Itty Bitty Turkey-scoffing Committee

The Committee, aside from being very very scared by some visiting children on xmas day, are very much enjoying the festive season.  Specifically, they are enjoying left-over turkey for dinner.  Although the upstairs cats (a/k/a the perma-cats, a/k/a our cats) more or less turned their noses up at turkey when it was given to them, the Committee are loving it.  As soon as they smell it, Spot starts purring like he's got an outboard engine.  No new photos just yet, mainly because we're still recovering, and cleaning, from xmas day, and boxing day (with a visit from the perma-cats' godmother (hi Barb!)) and if I so much as think real hard about setting up my photography equipment downstairs before we've finished cleaning up from entertaining, arbie will grind me up and feed me into her new coffee machine.  Hopefully by the end of the week we'll have some more high-res cuteness to post!

Merry Cat-mess

The bailment kittens and their crazy keepers would like to wish everyone a very happy holidays and a stunning new year. Cookie and Spot will be fawned over by the many guests visiting over the break, with new toys that Santa brought and we are sure they will enjoy their turkey dinner tonight.

We are sure we will have many more hijinks to come in 2011, including the building of new furniture for the enclosure.
xx

New photos - may explode your head (you were warned)

Okay.. so today I used some of my xmas 'bonus' to buy a shiny new Canon EOS 7D camera, a Speedlite 580 EXII flash, and some other bits and pieces (mini soft-box for the flash, lighting stands, reflector and reflector holder, etc).  I've only just begun playing around with the new toys but already they are paying dividends, in the form of new, high-res photos of the committee which are so incredibly adorable that they will make your head explode into candy.

There are more pictures of Cookie than Spot, simply because Spot is a black kitten, and therefore the camera was having a hard time metering the exposures.  Yes, I know about using FEC, I just haven't been able to work out how to configure it on the new camera.  That might be a job for tomorrow.  Anyhow, behold the unlawfully cute photos of the committee!  (click for larger versions)

 

This one links to an extra-large version.
Click on it at your peril!

It's CATURDAY!

These pictures are definitely not what you'd call my best work.  Being taken with a dodgy in-built camera on a dodgy piece of junk mobile phone will cause that.  Better photos will be forthcoming - I promise!  Trying to get these guys to sit still for 1/60th of a second is practically impossible.

Both Spot and Cookie are thriving, becoming larger and more rambunctious by the day. Cookie in particular is turning into a very handsome, very long-haired, very fluffy, very stripy little tabby.  There are few things cuter than seeing him curled up asleep on a purple velvet cushion - alas there are also few things harder than getting a photo of him there!

Pictures Pictures!!

I had the pleasure of spending some quality time with "the committee" and my camera this morning. Here are the fruits of my labour.

Happiness Abounds

Cookie & Spot are thoroughly enjoying the downstairs enclosure. In fact, I have never seen them happier. They scurry around with their tails high in the air and purr like little engines when they are patted. They are really in their element down there and definately now kittens who are ready for a forever home. All that's left is to get them to 1kg so they can be desexed. Given the grief (literally) we have been through with this litter, it is such a wonderful feeling of accomplishment to see them so very happy.

They also got a taste of socialisation with more humans last weekend (the night before they went into the new enclosure). Spot particularly warmed to my 2.5 year old niece which is fabulous to see!

I believe Dale took some photos tonight so hopefully he will upload them soon.

Please pass the address of our blog around to all and sundry so we can find a forever home for these beautiful boys. I promise to post more pictures as these guys just get cuter by the day.

Committee accomodation upgrade

Tonight the committee were relocated from the spare room upstairs into the dedicated foster-cat enclosure downstairs.  The enclosure was constructed over the xmas long weekend last year by yours truly, using mesh netting sourced from catnets.com.au (who I highly recommend - due to pressures of time I ordered it on the afternoon of the second-last working day before xmas, and they had it delivered to me the next day) and wood, hinges, and sundry bits and pieces from Bunnings Warehouse.

The picture on the left depicts the enclosure shortly after it was completed - it has since been enhanced with some shelves and other furniture and toys.  I've also recently picked up the end of a roll of carpet from the Ipswich Bulk Carpet Warehouse at Yamanto which I'll use to upholster some more cat furnature that I'm going to build (just as soon as I buy a Ryobi table saw that I've got my eye on).

The Committee survive another bath

The Committee are gradually becoming better with their grooming and bathroom habits and so need to be washed less frequently.  They did however get a bath this afternoon and some epic snuggles afterwards.  Here you see Cookie (a/k/a The Kitten Formerly Known As Dora) and Spot (a/k/a The Kitten Formerly Known As Cheeky) wrapped up relaxing in front of my computer.  Hopefully Santa will bring me a macro lens and a flash setup for xmas so I can get some better photos of these guys!

It's.... a boy!

Well it's official. I took the "committee" (Itty Bitty Kitty Committee) as we are now referring to them to the vet today for their first F4 injections. They were very well behaved and didn't flinch with the needle. They did wiggle a bit with the whole thermometer in the bum trick but that's to be expected! (especially when they don't use lube... ouch!)

Anyway to actually get to some kind of point, the vet confirmed their genders for me. Both Cookie and Spot are boys, so those will be their names from this point forward. At least, that is, until they are adopted and possibly renamed.

Next visit is in 4 weeks time, when hopefully they will be over 1kg and big enough for desexing. I didn't think to ask, but we may have to keep fostering them until they find their forever home, since the Animal Welfare League at Ipswich is just a vet clinic and doesn't have its own rehoming centre.

So if you know anyone who wants a cute kitten (or two) for 2011, let us know.