Pépite's litter

Pépite and Demis were very very happy to meet again end of March 2023,
after Demis stayed several months at Valérie's home (la Cornaline cattery).
They clearly remembered each other and were still fond of each other !

Here they are on the big cat tree (Pépite in the round cushion above, Demis below)

As expected, Pépite became pregnant. But, 5 weeks later, she lost a foetus.
However, the other babies must have held tight, because 4 kitties were ultimately born on the scheduled date, in the morning of June 1st.

First an 80 gram female, then three males weighing 100, 108 and 104 grams.

Here are close-ups of each little head :

The female [code name F1 until I unveil the proper names], wearing the red collar

The three males: from left to right in order of birth: M2 (blue collar), M3 (green collar) et M4 (yellow collar)
Beware, the collar seen on the picture itself is often the one of the "pillow" kitty and not of the one pictured !
     

After a week, they started to open their eyes.
Here they are 9 days old, with their (very attentionate) mom in the nest:

  

They start to roam the nest on their little paws clearly not strong enough to support their plump little bellies.

The female F1 who tries to lift a front paw

The three males M2 (with his left eye not yet completely open), inquisitive M3 and M4 who looks very proud to be able to raise his head::
     

16 June, 2023
They are now 2 weeks old. Here is the female :

     

And the three boys (all mixed up)

  

  

  

After 2.5 weeks, the big move ! The whole family moves from the bedroom-maternity
to the big room-nursery, first within an open playpen (well, open for mom, but the kiddies don't jump that high yet !)

  

June 25 : the kitties are now starting to explore outside the playpen during the day,
and they spend also more time playing with each other between snoozes.

The female seems to have what is called a "turn coat" or "fever coat",
i.e. a lack of pigmentation in the new hair growth of the warmest parts of the body.
This phenomenom is temporary, until all her hair is regenerated (about 6 months old).
It is clearly (hihi) visible on the picture at right, where she sleeps side by side with her brother.
I already had this phenomenon once with Elfie (see the 2009 litter page), who became a wonderfully warm ruddy girl.

  

Blue-collared male (M2)

Green-collared male (M3)

Yellow-collared male (M4)

2nd July : already one month old!

It is a great joy to see these kittens beginning to climb, to play with everything,
and even to try the litter by themselves... when they still do not want to eat anything else but Pépite's milk.

Here are individual pictures, three for each kitten:

The only female PF1 (she doesn't need her red collar any more, she's not at risk of being mistaken for one of her brothers)

     

The male with a light blue collar, aka PM2 ; with his brother PM4 in the middle picture::

     

The male with a dark green collar, aka PM3:

     

The male with a yellow collar, aka PM4:

     

9 July 2023

They are already more than 5 weeks old and hardly eat anything beside mom's milk...
According to the weight curves, it is a very good milk!

Here, from left to right : PM4, PF1, PM3, PM2

Close-ups of the cat tree exploration: PF1 (female) and PM2 (male with the blue collar)

  

Licking time with males PM3 (green collar) and PM4 (yellow collar)

  

12 July

A few pictures of shared moments together with the kitties : first PF1 interested in the spring toy,
then two sets of blue-grey eyes (PM3 and Clémentine),
and below PM2 looking at you straight in the eyes, and PM4... like a sleeping elf!

  
  

16 July

Pépite has now three active tits, who were all used a lot, since the kitties did not want to accept
any other milk or food until they were about 6 weeks old!!!).
The abdominal tit is now badly bruised ; to avoid infection, kittens must not be allowed to use this one tit...
This is the reason why, since 2 days, Pépite must wear a bodysuit (without the rear paws in)
in order to leave access solely to the two inguinal tits.
The three boys cope quite well with this, taking turns to access the tits, but the little female
deliberately rejects these and insists that "her spot" is only where it used to be, there right under the bodysuit...

Individual portraits at 1.5 months old

The female PF1 and the male PM2 (blue collar)
  

Males PM3 (green collar) and PM4 (yellow collar)
  

24 July 2023

Mom Pépite does not need her bodysuit anymore, hourrah !

Here is the picture of all four kittens together: from left to right, PM2 (whose collar is now black, due to a lack of blue collars in my collection...),
PM3 (green collar), PM4 (yellow collar) et PF1 the only girl.

Their true names will soon be unveiled...

30 July 2023 : The naming of cats !

I am happy to present :
USCHI (germanic shortname for Ursula, "small teddy bear"), ex-PF1

  

UMI NO PONYO (海のポニョ, meaning "Ponyo of the sea" in japanese),
in memory of Hayao Miyazaki's animated film, even if here Ponyo is a little male...,
ex-PM2 (blue then black collar)

  

URESHII RISU (嬉しい栗鼠, meaning "the happy squirrel" in japanese), ex-PM3 (green collar) [spoken for]

  

UTSUKUSHII KITSUNE (美しい狐, the "beautiful fox" in japanese), ex-PM4 (yellow collar)

  

9 August 2023

The girl, USCHI

UMI NO PONYO

URESHII RISU

UTSUKUSHII KITSUNE

And the three boys together :

27 August

They grow in beauty but also in appetite (especially for full fat soft cheese "apéricubes" as treats, more than for kibble!)

USCHI, the female (in the cushion, then with UTSUKUSHII KITSUNE)

  

UMI NO PONYO

URESHII RISU

UTSUKUSHII KITSUNE

And now... the 3 males together (from left to right, Ureshii RISU, UMI no PONYO and Utsukushii KITSUNE).

8 September 2023

On September 1st, the Pepite's kittens were 3 months old, but they still love mom's milk from time to time.

USCHI, who is becoming ever more sweet and loves to lie on my shoulders

  

UMI NO PONYO, a very sweet boy who loves to cuddle and purr

  

URESHII RISU, who likes to be admired as the the most hairy of the four, and also the biggest (already 1.8 kg!)

  

UTSUKUSHII KITSUNE, proud to have the most intense coat colour of the four

  

All of them together (from left to right, Risu, Ponyo, Uschi and Kitsune)

Weight curves

First two weeks

Weeks 3 and 4

Weeks 5 to 8

~~o0O0o~~

R'Maïnie's litter

R'Maïnie had her babies the day after Demis died...
Contractions started at 7 in the morning, a first female kitten was bogrn 70 minutes later,
followed by a second female, then by a third female... a male was born fourth
and finally... another female. Ah, no, it wasn't finished... a sixth female,
overlooked on the X-ray, was born a short time after the fifth one.
Completely spent, mom tries to rest a bit while 5, then 6 kitties are busy finding their favorite tits.

  

The next day, mom is a bit more rested and endulges in a few trips (of not more than a few dozens of seconds each)
outside the nest for her personal needs. Here are pictures taken on wednesday 28 June:

  

The last born, Ultima Demisovna, not yet one day old, shows her little cute head
between mom's paws to tell us she is here and that life continues despite the grief of Demis'loss.

The kittens grow well, R'Maïnie is a very attentive mom. Here are individual portraits, 5 days old:

The first-born female (orange collar), aka RF1:

  

The second-born female (ligh-pink collar), aka RF2:

  

The 3rd-born female (deep pink collar), aka RF3:

  

The litter's only male (dark blue collar), aka RM4:

  

The fifth-born, a female (violet collar), aka RF5:

  

The very last born (actually the "bigger" on day five!), Ultima Demisovna, aka RF6:

  

9 July 2023

Meet all six kittens with their eyes fully opened!

  
  
  

And all together with mom R'Maïnie

22 July 2023

Mom R'Maïnie has decided earlier this week that she doesn't like the box in the playpen anymore,
and chose the kennel under the bed table as the home base...

The six kittens are beginning to explore the room, but still spend a lot of time in a bunch for siestas.

RF1 (orange collar), in a close up on July 19 then 22 (her look goes from "baby" to "young kitten"),
then with Elliot, sharing the same look of "what is this ? what can I do next ?"

  

RF2 (pink collar), one of the first to explore:

  

RF3 (dark pink collar)

  

The boy of the pack, RM4 (blue collar)

  

RF5 (purple collar) :

  

RF6 (white collar) :

  

29 June 2023

The day before they were 4 weeks old, they started to like licking food from my finger or a plate,
basically baby paté mixed up with baby cat milk : much earlier than Pépite's 4 kittens !

Of course now they still get a lot of milk from mom, but for 6 energetic kittens it would be hard for R'Maïnie
to continue feeding them 100%, so it's a good thing that they now enjoy human-given food.

The left picture shows them all clumped up together, and the right one shows mom R'Maïnie
in a rare moment with only one kitten (RF3), the others still being asleep one meter away.

  

31 July 2023 : the naming of cats!

The true name of RF1 (orange collared female, left) is USHA ("dawn" in sanskrit)
and the one of RF2 (pink collared female) is U'MIA (she was the first to miaow while reaching for my legs at breakfast)

  

The true name of RF3 (dark pink collared female) is U'ILANI (beauty deity in Hawaïan)
and the one of RM4 (blue collared male) is UPI L'AMI (his first name is not Mars, though...)

  

The true name of RF5 (purple collared female, left) is U'BYSTROUŠKA,
en hommage à la petite renarde rusée popularisée par l'opéra de Leoš Janáček
and the one of RF6 (white collared female) is ULTIMA DEMISOVNA,
last-born from her daddy DEMIS SILVALIYA, who died the day before from an hyper-agressive cancer.

  

9 August 2023

Sleeping is the most important activity! Here siesta on the bed with grandma Jemima.
As for eating time, the kittens are like a flower around the plate.

  

Beside these moments, it is quite difficult to get the six of them together looking in the same direction...
There is always at least one or two who hide behind others or start jumping out of the scene.

Here are their individual portraits :

USHA (left) et U'MIA (right)

  

U'ILANI (left) and the male UPI L'AMI (right)

  

U'BYSTROUŠKA (left) and ULTIMA DEMISOVNA (right)

  

27 août

They are 2 months old today !
After a lot of worry a week ago, concerning Ultima and U'Ilani
(the first one for the start of a bowel obstruction, the second one for a "wrong turn" of a milk drop in her left lung),
everything is back to normal again, Ultima quickly regained her weight loss and all six of them are back to hyper-activity...!

Look at them today :

USHA, at the milk bar, then with full attention on the things in my hands

  

U'MIA, often the first one to come and look what's going on when waking up

  

U'ILANI, very proud (left) and then while counting up to 20 during a hide-and-seek game ;-)

  

UPI L'AMI, the one boy

  

U'BYSTROUSKA, loving to look at things the other way round

  

ULTIMA DEMISOVNA, the office keeper (if I'm late in answering the mails, ask her why...)

  

and finally all six of them together !!!

  

6 September 2023

They grow quick and regularly. They are now 8 weeks old.
They all are acrobats, from floor to ceiling no reachable place has been missed!
In order to have stable pictures, I must use the camera in the minutes of waking up...

USHA (left) and U'MIA (right)

  

U'ILANI (left) and the boy UPI L'AMI (right)

  

U'BYSTROUŠKA (left) and ULTIMA DEMISOVNA (right)

  

1st october 2023

Ultima Demisovna (picture below) shows her "abyssinian-like" elegance.

I will soon start to take the kittens to their new homes, so this week-end was the last opportunity to take a picture
of them all six together, with two of their half-brothers from Pépite's litter who are 4 months old today.
From left to right, you may recognize :
Ureshii Risu (male, 4 months old), U'Ilani, Upi l'ami (male), Umi no Ponyo (male, 4 months old),
U'Bystrouska, Usha, U'Mia et Ultima Demisovna.

Weight curves of R'Maïnie's kitties

First two weeks

Weeks 3 and 4

Weeks 5 and more