MORE KITTENS! YIKES!

Mom went to the shelter yesterday, and she thought she would bring home that little Siamese kitten, Dante.  But I am very sad to tell you that Dante died over the weekend.  He had been kind of sickly all along, and he wasn't eating very well, but we don't know what was wrong with him exactly, or why he died.

Anyway, in the meantime, a lady brought a mother cat and two kittens to the shelter, and Aunt Tania agreed to take them in her rescue group.  And then Aunt Tania talked Mom into fostering them, which wasn't too hard, because Mom is such a sucker!  So Mom brought these three kitties home, but none of us were allowed to see them because Mom wants them to have their own space for a little while.  Which means that Mom put them in the back room where lots of plants live in the wintertime, but now the plants are mostly all outside.  So, like I say, I haven't seen the new kitties with my own eyes, but I can smell them perfectly well, and I can also smell their food, which I think would be very yummy for me to eat.  But for those of you who cannot smell the new kitties, Mom took some photos which I am going to show you, and I will tell you everything I know about the kittens and their mama.

First of all, I will say that the mother cat is black, except that she has a little bit of white hair on her chest.  She is kind of a kitten herself, and this is probably her first litter of kittens.  Aunt Tania thinks that she is only about 8 months old.  Mom decided to give all 3 cats African names, and the name she gave the mama cat is Latifa.  This name means "gentle" or "kind" in the language it comes from, which is maybe Swahili, but I can't remember for sure.  You might also know that there is a singer and actor named Queen Latifah.  Mom and I really like her, and we hope she won't mind that there is a cat with the same name as she has.

Binty.  Or maybe it's Akeela.

The two kittens are both girls, and they are both gray tabbies, and they look very much alike.  Aunt Tania used a Sharpie marker and put a number 1 in the ear of one kitten and a number 2 in the ear of the other kitten.  This way, we can tell which one is which.  Mom studied them for a while, and she noticed that one of the kittens has stripes on her head that are closer together, so they look blacker than the stripes on the other kitten's head.  So that is another way to tell them apart.  Anyway, the kitten with the close-together stripes is going to be named Binty, which means "daughter."  And the other kitten will be named Akeela, which means "wise."

Akeela.  Or maybe it's Binty.

Oh, and we think the kittens are about 6 weeks old.  They are almost as big as Ivy and Ingram, so they will get to be spayed and neutered pretty soon, after which they can get adopted.  And Latifa can also be spayed, so she can be adopted, too.

Okay, now I will tell you some other important news.  Charlie had to go to see Dr. Vodraska yesterday afternoon because he keeps coughing.  Dr. Vodraska thinks Charlie mostly has allergies and sinus drainage, and that may be making his throat sore.  Charlie might have to get an x-ray sometime of his lungs, but Mom didn't have time yesterday to wait while Charlie got his x-ray, because she had to go to a meeting.  So for right now, Charlie is getting Clavamox, which is supposed to cure any infection that he has.

And here is one other news item for you.  We now have a carpeted kitchen.  Well, okay, it's not real carpeting.  It's just a whole bunch of rugs that don't even match each other.  But the reason we got this "carpet" is because last week Mom took Nicky to an expo thing where REGAP had a booth.  And when they got there, Nicky was shocked to see that the exhibition hall had a SLICK FLOOR which he was Very Afraid to walk on.  But Mom kind of coaxed and dragged Nicky until they got to the REGAP booth.

Here's Barry walking on the new kitchen carpet.
Mel is at the back door, waiting to come in.

They stayed at the booth for two hours, and Nicky let a lot of people pet him, and sometimes he lay down on a blanket there.  And one time when he was standing up, he was leaning on Mom, and then she moved a little bit, and Nicky almost fell down because his back legs started sliding out from under him.  But Mom and Aunt Robyn held him up so he didn't fall down.  And when it was time to leave, Nicky was Very Afraid to cross the floor and go down the stairs.  But finally he and Mom got home, after which, Nicky was afraid to even walk across our own kitchen floor.  So the next day Mom got out all her rugs and put them in the kitchen, and now Nicky is Very Happy to walk across the floor to the back door.