Note from the Times: Olivia Schwyhart, of Lawrence, has been documenting the growth of seven little gray kittens born at the beginning of April 2021. She’s been sharing photos on the Instagram account andromeda.beans, and the Times asked her if she would be willing to write about them in a series for our publication.
Follow along with Andromeda’s kittens as they grow on their Instagram account, and learn a little bit more from their human mom here and in other posts on The Lawrence Times’ website.
Other editions:
1 — April 17, 2021: Catching up with Andromeda’s kittens: Birth through 2 weeks
2 — April 24, 2021: Andromeda’s kittens: At 3 weeks, a little less wobbly
3 — May 1, 2021: Andromeda’s kittens: At 4 weeks, growing, learning, and climbing
4 — May 8, 2021: Andromeda’s kittens: At 5 weeks, no pen too high to climb
5 — May 15, 2021: Andromeda’s kittens: At 6 weeks, big enough to get their own room
6 — May 22, 2021: Andromeda’s kittens: At 7 weeks, they’ve reached the top of the cat tree
7 — May 29, 2021: Andromeda’s kittens: At 8 weeks, some start to leave the nest
8 — June 5, 2021: Andromeda’s kittens: At 9 weeks, babies and mama heading to new homes
3 weeks old: A little less wobbly and almost ready to explore
This week, the kittens got a little more sure-footed with walking around their nursery pen. They are still pretty wobbly but they have started to walk over to me when I sit in the pen.
We have been bottle feeding a couple of them once a day as an extra meal to help them keep up with growth. It’s hard for Andromeda to keep all seven of them fed because they barely fit alongside her when they all feed at once.
Each kitten is marked with a Sharpie on their claws with a different color of the rainbow so we can tell them apart. Yellow, Orange and Green seem the most interested and alert whenever I visit them.
Green is the runt, and she loves to climb under the others to find a good spot to nurse, kind of like reverse crowdsurfing. I haven’t figured out who keeps hissing at me, but he likes to act like a tough guy.
It feels like three weeks is such a long time, but it’s going by so quickly and it won’t be long before they are ready to start exploring more of the house.
Look for more on Andromeda’s kittens soon, and happy Caturday!
