Non Kitten Personal Update

     I said goodbye this morning to Peaches my 19 year old cat.  I also said goodbye to my wonderful dog Maggie who adored the baby kittens for the last 13 years.  She was like a toddler anxious to see their new sibling whenever new babies arrived in our house.  She was so good with each and every baby and truly loved them with all her heart just as I do.  My house will feel empty with two of my precious companions gone.

Goodbye Bram

     My heart is broken as I say goodbye to Bram as I lost him this morning.  Little Bram was always tiny with a big heart.  He knew his name and tried his hardest.  It has been 3 weeks of worry and watching and hoping and loving and hugging and kissing.  Bram was a sweet little boy who struggled with gaining weight.  I decided to take him off the bottle when he wouldn't take it any more.  I would dropper feed him which were moments of love as it takes a long time to dropper feed a baby so you have lots of time to tell him you love him and to look into his eyes.  I gave him fluids a couple of days ago and started dropper feeding him canned food with protein powder mixed in to give it more substance.  He seemed to be doing well on this food.  Yesterday morning he actually ate by himself off a plate.  I was ecstatic as I thought we had turned the corner and were making our way back from the dark side.  This morning he did not talk to me nor get out of his bed.  So I subcutaneously gave him more fluids and his antibiotics.  I wrapped him up in a fluffy blanket and put him in a tiny cat bed.  He died quietly a short time later.  He was a sweet boy and I will truly miss my little angel who loved me back as much as I loved him.  Goodbye little Bram.

Cavana, Chiclet, Crackerjack and Daffodil

Cavana has every inch of my heart.  She is such a loving little girl and takes every chance she gets to sit on my lap.  One time I was folding laundry (much more with the babies, good thing for a good washer) and looked down and there she was on my lap.  She just can't get enough of me.  I am working on a puzzle for a bit of relaxation now the pace of my world has slowed down.  She is the only kitten to ever try and "help" me with a puzzle that did not make things worse.  All she wants to do is lay down on the puzzle right in front of me and sleep.  She was sleeping and flexing her front feet.  I told her she was as happy as a kitten could get and she made my heart sing looking at her melting with happiness.  She has filled out and is looking like a wonderful baby and not a frail little girl.  All of these babies have filled out and are looking much better.  Glad to have less to worry about.
     The little P babies have gained decent weight the last 2 days which makes me worry less.  It is so very tiring to watch intensely when they aren't doing as well as I would like.  It is hard to explain how draining it is and how joyful when you see them turn the corner.
     I just had a friend drop off a case of food for the babies.  I told her a gift for my babies was a gift for me.  I got an email yesterday from the owner of two of my kittens that were adopted last summer.  It is a true gift to have people think of my babies and me and it brings a smile to my face.

Pax, Penton, Pepsi, Persia and Pia

These babies have had a bit of a struggle but are doing much better now.  I lost Pierre after a long week of watching him intently.  He was on antibiotics in an attempt to stop his decline.  He had to be fed drop by drop the last 3 days as he did not want to take the bottle at all.  I am surprised that he is the only one I lost so far as they only got one feeding from mom.  They get immune help from their mom and because they only got one feed the immunity they got was at a bare minimum.  It has been 3 weeks filled with worry every minute of every day.  But now all are eating a lot more than they have up until now which is encouraging.  They are not out of the woods yet but it is looking better for them.  Penton is such a marvelous interesting color of brown.  He is getting over an eye infection which I think was draining him a bit.
     Marchand, Manchester, Martina, Benjie, Bonnie and Bridgit went to Petsmart last week.  All but Marchand and Benjie got adopted so they went to Leslie's foster home along with Brandi (just became big enough for adoption yesterday) and special little Mavoureen (who has been gaining weight at a good rate the last coupe of weeks so she is almost big enough to be adopted).  My house is different and feels very quiet with the 7 babies gone.
     Every morning I allow extra time as Cavana now sleeps in the crook of my neck or on my pillow.  She wants loving as soon as she knows I am up for the day.  Then Brandi and Crackerjack come running and I have 3 wiggly kittens to love to pieces.  I will miss Brandi tomorrow morning when only two babies want loving.  I will be putting up pictures of Daffodil, Cavana, Crackerjack and Chiclet hopefully tomorrow.  They have filled out and are playful little babies now.

Cavana, Chiclet, Crackerjack and Daffodil

How these babies have grown and filled out.  All struggled for a while and at the time I lost Callahan (I still miss his spirit in my house) and Charles.  They must have fought off the bug (with the help of antibiotics) as all are looking so much better.  Cavana is still my most sucky baby.  She loves to sit on my lap and appears on my lap and I don't even know when she came to my lap.  She is a real love.  She was so frail and now she is a pudgy little girl.  Daffodil has filled out as well.  Crackerjack is a big big boy now.  Chiclet took the longest to start filling out and feeling better.  But..........all are doing great now.  We are out from under the black cloud.  It is amazing how much better I feel now that I am not worried every second of my waking day.
     Benjie, Bonnie, Bridgit, Manchester, Marchand (my little snuggle bug in bed every morning--I really missed him this morning), and Martina are all at Petsmart.  My house feels so much quieter without these healthy babies racing around chasing each other.  I listen carefully and it pays off when I heard racing feet when I was in the hallway.  There two came running fast.  I had stopped and put my feet a bit apart which was a good thing as they raced at top speed between my feet.  I miss all these babies and it is hard to believe they are ready for their forever homes.  The goodbyes start.
     The "baby" B babies have gone through a huge growth spurt.   They were only 6 days old when I got them so I have loved them for a long time.  Now they are "big" little kittens doing big kitten things.  They are now climbing my multi leveled cat post.  Biscuit is only wanting one bottle a day.  Bram is still enjoying his bottle.  On second inspection I have discovered that Biscuit is a girl (her name will still work) and wow............Bronson (my tiny frozen, fighter baby) is indeed a girl.  She (it will take a while to think of her as a girl) will have to have a new name picked for her.  She is so very precious.  My life would be less happy if she wasn't in it.  I tell her every day how lucky she and I are and how a matter of minutes longer to get to me would have meant that she would not be in my life.  I marvel at her strength.  I swoop on kittens when I panic thinking they are in trouble, sorry babies but that is what this mom does.  I told Bronson that I did a big swoop as soon as I saw her in an effort to save her and wasn't it worth it!!!  Swoops pay off sometimes.  Thank goodness I don't have to swoop often but swoops are part of my world.

Finally Beginning to Surface

Where to begin.................These are the "tiny" baby B's though not so tiny any longer.  They have grown and are becoming different in their personalities.  Three pictures of each baby in order are Berkley, Biscuit, Baxter, Bram and Bronson.  I lost Begonia after a 10 day fight.  She just never thrived which happens with their real mom too.  Bronson is my little baby who was so cold when he came that I thought was dead.  After working on him he has flourished and is the biggest out of the 5 babies.  He has kind of kinky, wavy hair.  He lived for a purpose, to be special in some way.  Berkley is my talker and protests loudly when he thinks it is time for a bottle.  All are starting to nibble at canned food so it won't be long before they are off the bottle.
     Life has been intense with a lot of babies needing my help.  I have 24 babies right now.  A bacteria has gone through my house and I lost 3 precious babies besides Begonia.  Mandryk crashed 2 weeks ago and I rushed him to the vet.  We worked on him for an hour and he seemed to be rallying.  He purred when I came back to visit him and even ate a third of a can of food which was amazing.  He came home with me as I could monitor him and give him his meds.  At 10:30 pm I put him in the litter box and he had a well formed poop.  I got his meds ready to give him and came back into the room to find him collapsed on the edge of the litter box.  He died during the night.
     I also got 6 babies on October 25th.  They were 40 hours old.  Mom had a bad infection following the birth and could only feed the babies once.  So with immunity from the mom at a bare minimum I took on the task of feeding these babies (making the total of 12 on the bottle at that time) until mom could be treated and maybe take her babies back.  She came to my house Monday evening and would have nothing to do with her babies so............I was now mom to her tiny babies.  Pepsi, Penton, Pierre, Phillip, Persia and Pax are all doing well.  They are 13 days old and their eyes are starting to open.
     I had an extra load put on me when my babies were needed for many photo shoots to finish up the calendar.  It took time to get my babies tidied up for the picture shoots plus worrying about them when I had kittens who were struggling.  The extra worry on top of the worry of the struggling babies was incredibly hard on me.  Benjie went to a photo shoot and spent the evening sleeping, not moving a lot and not eating.  Yet another reason that photo shoots were not what I needed at the time of all the struggles.  Finally 3 hours later he came around.  It took a lot of prodding for me to finally get a response other than everything was fine.  It was very very noisy at the photo shoot which tired out Benjie as he was overwhelmed.  Three long hours spent worrying about my little boy.  I know each of my kittens and knew that something was not right at the photo shoot. But we have survived all this and all are doing well now.  I think we will make it.