A Reminder to Our Customers

When selecting your kittens, it is best to choose inter-locking kittens for maximum storage capacity.

Foot-stool

Firstly, I would like to thank Kim and Undine for supplying me with links to Jackie and Ivor’s travel blog. The addresses may be found in the comments on yesterday’s blog-entry. It makes me feel good to know that Jackie and Ivor enjoyed their travels so much - even if Eric and Flynn complained about their absences from time to time. If you have a moment, visit the blog, and read that true, creepy story Jackie related. The images would make a haunting movie.

In the Cosy Cabin, Rhapsody’s kittens are becoming more curious, and anxious to get out of their birthing bed/swimming pool. I don’t intend to help them; I figure that when they are strong enough to pull themselves out, that will be the right time.

In the meanwhile, there are the other cats, specifically, today, Moxy. He and Imogen like to crawl under the small portable flight of stairs by the couch in the sitting room. Imo does it when people come to visit. The Mixer does it because, well, he’s a bit strange. But for about half an hour on the weekend, the stairs became…a foot-stool.

Sadness

On Saturday, May 1st, I learned that a Cat Blogosphere acquaintance had died.

Jackie, from Two Devon Cats, otherwise known as Eric and Flynn, passed away; I can assume only that it was as a result of the cancer that she had been battling for some years. This event was a shock to me, as I know it was to others who knew Jackie, knew of her, and read her blog, especially since she had posted the latest entry in that blog just the day before. Indeed, she had been sending out e-mail updates on her health to all those who wanted to receive them - I did, and I suspect so did many - and I had received the latest only on Tuesday, April 28th. Though she wrote of the treatment for her cancer continuing to be hard on her, there was optimism in the e-mail, and no hint that it would be her last update.

Jackie and her husband, Ivor, loved their cats, of whom they had a number through the years. I know in detail of only two, the subjects of their blog. Eric and Flynn were orange and white brothers, who came to live at Allern Farm as kittens. They were outside/inside farm cats, and loved to patrol their domain with their mum and dad. Eric especially seemed to have a bond with Ivor, while Flynn was the more daring one, the better hunter and tree-climber. But they did almost everything together, and it must have been hard on Flynn when his brother died in, I think, 2010. Flynn survived him by seven years, and it’s difficult to think that he’s been gone for nine years already. Since then, Jackie published a weekly entry celebrating the cats’ memories, and I loved reading about them in retrospect. I know from the many comments each post received that scores of other people loved it as much as I.

I am not sure how long Jackie and Ivor had been married; from the photographs they shared with their readers, I think they must have wed in the late 1970s or early ‘80s. They had been together a lifetime, I know. I never read of any other family they may have had, but they had many friends with whom they visited in their occasional travels. Jackie wrote of those journeys on another blog; one entry featured a story that may have been partly supernatural, and was certainly creepy. Jackie didn’t give an opinion; she just wrote it as it happened. (If anyone can point me to that blog, I would be grateful; I cannot remember how to find it.)

Jackie put up with a lot from her cancer, and I cannot leave out the effects it must have had on Ivor. Jackie defeated cancer once but, as it so treacherously does in many cases, it returned, and this time, though she fought, she did not win. It is tragic.

The Cat Blogosphere site published a tribute to Jackie, at which comments may be left (https://blog.catblogosphere.com/remembering-jackie-avery/). People may also leave comments at Eric and Flynn’s blog (https://twodevoncats.blogspot.com).

Godspeed, Jackie.

Out With the Stale, In With the Fresh

Winter was indifferent, with relatively little snow, even if we did have a couple of big dumps. It was dry and windy, for the most part, with pleasant days alternating with chilly, but no very cold temperatures. Now, the spring seems genuinely to be upon us, with warm days and relatively warm nights. The windows can be open regularly, and, as readers may imagine, the cats are enjoying this.

At the Edge of the World

There are more developments in the kittens’ world to report. Their eyes, which have been all black, have started turning blue. Right now, it’s a dark blue, not easy to distinguish from the black pupil all the time, but quite different nonetheless.

As well, Vivace decided it was time to see what the soaker pad surrounding the cat-bed smelled like. She not only slipped out of the cat-bed, but was sniffing the new ‘flooring’. Indeed, all the kittens are using their noses more, and I think they can smell their mum’s food when it is brought to her, warm and fresh.

And then there’s this guy. Allegro has observed that there seems to be a whole universe beyond the high walls of the birthing bed. He himself is not that tall; he is probably standing on a sibling’s head to look over the great barrier. But once a kitten sees what is available for exploration, it can’t be long until the actual exploration begins…

Little Purrs

The kittens are showing progress. Yesterday, I caught Vivace, the little tortoiseshell girl, scrabbling at the walls of the birthing bed. It was not a serious effort to escape, but it’s the first time any of the babies has shown an inclination to go beyond the visible borders of their world.

Largo, meanwhile - that’s him behind Viv in the photograph -  has started purring. He responded positively to me stroking his back and sides. That’s a positive sign in the kittens’ interaction with me, as well as in their physical and emotional growth. Until now, their reactions have comprised hissing, spitting and squealing in protest. (Keeping them close to my body when I lift them away from their mother reassures them to an extent.)

The Tempos also seem to enjoy having the bridges of their noses gently rubbed. I know a number of cats who like that, and while I rub them there these little ones close their eyes and sit still.

They are three weeks old now.

Washing Day

I think the babies of every species of mammal on the planet undergo the ordeal of the spit-wash. Human children certainly do; the only concession the parent makes is that a handkerchief or facial tissue is used. Otherwise, it’s the same: a dirty face or body receives the cleansing benefit of spit.

So it was with Rhapsody’s kittens last night. Their mother decided it was time for them to be bathed. Each was seized in turn; there was no refusal. They were held down, little limbs flailing, eyes shut against a rough tongue. Resistance was of no use.

It’s not easy being the children of a good mother. But they certainly stay clean.