# Pixel the former stray and her six kittens



## medleymisty (Aug 4, 2014)

Six and a half weeks ago there was a cat in our backyard. She didn't move from her spot for hours and hours, we took food and water out, she was very friendly and hungry and thin, we brought her in, we realized she was pregnant.

She got a clean bill of health from the vet, we named her Pixel and decided to keep her forever, and on the morning of July 28, she gave birth to six healthy beautiful kittens.

Pixel sitting in my husband's lap a bit after we brought her in (we have four other cats, so she is staying in the second bedroom):










And a couple of shots of the kittens!



















They are all very healthy and active and cute.  The two orange ones are boys and the other four are all female. Fitting, in our house, since we already had four female cats.










From the back of the sofa to the front: Luna, Oreo, Midnight, and Nova. Luna is five years old and was adopted from our local used bookstore, Oreo and Midnight are 12 year old littermates who were adopted from a rescue group that was working with Petsmart, and Nova is nine years old and was a rescue from my mother's place.

We're going to raise the kittens until they're 12 weeks old at least, and then, well - obviously we can't keep 11 cats, so we're going to have to find homes for them. The best homes we can possibly find.


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## Jetlaya67 (Sep 26, 2012)

They are all adorable! Thank you for helping out Pixel and her babies!


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## alayaya (Aug 6, 2014)

Kittens! Aw what sweethearts! Your cats are all very cute. Good luck finding homes for those adorable kittens


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## Mochas Mommy (Dec 9, 2013)

What cuties! You are amazing for saving these little kittens from a harsh life outdoors and I am sure Pixel loves you to pieces for helping her!


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## 10cats2dogs (Jun 16, 2013)

Medley, 
What an awesome thing you're doing!!:thumbup::thumbup:
The back of your sofa, looks like the back of mine, with the cats all enjoying it!!
Pixel is a Cutie, and her kittens are adorable!!
Sharon


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## Catlover Danielle (Jul 31, 2013)

So happy for Pixel and her baby crew! They are all so adorable!  I am inlove with the orange boys and also that calico cutie! I hope you can post more pictures of them and I really hope you find wonderful homes for them, too.


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## Heather72754 (Nov 1, 2013)

Aww, so awesome you will be keeping Miss Pixel and finding all her gorgeous babies their own forever homes. They are so adorable, and Pixel looks like a sweetie. :luv


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## medleymisty (Aug 4, 2014)

Awww, thanks guys! 

We love Pixel very much - I luckily married a dude who loves cats just as much as I do, if not maybe a teeny bit more.  

She is a really awesome cat, and a great mother who obviously cares about her kittens and takes good care of them. We're doing all we can to help her with that. And we really really wish we could keep the babies, but well - even we know that 11 cats is too much.

We do have high standards for homes, and we are willing to keep them as long as it takes to find homes that meet our standards. And everyone will be spayed/neutered/vaccinated/microchipped before they go.

Our other four females all get along great, and we're pretty sure Pixel will integrate without much problem. She's easy-going and friendly herself, and our guys are used to new cats showing up every few years. 

Oreo is the matriarch who bathes everyone else and spends time with everyone and keeps the social glue together, and she's also my special baby - she's sitting in my lap as I type this.

Here are two pictures of the kittens from last night and today!


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## spirite (Jul 31, 2012)

How wonderful of you to take Pixel in - and all 6 of her babies!! She looks so sweet - and also looks pretty young herself! Did the vet have an estimate of her age? 

The kittens are so cute and tiny.  - in the first pic, the calico looks bigger than the others, but maybe it's just the angle? I can't wait to have progress report pics as they get older! 

Meanwhile, your four kitties are beautiful. I can't believe that pic! I'm so jealous that you have 4 girls who get along so well. Each of my two would be perfectly content if the other one disappeared. 

Looking forward to having you around!


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## medleymisty (Aug 4, 2014)

*hugs* I'm looking forward to being around! 

Yeah, we thought she was pretty young when we found her, and the vet agreed - she estimated Pixel at 9 to 12 months a month ago, so 10 to 13 months now.

She is an excellent mother though, for being so young and this probably being her first (and only, of course) litter. But then she's a truly awesome cat in general - intelligent and affectionate and chill. I can't imagine how someone could abandon her, but it's pretty clear that's what happened - she had a home, and when she showed up pregnant they must have thrown her out. 

She is completely not feral. We also think that she hadn't been out on her own very long - she was pretty hungry and skinny, but she was healthy and not scared of humans at all. Also she was with us five weeks before having the kittens, so she would have just started showing not long before we found her.

It must be the angle - they're all pretty equal, but the two guys (the two orange tabbies) are a bit bigger than the girls.

Yeah - the people we adopted Luna from were a bit worried about us already having three cats, but then we sent them pictures of Luna sitting with the other three in a row at the end of our bed.  

Here is another pic from tonight! Whoever adopts these babies will have pictures of every day of their cat's life from birth, lol.










And this pic is from Monday night, of Pixel and the calico baby:










I love Pixel's eyes.

She's fine with us handling the kittens, although she does get worried if they get loud and/or are too far from the box. Once I picked one of the guys up to check him for fleas (we had a round of fleas, but we conquered them and they are all gone now) and he started yelling. She was eating, and she turned to look and saw that I was just holding him right outside the box, so she went back to eating. 

Sometimes I'll be lying outside their box watching them, and she'll get done nursing and come out and settle down right next to me. I think I have been approved as a babysitter.


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## Jetlaya67 (Sep 26, 2012)

What beautiful kittens! The picture of Pixel with her calico baby is precious!


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## spirite (Jul 31, 2012)

Oh squeeeeee!!! Look at the pose of that little tabby in the front! And the second pic really puts into perspective just how teeny tiny the babies are. Oh my gosh!! 

Pixel does have gorgeous green eyes! She sounds like a great mama kitty and also a great lap cat. It's amazing that she's adapted so quickly even with being pregnant and now taking care of her brood. I'm so glad you're adopting her!  

If I had kittens here, I don't think I'd get anything done other than take pics of them.  

I'd love to see close-ups of your girls too! With Oreo, I'm mostly admiring her fur in that pic.


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## Mandy and Ellie (Oct 22, 2013)

Ahh! Too much cuteness for one thread! You and your husband are incredible for taking Pixel in and caring for the babies, and having high standards for what homes they go to. I would be the same way! Those babies are too cute for words. The calico girl is my favorite! Pixel is such a gorgeous girl as well. 

Your other cats are absolutely adorable as well, and all look so content and happy!


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## medleymisty (Aug 4, 2014)

*Jetlaya* - I feel weird saying thanks because I didn't have anything to do with it, but thanks! Pixel did well for herself. She is a lovely cat, so it's easy to see how she could have gotten all the good-looking guys. 

*spirit*e - The calico was just seven days old in that pic.  They're 11 days old today. I read that they're supposed to open their eyes between 9 and 14 days, but the light gray one opened both her eyes at five days and the others all quickly followed. 

Yeah - at first Pixel slammed all the food we gave her down, but after a while she realized that food was now a regularly occurring thing and she slowed down a bit, although she still ate like a pregnant cat.  Which of course we've had her on high quality kitten food ever since we realized she was pregnant, and we gave her all of it that she wanted. She was a bit unsure the first few days, but it didn't take her long to relax.

I took her to the vet the day after we brought her in to be scanned for a microchip (which of course she didn't have one). I realized she could be pregnant while I was getting her ready to go. On the way there she meowed all loud and bumped against the top of the carrier, trying to get out.

On the way back though she was silent and calm, and I looked over and I saw her looking right at me. I think that was when she decided she could trust me, when she realized that she was going back home with the same person. When we took her back a couple of days later for an official visit to get tested for FIV and FeLV and everything, she was silent and calm the whole time. 

Oh, our house is like the Hotel California for cats. They never leave.  We've talked about fostering, but tonight at dinner my husband said "We'd be the king and queen of foster failures." It's going to be really hard for us to give up these babies, and we'd only be willing to do it if we knew they were going to be taken care of. 

I went through my phone's archive and found some good pics of the other guys and uploaded them to my Tumblr. I'll go resize them and upload them to Photobucket and post them in a bit.  Oreo and Midnight had some good genes, because their fur is incredibly soft. And Oreo is definitely the most photogenic of the bunch.

*Mandy (and Ellie too!)* - We both really love cats.  I grew up with them, but Midnight and Oreo were actually my husband's first cats. He adored them and fell in love with cats as a species. 

Our vet said she'd put them on her page, which hey - people who pay attention to their vet's website are likely to be good kitty caretakers. I also have a friend who runs a rescue group that is mostly focused on dogs but she does do some cats, and she said she'd put them on her Petfinder site for us.

Haha - the calico is already quite the character. Her favored nipple is in the middle and towards the bottom, and she will NOT give it up. The other guys will all be tumbling around and trying to knock each other off nipples, and she's just like "MINE!". She'll get turned upside down and be crawled all over, but she sticks to her guns.

The other night Pixel had gotten up to eat and rest so they were bunching up into their Kitten Mountain for warmth, and the calico was on the bottom and you could just barely see a bit of her fur, and my husband said "Calico is just like, 'This is how I live.'"

And then tonight she got to the milk bar a bit late, so she just dived straight under the two orange dudes to get to her nipple. 

Ummm - I sort of love my cats and can talk about them at length, and I also am a writer at heart and I write a lot for fun, so...I can get verbose. Sorry. Although if anyone would understand, it would be fellow cat lovers on a cat forum, right? 

And yeah, our cats are pretty happy.  I love it when I see four happy confident tails sticking up into the air.

Now off to resize and upload the pics of the four adults.


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## medleymisty (Aug 4, 2014)

Okay, here are pics of the four adults. 










That's Oreo, Midnight, and Luna on the bin and Nova by herself on the bed. Nova is the fierce loner, as she demonstrates here. 










Oreo, Midnight, and Luna all curled up together on the bed near my husband's legs. He sleeps late on the weekends, and they all like to join him in this activity.










And that's actually Nova in this shot, behind Luna!  It's hard to get Nova in the group shots, what with her fierce loner-ness.

Nova has a spot of white under her chin (which you can see in this pic) and another one on her stomach. If she's in a position where you can't see those it can be hard to tell her from Midnight sometimes, although you can also tell by the sound of their meows and by their body shape - Midnight is very lean, whereas Nova has the smallest frame of all our cats but she's stocky and muscular, being from a litter of semiferals around my mother's house. 

That's probably also the origin of her fierceness and introversion, and how she only wants attention when she wants it - but when she wants it, you'd better give it to her, and she prefers to be petted in an active involved way. No gentle stroking for her.










My husband in the reading chair, with Midnight, Oreo, and Luna in his lap. 

And lastly, Midnight and Oreo, the 12 year old littermates, hanging out together on the couch:










We adopted them when they were six months old. 

We'd found a stray in our apartment complex, but well - unlike Pixel, we didn't find her in time, and she was way too sick and we had to let her go.

A bit after that, in her honor, we went to Petsmart and we adopted Midnight and Oreo from a rescue group there. We didn't want them to be separated, and we figured the best way to prevent that was for us to take them both home before someone else just took one of them. 

Luna's origin story - our local used bookstore also rescues and adopts out cats, and one time we went and there was Luna. Who as a kitten was all white except for the tips of her ears and the tip of her tail. My husband wanted to bring her home, so we did. And all that lovely color in her coat came as she grew up. We made a book from pictures of her and gave it to the people who work at the used bookstore, and they ask about her when we come in and we show them pics on our phones.


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## medleymisty (Aug 4, 2014)

The kittens keep getting bigger!










They've started exploring around the box and they even get a bit out of it sometimes, but so far they always turn around and go back in.










Pixel the tired momma cat. We noticed that she liked to lay down in a certain spot to keep an eye on the kittens, so we put an "observation towel" down for her. And then a couple of days ago she discovered the chair and that it also gave her a good spot for keeping an eye on things.

The bedroom they're in was previously occupied by my youngest sister-in-law, who still hasn't removed all of her things. We're going to have to kitten proof it in a day or two though, with the babies starting to wander. I hope she doesn't mind - she is a fan of cats too.










And lastly, Oreo and Midnight in our bedroom window above the headboard.

Since I've been doing research on cats and finding out that not all households of multiple cats get along like ours, we've been thinking maybe it's because Oreo is so awesome. She is clearly the "alpha" cat, but she's very calm and chill and she likes to bathe everyone else and she'll spend time cuddled with everyone else. It's like she sees herself as the house mother, and she keeps everything going well.


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## spirite (Jul 31, 2012)

Ok, seriously? Are you trying to make me die of jealousy and cuteness overload all at once?  

Those pics are all priceless, especially the one of the crew on your husband's legs, and the one of Oreo and Midnight snuggling together. O.M.G. :luv

Your adult kitties are just as cute as the kittens!  I can't believe Luna was white as a kitten - she's got a beautiful and unusual coat color now. And I see little tabby markings just on the top of her head. Does she have ghost markings on her body? Kitties and used bookstores somehow seem like such a perfect fit. What a thoughtful idea to give them a book of photos of her! 

Nova may be a bit more of a loner than the others, but clearly she likes to be where the action is too! I love feral/semi-feral turned housecat stories. 

As for the super-bonded littermates, well, that pic of the two of them says it all. Oreo does look totally laid back - so does Pixel! - but the personalities of the others must contribute to the dynamic too. They're all content to share their humans! My Margaux turns her butt to me if I pay too much attention to Celia. And Celia's recently taken to swatting Margaux if Margaux tries to get too close to me on the couch while Celia's sitting between my legs.

...hence my lusting after your happy group!


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## Mochas Mommy (Dec 9, 2013)

What a lovely bunch of kitties! They are all adorable and you are so lucky to have such a wonderful bunch.

I am definitely showing that picture of your husband with cats all over him to my two...they ignore my husband and sit on my couch (hogging all the room)....I think they should "share the wealth" and go hog his couch!


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## medleymisty (Aug 4, 2014)

spirite said:


> Ok, seriously? Are you trying to make me die of jealousy and cuteness overload all at once?
> 
> Those pics are all priceless, especially the one of the crew on your husband's legs, and the one of Oreo and Midnight snuggling together. O.M.G. :luv
> 
> ...


Luna also has the tabby markings on her legs. We think she might have some lynx point Siamese in her ancestry - certainly the pictures of lynx point Siamese on Google Images look a lot like her. Her brother was adopted before we saw him, and sadly returned to the bookstore later, although it didn't take him long to find a new home. They said that he started out white with dark tips on his ears and tail like her and ended up looking like her as an adult too.

Here's a pic from just earlier tonight. 










We don't know what happened to her before she and her brother came to the bookstore, but I think they must have been pretty hungry. She tries to eat everything - we have to feed her in a separate room than the other guys or she'll eat all their food, and she likes to try to steal our food too.

Well, obviously as you can see from the pics - we have over 3000 books in our house. We're frequent customers there, and we like the people who run it. And they were a bit concerned about letting us have her since we already had three adult cats, so we wanted to assure them that she was okay and fitting in.

I brought Nova home when she was a wee baby kitten - probably too young to be separated from her litter really, but she needed to get out of there. And as she's gotten older, she's gotten more into getting attention. Sometimes she'll run to my husband at his computer and get attention from him, and then run over to me and get in my lap, and then run back over to him, and then back over to me. 

And she has one white whisker! 










Also a pic from earlier tonight.

Yeah, Pixel definitely seems the most similar to Oreo in personality, which is good since we'd always thought Oreo would make the best mother out of those four. It'll be interesting to see how Pixel changes things up when she's introduced into the general population, which will be when the kittens are old enough to be socialized with other cats.



Mochas Mommy said:


> What a lovely bunch of kitties! They are all adorable and you are so lucky to have such a wonderful bunch.
> 
> I am definitely showing that picture of your husband with cats all over him to my two...they ignore my husband and sit on my couch (hogging all the room)....I think they should "share the wealth" and go hog his couch!


Haha!  Well - anyone who sits down in the reading chair is inviting cats into their lap. Oreo won't get in his lap at his computer though, for some reason. It's not that she doesn't like him - she'll get in his lap in that chair, and she'll sleep on top of him. She just doesn't like his computer chair for some reason.

Yeah - we love them all very much a lot. And we are determined to find the best homes we possibly can for the kittens.


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## MsPepper (Mar 26, 2014)

Oh, how cute are all the kittens and cats?!? :luv I would love to take one of the kittens, but we can't at the moment. We are only allowed 3 pets from the HOA and we currently have 2 senior dogs (15 & 12 years old) and Pepper, our cat, who is 1 year 3 month old.
May I ask where in NC you are located at? My family and I live north of Charlotte


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## medleymisty (Aug 4, 2014)

MsPepper said:


> Oh, how cute are all the kittens and cats?!? :luv I would love to take one of the kittens, but we can't at the moment. We are only allowed 3 pets from the HOA and we currently have 2 senior dogs (15 & 12 years old) and Pepper, our cat, who is 1 year 3 month old.
> May I ask where in NC you are located at? My family and I live north of Charlotte


*hugs* Thank you! And yeah, I don't imagine there'll be a problem finding people who want them. It's just finding people who can take them and who meet our standards. They'll stay here as long as it takes to find that for them, though.

Oh, we're in Charlotte! Not in Plaza Midwood proper but pretty near it, if you know the neighborhoods here.


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## spirite (Jul 31, 2012)

I don't know anything about breeds, but Luna's coloring certainly suggests that she may not be 100% DSH. 

Nova actually looks quite small in that pic! Is she a small cat? That one white whisker is adorable. 

Ooh, if I lived near a good used bookstore, I'd be in serious, serious trouble. Once I walk into a store and start looking, I'm doomed.


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## 10cats2dogs (Jun 16, 2013)

spirite said:


> Ooh, if I lived near a good used bookstore, I'd be in serious, serious trouble. Once I walk into a store and start looking, I'm doomed.


You and me both!! I LOVE books and reading!!

And a book store that had cats?!
What a Wonderful Pairing!!
I'd be dooomed too!!


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## medleymisty (Aug 4, 2014)

spirite said:


> I don't know anything about breeds, but Luna's coloring certainly suggests that she may not be 100% DSH.
> 
> Nova actually looks quite small in that pic! Is she a small cat? That one white whisker is adorable.
> 
> Ooh, if I lived near a good used bookstore, I'd be in serious, serious trouble. Once I walk into a store and start looking, I'm doomed.


Yeah, Nova's always been small. When she was younger we called her an elfin cat.  Which that's one of the many reasons I'm glad I brought her home - she's too small for the semiferal life. I don't even know if she could have handled having kittens.

I just asked my husband, and he said she's maybe around six pounds. Which she is healthy and at a good weight and she eats and everything. She just has a tiny frame.

Well, they close at 8, so that helps because we don't have time to get there before it closes very often.



10cats2dogs said:


> You and me both!! I LOVE books and reading!!
> 
> And a book store that had cats?!
> What a Wonderful Pairing!!
> I'd be dooomed too!!


They have one cat who lives there, and who is famous for not wanting people to touch her. Although she does seem to like me.  And then they also take in kittens and find them homes. They have a kitten fund table with things to buy to help support the cats, and of course we try to buy things from there fairly often. 

They actually have a mother cat and her litter there right now - the kittens are a few weeks older than our guys. 

Actually their store cat was on Cute Overload last week! She's a tuxedo like Oreo. 

You'll Buy A Book If I SAY You Can

(Umm, I hope that's okay to link to - if not, feel free to remove it.)


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## medleymisty (Aug 4, 2014)

The kittens tonight! We pulled them out to change the bedding in their box.

They're getting so much bigger! This afternoon when I went to visit them after feeding Pixel the four girls came to greet me but the two guys hung back. They're getting pretty good at toddling around, and I think I saw them starting to play with each other a bit today!


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## MsPepper (Mar 26, 2014)

medleymisty said:


> *hugs* Thank you! And yeah, I don't imagine there'll be a problem finding people who want them. It's just finding people who can take them and who meet our standards. They'll stay here as long as it takes to find that for them, though.
> 
> Oh, we're in Charlotte! Not in Plaza Midwood proper but pretty near it, if you know the neighborhoods here.



I had to google it, lol. I am rarely in Charlotte, due to the horrible traffic and if I go there, then only to IKEA or the Northlake Mall. Hubby is working Uptown. 
Glad that they can stay with you until you find the right homes for them.


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## spirite (Jul 31, 2012)

Eeeee!!! A huge mass of multicolored, fuzzy cuteness!  

Oh, Nova is a tiny kitty! She's adorable. 

The only thing I know about Charlotte is that I love the airport. :mrgreen:


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## meggie (Mar 13, 2014)

Thank you for posting the pictures of your beautiful feline family! Pixel is a very lucky girl.
Good luck finding homes for her kittens.


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