Patreon is now an Option!

It's been a while since we've done a really short blog post.  So, here's one for you.

We now have our own Patreon page.  This is a place where you can pledge to support us with a donation every month, and in return, we can give you some minor (very minor!) rewards.  

If you have previously donated, and you would like your donation counted towards the Patreon rewards, email us:  headmaster@kitten.academy

There's a special, but simple video up already as a thank you to any Patreons (?) who pledge to us there.  Here's a preview image:

All the Mews That's Fit to Print

We've got a lot to cover in this post, so I'll keep it as concise as possible.  And also, pictures of the kittens to help break it up a bit!

Not even started and Cobbler is bored.

We have a whole bunch of business to cover first, before we get to talk about the kittens.

First off, we have a Twitter now.  We tweet things at you, and you tweet back, and it's pretty wonderful.  Please follow us on Twitter, because that's the first place we announce things now, and also post bonus spontaneous photos.  And also just interact.  Our twitter handle is @kitten_academy.

Fennel is annoyed by advertising.

Advertising:  We tried it.  I don't think it is really worthwhile.  Ads are annoying, and if our reports from Google are to be believed, then what we're seeing is about $3.50 for about 40,000 views -- that's one day's worth of activity.  The way I see it, if Google showed up at my front door and said "Hey, there's 40,000 people outside, and I'll pay you to go out there and annoy them for 30 seconds.  I'll pay you $3.50,"  I would definitely not take that deal.  So why should I take it here?

Perhaps we'll revisit that decision someday.  For now, it doesn't make sense.  We will be turning off the ads.  We already turned them off for the live stream.

Donations:  We set up a donation page here to see how it would go.  And it went surprisingly well!  Not everyone wants to or can use the methods on our donation page as it stands, so we're planning on adding a PayPal option soon, and also Patreon.  Frankly, I'm pretty excited about Patreon.  It's a place where you can sign up to pledge a certain amount of money every month -- and what's cooler is that we can offer some rewards to you if you do; things like early access to certain videos, or a private live stream up close with the kittens -- of course if we do that, we'd publish it for everyone... afterwards.  I think it's a great option, and it's coming very soon!

Custard looking for a handout.

Already, so many of you have been spectacularly generous.  I honestly do not know how to thank you for your help.  I talked a little about how much taking care of these kittens costs us in my previous post here.  Even with your amazing contributions, we're not breaking even -- but we never expected to, either.  We're in this and will support these kittens no matter what.  But your help makes it easier.  I'd like to take a minute to shout out to our donators so far by name.  I don't want to "dox" anyone, so I'll just go by first name and country:

  • Marius, from Germany
  • Christophe, from France
  • Tatiana, from Russia
  • Sara, from Germany
  • Sandra, from the United States
  • Adele, from the United Kingdom
  • Joanne, from the United States
  • Kayla, from the United States

I'm not sure whether I should be calling out individual contribution amounts.  Every bit helps!  You've all been generous beyond what we could expect.  You are heroes to us and you are heroes to kittens.  You are heroes to Toffee.  And you're wonderful people, who must sleep very well at night, knowing you have made the world a better place.

Chat on our Live Stream:  A lot of you really liked this, and I did too.  But it was getting more and more impossible to police, and keep relevant and family-friendly.  We're going to try bringing it back, but with a very extensive list of banned words.  We'll see whether we can make it work.  When we're ready to turn it on again for this experiment, we'll announce it via Twitter first.  

Toffee wants to know if we'll ever talk about the kittens.

Now, on to the kittens!

Toffee, Cobbler, Custard, and Shortcake are all more than big enough to graduate and be adopted.  However, they've had diarrhea since day one that so far, we've not been able to stop, despite numerous efforts.  We've tried various foods, including Hill's ID -- prescription food for cats with digestion issues.  We've tried antibiotics.  We've tried probiotics.  (Do antibiotics and probiotics cancel out?!)  We've had numerous dewormings - with three different dewormers.  We've had a bunch of vet visits, and a more than a few fecal exams.  We even had an X-ray.  So, their graduation has been delayed until we can see them having good poops.  Next up is a fecal culture, a more extensive sort of fecal test that takes lots of poop, and several days of lab work.  It's not cheap like a regular fecal exam.  We dropped off the lots of poop for that today, and we expect the results early next week.  

Despite the diarrhea, they all seem to be in great spirits, active, and gaining weight.  So overall, we're not too concerned about their health.  

What're you lookin' at?

The newer crew, Nutmeg, Clove, Poppy, Tamarind, and Fennel are mostly well and active.  We think they might all have a minor eye infection, we're treating for that.  Fennel, however, has shown a steep decline the last couple days, in weight and in activity.  We're not sure why, yet, but we're feeding her on a special mix of pumpkin, chicken baby food, and KMR powder until she can go to the vet -- which is scheduled for today at 15:30.  She loves the special food so much... she might not want to get well!

I'd like to share our kitten weight data with you.  You don't need to be interested in this, but for people who are, it gets updated nearly every day.  All the weights we keep right now are in ounces.  You can find the entire spreadsheet by clicking here.  Please note that each 'class' is on a separate tab, with graphs on the last tabs.  

Shortcake is confused by spreadsheets.

Finally, if you've read this far, you should know that we've had an awful lot of people tell us on the chat, on Twitter, and via emails that we should make Toffee a permanent member of the Kitten Academy faculty.  If you think so too, Tweet us with the hashtag #professortoffee

Bonus Photos!

Fabulous Fan Art!

Here at the Kitten Academy, we love it when fans of the kittens send us their artistic interpretations of the Academy cats!  

This week, we have some art from a new fan, Liekki from Finland.  Liekki has sent us an amazing work, with all the current Academy Kittens in outer space!  I love this so much - and it even comes in two versions; one is made to tile so you can have infinite cat wallpaper!  Astounding!  As a bonus, Liekki has made prints available in her online shop!  I already ordered the T-shirt.  Can't wait!

We also have new contributions from frequent contributor Bindi Luckycat, who certainly has a recognizable style.  A cheat-sheet of all the kittens, Nutmeg and Toffee together, and a special bonus drawing of her own cats.  Thanks, Bindi!  Adorable!

And finally, we have three new contributions from prolific contributor KaramelCraft in Israel.  Real watercolors and mixed media!  So very fabulous!  I especially love the little meowing kitten.  I can practically hear him!  ... or maybe that's Toffee I can hear.

If you've sent in fan art and we haven't published it, we probably lost track of it.  Send us an e-mail to remind us.  Or, if you have new art, send it to us in an email!  Each and every one of you are absolutely amazing!  The kittens are certainly blessed to have such talented fans.

As always, e-mails can be addressed to headmaster@kitten.academy

 

TEN THOUSAND!

This post is a little late coming, and I apologize.  This weekend, we shot right past 10,000 YouTube subscribers.  I am so very flattered and humbled.  I want to do something special for each and every one of you.  Until I can manage that, though, here's some fantastic fan art from some of you, to all of you!  

First off, regular submitter and friend KaramelCraft did a wonderful drawing specifically to commemorate the 10,000 subscriber milestone!  THANK YOU, KC!  This cat looks just as surprised and astounded as I am.

Next, we have submitter Hazel, who has drawn an interpretation of Toffee's door-scratching antics.  I don't know how you did this magic, but ... click on the image for a surprise!  He certainly does scream!

Some of you may have witnessed Toffee's rather extreme love for "people food" -- especially when I cook fish.  Our correspondent and friend "Sapphire" has sent in a drawing inspired by the latest fish feeding, that I think is simply adorable, and really captures what's on Toffee's mind... probably most of the time.

Next up, we have an entire gallery of drawings from "Bindi Luckycat," including the very first fan art of the newest kittens!  I don't know if this is intentional, but I love that the background so closely resembles the snowflake sheet I had to put down the other day because all the usual blankets were in the wash.

All of you artists are AMAZING!  Thank you all for your submissions.  I love what you do, and I think all of the kittens' fans do, too.

Finally, some photographs of cats watching the stream from around the world!

And below, we have four photos of the adorable calico kitten "Pus'ka" enjoying the stream with her owner, Tatiana.  

I can't say this enough -- I'm flattered, humbled, and honestly, flabbergasted that we've so many fans.  Keep sending in the fan art, keep sending in the photos of your cats watching the live stream, and keep on catting!

 

 

 

 

Crumpet Adopted!

First, a reminder:  Vikki, Biscuit, Lt. Broccoli, and Spot are all still at On Angel's Wings, hoping for adoption.  All of them are WONDERFUL cats, top graduates.  Please consider adopting one today!  Contact On Angel's Wings for an application. 

The big news is, Crumpet has found a loving home, and is already settling in!  

Crumpet's new Family!

We're sure sad to see Crumpet go.  We'll miss her, and we know many internet fans will miss her as well.  Here's a beautiful and touching farewell from Karamelcraft:

A photo submitted by Crumpet's new family, of Crumpet taking a nap after exploring her new house and playing.

Some of you remember when Dinosaur Fan sent us one of our first fan arts, of #crumpet4president.  

What most of you don't know is that when we rescued Crumpet from the shelter, they hadn't really paid attention to her, thought she was a boy, and had named her Tucker!  

We miss you, Crumpet!  Good luck in your new life!

 

... THIS JUST IN!  Taein Shim, a friend on the YouTube channel, posted a video of drawing Crumpet.  THANKS!  

New Kitten Roll Call and Bonus Photos!

New kittens roll call!

Here's some bonus photos, including some of the older kittens...

Fabulous Fan Art, and Pudding Adopted!

Firstly, some simply amazing fan art from two of our artistically-gifted international viewers.  

Let's start with two drawings from Karamelcraft.  A rendering of a mighty and noble Toffee, and best wishes for the newly arrived kittens.  

Wow!  Karamelcraft, you are amazing!

Not to be outdone, viewer and fan Merly Birds has sent us art of all four of the remaining current class, enjoying their morning routines.  

Merly, you are a fan of us, and we are a fan of you!  Such a wonderful image, and great work on the collars -- I'm amazed you could tell what patterns Custard and Shortcake had!

Finally, Pudding was adopted.  Pudding was actually adopted a week before her graduation, so I know that her new family already loves her and she'll be well cared for forever.  Here's the photo from the adoption, and proving that the new home is great, a photo they sent us of Pudding relaxing after exploring her new home.

We'll miss you, Pudding, but we know you're going to have a great life!

 

Just a reminder:  Biscuit, Lt. Broccoli, Vikki, and Spot are still at On Angel's Wings, waiting for their forever homes!  These are all top graduates and would make excellent pets!

 

New Kittens Have Arrived!

The new kittens arrived on the 11th, around 5pm.  They were feral rescues, and we just hope that it's not too late to turn them into good kittens.  Right now, they're being kept in a cage, separate from the old class.  They almost certainly will be allowed together, after a short screening.  They're somewhat afraid, especially of people, and a little hissy.  

On that topic, the new kids came in with fleas.  We gave them fleabaths and will also give them each a tiny drop of Revolution.  The only photos I have of the new class so far are from the wash, taken on my phone -- and there are no photos of the Orange kitten in the group.  I promise we'll get some more, better photos soon!

Brief Update on Hazel's Litter

First, a reminder:  Biscuit, Pudding, Vikki, and the ultra-popular Crumpet will all be in Crystal Lake tomorrow, ready for adoption.  I believe they will be at the PetCo from 11-2, and at On Angel's Wings otherwise, but contact On Angel's Wings if you need to be sure.

Now on to the good news and bad news.  

The good news is, Riker was adopted!  Super exciting!

The bad news is, Spot has been returned.  Her new family included an older cat, and the older cat just could not get along.  So, she's back at On Angel's Wings, and available for adoption.  She and Lt. Broccoli are both wonderful cats who deserve wonderful homes.  

Finally, Hazel has come to stay on the Academy grounds, just until her adopter can pick her up.  She's having a grand time.  Though she does get a little impatient waiting on her turn to play video games.