kittens

If you read “Mowgli goes visiting” a few weeks ago you’ll know that separating Mowgli and Lyra before she had her kittens didn’t go to plan. Despite Mowgli having the offer of a brilliant new home, he kept crying to be with Lyra.

At the end of his first visit to her and her kits we thought it was all very sweet but couldn’t trust it to be ok of they were together unsupervised. However, the crying continued. More frequent visits were arranged. Then he was allowed to stay in Lyra’s room more or less all the time but in a crate. My residents pushed for this because they were getting no sleep with his continual crying. Each time I wondered about moving him away from Lyra, he went and laid down quietly in his crate and I’d give in and let him stay. There came a point where I let him be out of the crate in the room but sat outside the door listening for any signs of distress, and went in every few minutes to check on them. Each time he and Lyra would be lying together near the cot with the kittens in, just chatting and watching the little ones.

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And as with many battles with cats, I ended up just giving in and letting them sort themselves out. A little while later I was confused by a friend who hadn’t met them before. She went in to see Lyra and kits whilst I was sorting out the A Team. She said something about mum and kittens together that I didn’t understand as I could see Lyra walking across the landing. Went in and found Mowgli in the cot, cuddling the babies whilst Lyra had gone for a walk. That was the point where I felt I had to have a chat with Morris’ mum. Awful as it felt to go back on an agreement to adopt (I’ve never done it before) and ridiculous as it seemed to turn down the offer of a fab home for a grown up black cat, I just couldn’t feel ok about separating them.

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Mowg is a bit of a fuss pot. If I’m doing anything to the kits – worming, bathing eyes etc – he’s on my case checking out what I’m doing and I’m not hurting them. Lyra cheerfully ignores their squeals and gets on with her supper. He may have pushed his luck a bit too far now though. He wants to play with the A Team too. They enjoy it, especially Albert, who has found a black role model in a sea of tabbiness. Unfortunately Arwen has used him as a target for all her disaffection with the opposite sex and I found him nursing a scratched ear.

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He’ll need to stay here now until the kittens are 12 weeks old and Lyra is also ready to go to a new home. It’s probably not going to be easy to find a home for two adult cats, but after the commitment they’ve shown each other I feel obliged to try.

mowg wondering what the future holds for him and his friend

No matter how often I see it, I’m amazed by how quickly kittens grow up.    Although they appear to do absolutely nothing in the first couple of weeks they more than double their weight in that time.  I could see the A Team were growing, but suddenly last weekend they seemed big.  Maybe it was because I’d been with Lyra and the little Ls before I went in to the As, but almost overnight they appeared to have changed from looking like a line of semi conscious hamsters to being small felines who were preparing to run riot.

There was a couple of days of scrabbling at the entrance to their box, and abortive attempts to break free.  Then last Tuesday the first one tumbled out, swiftly followed by the rest of the gang.   By Wednesday morning they were all fully proficient at getting in and out the box.  By the time I got home from work they were gathering speed chasing around their room, and Arwen had clearly delivered the foundation level course in jumping and pouncing.

Motherhood wearing a little thin

Thursday obviously brought level one feeding and litter tray skills.   Level one is just a basic awareness course, there’s nothing subtle about what you can eat or what you’re supposed to do in the tray once you’re in.  So there was a crowd of kits happily chewing the rim of their food bowl, and kicking sawdust at each other in the litter tray.   The few inches climb that was an enormous hurdle to get out of the box a couple of days previously became as nothing as a couple of them started their assent up the tall scratch post.  Poor Arwen, mother hood started to look like it was wearing a bit thin as she helped them work out how to get safely back down again.

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Despite the similarities between the tabbies, their behaviour gives away their identities.   When I go into the room the first on my lap is Aoife, followed closely by Ariel who comes to wrestle with her until she climbs on my shoulder to get out the way.  Aoife is the only girl and smaller than the others, its not stopped her being the first up the scratch post though.   Ariel is an adorable snuggle bug when he stops pushing his sister around.  Aslan is slower to come for a cuddle but has a purr that one can only imagine he’ll grow into in time when I start stroking him.    And Albert?  Well, he’s obviously different with him not being tabby.   I hope I’ve not put too much on him by naming him after the lovely Albert senior.  Mum seems to have fast tracked him though and he’s moved through, level two: aims and objectives of the litter tray and level three: thorough understanding and skillful use, within a couple of days.  So whilst the others are messing around and chucking wood pellets at each other, Al is squatting, producing and covering up.   He’s also the most advanced with eating, having apparently covered water lapping, food recognition and nomming within a very short space of time.   By the time the others start to get on board, Albert is doing something else ….

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Mowgli and Lyra arrived in rescue together and from the start it was clear that they were close – snuggling up together, butting heads in the food bowl, obviously happy around each other.  I don’t know what their relationship is – they lived as part of a large group of cats – just maybe they’re young mum and son, or sister and brother.  After a couple of weeks of them sharing a bedroom in rescue, it was clear that Lyra’s kittens were on the way and Mowg needed to move out.   He’s come downstairs and not been the happiest of bunnies.  To be fair, the residents have made him about as welcome as a fart in a space suit, so its not been an easy transition.

It just so happened that we were both on the landing this evening when I was going in to see Lyra, and Mowgli followed me in.  I was anxious about it at first, either that he’d hurt the babies or more likely that she’d run screaming fury at him like most mums with kits do to other cats.  This is what happened:

a sniff and a snuggle

Lyra has her supper whilst Mowg goes to have a look at the little ones

… and a better look

then they had supper together

mowg was a bit put out when Lyra covered the dish before he’d finished

.. and went to have another look at the kits

then settled down for a cuddle

I daren’t leave him in there unsupervised while the babies are so tiny, but I think we might be going back for a few more visits.