Catwalk

When kittens are newborn, they move towards their mother by instinct alone, and when not feeding are generally found in a pile, sleeping. Eat and sleep, that's pretty much all the newbies do, except if they sense a predator (or are touched by a human!) nearby, in which case they scream for Mama at the top of their little lungs, and my goodness, they reach quite a volume. You wouldn't believe it of something so small.


But later on, they start to move around deliberately, thinking about it rather than following a blind instinct. The front legs are the strongest, and can soon hold up a bobbing head with two bright eyes taking in everything around them, sitting up like a proper cat. The back legs take a little longer to develop strength, and can look a bit splayed and frog like for a bit. The babies try to use them to shove themselves forward, but sometimes at first they end up going sideways or even backwards, and don't they get cross when that happens!





In the first video you can see Michael (black band) and Leo (yellow) sitting up and starting to play fight. Michael is managing his back legs quite well and is even starting to climb, Desmond still has a touch of the frog about him- being the heaviest kitten he has more to carry- but he is as least going in the right direction!





Ari (red) is supporting her weight on her back legs quite well, but she's still a little wobbly. And whilst she badly wants to get out of the nest she hasn't got the push in those back legs to propel her over that wooden bar. It won't be long though, and then we'll be in trouble! So far I've been leaving the kitten room door open, I'll have to use the gate soon and Inds and Lucy aren't going to be impressed. I suspect most of my day will consist of opening and shutting doors.


Oh, the shouting you can hear in the background is Lucy, who is in heat again. As you can see (well, hear!) she is every bit as vocal as her mother, if not a bit more... this is from the next room!