I know you wanna hear more about my kittons. Their personalities are so very different, in adorable ways and it never ceases to amaze me how their reactions to a situation can vary drastically. 

We have a clowder of feral cats at the cabin, which of course I feed.  This means they come up to the house when we are there.  A couple of them even come right to the front door (which is glass) and look right in at me, so that I know they are there and that they are desperate for cat food.  And because cats have domesticated humans (rather than the other way around), I get up out of my chair and get them some breakfast.
When these felines come around, Siada and Malik go on alert. They will follow the cats from window to window to keep an eye on them. Most of them they just watch, there is one that they are a little more aggressive over (a torbie female that I think is sister to Mommy Cat, the sweetest and least skittish of the colony). But mostly they just stalk around and glare at the interlopers and keep them in their place.
Layla is different. When she sees Mommy Cat or her black and white kitten from this fall (which is now almost cat sized), she is actually excited. Her posture is playful and she wags her tail like a puppy (not the thrashing of the tail which is her "annoyed" sign). She will play peek-a-boo with the black and white one at the door for hours. Outside Kitton sits right outside the door and looks in and Layla crunches down and then pops up, and they are nose to nose at the glass. The kitten then ducks down and Layla looks around bewildered as to where it went and then when it pops up she ducks down.
Over and over and over. It is just about the cutest thing ever.

Hopefully I can coordinate with a friend who is a vet and get some of these critters caught and fixed so that the population doesn't get out of control.

This past weekend when we arrived at our cabin, the first thing we heard when stepping out of the Jeep was the tiny wails of a little baby kitten.  The sound of a human infant sends me running for the hills, but there is something so heart wrenching about the cry of a tiny baby kitten that just stabs right to my heart.  We searched for it, and eventually found it (a tiny black tabby or marble, not much more than a week old) under a small porch next to the cabin.  This is actually the second litter to be stashed here by a smart mommy who knows how dry (and shaded) that area stays.

We listened to the wails as we unpacked, and then I came out a few more times to check on the little one, and to leave food for mom.  We decided that if mommy did not show up in a few more hours, we were making a run to PetSmart for a bottle and formula and then I hit social channels online to figure out how to handle this.  

I am pretty much a pro at giving large, cranky cats shots and meds at this point, but the idea of bottle feeding a little one was intimidating.  I am fortunate in my friends though as I know a vet, vet tech, and many people who do rescue and foster work for cats and kittens.  One friend kindly pointed me to this site for all the how-tos that one could want:  www.maddiesfund.org/orphaned-kitten-care-how-to.htm

The good news though, is that pretty soon mamma kitty DID come and take care of her baby.  I made sure that there was plenty of food out for her, hoping that would help her stay closer to the baby's hidey spot (and would let the baby cry less for its comfort).  I hope that in a few weeks we will see a little marble or stripey baby bounding around that side yard.

Eventually, we will have to start trapping some of the ferals on the property and getting them fixed.  We are very happy to host a colony, but do not want it getting out of control.

I never did get a photo of the fuzzy jellybean baby, so y'all will have to be content with my knuckleheads avoiding the heat this weekend ;-)