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
7 weeks old: Going to new homes soon
Week 7 for the kittens has been a lot of the same. Growing, learning, eating, pooping. They are naturally pretty well litter-trained. Just a few accidents every now and then.
It’s hard to keep them from escaping the room now. Usually, we just let them venture out a few feet and then herd them back in. If my other cats weren’t acting aggressive toward them, we would let them roam a little more.
They are exceptional climbers now. We have a 5-foot-tall cat tree in the room, and they have finally figured out how to get in the tallest look-out.
“Toes,” the one with white toes on one foot, is the most rambunctious girl of the batch. She will come flying at you when you enter the room. She also playfully bites at anything near her mouth.
“Green,” the smallest kitten at birth, has really caught up in size. She is only a little bit smaller now so the main way to tell her apart is by her slightly shorter fur. She also growls while she eats to warn the others away.
“Blue” is the morning snuggle buddy. My sister sleeps in the room they have taken over, and she wakes up with Blue on her arm every morning.
Sometime after next weekend, most of them will be going to their new homes, where they will each have whole houses to explore and new friends to make. We plan to make the most of our last week with them.
