Ah, kittens

[Siwsan]

Today is trash collection day. Just before I take it out I do a final scooping of litter boxes.

I just walked in to the 'kitten room' and detected a familiar odor. Ember and Rhian were sitting by the hot oil heater, looking as innocent as can be. Bronwyn was hiding. I think I have identified the culprit.

[wnylib]

1. Do they know that we might be displeased over

messes, or is it their natural cleanliness that makes them sheepish when they make a mess?

I have never, ever scolded Ember for puking up hairballs. It would be cruel and pointless since cats can't help it. On the contrary, I tell her that she's still my "good girl" (words. that she knows) and give her scritches. But she always looks sheepish, like she feels that she has done something wrong. She hides while I clean up.

Maybe it's the clean up that makes her realize that it's something I have to get rid of and therefore, that I don't like it. She always has such a guilty look on her face.

[Siwsan]

2. Their litter box habits are interesting, to say the least. (I was joking. Bronwyn likes to hide.)

She will stand at the sliding glass door, pawing away at it. When I open the door, she darts off and 'hides'. Not very well, mind you. I think it's a game.

Every morning when I go to the laundry room cupboard to get the kidcats wet food, Arthur and Sian RUSH to the litter box to make a 'deposit'. It's like they are making room for more.

When I first brought Sophie home from a horrible hoarding situation, she would get VERY upset when I scooped the litter box. She would actually start digging around and looking at me as if to say "Where are my stuff!!!!' Truthfully, her previous human was a drug addict who never cleaned litter boxes - she just poured more litter. Boudicca was near feral and hid away in the piles of things filling the house. It was a true nightmare situation. She even had a dog that NEVER went outside. Apparently she thought dogs used litter boxes, too.

And, yea, I NEVER scold the kidcats for things like hair balls or vomit. It gets cleaned up and they get scritches.

[wnylib]

3. When Ember was a kitten, she used to put one paw

over the litter box to let the clean litter run over the paw as I poured it in. It was so damned funny, like she was testing the quality.

She was so tiny then that I used an empty boot box as a litter pan. The sides were low enough for her to get in an out of and she produced so little due to her size that I didn't worry about urine seeping through to the cardboard.

I put her on the bathroom scales when I first took her home. The needle didn't move enough to get much of a reading.

Now she's 8 years old and weighs 9 1/2 pounds. About 24" long from shoulders to rump and around 12"+ inches in height. Hard to know for sure because she always want to play with the measuring tape or stick and won't stand still for me. Hind quarters are higher than the shoulders.

[niyad]

5. Like you, I never scold for hairballs or vomit. Babies are not

feeling well at that moment, and need love and reassurance and scritches.

[niyad]

4. ah, kittens, indeed. Such joy they bring us, even in these

moments.

[2naSalit]

6. They're just babies after all.

It's not like changing diapers, though.

They are still the best thing that ever happened, at some point, every day!