Tuesday's Workshop

A brief break in the Kitten blogging.

Here are a couple of pieces from Tuesday's workshop:

Sunday, suddenly walking and investigating.

Three weeks old today. Mostly sleeping and eating, but when you open the door to their room, they all come piling out to see what's happening. Dramatic change from just the day before when they really weren't walking much.



























Their eyes have all cleared up. (They had some crusties for a few days, but some mild drops seem to have cleared that up in short order.)




























They're already becoming difficult to herd.















Beginning to sock each other. Only one has figured out how much fun this is, but the rest will catch on soon.

The ears are beginning to unroll and become pointy and catlike.









This guy is the most adventurous. Walked out of the box, cruised over and posititioned himself in lap.










The kitties are now cruising around but aren't authentically plaful yet. They're just beginning to bite each others ears on purpose, but still sit and stare dumbly at a twitching length of string.

"What's that for?"

Wednesday, Eyes Wide Open.

Crawling all over.

Watching the world.













Look how big they're getting.








Holding him up next to the light so I can take a shot without the flash.


Now, that's a cute kitty.






-*-

I think Tiger's mysterious injury has been solved.

Tiger, one of the big local Toms, showed up with a bad gash in his neck a few months ago. Tonight as I'm walking to my car, a 40 lb. Raccoon (and smaller companion) slipped over the ivy covered fence next door and sauntered along the sidewalk just a few feet in front of me. A raccoon that size could do some real damage to a housecat.

Eyes Can Open, though apparently everything is too bright.

Currently they haltingly stagger around. They'll crawl out of their cubbyhole, looking for mom. But most of their time is spent passed out cold, belly full of milk.














The kittens are relentless eating machines. They are becoming huge. Well, huge relative to their previous tiny size. Or grasshoppers or something. Bigger anyway.




















































Falling asleep while nursing, gradually falling off his favorite nipple:















Just wait 'til their eyes are wide open...




They're going to be so cute.



(Click for full size image.)







At one point, two kitties were staring at me all saucer eyed. W0uld have been a great pic, but it's just too dark. Soon though, soon you will all be exposed to the terrible majesty of cuteness.

Eyes almost open.

Due to all the complaints I've received, we now return to your regularly scheduled kitten thread.






























These kittens are getting some big heads.













If you look closely, the eyes are just starting to open up.















Mom is a little worked up at all the attention to the kittens:














...and a flash photo. Lots and lots of fur.

Ken's Coral Reef tank

...complete with blurry Yellow Tang.

They've doubled in size.

There appear to be three males and one female.


















Sweaters are good for nipple hunting.














Mom comes to see what's going on:














OK, so I finally took a flash photo in the box.













Their eyes appear to almost be opening. They crawl toward the light when they hear people outside the box. They haven't been picked up much (mostly so Mom won't get weirded and hide them in some crevice) but they adjust quickly the few times they've been handled. They'll be well acclimated to people by the time they can see. :-)

Today the dog sniffed them very gingerly. She's been terribly curious, but she was only allowed in sniffing range. If the kittens could see, it would have looked like this:



I wonder if they remind her of her puppies? Odds are she'll be herding them like the rest of the cats in a few weeks.