Simon spent most of Sunday with his “GrandMeowm” and “GrandPaw,” then got in his magical traveling box (i.e. his carrier) and came to see me until his “Daddy” picked him up after work.
Simon loves his Daddy; you can see it in the way he looks at him:
It’s a relationship built on trust…
…and love….
Four weeks ago, Simon (known then as “little orange kitten”), was so tiny that he could fit in the palm of my son’s hand:
The first time this happened, Simon was in full play mode near the door and as soon as Niko jumped in, Simon pounced on his head and started biting him! Niko responded by rolling over and gently hugging Simon. He started bathing him before I had the chance to grab him and escort him out, but these two really, really want to be friends.
Niko darted into the room again last night and he and Simon immediately went under the bed where I couldn’t reach them! While Niko looks “threatening” in this picture with his upraised paw, again he was really being quite gentle with Simon:
I know that my “kitten-sitting” days won’t last forever — soon Simon will be old enough to stay by himself while my son is working — but maybe it’s important for Simon to have the opportunity to be “socialized” by other cats, especially since he’s grown up without a mom-cat and siblings.
Our little sweetie continues to grow and change at an amazing rate! Just last night we noticed that his eyes were starting to lighten. Tonight they definitely look more green than blue:
Yesterday he decided that canned kitten food (Innova) was good stuff. He was just finishing up a meal in this brief video clip:
After eating, it was play time. His Grandma Kim made him a special sock to wrestle with, but it’s just a bit too heavy for him to carry yet! (I wish I could have gotten a picture of him carrying a mousie earlier!)
After eating, washing, playing and using the litterbox, well, you know what comes next. 🙂
The changes in a baby kitten in less than a couple of weeks are nothing short of amazing. Little Simon has gone from this, on May 25th:
to this, on June 5th!
Each day brings new skills and abilities. He still sleeps a lot (he’s not quite 5 weeks old) but when he’s awake he’s quite active, as this video shows:
He also seems to be teething and this leads to some frustration when he’s drinking from his bottle. He starts chewing on it and flailing his front legs. The kitten formula is coming fast enough, but I think it just hurts his mouth to try to suck on it.
We haven’t had a whole lot of success yet getting him to eat softened kitten food–more goes on him than in him–but he’s figured out what the litterbox is for, and that’s a BIG step in the right direction!
The little kitty boy finally has a name: Simon. My son tried out several names and though they were nice, they just didn’t seem to fit. The name Simon apparently means “listening” and given that this little orange ball of fluff is becoming much more aware of his environment, it seems appropriate. And so Simon he is.
Too bad it’s not possible to do time-lapse photography on the growth of a kitten because he’s probably doubled in size in the last week! He’s still tiny and very fragile, but he’s starting to look more and more like a very young cat and less like such an … “infant.” His little “lion cub” rounded ears have morphed into pointy kitty ears.
After he eats, he really enjoys a “mommy-cat bath”: I get a warm, wet washcloth and wash his face, chest, paws, tummy. He really blisses out with that, and just purrs and purrs when I dry him off with a towel.
