Monday, August 31, 2015

A box and cookie cutters!

Toby and Belle started to show a little interest in climbing, so I gave them a box with a bunch of holes and a basket inside it, to help them reach a little higher from the inside. It didn't take long before they enjoyed it! But I haven't really seen them on top of it yet though, and these pictures are from 5 days ago, so it's not like they haven't had time to discover things. That shows again that even such tiny kitties can have different personalities already, I've had kittens that were way more into exploring and climbing at such a young age already!






They did discover something else, eating! Oh, the mess they make of themselves, Toby looks pretty decent here still... :O


And following a toy is interesting too, as usual Belle was first to learn (although it's Toby on this photo)


Belle wanted to cuddle with me, in my neck and on my chest, which ment I had to hold her. But I wanted to game a little, so I tucked her in my shirt to hold her in place like that, which worked great :D Not that it helped though, I was so distracted by that cutie snoozing on me that I just sat there going awwh!



I have various activity boards and puzzles for my cats, they're an excellent way to mentally stimulate and challenge a cat, or to get an overweight cat to work a little for his food. You can buy special boards, craft them from various household items, or simply use items that you have in the house, like this cookie cutter set! Start with something easy and build it up slowly (so it never gets frustrating and the cat can learn it) - unless you're 2 kittens discovering something like this :O This set was there for Dewey, although he didn't mind their help, with them fishing out a bunch of the cutters his task became a lot easier!


They look like trouble here, haha!




Belle wanted to cuddle again...


But Toby wanted to play! So he climbed on top and attacked her :)



They're still getting bottles as well :) Not because they need it to grow, because they eat food now as well, but to help them with their suckling needs. But nowadays the bottles are on normal times during the day ;)


What's this, a mouse?

Belle on my lap :)




Yeah, I'm not getting much done in my house when they go like this! :L


Toby after his bottle, rolling around on my legs/feet


I gave Belle a toy mouse, she's the first with most things and I thought she might like it. There's plenty toys around the house, but before this time they were simply too little to show any interest!




At first she wasn't sure, but she did start to play a little with it


Toby was wondering what his little sis was up to...


Okay, nevermind that toy, there's Toby!



And tired afterwards :)



They both seemed to like the small blanket that I have on my desk, so I gave them another one (they're ment for windowsills) and it's clear they approve :) Here's Toby on it




Belle in her basket

Belle is now often sleeping in this basket, so cute! This is her snoozing on 22-8. A lot of these pics are similar, but she's so fluffy and awwh! :$








At times I feel like they have quite big front paws compared to the rest of their bodies :)





I don't know about you, but I always melt a little when I see such tiny pads :L


Finger for size, haha!

Discovering the house

I blocked the door opening from the living room to the rest of my house, but last few days it happened several times that I found a kitten near me on the wrong side of the door :D Today they both followed (yes, they're slowly learning to climb and make babyjumps at times, surprising themselves!) and I removed the blockage, and showed them where the big litter boxes are, so they know their way a bit around the downstairs area. Not that they're interested in any of that when I'm in the living room, but when I'm somewhere else, they just want to be near me! Then I went upstairs, and I heard Toby meow for me, but well, at times I'm busy, so as long as the meows don't go all out panic-mode I'm now not always replying straight away anymore. I hope he'll learn that he's okay, also when I'm not right next to him :) But Toby didn't agree on that tactic, haha! When I came out of the bedroom, Toby was there! :o I walked into another room and it didn't take long before Belle was upstairs too! What happened to those tiny, oh so dependent baby-kittens! They're 5 1/2 weeks now, they eat, they use the litter boxes, and apparently they can now climb the stairs too! I did feel it was a bit too soon for them on the stairs though, their jumping and landing skills ain't good yet, and I don't want to risk them playing on the stairs and falling down. But it was good that they were upstairs, because I fixed the kittenroom for them earlier, so I went there and called for them. They came to me, checked out the room, I showed them the litter boxes, and I also added some items from downstairs that smell like them, so the room feels a bit familiar already. Tonight they'll spend their first night there, but after that first exploring, I took them down again, and they've been in the living room ever since, because I am too :D

Toby shows how tiny he is (21-8)


Toby on my lap


Little fluffy Belle


This was the first time they started to walk around there, to really check things out a bit :)


Belle




But it didn't take long before they came to me :)



I sat on the ground, leaning on my lower arms, trying to make pictures of them. But I had to use the front camera of my phone , because they came to sit and play between my arms, haha!



Toby's cute little paw :)


I have a small, fuzzy blanket on my desk, for Sue to lie on when she wants to join me, but when I put Toby there he loved it as well!





Together in the basket. They still enjoy it, especially Toby, but Belle also found some other basket that she likes a lot. And Toby likes to be near Belle, so since a day or 2, he's been with her more in that basket :)