Sometimes, I feel like a character in a Clint Eastman movie. I’m reaching the point of thinking about getting sidearms and a holster to wear around the house. Don’t worry. (This kitten update isn’t going to read like The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly!)
No, nothing I’d have to get a permit for. I’m thinking more along the lines of a water pistol.
Overall Kitten Update
We’ve been “schooling” kittens the last few weeks. The primary schooling tool is a squirt bottle. You know the type. They’re a dollar or two, and you ordinarily use them to mist plants or other things.
They’re extremely excellent tools for disciplining cats, too; old cats and young ones.
Most of the kittens are pretty smart. It didn’t take very many sudden “isolated downpours” from the water bottle for them to learn where the precipitation came from. It didn’t take most of them much longer to know they needed to stop doing whatever they were doing when suddenly faced with the water bottle.
The fact of the matter is that most of them squint and stop whatever nefarious activity they were about to do at the sight of the squirt bottle.
Then there’s Brummel.
Brummel sometimes just crouches down and takes it. What do you do with a youngster like that?
The climbing pant legs is decreasing daily. Now we’re dealing with drape climbing and other such behavior.
It’s a source of constant interest and, yes, amazement, to see character and personality emerge.
They also like to have a hand (paw?) in whatever I’m doing. Sweeping with a broom is of special interest, but so is everything else.
Bud has discovered the great outdoors. He sneaks out the front door at every opportunity, so I’ve decided it’s time for harness-and-leash training. Bud doesn’t seem to mind the figure-eight harness I began with.
Basil is more interested in finding interesting alternative ways to wear it. He had a great deal of fun wearing it like a tie and batting at the dangling ends.
No. I haven’t attached the leash yet. Mostly because Thomas (our oldest cat) has been spending his days on the porch.
But I also confess to some trepidation!
The Kitten Update on Health
They’re all doing well. The five older kittens are getting past outbreaks of ringworm, mostly, I think, by passing it on to the four younger kittens. We’ve gone through two cans of PhytoVet CK Antiseptic Mousse so far and are working on the third. It’s on the pricey side, but it is helping immensely.
The incidences of sniffles are diminishing, too. The hottest part of the summer is gone, so I’ve been keeping windows open more often and running the air conditioner less, and that seems to help.
Vaccinations are coming up. We’re overdue on those but have had to wait out sniffles and cash flow bottlenecks. It seems like we either have the funds or the health, but not both at the same time.
As soon as they’ve been vaccinated, it will be time to start re-homing them. I will hate to see them go, but they do need to be placed sooner or later.
I’m hoping for sooner!
Following are a few pictures of the Kitten Posse.
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A bow for you, Carrie. Such a great job you are doing…!
Kind regards,
Dawn
Thank you, Dawn!