In Which the Pirate Offers a Tiny Feline for Friday.

Last week I visited my kitten dealer Dawn and her husband John. There is no way I’m getting another kitten, but they had a foster mama and three babies with them for a few days. When Dawn offered me the chance to come over for a little bit of kitten therapy, I couldn’t turn her down! (Not to mention the chance to hang out, have dinner and a few drinks, catch up, and play games. That part was fun too.)

This little girl was only three or four days old when I took her picture. Her eyes and ears are still shut, and I didn’t get to hold her long before Mama Cat was chirping for me to return her. I would have been happy to let her sleep in my hand all night, but she needed Mama’s warmth and milk, not to mention the companionship of her brother and sister. While Mama Cat is mostly a solid gray, all three kittens were tabbies. The two girls had stripes and white chests, and the little boy had a classic tabby swirl going on. All three kittens were (of course) absolutely adorable.

At one point I shifted her around in my hand and she fell asleep upside-down. When we gave her the tiniest of bellyrubs with just the tip of one finger, she squirmed and waved her little paws around, and opened her mouth as if she were giggling. I’ve never seen a ticklish kitten laughing before. It was the cutest thing ever! As soon as we stopped, she fell right back to sleep.

It’s coming up on kitten season, and I’m looking forward to helping Dawn “torture” the little ones with lots of snoogling, paw-touching, and ear-rubbing. The more kittens are handled when they’re really young, the better they’ll be about it when they grow up. Floyd doesn’t like when I trim his claws or clean his ears, but he doesn’t put up any arguments about it. Kipling seems to have missed out on his early torture sessions and is touchy about letting me touch his paws… though he doesn’t mind having his tail pulled.