Well, it looks like Tootsie decided to move again. As I’d mentioned before, she’d originally had her kittens under my bed, but eventually moved them to my daughter’s closet. I guess she got tired of her too-cramped surroundings, or perhaps she felt too vulnerable on the floor, because after a few days she moved them to our bathroom linen closet. Not only did she move them to the linen closet, but she moved them to the second shelf of the closet. I guess she felt they deserved a penthouse apartment - a dark, crowded penthouse apartment, but the penthouse nevertheless.

<singing>Movin’ on up… to a de-luxe apartment in the sky…</singing>

Anyhow, after one kitten took a tumble off of the shelf, I felt it was time for me to move them. I gathered them up, along with their favorite bedsheet, and I moved them into the back room. I put up a gate so the dog couldn’t bother them and the kids and I happily watched them waddle around the room, investigating their surroundings. Tootsie checked on them a few times, to make sure all was well, and seemed okay with their new home.

Keyword: seemed

Tootsie wasn’t content for long. Timothy found her checking out his dresser drawer and we immediately knew what she was thinking. He calmly emptied the drawer out and waited. Sure enough, she wandered in that evening, kitten in mouth, and plopped it down in the dresser. Once she went to get the second one, we knew that she wasn’t ready to give them any sort of freedom yet, so we helped her out a bit - gathering up her bedsheet and using it to line the drawer while she got the babies settled.

So there you have it, their new home. The kittens aren’t very happy, they pop their little heads out of the drawer to meow and complain about their quarters, but like any good mama, Tootsie just puts them back in their place. She knows they had a brief taste of independence, and they enjoyed it, but she’s just not ready for them to leave the nest yet - so to speak anyhow. Maybe next week she let them explore a little more. We’ll have to wait and see.

Want some more pictures until then? 1 2 3 4 Enjoy!

Oh, by the way, we’ve named the babies. Tootsie and Nacho are the proud parents of <drumroll> Squid and Kissie. Squid received his name when we realized he has 6 toes on each foot. Kissie’s name is sort of a play on her mom’s name since she looks so much like her - you know, Tootsie Roll and Candy Kiss. Cute names, don’t you think?