It has been quite a cat-oriented evening today.  As soon as I got home I had to take Chiquita to the vets for a scheduled check-up to make sure her scar is healing properly.  Considering she ripped the stitches out within minutes of having the collar removed at the weekend, she is doing fine.  The vet did ask if she was an only cat and said that he thinks they do better with company, which is handy because after I got her home we went back out to visit Chiquita’s new companion.We don’t actually know which cat will be keeping her company, we just know it is one of the five three-week-old kittens we saw.  It doesn’t matter really, they are all pretty much the same – tiny and unbelievably appealing.

It was only a little bit worrying that we saw another cat there who was from the previous litter only five months ago and he was huge!

Although it is normal for kittens to not be taken from their mother until they are at least eight weeks, the lady who has these kittens is of the opinion that the sooner they go the better, and she tries to find good homes from them as soon as they can handle meat, which is at about five weeks.  She thinks it is best for them to still be very dependent so they bond better with the new family.

Professional opinion may differ, but as a farmer she has had plenty of kittens to rehouse over the years and reckons they have all thrived on this approach.  It is certainly good timing for us because it means we should be able to get a little playmate for Chiquita during the school holidays so there will be somebody home all day for a week or two to keep an eye on them.

So… brace yourself for a barrage of kitten photos in a couple of weeks.  Flickr?  You’d better buy yourself some more hard drives!