The vacuum cleaner…

Day 49

Since we are actively socialising the cats, I wanted to expose them to the vacuum cleaner today. Oh-oh!

We have a really nice one that truly does not make much of a sound. Our resident cat Suzi keeps sleeping on the couch when we vacuum. But this, of course, was a completely new experience for the kittens. I started by vacuuming the landing and the other rooms. Nothing much happened then. Nobody got scared.

Then I opened the door to the catroom and just stuck in the stick and the foot and stayed out of the room. On the cat cam it sounds as if the apocalypse has arrived, hehe, and the cats got a big fright. Just imagine what they would do with a vacuum cleaner that makes normal sound… Mitsy gave the foot a huge hiss and looked really scared too. She was sitting at the window when I entered and instantly jumped off. The kittens went in all directions. I just moved it over the carpet in front of the crates, I did not do the entire room. Yet. I did it for a couple of minutes and then switched it off. Closed the door. Took off the stick and took it into the room and gave them the opportunity to sniff it. Some did. Mitsy, who had initially retreated into the crates came out right by it. Peace was restored and she did not seem to blame me. Blinked at me in a friendly way and ended up starting her afternoon nap in the crates with the two black kittens suckling.

This is what it looked like from ‘ground zero’…

I wonder how much milk there still is. I think it is drying up. The teets still look active and swollen but I have now seen her pull back multiple times when a kitten tried to suckle.

They are almost all weaned, they are potty trained and eat meat and kibble. And all of that without any interference on my part. Isn’t that awesome? Mother Nature truly is unique and wise.

I noticed yesterday that we have one kitten that is a bit different from the rest. It is the gorgeous looking Cheetah. Her markings truly remind me of Cheetahs, hence the name. It is a skittish kitten. More easily spooked than the others. As I was creating photo albums on my phone for each kitten, I found that Cheetah was the one kitten that spent the most time with Mitsy. Almost as if Mitsy had a favourite. Even now, Cheetah will often stay close to mommy. I think we have handled it the least of all kittens. So I will make a point of paying more attention to this kitten. I think it is a male, but as with most of the others: I cannot be sure so we will find that out after the vet checks are done.

We have an appointment for that in 2 weeks. We will bring the whole family in for a general health check. We will do it as a drop-off/pick-up so that the vet has the day to work through all of the kittens. I am cowardly glad that I will not have to be present for that…

After their medical approval, they can be officially surrendered for adoption. It will be really hard to let them go, but we also know that the new owners will get some terrific little kittens to cuddle and care for. They are just awesome. We have a soft spot for some of them. And when I look at Cheetah, I might be tempted to keep it a bit longer. Not to say we will keep it, but it seems to need momma for a bit longer and I also think that momma might like the company, even after we spay her. Not sure when exactly we will do that, but not yet. The health check comes first. For the coming fortnight, the focus will be on socialisation, and getting the kittens used to all sorts of things. Like vacuum cleaner 🙂