Kitten Questions

You'd think, having 12 cats, that I have *all* the answers.

Wrong.

Why is it, that whenever I'm scooping the litterboxes, the cats follow me
around? Kittens especially. On several occasions Bam-Bam or Barney has
stuck his nose, or entire self, into a litterbox as I scoop it. Once
Bam-Bam very neatly and conveniently hopped into the litterbox just as I
took the lid off, squatted and left a kitten-sized clump of fresh pee for me
to scoop. Usually they play in the lid: one or two will get under the lid
and stick their paws out under where the latches are (that hold it onto the
base), which then promptly get pounced by the other kitten(s). Then the
kitten on the outside will reach into the lid through those same holes, and
then the fun begins (again).

Why do kittens want to sleep on my chest? All three of them at the same

Chakolate...

Because you reward them for doing so.

Magic Mood Jeep©...

HAH

They're liable to get inhaled when I start one of my snore-sessions :D

Chakolate...

That may be even more incentive. Why bother cleaning themselves when
mommy will vacuum them as soon as she goes to sleep?

time? Now I've *never* been very ample in the chest area, and even when

Enfilade...

I know the answer and it is terrifying. Because the bitties did, and
still do, the exact same thing to Dylan. They sleep on his chest and
follow him around as they have for the past 2.5 years.

You are their mother.

Even with their real mom around, they seem to think of you as a parent
and fellow cat.

They want to sleep on you because kittens sleep on their mom. They
want to follow you so they can learn to imitate your behaviours (plus
there is a pleasure of pooping in a clean box, and also if that's when
the fun is to be had, that's when they'll come :)

Congratulations on your cathood.

they were little there was only room for one, so why do they all three
insist on fitting on my chest now that they are 2-3 times the size they were
before? the past week we've been letting the kittens have free range
throughout the house full time (after finding out that they *can* avoid the
d-pet when needed), and last evening Betty kept trying to nap on my chest
while I was watching TV and working on a cross stitch project. Bam-Bam was
napping elsewhere and Barney was next to my lap. I would stop my cross
stitch, love on Betty, then put her on my lap or next to Barney, then renew
working on the stitching. Within 3 minutes, Betty would be creeping back
onto my chest, either skootching between the stitching and me, or actually
going the roundabout way via the back of the sofa, then my shoulder, then my
chest. Stop stitching, love on fuzzy-purry kitty, put her back on my lap,
renew stitching. Repeat. Repeat again. And again..... after about the
tenth repeat, finally give up on stitching and just enjoy lovey-dovey
purrball on my chest.

I'm going to miss them tomorrow while they are at TED having their S/N ops
:(

mlbriggs...

They probably love to hear your heartbeat -- reminds them of their mother.
MLB