(She wouldn't stop moving! Sorry, the photos are a bit blurrier than I'd like... Cats! Lol)

Great news for all you waitlisters: I can now confidently confirm that Elbereth is indeed pregnant! She really has "popped out" a lot this past week! The photos don't do it justice; she's not so big that she's started the pregnant 'waddle', but I anticipate that in the coming weeks. Her tummy is starting to harden/bulge, although it's too soon to feel the babies moving yet.

I suspect that's she's about 2 or so weeks behind Lúthien as far as timing for this upcoming litter. I'm thinking the very end of January through early February for their birth, but I'm not positive. Not to get too much into the nitty-gritty of kitten-making, but it's always hard to have an accurate due date for cats because we can't know for sure when conception took place. (It's a slightly different process from humans.) So, I'm looking at her size and the range of time she spent with Radagast and sort of guestimating.

Lúthien is a little more cooperative on her timing, because after various litters I know her patterns. She's fairly consistent at a 9 week, 2-3 day gestation period counting from her first "date with Radagast", and she's been fairly fertile (Elbereth had a couple times these past months when I thought she was out of her heat cycles and maybe pregnant, only to go back into heat.) I also have a fairly good idea of her birthing date based on when the kittens start moving around in there. I felt the first little baby "flutters" last Tuesday - so it'll be around 3 weeks, +/- 2 days or so for her. The week of Jan. 10th-13th is what I anticipate for Lúthien. She also sits still long enough for me to actually feel for the babies' movements - Elbereth is more "squirrely" Lol, so I don't usually feel those really early baby movements. This time period (the last 2-3 weeks) is probably my favorite time for Lúthien. She likes to be held/carried, so she camps out on my shoulder (heavier now!) and/or snuggles on my lap and lets me just rest my hand on her tummy and feel them dancing and playing around in there - I swear, towards the end, it feels like they're doing summersaults! Haha (I know that's not possible, but that's how it feels.) I have no clue how many she has cooking in there - every time I've guessed in the past I was wrong, so I won't even try anymore Lol.

In other news: I know not everyone reading this is from the Pacific Northwest, but in my area we've been snowed in for about a week! (Plus ice...) It's been pretty, for sure, but so cold (in the teens and low 20's all week - uncommon for my area.) I don't know about you, but I hate feeling trapped and unable to leave... even the highway was bad this week, but it's not always easy (or safe) to get to the highway from the side roads. I have certainly gotten good workouts this week though - shoveling paths in the snow and keeping the vehicles cleaned off as best I can keep up with. I had everything cleaned off then it snowed about another 4" last night and you couldn't even see the paths I'd made... but what irritates me most of all is that my watch didn't record all the hard work I put into that shoveling! Lol (So, like the whole "tree falling in a forest thing if no one's around..." - my food for thought for the day: if your smartwatch didn't record or recognize your workout, did it actually happen? Haha). This weather has made me sad that it's frozen all the hummingbird food :( Poor things, they've been coming around all week but I just can't keep their food thawed long enough due to the temps. It "warmed up" to 32 today, so maybe that'll make life easier for the hummingbirds... Tiger loves to watch them - whenever he seems them through the window, he starts "chirping"! I think he's missed them this week, too. I know a few of you are from areas that look at this kind of weather like pfft! that's like a walk in the park for us here! kind of thing - but we're not prepared for it, so it's tough when it happens. The last time it was this bad in recent memory for this area was Feb '19. That was really rough. There was a lot more snow, but it wasn't as cold as this time I don't think.

Oh, speaking of snow, I heard a cute story from one of my most recent kitten adopters who also had snow in their state - they brought a bit of snow inside to see what the kittens would do, and one of them actually was playing around in it, and the other wanted to eat it! Haha. They're so quirky and fun!

I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas and have a Happy New Year! I thoroughly appreciated receiving pictures from some of you previous kitten adopters of the kitties with their Christmas tree and other decorations - so cute! Some especially spoiled kitties even got their own presents! Lol. (I cannot believe we have only two more days of 2021. It will take me forever to get used to saying and writing "2022"! Just when I got used to the idea of "2021"...Ah!)