Name the Kittens

I can't keep the kittens straight. I need to name them. I hope most of them are quickly going elsewhere. Nonetheless, since I drank coffee very late, and my knee is killing me, I can't sleep Time to name the kittens.

Unfortunately, I volunteered the only mother interested even slightly in her own kittens to mom all 15. It's not like she has a choice. She was in my trap, after all! I wield my power so ruthlessly.

They all wanted part of that poor calico, once I brought her into my bathroom. 15 little kittens crying in chorus for her, climbing onto her, all trying to crowd inside the big carrier she immediately dodged into.

Which kittens were actually hers? The only one I know for sure is hers is the white calico. I trapped that little thing and she is bitty. That kitten and her I startled out of one of the housing units the man had made for the cats, up in the woods. In the other one, were two more fat little tortis. A young black tux adult came shooting out of there. But she was rarely seen inside with them.

Who was mom of the two tortis? I have no clue. I had to get down on my hands and knees in the mud to reach way back into that housing unit and feel for those kittens. I hoped they wouldn't bite me. The knees of my jeans were caked in mud afterwards. The housing units are nice. The colony caretaker even keeps the bedding clean.

Down in the field, where the young starving Lynx Point was hanging out, the woman had found her kittens last night. Four of them living beneath a rotting pallet in the tall grass that provided very little cover from the harsh weather we've had lately and nowhere for a mother to nurse kittens out of the rain.

Today, I went and pulled apart the rotted boards of that pallet and picked four kittens out of the soggy dark crumbling wood. That was right after I heard a raccoon kill a kitten. It was something I never want to hear again. The raccoon was growling like a demon. The kitten was shrieking and then the shrieks turned into something even worse. This was up in the woods above the fence with barbed wire on top. I couldn't get up and over it in time. At that point, I made the decision to take the rest of the kittens out of there.

I think the Lynx Point had stolen kittens from other mothers. Cat colonies are soap operic worlds. Mothers who feel inferior or whose kittens have died or if they misplace one, when moving them, often steal a kitten or two from other mothers. The fact she had them way down in the field when all the other kittens were up nearer the house makes me even more suspicious she had stolen the kittens from whatever mother had the two up in one housing unit. Or, she saw they were not being well cared for and stepped in. This happens in colonies also.

The Lynx Point was in heat again, even while lactating, and being followed by a huge rough looking black tom. She didn't seem to mind the attention either.

I left her a bowl of wet food by the pallet so she'd know it was me who took her kittens. She likes me because I fed her so much last night, after her surgery and she was soo hungry. She never went looking for them.

She's gaining street creds hanging with the biggest baddest male, too. Won't matter to her once he's fixed and now that she is. A lot of the postering for position, among females too, ends when they're fixed. Finally, they're equals and there is no more point to postering. Violence and discrimination in cat colonies are purely hormonal driven. Probably it's the same with humans.

Back to naming the little ones. I have in my possession in the bathroom 15 cute little kittens. I have 5 boys!!!! And, TEN girls. Yes, ten girls.

The boys: orange and white long hair, sweet natured, playful, and a clown. He knows how to relax too and is loving his new life here. He's pretty and blue eyed to boot. There is a short hair pale buff blue eyed boy, too. I call him Dandelion. There are two medium hair orange tabbies, one with a little bit of white around his mouth, and last but not least, a very dark orange tux boy, the wild one.

The girls: In the first 8 kittens I took out day before yesterday, there were three girls. They are all tortis. There is one long hair. I've named her Vixen. There is The Mountaineer, a classic torti who likes to climb. She is bright eyed and precocious. Then there is the littlest torti, with one bad eye, inflamed in conjunctivitis. I haven't named her yet.

Today's seven kittens are ALL girls. The pallet kittens are: a brown tabby tux tiny girl, who literally prances about the bathroom already. So she is Prancer. She has a long hair torbi sister, who is the Neat Freak, and cannot stand anything dirty to touch her or get on her paw. There is another torti, with a V of orange on her face, so she is "V". And last but not least there is an almost black torti and she isn't friendly yet. I call her Miss Hiss.

Then there are the passed around pair of tortis whose mom is who knows who. One of them looks suspiciously like V, except the black half mustache is on the opposite side of her face as V's is. The other is another classic torti--Marble. Then, the outsider, the white calico. I call her Puff.

So, I've got some of them named now. That should help. I might change their names, too, if I think of names that fit them better.