Quick Update on Yale's Health

Thanks to everyone who wrote in to let us know Yale has been limping.  We will eventually respond to you all personally, but it may take a little time.  

We checked her out ourselves, and we're convinced nothing is broken; she probably just twisted it a bit when she was climbing and playing.  

We're going to take a watch-and-wait approach for the moment.  There's really not much a vet can do in this situation anyhow.  But if she doesn't seem better in short order, we'll take her in regardless.

EDIT: It's Monday night, and Yale is still limpy.  If she doesn't seem better in the morning, we will take her in to a vet. 

Here's a quick photo to pay the cat tax:

 

 

Adoption Event Photos and News!

A lot of great people showed up at the event and gave a lot of love to the kittens.  And the On Angel's Wings volunteers were especially wonderful, helpful, and attentive.  A few people even told me they had been watching the kittens on our live stream!  

As you probably know, Toffee was adopted yesterday, and today at the event, Cobbler and Poppy were also adopted!  I completely failed in my duties - I was supposed to get an adoption photo for Toffee and I just plain forgot.  But if you want to keep up with how he's fitting in at his new home, you can follow his adopter @ccc_ccc8 on twitter.  Suffice it to say, he's getting plenty of love.

But we do have adoption photos for Cobbler and Poppy!

There were several other On Angel's Wings kittens adopted, too, and a lot of interest in the other Kitten Academy kittens.  Fennel was especially a favorite.  

Before we get to the rest of the photos, some quick news!  Ivy is in the main room now, and we've temporarily placed the cameras around her box.  But we're waiting to see where she decides to settle in, tonight, before we make any serious effort to position the cameras.

Also, Custard came home with us.  We couldn't resist making him a professor!  Pictures to come later!

All the other kittens are at On Angel's Wings in Crystal Lake, just waiting for some loving family to adopt them.  Drop by the store and see them anytime!

Also, we had some bonus photos from the photoshoot on Saturday!  

So. Much. Fan. Art!

We were going over our e-mails and realized we have a GIANT backlog of WONDERFUL fan art of the kittens!  Strap yourselves in; this is going to be a long post.  We'll go in mostly chronological order here.  If you submitted art and it's not in this post, please send us an email to remind us!  We didn't leave you out on purpose, I promise!

First up, one you may have seen already from "Ari Cotton Candy," on our twitter.  Inspired by Shortcake's obvious dental aspirations.  This reminds me of Doctor Cat, and I love it!

Next we have a drawing of Toffee from Blu-Pond, who has a DeviantArt profile, too!  I love the fuzzy silliness in this drawing; it really is Toffee's essence.

Next up, two variations on a Toffee-flavored theme, from "whitefluffy444", a self-declared Toffee lover and fantastic artist from L.A.  This looks to me like a Toffee who could lead a boy band!  Those eyes are dreamy!

Now, a contribution from Emerald Universe, who says "I'm just learning to paint on a computer with software, and decided to start with the best cat in the world, Toffee."  You could not have picked a better subject to begin with, Emerald Universe!  And of course we agree about Toffee!

Next we have a set of submissions from long time regular, KaramelKraft, out of Israel.  KaramelKraft is always trying different styles, and we love them ALL.

Long time, prolific contributor "Bindi Luckycat" gets an entire gallery.  Bindi, I dunno how you do it, but I love all your work.  They're all wonderful, but I think Toffee and Shortcake breakdancing is my favorite, thematically.

Next, a submission from the mysterious "McDraggy," who says: "It's Ivy and her kits; I had a lot of fun drawing Harvey!"  No kidding!  Harvey's face is ADORABLE.  The whole thing is fantastic!!!  

Hazel Allison, who started the fad of calling Harvey a "scream bean" -- as McDraggy's illustration nicely captures -- has contributed more magical art that shows you a message if you click it, but not in the thumbnail.  These were all donated as graduation send-offs for nutmeg and the spice girls, but the first one is a bonus done in a more abstract style.  These are all wonderful, Hazel, with fantastic detail!  I hope their adopters appreciate it as much as we do.

Next up!  A donation from Jadefeathers -- Ivy's league.  All snuggled up!  I absolutely love the satisfied expressions, and the detail of Yale's little starburst, and Ivy's green eyes.  Heartwarming!

SqueakyCat sneaks in with an adorable sketch of Cornell, Harvard, and Yale, before their eyes are opened!  Brilliant details, and I love the "pompadour" hairstyles!  

Here's a sketch of Toffee from someone you may remember from the YouTube live chat.  Scandaloom, we love you!  And did you know Scandaloom has a Twitter?  Because we didn't!  

Here we have two wonderful submissions from a new contributor - Kawin from Switzerland!  I am absolutely blown away by the details in both of these drawings.  They are meticulously detailed in the way I might expect from a Swiss watchmaker.  Perhaps it's in their blood!  Every single detail from the print on the cat toys to the clock, hanging in the kitchen, outside the kitten room, is perfectly reproduced!  And I also love the expressions of the kittens, and the playfulness!  Kawin says this is their very first fan art ever.  I, for one, hope they do more in the future!

To all of you, wonderful, fantastic, amazing artists - thank you.  We apologize that it's been so long since we've posted about your art.  We hope each and every one of you will continue to contribute.  It's special to us, and it's amazing to the adopters.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Big Kitten Adoption Event!

This Sunday, the 28th, all the kittens from the big room at the Kitten Academy will be making an appearance at the PetSmart in Crystal Lake, along with a bunch of other kittens from On Angel's Wings other fosters.  Toffee will not be appearing, as he'll be picked up by his new family on Saturday.

If you'd like to even consider adopting one of the kittens at the event, please contact On Angel's Wings now and fill out an application, so you can be pre-approved and take your kitten home with you on Sunday!

Though Tamarind got left out of the flyer, below, she will also be there.

You can find additional photos of the adoptable cats all over our site, but especially on the Graduation Photos Mewspaper Post.

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.