More Farm Babies

A few weeks ago, Grandma Rhonda had a mama cat give birth to some baby kitties right before a cold, wet snap in the weather. Josh moved them from her back porch to our place so they could be put in the shed out of the weather and so that he and the kids could watch the kitties grow (I'm not much of a cat person).  Mama Cat kept them in the box in the shed for a few days and then moved them.  Even though the kids and I went on a couple of kitty searches, we never were lucky enough to find their hiding spot.  But, much to our excitement and surprise, we saw baby kitties poking their heads out from under our front porch on Monday. They are very friendly and already like to be petted...for a few short minutes at a time.  And the kids are in absolute love with them!



This one is the braver of the three.  He (or she?) comes out first and stays out longest. 




Sarah Rose was in kitty heaven!  Her maternal instinct kicked right in and she cuddled the kitty so gently and lovingly!




Caleb had a little rougher time learning how to hold the babies.  He's catching on though. He'd rather throw the mulch on top of them to play camouflage.

  After a little petting, the kittens had to go back to their mother.


First, the sad realization that the kitties had to go back under the porch.




And then the utter distraught of having to say goodbye.




And finally the complete meltdown!  She survived.  :-)

 Before we played with the kittens, the kids got to help feed our second bottle calf of the year, Baby Ford.  How did he get the name Baby Ford?  We'll, I'm so glad you asked!  If you remember, our first bottle calf was named Baby Honda because she hitched a ride to the yard via a Honda four wheeler.  (Can you see where this story is going?)  Our second bottle calf was orphaned because the mama cow had an infection and couldn't nurse, so he hitched a ride via a stock trailer on our Ford truck.  Thus, Baby Ford.  Anyway, here are the kids "helping":



Someone's hungry and thinks that Caleb's pants legs might make a tasty appetizer.  Caleb thought this was great!




Time to mix up the milk replacer, which is the equilavent to formula for human babies.  The kids got to help whisk it up.



Once the milk was mixed up, Joshua fed Baby Ford.  Ford isn't the smartest calf.  Most bottle calves this old would down a bottle in no time, barely taken any time to breathe while doing so.  And if he were a like a normal calf, the kids would have been able to help.  But Ford plays with the bottle and doesn't really concentrate, so until (if ever!) he starts eating better, Josh has to do it to help him get done.



Do you see Mama Cat walking along side Josh?  That is because she gets the leftover milk and she knows that when Josh starts walking towards the backdoor and her food dish, its chow time for her!




And one more tasty nibble of the jeans before we moved on to other things. Again, Caleb thought this was just grand and laughed through the whole thing. 

 Fun times!