Crabtree Kittens at Four Weeks

 The Crabtree four kittens are now just over four weeks of age.

They still look like little rats, in size and are not fully coordinated at play and running.

My cats want to hunt them, like rodents.

They're slowly progressing.  Hard to believe they've only been here a day over a week.

Seems like they've been here forever.

It's tough to do laundry or anything else in the bathroom, as they come running out of the carrier to swarm my feet whenever I enter the bathroom.

I hope a rescue can take them soon.  They use the litter box now exclusively and a couple of them eat a lot of wet food.  Powder and Wilson are the slowest to transition.

Powder

Rory, Powder and Wilson

Rory, the rough and tumble fuzzball

Wilson

The kittens are quite a lot of work.   They still want syringe fed at least three times a day by me.  I assume Mama Cora's milk is waning.   But kittens eat a LOT.   I don't bother Mama Cora who is bored out of her mind in the bathroom, but she eats a lot, which is good for her, since she was so underweight.

I failed to motivate the colony caretakers to catch the three porch kittens, who looked bad when I was there 9 days ago.  Their bellies were swollen in worms and they looked like they were starving even though there was adult dry food out, albeit the cheapest money can buy.  Adult outside cats often do fine on the cheaper dry, but sometimes, not so much the kittens.

  Two of the three they claim have now vanished and I doubt they've made any effort to catch them since I was there last.  They got FCCO spots for the rest, two adults, now down to maybe four kittens of two litters,  but were unable to get any until late September.   I seriously doubt they will keep that appointment date.   I wish they would surprise me in that regard. 

 It's depressing to me they won't put any effort into it.  Given how they feed and how their trailer is situated, I am unable to trap there without being inside their place and if they won't follow instructions, by first feeding religiously under a drop trap or selectively trap with the water bottle under the door method, I doubt the rest will ever be caught.  Oh well, I do what I can do and they may come through and get the rest fixed.  I will hope for the best and that's all I can do.

Very sad, on the news this morning, about a University of Oregon football player who hit his head on a rock and died, at rock chutes outside Triangle Lake.   It's a very popular swimming hole, but you have to go down a very steep trail to get to it.  You can slide on your butt or back down water slippery rock chutes into a deeper swimming hole.  But it can be dangerous, especially if you drink.  I don't know that he'd been drinking.  It's dangerous either way.  I've been there a couple of times.   There is so little parking up on the highway for the swimming hole, I don't go anymore.  The parking is across the road from the river too and on a sharp corner.