A day in the life...

August 31, 2009

Well I’m just back from and early morning vet trip with Swifty, who’d been sold a few weeks back, little Mariah and Emma. All’s well, just a cold an allergy and a case of Acne, so home I came to do the morning chores left undone by my early departure. Walking into the kitchen I note that Piper, our Usual Suspect, has played in the water bowl again and the kitchen is awash. Drop a dishtowel on that accident waiting to happen. I pop a can of Friskies and the still damp floor behind me becomes crowded. All of them vocally admonishing me for being LATE!! with their breakfast. A large plate for the kittens in hand I head for the den. ‘Come on little honeys…’ has long given way to ‘ I can fall faster than you can run! You know where I’m going!! Go there!!’

Having fed the Tribe I trekked to the bathroom to do the 2 litter boxes in there. This should not be a difficult task, its quick, but in a house full of kittens…it becomes an event. Maine Coons being just dogs in cat suites must all go with you from room to room. I was followed by a train of furred goslings. I took the top off a litter box and set it down over someone in the way, dragged forth the lidded litter bucket we use (and carry from room to room) and proceeded to scoop away watched carefully and hampered by all the little bodies peering over the sides into the box. Half done a kitten jumps in and begins to dig for fun…I’m obviously doing so..so why Not!! Wah Hoo!! I pull out the imp and Swifty one of our sub adults jumps in and proceeds to Use the semi clean litter box… now there is another litter box in here. It’s undisturbed and un occupied!! But NO… so I’m sitting on the toilet in front of a dirty litter box waiting……one of the kittens bites his tail dangling out of the box while he’s peeing, this of course causes some comment.….still waiting….he buries carefully #1 and digs a hole for #2 and the same kitten swats him a few times in the head. I’m not sure the look I got was disgust or despair but rescue was out of the question, I want him outta the damn box so I’m the cheering section! ‘Go get him Calliope!’ All the while kittens are jumping in and out of the bathtub, climbing my legs and generally being a nuisance. Finally ‘finished’ I move on to box 2 and the process repeats itself a few times.

To finish up out comes the broom, 2 swipes later all I’m doing is dragging kittens back and forth across the floor as they dangle off the new toy. I give up, lean the broom against the wall and leave the room in hopes they’ll all find something else to do. Returning through the living room I am faced with 8 now empty plates along the plastic floor runner, having gathered them I return to wipe up any spillage. On my hands and knees wiping the runner a couple of kittens trying to break the land speed record shoot by under me on their way to the cat tree on the far side of the living room. Henry having been woken by the rushing wind of their passage is terrified. He shoots into the air and comes down on a vase of Peacock feathers, feathers everywhere. The Adults scatter as if the hounds of hell were loose in the house the Tribe thinks it’s the day of Jubilee and there are bounding kittens Everywhere. The cat flap to the screen porch swings both ways …and in comes Miss MeadowLark and drops a Lizard into the mix and now we have pandemonium. Oh Crap! And its only 10am…