and just because there aren't enough of them around here..

kittens! all 3 of the little destroyers.. I mean darlings

so how are they getting on?

who do I speak of? Do I even have to say?

speaking of kittens..

did someone say kittens?

well, kittens have turned this place into crazy cat house, which I quite enjoy. They seem to get up quite early in the morning, before the drilling and/or hammering starts. Usually first I wake up to Cecily running in and out of the room, meowing in her, "kittens are about" sort of way, and I hear noises of crashing, banging, rustling, running, jumping, etc. Sometimes one of them crawls into the room for a bit.

Then they spend the day alternating between sleeping, running about from one room to another, getting into every nook and cranny, climbing what they can, getting into shoes, playing with toys and whatever they decide to be a toy, which is pretty much everything as their mother tries to keep track of them. Sometimes they let us stroke them, well 2 of them have now decided sometimes I'm their friend, and sometimes they're still afraid of me, and one is still just afraid. And all the time making crashing, banging, rustling.. etc noises.

And sometimes they all snuggle together, like this.

3 kittens..

we have 3 kittens, 2 grey, one black, they all seem to be doing very well, active, playful, starting to eat solid food. Cecily is still not letting us too near, and really, they're a bit cautious about us huge lumbering beasts and don't let us getting too close.

The best picture I've managed to get so far..



 I will get more. *is all determined and stuff*

Kittens!

The kittens have moved to ground level. Well whatever level this is we're on, sort of 2 and a half, but they're downstairs now. There are 2, I do't know the status of the 3rd one, it's unlikely she still has one up in the loft so I think we have 2 kittens. The first one I saw was a grey sort of stripey one, I think that's the brave, adventurous one, and a black one, which is much smaller.

They're very cute, of course, she still doesn't like us getting to near them and they move too quickly to get a non blurry photo, so far. I will though, I will.

Anyway... kittens!!!!!

Kittens update.

Dammit!

No update, nothing, bugger all. Those kittens remain secluded, sequestered away by their overprotective mother. I think. I'm beginning to wonder, for about the 4th time, perhaps the 6th or 8th, if there are any kittens. They've moved further behind their wall which has somehow been realigned by a cat. I don't hear them, I don't ever see any signs of them. Cecily keeps behaving as if there are kittens but she might just be mad for all we know. I have thought this before as well.

It's been so long since she had them, and since I've seen them (again) that I don't even remember there are kittens most of the time, by now they should be completely taking over this place, front and center of our whole world. These little furry babies have to be getting to the age that they need to move about, to go out and explore, see the world! And I want to see them?

Anyway, I'll continue to update you. Or not update you.

waiting and waiting

Along with worrying and whining I'm waiting. Waiting for something good, waiting for life to begin again, waiting for one of these fucking increasingly rare and far between mostly crappy opportunities to actually work out, waiting for this heat to break into a full violent storm which perfectly illustrates my life at the moment and whether the breaking of the oppressive, stifling heat or the wild and destructive storm is the more fitting metaphor remains to be seen...

waiting for these kittens to come out!

You may remember, about a week ago, I posted about some new visitors. These visitors are kittens, born on a crazy night, next to me in my bed and then moved upstairs to the loft next door. I mean, not next door next door, the little upstairs bit of the other room which is now off limits to humans. So that's where they are. It was decorated with blankets and a mattress on the side by the wall in anticipation of her needing a place to give birth, and the blanket off my bed was added, so they're very cozily situated somewhere up there.

Everything calmed down a few days after they were born, Cecily stopped being so aggressive and attacking man human feet and we're able to go near the door of that room or right in the room without getting growled at.

We waited. Left mummy cat to it, and didn't think so much about the kittens, tucked up their, in their little attic. Heard little mews occasionally, very occasionally, a few times I was worried because I didn't hear anything, then I heard a bit of something, then I didn't hear anything for ages and I'd worry, then I did again, and then I didn't hear anything for 2 days.. and well, this went on.

They're just over a week old now, and until half an hour ago and hadn't definitely for sure heard anything from up there that is definitely a little baby cat, but then I did, so I know there are kittens. Or at least a kitten. And I think they know where they are, she has them tucked way away all securely, more than I thought they were which may explain why I can't see them (even when I very naughtily climbed the steps almost to the top of the loft which I really shouldn't do) or hear them very often, but the point is, they're already a week old! Kittens don't take that long to grow? When are they gonna poke out? When are they gonna start running around and playing when are they going to let us play with them? When can I get some photos of them?

I want my kittens!

And more guests arrive.

A few days ago I posted about a house guest we have, and mentioned we'd be having a few guests joining her pretty soon.

Well they're here. They arrived in the wee hours of the morning yesterday (? Saturday night so Sunday morning about 3:00, and 4:00) next to me in my bed.

It wasn't expected at all, she'd not done any of the stuff a cat is supposed to do in the 24 hours before giving birth though she was behaving oddly all day, and kind of vicious at times.

So that night, after watching some telly and turning everything off, I'm lying there with the at beside me, something she never did, jump up on the bed to join us, but she's lying there and the sounds start becoming weird, little mews and thorough cleaning. Eventually I realized yep, she's had kittens. She had 2, and then when I got up to see about but not do anything at all about a drip in the bathroom she seemed to get frazzled and confused and wanted to move her 2 kittens to the loft thingy in the other room, seeing as, a human's bed where she sleeps, not an ideal place. She moved 2, and then she went back to the bed to have another kitten. We were all in her way and freaking out because she looked all confused and trying to help her but she was kind of, viciously insanely psychotic, which didn't make it an easy night. She stayed on the bed cleaning for ages as we pleaded with her to go to her babies, then she went up and and came back and was back and forth scratching and biting out feet when the mood took her.. it wasn't an easy night.

Anyway they're now about 2 days old and she seems to have calmed down. They're living upstairs so I haven't really seen them since she moved them, though I hear a little squeaky mew every now and again, and she's going up there for some reason so I like to believe they're all ok.

Anyway, in case you wondered what was knew around here.

The plot thickens!

My oh my those cats could have their own soap opera, particularly the dashing Zorro, who we learnt in a previous episode is actually a girl.

Well, yesterday I went by and saw little baby Schwarzie again. He didn't want to come out this time but we watched him play and be motherly smothered by Zorro. I even got a cute little video of them bonding.

There was another woman there at the same time, who was relating to any random person in the vicinity that it was odd that there was a little one there, as all the cats there have been "done". Apparently she's an authority on this sort of gossip because she knows someone who works there or who would otherwise know the status of these cats..

So, either she's not mad, making it up, or somehow mistaken, or Sdhwarzie isn't really Zorro's! No biologically anyway.

Hmm.. well. It does seem that there is only one kitten there. And we didn't see it before last Saturday, and the mother was, just a few days before that dashing about like she didn't have a care in the world, certainly not like someone who was either pregnant or had just given birth.

But on the other hand.. Zorro does seem to have taken to little Schwarzie quite strongly, she follows him around constantly, is always watching him, cleans him and it even seems like she fed him once or twice.. or were we mistaken?

It certainly is a mystery.

Shock! Horror!

What an amazing weekend I had, full of amazement and revelations! Oh I can barely contain my excitement...

Well, remember Cooley, my newly adopted kitty who was featured in the last post? She has been in a bit of a mood lately.. let's just say she has needs. This means that despite being utterly adorable she can be a bit much sometimes.. and we've been thinking of hooking her up with a nice man. We had our eye on a guy who hangs out at the Vinohrady Waterworks, which is kind of like the Colosseum except that it's where we get our water from in this local area. Anyway cats live there, including one particular handsome chap called Zorro. We've been considering inviting him over to hang out with Cooley a bit, trying to come up with the right proposition, that sort of thing. Until this Saturday.

There were no cats around at first so we waited.. then we heard what sounded like a meow. A very faint, high sound, but definitely a cat. Then Zorro jumped out all of a sudden.. so we thought it was him.. a bit later we heard the noise again.. this time knowing it didn't come from him. That was the sound of a kitten.

Kittens!!! So we hung around until we caught site of a little black tail amongst the bushes. We watched and tried to coax it out as Zorro watched carefully.. hmmm..

The kittens managed to jump up onto the fence and played with us a bit, which was cute. Zorro watched on.. hmmmm... Ok, by this time it was pretty clear that Zorro was being what one could accurately describe as "motherly" here, but when we saw kittens drinking milk from his.. er her nipples.. well.

Anyway.. bit of a blow for Cooley. I mean, I don't think he'd be quite right for her now.. well... who knows, she might be if Cooley is into that sort of thing, but Zorro being a new mother has her paws kind of full right now and probably doesn't have time for too much fooling around, so we're just going to have to figure out who the man is amongst that group, and perhaps convince him to come over.

And the kittens are so adorable, I can forgive Zorro for not being the man I thought she was.

Oh, but I wanted one..

Don't we all dream of having the perfect pet. A cute, cuddly little friend who adores you, is loyal to you, but is also intelligent, clean and independent? The best qualities of a dog and a cat combined?

Well forget it!

Blood tests refute a Brazilian woman's claim that her cat had given birth to three puppies, geneticist Adil Pacheco said Tuesday.

Fucking killjoy!

"People who aren't experts often imagine things," said Pacheco, director of the Institute of Biological Sciences of the University of Passo Fundo. "All the facts contradict her."

Well, fuck me! I was ready to go out and order one.