Meet the new family members

It is not easy taking pictures of constantly moving little bodies. I tried to catch each one at least once. So without further ado, here are the new members of our family - once you are given a name you are going to stay. ;-)

'Mama' Elsa - guess whom she is named after.

Maggie, she is the biggest of the litter and the only orange girl.

Jackie - the smallest of the bunch, a really sweet boy with a loud voice.

Leo - he likes to sleep a lot, will attack your feet and enjoys tummy tickles.

Precious - the spitting image of her daddy, very much her own cat

Frankie - he started out as Mr. Cutie-Face, but that would be too embarrassing for a big ole tom cat

We took them to their first vet appointment on Friday and they did very well. We were told that they are all sweet natured and that they have neither fleas nor ear mites. A couple of them had runny eyes so we treat them with ointment. I think it was mainly from hitting each other in the face when playing but they are getting better already. The vet also said that they look very healthy but are a little small for their age, well, they did not exactly have a perfect start in life but we are going to make up for that.They are due for their booster shots in four weeks.
Our holidays will definitely be a little different this year. I don't think a big tree with breakable ornaments goes very well with 8 cats who have never seen such a thing before. And added responsibilities come with added costs so we have to squeeze our budget just a bit to fit it all in but I know that we can do it. These kittens deserve a shot at a good life and the have a good chance at that with us.

This and that in the middle of the week

We celebrated Del's birthday last weekend with a yummy cake and a lovely steak from the farmer's market (the steak was big enough to share). His gift is still not finished, I messed up and have to re-do.

We went to the farmer's market Saturday morning and it was cold. It seems the market has been built in one of the windiest spots in the county. We bought some sorghum syrup, kale, apples, eggs, pepper and a yellow cauliflower.

Our little kittens are growing fast now. They are curious and fearless and they are getting tired of being kept in quarantine. But until they have seen the vet we do not want them to have contact with MamaCat and Brownie, just in case. It gets really difficult now to enter the living room without them running out. So I just barricaded the entrance to the kitchen door (the kitchen door went missing a long time before we bought the house) and let them roam the dining room for a bit. As soon as I put some canned food down for them they come running back in a hurry. They are starting to develop quite distinct personalities and we have finally named them. They are Jackie, Frankie, Leo, Precious and Maggie. I hope to get some portraits of each one soon. Their mama is not happy about being locked up either but I hope she will get used to it. Here are some pictures of the cuties.

Just a little reminder

A Productive Day

Cupcakes for Del to take to work tomorrow for his birthday, a batch of granola, garlic-corn muffins for dinner. Not in the picture are four liters of ginger ale, a pot of chili and a big load of laundry that is fluttering merrily in the wind. Still to do - a big load of dishes (yikes), I really enjoy cooking and baking and generally messing around in the kitchen, but doing the dishes - well, that is a completely different story. ;-)

Things for Sale

Well, I need to come up with some money for the kittens so I decided to sell some of my knitted shawls and scarves. If you are interested, you can find them on my shop blog.

Whether they will stay with us or not I want to treat them right and they will soon need their first shot and a check-up to see if they are healthy and can be introduced to my cats without being a danger to them. I do get a 30% discount at the vet if I bring them all at once but it still is a hefty sum, especially since we already had some unexpected expenses this past month.

Just a little reminder who will benefit from the sale: