Kittens

I have kittens now.

My aunt called hours ago to asking for my mother. In a friend-of-a-friend manner she'd heard that there were kittens, and they were going to be given to a shelter, and that the shelter didn't have room for them, so they would be put to sleep, and could we take them?

My mother not there, I said yes.

There are two. Grey, with faint tiger-stripe markings on their legs, white feet and chins. Both have a white stripe on their foreheads, slightly off center, to the left. Both are also girls.

Right now, they're asleep. One is on a soft chair, curled into a ball, the other lying atop of the cat carrier we told my aunt to take.

They're painfully thin. They were drinking cow milk where they were kept. The less adventurous of the two has a lesion of some sort on her back. The other has red spots on her belly I couldn't get a look at yet. We've made up milk for them from some dried stuff we have left over from last time, but we don't have any wet food. They haven't shown any interest in it yet.

I attempted to introduce them to my cats. My halfgrown fosters had entered my room right as we were unlocking the carrier, beginning their evening ritual of heading up to my room to eat and perhaps be petted.

The kittens were very scared, but also bold. It's strange. I'm so used to my usual foster cats flattening into the ground and not moving for hours. It was almost amazing when the kittens willingly moved, and even more so when they didn't try to get back into the carrier.

After several failed meetings where both sides started to get scared, the kittens stopped trying. It's fascinating to watch how cats 'talk', but in this case, it was somewhat sad. All of them wanted to be friendly. But one side would start to feel slightly nervous. Ears would go down. This scared the other side. Ears went down there. Now the first side was more scared. Hissing started.

My fosters were a lot more laid-back about it, or pretended to be. The kittens started puffing up several feet away after the first few encounters, whereas they would stay relaxed at that distance, or at least look so. I also noticed that the kittens have adult length fur on their backs, and short kitten fur on their sides. This allowed them to puff up impressively. Although the benefit of this is obvious, I can't ever remember seeing it on the other kittens I've kept.

The cats and kittens also didn't seem able to see each other. There was a great deal of sniffing but not much looking, and when they did make eye contact they were surprised. Several times I witnessed Stripe, my foster, and the darker kitten creeping forward around some object, only to see one another around a corner and be surprised. Later, when I decided to initiate the meeting myself (manually picking up one cat and bringing it over to the other so they'll get a good sniff. It works as long as the cats are both peaceful and you've got a good grip) I saw something even stranger.

I picked up my foster. She was tense, so much, in fact, that she didn't even try to get away. I carried her over to the chair, where the lighter kitten was lying. My cat was sniffing and rigid, moving her head a little. She was looking toward me as I set her down, and she was curled up. Her back was to the kitten, who was almost immobile, paws and tail tucked under and eyes shut.

The cat sniffed. She looked around, moving her head around an area about forty-five degrees. The closest she got to turning was when she was looking straight forward.

The kitten was inches away, almost touching her back, but she didn't look. She was sniffing, aware that there was another cat, and seemed to be trying to see it, but refused to look completely away from me. I rubbed my hand on the back of the chair, she turned, stared, stared, saw the kitten, and began her flatten-against-the-ground tactic. She hissed a couple times and finally I released her.

Repeat with the other foster. This time, I held Stripe up front and leaned her in. If she tried to scratch my hand would block it, and so I held her close enough to be face-to-face. Like everybody, Stripe was scared. She tried, very carefully, to pull away. As she pulled her leg out to set it on the chair, the kitten flinched away, as if it was a swipe.

I don't entirely understand why my fosters were so scared. They're almost the size of adult cats, and the kittens are about a month or so. I think it's because kittens are usually found with mothers, and mothers are usually violent. I remember my cat was terrified of the weaned kitten I tried to introduce him to. That would also explain why they tried to act so calm. Puffing up like the kittens would just antagonize their mother.

I put the fosters out (they were quite relieved) and left my room to get things. On the way, I stopped to pet my female cat, who's pretty temperamental. She sniffed and licked my fingers, no hissing at all. So I brought the braver dark kitten to her.

She immediately leaned forward, shoving her nose into the kitten's side, sniffed for a few seconds, pulled back and hissed. Really hissed. I think I'll keep her out of my room until they're gone.

The fosters and kittens should get along okay. They both did soft hisses and the fosters flattened down, so they don't want to fight. My fourth cat won't be a problem. He's good.

Tomorrow, I'll have to do something about their food. I'm going to see if I can get them to drink the milk now.