Kitten

It is necessary for the teacher to be smarter than the cat.

 I dont have the time to go thru all 4 pgs of this post right now, but i'd like to put in my 2 cents.

Kittens are always underfoot, thats wht they do. Learn to walk around pets, watch ur toes and be very aware what ur putting ur foot on b4 u put weight on it. Hard to describe it, but i think i kinda keep my toes to the floor as i step vs have them pointed up and step down heel 1st. Watch ur step and ur more likely to nudge the cat vs actually step on them.

For fleas, frontline and such will have to wait a few months. I saw frontline at costco the other day for $30 and a box should have 3 mos of treatments and its well worth the money in my opinion. If you can get it at petmeds.com that will be a good way to go, and any vet will carry it and/or the other brands like it. A couple brands treat more than just fleas. Don't forget to treat ur home as well when u have fleas. They make sprays and powders for ur carpet that are easily obtainable at wal-mart look in the pest control section or carpet care sections. Where i work we often treat fleas in a safe non-pesticide way, works great on kittens. We wash the pet in dawn dish soap and let it sit 10 mins b4 rinsed away. We usually follow up with a kitten or oatmeal shampoo to help restore oils to their skin. Dawn is powerful stuff, its what they use to clean animals in oil spills. Advice b4 giving a cat a bath, trim their claws so they can't completely shred u. I have one cat who i bathe regularly and hes totally cool with baths, my other cat don't like them but she handles them fine. I bathe cats every once in awhile at work and most they usually do is try to crawl away and yowl. Restraint is key, hold their scruff or have some sort of restraining device. At work we have restraining leash things we loop over their head and under one front leg so they can't choke themselves.

Deworming is always a good idea, and ringworm is a totally different thing altogether. Ringworm does happen but its not near as common as the internal parasite. Ringworm is an external fungal infection. Cats will get bald spots over night and the skin will be dry and sometimes flaky, it sperads fast untreated. Children pick it up easily, but adults usually have to have broken skin (cut, scratch, sore) to get ringworm. Cats need vet treatment for it, human treatment is easy, buy an anti fungal cream like lotrimin (yes the athletes foot stuff) Oh and on a human its a distintive red/pink ring, usually small and the skin in the ring is dry and they ITCH. Yes ive dealt with ringworm b4, once in a set of foster kitties and several times on myself :P

I hope ive givin good info and not repeated what too many others ahve said since i didn't read all the posts :P I've gotta go get a shower and get rdy for bed for work in the morning. Take care of the baby and give him a hug and kiss for me :) I'm a total sucker for kittens :D

 Finally got to go thur all the posts. the pics were a joy :) VERY cute. and the pattern is known as "classic tabby"

i've never heard of a grey cat having a bad gene for crazyness, it can happen to any cat :P no genes involved.

The flea stuff is not a 3 mo dose, u get 3 tubes to apply once a mo.

 If you can find diatomaceous earth (garden supply), it's totally safe for kittens.  My vet recommended it when I had a very small kitten I had to treat.  It's ground up shells and it actually cuts into the soft bodies of insects.  It works on roaches, spiders and ants too!  The only thing to be careful about is not to breath it in as it will irritate your lungs.  You just rub a pinch of it into your pets fur.  You can use it on your carpets too, just be careful about not breathing it in.  I shook it in a room, rubbbed it into the carpet while wearing a bandana over my mouth and then left the room while it settled.

Dawn dishwashing soap is great too, use a qtip around around the face cause the fleas will flee (ha ha) to any area that's not soaped up.  If you have an indoor cat, fleas should not be a continuous problem.  Once you get rid of them, they should be gone.  It's been a while since I've used frontline on a cat, but I know that on dogs, one treatment will kill fleas for 90 days!  The 30 days is for ticks.  Even so, just one treatment is all an indoor cat should really need.

I buy the diatomaceous earth every summer now and use it for general pest control in the house.  I like that it's not a pesticide and is safe around my kids and other pets.  Since we don't have a flea problem anymore, I just use it outside around doors and windows and inside along baseboards and stuff like that.  We've had a dramatic drop in insects of all kinds, it's awesome!

 Congrats Lyilha.    Kittens are just too much fun.  My cat, now 14 years old was absolutely everywhere.  I loved Inca's description "like a constant moving carpet of kitten".  That was definitely Buster as a kitten.  Jump on the chair, on to the drapes, over to the couch and into the Christmas tree.  His first year, he hid in the branches of our fake tree, literally laying on the branches.  He was solid black and tiny and you couldn't even see him in there, just the tree shaking a tiny bit every once in awhile.  Amazingly he rarely ever knocked anything off the tree.  The next year while I was at work, he evidently thought he could still do that because when I got home the tree was in the floor with broken ornaments everywhere   I never saw him try to get back in it after that.  The crashing tree must have scared him pretty good. 

Frontline is great.  I have 3 dogs and a cat and it is expensive but it works.  Please be careful of "over the counter" products.  I had a horrible experience with a flea collar and my cat.  It imbedded in his neck in 3 days and caused a horrible infection. 

Oh, one other kitty caution - Don't leave the clothes dryer door open for even a second.  Kittens & Cats love the warm dryer and pile of fluffy clothes and will jump in there for a nap.  A friend of mine accidently locked here cat in the dryer for several hours.  He was fine, but he shot out of there like a cannon when she opened the door.  Thank goodness, she didn't turn the dryer back on to fluff the clothes.

Have a ball with the new baby.  Sounds like you will be a great kitty mommy since you are already laughing at his antics   Baby animals are like baby people.  They make messes and may ruin a few things, but in the long run, they are so worth it.

Marie

 Kelly,

I just noticed this post...The new kitten is adorable! Do you still need some flea meds? I used to buy for 5 cats and have lost 3 of them in the past year. I just checked, and I have some Frontline that is for kittens 8 weeks or older. I can send it to you if you want. I hate throwing things like that away....much nicer if I can give it to someone who needs it. Just e-mail me if you want, or post here.

                                                                     Evalie

koolaidstains:

The 30 days is for ticks.  Even so, just one treatment is all an indoor cat should really need.

After we lost one cat, we discovered it had had fleas -- they would bite us, but the vet said they couldn't reproduce on human blood; he was right, and we haven't had any fleas here since.  [Currently, we live with two cats.)

I second the dryer warning:  a friend of mine lost her cat that way when we were kids.  NOT a fun experience.

 Oh he is beautiful.  Too Sweet