Oh Goody, More Kitten Pix!

Not only can one not have too many kittens, but one cannot have too many kitten pictures!

First, an update: We have stopped all efforts of finding other homes for any of the kittens because we adore each one and are keeping them all!

THE BIGZ: Blaze, Fireball, Rainbow, and Sunshine are five months old tomorrow. They are at the vet's as I write having their spay or neuter operations.

THE LITTLEZ: Bodie, Coso, and Opal are almost four months old. They love to play, eat, snuggle, play, eat, and snuggle, plus they think the four larger kittens are the cat's meow. (The feeling is mutual.)

Now, for the pix:

I thought it was time to show off the babies' mamas. Above is Little Grey, the Littlez' Mom. I got this picture as she looked through the dining room window from the Feral Family's Feeding Station.

Here is Golden Girl (previously known as BusterToo) who was the Bigz' mother. Golden Girl was under the deck when I shot this, so there was enough distance between us to suit her, and I didn't have to take the photo through glass.

A Kitty Ball featuring (l-r) Blaze, Coso, Opal, and Sunshine.

Blaze at 3-1/2 months. She is a wonderfully sweet kitten. When she wants me to pick her up, she rests her front paws on my knee and looks up at me with her big golden eyes.

Sunshine in his curious mode. (As if there's any other?)

The Twins: Rainbow & Blaze. Not quite identical: besides their obviously different faces, Rainbow's eyes are green while Blaze's eyes are gold colored.

This is Coso who in earlier pictures sported a silver gray body with her black face. Even though she appears solid black (except for her obvious white parts), in certain light we can see that like her litter mates, Bodie and Opal, she has tabby stripes in shades of dark charcoal gray and black.


Opal in a position she apparently believes is comfortable enough for sleep.

Opal in a more sensible sleeping position. We almost lost Opal when she was only a few weeks old. She became dehydrated, weak, and lethargic. We gave her IV fluid and she pulled through. Floyd held her in his arms for hours while she was ill, and Opal seems to sense this. When he walks in the room, she runs to him, flips herself on her back, and waits for him to rub her little, white tummy. If Floyd's walking through a room, Opal watches his feet till they stop, they throws herself at his feet with her belly up.

Coso loves to stretch just about more than any other cat I've known. Notice her French Manicured front paws!

(L-R) Coso, Bodie, and Rainbow: The Three Great Hunters...tracking bugs flying around the light on the living room ceiling.

Here's a shot of Fireball sacked out in my arms. Ever since he was just a five-inch kitten, whenever I pick him up, he relaxes so completely, his entire body goes limp and he immediately falls asleep as I hold him. A wonderful characteristic!

Happy 4th of July!

This morning, I made two cards like this for a card swap. One was sent to Michigan, the other to Virginia. I just picked up the stamp of the girl with her kitten yesterday. It's from Stampin' Up! I used watercolor paper, Stampin' Up markers, and a water pen to color the image. You'll note the girl has light brown hair with auburn highlights (much like me) and the kitty is an orange tabby, just like my sweet Fireball!

Happy Birthday, America!!

See That Little White Dot?

As soon as we heard on the news yesterday morning that the space shuttle Atlantis would be landing at Edwards Air Force Base, Floyd & I jumped in the car and drove about 60 miles to an area where we could witness the landing. This is the first shuttle landing I've ever seen, and it was exciting especially for a Memorial Day Weekend activity.

Floyd is an old hand at witnessing shuttle landings dating as far back as the early 1980s when the shuttle program was still new. He worked at NASA in the early 70s at what is now Dryden Flight Research Facility, so he asked a former co-worker for pit passes to the second ever shuttle landing. He shot some great photos of the returning astronauts that day because he was so close to the center of activity.

The first shot I took with my camera (at maximum zoom) when we first spotted the shuttle following it's explosive sonic boom after shattering the sound barrier.

Below is the picture above and some others I took then cropped and optimized for web viewing.

Now, it looks like the shuttle!

Gliding past us toward the runway.

Angling down for the landing.

Traveling at more than 200 miles per hour, it's almost down.

Just me with the shuttle landing site in the distant background.

Happy Memorial Day!

We Call Him Fireball

Here he is. The runt of the litter. But not short on making his way in this big old world. He is the most vocal of his litter. Always the first to wake and summon us with a penetrating, screeching yowl indicating that it is TIME to eat.

Yesterday afternoon he raced to his little dish, buried his face in his food, and wrapped his arms and paws along the rim of the bowl to block access from possible interlopers, growling if they dared come near. Fireball's Feeding Frenzy.

I burst out laughing after one look at him when he was done eating. Primo Photo Op! This has been PhotoShopped with an effect called Spatter--very apropos, I'd say. Look below to see the original photo.

Mother's Day Should Be Every Day...

if I don't say so myself.

Earlier this month, on Mother's Day proper, Pine spoiled me as she always does. I figure Blogging is a license to brag, so check out the goodies I got from my sweet daughter!

L-R: Handcrafted earrings, Miniature Rose, Love picture holder, recipe cards (for Baked Artichokes, Potato-Cheese Soup, and Chocolate Chip Cheesecake) and Mother's Day Card

The three recipes are ones she prepared for me and that we munched on throughout our day together. She also took me to see the new "Star Trek" movie which I absolutely LOVED!!

Can One Have Too Many Kittens?

It's springtime in the desert which means greening trees, blooming flowers, garden planting, birds singing, and lots~n~lots of KITTENS!

Even though we'd already taken in BusterToo's (aka GoldenGirl) litter, when we discovered another abandoned litter of three tiny kittens three days ago, we brought them inside to care for, too.

In the lower left corner is Rainbow overseeing the new babies (top to bottom):
Bodie, Opal, and Coso

Yes, that's right: We have SEVEN kittens under the age of eight weeks living under foot and in our special kitten nursery (our front shower).

We are in touch with a woman in our area who runs the Tulgey Wood Critter Refuge to see if we can match the young litter with a lactating mama cat. In the meantime, it's kind of a circus around here at feeding time, but earlier today, I did the whole thing by myself while Floyd was in town on business.

I mixed four dishes of soft, canned cat food with kitten kibbles for Blaze, Fireball, Rainbow, and Sunshine. I brought them out of the nursery and put them in front of their respective dishes. While they ate, I heated the KMR Kitten Replacement Milk for the three little guys. When Blaze & Co. had finished eating, back to the nursery they went. I grabbed one new kitten, Opal, and fed her by bottle. I put her back in the nursery and grabbed her brother, Bodie. When Bodie was done eating, I popped him in the shower, and brought the last kitten, Coso, to the living room to drink her milk.

When they'd all finished eating and were back in the nursery, all seven kittens curled up together in a big, multi-colored Kitty Ball. Happy, content, purring, and ready to nap.

As I write, I hear stirrings from the nursery, so it must be time for Round Three.

500 Miles and Still Counting

Last Wednesday, Floyd and I walked Mile No. 500 during our two-mile-a-day walk. We've been tracking our progress since 16 June 2008. While our goal is to walk every day, if you do the math, you can figure out that there are some days we've missed. I guess the really important thing we've learned is even if there's a reason we can't or don't walk a given day, we just get back out there the next day rather than throwing in the towel because we missed a walk.

Thanks so much for stopping by,