Friday Kitten Blogging – 31 January 2020

You all remember Meowser, don’t you? Refresher here, for those of you who have forgotten about the Great Meowser Hunt.

Anyway, guess what? It turns out that Meowser is female. Very, very female. When my mother returned home a week ago Wednesday, she found Meowser curled up on her bed along with a pile of kittens. This was unexpected. However, it was short work to construct the standard box-and-blanket combo that’s the traditional nest for new cat mothers, and that went into the shower while my mother’s bedding headed to the washing machine.

The kittens are now nine days old. Here’s a little photo collection of the whole brood. First off is Meowser herself, who seems very pleased with herself as she peers over her box to scope me out:

Here are the three kittens at the ol’ watering hole. One is black, one is gray, and one is striped:

Here is Stripey:

Here is Blackie:

And here is Lord Graystoke:

In about five weeks my mother will have three excellent kittens available for adoption. If you happen to live in the Orange County area and are in the market for one, drop me a line. After we find homes for them, I believe Meowser will be in for a short visit to the vet to make sure we aren’t surprised like this again.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

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