Weary Wednesday

Friends, it's a weary Wednesday all right, and my human is a heartless pig! She doesn't listen to me!






I spent all of last night, Ok not all, but some of it, screaming at her to let me out of that stupid, stupid pen that she put me in with those squealing mousies! They were crying, I was crying, and the human said it sounded like she had a zillion cats instead of only four! I was sat at the front of the pen screaming at her, while my babies sat round my feet and cried for milk. But I was bored. I'd fed them once already. I wanted out to do things. What things? Well, hide under the bed, in that little spot where the human can't get me, then not come out for love nor tuna! The human says that's why she didn't let me out, cuz I need to stay with my babies to warm and feed them. Codswallop, I say.





I got excited when she opened the pen door, and tried to dart past her, but as usual, my human was too quick for me. She managed to catch me, then she told me that if I wanted a bit of loving, I could come out, but that was it. I had everything else I needed in the pen; food, water, a litterbox. She picked me up and I squirmed like mad to try and get away from her, but she was having none of it. She sat on the bed with me and cuddled me in the blankets, just the way I used to like. Friends, I let the team down. I enjoyed it for a few minutes. Then, suddenly, I remembered that I'm a torttureshell, not a mousie. I made a flying leap... And got nowhere. She'd been waiting for me to do it and she caught me. With a final stupid kissie on my head, and a last stupid chin tickle which I'll never admit I liked, I was put back in with the squealers who were really noisy by this point.





She laid me on my side, then stretched me out so that the mousies could get at my nimples. Almost straight away, the noise stopped and I calmed. I don't know what it is, but when they have their mouths on my nimples, everything doesn't seem so bad any more. I'd say I go to mush, but of course I don't. I'm way too fierce to go to mush just cuz of a couple of little mousies. But it does feel good. Makes me feel like I'm lying in front of a warm fire, but inside me. Does that make sense?





That sneaky human knows that I get quiet when the mousies are on my tummy, and she very silently eased the pen door shut and crept away to bed again.





This scenario repeated itself quite a few times, but she didn't take me out again. Instead, she gave me scritches when I let the mousies find my nimples. She says their weight gain suffered because of it, with Hamster only gaining 1 gram overnight, compared to the 9 he'd gained during the day. Well, she shouldn't be so mean to me! Who cares if the mousies get cold and hungry! Well, I spose I do, but come on! A cat should retain her independence, no matter what!





I've had no more litterbox issues. She blocked my access to the kitchen, stupid human, so I go in the one by my babies. I do have one that's nice and far away that the human thought I'd use, cuz mommacats don't normally like to go too close to the nest, but as with all other typicalities of mothering, I've totally flouted this expectation.





That's about it for today, sept that Porker has started to consistently purr now. Oh, and the human has started her own blog. She says it's to chart the mousies' progress from a human point of view. Sounds boring, but if your beans want to read it, it's Here
We're sorry, there's no pictures yet, but we're working on it. Oh, she's also almost got the Moonspun cattery website launched, but again, we're just waiting on pictures and something to do with a database connection something or other (I stopped listening at that bit). Anyway, we'll tell you when it's launched! We'd love you to come visit and give us feedback!

One week old!

Friends, I'm exhausted which is why I haven't been writing so much lately. It takes too much effort to think of things to say, and then when I do think of something, these eating machines decide it's time for their next feed and I can go nowhere! They are a week old today, and it's been the longest, longest week, both for me and the human. For her, it's been long cuz she's so tired. She's up in the night with little Hamster still, and it does take it out of her. Well, I'm up with them all the time, and let me tell you, they take it out of me... Literally! I'm sure each mousie drinks sixteen million pints of milk a day, and they're still hungry! They are still fighting fiercely over my nimples no matter how many times I tell them off, but at least little Hamster is doing it too now, so that gives us one lest thing to worry about. He's getting fatter too. The human says he gained 11 grams yesterday all by himself! Well, kinda by himself, even though she's still helping.






Hamster is the last to do everything. The last to fight, the last to learn to suck and the last to purr. Cuz oh yes, my babies have started to purr. The baby was the first. The human heard this funny noise coming from the box after she'd plugged them all in on Saturday night, and when she touched the Baby, her body was vibrating! Porker was the next to pick it up, and this morning, we heard the first tentative purrs from Hamster. I think he's always gonna be slow, but I can't wait till all three of them purr at once! nor can the human. It'll be marvellous!





Their eyes are almost all the way open now, and their ears are beginning to open, but the umbilical chords are still attached! I know I'm sposed to lick them off, but they're icky and gross and I don't wanna! The human says they may well fall off, but I'm not so sure. What do you all think?





They're starting to try and stand more now too. Soon it won't be long till they're walking around, and then the fun really, really starts!





I keep trying to leave the babies behind and run away to escape them. My human wouldn't let me leave them for long the first few days, but as time has progressed, I'm allowed to come out for longer as long as I don't do it frequently. I even had a little play session this morning! I also did something else that I know I shouldn't have though.





Last night, the human heard me scratching at the mat in the kitchen. I don't normally do this at all, so she came to investigate. It wasn't long before her nose told her what had happened, and I tell you what, she got real, real cross. I'd left a number two on the mat for her. Just a little one, but it was enough to send her absolutely hopping mad! Why? Cuz I had a litter tray in the pen with me. I had one in the living room. I even had one in the hall nice and far away from the babies. So really, I had no excuse to do what I did. She caught me at it again this morning. Both times, she scruffed me just like an angry mommacat, and said lots of angry words with a big hiss thrown in for good measure. I got the message right quick, I can tell you. This morning, she even took me to my hall litterbox, put me in there even though I didn't wanna go, and made me dig in it with my paws. The indignity of it! I decided I didn't want that to happen again, so I ran straight back to the pen and went in the tray in there. I got massive praise for doing that, and a whole handful of treats and ages of snuggling, so I guess it was worth it in the end. My human's scary when she's cross though. Do your peoples ever get mad at you? Is mine the only one that does the mommacat grab and hiss? It's far too effective for my liking!





So, back to mousies. They grow bigger by the day! I'll tell you their weights so that you can see. Tori, to answer your question, the human will record their weights right up until when they leave us, as it's a good indicator of how well or poorly each mousie is doing. When they start eating and gaining well, the frequency will go down, but that's about it. Keeping detailed records is so, so important when mousies are depending on you though!





The baby:
Birth weight: 71 G
Today's weight: 165 G





Hamster:
Birth weight: 101 G
Today's weight: 151 G





Porker:
Birth weight: 92 G
Today's weight: 192 G





As you can see, the Baby and Porker are very healthy weights. Kittens should double their birth weight in the first week, or at a stretch, 10 days. Hamster has only gained half the weight of the others and half his original birth weight, but he's picking up now, so let's hope it won't be too much longer before he's doubled! He's not much smaller than the Baby, but he's a bit weaker which means he works so much harder. Porker is so big that he just bullies everyone else until he gets his own way which neither me nor the human like to see. We know this isn't necessarily an indicator of his personality, but it's hard to remember that when we watch him shove Hamster out of the way to steal his nimple even though Porker has one of his own right at the back, and those are the best ones! Ah well, in two weeks they'll start eating propper food anyway, so this won't go on too much longer I hope. Then maybe I can have a break!





Thank you to those of you who keep stopping by. We love to hear from you and cherish every comment!

Are they really mine?

Friends, it's me back again, and boy am I tired. These babies really do take it out of you.






I can't tell you much about how they were born. I know, I know, I promised I'd remember and tell you, but the strange thing is, I can't. one minute the human was sitting talking to me on the floor. I wouldn't let her move a muscle. Every time she got up to try and organise things, I cried and cried for her till she had to sit back down with me again. Labour is scary. I knew I should be pushing, but I couldn't do it. I knew that something was wrong, but I couldn't tell anyone. I was terrified.





The human called the nice vet lady people who I don't like so much any more. She came to see me, and she had to check that I was dilating. Friends, do you know how they do that? They have to feel around inside your looloo! That's the polite term for it. The human tells me that's the word her family uses (they're weird) so that little kids won't come right out and talk about rude things in public.





Anyway, when the vet did this, I screamed my head off cuz I wasn't dilated and I can tell you something, it hurt. If it hadn't been the human's gentle, reassuring hands on my face, I'd have bit, but it's a mark of how far I've come that I only opened my mouth and screamed. When the human first got me, I'd have pulled no punches. Well, I wasn't dilated, and I was leaking out of my looloo too, and so they thought it best that I had something called a C Section. I don't know what this is, but when the vet lady people put me in a PTU and took me away, I was terrified! I was going with her, and my human wasn't coming! I can't tell you how scared that made me, but the vet lady people kept telling me it would be over quick and I'd be first on the list and wouldn't have to wait. First on what list?





When we got to the vet place, she took me into a room, out of the PTU and then... Well, then nothing. Blank. No memory. I came to a little later in a cage, and there were these three tiny little squeaking things beside me. I sniffed them. Smelled strange so I ignored them. I hurt. My yummy tummy was all sore, and even worse than that, they shaved all of my floof off! I was bald!





To cover the shame of that, I sat up so that only my floofy bits were on show. I started to clean the vet smell off of me, and then I felt something very, very strange. A small tugging was going on in my lower belly region, and you know, it felt uncomfortable and right all at the same time. I felt like I should lie down, so I did, but I don't know why. The tugging increased, and so did the squeaking from the moving things. Then a second gentle pulling started. In spite of myself, I felt my body relaxing. I looked down, and there were two of the little wrigglers, and they had their mouths around my nimples! That was what the tugging sensation was. I was too groggy to complain, so I just let them get on with it and wished that my human would come back and get me. I missed her so, so much.





She did eventually come back, and she took me home with her, but the white wrigglers came too. I wasn't too sure about this. They were kinda like mousies, and I know how upset my human was the last time there was a mousie in the house and I wouldn't kill it. I didn't want to kill these. I sorta liked them in a vague kind of way.





I was very gently placed in a soft bed when I got home. I was too tired to give thanks propperly, but I can do it now. Mom Trish sent the big, deep trays that my huan had lined with vetbed for me. Thank you, mom Trish! I watched in some fascination as the human very gently placed the wrigglers in with me, and made sure they were up against my yummy tummy. Strange. If they were mousies, she'd not have allowed them to get loose. But there seemed little danger of them running away. They didn't seem to be able to move propperly, and they all scrabbled at my yummy tummy as though searching for something.





"Those are your babies ,Tia," the human said some while later as she climbed into the pen with me where my bed was. She spent a lot of time cuddling my head, then fiddling around by my tummy. When she did, the tugging started again, and the squeaking stopped. She gave me a little mouse to cuddle under my chin, but I didn't know what to do with it, and anyway, it went wriggling back towards my tummy. I was just content to be home with the human.





Every time the little mousies squeaked, I felt an overwhelming urge to protect them. The only way I could think of to hide them was to lie on them, but this upset the human for some reason. She spent a lot of time soothing me, reassuring me that nobody wanted to take the little mousies away, and that I could keep them all to myself. Lots of times that day she reassured me, talked to me, cuddled me and told me that the tugging was ok and I needed to accept it. Eventually I felt calm enough to go to sleep with my head in the human's hand.





The human took us all to bed with her last night. She has another littler pen in there that she put us all into. I wasn't too bothered. I just wanted to sleep, but something about the mousies bothered me. I nudged one of them away from my yummy tummy and sniffed. It smelled like me now, and I didn't mind it as much . I gave it a friendly lick and it shrieked. I almost did too . I hadn't meant to hurt it! I stopped straight away, but when it stopped too, I decided to try again. The same thing happened, but now I knew I had to lick it all over. Maybe if I got rid of the last of the vet smell, the human would forget that the mousies came from the vets and I could keep them.





I washed all of my mousies all over from head to toe, but I didn't like it when yucky stuff came out of their back ends. I had to lick that all up cuz although it didn't smell like the vet, it didn't smell like me neither. I only washed them once, cuz I didn't want to have to do the cleaning chore again.





When the human looked in the pen this morning, she found me and three clean mousies. As she helped the biggest one to find a nimple to suck on, she told me again, "These are your babies, Tia". But I knew they weren't. My babies were stil inside me. I hadn't pushed them out. Still, if she was Ok with me adopting the mousies, then I was willing to give it a go.





For the next few hours, I pondered this strange phenomenon, but the more I looked at the mousies, the more I listened to them squeak, the more I wasn't sure. They sounded like kittens. now that they were clean, they even smelled like kittens. And there was the other fact that I couldn't feel my own kicking me any more. Could it be?





Friends, I'm still very confused about this all, but the human keeps telling me that yes, it could be, and in fact it is. She never lies to me, so I guess I'll have to believe her. She says the vet lady people cut a hole in my yummy tummy and took the babies out that way cuz I couldn't do it myself. Seems a bit weird to me though. I mean, they come out the same way they go in, or that's what my mummycat told me. But again I say that my human doesn't lie to me.





I have decided that they must be my babies, and I will adopt them and feed them. I have oodles of milk, but despite the fact that I have eight nimples, they all fight. If one is having a drink, the other two come and muscle in on them cuz they want some too. It's stupid cuz I have more than enough for three of them to have more than two each! But they all want the same one! The human says that she told you through Mom Trish that the girl mousie, ah, excuse me, kitten, was in a sack with pus in. Well, she's surviving superbly well and is gaining lotsa weight. She gained one and a half times normal daily weight yesterday, and is still vigorous today! The middle boy has gained loads too, but now your prayers are needed for the fattest mousie. he isn't gaining weight cuz he lets the others push him off the nimple too easily. He's a gentle little thing who seems to like snuggling and loving more than fighting, but he will need to fight if he's to survive. The human's friend expressed some of my milk for him yesterday so that he would get all my immunity, and she tube fed him this morning. The human will syringe him tonight with some extra milk if she feels that he hasn't gained again, but all day she's been fighting his battles, attaching him to a nimple and then keeping the others away for ten or fifteen minutes at a time so that he has a chance to get some mummy's milk instead of powdered stuff. We'll have to wait and see if it's enough though.





He got very cold today as well, so had to become what Mom Trish calls a booby baby. He got to cuddle down the human's top so that he could steal her heat and get warm enough to feed again. She says that they won't feed when they're cold, so it's really important. However, she's worried that all the handling is reducing my already fragile bond with the babies. I've been out of the nest three times today. Perhaps she's paranoid, cuz I usually go a few minutes after the babies start crying, but she says I'm either very relaxed and trusting, or not attached enough, as that is not normal behaviour. I do have a lot of cleaning to do though. I'm leaking icky stuff out my back end, and whenever I try to clean it in the pen, the babies scream at me cuz the milk bar has moved. I can't be dealing with it all the time. I have to have me time as well as baby time.





So, are there any of you that wouldn't mind babysitting for a bit? I could really do with the rest!





Now, I really must go off to the litter tray while these squealers are all asleep. Excuse me...

Secret Paws!

Well, it finally arrived! Actually, it arrived some time ago, but it was so special that I instructed my human to wait to post about it until we had a whole post to devote. I've had quite a few toys this last few weeks, but none that compare to the variety sent by Hannah and Lucy. Ladies, thank you, thank you, thank you! The human thanks your people too. She actually tried to steal one of the things in the box for herself (more on that in a moment) but I wasn't having any of it. She got presents from other peoples, so she was just being greedy!




The Secret Paws was waiting for us when we got home from staying at Dogman's house. The human was going to make me wait some more to open it, but I hassled her until she gave in. I knew it would be good for her to watch me play, you see, cuz she was feeling pretty miserable about Dogface not being with us. This was her first night in her new home without us, you see.





The box was all wrapped up in tough brown paper to stop the post peoples from getting into it. It was really thoughtful of you, Hannah and Lucy, to instruct your people to do this, cuz if the post peoples had been able to see the goodies inside, they'd certainly have stolen them for themselves before I got a chance at them! I had to ask the human to open that bit, cuz I didn't want to bite it with my teeth. Under the brown paper was some lovely wrapping paper and a Christmas card. We don't know what the card said, but the human has put it up, even though it's not Christmas any more! I thought about ripping the wrapping paper, but then remembered that I keep this human around for a reason. I sat back and watched while she pulled it off.





There was a box underneath, and boy did it have some interesting smells! I'm sure that I sniffed Hannah and Lucy on it, cuz I spent ages and ages and ages inspecting before the human was finally allowed to take the sticky tape off (I love biting this, by the way, and had great fun!) and show me what was inside.





It started with a big, soft, plushy, cuddly thing. It was an animal with a long tail, and my human thinks it might be a cat! He was fun to bunny kick, and his tail was great for swatting. He has a crackly tail and ears too, which is great! The human says she'd like him on her bed to snuggle with, but I reminded her that's what my job was. Hannah and Lucy, was it a cat? I don't care anyway, he's a good wrasslin partner!





There was next a flat, folded thing in the box, which my human didn't open straight away. Why? Cuz as she lifted it, I saw what was underneath, and I wasn't waiting for no flat thing. There were ping pong balls in there! A gajillion of them! And even more than a gajillion! They were all in little packets in the box, and I wanted them so bad! My human usually gives me one at a timej, which I promptly lose, ahem, I mean hide, under the TV cabinet or the sofa, but today, she gave me all gajillion cuz I asked so hard. The human says there were eight in total, but honestly, there were loads. I just didn't know what way to run! And there was still the call of the box!





There were more goodies in there, oh yes there were. Next came a packet of three mousies. They were all made of rope which is great for scratching, and they had long tails to bite while you kicked them, and they rattled, and, and, and, they smelled of catnip! And there were three of them! So now I had eight ping pong balls and three mousies and a cuddly cat wrasslin bud, and there was still more! I didn't know what to play with! I batted one mousey, then threw another one, then pounced on a ball which ran away from me, then whapped another one right into my human's leg!





Then I heard it, the rustle, the crackle, the snap of a treat bag being opened. Only one type of treat in the world makes that noise, and I knew it well. Dreamies! They're sooooo good. They're little hard squares that have a soft filling. you can get cheese and chicken and fish and beef and one other I think. Yet again, Hannah and Lucy had outdone themselves, cuz I didn't just get one bag. I got two! Two whole bags, just for me! and the human had instructions that she wasn't allowed to withhold them, so she fed me from both packets until I didn't want any more. Friends, that takes some doing. Have I mentioned that I love Dreamies? Cuz I do. I don't know what flavours these were, but they were sooooo good! I even had to lick up all the crumbs from my human's hand just to make sure I didn't waste a single bit.





But there was still more! you remember that flat thing? When the human opened it, it turned out to be a blanket all for me! I've never had a blanket before. My human got me a few beds and things, but I didn't use them at all. It's more fun to fur up the sofa than to lie in your own bed you see, but this blanket is special. It's denim type stuff on one side, but if you flip it over, it's the softest, plushiest stuff on the other. As soon as the human felt it, she begged me to let her have it for her own, but I wasn't giving in. I permitted her to put it on the sofa beside where she sits, where I usually lie, so that she could touch it while she stroked me. This she reluctantly did, and since that day, it's become a regular routine that I get treats on there. She sprinkles some of the Dreamies all over it before she goes off to the work hunt. Oh, it's so great! I even lay on it twice, and that's saying something for me! The human really, really loves the plush material. She says she wishes she knew what it was, cuz she'd make a big blanket from it.





Hannah and Lucy, thank you over, and over and over again for all of the goodies you sent me. They were simply amazing, beyond what I was expecting. I couldn't even tell you what my favourite thing is, cuz they're all my favourites! They're all still out on the floor, and my human is still stepping on those gajillion balls, but it's such good fun to have them all out! thank you, thank you, thank you!





There are even more toys to tell about from a different source too, plus a delivery from Chrystal's auction, but those can wait till tomorrow, or maybe later this week, as we have other things to tell you. Oh, Secret Paws, I love you!