We cut Margo down to one tube-fed meal per day a week ago, and she seems completely unfazed. We guessed that she wasn't losing weight but couldn't be sure, since our kitten scale tops out at five pounds. We ordered a digital bathroom scale that arrived earlier this week. When Martha weighed herself with and without Margo, our suspicions were confirmed – Margo is eating plenty on her own.

So now she spends her day lounging on the playground bed and making occasional pit stops in the bunkhouse to refuel or use the litterbox. At night we open the door to the rest of the upstairs, which means our staff cats are free to come and go, but Margo has made it clear that the playground (and our bed) is her turf, and she rules with an iron paw. All trespassers will be hissed and/or growled at… unless it's Yogi, who will additionally be chased down the hall. It's pretty amusing to watch Large Marge rumble in pursuit with her tube flapping in the breeze as she chases much-faster and younger Yogi.

It's all good for Margo now, but I'm guessing that the 50K staff will be happy when she gets her tube removed and (eventually) waddles out of town. They don't even try to sleep with us anymore.

While Margo is always a big story, the biggest 50K news is downstairs in the villa, where the newest resident is a pregnant refugee from the shelter in Ritchie County, West Virginia that burned to the ground last month. Minnie joined a few other lucky emigrants in a transport van yesterday, and I brought her home around 5pm.

As soon as she stepped out of the crate, it was hard to miss her resemblance to hissin' Harley. And Minnie was shy at first also, slinking around as she explored the villa. But that phase ended quickly, and while she's usually hiding when we enter the villa, she emerges to pace around in front of us, rub against our legs, and mew.

Minnie appears to be eating for a team and looks like she swallowed a small football, so she's definitely pregnant. But she's a little kitty, maybe 5-6 lbs, so this is probably her first litter. Aside from the pacing and some intermittent abdomen-licking, she doesn't seem distressed, so we don’t know if the kitten blizzard will start today, tomorrow, or next week. (The snow blizzard has already started, and the forecast says we're getting two feet or more before it ends tomorrow.)

Despite Minnie's fervent desire to dive into the tiny villa closet (which is jam-packed with pillows, sleeping bags, inflatable beds, etc.), we built her a nice roofed nest, and really hope she'll decide that that's the place to hunker down when the kitten-storm finally hits.

filed by: TS