Foster Kittens and One Angry Baby Kitty

from top to bottom: Milo, Mimi, Milly

Several weeks ago I signed up to foster a litter of kittens through Stray Rescue of St. Louis. I picked three 5-week old kittens up Saturday afternoon from the vet and brought them home...
Let's just say that what I thought would mostly be fun turned out to be much more drama than I was expecting. My cat of 8 years, Baby Kitty has been nicknamed Bitchy Kitty by my friends. And I'm ashamed to finally admit she really isn't nice. Well, she's nice to me - but that doesn't really count. So Baby Kitty spent most of Saturday hissing, spitting and growling then promptly throwing up her breakfast throughout the house. Then Mimi - the male runt of the litter,whom I named after my first cat who lived to be 21 years old, puked as well but like three times his body weight.. It was unbelievable. (You can be thankful I didn't take a picture.) By the end of the day I had used an entire roll of paper towels and all my throw rugs had to be washed. They step in their food, the water bowl and the poo in the litter box and then do it again.
Watching them wrestle with each other is so fun and better than tv. And to see them sleep all nestled together... ahhh. When I walk anywhere they follow me around like the Pied Piper. In between all of these days events, I'm trying to paint and do house work and gather them up to keep them out of my own cat's way so she won't hit them with her clawless paws. There is a scene in the Steve Martin movie The Jerk (which is one of my favorite movies) where Martin is shown a black and white clip of kitten juggling. It's so wrong and funny at the same time and I think of it often when I'm holding all three in my hand.
As of this writing, I think my cat is too exhausted to hiss and growl anymore. She hasn't had her 20 hours of sleep per day since they've arrived. She sleeps at the end of my bed which is too high for the kittens to climb. I really hope Baby Kitty comes around. Maybe a miracle will happen and just like Scrooge she'll be visited by three kitten ghosts who scare her into love, charity and tolerance.