Sleeping kittens

Some of Eric's family came to visit this weekend.

The kittens fell asleep by the door waiting for them.

Zoey sleeping - she got herself into this position.

Zoey sleeping - I helped tuck her in for this one.

I feel like a bad kitten mom because there are more pictures of Zoey than Loki. The problem is that, while Loki is gorgeous in real life, he doesn't photograph well. I swear I love them both!

Pacifiers for kittens - No, I'm not kidding

Loki and Zoey are all but inseparable now that they've decided to be friends. They both run to meet us at the door whenever we come in. Loki sits patiently waiting for his petting but Zoey gets impatient and will hop up so that her head can meet your hand as you are lowering it toward her.

We've noticed that Zoey is a much faster eater than Loki. They both get the same amount of food in their bowls but she is done in about half of the time that he is. So then she has to sit and wait for him to finish before they can resume playing. Sometimes she gets impatient and tries to help him finish his meal but we try to stop that.

Zoey has perfected the "I'm so little and pitiful" look when she wants something. She sits and makes her body as small as possible (which is pretty small). Then she looks up at you and somehow manages to make her eyes even bigger. She did this last night when she didn't want her nails cut. I'm also getting the feeling that she does this when she's trying to get Loki in trouble. She'll be playing just fine with him and then she'll stop and get into her pose. It of course then looks like he is just attacking her. I told her that I'm not buying it.

This is them hanging out in the kitchen. "Being underfoot" is one of their favorite hobbies.

Zoey has developed the cute/weird/endearing/annoying habit of wanting to suck on our skin. It's like she's trying to suckle milk from her cat mom. She purrs and closes her eyes while she does it. I've done some research and this is apparently fairly common and nothing to be too concerned about. I do have a call in to the vet to make sure that Zoey isn't trying to tell us that she needs more food. I decided to try giving her a pacifier made for newborn babies but she wasn't having it. Loki did think it was fun to play with for about 30 seconds though. There is a place that makes a "catsifier" but they are on backorder. We're on the waiting list. This picture is of her suckling Eric's hand. You can see Loki in the background and the undesirable pacifier in the front.

Zoey discovered this morning that she can climb the towels and then walk over to get on one of the bathroom counters. I kept telling her that the counters are not for kitten paws but she really didn't seem to care.

Playtime

Being Cute

Snuggles & Sleeping

The kittens finally get along! Major breakthrough on Saturday and now they are good friends. It was a very long week (for me and anyone who would listen to me) waiting for this to happen. I took many, many pictures of them snuggling this weekend. These are my favorites.

Food and a Friendship Breakthrough

Chowing down.

We're training them to each have their own bowl so there are no disagreements.

Sniffing.

I don't think she was really as mad as she looks.

Look at the huge eyes! And ears!

The first time we caught them sleeping next to each other.

They did not understand why I was so excited.

I took a lot of pictures just in case it never happened again.

These kittens . . .

In a moment of desperation yesterday, we bought baby gates. The idea was that they could see and smell each other but not be able to attack. Unfortunately, the store only had two gates so there was still a large gap at the top. We knew this was not anything more than a very temporary solution but, like I said, we were desperate. It did take the kittens a couple hours to realize they could climb the gates but then there was no stopping them. At first, Zoey's plan was to squeeze out through one of the holes in the gate. See the second picture below if you're curious about how well that worked for her.

Zoey loves to hide and then spring out to pounce. As soon as I realized that she was using her litter box as a hiding place (gross!), I supplied this cardboard box as an alternative. She loves it.

It's hard to tell in the picture, but Eric is not really supporting any of Loki's weight. Our little man is holding himself up.

Taking a little nap with Cowtopus as the pillow.

We are still working hard at getting Loki and Zoey to accept each other. Major progress was made last night when we were able to have them in the same room without them attacking each other. They were fine as long as we kept them distracted with their toys. We have a vet appointment this afternoon so I'm interested to see how they are around each other in a neutral environment. I'm also very interested to hear what the vet has to say about their behavior.

Email from Eric

Below is an email I just received from Eric. Note that Zoey is still supposed to be in her safe room. I love being kitten parents!

kittens were terrors this morning. zoey escaped while i was getting her water. loki chased her under our bed and did his tackling routine underneath there. Every time I went to the side of the bed they were on, they went to the other. It took me 20 minutes to detangle and get them back in their places :/ le sigh.

A bump in the road on their way to becoming BFFs

We're in the middle of an adjustment period with the kittens. The two week separation caused them to not immediately be best buddies. So for now, Zoey is confined to the safe room and Loki has the run of the rest of the house. This is just until Zoey becomes more comfortable with her surroundings, with Eric and me, and with Loki's scent.

Last night was a major improvement in her comfort level. It may have something to do with the NaturVet At Ease Calming Spray that we put around her room put we'll never know for sure. This spray is the natural and herbal version of Feliway. Both products mimic the calming scents that cats produce naturally, thereby creating a calming environment for the cats. I did tons of research to make sure this product would be safe to use around the Loki & Zoey, determined that it was, and then decided that we might as well give it a try. We also sprayed it on both sides of the door that Loki & Zoey play under (see picture below). I'm hoping they will associate this calmness with each other as well.

As of this morning, Zoey is to the point of trying to escape from her safe room (a very good sign!) so we're going to let her explore the rest of the house tonight. We will keep Loki in the basement during this time so that Zoey can go at her own pace and not have to worry about being pounced on. I am very hopeful that we will be able to leave Loki & Zoey unsupervised by the end of the weekend without any worries of bloodshed.

Loki playing with his Cowtopus (the head is a cow and the bottom looks like octopus tentacles)

Zoey and Loki playing under the door (from Zoey's side). They both stick their paws under so the other can swat at them. Zoey cries for Loki to come back when he wanders off.

Little Miss Zoey

After thoughtful consideration, we adopted another kitten. We decided on one of Loki's littermates and named her Zoey. She is such a sweetheart! She's a little smaller than Loki right now (2 1/2 pounds to his 3 pounds). She is also the shyest of all of our kittens. We are keeping her in the safe room right now so she can get used to us and her new environment. Eric slept in there with her last night and she has warmed up to him tremendously. I think my turn is tonight. We already love her and are excited about her being in our family.