We have four of the kittens left here at the farm.  The three girls and one fluffy orange boy.  We’re keeping one of the torbie girl kitties, Lilly, but the rest are looking for homes.  We had a good lead on one but it fell through.  We’ve brought them inside the house and have been working on teaching them good house manners.   So far, they love this bar stool in the kitchen!  haha… it’s like the Ninja Kitty Climbing Fort and they all like to camp out on it.

It’s very hard to get a picture of the kittens because they are constantly moving about! They are so crazy and cute.  Maggie is really enjoying their antics and they love Maggie…  she’s so often horizontal so she makes a good kitten hangout as well.  She often has one or three camping out on her and snoozing.

Jessy made them a safe place in our farm nook area by taking a baby gate and putting heavy plastic on it, wrapping it like a present!  It’s to keep the little boogers from climbing out in a heart beat!  They have a dog crate at night to sleep in, just to keep them from wandering about the house and making a mess.  The gang of four can wreck havoc with anything in a heartbeat.  They LOVE to knock papers and magazines all over the floor.  And God forbid you leave a glass of water somewhere… it is soon all over the table and floor!  Plus we want them to have good potty habits and they have a little litter box in their crate and the big kitty box is right next to them.  So far, they are EXCELLENT at their litter work.

During the day, we let them out to explore the house and learn about dogs and other kitties and such.  The funny thing is that as soon as we let them out, Dixie Chick is RIGHT in their crate and snoozing in their box.  The kittens visit her and climb all over her throughout the day but she is in love with their box.  I think sometimes she misses the chance to be a mom and so she likes the smell of the kittens and their nighttime hangout spot.  Or, she just likes a good box.

I thought this was adorable… my little Lilly kitty sitting on the loom pedals!  We were working in the studio today, sorting and pitching and the kittens were all in there, ah, helping.  Yeah.  Kitten helping is pretty much useless help and a lot of laughter.  They are just so silly right now…  10 weeks old on this Monday.

I would sure like to keep them all, but we can’t.  Keeping Lilly is enough at this point.  We will have three girl kitties inside and the two boy farm kitties outside.  Yes, of course, Lilly will be fixed as soon as we are able.  And she’s old enough.  I know you can fix them pretty darn young, but I like to give them a wee bit of time to grow and all before submitting them to surgery.  I want her to know where her home is and be comfortable with it and us so that when the unpleasant adventure happens, she will be happy to be home with us in her comfy spot.  She’s getting very comfortable with the layout of the house and the existing pets, etc.  It’s funny, she’s the very best of the four when it comes to the dogs and other cats.  The other three kittens are sill unsure of the dogs, especially, and will hiss and spit at them.  But not Lilly.   She lets Evie lick her and plays with Ratchet and just acts like she’s always been part of the Windhaven Gang.  I’ll admit, I also love the fluffy orange boy kitten that we call Mittens..  (yeah, pretty clever name!)  but four house cats is pushing it for me.  Luna and Dixie seem to have accepted Lilly already, so it’s a good thing.

We’ll see how the week goes but pretty soon, I think we’ll have to say goodbye to the last three.  The shelter has graciously allowed us a little time to turn them all in for the same fee…  (they have a mom cat and litter option)  rather than the single cat fee.  So we don’t want to abuse that.  And they will get to hang out with their other siblings as well, so that’s good.  The folks at the Williams County Humane Society are awesome and I’m glad they are willing to help out.  I hope we don’t have a repeat of this adventure too soon, but I guess it’s part of rural living.  Still, it’s been a fun experience and I hope that they have at least a better chance of a great life then being feral scaredy cats in some farm field.  We’ve done our best and they are super sweet natured little rugrats.