Our bundles of joy

I mentioned that Boots, our sweet kitty, had five precious kittens on my birthday.  That was four weeks ago yesterday.  Those baby kittens are absolutely adorable and we are having so much fun playing with them.

The first couple of weeks they are pretty boring.  They don't have their eyes open, they pretty much sleep and eat and that's about it.  Then their eyes opened and they wobbled around a bit.  Now they are learning to walk, run, play, climb, fight and explore.  And it's so fun!

Even though Jay had arranged a box with a towel in the back of our closet for Boots, she decided a much better birth place would be up inside the box springs of Lane's bed.  That black material that lines the underneath of the box springs had a couple tears in it...just big enough for Boots to crawl up in there and bed down.  Boots is so noisy though, Lane quickly discovered her hiding place.  It was so hard to see up in there and even harder to leave her alone until she was done.  For the longest time we thought there were only four kittens, but when we finally moved them, we found five.  We were so excited!

After a few attempts to relocate the babies, Boots finally adjusted to the closet and left the babies alone...until it was time to move again.  Someone suggested a small kiddie pool...hmm, great idea.  Only afterwards did I think about the play on words there...kitty pool...ha!  We lined the bottom of the pool with towels and put their box in it.  (Later, Lane cut 'doors' in the original box lid and flipped it upside down to make them a little house.)  The kittens didn't mind the big move, but Boots sure did. Again, she tried to relocate her babies a couple times, but eventually accepted the upgrade.

  Another week has passed and the little felines have figured out how to escape the pool walls...so they are sort of roaming free at this point.  They have their towel and box in the corner of the living room and they always return to it.  I'm figuring out Plan B as we speak.  As of now, they do not use the bathroom on their own and Boots is the cleanup lady, but soon they will be...and they are not going to be free to pee wherever they be.  (ha)

I think we have homes for all of the kittens.  I have a feeling it's going to be a struggle to actually let go of these cuties.  Everyone loves them...except Josie.  Aunt Jo is like that mean 'ole aunt who sits back and watches everything without saying anything - only giving the evil eye.  Every now and then she creeps up behind one of them and gives them a good sniff, but she is none to happy about their presence.

Last night one of them crawled over Hank the Tank II's foot and he hardly noticed.  He is un-phased by most things...a small creature seems to be one of them.  Abby, on the other hand, has to be watched.  She would eat one without a moment's hesitation.

This little guy is by far the favorite of the bunch.  We call him Stripes.  He is kind of a big bully, but we love his personality.  He is outgoing and on the move...and how can you resist those sweet baby blue eyes?

We have enjoyed many babies on our little farm over the past decade (goats, chickens, puppies, piglets) but these kittens have been, by far, the most fun.  I intend on having Boots fixed after these babies are weaned because it is the right thing to do, but goodness, the thought of never having kittens again is downright depressing.  They are so dang cute...right now.