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May 14: New Arrivals

If you have been looking at the main part of this year's pictures, specifically at our Big Bend trip, you will already know that when Fred picked me up at the Comanche Best Western for our trip back to Dallas after his visit with his Mother, he had two things with him (actually three, if you count the box): two kittens from the litter that the cat who hangs around his Mom's house had around the 17th of April. One was for Nancy, who had recently lost one of her three cats, and the other was for us (yes, another cat, as if we didn't already have enough). Here are the first two known pictures of Blu Tux Bob and Tobisina (as Nancy told us on the phone she would be naming hers):

Tobisina is a full Manx, with no tail at all, and is a light gray tabby. Blu Tux Bob (shortened almost immediately by me to simply Bob) has a stub of a tail- perhaps two inches long (hence the "bob" part of his name), and is close to a Russian blue in color, with what looks like a white dress shirt on his stomach and white spats on his feet.

On our way back to Dallas, the plan had been to drop Nancy's cat off at her house, she having returned from Big Bend yesterday, and to take ours to Florida almost immediately, our next trip down there schedule for just three days from now. Fred had arranged all this by phone with Nancy yesterday. The little kittens were just adorable, and on the way home I took them out of the box and they curled up together in my lap. That's when I thought that separating them so soon would be a bit cruel; they weren't even four weeks old, and they'd just been taken from mama. So I suggested to Fred that we take both of them to Florida for a two week stay, to give them time to bond, and to let us do the hard work of feeding them with a dropper (which we knew we would have to do given our experiences with Lucky years ago).

Fred was chagrined that he hadn't thought of that, but realized it was the best thing for both kittens. I called Nancy to see if that would be OK with her; she also saw the wisdom of keeping them together for a while and gave her approval. So that became the plan. On Monday, I would run them both by the vet for a quick checkup, and on Tuesday we would take them both with us to Florida.

May 16: Our First Few Days with Tobisina and Bob

We got the kittens home to Dallas on Saturday afternoon, May 14, and we immediately had to sequester them in the downstairs bathroom. This was for their protection, as they were way too young to be introduced to Lucky, Tyger and Zack. We also wanted to let their little immune systems get a bit stronger before being introduced to the big cats.

We spent most of the rest of the day making sure they were comfortable in their new surroundings. Initially, we fed them with an eye dropper, which was a time consuming procedure. We learned online that stores sell KMR (Kitten Milk Replacement) that is close to the milk they would be getting from their Mom, so I went and bought some. We also learned that goat's milk is basically the same thing, but much cheaper, so after a can or two of the KMR, we switched to the goat's milk.

On Sunday morning, Fred had to leave for his house to spend a night and a day there, pack for Florida, and make sure all his plants were ready to be left along for two weeks plus. Just before he left, I had him hold both kittens for their first official portrait. That's Tobisina on the left and Blu Tux Bob on the right.

Later on that day, I went next door to Cynthia's to tell her about the new arrivals, and she came over to have a look at them. When she saw me using the eyedropper to feed them, she went right back to her house and brought me an actual kitten bottle that she had used when she first got her little cat Itsy. The kitten bottle was very much like a regular baby bottle, with replacement nipples and everything. Using it made feeding them much easier and much quicker, and I asked her if we could borrow the bottle to take to Florida with us. She graciously let us do that, and I credit the amazing progress the kittens made in the next four weeks to the use of that bottle!

Feeding the Kittens (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

On Monday, I took both kittens to our vet to have them checked out, and they both got a clean bill of health and permission to go on a road trip with us. Fred returned late Monday afternoon and I showed him how much easier using the kitten bottle was, and he gave it a try, giving them both a good deal of KMR. While he did that, I made the movie at left.

Here are a few pictures of the kittens being fed; the first two are Bob and the third is Tobisina:

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These kittens were very, very small. I think Lucky had been about the same size when we got him, also from Fred's Mom's house; he was so small that for about a week he couldn't get over the edge of a flat dish to drink his milk. For comparison, look at this picture of the kittens climbing around on my feet.

I took my turn holding both kittens, while Fred tried to get as good a picture as possible. He took quite a few, and the best one is at left. That is Tobisina on the left and Bob on the right. If you are ever unsure as to who's who, Tobisina is lighter and her tabby forehead markings are beginning to show.

Here are some additional pictures of the kittens as we were feeding them this evening, and getting them ready for their road trip to Florida tomorrow.

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May 19-30: The Kittens in Florida

We haven't had a kitten in a long time, and I'd forgotten how much fun they can be to hold and simply to watch. And this trip we have two of them. We had endless opportunities for photos and movies, and I am sure we each took a hundred or more. Obviously, I don't want to put them all here; after all, a lot of them were repetitive and quite a few didn't turn out.

All during the trip, we took pictures of the kittens- each seemingly more adorable than the last. You may not want to see all of them, so I have selected the best to include in the slideshow below, along with one particularly good movie. Maybe kittens are boring for you, but if not, watch the movie below and go through the slideshow for the best of the many pictures we took; use the forward and backward characters in the lower corners of the pictures to do so.

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1 / 17 2 / 17 3 / 17 4 / 17 5 / 17 6 / 17 7 / 17 8 / 17 9 / 17 10 / 17 11 / 17 12 / 17 13 / 17 14 / 17 15 / 17 17 / 17 < >

The slideshow probably filled your kitten picture quotient for a while, but since I can't put movies in a slideshow, I thought I would let you look at them in the separate groups below. I am also going to put in those groups some additional pictures that werent in the slideshow.

Feeding Time

In the two days at home before our trip, on the trip itself and for the first week or so we were here, the kittens were exclusively bottle-fed. During the second week here, we got them to take at least some food out of little dishes, and by the end of the trip they were getting adept at that. As soon as they had gotten the hang of doing that, we started mixing in some wet cat food with the milk and letting them eat that. And in the last few days that we were here, first Tobisina and then Bob started crunching on kitten kibble that we had moistened slightly.

Here are two movies that Fred made of me feeding the kittens:

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And here are two pictures of the kittens being fed:

Bob Being Fed

Tobisina Being Fed

Lap Kitties

Both kitties quickly developed an affinity for being in one's lap. This was best allowed when you were sitting on the floor, because when you were on the couch, or, worse yet, in one of the high table chairs, both kittens would use their claws to pull themselves up your leg. Fine when you're wearing jeans, but painful if you're in shorts. I quickly realized I'd better stay in jeans most of the time!

If I was in one of the high chairs, it was harder for a kitten to get up. My foot had to be on the floor so they could climb; they were not strong enough to jump up into the empty chair and then walk across the table into a lap.

But seated on the couch, it was easier for them to climb up a leg. (Actually, by the time we left Florida, both kittens were able to jump up within a few inches of the seat of the sofa, and only had to pull themselves up the rest of the way with their little claws dug in to the fabric. As usual, Tobisina mastered this trick a day or two before her brother.

Once in a lap, they tended to zonk out pretty quickly, as Bob has just done in the picture at left.

But I tried to give both of them equal time, and at a different time, here is Tobisina getting her turn at some lap time.

I like cats in my lap, so long as I am going to be sitting down for a while anyway. But cats don't know if you are just there for a minute or settled in for a while, so they'll take a lap where they can find it. Sometimes it would be just one, but often during out trip down here, it was both of them.

Shoe Kitties

For very young kittens, I am told that shoes make great playthings, as small kittens are often quite able to get pretty much inside them. This possibility usually disappears quickly, although Bob and Tobisina had a window of opportunity during our first week here.

Watching them scramble around in and out of a pair of ordinary shoes was interesting. I was never quite sure if it was the shoe itself, and the close quarters that might have seemed comforting, or perhaps the smells that shoes give off. Regardless, they played around in both our sneakers quite a bit.

Sometimes they would worry around inside the shoes, or play with the laces (which seemed to be extraordinarily attractive to them- cats and string, you know), and other times they would just curl up near them for a nap. Here are three pictures, taken all on the same day, of the kittens playing around in my sneakers in the bedroom:

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Tussle Time

One of the neatest things about having both of the kittens here with us is that each has a natural playmate, and they don't rely much on us for stimulation. They seemed to cycle at the same time, both being ready for play at the same time, or both in sleepy mode simultaneously.

When we first got here, it was usually Tobisina, being a bit larger, who initiated the playtime, and it was usually she who was pouncing on Bob. He certainly didn't seem to mind a dominant woman, but then lots of guys are "into" that.

In the picture at left, I captured a rare instance of Bob pouncing on Tobisina for a change, although one of the kittens never stayed on top for very long as they literally rolled across the floor.

Of the two kittens, Tobisina seemed to be the most vocal, sometimes giving out little squeaks or trills when the tussling got especially physical. But neither cat seemed put out by the other's play; when they would separate for a moment, we saw lots of instances where the other cat, be it Bob or Tobisina, would re-engage with the other.

Of course, I can't really describe the tussling adequately, you have to see it for yourself, so here are a couple of movies of the two kittens at play:

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Kittens in the House

After we got here, I found a small box in the closet to use as a little refuge for the kittens. They didn't seem to be yet at the point where they would just curl up on a chair or on the sofa or bed. They tended to sleep on the towel in the box, perhaps feeling sheltered and cozy there.

Here are a few pictures of Bob and Tobisina in residence: (Click on Thumbnails to View)

The little shelter turned out to be a bit hit with the kitties. We placed it right by their homemade litter box, and once they were eating some solid food, we placed that right on the other side of the box. So they ended up spending a lot of time in and around the box.

Even though we left the door to the bedroom open so they could run in and out during the night, it always seemed that in the morning I would find them groggily getting out of the box house to await their morning feeding.

I did make one movie of them in the box:

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Kittens and String

Of course we had plenty of cat toys for the kittens, but they found just about anything a perfectly adequate object of play. They particularly liked one string with a little mouse on the end. Here are a couple of movies of them playing with that string and with each other:

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Downtime

A joy to hold. A joy to watch at play. The kittens were even fun to watch when they were just cuddling or even asleep. Their periods of downtime made the condo oddly quiet- but welcome sometimes:

Of course, all periods of downtime are eventually followed by the awakening.

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More often than not, we don't notice when the kittens awake; it can be absolutely quiet and then all of a sudden there they are, ready to be fed or ready to play.

But one afternoon, I happened to see Bob on the towel by the house just beginning to wake up, so I did a movie. I expected that he'd open his eyes, stretch and then get up to see what trouble he could get into. Instead, I was treated to more than a minute of stretching, rolling back and forth, and stretching again as Scotty in Engineering brought main power back online.

This trip to Florida was made much more special by having the kittens along, and I have to say that I wasn't looking forward to taking Tobisina back out to Nancy's house when we returned.

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