Animal Nursery, December Report

The four kittens have been here nearly two and a half weeks now. It took most of that time to get them healthy. They turned out to have clostridium, a nasty bacterium, one strain of which is botulism and another, tetanus. My theory is that the canned food the agency gave me was bad. It certainly stank horribly. But I'd never used that brand before, or ever heard of it, so I assumed it was supposed to...

Anyway, they are on Day 7 of a 10-day course of amoxycillin. Kitties are bouncy once again, chasing each other around, having mock fights. They're on a different brand of canned food, and only as a supplement to the dry.

The best socialized of the bunch is Miss Fortune, the all-black one. Next comes Mittens. She was originally named something else, but "Mittens" is what stuck, because of her four white paws and white chin and tummy. Mittens will nibble your ear. Or chin, or will suck upon anything she can. Then comes Aurora, the biggest, twice the weight of Miss Fortune, with the longest hair, very silky. The least socialized is Tinkerbelle, the one I thought would turn out to be the runt, but she isn't; Miss Fortune is. Tinkerbelle does not like to be picked up! She will, however, come to you and climb all over you and snuggle after a while.

They're nearly 7 weeks old now; two more weeks and they'll graduate from my nursery and be put up for adoption.

Also, St. Nicholas left me a gift today. It's three baby squirrels! Squirrels are not, not, not supposed to have babies this time of year, but they do anyway, occasionally. These are 5 weeks old, eyes opened a week ago, according to Chris, who had them 2 and a half weeks but needed to pass them on. They are just starting to nibble on solids and meanwhile are still bottle-fed, three times a day. Yay!! They will have to be wintered over; that's the bad part. It isn't much fun traipsing outside in the winter weather to keep them fed and supplied with non-frozen water. Well, that's a few weeks away, yet. No point worrying about it now. For now, I'm just going to enjoy having some warm furballs to bottle feed. Thank you, St. Nicholas!

Riddle: What's nicer than three kittens snuggling with you, all purring?

Answer: Four.