Friday 19 August 2011

The kittens go outside for the first time

We kept the kittens in the house for the first two months to protect them.  A friend said her kittens had died because they caught an infection, and someone else said a large cat came in through their cat-flap and fought with their kittens.  We were also worried they might wander over to the road.  So to be careful we waited until they were three months old before we let them out to play in the garden.  Here they are in a short film going out for the first time.

                                     


The kitten's first day out 
First steps out
Before they went out they had been vaccinated. The vet told us that they can get infections very easily so we needed to get them vaccinated twice before they could go out.  One of the kittens squeaked when vaccinated, and they were both very sleepy afterwards, but ten days later they were ready to go out.

Kittens take a first look at the garden
They were very surprised to see the garden, and went out very carefully and didn't wander far. They stayed together, and Scout only really got going when he saw Felix setting off.  They sniffed everything carefully before approaching it.  But after a few days they got used to it, and started practicing their hunting in the hedges, and then climbing the trees.  Here is Felix in the willow tree.



They were both better at going up than down!