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Well, last night and this morning the kittens had me very worried. Last night the little one who looks like her mom was panting.

This morning Coda was doing it, and then one of the black ones.

I did quite a bit of research, all of which said panting (without an obvious cause like overexertion) could signal something serious: congenital defect, upper respiratory infection, heart issue. So I called the vet and waited for a call-back. Then I came across something interesting. Someone had posted a video on YouTube showing kittens about the same age, and they were doing what mine were. He talked about how there was a disagreement about whether this was panting – or hissing! He illustrated his conviction that it was hissing, by showing how they did it when he put his finger in front of their nose. Smelling him triggered it, but when he stepped back they stopped. I tried the same thing with mine, and the same thing happened. The adorable little babies are hissing! It seems like panting because it’s prolonged – usually a hiss is a single effort that stops. But they’re doing the best they can to be fierce!

The thing about fostering is that I’m always learning. I hadn’t encountered this before. It’s pretty strange to me that it’s these kittens who hiss, and none of my previous ones have, since their mom is so super friendly. But I’m happy to find out it’s not a major health issue for these little guys.

When our own little feral kitty, Jiro, was first rescued from our back yard, where he was eating bread crusts, George and our daughter build the kitty palace for him. It’s a cage, but it’s roughly a triangle, six feet on a side. It has small, triangular shelf, another set of shelves, and a cat tree my daughter built. And – the best feature – two large windows. The Jiro Palace.

It took over three months, but Jiro the wild kitty turned into Jiro the friendly kitty, and no longer needed his palace. Now his place is on the heating pad on my bed, or playing “box,” or stirring up chase games with Misha, “his” kitten. Here’s Jiro today:

Today we moved Sylvie to her new home in the Jiro Palace. The babies were transported in their shallow box, and Mama just trotted after. In the new space, she left them sleeping and explored. She seems quite content there, and loves having windows to look out. Welcome to your new home, everyone!

When I woke up at 6 am, George was awake, and we went to check on kittens. He’d had an adventurous night!

About midnight last night Sylvie decided to move her kittens. This could go well or badly, and she chose badly – luckily George heard them mewing and rescued them, or I hate to think what would have happened!

Sylvie and the kittens were in my big, wire dog crate, with the door open so she could go out to her food, water, and litter box. The crate has a nice pad with a bumper all around, so I thought it was an ideal set-up. But I hadn’t reckoned on her trying to move them!

Around midnight, she got restless and went to work. She picked up one, and carried it to a cardboard box nearby. What is it with cats and boxes? It would have been fine, but the box was filled with books. When George came in, she had moved three, and they had fallen down into the cracks between the books. He had to carefully remove books and rescue each one from its little crevasse.

Then he found a couple of low boxes and lined them with towels. He put one in the crate and one just outside – and after that she settled down. When we checked in the morning, they were all still in the crate.

She tried again later, however. George had moved the book box up onto the desk, and closed it. But she tried for it anyway. When she couldn’t get into the box, she took the kitten and put it in the paper grocery bag right next to it! It didn’t like this plan, and was squeaking loudly!

Time for lockdown. Once everyone was safely in the crate I shut the door. This arrangement wouldn’t work for very long, because I would need to go in and let her out often, so she could get at the necessaries – but it’s only temporary. Our foster kitties, Nico and Ninja, are leaving with their new mom today, and Sylvie will move to the “Jiro Palace” later today. Whew!

Mom and babies are doing well. Sylvie is new to all this, but her instincts seem good. She’s nursing them enough, because they look full – and I swear they are stronger then they were yesterday.

And suddenly this afternoon we have four kittens! No one was expecting that! The other three were born about 3 days ago.

After mom and babies arrived, I spent time with them, then gave them some peace and quiet for awhile. I checked on them once and all was fine. I checked late afternoon and saw blood and fluid on the pad. Yikes! But no one seemed distressed – babies were nursing. Maybe it’s a post-birthing issue with mom.

Birthing. Wait a minute. Count them. So I counted: 1, 2, 3, …4! Well, that explains it!

The new little kitty seemed strong and feisty, so that was good. I’m calling him Coda, because he was added after the rest.

He still had an umbilical cord, attached to a placenta. We had so many kittens while I was growing up, but that was many years ago, and I wasn’t sure what to do – or what was normal. The umbilicus looked pretty shriveled, and not “alive,” so I decided it would be ok to cut it.

George brought scissors just in time, because Sylvie decided to suddenly roll over and get up, flipping Coda over and somehow wrapping the umbilical cord around her tail. I quickly cut it and disentangled her.

Sylvie sniffed the placenta, and licked it. I thought quickly about whether it’s ok to eat the placenta, and decided that many animals do, and that it’s probably a good thing. Important nutritional boost. Seems gross to me, but I try not to project my issues onto a system that has been working fine without me for thousands of years.

Today we welcomed our new foster kitties, mama Sylvie and her three kittens. They’re only three days old – so teeny! One is a “mini-me” with similar markings to Mama; the other two are solid black.

Sylvie is very young herself, very likely less than a year old. She’s super friendly, and very relaxed in spite of all the excitement she had today! She and the kittens have their own room, and she settled right in.

She seems to love being a mom. She is nursing them well, and purrs when she’s with them. She’s quite new at this, but getting the hang of it pretty well – mostly. She did flop over on them when I rubbed her head. They started squeaking, though, and she sat up and looked at them. “Oh, I guess you’re not supposed to do that. Hunh.”

Mama and babies will be available for adoption eventually, but it will be at least three months. Stay tuned as the babies grow and learn about the world!

Our adorable and quirky brothers, Nico and Ninja, have found their forever home! They are being adopted together, and will be picked up Saturday. I’ll miss them!

Meet the new kittens on the block! As of January we have two new foster kitties! We’re pretty sure they are at least half-brothers, in spite of their different colors! They are about four months apart, so they could be full brothers.

Ninja is a black and white “tuxedo” kitty who was probably born in March, 2019. Even though he was recently trapped and rescued from a farm environment, he is naturally easy-going and friendly.

Nico is a tabby with white paws and a white tip to his tail. He is probably about four months younger than Ninja, born in July, 2019.

Both are quite appealing little guys!

We had a total of sixteen foster cats and kittens in 2019, and all the ones for adoption now have forever homes! That’s fifteen kitties who went from high-risk environments to loving homes. One of them, Misha, is what we call a “foster fail,” because she was adopted by us. But I think it doesn’t really count, because we didn’t actually adopt her – our cat did!

We have had the younger of our two cats, Jiro, for four years, since we rescued him from a feral life in our yard, trying to live on bread crusts at a year old. Since then he’s had to put up with our older cat, who really liked being an only cat. We had thought for some time that Jiro deserved to have a friend, a young cat who was not a big grump. So when the kittens were six months old, and we let them out of their room to join the rest of the family, he made the decision himself. “That one!” he said. “I want that one!” So Misha has stayed, and Jiro has his very own kitten.