I Have Twelve Cats

The kittens are officially kittens. You know, at that stage where they run (well, sort of lope like bunnies), jump, climb, wrestle, chase and get everywhere. Periodically, I see them resting, but when they see me, they usually get up and hurry over to me. I think Rhapsody would prefer me not to visit, because every time I do, the kittens become active.

There are fewer places in the library that are out of their reach now. Vivace and Presto climb onto the couch often, and the birthing bed is a play-pen now, a play-pen that the players can climb in and out of with little difficulty. While cleaning up the room, I sometimes put the kittens in the birthing bed as they interfere with my work. That diverts them only so long.

They are using the litter-boxes extensively. I think each is leaving his or her deposit in the boxes, but one or two are still going outside. I don’t know that that is a problem more than simply not knowing that they should go in the boxes every time. Realising that one can use the box is quite different than realising one should. I am confident that that too is a phase. (Presto evidently thought he was ready for the big-time...)

And the cause of their pooping - eating solid-food - is also progressing apace. My main worry in this case is that while I know each has eaten, I can’t be sure each is eating enough. Sometimes, Rho will eat the kittens’ food, not knowing that it isn’t for her. I can’t isolate her from the kittens while they eat, since they don’t all eat right away, and she would have to be separated until they ate, which is not feasible. The babies’ energy levels suggest that each is receiving enough nutrition from somewhere.

Somewhere still includes their mother. She is nursing much less often. I suspect that instinct is telling her not to give the children so many opportunities. But, good mother that she is, she will allow them to nurse whenever they start, wherever she may be.

The brood is now half-way toward the day they can be adopted, and I think Rhapsody is growing more ready for that all the time. Parenting isn’t easy. Whether mother or father, it’s hard work with little glory, and not much more recognition. The scene depicted below enacts itself a billion times a day, in a million species, in every country on Earth. Soon, though, Rho will be free to be herself again, and interact with others in the Cosy Cabin - and have more than one room to do it in.

It could be worse, I tell her. She could have twelve cats, not just five.