I'm sitting with the littlest of the foster kittens on my lap with Kachina the dog tucked up next to us. Kachina is fascinated by the foster kittens and is steadily staring at her. The little one has her paw curled over her eyes and has rolled over on her side so I can pet both her back and tummy. We're both worried about her, I think. (I would take a picture but I don't want to disturb either other of them.) We've lost little ones before and I admit I'm nervous. I was trying to fatten all of them up pre-surgery and thought they might be coming down with upper respiratory infections, so I gave them free access to canned food. This resulted in liquid diarrhea for everybody. I removed the canned and am supplementing the dry kitten food with some that is watered down, boiled and mushed. Everyone including the little one were eating the canned food. Now, this one has decided she'll be finicky and I'm not sure how much she's eating. Everyone else is still pigging out whenever I'm around. The diarrhea is much better but with five of them, it's hard to tell for everyone. She's easily half the size of the next smallest and isn't as active as the others. So, I worry and wonder if I'm being paranoid or not being worried enough. She hasn't lost any weight but she hasn't gained any, yet. She's the first kitten in a long time who sat on my lap nicely while I've been writing. I worry that that is a sign she's getting sick, although she did climb around a lot when Alan first brought her out. We lost the last kitten to "failure to thrive" which is a way of saying we don't know what happened. I really don't want to go through that again so soon. She's loooking at me now and made a litte complaining mew because I'm typing too much and not petting her! Maybe she's just being lazy and wants a warm lap and cuddles!

Now we have the obligatory foster kitten post...

Three kittens suddenly became five the next day as a couple more showed minor upper respiratory infection symptoms. An assortment of sizes and colors--all from the same home with three possible mothers and at least two, likely three, litters. We have three grey ones with an assortment of white paws in a couple cases and one with a stub of a tail (all different sizes), a siamese mix, and a larger sleek and slim tuxedo girl.

They all seem to be fine now so the symptoms may have been related to their living conditions or a vaccine reaction. We'll have them until Monday. Five really isn't any harder than three. Right?