Nanuq Meets His New Siblings

Two weeks ago, Nanuq and I welcomed home two gray tabby kittens, gender unknown. Against my better judgment, I let Nanuq meet them nose to nose.

The kittens came from my friends John and Jackie. A mutual friend, Aren, found six kittens in an empty yard in Northern Liberties. Their mother had abandoned them. The mother cat later returned and took one of the kittens; she left the remainder in the grass. Aren and his girlfriend gathered up the furballs and bottle-fed them for a week. John and Jackie offered to take them, with the goal of adopting out most, or perhaps all, of the kittens.

After I moved, I had planned to get a second cat. I thought Nanuq would be happier with a playmate. But it didn't take a whole lot to sucker me into two.

When I arrived at the Maki's house to visit the kittens several weeks ago, Jackie ushered me into the bathroom. The kittens were rolling around in the bathtub, squealing and nipping at each other and looking up at me with tiny blue eyes. Each was small enough to fit in my hand. Fortunately for me, John and Jackie had already decided to keep the black one; just looking at him made me want to cry.

"My" kittens bounced around the tub. One was much fatter than the other; he (or she) never got enough of the bottle. John and Jackie put the five kittens on their bed, and we watched them play. When they got tired, they curled up together and took naps. My two seemed inseparable. I couldn't tear them apart.

Guess cuteness is catching. The Makis kept the other three kittens.

Our first few days were an adventure. My guess is that bottle-feeding cats is about as neat as bottle feeding infants. Nothing like the smell of watered-down cat food first thing in the morning.

The kittens have their own room for now while I clean and renovate the house. They can't jump into the windows yet, but they've learned from Nanuq how to drink water from the bowl, use the litter box (most of the time) and chase after balls of tin foil. I love coming home at night, watching them chase each other as the setting sun casts shadows against the wall in their room.

Nanuq likes the kittens; each morning he sits outside their door and meows until I let them out. He grooms them and chases them back into their room when they try to go down the stairs. The kittens are unafraid, and spend hours swatting at Nanuq's tail. He never bites, but he puts them in their place.

I will chronicle their growth in the coming weeks. I know kittenhood is fleeting. But for now, I'm enjoying my new little family.