The first 45 days of 3 tiny loving kittens after they have entered this world!

My last post on kittens was, 'Zorro's story', where I wrote about our Hero Cat, Zorro and his first wife, Ammaakkaari and their black silk kittens. After she left (we sent her off with her kittens because she gave us kittens once in 4 months and it was too much even for us!), a couple of months later, Zorro invaded our house with his second wife, Jinju, who was pregnant already (so scandalous!). As usual, we felt pity on the pregnant girl and like others before her, she too was pampered well in our house! She even slept with us in our bed, the day before she delivered her babies - she must have been nervous or with pain. When I thought the D-day was nearing, I showed her two places, one shelf in my son's wardrobe and one in our bedroom. I kept some clothes also in them and maybe she understood it and delivered 3 kittens in the afternoon of Jan, 16th, in my son's wardrobe, upstairs! She might have thought it to be a secluded place without much interference from us, humans! When I noticed her absence and saw them, the kittens were clean and she had settled down!

In the photo album below, you can find a lot of information (!) about the kittens in the comment section! Most of the pictures are of them sleeping in different postures! I loved the innocence in their faces, when they were sleeping! Jinju looked so happy and contented when she was sleeping with them.

The photos which are displayed in the album are date wise and you can notice how they were growing up nearly everyday!

Jinju stayed upstairs with her babies for nearly two weeks. Zorro used to visit them mostly in the morning, peep in and come down! One day after having morning's milk, he just ran up. Jinju was not home and my husband went after him. He just waited near the door step and saw what Zorro was doing. Zorro looked inside for a second or so (I had never seen him entering the shelf or touching or licking the kittens on any day) and closed the door with his nose and came down! I had noticed earlier when I went upstairs, Jinju jumping down from the top shelf and the long door on the left, where the kittens stayed always to be closed. Then it dawned on me...the kittens had opened their eyes and started moving here and there and their parents must have been closing the door, so that they did not fall down/out from the shelf!

On 2nd Feb, since the kittens had grown up, I thought it would be safer for them to come downstairs, so that they can start moving here and there. I brought them down when Jinju was with me and kept them in the hall. Jinju was restless but was lying down and feeding them. I was doing something and when I turned to look at them, Jinju, holding her baby in her mouth, was climbing up and went to the previous place! The wardrobe door on the left was closed and she jumped up with her baby, to the top shelf, climbed down to the area, where she was, with her babies earlier! You can see this in the album!

After a few more days, when they started peeping out from the shelf, she allowed me to bring them down. I readied a drawer with some clothes and she settled down happily in our bedroom corner. You can see the rest of the days' activities from the photo album! They were happily playing, hide and seek, 'you catch me, I catch you' etc. throughout the day. The top act was WWF/King Kong Fights. We used to sit beside the box with our morning coffee and watch their fights - along with my husband's commentary! Normally, we are very particular to sleep by 10 p.m., but because of these activities, our sleeping time became 11 p.m.!

Normally, we decide on the names to call them after we knew which one was going to be with us/with his mother. Last time two black kittens were very close with each other and one was always with her mother, most of the time and was a bit weak-looking. So we kept the weaker one at home and handed over the other two to our known persons. One of them was quite healthy and beautiful and my husband was calling him 'Hippo'! He is still called by that name in his new house!

All the three kittens were sleeping together, on top of one another, most of the time. Their favourite places were the phone stands in the bedroom and in the hall! They loved to play with books! They admired the way the pages fluttered when the fan was on! The slow turning blades of the fan also fascinated them. All the three used to watch them with their necks turned up, together! Just for the sake of identification, we were calling the kitten with more white patch in the neck as 'Vellai kazhuththi, which means, White neckwaali and the other one as Brown kazhuththi, means Brown neckwaali (Veekay and Beekay!). Let me tell the story of how we selected the name Goalie later, this post already looks like a long epic story!

The photo here, shows, how close they were while sleeping...

Now, we have got Goalie at home and the other two have gone to a new house. They seem to have blended with the new family members very well. When we had sent off Ammaakkaari's kittens, she was making crying sounds for nearly 2-3 days. Thank god, Jinju is searching for the missing kittens only once in a while, otherwise she seems to be happy feeding Goalie and playing with her. Goalie must be missing her siblings (I think it is a 'she', so I might have written her as 'he' sometimes, in the photo comments!), but now, she is playing with me and her mother.

Long back, our house was called 'Naai veedu', thanks to our dog, Andrew, now, I think I will be called 'Cat Woman'!

By the way, all the three kittens are GIRLS!

Comments are welcome to the photos in the album too!