Kitty lovers' delight!

After having my Internet connection down for most of the day, I'm finally able now to show you what Courtney and I discovered yesterday! Mama kitty's babies!! We had looked everywhere we could think of on Tuesday, but couldn't find them anywhere. It turned out they were in the machine shed all along, as I'd kind of suspected, since Mama was always in there whenever I went out to feed my crew. 

Against one wall is a rather large pile of junk with all kinds of hiding places, in which every year kittens have loved to play and hide. I'd tried peeking around in there with a flashlight, but there's just no way to see way back into the far reaches. Mama has NEVER had her babies in there before... she always preferred to have them outside somewhere. Maybe she's getting old and decided to take an easier route this year. 

Anyway, we had fed the adults, and just as we were ready to leave to go back to the house, I noticed a little face peeking out from behind the junk! Here's what we saw (after I ran back to the house to get the camera)!

And then two faces!

There turned out to be five in all. They weren't really scared, and I could reach them to bring them all out. There was only one orange one in the bunch, which Courtney thought should be named "Orange". Ha! I discouraged that, and for lack of coming up with a better name ourselves, we decided to email "Agent Orange" for her suggestions. So far all she's come up with is Mango. Whaddya think, folks? Is that good? (Courtney hasn't heard it yet.) Anybody have any better ideas? Or names for the others?

The kittens were bigger than I thought they'd be. I thought they were born just before we got back from Chicago, but it must've been right after we left, which would make them right at three weeks old. They got around pretty well on their own yesterday. Here are some of the fun shots. Click the collage to enlarge and get a better look!

Courtney wanted me to get a picture of her holding each one, but we quit after three. :)

Or maybe it was four. I'm not sure if this is the same b&w one as above. But this is my favorite "I love baby kitties" look on her face:

She thought this is a really comfy way for kittens to be held. I don't know if the kitten would agree to that, but at least they seem to hold still that way. ;)

Here's a fun little video of some of kittens/Courtney action. Be sure to turn up your volume!

I tossed this next video in just for fun. I think Courtney was pretty excited... or something! ;)

Shortly after we got back to the house, we noticed this scene out the living room windows! Yep, I recently put out the cat water bowl birdbath!

Look! One of them can even walk on her front legs! ;)

That's half my crew, not counting kittens. Anybody want a cat???