This blog is as a whole not religious because of course it isn't, but today needs to be an exception. It is Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year and one of the days we recite Yizkor, the memorial service. Today I remembered not only my grandmother but also Shadow. The service I attended was shorter than and different from the one I usually attend, but it included this prayer:

May God remember the soul of Shadow, who has gone to her eternal home. In loving testimony to her life, I pledge tz'dakah to help perpetuate ideals important to her. Through such deeds, and through prayer and remembrance, may her soul be bound up in the bond of life. May I prove myself worthy of the many gifts with which she blessed me. May these moments of meditation strengthen the ties that link me to her memory. May she rest in peace forever in God's presence. Amen.

In her brief six weeks with us, Shadow gave us many gifts. She introduced us to fostering. She gave us her love and her purrs and her unbounding energy for the cat dancer. She gave us trust, both that we would take care of her and that we would take care of her kitten. She gave us joy. 

I will always remember Shadow. By continuing to foster cats and kittens, we give tribute to her. Every cat and kitten we take care of, every cat and kitten we socialize, is another feline life who doesn't end up on the street, malnourished and trying to take care of a family in the elements. It's a small thing, but it's something we can do.

This week has been hard. We knew it was going to be hard because we were going to send the cats off to their forever homes and we've gotten rather attached to them. Caring for Shadow and Kismet was always going to mean that they left our lives, but we knew it would be hard.

It was harder than we could have imagined. Both cats went to the vet on Sunday and were given a clean bill of health, though the vet told us that Shadow's distended stomach probably meant worms. First thing Monday morning we took them to another vet to be spayed and neutered. This is a normal procedure; it happens to every rescue cat, as well it should. We don't need more kittens in the world, as cute as Kismet is. We expected to get a call later to pick them up.

Shadow never came home. Shadow died on the operating table. They tried to resuscitate her and couldn't. We don't know what happened. Maybe it was something the vet missed. Maybe she was more fragile than any of us knew. Maybe she took badly to the anesthesia. We don't know. All we know is that this is rare. This is the first full-grown cat that Kitten Connection has lost in spaying. It's one of only two cats that Jacki, who introduced us to Shadow and Kismet, has ever lost in spaying - and the other was a kitten spayed too young. It shouldn't have happened. It did happen. Shadow never came home.

Kismet almost didn't come home. He went to the head of Kitty Connection before he came to us after neuter, and she saw that he wasn't okay. She rushed him to the animal hospital where he seemed to be going in and out of consciousness. They gave him fluids and medication and he made it through, but for a while I was sure we were going to be mourning both of them.

Kismet came home yesterday. We monitored him, played with him, and pet him. We put him in a harness and brought him out into the living room and by the time I went to bed, he'd figured out how to walk on a leash. He's a beautiful, rambunctious kitten. Today, he's back to his normal self.

Kismet is now somewhere in Boston in his forever home. We packed him up with all his toys and some food and sent him off. His new parents have promised to send pictures every once in a while, so we're looking forward to that.

We'll be mourning Shadow for a while, but we have another foster coming on Sunday so the circle of feline life continues.

It's the play post! Kismet is now - well, we once again don't know how old Kismet is. We took the kitties to get tested for FIV/FeLV yesterday (they're negative!) and Kitty Connection decided that he's big enough to get neutered on Monday or Tuesday! That indicates that he's actually seven weeks old. Which, according to the Kitten Lady's milestones, makes sense. Here's what she says:

• At six weeks of age, a kitten's deciduous teeth will have fully emerged, and she will typically be perfecting her weaning onto wet food. Weaning is a sensitive time in a kitten's life and should be handled with care; provide supplemental feeding and ensure that the kitten is maintaining a healthy weight and body condition.
• Six weeks is a standard age for the kitten to receive her first FVRCP vaccine.
• Average six week old kitten weight: 650-750 grams

• At seven weeks, kittens will have all of their baby teeth. Most seven week old kittens will be fully weaned onto wet food.
• At this age, the adult eye color will begin to emerge. Kittens' eyes will change from baby blue to the eye color they will keep permanently. Kittens with grey, green, or yellow eyes are likely 7 weeks or older.
• Average seven week old kitten weight: 750-850 grams

Well - Kismet's eyes are no longer blue! It's true. Kismet seems to be ALL over the place when it comes to milestones, but his eyes and his weight say he's a seven-week-old kitten. Which means yes, next week is neuter time. And then we have to give him up!

In the meantime, life with cats has been a lot about play. Shadow is a very energetic cat. Play with her is all about quick movements and a jumping cat. She is definitely our mighty huntress! Turns out that it's really hard to get video of that, so our video of Shadow playing is very short. I took four different videos and this is the best of the bunch.

Kismet has finally learned how to do interactive play. For a bit now he's been a bundle of energy running around the room and playing with toys on the ground (I swear his favorite is the packing paper, though he also does love the catnip rat), but he's finally learning to play with toys that are off the ground. Katrina was the first to get him to interact with the cat dancer, and I got video of it. It was very exciting!

The video above might be the most boring video you will ever see of Kismet, but it is really exciting to me! See, Kismet is now five weeks old. The Kitten Lady says this about five-week-old kittens:

• At five weeks of age, a kitten's teeth will continue to develop. The premolars will start to emerge, indicating that a kitten is ready to be introduced to weaning onto wet food. Weaning is a sensitive time in a kitten's life and should be handled with care; provide supplemental feeding and ensure that the kitten is maintaining a healthy weight and body condition.
• Average five week old kitten weight: 550-650 grams

We've been attempting to wean Kismet but it's hard. When we put wet food into the room, Shadow immediately eats it. When we tried putting wet food near Kismet the first time, Shadow went to eat it. When we tried feeding wet food to Kismet a couple nights ago, Kismet wasn't interested. Also, Kismet is still nursing. We've seen Kismet nursing. How do you wean a kitten who won't stop nursing?

Turns out, you don't. When I went to check on the cats today I found that they were out of food. When I refilled the wet food, Shadow went for it. When I refilled the dry food, Kismet went for it! According to The Kitten Lady, this is okay! Some kittens prefer dry food and as long as they're also drinking water, it's fine. We've seen Kismet drinking water for a while, so I'm not worried. However, it seems Kismet may not be that picky. Once mom left the wet food alone, Kismet decided to eat some of that too. Of course, then Shadow wanted more. The video below might be the most adorable cat eating video you ever see.

It's been about a week since I've posted and that's mostly because I've been having trouble getting decent video of the kitties. It turns out that active kittens are hard to video. It's even harder when you've just started filming and mom decides it's grooming time (see video below), which happens a lot, and your phone keeps switching from video mode to photo mode and you manage not to notice. Thus, the above still, which was supposed to be a video.

Kismet has reached the age of play! He doesn't seem to like wand toys; he's much more comfortable with anything that's on the ground. He likes to play with the plush rat (pictured above) and a plush treasure chest that we have in there (both filled with catnip), but he also improvises with basically anything that he can get at. The litter box. The blanket edge that comes off the futon onto the floor. My water bottle, if I forget it on the floor when I'm feeding Shadow. Mom's tail (see video below). Anything he can get his paws around.

Did you notice I'm using "he"? That's because Kismet is finally old enough that we could examine his genitals and determine his sex! You tell what sex a kitten is by the shape and space between the genitals, and because a young kitten's genitals haven't developed much yet, the younger the kitten the harder it is to sex them. However, Kismet has finally developed enough that we can stop playing guessing games and be confident in the fact that he has male genitals. Now, we don't know whether kittens have gender and if they did whether Kismet would identify as a boy cat, but we're going to use male pronouns for him. Pronouns don't mean the same thing to a cat.

Next on the developmental road map: getting Kismet to use the litter box and weaning him. His side teeth don't seem to have come in, or they hadn't two days ago, which means he can't eat meat quite yet. When he can, the trick will be feeding him without Shadow trying to eat the food.

Speaking of Shadow, you can no longer feel her ribs when you pet her! She's still happily hunting flies and she's also playing with Kismet (when she's not grooming him), which I take as a really good sign. She's spending more time on top of the futon instead of behind it, though she does still like that behind space. Also, she's a purring machine! Her purrs are loud and can be felt through her side. It makes petting her extra rewarding.

We're now in our second week of fostering and both cats are developing well. Shadow has become much more comfortable and seems to have learned her name, as evidenced in the video above. Of course, while she loves attention, she also loves her food. Just a few days ago you could feel every rib when you pet her, and now she's gaining some weight. Shadow is pretty much on an "all you can eat" diet right now as we try to give her enough calories to build up both herself and her kitten!

Kismet is also gaining weight. As of this morning, Kismet was 14.6 ounces (414 grams)! Kismet is also starting to react to the wider world, though ze can't see much at this age. As evidence see this video from two days ago:

and this video from today:

That's all the cuteness I have for the day! I hope you enjoyed!

I'm autistic and generally do things by instruction. I read all the books and all the websites and follow the knowledge. My partner has the instinct. Last night, Katrina pulled Shadow from under the futon and sat her down in the box with the wet food. I hadn't seen Shadow all day, but it worked! The above video is from the beginning of that night in the safe room with the cats. We were in there for a long time after this, petting Shadow, convincing Shadow to nurse Kismet, and (for Katrina) cutting the mats out of Shadow's fur. Shadow was a sweetheart and an attention hog through all of it. Before we set them nursing, if I went to pay attention to Kismet she came over demanding my attention instead. Shadow wouldn't nurse Kismet unless we were also petting her; if we stopped, she would get up and Kismet would start to cry. It was a long night in the safe room, but it was worth it for all the progress we made.

This morning when I came into the room Shadow was hiding again. When I opened a can of food and went to weigh Kismet, Shadow came out. I don't know if it was the food or the kitten crying, but I managed to weigh Kismet and put hir back down and Shadow went to eat.

Then, miracle of miracles, I got to see Shadow being motherly! Last night we found out that Shadow's preferred place to nurse is on the futon, which we're fine with as long as we're in the room because it's easy enough to clean. I brought Kismet out onto the futon and Shadow jumped up, got some pets, and settled down to nurse. Above is just three minutes of that process. Kismet nurses for a long time - about 45 minutes - and Shadow wasn't this patient the whole time this morning, but it was good to see it at the start!

About the kitties: background

Shadow and Kismet were found on Sunday, July 28th under a car in Everett during the middle of a thunderstorm. We don't know if there were any more kittens, though it's likely there were and Shadow was only able to save the one. Shadow stayed with her rescuer for one night before coming to us. According to animal control, Shadow is a known entity; she's had one other litter in the past. In that case she let animal control take the kittens, but she was elusive. We think the storm is the only reason she allowed herself to be caught.

Shadow and Kismet are settling in with us. This blog will follow their progress and I promise adorableness along the way.

Welcome to momcat! Since the kitties were headed to the vet, we needed to settle on names for them. Mom is now Shadow and kitten is now Kismet. They have no idea what is about to happen.

It turns out that vets are swamped right now! We had to drop off Shadow and Kismet first thing in the morning so they could be seen whenever the vet could squeeze in the time. The good news is that they're healthy! They did an x-ray and there are no more kittens inside Shadow, just "milk and poop." We're good with that. However, the vet did say that Shadow is an inattentive mom. We've seen that as well.