Sarah Donner and Other Mews!

March 01, 2017 by Mr. Academy

Firstly - if you're here for news and photos of the newborn kittens, that's all in our previous post -- click here!

The big news this week is that we're planning to have our first celebrity guest at the Kitten Academy! The marvelous and talented Sarah Donner, who is a kitten foster, musician, and artist, will be visiting on Friday the 3rd! We're planning on seeing her around or after 13:00 KATZ (that's Kitten Academy Time Zone!) but because she has such a very long way to travel, please don't consider that an exact time!

You owe it to yourself to dig around her website and see all the super-creative kitten-related (and otherwise!) work she's done. While she is here, she plans to bring out her Ukulele and play a few songs to The Fonts and Charlie! It should be a good time for all!

Now for the rest of the news and housekeeping:

We still haven't caught up with the influx of e-mails that resulted from Angel's delivery of four healthy kittens, and our appearance on BBC Trending. We apologize! We hope to get completely up-to-date in the next day or so. In the meantime, rest assured that we probably did read your messages, and just haven't had the time to properly respond!

Charlie's back from his neuter and feeling fine! His adopter will be coming to take him to his new home on the 8th. We've been promised lots of pictures and stories to share with you all - so don't think of it as "goodbye" -- just "see you later!"

Also on Friday, we expect a visit from some potential Font adopters! We're not sure how they'll feel about being on camera - so we'll leave that up to them. Perhaps we'll have two guest appearances on the same day!

We feel that the advertising trial run that we ran was probably a success. The numbers seem to make it worthwhile to continue running advertisements - but the numbers are far from final. Not only do they still fluctuate from day to day, but YouTube's 'estimated' numbers haven't yet rolled over to AdSense or actual payments, so it's hard to know if they're accurate. We expect that to happen by the 15th.

If YouTube's numbers are accurate, then there's more coming in from views by YouTube Red users than there are from advertisements! We'd highly encourage you to sign up if it's available in your country. The best way -- the way we do -- is to sign up for Google Play Music, which is a wonderful service, and includes YouTube Red as a perk. If you have YouTube Red, you get access to extra exclusive content (not from us - but from other YouTubers) and music videos, but best of all, you never see an advertisement on YouTube!

We'll be sure to give you a more full update on the advertising after we've seen the process work from end-to-end, later this month!

Thank you all so much for your support, for watching, and for participating in Kitten Academy! Here's the photos from the "action" shoot from the 25th.

Introducing Angel's Fish!

February 27, 2017 by DJ

After a lot of patient waiting on the part of Kitten Academy faculty, staff, and fans, Angel gave birth to four beautiful and healthy kittens! The delivery started around 1:45 PM on Sunday, the 26th of February. We expected some complications when her first kitten arrived paw-first but everything went smoothly. The kittens have been quick to nurse and even purr! They are doing exceedingly well and we have great hopes for them in the coming weeks at the Academy.

We apologize for the quality of the following photos - Angel's a little bit of a nervous mom and we don't want to disturb her more than necessary in these first days.

With no further ado, here are the kittens with their names! They are "Angel's Fish" and they are listed below in the order of their birth.

In case you missed the live births or just want to review, here is a link to the archived footage of Angel giving birth. The video description contains clickable links to the time of each birth - the first one is about an hour and twenty minutes into the video.

If you would like to see a quick video of the kittens up close on their first night at the Academy, click here.

As usual, here's a collection of the rest of the photos. WARNING: A few of these from during the birth may be a little much for the squeamish viewer!

Introducing Angel!

February 18, 2017 by Mr. Academy

This is just a quick post to officially introduce Angel, the new pregnant cat you may have already noticed in the Kitten Academy Annex! She's a beautiful Calico, who was brought to us by On Angels' Wings. She's already proven herself to be friendly, and likes to purr, and follow us around the room. She also comes running at the sound of an opening tin of food!

It's difficult to predict exactly when she will deliver her kittens, but DJ thinks it will be in the next day. Mr. A. thinks it'll certainly be sometime this week. We can already feel her little kittens kicking if we put a hand on her belly; they're excited to get out!

Although we haven't been keeping the Annex camera on consistently, the plan is to live stream the birth. We put the camera on the stream whenever we're not watching her directly, so we can hear if anything happens! Sorry if that makes it a little boring sometimes. Things can get a little intense when a cat goes into labor, but if possible, we'll tweet when it begins, take some supplemental recordings, and archive the footage from the live stream, just like we did for Ivy.

Here's some photos we got over the first couple days she's been here!

One extra quick note - Chiffon was adopted, which means all the Textiles have homes, except for Velvet! She's still at On Angels' Wings.

Mews You May Have Heard!

February 11, 2017 by Mr. Academy

Flannel wants to talk to you about adopting all her sisters.

Hello, Kitten Academicians! Just a quick post to make sure everyone's aware of a few random bits of news that we've already announced on the live stream!

First an apology: We don't have any new photos to put on this post, because on Monday, Custard knocked our best camera off a desk, and now it's been sent in for repairs. It'll be out for a few weeks. Until then, we'll fall back on the older camera and our cell phones!

The Textiles are all going to be at an event with On Angels' Wings, in Crystal Lake, at the Crystal Lake PetCo today. After the event, they will go to the On Angels' Wings store, where they will stay until Sunday evening - or until adopted, whichever comes first! Any Textiles not adopted by Sunday will return to the Academy, where they will have free run of the house most of the time, rather than returning to the main Academy room.

Acro is preparing to drop his new album soon.

The Fonts will be moved into the main Academy room this weekend, after we give it a thorough cleaning. We're all looking forward to how they will react to being able to see more of the world!

Our test runs of YouTube's new live-streaming-from-a-phone feature were, we feel, highly successful! Thanks to those of you who managed to join us, even though we didn't really plan or announce them. Expect us to do more of that now that it's an option!

We met with a lawyer this week, and have started down the path to turning Kitten Academy into a real 501c3 charity. It'll take a while to get it all done, but we expect it to bring a lot of benefits to you, and to us! More news as that develops.

Charlie taking lessons from Professor Custard.

Finally, this week, from Sunday the 12th - Sunday the 19th (roughly) we will be running a trial of "monetization" on YouTube. That's what they call it when we have ads play on and around our videos. We don't get any control over what ads you see, but we do get a certain amount of control over where and when they might appear. We'll be using the week to figure out those controls, what the options are, and also to get a feel for whether it's worthwhile at all. Some of you may recall we did a brief trial last year and decided against it - we think it's time to try it again and see if anything's changed. If you really can't stand advertisements, we apologize - and keep in mind that YouTube Red eliminates all ads on YouTube!

Thanks for reading, and thanks for watching!

Textiles Graduation!

January 29, 2017 by Mr. Academy

These kids sure grew up quickly! They arrived December 23rd, and here we are, a month later, ready to send them off! They will go for their "graduation ceremony" (spay/neuter, microchipping, and vaccines) on Thursday the 2nd, then be fully ready to adopt this weekend. February 4th. If you're interested in one or more of these lovable, rambunctious Textiles, contact On Angels' Wings in Crystal Lake, IL to put in an application. It's not too soon to do it now! You can find the standard application on their website here.

Before we get to the photos, one quick thing I forgot to mention in the last post. We hit 150,000 YouTube subscribers over the weekend! WOW! Thank you all so much!

Velvet did a wonderful job of raising her kids. A true provider, she was often seen at night calling them to join her after a successful hunt for a catnip mouse. She loves food more than anything else in the world. She can be affectionate and enjoy purring in a lap, but mainly on her own terms. She would never hurt a person, but isn't shy about letting you know when she's had enough. She tolerates the presence of other cats and even dogs, though she's not interested in making new friends.

Tweed - affectionately called "Tweedybear" has proven that he can hold his own against his five sisters. Playful and independent, but loves nothing more than a good nap on a soft bed. He has a wonderfully affectionate personality and is ready with purrs when picked up! He has grown up in a high-energy family and would do fantastically well whether adopted by himself or along with one of his adorable sisters.

Merino is the boldest of the Textiles, and a true people-lover. She loves to explore, will sneak out of the Kitten Academy at any opportunity to see the world. She gets excited whenever people are around and sometimes will climb a leg to get attention. While she is always full of purrs for her people, a lot of her adventures at the Kitten Academy have been accomplished with help from Tweed, Poplin and Flannel. If you are looking to adopt more than one kitten, you cannot go wrong with Merino along with one of her siblings!

Poplin is a beautiful black kitten with distinctive white eyeliner! Just like her siblings, she is always ready for adventure and has a lot of love for her humans. She has been the leader as well as trusty team member of many exploratory missions undertaken by the Textiles at the Kitten Academy. After a long day of kitten-work, she is also often found right in the middle of cuddle-piles with her siblings. Poplin would make a wonderful pet for anyone looking to adopt just her or along with one of her siblings.

Flannel - Female - Black/Yellow Plaid Collar

Flannel enjoys people and can form a tight bond with the right human. She is a very inquisitive kitten and makes friends with other animals fairly quickly. She also has a lot of snuggles for her humans. She loves to settle in for a nap on your shoulder. She has spent a lot of time in rough-n-tumble mode with her tireless siblings. Flannel will make a great pet whether adopted by herself or with one of her sisters for company!

Chiffon is the most independent of the Textiles, and would be ideal for someone who wants a cat that can do her own thing more often than not. She appreciates attention and playtime with her siblings. She always has purrs and snuggles for her humans, especially when it's nap time. She may be ideal to be adopted with one of her siblings so both kittens get the amount of play and activity that matches up with their incredible energy levels.

Jacquard - Female - Pink Tiger Stripe Collar

Jackie is as playful and energetic as any of the Textiles. She loves to attack socks... especially with feet in them! She is often found practicing her wrestling moves on one of her siblings but is also very affectionate when it comes to time with her humans. She loves snuggling up with her siblings at nap-time and would do really well to be adopted with one of them.

As usual, here's the rest of the photos from the shoot!

Introducing The Fonts! (Part Two)

January 28, 2017 by Mr. Academy

Now that Charlie has joined Kitten Academy, and the Fonts all have their eyes open, we thought it would be a good time for a second introduction! But before we get to that, a little housekeeping to get out of the way.

Thanks to our Patreon, Elennare for compositing this image!

Firstly, we finally have an official mailing address! If you have any reason to want to send us something, you can mail it to:

Kitten Academy
P.O. Box 123
Fox Lake, IL, 60020-0123
United States

Special thanks to On Angels' Wings for taking our mail in the interim.

Secondly, a reminder that The Textiles will be having their graduation ceremony (i.e. surgery!) this Thursday. They should be officially available for adoption this weekend, February 4th. PLEASE get your applications in to On Angels' Wings and adopt one of these rambunctious, loving kittens. Momcat Velvet will be getting spayed at the same time, but will probably need a few more days of recovery before adoption is an option.

We hope you got a chance to see Charlie appear with us and On Angels' Wings on WGN TV on Friday! If you missed it, you can follow this link to the episode! Charlie stole the show, of course. And that's probably why he was adopted within minutes of us leaving the studio! Thanks WGN! Charlie will remain at the Kitten Academy until he has completed his lessons.

Finally, we've had a lot of people ask about Charlie and his story. So just a little clarification! Charlie was born on December 19th, and hand-raised by one of the wonderful people who foster for On Angels' Wings. Meanwhile, Arial was picked up by Animal Control on January 5th, and delivered her four kittens at Animal Control on the 6th. Then she was brought in to On Angels' Wings, and from there, to the Kitten Academy. Once Charlie was old enough to be weaned, he was also brought to Kitten Academy, so that he could be socialized and hopefully, learn to cat! Arial accepted him as part of her family almost immediately, despite being about 2.5 weeks older than her own kittens. He sometimes plays a little too rough for his adoptive siblings, which is why we take him out of the Annex occasionally -- to give them a break!

OK! Now on to the photos!

As usual, here's all the rest of the photos from the photoshoot!

Introducing The Fonts! (Part One)

January 10, 2017 by Mr. Academy

Firstly, let us thank all of you - The Sprigs were adopted in record time. Less than two hours from the start of the adoption event, they were all gone to their new homes! It's because all of you have spread the word about Kitten Academy that this happened. It's wonderful. Thank you!

And a quick update on Velvet and the Textiles: They're all getting much better every day. Flannel's eye is great, and Poplin and Jackie aren't far behind. Velvet is still sneezing a little, but every day closer to perfect health. She has a follow-up appointment at the vet tomorrow evening - Wednesday the 11th.

Now the big news: yesterday, a new family arrived at the Academy. The momcat, Arial, was picked up by local Animal Control on the 5th of January, and delivered her babies at Animal Control on the 6th. She was then transferred to On Angels' Wings, who has placed her in the Kitten Academy Annex. So far, she's a dedicated momcat, and friendly, too. She purrs and enjoys belly rubs like Ivy did. That's everything we know about the new family!

We'll put up a new cheatsheet in a week or two when the Fonts have their eyes open and we have gotten better photos. But in the meantime, here's the key to identifying which of the new tiny kittens are which!

As usual, here's the full album of photos we took yesterday!

Sprigs Graduation!

January 01, 2017 by Mr. Academy

Happy New Year to you! December was a wild month for us, so we apologize for not having the opportunity to publish more, and to really celebrate the holidays with you in the ways we would have liked.

Though it seems like only yesterday, the Sprigs joined us on November 11th, and the time has come for them to graduate from the Kitten Academy. The "graduation ceremony" (spay/neuter, microchipping, vaccinations, etc) will be on Tuesday, January 3rd, and then after a few days of recovering at the Academy, they will go to PetSmart, in McHenry, IL, on Saturday the 7th, where they will remain until they are adopted.

If you'd like to adopt one (or more!) of the Sprigs, it's not too early to get your application in to Animal Outreach Society, in McHenry, IL. We know that Basil and Tarragon are already adopted by a wonderful couple from California, who will be keeping us informed about their new lives. The rest are not yet spoken for, as far as we've been made aware by Animal Outreach Society. They are all wonderful, affectionate kittens, as you've no doubt seen for yourself on the live stream and our YouTube videos!

As with for the last group, Animal Outreach Society has asked us to provide biographies, which you can find linked here, and official Graduation photographs, which are right here, along with the remainder of the photos we took during the sessions today!

Introducing The Textiles!

December 23, 2016 by Mr. Academy

On Angels' Wings has provided the latest class to Kitten Academy. Welcome to momcat Velvet, and her six kids, Poplin, Jacquard, Flannel, Merino, Chiffon, and Tweed!

Jacquard "Jackie" - Female - Pink Collar

That's everyone! As usual, here's the complete gallery of all the photos from the photoshoot. And since we didn't publish it previously, we're including the photoshoot that was on Twitter and Facebook from the day they arrived!

Chutney, and the "No Sads" Policy.

December 23, 2016 by Mr. Academy

Here at the Kitten Academy, there's some guidelines we follow, but we really only have one truly official policy. That policy is our "no sads" policy. What it means is that we can't stomach hearing about cats and kittens in distress, even if we know the story ends well. And therefore, we never want to tell those sorts of stories. Even if our kittens come from a bad beginning, the story we want to focus on is the wonderful time they have at the Kitten Academy and thereafter.

Due to the nature of what we do, though, sometimes, sad things may happen. In those cases, we've decided that we will just tell you the facts, in the least exploitative way possible. We're not here to play on your heart-strings with tragedy, just to inform you of the news, even when it's unfortunate.

Click the big button below for the whole story, if you feel up for a certain amount of sad. We've disabled comments on this post, only because we don't want extra sad for people who don't want it. If you want to share something with us, our e-mail is headmaster@kitten.academy

Chutney. Sads. Update.