Veruca's kittens!

We got a moment to get a few shots of the kittens while momma cat took a break. Unfortunately, the best picture of the tailless cat is the front of her.

I've found really good homes for two of them so far (my son's autism advocate and my adult daughter wants the kitten without a tail). I have about eight weeks to find the other two homes. I've got the money set aside for their first shots and Veruca's "no-more-kitties" operation, too. As awesome as this experience was, I never want to see this happen again. it's going to be hell keeping the kittens safe once they start roaming.

I didn't name her, but that's what I'm assuming. My son, who is verbal but has a lot of difficulty speaking, calls her "Vahrooooooka!" He says it so well, we fell in love with the name and kept it. I'm no good with naming pets anyway; I grew up with two dogs named Lady and Peanut.

Veruca doesn't have a problem with Ian personally, but she gets very skiddish when he gets close to the bed she's hording the kittens under. Ian could care less about the kittens right now, he knows they are there, but he hasn't tried to touch them. What worries me is when the kittens get larger and mobile. Well, I'm not too worried, but there's a lot of aggression with children with autism. Ian's meltdowns have no foresight; he can find something out of place and decide to throw a shoe at someone without any warning. I will say though he's great with Veruca. I spent the first two weeks we got her teaching Ian how to properly pet and scratch her, and to never harm her. So far he hasn't.

Also, if anyone sees this I have a quick question. Do mommy cats spray? It's starting to smell weird where the kittens are, but I don't know what spray smells like. It's sort of spicy and unpleasant, but not really strong enough to smell unless you get close to the spot. I wouldn't have thought about it really, but now my son's tent smells like that, and Veruca desperately tried to nest in it a few days before she had the kittens. She walks up to it about once a day now to check it out. It's really gross. I' probably going to have to throw it away, right?

They're doing great! Veruca is a bit overly protective of them, but she keeps them all very safe and warm. I totally understand where she's coming from; my son can literally bounce off walls for hours at a time. All of the kittens have opened their eyes, and there's two males, two females. I've noticed that the males are a lot larger and whinier than the females. I wonder if this is true for all kittens... Mama's boys perhaps?