sevenkittens on Ustream

The litter that started it all! I can’t tell you how much pleasure it has given me to watch kitty cams on the web. It sounds like a silly waste of time but the wonderful stories of love, caring and creativity have been inspiring (resulting in beautiful quilts, drawings, paintings and T-shirts). The seven kittens from Pittsburgh led to Foster Dad John Barrett from Purrfect Pals in Washington state and his string of successful fosters (he’s on his 36th litter) You can find him with his current litter, the Mythbusters, on LiveStream; his Facebook page is called The Critter Room.

A long day can be made special watching the antics of 4 week old kittens just learning to play and zoom around on wobbly legs (as they are now on the Mythbusters cam). My vocabulary has grown with “new words:”

floofy (means fluffy)
zoomies (means playing frantically)
Uncle Chickenfish (a favorite toy)

Noodles, the lovely blond mother of the Seven Kittens was rescued from the streets and taken into a private home by two very generous women, Jen and Kara. Watching seven hungry kittens feed from one mother all at the same time was quite the site to see!

Here are the little guys and gals that started it all, at 2 months of age:

at 2 months - Hank is looking up while the others sleep — at 2 months – Hank is looking up while the others sleep

And here are five of them, all grown up:

Facebook page: Cosmo Swisher-Mullins

Facebook page: Venus de Meowlo

Facebook page: Henry Von Cattestein

Facebook page: Miss Spooky

Facebook page: Loki

And here is my favorite picture of all:

My, how they’ve grown!

Here some links to the original story of the Seven Kittens:

Those posts spawned a wonderful Kitty Scrapbook by members of the community.

You can also catch up on the litter on The Seven Kittens blog on Facebook.

Thanks to the generous foster parents for your care of these wonderful creatures, and for all the wonderful hours of fun and inspiration!

Click to Tweet & Share: Happy Birthday, Seven Kittens! http://wp.me/p2D9hg-to

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21-at 2 months kitty pile-up Hank (Tabi) looking up — at 2 months – Hank is looking up while the others sleep

What began as a romp watching cute kittens on a live cam morphed into something
much bigger.

It was something the UStream chat community, the foster family and the eventual new owners of the kittens could have hardly anticipated.

Seven kittens and their mother taught us showed us what a perfect world could look like.

The story behind “sevenkittens”

According to the information on the Ustream site known as “sevenkittens,” the kittens were born on June 7. The mother cat, Noodles, under a year old, was a hungry, pregnant stray taken in and fostered by a kind Pittsburgh, PA family.

Here is a video of the litter, one day old:

All are spoken for

As the family already has four cats of their own, Noodles and her litter were put up for adoption. I am happy to report that each kitten and Noodles too, have been adopted (in fact, Noodles will be going to her new home with one of her ginger sons).

2-at 3 weeks, feeding time — 3 weeks, after feeding at the “milk bar”

Breakdown of the family

There are five male gingers: three are orange, one is buff-colored and the fifth is nearly white. This kitten, dubbed “Runty” by the chat community, was, in fact, the runt of the litter.

The two females are tortis, one black and the other gray.

The best of care

The foster family has lavished great care on this litter, producing beautiful, healthy and socially adjusted kittens ready for their forever homes.

Gone viral

LiveCams of baby animals are popping up all over the place, from birds’ nests to litters of puppies and kittens.

Yet “sevenkittens” has managed an astonishing three million-plus views! This weekend those of us who have been following the litter with great interest will bid a fond farewell and shed more than few tears.

What was it about this litter of kittens that attracted over three million views?

Loki (Runty) at 8 weeks with the lucky lady he would soon go home with

A compelling storyline. “Runty” (now known as Loki) stole the hearts of everyone who visited. We all rooted for him as he grew from an alarmingly small newborn to a sweet, healthy and magnificent looking boy-cat.
Supermom! Noodles’ care of seven rambunctious kittens, especially considering her youth, was extraordinary. When she wasn’t with her kittens, she was calling to them. She’d even play with them.
Variety. There was something for everyone in this litter from gingers to tortis, from sweet-tempered to rambunctious, glamorous girls and handsome boys.
at 2 months – Ramon (left) and the lovely Venus (right)

Beautiful, peaceful images. The pictures of Noodles nursing her kittens soothed many a viewer who would check in during a stressful work day.
A viable, and international, community. Kittens are universal. Members of the chat community literally came from all over the world, chatting in many foreign languages. We had a common interest in mind – love for this cat family – and we got to know each other in the process.
A happy ending. Animal lovers know how many strays suffer and die prematurely. We’ve seen those disturbing ads from the Humane Society. This foster family lavished their attention and resources on Noodles and her kittens, sacrificing time, money and a bedroom in their home for them. It was a generous gesture very much appreciated by the whole community. And every kitten (plus the mother) are going to forever homes.

The kindness of strangers. A community pulling together around a common purpose. Scenes of perfect bliss with a mother and her children. And lots of love.

Sounds like a glimpse of a perfect world.

Thank you to the foster family for your generosity, for opening your home and sharing your story, for capturing the best highlights for us to look at again and again, and for Noodles and her children: Taco, Cosmo, Ramon, Hank, Spooky, Venus and most especially Loki.

The live Ustream will be up at least through this Friday, August 17. Highlights are available at the site. There are also videos available on YouTube at kittensseven.

I leave you with a slideshow chronicling the lives of this extraordinary litter. Enjoy!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

If you are a member of the chat community or are just interested, email me and I’ll send you all the pictures I’ve collected in a zip file.

Click to Tweet & Share: Seven Kittens show us what an ideal world can look like http://wp.me/p2D9hg-2Q

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