Off to collect a new foster cat friend this morning.

Such a friendly, chatty girl Now I need to come up with. a temporary name for her.

She has quite a short tail so I think I shall call her Stub.

Stub is so brave that I’ve already let her wander the entire house rather than keep her in one room. Aside from when there are loud noises outside, she’s happy as.

Stub is a black and white girl, her legs are white and she has black toe beans. Her face markings make her look like she is wearing a hat. We’re hanging on my bed on this quiet Sunday morning, she’s been helping me read my book,

Stub has been watching a bee wander along the deck and she’s getting quite frustrated that there is a window in between her and the bee. So we’ve just had a life lessons chat about the pros and cons of eating bees. It’s mostly cons.

And my pros are assumptions.
They are probably crunchy, which is a good texture for eating.
Maybe they taste like honey, which is delicious but there are other ways to get honey.

Now she’s trying to rub her face against my face which she likes to do. But it has me wondering if she likes to do it because she’s trying to stop me giving her life lessons and she’s a grown woman and mother of two and she can make her own decisions.

If you want to know how brave Stub is, I just got home and took my sneakers (no socks) off and she’s cuddling up to my foot and giving it a good sniff.

One paw is half black, half pink toe beans and I am officially dead from the cuteness.

Me, trying to run a Skype meeting from home:
*work talk* no, off the keyboard... *work tal...* don’t chew that cable... *work t..* sorry, what was that? The cat is rubbing her face on my headset and she keeps knocking it off my ears... #fostercat

Percy’s favourite toy was one of those balls on a string.
Pat the cat’s favourite toy was a piece of blanket.
Temporary Oliver’s favourite toy was his glare from the safety of the wardrobe.
Stub’s favourite toy is a button.
#fostercatadventures

Stub very much enjoys being helpful.
She helps me to not overfill her food bowl by shoving her head in it while I put the biscuits in.
She helps me to make my bed, although we have differing opinions about what a made bed looks like.
She helps me eat my meals (tries v hard).

Stub prefers scratching the sofa and the carpet rather than the scratching pad I got for her, but she’s currently snuggled up right next to it, so as long as she loves it I guess?

New coworker is much quieter than my usual coworkers but she does have a tendency to mash all the keys on my keyboard with her paws.

Stubalina and I are gonna be alert level 4 friends for the duration. We’ve had some chats about how she needs to stop helping me eat my breakfast but she’s doing that whole lalalalalalalalalalalala thing and I don’t think she’s listening…

Stub enjoys helping me work by walking on the keyboard and IMing my colleagues. I’ve never apologised for so many random IMs before.

Now some food show is on, she’s back watching the tv from them sofa.

It’s raining really heavily and Stub is keeping guard. I feel very safe.

Me, to Stub while trying to eat my breakfast and stop her from eating my breakfast: It’s not an obstacle course, Stubalocious. There is no prize of my food at the end of this.

Isolation loaf buddy

TFW you’ve just had enough

Stub is super friendly but has never sat on my lap and isn’t super keen on behind held. Am trying to teach her that snuggles with humans are good and tonight we had about 5 mins of snuggles (although she was standing with her hind legs and sitting with her front). Progress.

She does sleep on my bed with me though. By my legs.

Erm, so I just woke to lots of squeaking and Stub has had a kitten. On my bed. While I slept.

And now a second one.

Funny, I had a niggling feeling she was pregnant but figured I was just over feeding her. No wonder she was so hungry.

Only one of us knows how to do this, and it isn’t me.

I need to change the sheets and also, where do I sleep?

Ok, mum and babies successfully moved to a better place for them to sleep. Heating on. Time to change my sheets. This is not a night I was expecting at all.

Obsessively checking sheets and duvet in case there are more kittens. There don’t seem to be, but that’s a new thing to be anxious about while I wash the sheets.

Stub brought her tiny babies back into the bed with me so we have been snuggled together with me having to say ‘I’m not your mum, tiny baby’ every now and then when one starts snuggling into my shoulder.

Tiny baby 1

Tiny baby 2

Stub was up eating and one of the tinies started squeaking lots so she immediately stopped, rushed back to them and is now letting them feed again. She’s such a good mum (also we are back in the nest, also by my desk so let’s hope she gets comfy here).

I’ve been wake since 1.30am and if I can make it to 8pm, I’m allowed to go to bed.

Day 2 update. Everyone is well, the tinies are growing, in particular I can see their tails filling out. Stub and I sat and watched them together for a while this morning, with Stub looking at me with what I interpreted as a ‘wtf happened yesterday’ face and I agreed. Pics later.

When two tiny kittens team up to make a small ball

Ok, Stub and the tinies have their own Instagram account. Saves me having to update in several places so my family don’t find my Twitter https://instagram.com/stubandthetinies

Also, the tinies have names! Tub and Bub. The only way I can tell who is who is when I weigh them at the moment. But Tub is a bit bigger than Bub.

I die

Breakfast time for the tinies and they are noticeably bigger today. Everyone continues to do well, Stub came and helped me read my book for a bit before the tinies were calling for more breakfast.

Stub is having a good sniff of my coffee, closely supervised by me which naturally includes a chat about how I know parenting newborns must be tiring, but I really don’t think coffee and cats are a good combination.

If she didn’t rub her face against mine on the regular, I would be convinced she used it as a tactic to stop me from giving her ‘life lessons’.

Featuring tiny kitten tum

Seriously, how do you tell them apart???

New coworkers are very quiet unless they are wanting food or their mum is giving them a vigorous clean

All I’m saying is, if your coworkers nap during work time, they need to be cute to get away with it.

Trying to figure out the gender of these tinies and I’ve gone from ‘defintely girls’ to ‘definitely boys’ and I never thought I’d be googling and zooming in on kittens butts to try and help me figure it out… I’m still not sure…

Bath time!

It seems that being a diligent mum doesn’t mean there isn’t time for zoomies.

Aaaaand bed time (for me and the tinies).

Pre lockdown (and obviously pre surprise kittens), today was the day Stub was supposed to be spayed and then put up for adoption once healed. How things have changed.

The kitten puddle gets bigger every day.

Stub: *tries to clean tinies*
Tinies: Muuuuuuuuuuuum
Stub: Ok, fine

Basically I need to be able to keep working from home full time until the tinies are weaned and toilet trained, is a thing I wasn’t expecting to be saying a week ago #AllAboutMeTweet

Current state: sleeping in top of each other as usual

If you’ve had a bad day, might I offer you some tiny toe beans?

Just busted my coworker drinking from my water glass and how long has this been happening???

Teeny babies are slowly becoming less teeny.

I can pretty much only tell the tinies apart when I weigh them. Tonight this is only a 2gm difference way to make it harder tiny babies!

Today is brought to you by tiny paws - day one vs day eight

And yes, the tinies are the softest fluff balls now.

Weigh in tonight and Bub squeaked blue murder - I think I woke them up. Stub very keen as to what *exactly* I was doing with her baby.

Earlier today though

I spent time making pom-poms for Stub and the tinies but Stub is losing her mind for some scrunched up tinfoil.

Any day now the tinies will open their eyes, making my morning visit to see them extra exciting.

THEIR TINY EYES ARE OPEN!!!!! It’s too hard to get a photo, they wriggle so much (and also, they are sleeping again). But I will keep trying! I’m so proud.

When you’re so tired you don’t even have the energy to tuck your paw in

Just figured out to how save the live photo as a video and I am officially dead

Stub

Easter Sunday is for naps

This wind has broken my foster cat. She is just a ball of zoomy now.

The one closest to the camera is Bub, the other is Tub (post weigh in so I know who is who)

I feel like giving Tub a gentle tummy rub was definitely the highlight of my day (this one is Tub)

This one is Bub

Tub is gaining weight much faster than Bub, so tonight I’m on ‘make sure Bub gets some too’ duty, which is very cute for me as I get to distract Tub so Bub gets a head start.

Fitting playlist for feeding time: “piano dinner”