The kittens at six months

Kittens become fully-grown mature cats at the age of 12 months. So here we are at the halfway stage, although I no longer consider them to be kittens; rather – they should be considered feline adolescents. How are they all doing? Well, here they are all, one by one...

Below: don't dismiss Arcturus as 'ordinary', 'plain' or 'boring'. He does stuff I've seen no other cat do. He is handy with his paws. He can reach into jars to extract the last of the tuna, he can pull bowls of cat-food towards him, away from his siblings, he can use his claws to bring chunks of food to his mouth rather than just shoving his face into the bowl; he can dip his paw into milk and then suck it from between his fingers. He can also signal with his paws that he wants to be let into the house. I am considering to leave him unneutered as an experiment, to see if his handiness will evolve in future generations. Weight at six months: 3.1kg.

Below: dear, sweet Scrapper – he has mellowed out since early kittenhood. No longer looking for fights with his siblings, he's much more relaxed. He hasn't lost his round-eyed curiosity, and is keen to see what I'm up to. He'll be first onto the kitchen worktops if he's aware that I'm engaged in food preparation. The others are less interested. Scrapper is first to follow me on our walks to the forest next door, and looks out for his siblings. He knows when one's outside the front door wanting to be let in – he will approach me, engage in eye contact, and walk over to the door. Invariably, there's a sibling waiting outside. The natural 'leader of the pack'. Weight at six months: 3.3kg. Not particularly affectionate, but a loyal companion to all.

Below: La Contessa – Céleste, as glamorous and beautiful as ever. She's the lightest of the five, weighing a mere 2.9kg (Czester, see below, weighs 4.2kg). Google Gemini puts this down to her Norwegian Forest Cat genes, a breed that has a bigger male/female size difference than your average house cat. She is indeed 'a very healthy size' for a six-month-old female with 'Wegie' genes (they should be between 2.3kg and 3.2kg at this age). She is likely to grow more slowly than other breeds (and hopefully not hit reproductive maturity for a while yet).

Below: Czester the Chonker, a massive 4.2kg at six months; a fully-grown male adult house cat averages 4kg at maturity (12 months+). Google Gemini AI tells me "he is going to be a tank", and could top out at 8kg. Czester is not a voracious eater, although he has a tendency to be lazy (staying in when everyone else is out). Nor is he fat – I can feel his ribs, he's not flabby. And he is most affectionate.

Don't dismiss Pacyfik as 'ordinary', 'plain' or 'boring' either! He does something no other sibling does, and he does this day in, day out, every single day, uninterrupted, for the past two months or so since the first time he did this. When I do my daily back-extension exercises on my ZemBord™, Pacio will stroll into the front room and run around me as I rock backward and forward; he'll head-bump me, fall over sideways in front of me, or paw at my head. He'll be purring loudly all the while. And when I've finished exercising, he'll jump onto the ZemBord and I'll spin him round (like a record, below), before rocking him to and fro. No other kitten has ever joined me for this, but for Pacio and me, it is our daily ritual. He's not missed it once, and neither have I. And I love him for it! A most affectionate fellow. Weight at six months: 3.2kg.

Below: Wenus (Nuś-Nuś), beloved mother. After her escapade the week before last (six days away from home), she's not wandered off again, although she will spend the nights outdoors (it's still not freezing outside, despite it being mid-December!) Here she is in a very typical indoor pose – vigilantly monitoring the behaviour of her brood. Not knowing the circumstances of her birth, I can only guess that Wenusia is about 14 months old. 

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