Ninja Cat

Last week after many restless nights with hungry kittens and a stressed out mama kitty we decided to take a more active approach to regain control over our sleep schedule and household. Tabitha our foster tabby cat developed an infection on her nipples so it was really painful for her to nurse so Jeremy and I had to take on feeding responsibilities with a bottle since the previous Friday until she could be seen by the vet. The verdict from the vet was she would need to be on antibiotics that administered directly to the infected area with a cream. This meant no more nursing and full time bottle feeding for us. She had a cone fitted to her because more than likely she would lick the stuff off otherwise and we had the task of keeping her kittens from nursing until she completely healed. At first we decided to make sure their little tummies were full so they wouldn't try to nurse but found this didn't work overnight, and she was in too much pain to nurse and the first night brought her kittens downstairs where we fed them the night before and where the other mama hung out as she sometimes would nurse Tabitha's kittens alongside her own. The following night we fed them on our bed right before we went to sleep and put them down for the evening but she brought them to our bedroom closet when they started to cry in the morning because they were hungry. She was going to be sure we heard them! So we finally decided we would keep the kittens in our bathtub where they couldn't escape and we would be sure to hear them. We let her roam the house and sleep on the end of our bed but she wasn't interested in sleep. The cone prevented her from being able to scratch her ears and she would wake us when she wanted to be pet or her ears scratched. Another night of little sleep. Exhausted and exasperated we decided the kittens in the bathtub was still a good idea because unlike their mother they actually slept through the night, and she would no longer be allowed in our room, (the only reason she was allowed the previous night was because she cried outside our bedroom door and we thought it would calm her if she was with us, ha!). If she cried at all outside our door she was going to be sentenced to solitary confinement until she calmed down. Peace at last! We shut her in our upstairs bathroom where we had been keeping her kittens when we first had them so it was a familiar area to her. She cried out in frustration for about a half hour and then it was quiet and we were able to finally sleep. At about 5am we heard her crying....from the other side of our bedroom door. That night it was quite warm so Jeremy turned on the airconditioning. Jeremy opened our door and sure enough, there stood Tabitha happy as can be to see us and without her cone. Jeremy told me what he was seeing and I asked if the bathroom door was open, and it was still shut. When he went to open it he found the vent pulled off, the cone lying by the wall right by the door stop. Sometime during the night she pried the cone off her neck using the door stop, pulled the vent out and wandered through our ventalation system to emerge from our downstairs kitchen vent. It must have taken her a good portion of the night but she was very determined!