It's No Longer Just Bunnyworms and Wafflecats

We have had some additions to our family.

Diva and Bjorn

It was never my intention to have more furbabies. These guys were a surprise.

See, my brother rescued a cat two years or so ago. She was undernourished and all messed up, and has a BB lodged in her face just under her right eye. He named her Kelly. He patched her up and got her healthy. She's a really sweet cat. She's got fur like none I've ever really experienced. It's thick and chunky but it's not long, but longer than short. Then there is her round face. Her tail isn't foofy but it's got that same thick fur.

Kelly. I've always been partial to calico cats.

My brother is a bit slow (mentally handicapped) and he doesn't understand some things, and some things he understands wrong, but he loves animals and always has. He has had a cat named Melissa (she is NOT a nice cat. Not a nice cat at all.) for several years.

So he took in this bedraggled abandoned hurt kitty and fed her, loved her, bonded with her.

But he did not fix her. Nooooo he did not.

Oops

The first time I met Kelly, I asked him if she had been spayed and he said he was not sure because she was an adult when he found her (or she found him, which I think is more likely). He said he'd had her for over a year and she had never had a litter so he thought she had been. He was wrong. The second time I saw her (he was living at my grandmother's house at this point) she had that classic "swallowed a basketball" look that pregnant cats have. I told him, "Luis, your cat is pregnant." He disagreed with me. He said she was just fat because she ate all the time.

Now, I grew up with kittens and cats and dogs and rabbits and iguanas and snakes and birds and fish--you name it. My gramma always had a menagerie of animals--usually belonging to one of her 7 kids or her 11 grandchildren. Except Precious, the iguana (named after Gollum), whom she had back in the 90s. Precious was her baby. She loved and doted on that thing. Anyhow, I know when an animal is pregnant. I've been there for the birth of kittens. I've seen (and heard!) cats mating. Like I said, my gramma had all these animals belonging to everyone else at her house--people who didn't spay or neuter their pets.

I told him, "Luis, I can feel heads when I touch her belly." He told me they were parasites (in a way he was right. Hahahaha! Cats.) He told me she's gotten big like this several times before and then lost all the weight suddenly. Now, my theories as to what happened there are that she either raised litters of kittens in someone else's house (she's an indoor/outdoor cat), raised the kittens in the wild, had a miscarriage (she was in pretty rough health for a while), had kittens that were sickly and abandoned them (sad!), or that she had the kittens and that bitch Melissa killed them. Like I said, Melissa is NOT A NICE CAT. I've had the hardest time keeping her from mauling Bunnyworm. Anyhow, I told him that when the kittens were born, I had a home for one of the orange ones if there were any orange ones.

A friend of mine had wanted a fluffy orange kitten for the longest time. A little bit less than a month later I received a phone call from my brother telling me that Kelly had given birth to a litter of 6 kittens--3 gray, 2 orange, 1 black and white. I went up to my grammas right before Easter to see her and honestly, the kittens.

KITTIES!!!!!

He wasn't sure when they had been born but that they were about a week old. (They look older than that to me). Bunnyworm was thrilled to death about the kittens and we had to keep her away from them so she wouldn't hurt them.

About a month and a half later, Luis called me and told me, "They are ready, can you please come get them?"

Now, I was only planning on getting the fluffy orange one and taking it to my friend, but somehow I wound up taking ALL of them.

We planned on going up there to get them on both me and Daddybeast's day off from work. A day before that Luis called me crying hysterically. One of the kittens had gotten outside and gotten lost in the tall grass in the rain and had died. That was the black and white one, while another one had also gotten out but he'd managed to find that one (one of the orange ones).

So, we were going to pick up 5 kittens and Kelly, who I had insisted on taking so I could get her spayed. They were NOT HAPPY in the car for the hour we drove home.

We bought a wire kennel to keep the kittens in initially (we were not sure how Wafflecat was going to handle invaders plus Kelly had to stop nursing so we could get her spayed) and to keep Kelly in either while she was in heat so she would not sneak out, or after her surgery to keep her contained. That was where the kittens spent their first few days in my apartment.

From the left-female, male, male, female, male.

My friend came and picked up the fluffy orange one that night. She was so excited. I went out and I bought collars for the other 4 in different colors-Purple, Red, Blue, Pink so we could refer to the kittens by the color of their collar instead of naming them or trying to describe them. They were slowly let out into the bathroom where the kennel was initially, and then for short periods of time. Eventually we let them outside to see the back porch. Waffles was very interested in the kittens. The orange kittens (including the long haired one that showed interest in him before my friend came to get him) were they only ones not scared of him and Kelly would not let him near her or the kittens (it was very ugly).

Eventually, Waffles bonded with one of the kittens (Blue collar) who looked *JUST LIKE HIM*.

I should add that Waffles had been neutered about a year prior to this picture.

The matching collars were not a coincidence.

 A few days went passed and my friend gave me a call. She was allergic to the fluffy orange kitten and it was not working out. She couldn't breathe when he was around so she was going to have to bring him back. She brought him back and he was overjoyed to be reunited with his mom and siblings.

He did not have a collar for a while, then I got a green camouflage one for him.

Mothers day was approaching and Daddybeast offered me a choice. I could either have a Ninja kitchen system or the fluffy orange kitten that had been brought back. I chose the orange kitten and we named him Bjorn (bear). I still think I made the better choice.

One of Daddybeast's coworkers was looking to replace a cat she had just lost. I convinced her to take 2. She took the Pink collard gray girl and named her Shay, and the blue collard short haired orange boy (I liked his collar better than the green one, so I switched collars to Bjorn) whom she named Tigger.

So we were down to 3 kittens.

It was at this point that I noticed that Kelly was gaining weight and bulking up. She had not been outside at all since I'd brought her home and spent a lot of time hiding in my bathroom. She was pregnant again and i was not about to abort those kittens so we took her back to Luis. I was happy to see her go. She's a really sweet cat, but she hated Wafflecat and even though he was almost twice as big as her, he was terrified of her. She was constantly attacking and ambushing him and even cut up his face. Luis cried and cuddled her when we took her back. I informed him that he would need to talk to my mom about fixing her because after 2 months of taking care of 4 extra cats (and having to get Bjorn sorted out) I was not going to be able to afford to get her spayed.

I do not know what happened to that litter because I went back by there about a week ago and she was very pregnant. She might have miscarried. Either way, a new litter will be coming soon and I've already informed him that no one I know wants a cat.

Anyhow, with the departure of their mother (they were at least 3 months old by this point) they all became really needy and attached themselves to Wafflecat. He was pretty decent about it too. He got rough periodically, but ultimately he just wanted to play. Red (the gray and white boy) started trying to nurse on him and Bjorn followed suit. The purple kitten never did, but did hang out with him a lot.

Wafflecat is a BOY CAT

 Wafflecat and Bjorn get along very well. They spend a lot of time together.

Cat heart!

Wafflecat initially did not like Diva. Diva is an instigator and a troublemaker. She used to initiate play and then cry when she started to lose, then Kelly would come in and beat his ass. They've started to bond now that she's recovered from her spay.

Ain't nothing like a heap o' cats

Now, we wound up keeping Diva because well, I like her and she loves me (as much as a cat can love a person). She's Daddybeast's favorite too. We got Diva and Bjorn spayed and neutered using Project Catsnips. They did a fantastic job. They were fixed, got all their shots (rabies, 4 in 1, feline leukemia), both have been microchipped, dewormed, and we got 3 months of revolution per cat for fleas (not that they've ever had any). It set us back about $360. Very cheap.

As much as I loved Red we could not keep him. 4 cats is too much for a 1 bedroom apartment. Way too much. I asked around and even tried to persuade my mom to take him. He's a beautiful cat.

He is spotted. He's also got brown on his ears, face and a bit on his tummy. My guess is that someone in the neighborhood owned an unaltered male Bengal cat. Diva and Bjorn show signs of it too.

We took him back to my brother last week. Luis decided he is going to keep him and name him "Speedy". I am not fond of the name, but that's his decision. RED was the least socialized kitten so I spent the most time taming him. He was practically feral when I brought him home and he mauled me several times. He would hiss at me whenever I got close to him. By the time he left, he was sleeping next to me every chance he got. He does not like being picked up and probably never will, but he likes being close and he likes being petted and loved. Very sweet cat.

So yes, we have 2 new furbabies. Bjorn loves EVERYONE and will jump on your chest and lick you until your face is raw. He's a purrbeast. He's also got allergies and I bathe him once a week to keep those in check. He does not like it at all.

They all have tags like this.

Diva is the kind of cat that will reach up and trip you as you step over her. She's also very affectionate and might just turn into my favorite. She's also the smartest (Bjorn is the dumbest cat I have ever seen). She's also stunningly beautiful.

and she knows it.

Still, even with all of this sweetness and posing and cuddlyness, cats are still pretty evil.

We bite.