Sunday, May 5, 2019

And the Kitties Come Tumbling Out!

by Pa Rock
Farmer in Spring

This year's litter of farm kittens was born in a dark corner of a dark room within the chicken coop, a room normally set aside as a nursery for young chicks.  There is one door which the farmer has to open and close, a bare light overhead which is seldom turned on, and a small opening through which the mother cat, Fiona, has routes of ingress and egress into a large, outdoor, caged-in area.

The kittens were born April 6th, on a Saturday afternoon, and they have been content to remain piled in their corner of the little dark room waiting patiently for Fiona to drop in to bath and feed them.   They have been quiet, docile, and very little trouble for their mother.

That all ended yesterday afternoon when the newest farm babies finally made it to the small opening and came tumbling out into the light of day.  Fiona and the two toms - the kittens' older brothers - were outside of the cage having dinner when the next generation made its debut.  The tired old mother cat looked less than pleased at this new development, probably knowing that her work load had just increased markedly now that she would have to start chasing and corralling her offspring - and the toms looked rather nonplussed as they had their first looks at the new siblings.

I had viewed the babies earlier with the aid of the overhead light bulb and a flashlight, but yesterday's appearance of the whole litter also served as my first really good look at the entire troupe.  They are, as I noted here a couple of days after their birth, a total of five little fur balls.  Three are black - and one of those appears to have a few white chest hairs, one is yellow, and one is a gray-stripe.  I can't tell the gender at this age, and they all appear to be roughly the same size.  (Sometimes with new litters, little toms are larger than the others.)

The Amish ladies who clean my house (and thank God someone does!) have indicated that they may want a couple of the black ones - but the others will still be in need of good homes.

And don't forget - Pa Rock delivers - anywhere!

1 comment:

Mineko said...

Happy 1 month birthday to the kittens. Hope they will find good home before long.