Dorfy Doodle makes herself at home in the corner of the kitchen.
Don’t you just love the little spotted belly?
Someone asked if Dorothy is becoming a permanent resident. She is not becoming a permanent resident – she has a real Mom coming to adopt her on Saturday, and I’ll give you all the details (well, the general overview anyway) once the adoption is done and over with.
Here’s a Dorfy movie for you!
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Tomorrow, the McMaos (except for Maggie) are going to be spayed and neutered. I haven’t told them they’re going or what’ll be done to them, because I’m pretty sure that ignorance is bliss when it comes to this sort of thing. Tomorrow evening, they’ll be back home, bellied up to Maggie, and will likely have forgotten anything at all happened to them. That’s the benefit of spaying and neutering when they’re this small, after all.
Let’s do a bit of the then-and-now, shall we? The first picture of each kitten was taken when they were about three days old, and the second was taken within the last week.
Macushla.
Cillian.
Declan.
Fergus Simon.
Ciara.
Finnegan.
Eight weeks old. Time sure does fly!
I’m not sure what Macushla was looking at here, but it was apparently quite fascinating.
They knocked the cat bed onto the floor, then curled up for a nap.
Declan and Fergus Simon, snuggled up for a nap.
And here’s a McMao movie for you. Kittens, you might be amazed to hear, can be some bitey little creatures. Some people tap them on the nose when they bite, but I tend to have both hands full at the crucial moment (usually a kitten in one hand, a camera in the other), so I blow in their face to stop them. About 90% of the kittens I’ve tried it on get the point pretty quickly because they haaaaate it (the other 10 percent don’t have any reaction at all). Here’s Declan being taught that “We don’t bite!”
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Coriander – Fred calls this her Glamour Shots pose.
Cilantro, looking annoyed.
Clove, playing. It’s exceptionally hard to get a good shot of Clove, because she prefers to be in my lap or right up in my face.
Last night Fred said “The brown tabby?” I said “Clove.” He said “She’s very sweet, isn’t she?”
Now, for Fred to notice that a kitten is particularly sweet means she must be sweeter than any kitten on the face of the earth, because Fred usually finds kittens this age kind of boring (he likes them the age that the McMaos are, or older). So there you have it: Clove is one sweet little girl and just as snuggly as can be.
Coriander is an excellent soccer player.
Just a tad wild.
Coriander keeps a watchful eye on her sisters.
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Maxi will allow you to hold her like a baby for a few seconds before she struggles to get down because she needs to go smack one of the other cats. She has no use for other cats, but she’ll put up with Newt as long as he doesn’t get in her face too often.
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Previously
2010: “Bleh. This mouse tastes funny.”
2009: Look at the little smile on her face!
2008: No entry.
2007: It appears that Sugarbutt got started on that nap without me.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
Have to agree with Fred – She is a little beauty!
Yay for Dorothy’s new family!!!
Wow! What a difference in a few weeks. Re: blowing in the face to stop biting; I do that and it does work: I tried it after reading that, to them, it feels and sounds like you hissed, so they really do get love and hisses!
My old boy cat came to me at 6 1/2 weeks old; too, too young, but this was over 20 years ago now and I was less clued up and grieving at the time for my girl cat, Sophie. He always did have a tendency to bite hard, too hard. He wasn’t vicious and nasty and only ever bit too hard in the excitement of play, but more strongly than he should (although otherwise perfect in every way). Then I read that kittens learn, between about 6-9 weeks, that biting with their full strength as it increases is too hard; the squeaks of pain from each other teaches them this. So kittens left with their litter or other kittens up to 9 weeks or more benefit from learning this. Our present boy cat was with his brother and sister until 9 1/2 weeks and, yes, he never bites too hard on the rare occasions when he does (as in; “Remove your hand from my belly forthwith, human slave”).
That’s why when my cats are playing too hard, I make a meow sound rather than yell, to mimic how another cat would sound. I call it “crying Uncle” and it seems to work if they are grabbing you to hard and biting.
Yes, I’ve found that too. Current boy stops biting at once when I do that, even if he wasn’t biting hard, and gives my hand a lick as if saying sorry!
I love that Dorothy only bites Jake’s ears to wrangle them close enough to lick. What a sweet girl!
I can’t believe how much the McMaos have grown up and morphed into real kittehs. They are too, too cute.
Wishing Dorothy good luck in her new permanent (?) life. Feel kinda sorry that the soon to be eunuch kitties never got to test drive their equipment. But hey, that’s life!
Wow! I never thought of blowing on their faces to stop the unprovoked biting. I’ve only had 3 cats & I successfully taught them not to bite (unprovoked) by tapping them on their noses. Mom tried yelling at her cat & needless to say, he’s 13 & still bites! Good thing he’s a charmer! My next cat I’ll try blowing on her face & see if that works!
Blowing and hissing work, with some of the “tougher” breeds like Main Coons and Forest Cats the snap the fingers on the nosie also helps. We always say “no bit lick” while we do this, its very cute to see someone else doing something similar, I love the “we don’t bite,” as kitten says “but I do..yikes you hissed at me!”
Awwwww coming here to your blog is such a stress killer, Robyn!! One look at the kitties and all your other animals and everything going on in your garden and I’m just a great big puddle of goo!! LOL!!! I’m so so so happy for Dorothy! Yay!! Loved the Dorothy loves Jake clip too!! Awww Does Maxi get on with Jake too?? He really is so super laid back!
The Spice Girls are adorable – and Clove is super cute!! But so are Coriander and Cilantro!!! LOL!!!
Take care
x
PS, I lurve Dorfy’s stripes and spots. She is SO PRETTY. Is she soft? She looks soft.
She’s got really silky-soft fur that makes her a real pleasure to pet. In fact, just thinking about it, I’ve got to go hunt her down and pet her! 🙂
YAY!
Cillian’s face looks the least changed!
Oooh, s/n already? It seems so soon! I have a litter of 4 who are about 10 days younger than your McMaos…it’s been fun reading this blog and watching mine progress through the same stages, the McMaos always a bit ahead. We don’t s/n until 12 weeks though (to line up with rabies shot) so I’ve got a ways before mine head off for surgery.
Macushla’s like supermodel gorgeous, isn’t she? what bone structure and poise!
Jake really is made of awesome. Did Alice like him this much too?
Could you possibly shoot Dorothy from above? — her markings look so beautiful in the vid. Many thanks for the satisfying then-and-now shots. Hope everything went swimmingly at the vet!
Miss Dorothy has the most symmetrical coloring on her face I have ever seen. So pretty! I have recently acquired two kittens, a calico and a torby, from my grandma (my sister and I gave them to her for Mother’s Day, after her direct instructions to find her a calico kitten, then it became two kittens) but she is currently hospitalized and it is not yet know if she’ll be coming home :(. So the kittens are the sweetest pair I’ve ever met; I want to keep them, but I know I can’t: I already have three of my own, plus I feed the whole neighborhood of cats, which is about 7, one of which looks like she might be pregnant (yay, more mouths to feed). So, I guess I’m saying if anyone in the Western KY area is looking for a pair, I have em. I plan on keeping them long enough to fatten them up (they are tiny) and teach them some manners, I will indeed use the blowing in the face.
And I gotta say, in my boo-hoo moods, there’s nothing better than playing with my kittens then coming in and looking at yours! Thank you.
Awww, the Dorfy & Jake movie is the sweetest thing! I am going to miss that darling girl so much. But I guess the extremely adorable Baby Spices will help with that!
And I can’t believe the McMaos are almost 2 months old already!
I love the solid blue cover for the Ham-mick…. where did you get it? I’ve looked at the site where they sell the Ham-micks, but all they ever have are busy print patterns that don’t blend well with my decor, but I’d reconsider for some solid color ones. Thanks!