Day 37 - 6/30/08

Weight: 1 lb 13.4 oz - Not quite the 2 Lbs I was expecting, but porky gained about an ounce a day.

Feedings: Every 6 hours

Food: KMR 2nd Step mixed with KMR Formula mixed with a miniscule amount of Iams Wet Kitten Food. Too much is too much of a change and he won't eat.

Well we got home last night after being gone for a week. We had a really bad thunderstorm right on top of us at about 2:30 AM. I woke up and checked on Dudley, the poor little guy was sitting up in his box shaking like a leaf. I picked him up and he just curled up in my arms and shook until the storm was done. Then it took a while to get us both back to sleep.

Toady's picture is titled "Ah..Home Sweet Home". Dudley resting after his long night. Unfortunately, there was no sleep for the weary nurse maid because I had a week's worth of shipping to do and I just finished at 9:30PM which is why Dudley's update is so late getting posted today.

Day 36 - 6/29/08

Weight: 1 lb 7.2 oz - No new weight to report because no scale available

Feedings: Every 6 hours

Food: KMR 2nd Step mixed with KMR Formula mixed with a miniscule amount of Iams Wet Kitten Food. Too much is too much of a change and he won't eat.

Hopefully, we go home today and leave the ark behind back in the capable hands of my parents. We will be able to update Dudley's weight and he will have an entire house at his disposal since there will be no canines waiting to eat him the minute he hits the floor. Dudley is extremely active and needs to be able to run and play, if just for my sanity.

BRAGGING ALERT!!! Since I have been taking care of Dudley since he was 10 days old, I feel almost like I created him from scratch. So that with this picture that Mary Beth took this morning (she used my camera and so wants a new camera now), I want to scream - LOOK WHAT I MADE!!!!!!!!!!



I mean, seriously, is that not the cutest thing you've ever seen??????

Day 35 - 6/28/08

Weight: 1 lb 7.2 oz - No new weight to report because no scale available

Feedings: Every 6 hours

Food: KMR 2nd Step mixed with KMR Formula mixed with a miniscule amount of Iams Wet Kitten Food. Too much is too much of a change and he won't eat.

Dudley is still down on LBI helping us take care of The Ark, so he doesn't get to run around as much as he would at home because one of the members of The Ark is a hyperactive, 6 month old, Welsh Cardigan Corgi puppy named Dickon. The floor is Dickon's territory and he thinks Dudley is one of his toys that just happens to move and squeak occasionally.

Up until this morning, Dudley has been very good in the mornings. He usually is awake when the alarm goes off to wake me up to feed him at 6AM. I wake up and he is entertaining himself in his box. This morning the jail break was at last successful. I woke up to find Dudley on the floor looking up at me OUT of his box. I guess he feels that now he is 6 weeks and one of the big boys, he should not be confined to a box. It's not like the other cats have to sleep in a box! Being able to confine Dudley, was my last bit of sanity. I'm still not sure what the other cats are going to do to him, so as long as he was confined to his box I knew he was ok during the night. I guess that ship has sailed!

Today is family picture day.


This is what Gretel (grey), George (orange) and Huge Eug (black & white) think the family portrait should be.


Ah, familial harmony!


Gretel has had it with familial harmony. She is the lone female and has no need for another male in the house! Notice Dudley the Bruiser's paw is ready to give Gretel a good wallop.


Soon after this Dudley realized he would lose this fight and walked off the edge of the bed. Unfortunately, I was laughing too hard and the camera was shaking for the picture of his less than graceful landing to come out.

Day 34 - 6/27/08

Weight: 1 lb 7.2 oz - No new weight to report because no scale available

Feedings: Every 6 hours

Food: KMR 2nd Step mixed with KMR Formula mixed with a miniscule amount of Iams Wet Kitten Food. Too much is too much of a change and he won't eat.

Not much to report today other than Dudley's pictures of the day. I will say this is one very well adjusted kitten. When he is not sleeping (which is more and more every day) he is exploring and into everything. Wires are our new favorite things to chew on - if they are electric and plugged into the wall, all the better!!! He wants me to play with him constantly. However, when he is ready to sleep nothing gets in the way. He could be mid step and he will literally drop and sleep.

Today's pictures are of an attempted jail break.









The drop was a little too far for the dare devil, so he retreated back into his box and took it out on his toy mouse.

Day 33 - 6/26/08

6 WEEKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Weight: 1 lb 7.2 oz - No new weight to report because no scale available

Feedings: Every 6 hours

Food: KMR 2nd Step mixed with KMR Formula mixed with a miniscule amount of Iams Wet Kitten Food. Too much is too much of a change and he won't eat.

Stimulation: No longer need this category!!!

I cannot believe it, but Lord Dudley is 6 weeks old today. If he had been with his mother this whole time (instead of me) she would be getting ready to leave him. We had a cat when we were young that had kittens under our front porch and 6 weeks to the day she carefully moved all the kittens up to the porch and left without looking back. We never saw the mother again.

Dudley when he is awake is very active. We put him down in the second floor hallway and he will follow me up and down the hallway. When I get too far ahead he will run and he looks like a little black and white jack rabbit hopping down the hall. I wish we had a video recorder so I could record it and post because he is so funny. What he really likes to do is run down the hall charging towards the top of the stairs just to give me a heart attack. You'd be surprised how fast the little guy can go. He is a real dare devil. While we are at my parents he has to be up high on a table most of the time because there are canines just waiting on the floor to eat him. At least three of four times he has just walked off the edge of the kitchen table. It's bad enough that the table is at least 3 feet high however, the kitchen floor is stone tile.

What Dudley really likes is to be near me all the time which is great for my ego. So much so that when I am working he really wants to sit on the computer. Mary Beth and I instant message with Microsoft Messenger during the day and frequently she will get unintelligible messages from Dudley. I am sure he knows what he is trying to tell her but we haven't figured out his code yet.

I can't wait til we get home to weigh him. It will be over a week in between weigh ins and I am guessing he will be over 2 lbs.

Here is his 6 week portrait. Notice how light his eyes are getting. I was hoping (though I was pretty sure he wouldn't) he would keep those deep blue eyes.

Day 32 - 6/25/08

Weight: 1 lb 7.2 oz - No new weight to report because no scale available

Feedings: Every 6 hours

Food: KMR 2nd Step mixed with KMR Formula mixed with a miniscule amount of Iams Wet Kitten Food. Too much is too much of a change and he won't eat.

Stimulation: EUREKA!!!!!!!!! This morning I put the Stud in one of the "big boy" cat boxes at the same time that George was using the other one so that he could see what he was supposed to do. As soon as George was done, Dudley not only had a bowel movement but also urinated all by himself. He then decided the thing he liked best about this was the covering up part. I have litter from one end of the hall to the other but I was so proud of him that I let him have his fun. I have been trying to get Dudley past this hurdle for a couple of weeks and now that we have it is somewhat bittersweet. He is almost a completely integrated kitten. At least he still relies on me for food and that will continue for a little while longer.

So when you are a 5 week old kitten and think your person should stop working on the computer and pay attention to you, what do you do?





You take matters into your own paws, of course!

Day 30 - 6/23/08

Weight: 1 lb 7.2 oz - No new weight to report because no scale available

Feedings: Every 6 hours

Food: KMR 2nd Step mixed with KMR Formula.

Stimulation: LAZY

Dudley and his nurse maids are on a mini vacation on LBI. There is no scale available so we won't be able to weigh in for a couple of days. Dudley is getting more and more playful every day and today he took vacation to mean we get up at 4:30 and don't go back to sleep EVER. Helen is very tired at the moment.

Today's picture is Dudley in vacation mode.

Day 29 - 6/22/08

Weight: 1 lb 7.2 oz

Feedings: Every 6 hours

Food: KMR 2nd Step mixed with KMR Formula. HATES the kitten wet food so we have gone back to the gruel until we can find a different kind of wet food. The supermarkets around here just don't carry kitten food, so we will have to take a trip to Petco some time this week.

Stimulation: One step forward, two steps back...Dudley used the "big boy" litter box - this is the box the other felines use - on Friday night. However, each time since that we have tried to cajole him into using his box he has no interest. Though, yesterday he did eat some of the litter and that was amusing watching run around trying to spit out the bad taste. He is not having accidents he just shows no inclination to go by himself. So we will continue to try and at least we are hopefully getting the point across as to where he is supposed to go if the mood ever strikes.

Today marks 4 weeks since we found Lord Dudley in the backyard. I cannot believe it has been 4 weeks already, though all you have to do is look at him and see how much he has grown to realize it has. So today I decided to do before and after pictures as comparison.

BEFORE - Taken the day after we found him.


After - Taken today.

Unbelievable isn't it??

Day 27 - 6/20/08

Weight: 1 lb 6.9 oz

Feedings: Every 6 hours

Food: KMR 2nd Step mixed with KMR Formula. Yesterday we added just a little bit of wet kitten food to the mixture. Our new hurdle is trying to get him to drink just a little bit of water since his food is getting more and more solid. You would think it was poison by his reaction.

Stimulation: Still no interest in litter box other than to run through it to spread litter everywhere. I keep pleading with the three adult felines to show him how to use the litter box however they could care less.

Dudley gets more and more active every day and expanding his world. He runs everywhere and will now leave the rug in the family room and go exploring as far as either I or Andrew will let him. Yesterday, he headed out of the room towards the laundry room and I was just getting up to see where he was going when he came charging back in the room with Andrew herding him back to his domain. Every so often he does a little hop and you can tell that he thinks it's really cool but can't remember how he did it. Dudley is also becoming more of a daredevil. Up until now if I wanted to contain him I could put him in his chair knowing he would get to the edge and go back because he was up too high. Now if he wants to get down he will try to climb down the side or just walk off the edge.

Dudley's green and red mice are still favorite toys and we use them to distract him when he wants to bite us (usually on the face). He lies on his back with the tail in his mouth, his front paws holding the body of the mouse and the back legs kicking the mouse out of his front paws. One of these days I may get that picture.

As you can see with all the new activity, when he gets tired, Dudley takes his friend and crashes.

Day 26 - 6/19/08 - 5 Weeks!!

Weight: 1 lb 5.2 oz

Feedings: Every 6 hours

Eaten in last 24 hrs: Stopped counting because on a mix of formula and 2nd Step Gruel. He is eating though, so no worries.

Stimulation: Dudley is now making bowel movements all on his own, all we have to do now is get him to do it in his litter box.

Well the party is over in more than one way. First Dudley as stated above there is no more stimulation needed for his bowel movements. Unfortunately, he hasn't gotten the idea that he has to do this in his litter box. But so far as with every new thing, Dudley takes just a little time to get used to an idea. Because of this Duley is now moving to bigger digs. His little box will not hold the litter box so he is moving to a bigger box (think of moving from a studio to a 3 bedroom apt).

Second way that the party is over is that, as posted earlier this week, Dudley does not like to be in his box (either one) and today he made his first and second great escapes. The first was out of his original box this morning and the second was just now out of the new box. I put him in his new box to get used to it and to see the litter box in it. It took 2 seconds and he climbed the wall of the cardboard and was out. This is no small feat because the walls of the new box are just over a foot tall. He not only has to get up the wall but down on the outside (this is not so graceful since he just lets himself fall).

Dudley is curious about everything. Time to kitten proof the house. He is inspecting wires and any piece of paper on the floor is up for grabs.

Just look what my fairy godfather left for me in my knitting bag.



He just climbed the outside of the bag and made himself a nest inside. Sorry it's so fuzzy but it was taken at 11PM last night and lighting was not the greatest.

Day 25 - 6/18/08

Weight: 1 lb 4.4 oz

Feedings: Every 6 hours

Eaten in last 24 hrs: Stopped counting because on a mix of formula and 2nd Step Gruel. He is eating though, so no worries.

Stimulation: Still making progress.

Everything is happening so fast now. Everyday it's something new that Dudley learns how to do. Last night we got our first little hop/lunge. After it happened he kind of looked at us as if asking "How did I do that?". It's funny how the first couple of weeks we begged him to grow quickly in hopes that he would survive and now it's happening too fast I want him to stop.

Yesterday, Dudley was running around on the floor and then he got tired and went to his comforter. What he really wanted was to be on the comforter in the chair but he was on the floor. When I didn't come fast enough to put him in his chair he took matters into his own hands and climbed the comforter.

Day 24 - 6/17/08

Weight: 1 lb 3.9 oz - I think the weight gain has slowed because Dudley is moving around more and more every day.

Feedings: Every 6 hours

Eaten in last 24 hrs: Stopped counting because on a mix of formula and 2nd Step Gruel. He is eating though, so no worries.

Stimulation: Still making progress. Much better from Saturday. I think we might be getting closer to doing on his own. Today, I just have to get him started and he does the rest on his own.

Dudley is starting to RUN and play with his toys. He had a brown mouse that he would chew on up until this weekend, when Dickon (my mother's corgi puppy) came charging into the room and stole it. When we got home I found him a red and a green mouse that we had bought last Christmas for the other cats. They hated them and have not played with them since. Dudley love them. He pounces on them, bites them, puts the tails in his mouse. When he is on the floor he actually stalks them. Of course, these are now the ONLY toys in the whole world that the other three cats want to play with. Huge took the red one away from Dudley several times yesterday and one of the cats hid the red one. I managed to get some pictures of Dudley playing with the red mouse before the other three showed up to ruin all his fun.

Day 23 - 6/16/08

Weight: 1 lb 3.3 oz

Feedings: Every 6 hours

Eaten in last 24 hrs: Stopped counting because on a mix of formula and 2nd Step Gruel. He is eating though, so no worries.

Stimulation: Still making progress. Little better from Saturday.

Dudley has pretty much switched completely to the KMR 2nd Step Food. It has the consistency of paste so using the bottle is out of the question. Both Saturday and Sunday we tried to teach Dudley to lap his new food. Finally I literally spoon fed him just to get it in him. This is a very, very messy feeding technique. Thick paste all over Dudley, all over me, all over the counter and we go through at least 2 towels per feeding. However, this morning, we were back home and I tried using his little saucer to feed him and the 6:30AM feeding he was the master lapper. We didn't have to use a spoon at all. The 12:30PM feeding was a little half and half, because Dudley got lazy half way through. Poor guy is so full after eating his paste that he has no room for his bottle. He wants to have some just for the comfort of it but he is too full.

Today's picture is Dudley after eating at 6:30AM today before I cleaned him up. You can see his "paste" beard and all the little white spots in the picture are his food.

Day 21 - 6/14/08

Weight: 1 lb 2.3 oz - Dudley did not lose weight from yesterday's posted weight. His idiot person forgot to subtract the weight of the box he is weighed in.

Feedings: Every 6 hours

Eaten in last 24 hrs: Stopped counting because on a mix of formula and 2nd Step Gruel. He is eating though, so no worries. Even got him to lap up a VERY little bit from a saucer today.

Stimulation: Still making progress. Poor Dudley - see below for explanation.

Dud the Stud has had a very rough 24 hours. It all started when I switched him to 6 hour feedings. Then yesterday he went on an outing. It started with me putting Dudley in his box in the passenger seat of the car. Not a block into the ride Dudley found out he could escape fom his box by using the fabric of the car seat to pull himself up (no dummy here!). We spent the entire 20 minute drive to Mary Beth's office with me explaining "No you cannot run free in the car" and putting him back in his box and him screaming at me and climbing out again. Dud made his appearance at Mary Beth's office so that Gillian could see his progress and love him. Then he went with us to the supermarket, the store for a present for Dad for Father's Day, Petco to drop a small fortune on new food, cat litter (has to be different from what George, Gretel & Huge use because he might eat the clumping kind of litter), and a miniature cat box. At each place he was adored by many and at Petco the cashier (we're still not sure if male or female) just picks him up to check his sex. Obviously my saying Dudley was male was not good enough and I wanted to tell it "Don't touch my cat without asking!!!!!" Anyway...by the time we got him home he was exhausted and we still had to drive down to my parents for the weekend.

We got down to LBI in time for his 12:30 feeding which he ate very little just because he couldn't keep his eyes open. However, while helping him go to the bathroom I realized he was a little constipated. This morning we made several attempts to remedy his little problem to no avail. Poor guy was pushing and pushing and it just wouldn't come and I kept making him try every couple of hours even though he didn't want to. The screams that were coming out of him, you would have thought we were killing him and that he was much bigger than 1 lb 2.3 oz. At his 12:30PM feeding this afternoon we started the switch over to the KMR 2nd Step Gruel. This has to be lapped from a dish. He walked through it first. Then as I was trying to get him to "lap" he was wiggling so much he did a face plant right in the gruel. Then Mary Beth came to help and between the three of us we managed to get a ton of gruel all over the outside of Dudley, all over his towel, from one end of the counter to the other and VERY little if any inside Dudley. Then just as we were about to give up and give him his bottle, he came over and lapped up along the edge of the dish. So then I got a spoon and kept pushing little piles over to the edge so he could continue, but he grew bored and in the end got his bottle.

After his bottle the boy was in serious need of a bath. He was gruel and formula from head to toe. So Mary Beth just held him under the faucet and gave him a good scrub (Dudley is not a big fan of this method as the entire population of LBI now knows). Once he had his bath, we still had to deal with the bathroom issue. Between the two of us (me and Mary Beth) and a lot of pushing and pain for poor Dudley we finally prevailed. The poor guy is even now sleeping it off beside me. I am making his formula mix a little richer to see if we can stop the constipation issue.

So after his very long 24 hours the pictures I chose for today seemed appropriate since he has the most mournful look on his face. They are taken in his favorite chair that he loves to sleep in with his favorite comforter/body.

Day 20 - 6/13/08

Weight: 1 lb 5.3 oz

Feedings: Every 5 hours

Eaten in last 24 hrs: Approx 180 ml of KMR

Stimulation: Still making progress.

Yesterday was the first day that Dudley ate less in a 24 hour period than the previous day. He is usually quite an overachiever in that department, so I will have to keep an eye on that. However, it was only 15 ml (which is 1/2 a tablespoon) and he still managed to gain 4.2 oz, so for right now I am not overly concerned.

As promised, today we are changing from 5 hour feedings to 6 hour feedings. This weekend I am going to try to get stubborn little Dudley to start eating the 2nd Step KMR out of a saucer and try to teach him how to use a litter box. Pray for me!!!

Now that he is a month old and, in his mind, one of the "big boys" Dudley feels very strongly that he should not have to spend ANY time in his box. He can be very vocal about this and is learning very quickly how to escape from his box. When he is awake he is having more and more fun exploring the rug and testing those legs of his. When he gets tired, he does not want to sleep in his box the way he should. Dudley's first preference is to sleep with a warm body. However, if one is not available his second choice is to burrow himself up in his favorite comforter. He makes a little cave for himself so that he is surrounded on all sides by the comforter.

Day 19 - GUESS WHO'S A MONTH OLD??

Weight: 1 lb 1 oz

Feedings: Every 5 hours

Eaten in last 24 hrs: Approx 195 ml of KMR

Stimulation: Still making progress. Dudley actually went a little all by himself last night (all over Mary Beth). She was rubbing his tum and then I heard her say "Did you just pee on me?" Except for the fact that it was on Mary Beth, HUGE step!

Technically, Dudley is only 4 weeks (not a complete month) old today but we are celebrating a month anyway. What's not to celebrate? He is a very healthy 1 lb 1 oz and progressing exactly the way he should so - Happy Birthday Dudley!!!

So now that we have reached the 4 week milestone, Happy Birthday Kiddo I am now going to take away your bottle, make you use a litter box and move your feedings up to 6 hours! ENJOY :)

I don't think the 6 hours is going to be a big deal. Dudley is getting less and less interested in the early morning feeding. For the last couple of days he only eats about 15 - 25 ml in that feeding, while during NORMAL hours he is eating about 40 - 50 ml per feeding.

Taking away the bottle is going to be a process but there is a 2nd Step KMR formula that has the consistency of oatmeal that I am supposed to start to introduce during the 4-6 week time before he goes to kitten food. He has still shown absolutely no interest in lapping his formula from a saucer. However, the issue is going to be forced soon enough because his sharp little teeth are getting bigger and sharper and soon enough they will pierce the nipple making bottle feeding impossible. Right now his teeth are so cute, when he opens his mouth to scream at me, it's like a little kid who just has two teeth.

Every so often Dudley has bad dreams. I can tell because his breathing gets alarmingly heavy and fast. I attribute it to bad dreams because all I have to do is pet him to bring the breathing back to normal. He usually doesn't wake up but just relaxes in his sleep. Last night during his quality time with Mary Beth she said he was breathing really heavily and I said he was having bad dream and she just needed to pet him and he would calm down. Next thing I look over and see this (warning these may be the last pictures I post of Dudley because I'm not sure it gets any better than this).

Day 18 - 6/11/08

Weight: The "weight" is over - ONE POUND

Feedings: Every 5 hours

Eaten in last 24 hrs: Approx 190 ml of KMR

Stimulation: Still making progress.

I cannot believe how fast Dudley is growing and changing. It's something new every day. When he is awake, I put him down on the floor to practice his walking and each time he expands his scope. To begin with he wouldn't go beyond the towel I laid down on the floor, and then he would go off just a little and realize he was off the reservation and go back to his comfort zone. Yesterday, he was exploring all around the towel. He almost went under one of the chairs until I picked him up and changed course for him. When he is down on the floor Huge Eug will come over to inspect him and yesterday he actually started to clean him a little. Then Huge Eug thought better of being nice to the interloper and promptly sat on him, quite deliberately. I don't think Huge can make up his mind how he feels about Dudley. He comes over and starts to be nice and then he will sit on him, or step on him, or pick him up (that was a scary moment). Dudley usually goes into his submissive pose and rolls over on his back.

The weaning from the bottle has started. Everything I have read says that this process will take a while since Dudley will not want to give up his bottle. So at each feeding before the bottle comes into view (I figure try while he is starving), I bring out a saucer with a little formula. They say to put some formula on your finger and then put it on his tongue, then move his head level with the saucer and put some more on his tongue so he can learn to lap the formula. So far the only thing we have accomplished is walking through the saucer and spilling the formula all over himself and the counter. No formula has actually made it inside Dudley. They do say it will take awhile so we will perservere.

What Dudley's really like is to sleep with a warm body.

Unfortunately, what Huge Eug's really like is to sleep with a warm body also and here he is looking at Mary Beth and wondering why she is a traitor to him.

Huge Eug wants to know what is so special about this little runt when he, HUGE Eug after all, is much more substantial and can provide much more comfort. Poor Huge, it is a big adjustment for him not to be the center of attention any more.

Day 17 - 6/10/08

Weight: 15.3 oz - Definitely a lb before the week is over.

Feedings: Every 5 hours

Eaten in last 24 hrs: Approx 190 ml of KMR

Stimulation: Still making progress.

Dudley is definitely sleeping less, and when he is awake he has no interest in staying in the little world of his cardboard box. When he does sleep though he goes down hard. His walking is becoming much easier for him which makes things more difficult for us as we have to run after him. He cannot be left unattended because he so small and Huge and George have tried on many occasions to step on him. I think we might need to set up a playpen for him. I think he will probably be running by Father's Day.

Today's pictures are from last night while he watched TV with his good friend Mary Beth. As you can see he was not impressed with our viewing choice.

Day 16 - 6/9/08

Weight: 14.3 oz - I'm betting he will be a lb before the week is over.

Feedings: Every 5 hours

Eaten in last 24 hrs: Approx 160 ml of KMR

Stimulation: Still making progress. Yesterday we had a moment of excitement (for me) because one tiny little dropped leaked out all on its own. Amaziing what my life has become!

Well we made a relatively seamless transition to every 5 hours for feedings (from every 4 hours). You would not believe the difference an hour makes to me. The only issue is that when it is time to eat, Little Porker Dudley eats too fast and makes his formula come out his nose, so we have to go through a sneezing fit before we can continue. Also, Dudley gets a little insistent and loud when he feels it is time to eat. We are teaching him to tell time, by showing him the clock when he starts screaming and explaining that he still has two hours to go before it is time to eat again.

Over the weekend, Dudley's back legs got stronger by the hour. He is now walking around with no problem. Turning around is still an issue for him; he has to sit down and turn on his rear and then he is up and moving again. Also, he is not sleeping as much and when he is not asleep he thinks that everyone should be paying attention to him and either holding him or down on the rug with him while he practices walking. I have said this before, but it bears repeating, there is nothing wrong with Dud's lungs. When you put him down on the rug by himself, he gets intimidated by how big the world is, so you have to come down with him to make him feel safe.

Dudley's personality is starting to come out as he makes these physical leaps and bounds. Today, he and Huge Eug were sharing my lap (it's such a shame no one was there to take a picture of the two of them asleep on my lap). When Dudley woke up, he decided he didn't want to share and he went marching down my lap to take on Huge Eug. He tried swatting at Huge, who gave him one look and bit him - not hard, no one got hurt, it was just a little nip to let Dudley know he didn't have a shot in hell.

As you can see from the pictures below, Dudley has hit the cute kitten stage. His cat features are becoming more pronounced - his ears have popped and are growing, his nose is getting pointy (it was kind of smushed when we first found him) and you can see his irises are starting to form in his eyes. Also, now that he is a "big boy", in his mind, he is helping me knit. If you enlarge the pictures you can really see the changes in his eyes and just how fluffy his fur is.

Day 14 - 6/6/08 - Dudley has a Friend...Sort Of

Weight: 13.3 oz which makes the giant increase yesterday a little better. Yesterday with all the traveling he got weighed later than normal.

Feedings: Every 4 hours - but today is the day we change to every 5 hours

Eaten in last 24 hrs: Approx 130 ml of KMR

Stimulation: Still making progress. (Still no inclination to doing on his own)

Yesterday was a quiet kind of day spent recuperating from his very long car trip. At one point I looked over and saw that Huge Eug was asleep on his back in HIS chair. So rather than let "sleeping dogs lie" I decided to see what would happen if I put Dudley in the chair with Huge Eug. So from the pictures it looks like Dudley has found a friend, when really it is more a case of Huge being 3/4 of the way asleep and trying to figure out what the hell is going on. To do Huge justice when he realized, he became bored but very carefully got down from the chair to make sure he didn't hurt Dudley.

These may be my favorite pictures I have ever taken - especially the last one.