Sleeping Through the Night

At this stage, my daughter and I are finally getting to sleep through the night! We spent a week taking turns with these little guys, in which they mainly needed us around 1:00 A.M. for a feeding.

Ann, you nailed it in your comment about what the vet told us to do next.....we had to teach them to pee-n-poop! That was a "trip" I never expected to travel during my life time! Thankfully it lasted just a week and after we introduced them to can cat food, the litter box training came next. The babies caught on quickly and this lady was delighted! During this new training period we found that diaper wipes worked the best and lots of newspapers!

We ended up moving the kittens three times during their house stay with us, as they kept escaping their current homes. This one we named Bungy; he didn't need an elastic cord to get where he was going, he just lunged!

He was the first one to escape...

the first one to the bottle,

and

first one to crawl up your leg!

At 4 weeks old we would let them out to explore and play. You could see how quickly they were changing from wobbly to a gutsy dare-devilish mode. It didn't take them long to figure out how to pounce on an unsuspecting brother or sister! Our nightly entertainment had some of the deepest belly laughs that we had received in a long time. I do believe that we slept better because of these comical kittens!

When the babies would get tired from playing, we'd gather them up, put them back on their heating pad and have them settle down for the night. They weren't always easy to find and in this picture we thought for sure that we had lost one. My husband found this little guy and even donated his slippers for the night as not to disturb his sleep.

Yes, they had begun to work their fuzzy magic on the man of the house!

Really...... how Do you burp a cat?

This adventure has been a sweet accomplishment and a privilege to be apart of. On April 13th our farm cat had her first litter of kittens, two black ones, just like their mama and three white ones, just like their papa. (in this picture, one is camera shy).

On April 30th our mama cat disappeared (not her fault, she was a great mama!) and my daughter, husband and I became adopted parents to five furry little bodies. I had no idea what was in store for us and I thought I would share our adventure in installments on my blog.

The kittens were 17 days old, and I didn't have the first clue about taking care of them. All our previous attempts to save little ones didn't end in a happy story.

From the research on-line and a local trip to our vet to purchase baby bottles, I picked up some interesting tips.

When feeding babies you keep them level with the ground or you might get their lungs infected with the baby formula that you are feeding them. You want the formula to get to their tummies.

You've got to keep them warm, so have a heating pad available and set on low. Provide space for the kittens to get off of the heating pad if they get too warm.

Altabella Cattery's Kitten Glop http://www.hdw-inc.com/glop.htm has an excellent formula recipe for kittens and we used it for 4 weeks with great results! (Thanks my husband for finding this recipe!)

And to wrap up this entry: the vet told me that I would need to get the kittens to burp.....

I can only wonder about the look on my face as he relayed this information. My only reference to burping anything was with my own children, and a couple of them were not easy to burp!

The vet just told me to keep the kittens as level as possible, so I couldn't possibly burp them the way I did my kids. (one practically had to be on her head to produce a burp and another child needed her hiney softly patted).

So how do you burp a kitten?

Really it's quite simple. You just pet them. The motion of your hand stroking them encourages little burps. At first you won't quite recognize them as burps, especially if you've been used to hearing grown-up burps for quite awhile (good food ma!). But it doesn't take long to understand that you've accomplished a baby animal burp. You can feel it too. After they burp, they settle down for a nice long nap, which is important if you happen to be on night duty with them!

Stay tuned for what the vet said next!

Fiber? Do I really get enough!

I know, crazy thought and why would I be having such a thought on this blistery summer day? I'm not for sure.

Maybe because the heat index has seared all the other thoughts in my brain and left this one to roll around. Anyway, it's there and I do have some curious questions.

http://ehealthmd.com/index.html answered a lot and I enjoyed the read; but I'm sorry to report that it didn't answer my BIG question.

"I want to know if I leave that little sticker on my fruits and veggies will that add up to several grams of fiber or just an annoying piece of fiber that is now stuck in my teeth?"

Yes, I do wash, scrub and dry my produce, but I DO forget that little sticker. It's only after I enjoyed the tart apple or the juicy tomato that I find a foreign substance in my mouth and remember once again.....THE STICKER.

Beautiful Babe

Missy, how can I begin to say "thanks" for being the best companion that I could ever wish for my daughter. You saw her through all the difficult growing up years and you were always faithful to be by her side.

When this ole' mom just didn't quite understand the up's and down's of teenage life, she could always turn to you and get that special "fuzzy love".

And as she reached adulthood, you moved out with her and continue to watch over her for me.

I'll miss your smile and the wag of your tail in welcome but I know you're at a peaceful place now and you no longer hurt. Enjoy your freedom, my friend, and chasing rabbits!

love you,

Mrs. Julie