In Which There are Kittens (Again)

The past couple of weens have been quite exciting, and a bit stressful, for the kittens (and me)

They have a cat flap, and have been going out - it took them a couple of weeks to work out how to get out of the back garden, and they seem to have been cautiously exploring, but popping back regularly to reassure me, and to get snacks and snuggles.

Last Sunday, they went out, and did not come back. It started to rain. No kittens. I started to fret. No kittens. It stopped raining. No Kittens.

Loki, not looking his best

I went out, looking for them, in case they had gone a little further than usual and forgotten their way home. No Kittens.

Mid afternoon, Loki came home, looking *very* bedraggled (the photos is *after*  I sponged the worst of the mud off him) 

There was still no sign of Coraline, which left me even more worried,as of the pair of them, she is generally less adventurous, and the first to come back in.

Finally, at about 7.30, (having been out since around mid-day) Coraline came in - she was even wetter and muddier than Loki, and had lost her collar (it was the kind with a safety release, designed to break if she got caught on anything, so I guess that worked...)

She was so caked in mud that I wound up giving her a quick shower, to get rid of the worst of the mud, and even after that, there was still enough mud on her to coat most of a bath towel.

I suspect that they may perhaps have been into one of the fields, and perhaps met something, whether another cat, or a dog or fox which was bigger and scarier than them.

Then after all that excitement on Sunday, they both went to the vet on Tuesday,for their spay/neuter operations. 

Cone-Head Coraline

And came home, that evening, wearing matching cone-collars and disgruntled expressions!

I learned that having 2 cats, simultaneously wearing these collars is more than twice as funny to watch as one cat in such a collar. 

I also learned that, as I have suspected for some time, Coraline is brighter than Loki.  She worked out much more quickly how to mange her collar and still get her food, and stopped bumping into things much more quickly. 

Luckily for Loki, he doesn't need to keep his collar on for anything like as long as her, having had a less major op.  Both seem to be doing well.