Happy Babies

Time for a happy success story. The three babies pictured came in with their mother, Aerwin, who was no more than a kitten herself. They arrived when the shelter had plenty of room. It's always best when the babies come in with Mom if we have room because she makes the purrfect food source, baby sitter and entertainment center. At first we thought she might be feral but she was just doing her motherly job protecting them from harm. As soon as they were about 6 or 7 weeks old we took them from her so that her milk could dry up and we could get her spayed and up for adoption. We need to get our kittens up to about 8 weeks old or 2 pounds before we can get them spayed or neutered. Early spay and neuter has worked very well for us - especially for kittens. We've learned from experience that a) kittens are most adoptable while they are small and cute and b) we can't leave it up to adopters to get spay and neuter operations done, even if they pay for the operation in advance. So the best solution is to do the operations while the kittens are still small and cute. More on the health advantages of that another day. So this little troop played and ate and played and ate. They were all three lively and affectionate. Sometimes they acted more like little white and black monkeys than baby cats. Like almost all our kittens they ended up with some minor eye crud and were soon medicated back to health. It's always good to see kittens go off to good homes knowing that they won't grow up to produce more. Aerwin is still waiting for her home but at least now she can live the rest of her life "litter free" too.