Wednesday morning, it was time to finally say goodbye to Austin (Gremlin), Abilene (Abby), and Amarillo (Rillo/Willow). This batch of fosters had been with us for about 5.5 weeks, and we’d nursed two of them from the brink of death due to calicivirus. All three had grown happy and healthy and friendly and sweet. Abby loved to sit in your lap, while the other two scrambled up to your neck and shoulders so they could be right up as close as possible. (In this pic to the left, you can see the two boys simultaneously fighting for my cuddles and cuddling with each other – this was a daily thing!) All three were very attached to each other, and would tangle about in piles when they slept. They were also extremely attached to Jason. Whenever he got home or would walk into their foster room, all three would go from dead asleep to excited in an instant, running off me with their tails up high so they could go to the door to greet him.

(Anyone who says cats aren’t affectionate has never really known a cat!)

As you might be able to tell from the photos I’ve put up of these babies in the past, our foster room isn’t the brightest room in the house. There is a lot of detail missing in the photos as you zoom in, and I could rarely get photos that showed true color. I really wanted to capture some good photos of these darlings, so on Wednesday morning, I brought my camera into the room instead of just my phone. The good news: My camera has a range of adjustments that can help it to work in lower lights. The bad news: Those adjustments give me a very shallow focal area and only barely long enough a shutter speed to get non-blurry photos. More bad news: The two boys decided that Wednesday morning was Zoomie time!

(Pure personality: Gremlin looks like you need to get off his damn lawn. Rillo can’t be still for a quarter-second. Abby says she’s through with their nonsense and she’ll watch them from a comfy chair.)

In other words, 75% of my photos came out blurry and useless. Rillo, the most chaotic of the three, was definitely the worst at this, and I got zero solo photos of him without some blur to his face. Halfway through our impromptu photo shoot, I brought in a handheld light cube, which helped to bring in more light, but also meant that I was shooting one-handed, which sometimes caused the shots to shake even when I managed to keep the kittens still for a split second. Argh! In the end, though, I managed to get some good photos (or in Rillo’s case, at least one decent photo).

Miss Abby, queen of sleep, will snuggle but only if you let her put herself in your lap herself, is especially in love with Jason and will groom him if he lets her, loves strings and zippers on Jason’s shorts, demands beef baby food at least once a day. Slightly stingy with purrs, but once you’ve got them, she chirps as she purrs to show she’s blissfully happy.

Rillo, the boy who exudes every characteristic you’d expect in an orange kitten with a shared brain cell (iykyk), who has run headfirst into poles and walls because he was too focused on something else to notice them, who has to be picked up when you enter the room and cuddled on his back for belly rubs, and will lick your ears if you don’t stop him. Constant, nonstop, loud, instantaneous purrs.

Gremlin, the tiniest boy, looks like Gizmo and earned his nickname, eyes that slant in a way that makes him look like an angry, cranky old man even as he’s purring and licking your fingers, who must perch up high and so he’s an instant shoulder-kitten, has a silent meow (ulcer damage or just the way it is? we don’t know), the most laid back and tolerant boy you’ll ever meet despite his grouchy face. It was particularly hard to say goodbye to this little guy as he stole my heart from Day One. There were tears, and I am not normally a crier.

But not to worry. What better way to drown your tears than introduce new love into your heart? The shelter had several other calicivirus kittens that desperately needed foster homes, so we took home a duo. Dexter and DeeDee are about 4-5 weeks old, but I’ll leave their introduction for another post. Here’s a teaser photo, though.

Here’s to the next month of meds, socializing, nursing, cuddling, feeding, playing, cleaning, and bringing new babies into our hearts!