Those crazy cats

Our cats found a mouse nest on Sunday, or at least that's the best explanation for the number of mice they were playing with. You know how cats play with their food when they catch it. Well, two of the kittens were playing with one, taking turns. Another, older kitten came up and took it from them, grabbing it with her mouth.

We figured she would take it away from the others and then play with it. Nope, she's a proper lady, she is. She waltzes up the steps of the porch, walks over to the food dish and drops it in. Then, as a proper lady would do, she proceeded to eat it out of the dish! I wish I could have taken a picture of it...

And then there were four :(

We have lost all but one of the kittens. One died about 2 weeks ago; it couldn't adjust to solid food. But, yesterday two of the remaining three were killed by a tomcat who managed to get into the barn while the mother cat was outside. He cornered two of them on opposite sides of the barn and dispatched them by breaking their necks.

So, the mortality rate for kittens is 80% for this litter, down from 100% from the first litter. The other female, Cally (for Calico), has a better rate—only 66%. On the whole, it seems safer to be a human than a cat around here...

Kitten update

The kittens are about 2 weeks old now. Their eyes are mostly open, but I'm not sure how much they can see yet. One did hiss at Debbie last night, so I guess they are seeing something :)

We did lose one, though; the tabby died after only 3 days. Here's some pictures from yesterday:

And then there were eight

Busy week, with the April 1 special, the real monthly sale, the new Publisher Focus, and 5 new kittens.

That's right, we now have eight cats, five of them kittens that were born on Tuesday morning. Here's some pictures that were taken less than 12 hours after they were born.





Yes, this is a part of a diabolical plan to populate the earth with cats :)