The Little Red Boat Sails Again on the Babies One Week Birthday!

Some of our readers may remember the little red bed that served the Maples family so well. It's baaaack!! This time providing a safe space for the babies to be filmed when weigh in commenced. The clip is at the bottom of the post. I'm still trying not to disturb Mama, as much as is possible, so I've tried to keep sessions with the babies quick. I took stills of the two girls today, and will try for pics of the boys tomorrow. Finally, I got clear shots!

May we present Ms. Dark Tortie Girl. She has more light on her face than her sister...

...but, overall, appears darker from above.

Now that we have stills, I see why! Check out those peachy little paws on Ms. Light Tortie girl!

And, from above, she's just as cute as her sis!

Today we changed out the linens again, and I used smaller towels to facilitate quick, daily changes from here on out (I didn't change daily in the beginning so as not to freak Mama out). The linens removed were clean and dry, just kind of fur covered, so that's good.

Mama was, once again, still nursing when I lifted the sheet to access the box. This is a good sign, I think, as she appears to be comfortable with me moving about the room and being close to her. She didn't move until I reached in for the babies, and then to the back of the box. Of course, when I changed the linens after the weigh in, she exited completely.

I wish I could check her out more closely (make sure she's in good shape), but we'll take what we can get. She's polishing off her wet food and milk substitute each time I put it down and, of course, she has free access to kitten kibble and water all day long.

The babies sure are thriving! I just wrote to Grandma Jeanne to double check that the were, indeed, born last Sunday. If so, they're not only one week old today, they're way ahead of the Maples in growth... and light years ahead of the "normal" growth weight chart I found in 2009.

Dark Tortie girl gained a whole ounce - gadzooks! - and became the heavy weight of the litter today. I weighed everyone again after film stopped rolling, just to be sure I had it right. (The "extrapolated" days on the chart are when I was incarcerated... errrr... in the hospital. Yeah, anal me had to fill in the days so the graph would turn out right. I'll post the graph next week.)

And here's the long awaited, decent look at the new babies! The camera work got a bit sloppy at the end, and I really do need to pay more attention to background (lovely shots of supplies on the table, throughout the video!), but you can actually see the babies for the most part! This is an improvement!