The Gang - die Rasselbande

A stormy and rainy but very warm day outside today - the best time to take care of my blog again and to post something...... maybe some stories and pictures of the newest family members. The three kittens are doing incredibly well, they are growing and growing and growing. I took them to the vet last week for their last annual vaccination, they are weighed there every time before they get treated. Trick, the eldest has already 5,4 pounds, Angela only 3,5 pounds. The big surprise was Mephisto (the youngest, the runt), who managed to weigh 4,2 pounds! It shows that he is already bigger than the little girl and we are very glad that he became so healthy and strong.

These three guys are so much fun, joy and entertainment all day long. Snaps, Laces and Cutie got used to them - well, in fact Cutie didn't have a hard time at all. He mostly acts like a cat Daddy, but also like a big brother. He loves to play with them (sometimes pretty hard, but the little ones don't care), he gives them a bath (which means he is licking and cleaning them just like their mother did - and it's a fact that they all have the same mother!), they very often sleep together and when it gets stormy outside and thunder is rumbling all four of them hide in our closet downstairs, cuddled up together - soooo sweet! When David and /or I are in our bedroom, we have all 6 babies around us. And they mostly sleep with or around us in the same room. We are very happy that the transition for the three kittens went so smoothly without any troubles. They are very good, although I'm happy to have no new or expensive curtains, as they are starting to climb them up to get a better view outside the window LooooL Cutie learned them how to climb up walls (!!!!!) which we also don't appreciate very much, but who could be mad at them? But they have already learned that they have no business on the dining room table, that they are not supposed to chew on Daddy's shoes and that cables are also nothing really tasty.

Although they got bigger, they still have their squeaky noises, especially Angela does. She can bitch about everything - if you pet her too much, if you pet her not enough, when she is hungry, when she (!!) starts to play rough and her brothers do the same to her - yeah, she is definitely a princess... hahaha

Mephisto is the most quiet one. He is also the most hungry one, his hobby is to eat all the time - regardsless what it is: catfood - wet and dry food (oh, after he has emptied his plate he always looks if the other ones left something on their plates), cat treats, but of course he is also the first to be around us when we have something to eat - especially in the evening when David enjoyes something from McDonald's or Hardy's ..... such as French Fries (= Pommes Frittes) or Cheeseburger. I also have to be very careful with the refrigerator - he would climb into it to see if he can find something to eat (you should see how long his neck gets! Must be smelling real good inside! LooooL) Because of the fact that he is so silent, I happened to lock him into a kitchen cabinet for almost three hours and the bathroom as well a couple of weeks ago. He didn't complain while being locked in there, made absolutely no noise. I was only wondering, where he was, 'cause normally all three are around us when we are home. So I started to search for him and it took me quite a while until I found him! Poor little guy. Since then I really pay attention when I close kitchen cabinets, the fridge or bathroom doors.

So - here are the pictures of our babies (taken last week)

The biggest and oldest, Trick. He reminds us so much of Moritz! Same face, same white legs,.... I bet he will be a gorgeous, beautiful male cat one day with a bushy tail - just like Moritz had it before it had to be amputated.....

Mephisto - the youngest (the runt). With the vet's help we managed to free him from his terrible hard and bulky round belly - I guess he had a lot of parasites and would have probably died outside if we hadn't taken him in. Now he is almost as big as Trick, but still has a bit of that cute kitten face. He must have an incredible will to survive - considering the nasal and eye infection that he had shortly after we moved them into the green house. The troubles with his digestive system, he probably had a lot of tummy aches! But to see him now, so sweet, so active and so well developed is a real joy for us. So I ask you - isn't he adorable?

And this is Angela, the bitchy princess. She is so precious! Oh, I forgot - we first thought, that all babies are boys! Well, at the first appointment at the vet it turned out that we have a little babygirl among them - and it's very seldom that red cats are girls! Most of them are boys. The red colour is always forwarded by male genes to the next generation - which are mostly boys. So we have a very precious little girl! But she also has a lot of "boy stuff" in her genes - she can be incredibly wild when it comes to running around, doing stupid things and playing. I bet you would not imagine that by seeing that picture! hahaha
Typical evening still life in our bedroom. David making phone calls (see his wireless ear plug?) while checking his email accounts and eating something that he picked up at McDonald's or Hardy's on the way back home. Laces has her nose already in the French Fries bag, while Mephisto is sniffing on the wrapped Cheeseburger (of course - Mephisto!) Angela and Snaps are waiting for Daddy to share his food with them and Trick got distracted by something interesting in front of the bed (maybe my toes, he loves to play with and bite into my toes!)

Trick snuggles to Cutie while Angela tries to do the same with Snaps. Trick and Cutie are real buddies. They truly love each other.

Angela in the basket. She loves to suck on the fur-fabric while making the basket "soft" with the typical cat treading. She even starts purring so loud to the sucking sound when somebody pets her head - all that must remind her of the time as a baby kitten sucking on Mommy's breasts.

Afterwards she tries to take Cutie's attention away from Trick

...and she was successful, Cutie gives her first a full bath.....

and then some love bites!

A bit later she ends up lying between Snaps and Cutie:

She really starts very soon to attract boys! LooooL And look at Snaps - he is totally relaxed hahahaha

Playtime! Angela (left) and Trick (right)

Mephisto has something better to do meanwhile - of course EATING!!!!

So much action gets me tired!

Lets take a little nap (Mephisto - stretched out, and Angela)

I guess you got a pretty good idea about our three little brats. Yes, it is a lot of work every day (cleaning three huge litter boxes several times a day, preparing meals, cleaning and filling up the water bowls, cleaning up messes,.....) but it's worth it. We get so much back from them - especially love and appreciation. We are so glad that we ended up taking them into our house and not finding places for them, which would have ment that they would have been split up for life. They are so attached to each other, we just couldn't separate them. And they are very thankfull. Cutie is glad to have play buddies again, Snaps also starts to play with the little ones ( I guess until now they had been too little for him) and Laces also warms up to them.

Some people might think that we are crazy for having 6 cats in the house and taking care of 2 other ones outside (Mama Kitty, the mother of Cutie, Trick, Angela & Mephisto and the fourth baby, which escaped us after moving the kittens into our greenhouse). Yeah, we might be crazy, but David and I love cats, we have seen what can happen to them when they are living as wild cats outside and we didn't want this to happen to these adorable little ones. No animal deserves such a life and if we can only rescue a few of them, that makes us feel happy inside.