Kittens!!!!!!

I love baby animals! But I think that chicks and kittens rank toward the top. Well, we have had lots of chicks around here lately--I think 15 if we are counting correctly. So now we needed some kittens. Luckily, our female cat was nice enough to comply and provide us with some!

So last night I was washing the dishes and Anne was outside taking care of the cats-feeding and shutting them in for the night (protection from coyotes). All of a sudden Anne burst in, "MOM! There is something gross in Panther's box!

We had put a box in the room the cats go in at night for Panther. Now this is Panther's first litter (and last) of kittens, so when she had the first one, she had no idea what was going on! Anne found the first kitten alone and wet in the box. I came and looked to see if it was dead. It was not, but it was not in good shape, it was cold and wet and not moving much. So we wrapped it in a towel and brought it into the laundry room and put it under the heat lamp left from the chicks.

Then Anne comes running in again, "MOM, she's having another one I think!

Sure enough, and she was just as confused and tried to leave with kitten still attached. I won't go into the details, but we worked it out and then Panther jumped up and ran out the door!

The cats have a hiding place in the eves of the house and that is where Panther went! Now I did not want her to have the rest of her kittens in the eves so I coaxed her down with some kitty treats. Meanwhile we had two kittens in the laundry room under the heat lamp. We moved the heat lamp into the cat's room and moved the box under it. Panther heard the two mewling kittens and jumped in the box and started to care for them.

Then natural instinct took over and she delivered and cleaned and cared for the other two all on her own.

In these pictures the kittens are about 8 hours old, momma is just out of the picture having her breakfast. Panther is a good momma, and is comfortable with us being nearby as long as it is short visits.

More pictures from around the farm. Here is a rhodie off the front porch.

Now why would I take a picture of my shoes? Well, these are one of the few pairs of "trendy" shoes that I own. As you can see, they are a bit dirty.

Let me explain.

Most of the time around here, I am wearing jeans, t-shirts and sweatshirts. My feet are sporting the ever stylish mud boots. Every once in a while, I get the chance, or feel the need to dress nicely. Say when I am taking the kids to and from some activity.

On this particular day, I had been in the typical jeans, t-shirt and sweatshirt. We were leaving for ballet (I think). So I changed from the muddy garden clothes to a clean blouse, skinny jeans and by ever trendy ballet flats.

I am in the process of loading all into the car (trust me it is a process), when I hear "MOM, Joe is in over the fence in the neighbors Christmas trees!" I considered for a moment just leaving him there, but then compassion for the bugger kicked in when I remembered the very large dog the neighbor's have.

So that is why I ended up chasing this pain in the neck through the neighbor's Christmas trees while wearing skinny jeans and ballet flats!

Ahh, life in the country.

Garden plants are ready to go in! Now I need the soil to dry up a bit so I am not planting in mud.

More chicken pictures, I really like these girls. Joe and I tolerate each other.

This is India, in the background is Tiger, our talking hen.

These are the #2's. They are the older batch of chicks, now called pullets. They should start to lay in a few months. All except that big one in the middle. She was named Mary Poppins, but she is a he, and by recommendation of a friend we changed his name to Burt. The others are from left to right: Love Bug (a Barred Rock), Sarah (a Cuckoo maraan), Burt (a black sex link roo), Cloud ( a white rock), and Spice (gold sex link).