TIME TO WEAN

The kittens will be 7 weeks old this Saturday, so it's about time to wean them off their mom's milk and start giving poor Shelly a break from all the feeding. As you can tell from Shelly's demeanor, she's probably had enough.

Just waiting ...

Hurry up already!

I would have started to wean the kittens a week ago (at 6 weeks), but with Viper being so little, I thought I'd give him an extra week to fatten up. I have no concerns over Firebird and Porsche, as they are a good size and weight, but Viper is still smaller than his siblings.

Whenever it's feeding time, I always make sure that Viper has his own bowl to eat out of. I don't want his siblings charging in and pushing him out of the way. I have to make sure the runt gets his fair share of the nom!

Shelly is very vocal about being separated from her kittens, so instead of putting them into separate rooms, I have devised a plan to deny access to Shelly's milk by encasing her torso in one of my panty hose. I cut out holes for her legs to go through, but the rest of her belly is covered by the panty hose. She only wears this when I go to bed. I will take her out of it when I wake up and can monitor the kittens' interaction with her.

What is this thing?!?

As you can tell from Shelly's expression, she's quite perplexed with her new attire. Hopefully she doesn't gnaw through it.

I'm thinking it will only take about 2 weeks to get her milk down to a level that the kittens will not be able to nurse from her any longer. Then she will be ready to be spayed and up onto the *VOKRA website for adoption!

Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue Association

https://www.facebook.com/VOKRA

Adoption application:

http://www.orphankittenrescue.com/adoption_application/

SUMMARY: BATCHES #1 - 10

I am by no means a veteran foster mom, as there are hundreds (if not thousands) of other foster parents out there who have fostered for years and probably have lost count of the exact number of cats/kittens they have cared for.

The other day, hubby and I tried counting how many kittens we have had in our home since we started fostering back in November 2013, but we lost count.

So, since I am on Batch #10 (which is a nice round number), I thought I'd summarize all the batches right here and now to get a more accurate count. I am only counting kittens, not adult/mommy cats ... just to make for a more simplified count.

Batch #1: (5 kittens)

Starsky & Hana 

Skooter, Luci & Malcomb

Batch #2, the "Happy Days" batch: (6 kittens)

Black Kittens: Shirley & Ritchie
White Kittens: Ralphie & Laverne

Tabbies: Chachi & Arthurelli

Batch #3: (2 kittens)

Hyde

Seak

Batch #4, the "Midnight Express" batch: (3 kittens)

Slate, Kole and Ebonie

Batch #5, the "Big Bang Theory" batch: (4 kittens)

Lennie
(Photo by Tania Hennessy)

Penee
(Photo by Tania Hennessy)

Rajesh
(Photo by Tania Hennessy)

Shellie
(Photo by Tania Hennessy)

Batch #6, the "Little" batch: (6 kittens)

Top to Bottom: Little Ewok, Little Panda, Little Snowball,
Little Masquerade, Little Twinkle and Little Cuddler

Batch #7, the "Semi-Precious Stone" batch: (4 kittens)

Left to Right: Miss Amber, Onyx, Opalescence and Alexandrite

Batch #8, the "Kittypants" batch: (5 kittens)

Top to Bottom: Chino, Bloomer, Corduroy,
Jean and Breeches

Batch #9, the "Chrono Trigger (video game)" batch: (6 kittens)

Black Kittens: Lucca and Magus
Tabbies: Dalton, Zeal, Crono and Frog

Batch #10, the "Sports Car" batch: (3 kittens)

Left to Right: Firebird, Viper and Porsche

So, if I add up all the kittens in the last 10 batches, that would make it a grand total of:

44 kittens!

I know of some *VOKRA fosters who have fostered kittens into the three digits, so you can imagine how long they have been fostering to get to those numbers. That`s a lot of rescued kittens ... and a lot of snuggles and cuteness!

Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue Association

https://www.facebook.com/VOKRA

Adoption application:

http://www.orphankittenrescue.com/adoption_application/