Kitten Lovers: Cuteness Overload

[DennisN]

 

[BillTre]

 

[jtbell]

Apparently, some cats do work for the cops!

https://www.catster.com/lifestyle/police-cats/

 

[skyshrimp]

 

[morrobay]

That's as close as can get to this seafood restaurant cat

 

[JT Smith]

They're even cute as mummies.

 

[DennisN]

 

[berkeman]

 

[DennisN]

 

[berkeman]

 

[DaveC426913]

Well, I am finally a member of a large club - and a large thread, it seems.

This is Sprinkles. Or Stinkles. Or Missy Mew. (I did not have the luxury of naming her; we have a 5-year-old granddaughter.)

She is about three weeks old, found under the shelves in my shed. Mama is very feral and has spirited away Sprinkles' three siblings, leaving the runt to us. (We tried very hard to return all of them, including this one, to mama, but it's just as well she didn't come back. Sprinkles had several large abcesses in her neck from some sort of bites. We did not pull the trigger on keeping her until the $500 vet bill rolled in. Now we feel we're entitled to our ROI.)

Sprinkles prefers to crawl up my shirt, onto my neck - leaving a trail of tiny blood-oozing pinpricks from her death-blades - and sleep in my hood. Purring in my ear makes it very difficult to hear the TV.

A less scary pic:

 

[DennisN]

She is about three weeks old

Now we feel we're entitled to our ROI.

and sleep in my hood

I see a nice and lovely future coming...
Taking care of a cat from such an early age will probably result in a deep attachment.
I think you've got a new family member, one that will be fun and give a lot of love back.
Congratulations!

 

[DaveC426913]

I see a nice and lovely future coming...
Taking care of a cat from such an early age will probably result in a deep attachment.
I think you've got a new family member, one that will be fun and give a lot of love back.
Congratulations!

Yeah. Just wait till the dog comes home form obedience camp.

 

[DaveC426913]

Based on my calculations and backward extrapolation, Sprinkles popped into existence on May 5.

 

[jtbell]

View attachment 361047

And then there's the Roomba (royal conveyance).

 

[berkeman]

 

[berkeman]

 

[DennisN]

Edit: It seems it is not quite true, see this post below.

 

[jtbell]

View attachment 361868

How did they get it to sit still for the long exposure that daguerrotypes required, if it wasn't actually sleeping?

 

[DennisN]

How did they get it to sit still for the long exposure that daguerrotypes required, if it wasn't actually sleeping?

Good question. Regretfully I wasn't present in the 1800s.

Edit: I got curious, so I'll have a look on the internet about it, and post here if I find anything.

 

[renormalize]

How did they get it to sit still for the long exposure that daguerrotypes required, if it wasn't actually sleeping?

Spoiler

Stuffed and mounted?

 

[DennisN]

How did they get it to sit still for the long exposure that daguerrotypes required, if it wasn't actually sleeping?

Edit: I got curious, so I'll have a look on the internet about it, and post here if I find anything.

I found a page which says that the photo is not a daguerreotype:

This photo of a particularly majestic-looking cat often circulates on social media with the claim that it was taken in 1880, making it the earliest-known cat photo. Unfortunately, this is not true.
...
Even if the date attributed to the photo in question cannot be confirmed, the photo in question clearly uses more advanced methods than the daguerreotype.

Source: False: This is the first-ever cat photo. (LogicallyFacts)

(by the way, I just saw the photo on facebook today and posted it here)

 

[DennisN]

How to do Brexit like a cat... (@pinball1970 )

 

[DennisN]

 

[DennisN]

 

[DennisN]

 

[DennisN]

 

[collinsmark]

(Source: https://xkcd.com/3108/)

 

[DennisN]

 

[DennisN]

 

[DennisN]

 

[DennisN]

 

[DennisN]

It's true...

 

[DennisN]

Yeah, that's me, tall and stupid...

 

[DennisN]

 

[DennisN]

 

[Ibix]

View attachment 363438

Mewclear weapon.

 

[DennisN]

 

[jtbell]

A kitten takes a ride on the New York subway:

 

[DennisN]

 

[DennisN]

 

[DennisN]

The journey to the throne...
(what an adventurous cat)

 

[skyshrimp]

 

[berkeman]

Pretty artistic cat photo in my FB feed today...

 

[JT Smith]

Based on my calculations and backward extrapolation, Sprinkles popped into existence on May 5.
View attachment 361448

Cat gestation is about two months. Typical birth weight is 100g and a standard growth curve is linear at 100g/week for the first couple of months. Of course it varies with health and food quality but it's a pretty good predictor. So a 16oz/450g kitten is usually about 3 ½ weeks old, or 12 ½ weeks if you go back to conception.

Here's graph of a litter of 7 black kittens that I took care of. They were 4 days old when I received them. Their mom nursed the whole brood very well and they all stayed healthy. I couldn't tell them apart (or even reliably sex them) at first. It wasn't until they were almost three weeks old that I attached tiny collars so I could ID them.

The runt was small but proof that neutrinos do indeed have mass.

 

[DaveC426913]

Cat gestation is about two months. Typical birth weight is 100g and a standard growth curve is linear at 100g/week for the first couple of months. Of course it varies with health and food quality but it's a pretty good predictor. So a 16oz/450g kitten is usually about 3 ½ weeks old, or 12 ½ weeks if you go back to conception.

Oh my goodness. I'v had this wrong all this time.

I had stuck a pin in her birthdate as April 24th. I've been going with that all this time. I don't know where that came from but obviously I didn't always think that was the case.

According to that chart I'd made, Sprinkles was (extrapolated to be) 100g (3.5oz) around May 9! That's 2 weeks younger than I thought!

It was the vet that made the final assessment of her predicted age at time of acquisition (May 19).
4 weeks back from May 19 would be April 24.

So which is more trustworthy? Weight? Or vet's exam?

Here is my take: weight could easily be under, since they were feral. It is not beyond the realm of plausibility that they were bornt on or about April 24, as the vet assessed, and yet only achieved 13 ounces after 4 weeks.

 

[JT Smith]

You can only estimate. You can consider weight, teeth, eyes, motor development, and behavior. But each of these indicators comes with a lot of leeway. With experience you can often guess pretty well just by how they look and act. There's a certain progression of physical and behavioral development. Like at a certain age they couldn't care less about a wiggling string and they can't really run. But a few weeks later they run and ALL they care about is a wiggling string. A few weeks after that and they can just about fly. But still, it's just a guess.

Here's a pretty good description of kitten age determination from "Kitten Lady". She's a very reliable source of information. I notice that she has a more optimistic estimate of weight gain than I had read elsewhere (and experienced). She probably takes great care of her foster kittens.

Anyways, the vet said 3 ½ weeks when the kitten weighed about 300g. It's a decent guess since she could have been having a hard time. Maybe the teeth were a clue that the vet took into consideration as well.

You'll never know. So just pick a day.

How about April 25th? That's the date that National Hairball Awareness Day falls on this year.