Thanks for reviews, guys! You lend me strength. And yes, we really are raising baby kittens.
"Miaw."
"No, Khlaeesi."
"Miaawwr."
"Go back to sleep, you silly kitty."
The miaws became more insistent, so I finally opened my eyes and looked into those of my calico kitten, Khaleesi. Their mommy, Trixie, had been hit on the road some days before, leaving us to raise her four babies. Including feeding them, which was not fun. But Khaleesi was hungry- a "hungy kitty", as my grandpa would say.
Bottle feeding baby kittens, if you have not tried it, is not an activity that I would recommend. The kittens claw at your hand while groping for the nipple, they mistake your fingers for the nipple, they spill their milk everywhere. Hunter had chewed (and swallowed) three nipples off the bottles already.
But it's part of being a kitten mommy, I suppose. I mixed up a batch of the nasty-smelling milk formula (kittens can't drink normal milk) and warmed it up in the microwave before sloshing it into a bottle and giving it to Khaleesi. She took it eagerly and began to suckle, her ears twitching. Kittens' ears always twitched when they fed. Some reflex, I supposed.
I wondered where Romy was. He was the kittens' daddy, and had disappeared the same day Trixie died. It had been two weeks, and we were now well into summer vacation. I worried about him a lot. My poor baby boy, my sun-and-stars.
As if my thoughts had summoned him, I heard a familiar mrowr coming from outside. I almost dropped Khaleesi.
"Baby boy?" I hardly dared to hope. He had been missing for so long…
I raced outside, expecting to see my baby hurt or worse, but that was not what I found.
I had accepted that Tulkas was a Vala who just happened to also be my bunny rabbit, but to see him chasing my cat around the front yard was a little much.
"HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" I roared. Tulkas halted, but Romy ran towards me, like a yellow blur.
"Mommy!" he said happily.
Wait. He said? Oh no, I had to stop naming my furry friends after the Valar.
For Romy, was of course, short for Oromë