Happy Birthday to the Formerly Feral Trio!

Well technically we do not know the EXACT date on which they were born, but going by the vet's estimate of their age on their first visit last year, I determined that August 15 was close enough to serve as the "official" date. So I just wanted to post here in celebration of Coraline, Brodie, and Shadow reaching one year old!

Here are some photos from their first year:

Tiny Coraline and Brodie, during their first week post-adoption. They were still completely feral at this point (not to mention covered with fleas and infested with coccidia parasite). Both weighed just about 2 pounds.




Tiny Shadow during his first week here. He was trapped 3 weeks after his siblings, when they were all around 10 weeks old. I had been all prepared for a VERY wild kitten that would take ages to get used to (some) humans, if he ever did, but Shadow ended up surprising everyone by settling down and deciding I was okay (and Matt wasn't bad either) within a mater of days!




Tiny Shadow climbing the scratching post (a home-made one that was eventually incorporated into the Kitchen Cat Platform Thing). Nowadays the post isn't much of a "climb" for him, seeing as he is now taller than it when he stands up on his hind legs!




Tiny Coraline playing in my shoes!




Tiny Brodie sneaking across the bed (the kittens were JUST beginning to settle down...at that point they would sleep and play on the bed when there were no humans about, but they would dive under the bed whenever I or Matt walked into the room).




Tiny Brodie having just woken up from a nap (Cora can be seen partially in the background, still resting her eyes). I think they were maybe 12 weeks old here. In order to get these pictures I had to move veeeerrrry sloooooowly so the kittens did not get startled. (In general that is a polite thing to do around cats in general when the cats don't know you well, not just feral cats. Also it is important not to stare directly into their eyes because many cats find that threatening.)




The trio napping on my bed, at around 4 months old. (Cora had just been spayed -- that little outfit she is wearing was actually a sock modified with holes, so that she would have something protecting her incision.):




The trio playing in sunbeams on the bed, at around 5 months old:



The trio in the kitchen, dazzled by sunbeams again:



Cora in the sunbeams:




As they grow from kittenhood into catolescence, you can fully expect young kitties to start taking over the sofa, but it will be so adorable you won't care. (Nikki stays at a safe distance on the arm of the couch):




Honestly, could YOU move these guys?!:



Takeovers of beds also increase in magnitude and intensity as the youngsters near 6-8 months of age:



...and by the time they're a year old, you may expect to find folding the laundry simply isn't what it used to be!