dead rat under the lounge- double yuck!!!!!

We ended up throwing it in the bin.

When she found another one a couple of days later- I managed to capture it on "film"

We also made sure all the doors to the house were shut so she had no chance of bringing it inside!

 She was playing with it here.

We thought we would let her have it for a little while before putting it in the bin, big mistake!

I won't tell you what she did with it, I'll leave that up to your imagination!

cat in a bag

I left my handbag open on the dining room table when I can home from Bible study on Tuesday night.

Yesterday the kids had a good chuckle over this.

 

Maggie thought it looked like a cosy place to snuggle up in!

Kittens are so much fun!

meet maggie

This is our latest addition to our family.

This sweet tiny little kitten has been named Maggie

- going on the theory that cats respond best to 2 syllable names that end with an "e" sound.

We had no intentions of replacing our beloved Jazzy so soon but Maggie and her brother were advertised on Freecycle and we decided it was too good an opportunity to pass up.

She is currently confined to my bedroom until she is familiar with her new home.

She is very timid and has spent most of her time hiding under my bed, though she is slowly coming out and being a bit more social.

She hasn't spent much time with people and what she had was being chased by a 2year old boy wanting to pick her up by the neck- so she will need a little bit of time to adjust.

Her mum is very cuddly and we think she will be too when she is more settled.

She is the sweetest little thing and is already very much loved.

jazzy's first mouse

Our kitty is growing up and this is the first mouse she has caught and killed.

Thankfully it was outside and not inside- though her presence must be doing the job as we haven't had any inside since she arrived- lets hope it stays that way over winter!

baby jesus???

I know lots of cat posts but this was too cute to keep to myself.

Baby Jesus has arrived a day early at our house and is now four legged and furry.

little elf

We have the latest in Christmas tree ornaments at our house.

Fully interactive and animated, life-like oops I meant alive.

Yes that's right our own little elf  kitten up the tree.

Jazzy thinks the Christmas tree is her own personal playground.

After so many years of having small children to pull off decorations and redecorate the tree, I thought at last this year we would have a tree that stayed pretty much how we decorated it , not so.

Our newest baby loves the baubles and the bells, especially the bells because they make a pretty sound.

"I wonder which present is mine?" asks Jazzy

hello kitty

Meet Jazzy the newest member of our household.

Isn't she cute?

She arrived this afternoon courtesy of another HS mum who told me her friend always has kittens.

Gaynor picked her out and as she was going past the turn off to our road today on her way for a weekend away, I met her at the corner and she handed me a box with this little bundle in it.

 

I have been wanting a cat for a while now.

Our last cat (only cat we ever had) died about 3 years ago when she was almost 16.

I was pregnant with The Girl at the time and I didn't feel like I had the energy to deal with another baby, so we didn't get another cat at the time.

We live in the country and ever since Penny died we have had mice problems- something that we never had with a cat in the house, even when she was old.

I am sure mice sense the presence of a cat in the house and give that house a wide berth.

A couple of weeks ago we found a nest of baby mice in our new bathroom cupboard (the mouse must have crawed up the hole for the pipe) and that really freaked me out.

I said to VCH, "We need a CAT!!!".

We have now found one living in our reading room and have tried baits to no avail.

Then VCH saw it and said, "That's not a normal mouse," which would also explain the strange poos and also why it wouldn't take the bait.

I was a bit worried about it being a marsupial mouse and then remembered the nest, it must be placental.

A search on the internet found that Australia has lots of native placental mice that apparently arrived here after our marsupial (have babies in a pouch) animals, but before white settlement, which is when our common mice and rats arrived.

We have now got the special wire mouse trap out, but we need to work out what this creature likes to eat and hope to trap it.

But maybe Jazzy's cat magic will work and the mouse will move out on its own.

She has the prettiest green eyes I have ever seen.