Thor and his siblings were born on 9/6/19 in our shed. There were 5 kittens for Momma Crook (as we referred to her, due to a crooked tail) – a barn cat that moved into our shed earlier that year.
Three weeks later, I had returned from a trip overseas when my husband let me know that Crook hadn’t been seen in several days and one of her kittens had passed – the other 4 were crying/hungry.
I grabbed my container of powdered KMR I kept on hand just in case, mixed up a batch and grabbed a pipette and a sweatshirt. Found the 4 kittens – they were rough looking. The female had a sore on the back of her right ear where her brothers had suckled trying to find milk.
I brought them into the house, initially in a deep cardboard box. We stocked up on KMR and bottles, and I fed them every few hours.
They soon grew too big for the box and we moved them to play pens and a cat carrier to separate them due to the inappropriate suckling.
We chose names from the Marvel Comics Universe – they are our super hero kitties! Thor and Loki are the ginger tabbies. Pepper (Pots) is the only sister. And Roman (for Natasha Romanov – Black Widow) – we didn’t know for a bit whether he was a boy or a girl. Once we confirmed we chose Roman (rather than Natasha).
Once they were old enough and had been to the vet for an initial checkup and shots, we adopted out Roman (now Max) and Loki (now Maui Loki). We decided early on that we would keep Thor and Pepper.
As the kittens grew and explored they learned to climb up our clothing and eventually onto countertops. Thor started jumping around 2-3 months old. First onto my back as I would be leaning down to place food dishes, pick up cat toys, scoop the litter box. It wasn’t until he could get onto the counter top on his own that he jumped to me, unexpectedly! After several instances of surprise kitten attacks, I decided to channel his tendency into something he would do only if prompted.
On Christmas Day, 2019, I captured our first intentional jump together.
Jump montage: