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
9 weeks old: Heading to new homes and new lives
It’s Caturday again! We had a busy week.
In total, four of Andromeda’s seven babies have gone to their new homes. They seem to have settled in nicely, from what we’ve heard, and they are ready to start their new lives. We still have three babies at the house awaiting their rehoming, and Andromeda will be going to a new home soon as well.
All in all, everyone seems to be handling the separations OK. Yesterday when baby No. 4 left, I could tell that Andy was a little sad. She lies down to nurse the remaining ones, but she really doesn’t have much milk left, so it’s mostly for show and comfort.
They love being able to play in our larger living room. My other cats are sad to be locked out of that room now, but the kittens really needed more space. They climb the couches, lounge in the windows, throw around toys and explore all day long. They love to wrestle with each other, and mama has even joined in on the fun, but she will bop them if they play too hard.
They really have grown a lot in these past nine weeks. It’s amazing to see how much their personalities have developed and how even though they look so much alike, they are very different cats.
Fostering these babies has been such a rewarding experience, and very educational too. It’s definitely something I will do again in the future, though it may be a few years down the road.
Note: This will be the last installment of this weekly feature. The Times is grateful to Olivia Schwyhart for sharing these kittens’ stories and brightening our Caturday for the past several weeks.
