Welcome Skylight and her Skyscrapers

Greetings Kitten Academicians! Today we’re introducing Skylight and her Skyscrapers!

Skylight came to us on the evening of February 24th from a barn in Kentucky via DAWS. Apart from being a little stinky and having weepy eyes, she was very talkative, sweet, good-natured and definitely a good eater. To get a general sense of her health and confirm her pregnancy, we brought her to Dr. Katz of Aristokatz on February 26th. While her x-rays didn’t show much, it was confirmed that she had what looked to be 3–4 kittens on the ultrasound. Nine days later, at a follow-up visit on March 6th, she got x-rayed again and we saw skeletons forming! This let us know she was roughly 14–21 days away from giving birth.

Sure enough, 15 days later, Skylight gave birth to four super-fuzzy kittens. Will they be long-haired? We don’t know for sure but we’re thinking possibly, maybe, perhaps! Skylight gave birth to the first kitten in an elevated pineapple bed, but when discovered, the duo was moved to the much safer birthing box to have the remaining kittens.

Skylight and her Skyscrapers

Cheatsheet provided by is.a.momo on our discord

Names, they’ve got names! It almost never happens this quickly but DJ spent some time with the kittens and assigned names the same day they were born. See the cheatsheet to the right and photos below. At this point, we’re somewhat confident in saying that Joist, Rafter and Alcove are girls and Gable is a boy.

If you’ve been following the stream at all, you may have noticed that Joist looks pretty tiny compared to her brothers and you’d be correct. In fact, she’s the smallest kitten born at Kitten Academy so far, weighing in at just 2.1 ounces–about the same as two AA batteries or roughly 12 sheets of paper!

For those of you keeping an eye on the weight sheet, you may have seen she’s received some supplemental feedings. This has mostly been to make sure she’s meeting what we would like the minimum gains over 24 hours to be. Rest assured, we’re happy with her ability to gain and equally as happy to help supplement them as needed.

Now for some photos! These were taken while labor was happening so there’s just a few quick shots of each kitten. More photos will come in a later post!

Joist - Female

Rafter - Female

Gable - Male

Alcove - Female

Tail Mail with Syl

Hello Kitten Academicians, it’s Syl!

I hope everyone is having a good start to the new year. A few art prompts have happened since the last time you heard from me. Over the summer there were two art prompts - Summer Camp 2023 in June and Cat Days of Summer in August. Both prompts included themes of summer fun and ways to keep cool. In October there was a prompt with a new theme - Costume Carnival - featuring carnival and Halloween themes. The last prompt to wrap up the year was December Doodles 2023.

This month’s theme - KA Pen Pals 2024 - was inspired by cute stationery and the idea that I think the alumni would send each other letters if they could. They would write about the interesting things they’ve found in their new homes and tuck a piece of ribbon or lint in the envelope to share. What do you think they would find interesting enough to write about? To participate please check out the “KA art challenge” thread under the Arts and Crafts channel in the Discord server for Patreon members.

Below you will find art pieces I picked from the last few prompts. Thank you so much to everyone that participated in 2023!

If anyone has questions or ideas for future community art events please comment them down below! You can also contact me on Discord (@Sylhouettes).

To view all past art prompts click here.

Jamestown

Michelle

Sage’s Handmade

Sylhouettes

Neela Kangal

AltoClarinetLady

Sherbear

Michelle

Waithamai

Sage’s Handmade

Michelle

18thClaw

AltoClarinetLady

Neela Kangal

Michelle

Created by an anonymous Discord member

Welcome Callie and Her Timey-Wimeys!

Greetings, Kitten Academicians!

Say hello to our newest momcat whom DJ has named Calendar, or Callie for short!

Callie arrived to us on December 2nd, on a transport via DAWS all the way from Georgia. We aren't exactly sure about her age but we guess she's about one year old. She's super loving, playful and enjoys calm lap time, too. One of the more unique things about Callie is her waggly, bobbed tail but we'll go into more detail on that topic a little later!

On December 5th, we took her in to our vet, AristoKatz, for an x-ray with Dr. Katz. The x-ray confirmed she was pregnant with 5, maybe 6 kittens, and due anytime! The x-ray also showed her tail but we were unable to definitively conclude whether it was genetic or an old injury at that time. Turns out it's genetic! And we know this because...

A couple days later, on December 7th, Callie welcomed six healthy kittens to the Academy! Of the six kittens, two have bobbed tails which tells us that her bobbed tail is, in fact, genetic! It hasn't been all that long yet but so far she's proven to be a great mom, very attentive and quick with the cleanup duties.

For now, we’re pretty sure January and Holiday are the only girls but it can be hard to tell this early.*

*Edit: This time we’re almost certain, Holiday is the only girl in this class!

Cheatsheet provided by is.a.momo on our discord

Finally, here are some photos of the Timey-Wimeys for you to enjoy!

Monday - Male

Julian, bobtail - Male

Gregorian - Male

January, bobtail - Male

Holiday - Female

Friday - Male

Group Photos

Callie (before she had her kittens)

Repost: The Adorable Adootables!

Greetings, Kitten Academicians! We are re-publishing this post to remind everyone of the adorable kittens still available for adoption. Since the original post, Raindrop does have an approved adooter!


The Adootables!

Let’s start right here; forget anything you think you know about these kittens!  Okay, not everything, but the time they’ve spent at KA has seen them all through many changes.  So if you’ve heard us say things in the closeups like “I think so-and-so would love being adopted with so-and-so” keep in mind these things can change pretty quickly – and easily – at this young age.  

All the cats and kittens we’re discussing here are ready to go and as always, you can adopt from anywhere in the continental USA, but you have to pick them up from Monroe, CT, in person.  If you have any trouble with the application, please let us know.

 

The Tabby Sisters

Raindrop, Sprout, and Drizzle are sleek and lovely mackerel tabbies who are very well-adjusted and love play and snuggles with humans as you’d expect from KA graduates.  They came to the Academy as the “April Meowers” and their mom and other siblings have already gone to their adopters.  They have lovely satin fur and play responsibly – you can pet that belly!  All three of them get along just great with the other adootables and any pairings would be great choices.  


Of the three, Raindrop is the most attention-seeking, both from cats and people, and tends to be the quickest to get along with new cats and new situations.  She does have a fixation on fingers and wants to help you type by biting on them, but is very gentle about it.  

Raindrop

Sprout


Sprout is a free spirit who can’t be collared – literally!  Even when the sisters got their sparkly new collars, Sprout rejected hers quickly.  She’s independent and of the three, probably would best tolerate time alone while her human is at work.


Drizzle is the most conservative, and can be quite growly at new kittens initially, but learns to get over it in due time.  Drizzle jealously guards her favorite toys and loves to play fetch – if she brings you a toy, try throwing it, but make sure she’s watching where it goes (or use a toy that makes noise)!  

Drizzle

All three tolerate endless snuggles from their humans and being held like babies, as long as they’re getting petted in the bargain.  

The DLC 

Squall & Wellingtons

When Dr. Katz at Aristokatz discovered a litter of newborn kittens on her doorstep, she offered to let us care for them.  A late addition to the April Meowers, these Darling Little Cats had a bit of a rough start but have grown into the fuzzy marshmallows they are today. Circumstances saw them hand-raised by Mr. A and their attachment to humans is particularly strong as a result.  We’re pleased to announce that Wellingtons and his sister Squall have both (mostly) outgrown their need to lick noses, just as their tongues are becoming extremely abrasive.  They still cannot get enough snuggling and carrying and prefer to sleep near – or on – their human’s heads.  They aren’t particularly fond of other cats – they’re well bonded with all the current Academy residents and other adootables, but very skeptical when meeting new cats and kittens and take a little convincing to come around.  

Wellingtons has become a “typical teenage boy” who is extra rambunctious and lately his waking hours are spent almost entirely focused on roughhousing with his sister, the Tabby twins, or anyone else he can.  He reminds us of teenage Tommy, or Custard, and like them is likely to grow out of it – mostly – in a few years.

Wellingtons

Squall


Squall is much more focused on human affection and there’s never enough.  She and her brother both will need humans with lots of time and affection to give, but Squall more so.  She’s a little quicker to come around to new cats than her brother is, but still a bit wary. 



Serenity Now!

Serenity

Serenity arrived at the Academy a momcat and a kitten herself.  While she didn’t become a momcat in the end, she is still a playful kitten!  Serenity is quite shy but also energetic like a kitten, and loves human affection.  She’s a wonderful bundle of contradictions – a cat.  We find she can be hand shy and especially wary of people standing over her, but if you are on her level and patient, she will reward you with endless affection and play.  It took Mr. A some effort to get her to come around, and the resulting snuggles are all the more enjoyable for it.  He still can have a hard time catching her when it’s time to go to her room – and of course she’s well-known for being an escape artist capable of operating door handles to let herself out again.  As a kitten, she has a lot of energy to work out, and zooms and wrestles with the other adootables all the time. While she did learn to get along with all of the kittens at the Academy after a normal adjustment period, we notice that she really appreciates having her own space, too. We think she will be very happy in a home that has a more normal human-to-cat ratio.

Lastly, here are some bonus photos of everyone mentioned above, some more recent than others.


Raindrop

Sprout

Drizzle

Squall & Wellingtons

Serenity

Introducing Till's Petty Cash!

We’re catching up on our debts of recent class introduction posts, and so here is Till’s Petty Cash! Till came to Kitten Academy on July 15th, from a previous foster in West Virginia. Her kittens were born on the morning of July 25th.

On September 14th, an additional kitten joined the group named Bill. While we stand by our "no-sads" policy, it has always been our intention to inform you of the facts when these, thankfully rare, sad things happen. When you're ready, click the “sads” button for our facts-only update on Bill.

Now onto the Cash at hand!

Till

Ledger

Farthing

Quid

Doubloons

Also, another quick update: Teaspoon is doing well! He will be having surgery in November to correct his heart condition (pulmonic stenosis). Once he is confirmed to be doing well after this procedure, he will be able to undergo his graduation surgery. His pre-surgery appointment is coming up on November 7th.

Lastly, here’s some more deposits of Petty Cash, and Teaspoon with Uncle Loganberry!

The Adorable Adootables!

Greetings, Kitten Academicians!

It’s been a while, but we’re here with plenty of good news!  The most important stuff is all about the cats and kittens that are ready to be adopted, but before that, let us take one moment.  

We’ve been working on better communication and so we’ve started putting things in place to bring in some extra help.  I only bring it up to mention you may see some really positive changes in the coming days and weeks.  Thank you so much to the wonderful people who have volunteered – and I know many more of you have offered help in the past.  Once we sort things out a little, we’ll be greatly expanding the program.  We’re super excited to share it all with you, but first things first!

The Adootables!

Let’s start right here; forget anything you think you know about these kittens!  Okay, not everything, but the time they’ve spent at KA has seen them all through many changes.  So if you’ve heard us say things in the closeups like “I think so-and-so would love being adopted with so-and-so” keep in mind these things can change pretty quickly – and easily – at this young age.  

All the cats and kittens we’re discussing here are ready to go and as always, you can adopt from anywhere in the continental USA, but you have to pick them up from Monroe, CT, in person.  If you have any trouble with the application, please let us know.

 

The Tabby Sisters

Raindrop, Sprout, and Drizzle are sleek and lovely mackerel tabbies who are very well-adjusted and love play and snuggles with humans as you’d expect from KA graduates.  They came to the Academy as the “April Meowers” and their mom and other siblings have already gone to their adopters.  They have lovely satin fur and play responsibly – you can pet that belly!  All three of them get along just great with the other adootables and any pairings would be great choices.  


Of the three, Raindrop is the most attention-seeking, both from cats and people, and tends to be the quickest to get along with new cats and new situations.  She does have a fixation on fingers and wants to help you type by biting on them, but is very gentle about it.  

Raindrop

Sprout


Sprout is a free spirit who can’t be collared – literally!  Even when the sisters got their sparkly new collars, Sprout rejected hers quickly.  She’s independent and of the three, probably would best tolerate time alone while her human is at work.


Drizzle is the most conservative, and can be quite growly at new kittens initially, but learns to get over it in due time.  Drizzle jealously guards her favorite toys and loves to play fetch – if she brings you a toy, try throwing it, but make sure she’s watching where it goes (or use a toy that makes noise)!  

Drizzle

All three tolerate endless snuggles from their humans and being held like babies, as long as they’re getting petted in the bargain.  

The DLC 

Squall & Wellingtons

When Dr. Katz at Aristokatz discovered a litter of newborn kittens on her doorstep, she offered to let us care for them.  A late addition to the April Meowers, these Darling Little Cats had a bit of a rough start but have grown into the fuzzy marshmallows they are today. Circumstances saw them hand-raised by Mr. A and their attachment to humans is particularly strong as a result.  We’re pleased to announce that Wellingtons and his sister Squall have both (mostly) outgrown their need to lick noses, just as their tongues are becoming extremely abrasive.  They still cannot get enough snuggling and carrying and prefer to sleep near – or on – their human’s heads.  They aren’t particularly fond of other cats – they’re well bonded with all the current Academy residents and other adootables, but very skeptical when meeting new cats and kittens and take a little convincing to come around.  

Wellingtons has become a “typical teenage boy” who is extra rambunctious and lately his waking hours are spent almost entirely focused on roughhousing with his sister, the Tabby twins, or anyone else he can.  He reminds us of teenage Tommy, or Custard, and like them is likely to grow out of it – mostly – in a few years.

Wellingtons

Squall


Squall is much more focused on human affection and there’s never enough.  She and her brother both will need humans with lots of time and affection to give, but Squall more so.  She’s a little quicker to come around to new cats than her brother is, but still a bit wary. 



Serenity Now!

Serenity

Serenity arrived at the Academy a momcat and a kitten herself.  While she didn’t become a momcat in the end, she is still a playful kitten!  Serenity is quite shy but also energetic like a kitten, and loves human affection.  She’s a wonderful bundle of contradictions – a cat.  We find she can be hand shy and especially wary of people standing over her, but if you are on her level and patient, she will reward you with endless affection and play.  It took Mr. A some effort to get her to come around, and the resulting snuggles are all the more enjoyable for it.  He still can have a hard time catching her when it’s time to go to her room – and of course she’s well-known for being an escape artist capable of operating door handles to let herself out again.  As a kitten, she has a lot of energy to work out, and zooms and wrestles with the other adootables all the time. While she did learn to get along with all of the kittens at the Academy after a normal adjustment period, we notice that she really appreciates having her own space, too. We think she will be very happy in a home that has a more normal human-to-cat ratio.

Lastly, here are some bonus photos of everyone mentioned above, some more recent than others.


Raindrop

Sprout

Drizzle

Squall & Wellingtons

Serenity

Summer Camp Check-in with Syl

Hello Kitten Academicians, it’s Syl!

It’s already June, which happens to be Adopt a Cat month! I hope the year has been treating everyone well. This month the kittens have been attending summer camp for #KASummerCamp2023. To participate, please use the hashtag #KASummerCamp2023 on Twitter or post your work in the new art challenges thread that can be found in the arts-and-crafts channel in the Discord server for Patreon members.

Below you will find submissions from April’s #KAArtsyApril2023 prompt as well as February’s #KASweethearts2023. Thank you so much to everyone that continues to participate and cultivate our creative corner in the community!

If anyone has questions or ideas for future community art events please comment them down below! You can also contact me on Twitter and Discord (@Sylhouettes).

Does summer camp sound familiar? The kittens first attended camp in 2021!

To view all the past art prompts click here.

AltoClarinetLady

Sage’s Handmade

Michelle

Sylhouettes

Kitten Fangirl

Sherbear

Sophie

Michelle

Hello and goodbye to The Cutensils!

Greetings, Kitten Academicians!

Sorry it’s been a while, but Syl didn’t want to post two art blogs in a row, so we had to do something. Of course we hope to do this more often, but you probably know how busy we’ve been!

If you’re checking in and haven’t been to the Facebook fan page or had time to watch the (infrequent) close-ups, we should mention that all the Cutensils have adopters and will be going home in the next few weeks… except Teaspoon. His adoption is on hold for now. We’re scheduling surgery with the cardiologist in a month or so, and after that we’ll have a better idea when he’ll be ready to be adopted!

Back with more photos soon… or… in due time?

Sweet Arts with Syl

Hello Kitten Academicians, it’s Syl!

I hope everyone had a good start to their year! It’s February which means the first art prompt of the year, KA Sweethearts 2023, is here. One of the first things I do when I’m thinking of terms for an art prompt is check the random “holidays” that occur in that month. February of course has Valentine’s Day, but more importantly is February 20th, National Love Your Pet Day. I also learned that February itself is National Cat Health month so maybe give your cat an extra treat or two on the 20th but not too many! To participate this month, please use the hashtag #KASweethearts2023 on Twitter or post your work in the arts-and-crafts channel in the Discord server for Patreon members. 

We wrapped up the art prompts of 2022 with KA Winter Wonderland which showed the kittens playing in snow, building snowmen and decorating for the holidays. Below you will find submissions from that prompt as well as October’s. Thank you to everyone that participated and encouraged each other last year!

If anyone has questions or ideas for future community art events please comment them down below! You can also contact me on Twitter and Discord (@Sylhouettes). 

To view all the past art prompts click here.

Michelle

Neela Kangal

Sherbear

Mom 2 Felix

SnowTigerNinja16

Sylhouettes

Scanoodles

Sophie

Neela Kangal

Captain Sokira

Michelle

Sylhouettes

"Welcome" to Cahooligans!

Greetings, Kitten Academicians!

Today, we’re catching up on a few of the photos we’ve taken of Cahoots and her kittens since they arrived at the Academy in Spetember. Technically, they all turned up around the 12th, but we didn’t get to see most of them until the kittens were born on the 24th of September.

Here’s a couple early photos of Cahoots!

Here’s some photos from shortly after the kittens were born:

You might need a cheat-sheet to tell who’s who here! We certainly did. Thanks to “@is.a.Momo” on our Discord server for compiling these:

Next we have a handful of photos from October 21st — we think there’s a missing set of files from shortly after their eyes opened, which we hope to find “in due time” —

Finally, we’d like to share one last set of photos today, taken just a week or two ago, but before we do, we’d like to mention that our friends at DAWS are responsible for today’s blog post in a couple of important ways:

First and foremost, DAWS is the shelter we work with here in Connecticut and they find our momcats and also process applications to adopt the kittens and momcats that we foster.

Secondly, they asked us if we’d mind mentioning that they’re running a huge fundraiser today, on “giving Tuesday.” We believe, of course, that giving to DAWS doesn’t need a special day — it’s always a good idea. But the kind of people who make sure the lights stay on like to make an event of it. If you’d like to participate, today’s your day - just click here to go to the Giving Tuesday donation page. Today’s blog post wouldn’t have happened if they didn’t ask us to give the event a plug!

If you missed the moment or if you would love to support DAWS and the cats and dogs, but feel a bit of dissonance about the idea of a special day for your generosity, you can click here to go to the regular, everyday donation page.

Supporting DAWS or your local shelter is always a good idea, whatever the day!

Finally, here’s some Cahooligans posing for their Christmas photos! (and maybe a bonus or two…)