Conference misery::feline_v1

    
    
    . . .
    
    My two kittens are now a full week old and their eyes are starting
    to open.  They will probably be fully opened by the time I get home
    from work today.  They still chirp like birds instead of meowing.
    They are also starting teathing.  They do this on anything that
    is handy, but most of all I see them munching on their own paws
    and arms.  This activity sort of grows into grooming since they
    then feel like getting the kitten spit off of their fur.
    
    One of the cutest things I have seen them do so far is fall asleep
    while still nursing on mom-kitty.  While they are asleep like this
    if you take your finger and pet them down the back - they weak up 
    at once, remember that they were eating, and begin to suck furiously
    on mom-kitty's nipples.        
    
    BTW it's a boy and a girl.

    When I went to retrieve Chauncey from his eye surgery last Friday,
    there was a woman who had her two mom-cats and their respective
    3 and 4 week old kittens in the waiting room.  Being of unsound
    mind, I just *had* to cuddle the little babies.  Happiness is having
    an arm or two full of little fluff balls (baby Himmies, BTW).
    Unhappiness was having on of the little buggers, ummm...how you
    say...have a bowel movement all over my arm.  But!  I loved (almost)
    every minute of it!
    
    Mary

    Something that Joui has been doing lately has kept my husband and
    I amused.  It seems she has developed a water fetish.
    
    I come home from work each night and her water bowl is full of toys.
    Sopping wet fur mice, peacock feathers, kitty tease, bits of paper
    that were previously in the garbage, anything she can get her paws
    on!  There isn't an inch of surface left to drink from.
    
    I have also caught her dipping her toes into the toilet bowl, standing
    in the shower and watching the faucet drip.  And just last night
    I saw her put the mouse in the bowl and then give it a little tap
    so that it dunked under the water and then bobbed back up, she gave
    it another little tap and it bobbed back again.  She could probably
    go on like this for hours.
    
    Jo Ann

    Re: .3
    
    Snuggles does the toilet & shower bit too.  He hasn't dunked his
    toys in it though (luckly).  His favorite thing to do is to
    lie in the bathroom sink and let the water drip on him. 
    
    This morning I was taking a shower and guess who popped his head
    in.  I think that was to much water for him.  As soon as he saw
    all that water coming out he booted out of there quick.  
    
    Kathy

    Re .3, .4:
    
    Merlin, when he was a kitten, learned that there were many more
    things one could do with a water bowl than drink from it.  He went
    from playing with the surface of the water (tentative paw-pats)
    to playing with the bowl.  Then he discovered that he could flip
    the bowl over.
    
    Currently, my full-grown Merlin drinks out of a humungous white
    glass bowl that a Great Dane would have trouble moving.
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.
    
    P.S.:  There was a time, after he discovered he couldn't move it,
    that he dropped things into the water....

    Only the most favorite toys go into the water... Those fur mice,
    and a little red plastic toy top.  They love sitting in sinks
    playing in the shower even when it is on.
    Sometimes it gets crowded in there!
    
    

    
    The kittens are now three weeks old.  Naturally, I think they are
    absolutely adorable.  They sleep with their eyes open, get the kitten
    hickups, suck their thumbs and in general charm everyone in sight.
    They are now starting to walk, which is very funny to watch!  First
    up is their front - they do a shakey little push up to achieve this.
    Once executed it is time for the rear.  This end seems to be more
    troublesome than the other.  Probably because it was only a few
    days ago that they realized that it was actually a part of them.
    So up goes the rear end with hind legs spread widely for balance.
    They hold this standing position until the swaying stops and then they
    fall over.  Once in a while, however, just before they fall, they
    manage a few steps (stumbles?).  The little girl kitty has actually
    been able to sustain a controled stumble for a few feet at a time.
    And to think - in a few short weeks I'll be trying to tear them
    loose of my drapes a full foot above my head!
                                                 

    I wonder if some cats drown their prey.  One of my cats had a fight
    with a bird on our back porch.  There were feathers everywhere and
    they in the water dish was this hugh bird dead.  I wondered if he
    had drowned it.