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 26th.

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!

The Adorable Adootables!

October 15, 2023 by Mr. Academy in Photos, Introduction, Adoption

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.

Adopt!

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.

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)!

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

Adopt!

The DLC

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.

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.

Adopt!

Serenity Now!

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.

Adopt!

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

Raindrop

Sprout

Drizzle

Squall & Wellingtons

Serenity

Hello and goodbye to The Cutensils!

June 10, 2023 by Mr. Academy in Graduation, Introduction, Photos

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?

"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…)

More Catching Up with Bumble, Crouton and More!

August 10, 2022 by Mr. Academy in Photos, Introduction

Greetings, Kitten Academicians!

Crouton’s kids are all grown up now and gradutating in the next couple weeks. We have SO many more photos of them, but in the spirit of “catching up,” we’re just going to publish what is ready to go, and we’ll hope to edit and publish more — in due time!

Before we forget, a couple items of current events:

The momcat and kittens we expected to arrive last Saturday, didn’t. But there’s a very good chance we’ll be getting a new pregnant momcat this Saturday the 13th, in the early afternoon.
We don’t expect the momcat arrival to impact mailbag, or Morsel and Nugget’s adoption, which will also be Saturday the 13th.
Art Coordinator Jay has created a schedule for re-publishing our most popular T-shirt designs over the next few months! Get ‘em while they’re hot!

Crouton and kids have adopters! What we know so far:

Crouton will be adopted September 1st
Morsel and Nugget will be adopted together August 13th
Chunk and Tidbit will be adopted together date TBD
Smidgeon and Crumb will be adopted together August 23rd
All dates subject to change!

So, presenting for the first time on this blog, Crouton and her tiny breads, Chunk, Nugget, Crumb, Tidbit, Smidgeon, and Morsel!

Catching up with Scottie and the "Puppies"

August 04, 2022 by Mr. Academy in Introduction, Photos

Greetings, Kitten Academicians!

We’re setting new records in being waaaaay behind so we’re delcaring it a “website backlog forgiveness day time” And here’s the plan: we’re just going to post what we got, no worries about trying to put it all together narratively or checking that we’ve edited a roughly equal number of photos for each kitten.

So here’s the blog post we uploaded all the way back in April, with Scottie and the Puppies, and we’ll be back with more catching up before you know it!

Here’s a couple things to know in case we don’t:

Crunchyroll Expo 2022 is this weekend and the kittens will be attending — well, virtually, anyhow. Many thanks to Crunchyroll for bringing the extra attention to the kittens we’re fostering, for the third year running! We’re told that if you are attending the Expo virtually this year, you don’t even need to register in advance, just turn up on the website and check things out!

And speaking of big events this weekend, we’re expecting the arrival of a new momcat with her six or seven kittens on Saturday evening. Keep an eye on the stream for updates!

Back soon (probably?) with more!

Here’s Pug, Beagle, Pomeranian, St. Bernard, Basset, Jack Russell, and of course, Scottie:

"Introducing": River and the Tiny Townies

April 29, 2022 by Mr. Academy in Introduction, Photos

Greetings, Kitten Academicians!

[Edit: The date on this post is February 8, but it wasn’t published until April 29.]

We’re further behind than ever before! Here we are introducing River and her kittens and they’ve already all graduated (except Yurt) — but we’ll get to that after a bit of more timely news.

KA-Con 2022

KA-Con is being held in-person this year June 17-19th. The event is entirely arranged by the volunteer KA-Con Planning Committee and we’re expecting it to be a casual good time where we get a chance to meet and interact with some of you in-person (and some virtually)! As in previous years, attendance is limited to Patreons and Discorders so that the Planning Committee is able to accurately gauge the scope and not work themselves to an early retirement!

Miss Mellie’s Kitten Academy Poems

Miss Mellie and Umbra Love have published Volume Two of the amazing Kitten Academy Poems, an illustrated two-part series of imaginative stories told in verse by the cats and kittens that have attended the Academy (part three coming In Due Time™). The link here goes to the Kindle versions, but if you dig in, you’ll find they are also available in paperback or even hardcover! The on-demand printing isn’t cheap but the quality is superb, and the poetry and artwork is well worth the price. The profits from sales go to Kitten Academy and various other animal rescues[*]. If you are interested in further supporting Miss Mellie and Umbra Love, you can commission poetry and art in the same style for your own pets at their new project, petpoetraits.com!

Scottie’s Tiny Puppies

Scottie’s class has failed their final exams and will be held back for a week or two of summer Spring School. More on that in our next blogpost (In Due Time™).

River and the Tiny Townies

With that out of the way, let’s introduce River and her Townies! They came to the Academy January 8th and the kittens were already a few weeks old. Although they started out extremely shy, it wasn’t long before they took over the Academy (and our hearts).

They’ve all graduated now, except Yurt, who is being adopted with Beagle of Scottie’s class. In order to get caught up, we’re publishing whatever photos we had ready-to-go, and perhaps we’ll be able to publish some or all of the rest In Due Time™.

Here’s the rest of the photos we have ready-to-go!

[* In the past, proceeds have been split among Kitten Academy and DAWS, the shelter that provides us cats to foster. Currently, Miss Mellie and Umbra Love are dedicating a portion to orginizations involved in rehoming of pets that have been rescued from Ukraine.]

Rueral Living For a City Kitten!

October 09, 2021 by Mr. Academy in Introduction, Photos

Greetings, Kitten Academicians!

We’ve got all kinds of things to share with you but we’re also at least three blog posts behind right now so we’re just going to briefly introduce our newest arrival, and post some outdated photos of Rue and Mural’s kids. We’ll have something a little more recent and verbose coming up soon in due time!

The new kid, Tomfoolery, is a couple-few weeks older than Rue’s kids. He was discovered panhandling for pastrami outside a deli in New York City by a long-time friend of Kitten Academy, and we offered to take him in for extra socialization and education. It’s our hope that he can eventually join Rue and Mural’s combined kids but we’re taking it slow, as he’s got a lot to learn about how to politely interact with other cats — and humans for that matter! He’s got more energy than most classes combined and while he’s learning his lessons very well indeed, he still can be a little too enthusiastic when he gets all riled up.

Tommy has been a good reminder for us, and a good lesson for potential adopters of kittens — a kitten has a ton of energy and needs to work it off. If they don’t have parents and siblings around to play, all that interaction and play becomes your responsibility, and it can be a big one! This is one of the reasons we greatly prefer to see kittens (and momcats) adopted in pairs.

As the kittens all get older they will become closer in weight and skill and a better match for Tommy whether he’s overly excited or not. We expect him to graduate at the same time as Rue and Mural’s kittens — just before Christmas.

Just a couple quick reminders:

We’ll announce when we’re ready to open the application for these kittens - should be in the next few weeks. Until then, DAWS has asked that everyone wait for it, and to not try to apply using their website — to keep things simple for them. Thanks for being patient!

Mr. A may be taking it easy for the next week or two while he recovers from some back pain - the worst is already over but it’ll take some extra R&R to make sure that he’s fully restored. Please excuse any extra delays in publishing photos, social media, and close-ups while this is ongoing! You all have plenty of practice in patience already given our usual delays!

And speaking of the usual delays, here’s a whole bunch of photos from various photoshoots, mainly from September 17-19 when Mural’s kittens were two weeks old and Rue’s were four weeks old including some last-minute photos with Paisley and Basketweave. Also included are a few slightly more recent of Tommy.

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:

This Post Stuck In A Holding Cattern

June 22, 2021 by Mr. Academy in Introduction, Photos

Greetings, Kitten Academicians!

The headline might be a bit of a stretch, but we’re almost a month late in introducing Loom and her Catterns here on the website! Loom came to DAWS on a transport from West Virginia and at first, we were skeptical that she was even pregnant. But Dr. Katz confirmed it with an X-ray and a few days later, on Thursday May 27th, she delivered five healthy little kittens.

It seems as though — for one reason or another — nursing with Loom hasn’t been able to provide them with all the nutrition they require, so we’ve been supplementing them with frequent tube-feedings. As a result, they’re all fat and happy three-and-a-half weeks later, and just now in the process of transitioning to solid food!