Bunny and Carlo come upstairs

I’ve got an idea for an entire set of children’s books about kittens.  They’ll be based on the life stages of our fosters, and will feature titles like, “Bunny and Carlo Open Their Eyes”, “Bunny and Carlo Use the Litterbox”, and the series will wrap up with, “Bunny and Carlo Come Upstairs”.  When I foster, I keep the kittens in a downstairs bathroom that I’ve equipped with special small litterboxes, baby wipes, a baby gate, etc.  The kittens live in the bathroom exclusively until they’re about three weeks old, and then the gate comes off occasionally so they can play in the kitchen.  I then expand their territory, giving them the entire run of downstairs for a few hours each day.  The kittens don’t truly graduate from being “babies” until that special day when I bring them upstairs for the first time.  “Upstairs” has carpeting, furniture, lots of nooks and crannies, dangerous stair railings and ledges, and lots of other cats.  It’s cat pandemonium up here.

Tonight, I brought Bunny and Carlo upstairs for the very first time.  I usually do it when the cats are about six weeks old, and I’m really late with these two, but Carlo’s bowel problems delayed everything.  Letting them come upstairs gives them a chance to work on important skills like searching out a litterbox when they need one, watching television, and walking on keyboards to erase stuff.  I was pretty concerned that Carlo would have at least one accident, but he ran to the litterbox at one point and cried, sort of “asking” to be lifted into it because it’s so large.  He did the same thing about an hour later, crying and waiting for me to put him in the box.  I’m really impressed by that—I just showed him the box one time, and yet he remembered how to get back to it when he needed it.  He’s the only kitten I’ve had who’s been unable to climb up into the box himself, which is further evidence that he’s really, really small (he weighs 1 lb, 9 oz.).  I don’t know if Bunny has used the box yet, but I just don’t worry about Bunny—she’s a smart little gal.  I did lose Carlo at one point, and I was a bit worried.  I looked under both sofas, the chair, wondered if he’d gone behind the TV, and called him for about five minutes.  I eventually found him halfway downstairs, on the landing, sleeping in a basket of dirty laundry.  Neither he nor his sister seem intimidated by all the extra room they’ve suddenly got access to.

They’re about to go to bed, which will be back downstairs for now.  After a few nights of trials runs, I’ll let them try an overnighter.  I’m going to have to make a litterbox ramp for Carlo, I guess—he can get out, but can’t get in.  It’s just two more weeks until he can have some tests on his liver, and in the meantime, they really need their first set of shots.  I’ve put those off because of Carlo’s size, but they can’t be put off forever.

So, the kittens say goodnight.  And Bing says, “Kittens suck.”

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I wanted to add to last night’s entry, and mention that the book I’ve started to read is ”The Pig Who Sang to the Moon: The Emotional World of Farm Animals” by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson.  I really enjoy his writing.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 06/01 at 12:45 AM

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  1. I like your idea of the Bunny and Carlo books! I bet they’d sell. I’m glad they are getting to develop those skills all cats should be able to do. At what age do you introduce curtain climbing and theft of small personal objects from dressers?

    Posted by Diana  on  06/01  at  04:27 AM

  2. The last book is Bunny and Carlo Go Home. When they leave you for their forever home, and we all hope they live happily ever after, and then when you are all sad that they’ve gone (because we all know we all will be), there’s the next set of kittens, because it’s still kitten season and you know there will be more. So it ends on a happy note for everybody.

    Posted by Georg  on  06/01  at  10:41 AM

  3. Yeah, you’re right, Georg smile I want Bunny and Carlo to leave soon, even though I love the little guys, but I can’t do it until Carlo can have bloodwork to ensure he doesn’t have FIV or liver problems or something with a name.  I don’t want to send him to a new home pretending he’s healthy, when he isn’t.  And in the interim, he and Bunny are inseparable (and she’s the only thing in the house small enough to play with him).

    Diana, cats seem to be born with all their bad skills intact, they just need to wait until their legs are long enough to catch up with their aspirations.  Last night, one of our older kittens stole my brand new tube of Blistex and I’m not happy about it.  Carlo and Bunny aren’t that advanced yet, but they do know how to remove the doorstop in the bathroom.

    And a note to anyone’s who’s suggested it previously—I started giving Carlo pumpkin today, and so far, so good.  He had one fairly firm poop, so maybe this will be a good thing.  I just need to figure out the correct amount of pumpkin through trial and error, and I need to keep Bunny from eating it, because she’s perfect right now and I don’t want to mess that up!

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  06/03  at  04:02 AM
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