March 14, 2008

10 Days Old

Mo and Jasmine’s litter of kittens are 10 days old today. Over the last couple of days they have begun opening their eyes and soon they will be able to move around with ease instead of the waddle slash crawl they do now.

At the beginning of this week Jasmine moved the kittens from the space she had them in downstairs to the bottom of Snoring Daddy’s dresser in our upstairs bedroom. So we moved food, water, and a litter box upstairs for Jasmine’s use. We also took the bottom drawer out to give the cat family more room.

Jasmine hid the babies

And for a little privacy we put the drawer against the dresser to make Mama Jasmine feel more protected.

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These are a few of the pictures I took today–click on over to my flickr to view these full sized as well as to see more.

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The kids are calling the orange one, “Mini-Mo” after the kitten’s daddy.

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Daddy Mo, helps out by doing “diaper” duty. Young kittens require their mother’s assistance to go potty and she does this by cleaning their bottoms–this also serves the purpose of keeping their nest clean until they are old enough for Jasmine to teach them to use the litter box.

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I have no experience with the sire-kitten dynamic, so I don’t know if Mo is exceptional or typical. He often joins Jasmine and the kittens in their nest to cuddle and groom the kittens. He also remains in the nest while Jasmine leaves to eat, drink, and visit the litter box. Both Jasmine and Mo have been excellent parents.

Meanwhile my children have been counting the days until the kittens are big enough to hold and play with. Every aspect of this experience has served as an excellent lesson for my three, from the pregnancy and birth to the mother cat’s care of her kittens to a lesson in patience. And that’s the best lesson of all.

For more critters visit the Friday Ark at the Modulator’s.

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Comments

  • Modulator says:

    Friday Ark #182…

    We’ll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and….? Visit all the …


  • [...] Mommy gives us an excellent pictorial update on the 10 day old [...]


  • Kris says:

    Well Mo is an exceptional daddy in my book! (Any daddy who does diapers gets bonus points in Chicka’s book!)

    Kris’s last blog post..Happy (St. Patty’s Day) Birthday, Mom!


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