oloriel | Prepare for weeks of kittenspam.

Oh, they're so cute! Considering they can't actually move yet, they manage to get around quite a lot. #2 even accidentally left the box, but Shakira grabbed it and dragged it back in at once.
She was a bit irritable this morning, but she's gone back to conscientious mothering now. It is, however, impossible to leave her alone for long; after a few minutes without someone near, she begins to meow pitiably, so that I don't have much choice but to run back and cuddle her and tell her what a great mother she is. She'll cuddle for a while, then one of the kittens will squeal, and back into the box she goes to lick them and hold them close. While she's out of the box, the two of them get along really well; they curl up on each other as they sleep. But if Shakira is with them, they usually start to fight - already, helplessly, tiny paws and faces blindly pushing. She has eight nipples, but of course they always have to drink from the same one at the same time...

Sometimes they try to climb her or crawl somewhere and fall asleep halfway there. It's too cute when that happens, especially when they slide back down or fall over. They look more like guinea-pigs than cats now (except when you see their tiny tails, which they like to curl up like pigs), but they're far more helpless than new-born guinea-pigs because they can't yet control their limbs properly nor see. Well, sometimes they fall over and rudder with their legs, then they look more like bugs than like kittens. Their life, so far, is an endless repetition of crawling, drinking and sleeping. (We'll probably miss these days when they grow more adventurous and start climbing the shelves...) When they sleep, they twitch and whimper as though they dream. What do new-born, sightless kittens dream of? It seems to be exciting, at any rate.

Right now, they have snuggled against one of their mother's hind legs: #1 lies across her belly with his head resting against Shakira's and his sibling's leg (I think it actually is a boy), #2 half-buried underneath Shakira's other leg and tail. She watches them carefully. Jörg's mother came to visit earlier today, and she was very watchful and wary (whereas Jörg and I may touch the little ones as long as we don't take them out of her sight).
She won't permit me to go out of her sight anyway, or, as mentioned above, she'll meow loudly until I come back. Good thing their box is underneath my desk, so she's perfectly fine as long as I'm sitting there. Perhaps I can use that to get some of my creative projects finished - after all, there's only one week left...