Welcome Cuddles' Snugglers

April 05, 2024 by KA Jamestown in Cheatsheet, Introduction

Hello, Kitten Academicians!

Although a little late, allow us to introduce Cuddles and her Snugglers!

On the morning of March 19th, while taking Holiday for her spay, Aristokatz received a phone call from a homeowner wanting help with a stray cat who had just given birth in their garage. We didn’t get too much information on the momcat, but the homeowners did let us know that she would rub on ankles but did not tolerate being petted or picked up. Sure enough, she had given birth to four healthy kittens in a bag full of leaves and was definitely showing some really protective mom instincts.

Given her protective nature at the time, we needed to get creative to collect them all safely. Ultimately, we decided to grab the three nearest kittens, place them in the back of the carrier, and wait patiently for her to check on them. After a little bit of time she did just that, and the door was closed behind her. The fourth kitten was then retrieved and placed in the carrier, which then went into the car and back to the Academy!

Upon arriving at the Academy, the carrier was placed in Mr. A’s office bathroom and set up to be their home base. Under normal circumstances, momcats would typically go into a larger room, but she's really not our typical momcat. Given the description of her temperament provided by the homeowner and a few attempts to hide kittens, we deemed the bathroom to be the safest starting location for her. In those first few days, we worked really hard to very slowly push her boundaries tiny bits at a time while keeping her stress level as low as possible. This has worked out well so far, and we’re happy with her progress to this point. She’s still a little spicy at times, but we’re more confident now in understanding her body language and communication style. We want to be clear that she’s not aggressive by any means; her way of communicating is just slightly different than that of the average momcat we’re used to seeing around here. She enjoys attention and pettings, but wants it to happen in accordance with her terms & conditions.

Cheatsheet created by is.a.momo on our discord

A day before their relocation to the second annex, DJ gave them all names! Momcat Cuddles and her kittens: Cashmere, Pajamas, Hot Chocolate and Marshmallow! To us, it appears that Cashmere and Marshmallow are boys while Pajamas and Hot Chocolate are girls. Cashmere and Pajamas also look quite similar, but they do have slightly different white spots on their chests and bellies, which allow us to tell them apart. Pajamas also has a little bit of white on her back toes.

Cuddles and her Snugglers are now living in the second annex and doing great! The kittens are gaining exceptionally well, Cuddles is eating well, and overall everyone is happy.

Now, how about a few photos?

Welcome Skylight and her Skyscrapers

March 27, 2024 by KA Jamestown in Cheatsheet, Introduction

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.

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

Introducing Till's Petty Cash!

October 20, 2023 by DJ in Photos, Introduction, Cheatsheet

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.

Sads

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!

"Welcome" to Cahooligans!

November 29, 2022 by Mr. Academy in Introduction, Cheatsheet, Photos

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…)

What Happened to October?!

November 05, 2021 by Mr. Academy in Photos, Cheatsheet

Greetings, Kitten Academicians!

We’re awfully late on getting some photoshoots published, plus we owe an art post that was supposed to happen before October — now it’s been pushed to “before December.” Let’s see how we do!

Quick updates - everyone is almost entirely healthy, but we’re still dealing with a few minor issues. Rue’s allowed all the kittens a bit too much leeway and we’re trying to get her and Mural to both stop allowing the kids to nurse… but momcats gunna’ mom! Caper still doesn’t prefer to eat the regular food with all his family, but we’ve found that he will if it’s his only option. Splotch still has breathing sounds, but the doc has checked her out and neither of us believes it’s anything critical. It may just be remnants of the URI Mural and all the kittens had in more evidence a couple weeks ago. At any rate, we’re watching and treating everything and everyone is happy and active — including Mr. A, who’s still recovering from some back issues.

All the kittens are scheduled for their vaccine boosters and checkup on Monday the 8th, and will be getting their graduation surgeries on November 30th and December 7th - some on one day and the rest on the other. Based on that, all kittens and moms should be ready to be picked up by December 17th at the latest, although some will be ready sooner (like Rue and Tomfoolery, who are both OK to go anytime).

The latest word from DAWS is that prior applicants will likely be adopting all of the kittens, and Rue came to us pre-adopted, but Mural and Tommy may still need adopters. Of course, nothing is certain and it may also turn out that some of the kittens also need new applicants. So the time is right to open up the application for anyone interested. Keep in mind that while you are allowed to adopt from anywhere in the continental United States, if you are not local, you will be responsible for arranging travel to pick up the kitten(s - we do encourage adoption of pairs). If you are flying, you will need to arrange with the airline to allow you to bring the kitten(s) in the cabin on the flight; no checked kittens! Most airlines require you to verbally inform an agent ahead of time about your plans so they can enforce rules about how many animals are allowed on any given flight.

As mentioned, we do encourage adoption in multiples. Adopting a solo kitten is certainly allowed but we’ve recently been reminded (by Tommy) that kittens without siblings need you to help them burn off all their play energy every day, and it can be a lot to keep up with! Adopting with a sibling or mom means a little less burden on you, believe it or not!

Here’s updated photos of everyone, followed by the rest of the shoot! We also have a photoshoot from October 11-12 that we will hopefully publish out-of-order, soon!

Rue’s Ruses

Rutabaga - Rue - Momcat

Caper - Male Classic Tabby - Blue Collar

Hijinks - Male Mackerel Tabby - Red Collar

Hustle - Male Long-Haired Tabby - Purple Collar

Gimmick - Male Black - White Collar

Sham - Female Black - Pink Collar

Gambit - Male Black - Green Collar

Tomfoolery - Tommy - Male Dilute Tux - Honorary Ruse, No Relation

Mural’s Tinypaints

Mural - Polydactyl Momcat

Splotch - Polydactyl Female Torby - Gold Collar

Trace - Polydactyl Female Tortie - Maroon Collar

Etch - Polydactyl Male Tabby - Black Collar

Doodle - Polydactyl Male Black - Polka Dot Collar

Squiggle - Female Tortie - Pink/Green Collar

Scrawl - Female Torby - Grey Collar

What a roster! And here’s the rest of the photos!

Two Households, both Alike in Dignity!

September 09, 2021 by Mr. Academy in Cheatsheet, Introduction, Photos, Merch

Greetings, Kitten Academicians!

Mural has finally had her six precious kittens after the second-longest pregnancy ever* at Kitten Academy! But before that — literally the day before — we brought in Rue and her sixlets. So today’s mewspaper post is going to introduce two families!

(* Mural gets second place with 34 days spent pregnant at the Academy. The record continues to be held by Tempest who lasted 37 days!)

Rue’s Ruse

Rue was discovered in the Bronx where she was rescued and brought to Hoboken, NJ and given the name “Rutabaga.” Reportedly very sweet and playful, she was a joy but soon concern mounted over her growing belly and a trip to the vet was in order. The vet quickly determined that she was pregnant with six little kittens, so her rescuers called the one person they knew could help — Mom! (Their mom, not ours or Rue’s.) Mom brought Rutabaga to Dr. Katz in Fairfield, CT where the kittens were delivered, and spent their first two weeks. Now that they’ve reached an age appropriate to more mobility, we’ve brought them in to the Kitten Academy to give them a little space to stretch out and zoom around! They are currently living in the “Second Annex” next door to Mural, with hopes that eventually the two families can come together.

“Mom” will be adopting Rue (so actually Rue’s mom after all) after she’s done raising her last litter of kittens (Rue, not Mom), and the kittens will go through the usual adoption process here at Kitten Academy when they are about three months old.

A Note on Applications

Speaking of which, DAWS — the shelter we work with and who process applications for Kitten Academy kittens — have asked that anyone who wants to apply for any of Rue or Mural’s kids use the Kitten Academy application here on this website. They ask that you don’t use the regular DAWS application. The Kitten Academy application will open after the kittens are a few weeks older and we’ve had a chance to get to know them a little better. We’ll be sure to put the word out here and on our Twitter when that day arrives.

Here’s the Rue crew, and see below for Mural!

Caper - Male “Classic” Grey Tabby

Hijinks - Male “Mackerel” Grey Tabby

Hustle - Male “Mackerel” Grey Tabby

Gimmick - Male Black with Ventral White Spots

Sham - Female Black

Gambit - Male Black with Grey-Flecked Prosterior

Rue - Momcat

Mural’s Tinypaints

Mural is another momcat who was brought to Dr. Katz, this time from a sort-of cat colony near her practice in southwestern Connecticut. Mural was brought in with the intent of performing a spay and returning her to her usual place (TNR), but Dr. K discovered she was pregnant (Mural, not Dr. K) and very friendly so offered to have her attend the Academy. We initially suspected she’d deliver kittens within a week of her arrival but it turned out to take over a month! During that time she’s shown that she’s very comfortable around other cats, and spent most of her days just hanging around the Academy with the faculty.

Etch was born with a special talent for reviewing movies and Facebook posts.

Mural is a polydactyl cat, which in her case means she has one extra toe in-between her fourth toe and her dewclaw on her front paws. Four of her kittens are the same, each with one extra toe on each of the front paws, as noted below. This is an unusual, but not rare genetic mutation that is unlikely to have any impact on health or longevity. However, it does allow for an impressive thumbs-up!

Splotch - Female Brown Tabby- Polydactyl

Trace - Female Tortie with Orange Head Stripe - Polydactyl

Etch - Male Orange Tabby - Polydactyl

Doodle - Male Black - Polydactyl

Squiggle - Female Tortie with Half-Pink Nose

Scrawl - Female Grey Tabby

Mural - Mom

One more thing before we go — well, two actually. Two new fantastic merchandise designs on our Teespring shop! See here for previous designs.

A lovely painting of Mural by @alienswearsunglasses titled “Toof”

Technically Etch, but the cryptid version by @tanize!

…and here’s some bonus photos, mostly of Custard’s silly expressions:

Introducing Port Oranges!

March 24, 2021 by Mr. Academy in Cheatsheet, Introduction, Photos

Greetings, Kitten Academicians!

DJ’s Cheat Sheet - Names by Marking Location

Port’s eight little kittens arrived without much fanfare a week and a half ago, on March 14th. The delivery was swift and professional; she’s surely done this before! Defying the odds, all eight are male orange tabbies with varying amounts of white, which makes them extremely difficult to tell apart at a glance.

We have used food coloring pens in the past, but they get cleaned off far too easily and quickly, so we tried shaving a spot on each kitten so we could tell them apart, and while it worked, it looked very odd. Now we’re marking each one with a dot of food coloring gel, which seems to work well enough. Each kitten has their dot in a different place, so you can tell them apart that way. This will continue until they are big enough to get collars - usually around 4-5 weeks.

Because they are so difficult to tell apart, we’ll post each one’s photos individually for future reference. The white backgrounds are from the 16th and the purple backgrounds are from the 24th.

Halifax - Mark on head

Dover - Mark on back

Bombay - Mark near tail

Puget - Mark on right shoulder

Rotterdam - Mark on left shoulder

Antwerp - Mark on right haunch

Sydney - Mark on left haunch

Rio - Mark on chest/belly

Port - Mom

Here’s some miscellaneous extra photos!

Bready Bunch, Faculty, Myth, and Rumor!

March 05, 2021 by Mr. Academy in Photos, Cheatsheet

Greetings, Kitten Academicians!

Myth, Rumor, and Macadamia Nut are all scheduled to be picked up by their adopters this weekend, on Saturday the 6th. We’ll miss them! There’s photos of all three in the last gallery on this post, so keep scrolling!

But first… here’s new photos of the Bready Bunch looking sharp in their new collars!

Potato - Checkered Collar

Corn - Blue Collar

Millet - Green Collar

Rye - Red Collar

Flour

And here’s a whole bunch of photos of Myth, Rumor, Macadamia Nut, and the Faculty!

Welcome to The Bready Bunch!

January 20, 2021 by Mr. Academy in Cheatsheet, Introduction, Photos

Greetings, Kitten Academicians!

Cheatsheet by MadamAmyLotta on our Discord!

Flour arrived on a transport at DAWS on Saturday the 16th, and didn’t waste any time delivering four healthy kittens on Sunday the 17th. Since then she’s been a wonderfully attentive momcat and has hardly left her kittens alone for a minute.

Because all four kittens are male tabbies — three mackerel tabbies and one classic tabby — we know it can be difficult to tell who is who on the live stream. For now, we can tell them apart in person and that’s good enough to make sure we know who is healthy. When they get old enough for collars in a few weeks, they’ll be easier for you to tell apart on the stream.

As you know, we have two (presumably) not-pregnant “mom” cats currently at the Academy as well, named “Myth” and “Rumor” - we’ll talk more about them soon in our next Mews blog posts!

Here’s some photos, separated out by kitten:

Potato:

Corn:

Millet:

Rye:

And of course, Momcat Flour (Who didn’t want to leave her kittens for proper photos):

Here’s a selection of group photos and in-situ shots - most of the ones with all three mackerel tabbies are in order, Potato, Corn, Millet. See if you can figure out the rest!

Fancy Feasters Updated Photos!

December 11, 2020 by Mr. Academy in Cheatsheet, Photos

Greetings, Kitten Academicians!

Truffle’s Fancy Feasters are growing up fast! They’re just over five weeks old now, and will be going for their first vet visit on the 16th, when they reach an even six weeks. They all seem super healthy and have learned to eat solid food! And although they’re not yet entirely learned in the ways of the litter box, we’re sure it won’t be long.

Here’s an updated cheat-sheet and then a whole bunch of photos beginning back at two weeks old when their eyes had just opened! We’ll be posting the graduation photos of Tilly’s class next week.