Oh my goodness, they are adorable!!! It makes me want a little kitty. Must have restraint. I so want a widdle biddy kitty. Squee!!!
WOW they are just the cutest things ever. The momma is so precious. She is so lucky to have you. Those babies are beyond beautiful. I’m so jealous. Please keep posting more photos as the days go by!
I’m reminded of an account by H. Allen Smith in his book Don’t Get Perconal With A Chicken. A child was left at home while mother was out. When mother got back she found a note:
I’m at XXXX’s house. The cat came apart in the garage.
Great job, noble act fostering. Beautiful kittens.
You’re going to get everyone fixed, right? 
Eeeeeee!!
izzum wittle kittums!!!
Thanks for the replies, everybody. More pics to come, I assure you–I can hardly tear myself away from just staring at them.
I really love fostering–you get to meet all of these wonderful animal personalities and then send them to great, permanent homes. I’m looking forward to being back in the States where we’ll have more room for all of this.
As for the spay/neuters (pretty sure they’re all male), Isis will be spayed as soon as the babies are weaned and hopefully the kittens will all be adopted before they’re old enough for surgery. They’re going up on the adoption website in a few days to start taking applications, so I think they will be. We considered doing a spay/abortion on the mom–the vet offered–when we first took her off the street, but she was already half way thorough the pregnancy and I just didn’t want to. I know the world doesn’t need more cats, but halfway through the pregnancy is just too far for me. I am glad it didn’t turn out to be 8 kittens or something, though.
Anyway, names! Naturally, these are temporary names since they’ll be adopted out, so I’d like to go with a theme. Isis (the mama), of course, is the Egyptian goddess of fertility and some other stuff. So maybe Egyptian themed names? I like Tut, for one of them, and Horace was the name of the son of Isis, so that’s fitting. Any other suggestions? They seem so tiny to be named after gods and kings, but they’ll grow.
They’re all boys, right? Too bad, Bastet and Sekhmet seem so appropriate for kitties! Horus is Isis’s son, so that’s great.
Osiris was her brother/lover (which isn’t so icky when you’re divine). He was killed in a duel with his brother Set - in old stories, tricked into a coffin and tossed into the Nile to drown. In later stories, torn into 13 pieces which were scattered across Egypt. Isis found all but one (his…uh…manly bits), and put him all back together again and made new…uh…manly bits…from clay from the the Nile - or sometimes gold, depending on the version of the story. She then made love to her dead husband, and conceived Horus from that union, or she sang and brought him back to life, but only temporarily. Osiris then became god of life, death and rebirth (a huge deal to the Egyptians!) and also fertility. Might be a fitting name for a cat who was rescued before he was even born!
Set, of course, would be the other of the big three ancient Egyptian gods. He’s harder to love, frankly. He’s the god of the blazing desert (and, before Ra came along, the desert sun). He’s harsh and unmerciful, but stronger than any other god or human. After a time, he became the defender of Ra, standing at the prow of the barque (ship) which carried the sun across the sky, fighting off Apep, a demon who constantly tried to swallow the sun in various serpenty forms. So if one of them seems more aggressive or protective than the others, that’s Set.
So I would go with Set, Osiris and Horus, personally. And Nut, Bast/Bastet and Sekhmet if any of the cuties turn out to be sisters.
I love the Egyptian mythology…so creative. Horus is a given. I also like Hapi (god of the Nile), Min (god of fertility) and Sobek (the crocodile god–inviting cat bites?). I think the name Tut (although not a god) is cute and easy to pronounce. I also like Osiris.
They’re all doing well today–I was a bit worried about the tabby w/white (see? need names) yesterday because he didn’t seem to be latching on that well, but today he’s got it down and holds on even when his head is being stepped on by his brothers. Can you tell I spend a lot of time just watching them? As if my productivity could be much worse.
Yay, microkitties! Where the heck to they put their front feet when they do this? Squeeee! Can kiss tummies, yes?
What else could be as enjoyable? They’re little for such a brief period of time, you gotta watch them when you can, that’s my motto.
Since you’re new to kitties, I feel obliged to tell you that you’re supposed to handle them for about 15 minutes a day, to get them used to humans. If you like, you can put them on a bed or couch and just cuddle them. Scritch their teensy ears and talk to them. When they get older, lengthen the period of time. Soon they will be playing whenever they’re not eating or sleeping. You need to kitten proof your house (or one room, at least) now.
If anyone would like to weigh in, this is what’s going on right now: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=9004621#post9004621
What beautiful cats.
Snipped the rest for brevity.
I say just steal names from Stargate.
Re Egyptian nomenclature, may I suggest that Hosni Mubarak would be a less than appropriate name for a fuzzy little squeeball.
My wife and I both like cats. We always had at least one around and the last one lived to be almost 20 years old.
We now have found the perfect cat to have. One that belongs to someone else who cares for it.
Several cats frequently come into our back yard. We make friends with those we can so we always have a cat around part time and can pick up and go at any time without needing to care for the cat.
Awww they are so cute and the mother is beautiful. It has been so long since I had little ones. I forgot how cute they are.
I would check when they get a little older to what sex they are.
I just took my moms five month old cat to the vet on Friday to get spayed. Turned out that Samantha was a Sam.
That’s a pleasant surprise when you go to the vet though, because neuter is cheaper than spay.
Happened with my last two cats.
The last surviving cat died in August at the age of 18.
Yeah, neutering a cat takes all of five minutes. It shouldn’t be much more expensive than a rabies shot, but it usually is. I would almost be comfortable doing a cat neuter myself if I had the right drugs available to me, having seen it done several times (I was a vet tech for a while). Doesn’t even require stitches, just a drop of glue.
BTW, kitties are doing great, very little sneezing today and constant eating. More pictures as soon as they look different.
I thought “neuter” was a euphemism for sterilizing an animal before it developed secondary sexual characteristics and to “spay” was to sterilize a female.
Heh, my dad is a physician and he always neutered our male kitties. Being the oldest child, I had to take my sisters for a walk up and down the street until the porch light came on–my sign that the kitty bits had been removed and it was safe to bring my sisters back to the house.