Eyes Open Photoshoot!

First, some quick mews:  the shelter at On Angel's Wings in Crystal Lake is FULL OF KITTENS.  So full that there's no room for ours.  So, while they have officially graduated, and are available for adoption right now, they will be staying at the Academy for another week.  If you want to adopt one of the older kittens, please apply now.  There's an event next Sunday, Aug 28th at the PetSmart in Crystal Lake, where all our kittens will be making an appearance, whether the shelter has room or not.

Toffee is the only one who has already been adopted.  Shortcake, Cobbler, Custard, Nutmeg, Fennel, Tamarind, Clove, and Poppy are all available! 

Now on to the main event!  We took some photos today of Ivy's kittens, to celebrate the fact they all have their eyes open!

 

 

 

 

Graduation Photos!

Graduation day is always a bittersweet experience.  We're glad to see our little friends off to their forever homes, but sad to have them leave us.  All of these kittens are eligible for adoption this weekend; apply right now at On Angel's Wings in Crystal Lake, IL.

As usual, we have a few "leftover" photos from the shoot, below:

 

 

Updates All Over!

We wanted to take the time to get some nice graduation photos of each kitten for this post, but those photos will have to wait.  There's a lot of news, and it's not really fair for us to hold it back for some photos that may or may not materialize!  I'll sprinkle this post with some older, random photos.

Clove hiding out.

Most importantly, graduation!  All the older kittens -- that's Toffee, Cobbler, Shortcake, Custard, Nutmeg, Poppy, Clove, Tamarind, and Fennel -- will go to the vet tomorrow, Friday, 2016-08-19.  They will be neutered or spayed, vaccinated, and microchipped.  They will return, typically around 5-6pm Friday evening.  

Fennel's excited about getting spayed.

After that, the boys will spend Saturday here, and the girls, Saturday and Sunday.  Then they will go to the shelter at On Angel's Wings in Crystal Lake for adoption!  If you're interested in adopting any of them, it's not too soon to put in your application now.  That way, if you go to visit them at On Angel's Wings, your application can be pre-approved and you can take one home with you that day.

Synchronized Napping!

Synchronized Napping!

What happens next is still a little up-in-the-air.  It seems like we have two options:  1) Just keep Ivy and her three kittens, and watch them grow up, until they near adoption, then get more kittens!  or, 2) Keep Nutmeg and the Spice Girls on a little longer for more socialization and to keep the stream a little more active, for maybe another week or so.  We're not sure yet which option we'll take.

Ivy and her kids are doing pretty well.  She's been moved to a temporary location outside the annex, since we'll have a visitor this weekend staying in the annex.  With a dog.  We're pretty sure Ivy would not like to share that room!  On Monday, she'll either be moved back to the annex, or into the big kitten room, depending on how we handle the Spice Girls decision.

UPDATE: Many of you wrote in about Ivy's breathing.  I suspect it's just a little stress from the move, but she'll be going to a vet this evening anyhow, just to be safe.  She'll leave around 4:30pm.

Brothers and Sister.

Finally, most of you probably know, but the Northwest Herald is going to run an article on the Kitten Academy, which is supposed to be in print this Sunday.  We'll be sure to let everyone know if and when.  Hopefully it will also be online!

 

Ivy's Kittens Named!

All of Ivy's kittens are doing really well.  They all seem healthy and happy! 

That's all the news for this post.  Here's some extra photos from today's photoshoot!

Ivy's League has Arrived!

I think by now, most of you know that Ivy delivered three healthy babies late Saturday night.

Our regular art contributor, "Bindi Luckycat" has already contributed a drawing for the occasion:

DJ plans to name the three kittens after Ivy League schools, or mascots, or something related.  But we're not completely sure of the sexes yet - it's difficult to tell when they're this young.  Our best guess so far is that #1 and #3, the lighter-colored ones, are girls.  #2, the darker one, is a boy.  Probably.

 We've been pretty busy since then, and I have a million videos and photos to edit and publish.  In the meantime, we have published the entire three-hour labor and delivery video from the livestream, unedited.  If you decide to watch this, just be aware that the first kitten doesn't appear until right around 1 hour in.  You can, of course, skip ahead to that point.

We plan to publish a lot more photos and some great 4K video, some of which you can see me filming in the archive footage above.  It may take a few days.  We're likely to publish the videos to the Patreon supporters a day or two early.

Thank you to everyone for your support, advice, commentary... and just being a part of this experience of bringing three wonderful new kittens into the world.  It's been great having all of you along for the ride, whether on the livestream chat, twitter, or email.  Thank you all!

A bonus from Bindi Luckycat.

Today's Photoshoot!

We took a lot of video today, but it'll mostly require some serious editing before it can be published.  There was one clip, though, of Nutmeg, which was pretty much good-to-go, and it has already been published to anyone who pledged us $1/month or more on Patreon.  It will be available to the rest of the world in the next day or two.

In the meantime, we have some photos to share with all of you now.  We think some of these are really fantastic.  As always, click the photos to open the full-screen version.

Health Update and Leftover Photos!

Yesterday, we did a bit of a photoshoot and took some video in the kitten room, to put together a quick "Thank You" video for our supporters on Patreon.  We also got some photos in the course of doing that, which are at the end of this post.

But before we get to that, we'd like to update you all on the health of the kittens.   The charts below are all part of the kitten weights spreadsheet which you are welcome to look at for more details.  All weights are in ounces, because why not use an archaic measurement system for something important?

The Spice Girls + Nutmeg are all on a course of Amoxicillin now.  And also, Neomycin ointment for their eyes.  They all seem healthy, but you have to carry on antibiotics for a while to be sure you're not leaving any nasties behind.  And as you can see, Fennel had a rough time, but she's rapidly recovering!  We're going to continue to give her special food until we run out, probably.

As you can see, Toffee, Custard, Cobbler and Shortcake are all at the same weight that Biscuit, Pudding, and Crumpet were when they were fixed and adopted.  However, we're still holding them back until we can solve at least the diarrhea that Toffee is still having.  They also all have oddly swollen bellies that no amount of deworming, or vet work has managed to definitively solve -- but the vet's last theory was they just like to overeat, and if the diarrhea is solved, we're willing to go with that.  Generally, though, they are healthy, happy, and gaining weight.  Currently, we are waiting on the results of a fecal culture that should be done by the end of the week.  They're also all presently on Metronidazole and the same Neomycin.

Just for comparison, here's the chart of Hazel's litter from the start of the year.  This is what it looks like when you have a present, attentive momcat and super healthy babies:

All right, on to the photos!  

 

 

 

 

Patreon is now an Option!

It's been a while since we've done a really short blog post.  So, here's one for you.

We now have our own Patreon page.  This is a place where you can pledge to support us with a donation every month, and in return, we can give you some minor (very minor!) rewards.  

If you have previously donated, and you would like your donation counted towards the Patreon rewards, email us:  headmaster@kitten.academy

There's a special, but simple video up already as a thank you to any Patreons (?) who pledge to us there.  Here's a preview image: