Well, it's been less than a week since I took the girls away from the kits
and reintroduced them to the main cage.  With both girls and boys out of
season, there's no chance of another litter this season!  Since their
introduction, there have been territorial disputes between the girls, and
the boys have been ... well, obnoxious.  They really don't care which girl
they harass, speyed or whole, they simply want to annoy the girls.  If the
girls choose one spot for a bed, the boys want that spot.  If the girls
move, so do the boys.  If one of the girls wants to visit the litter pan,
then look who needs to go investigate!  The boys have been kicked out of
every sleeping area that existed.
 
There are three main sleeping spots in the cage, four, if you include the
little-used hammock in one corner.  There are four girls, and two boys.
The girls split themselves up into three of the sleeping spots, and the
boys end up sleeping on the ground, under the water platform.  However,
at 2am every evening, they usually decide it's time to move and the girls
start screeching at them to leave their beds alone.  Tonight, they started
early, and were being more forceful - guess they're sick of the floor ;o)
 
Needless to say, after having had no sleep for the past several days, I'd
had enough.  Grabbing the boys, I placed Bancho in with Babys' babies, and
Kovu in with Kittens'.  At seven and a half weeks, just having started
teething and FULL of energy, outnumbering their fathers four million to
one (well that's what it'd feel like to them LOL) those kits were not only
ready to take on their dads, they were rarin' to go!
 
Kovu sired eight kits, which is good, since he's bigger than Bancho.  Once
he was introduced to the kits (most of whom were asleep or half asleep at
the time) Kovu made a bid... for the door!  Three kits were awake, and on
him in a split second.  That didn't last long, the rest soon wakened to
play with their new toy!  Poor Kovu, he was the worst with the girls, and
he's reduced from annoying them to being mobbed by a heap of kits.
 
He backed into every corner he could find, and when that didn't work, he
sidled through to the next section of the cage and climbed into the
hammock/sleep sack.  Unfortunately, the kits are more than capable of
slimbing into *that* and he was forced to reconsider his options.  He tried
backing onto them.  Nope, didn't work.  Rolling over them, nope, he simply
ended up with three more hanging on his back.  He tried rubbing them off.
Nothing worked.  Poor Kovu <snigger>
 
Bancho was introduced to his sons and daughters as well.  He was even less
impressed than Kovu was.  No strategy for him though, Bancho simply ran!
Unfortunately, the end of the cage reached him before he lost the kits.
It's honestly, *very* funny to watch one poor beseiged male being closely
followed by six wide-awake and hip- hoppin' bouncers who could run just as
fast as he could, if not faster LOL He fairly leapt onto the hammock, but
that didn't work.  He managed to escape.  Three times (make that four, he
just escaped again).  He's determined to get away from these terrorists!
 
Ahhh... a more fitting punishment, I doubt could be found <G>
 
Sam
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[Posted in FML issue 2896]