Life on the Road

Okay, here they are, in living color:

This is Superhero Thor, whose alter-ego is mild-mannered Charles (named for a dear former pastor).  Jewel is in a Superhero thing, so we all have two names.  Anyhow, the only boy in the bunch.

This is Nicki.  She was the last one named, after being called “Meanie” for a while (for her personality during the rescue), and “Meow” or “Mew” for a while.  Finally the inspiration struck that if she was a he, he would be a perfect “Nicholas” … So she’s Nicki.

Here is Nicki (foreground) with, well…  Pig-Pig.  It all started because she’s the only long-hair, and I said she looked like a guinea pig.  It just…  stuck.  We’ve off and on called her “Babe” or “Miss Piggy,” but I think she’s just stuck with Pig.

This is SkippyJon Jones (named after the adorable children’s book).  She’s the runt of the litter, and has the original Skippy’s big-head, big-ears look.  Usually she’s just “Skippy.”

They were a little sniffly and sneezy, so heeding a warning about young orphans in the week after losing mama cat, we took them to the vet on Saturday.

He prescribed antibiotics and eye ointment, and said that it was probably nothing to be concerned about.  He did say, though, that fereal cats are often subject to chlamydia, which has a mortality rate over 50% and nothing to do for it.  (Since their mama didn’t seem ill when she was last seen and they weren’t declining, he felt like we were probably not in that situation).

The vet’s estimate is that the babies are now 4 to 5 weeks old - and we’ve had them a week.  That’s about a week younger than I’d thought, even.  Poor kids.

All are thriving with the medication taking hold, and all are eating dry food during the day (between continued feedings of formula with dry food or meat, or just in a bowl).

The dilema was that we’d grown terribly attached to all four of them.  Pig-pig was one of the ones we were fairly sure would end up going to our neighbors, but now she and Jewel have formed an adorable bond… 

Well, when Ms. R came home from her vacation, she came by to say hello and look at the kittens.  We discussed the situation, and mentioned that we really had grown quite fond of all of them.   

It turns out, she’s not really a cat person.  She has two dogs, plus her son’s, in the house, and she was just going to put them in the barn to catch mice.  She laughed at their full bellies (they’d just eaten), and said that they clearly had a better life here…

So now we have - are you kidding?! - SIX CATS