Cirque du Chat
aka our house, as the Furballs get older, larger and a lot faster.
Fast Eddie, the once semi-feral, is still working out the hierarchy with Audrey. She does not trust him near her. On the other paw, she's fine with his growing relationship with the clutter. Kittens run up to him in pretend attack and skitter away; he reacts with tolerant confusion, never aggression. Once, he and a kitten played chase back and forth, a thing he's never done before. He's sat between them and stairs. Sometimes they follow him from room to room. If they really get out of line, he bops the offending head, but barely ruffles the fur. It's pretty adorable.
Tepin, the runt, continues to thrive. First to the highest point, first to leap head-first off the highest point. Eats anything she can get. Ready to audition for Lucha Libre wrestling. Ancho is now the problem child. He continued to refuse any food but Mom's milk until the point where he started to fail a little. A bit too bony, depressed, not interested in eating anything, and horrid diarrhea. Given how the rest of the week has gone, it felt like 'What's next? Locusts? Hellmouth?'
We're yanking him back like we did Tepin, and it's actually working, thank Bast! Meds for the diarrhea - Audrey was diagnosed with a coccidia problem, so she's been on sulfa drugs. She may have passed it to Ancho, so he's getting the same meds even though he's too young; we can't wait till he's old enough. And she's back on it herself, so they don't pass it back and forth as she cleans his little bottom.
At the same time, I bottle-fed him kitten milk replacer for a couple days. He finally stopped acting like I was waterboarding him and started enjoying it. Tepin got super jealous, as he was getting what she used to get. I distracted her by squirting some onto her kitten 'mousse' food and she went for it. So I squirted more onto more mousse and offered it to Ancho on my finger. He started to lick it off and eventually ate about a teaspoonful of actual kitten food. But only by finger - shown the plate, he turned tail and pantomimed burying it.
Supper tonight, we won the final battle. The whole plate of mousse was dribbled with KMR 'cream sauce' and he dove right in up to the little pointy ears. So did Tepin, and I actually had to push Audrey away from taking over the whole dish. She had her own food, but this looked better. The other two (Cascabel the tomboy and Relleno the bruiser) had already eaten it without the cream sauce and were off making mischief, so they don't know about the menu upgrade yet. There's that to look forward to at breakfast.
In a couple weeks, Tepin is going to her new home. Ancho may have a taker, although it's not certain yet. So there are still good homes to find. This is quite the circus. It's going to be nice to get the bathroom back and have an extra half hour in the morning without meds, feedings, box cleaning and time spent being the mountain in The Battle of Mount Nanny, the morning exercise after breakfast. (I go to work covered with kitten pinpricks, and they itch like crazy!) But they're socialized to cats, elderly dogs and humans, and they're going to be healthy if it kills me, Bast willing! (The healthy, not the killing.)
In Audrey news, she's now only got two working nipples, so it's good the kits are finding new food sources. She killed a mouse yesterday. Happily, she only killed it and didn't go further. Maybe she can show Eddie how it's done; he only plays with them. She's discovered and stolen the dog's bed for her very own. It's soft and requires a few minutes of 'biscuits' before she drapes herself into it for a nap. She's not much for laps yet, but loves all pets, strokes and skritches. And she's a talker. I think she's going to fit in here fine, once the hormones settle and she learns to trust Eddie.
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First time I've smiled for days. Thanks! 
