very small, very furry and very gray and white

I stopped by the shelter to bring in a stool sample for the "Pies" and the staff member joked I'll take your poop if you take my kittens..

I probably shouldn't have, no actually I know I shouldn't have.  I said point blank I wasn't going to put kittens anywhere other then the kitten room this year.. but I couldn't stop myself.  This poor boy is so congested with URI that his eyes glue shut moments after cleaning and medicating and his nose is completely stuffed.  If I sit a hot face cloth on his face for a few moments he ends up blowing snot bubbles... but he hates it.

He's so weak that eating is a lot of work for him, so I thought I'd make it easier on him and tube feed.  NOT a good idea in general because the risk for getting formula in the lungs is very high, but since he couldn't breathe and was probably wasting more calories trying to eat and breathe at the same time - not to mention the risk of inhaling formula is much higher, I thought I'd give it a go.  Well he wasn't having anything to do with it.  He kept trying to rip it out of his mouth, and when I pinned his paws down he some how got it out of his mouth with his tongue.  So once again I think he's wasting more calories then he's consuming.. but it is nice that he is able to get so ticked off at things - a very positive sign.   I was able to at least half fill his belly before giving up for the night.  He's totally mouth breathing and it is totally pathetic and I fear he has a 50/50 shot of being alive in the morning.

His brother is a riot.  He's already at walking practice and he's really pretty annoyed at being locked up.  He purrs if you breathe in his general direction, and has comment on quite a few things (but thankfully not everything)  he snuggles up to his brother, he attempts to wrestle with is brother and he is quite a pip!

They are on Zithromax and eye ointment. paws crossed for a full quick recovery.. and if it can't be full and quick, may he get one nostril back so he can breathe and eat at the same time.

and in the news about flea products

Just a quicky to say this possible new legislation regarding labling for OTC flea products is so due.. I hope it passes quickly and is effective in helping pet owners to not give their pets toxic overdoses..

I so need to be working on a project at work, and I'm so doing my best to avoid it.. not good Connie, not good..

More later

but some here, someone very small, very furry and very gray and white, could use some good thoughts to come his way.. Life has been very hard for him up to this point, and it is going to be a mighty struggle in the next few days as well.

Apple Apple Apple

it is kind of interesting how that last post worked out.  I saw a boat load of cute photos and the title popped into my head, and then I posted them in order of taking them... not even really considering that it looks like Apple is hiding out while the others were playing.

She was out and about playing but most of the photos of her were blurry or she was partially out of frame.  Then she saw my hands and ran and hid..

Apple is progressing very nicely.  Last night I went and watched some TV with them last night and they wanted food so I fed them.  They ate a little and ignored the rest.  They played and wrestled, and then jumped up on me which was fun.  Pumpkin is all about the Pumpkin, so he thinks it is awesome that I want to pat him.  Cherry is all about fun, and she just likes being in the middle of things, so she's OK with it too.  Apple doesn't like to be left out or left behind so she tags along, dragging her feet, looking at me like she'd kinda wish I would go away, but then she snuggles in between her sibs and doesn't really notice the hand sneak over for a pat and as long as she doesn't realize what is happening she kinda likes it.  When she does realize what is happening she still kinda likes it but she expects things to go horribly wrong at any moment and tenses up and waits for it.

after some more playing and running around we settled down to watch a movie.  Apple on my hip, Pumpkin on my chest and Cherry on my shoulder.  I was a little uncomfortable so I moved Apple closer to her siblings and she took the move just fine and settled down on my chest / in the nook of my arm.  I think she liked the fact that I was warm.  Cherry thought this all meant it was time to nurse and kept looking around for a nipple which was a little funny, but eventually she settled down as well.. which of course was about the time my bladder decided it needed to explode.. :)

My husband even came in and no one ran and hid.  He reached out and patted them, and all but Apple was totally fine with it.  She does that hunker down / freeze thing that kittens and rabbits do when they are scared.

One thing I did learn though, putting Apple on her back is simply RIGHT OUT!!

is it so wrong that I just love kitten swear words so much?

You can't handle the cute

Pumpkin, get off your tail..

Good boy!

Wordless Wednesday - a matter of perspective

Hansel and Gretel

Hello, I'm Hansel and this is my sister Gretel and this is my other sister Gretel*

Boy, do we have a story to tell you!!  Sit back and you'll hear the tale, tail, um.. story..

We entered this world next to our momma, and she took such wonderful care of us.  Our world consisted only of her and she provided everything we needed.  From time to time she would leave, but mostly when we were sleeping, and when we awoke she returned and fed us and cleaned us and we were happy.

But mom got skinnier and skinnier and meals weren't quite as filling as they had been before we could see.  I had no idea what all this meant, but momma seemed a little worried despite her trying to hide it from us and I could tell.

One day someone came along and scooped us up and stuck us all in a box.  it was so strange and so confusing, but momma was there.. she would protect us.  Then they put us in a cage.  It was loud and we were so frightened, but momma was there.  Then they stuck us in another box and put us in ANOTHER box on wheels that went FAST and we traveled and traveled and with a bunch of things that barked and loved the traveling thing... We were scared.  Momma was scared.  She didn't think she could care for us and herself any more, and the new people that took us out of the box and put us in  a cage seemed to agree with her, and they took her away from us.

So stuck in a cage, far far away from all we know.  With great big huge people things opening the cage door and messing with us all the time, food comes and goes, litter is scooped.. we are manhandled.. but at least we have each other.

Then one day a LOT seems to be going on, there is a lot of noise outside the room we are in and some people come and look at us and make weird noises at us.  I think they were cooing, but it was just so weird.  Then the other people come and take us out of the cage.. and they do things.. things I don't really want to talk about, but you should know.  It involved taking off our sharp pointy bits (hey, we need those!! well at least they'll grow back) and trying to drown us with some sort of liquid up our nose** and something different in our mouths and then on our backs!! oh the kitty-anity!! At least my sister told them what for and tried to fight them, she has spirit that one..

Back into another box, back on the road.. and us with out any kibble crumbs to help us find our momma again.. This can not be good.

Oh great, another person.. *sigh* what is she going to do to us??  Why is she talking to us.. AAARRGH!! HANDS!! those things never lead to good things.. stop it stop it stop it..

wait, what?  she stopped?  hun? they haven't ever stopped before..

She's making that stupid cooing talk too.  what is with that??  Well at least it is more soothing then the jarring noise at the other place..

Why is she shaking that thing in our face??  stop that lady!! *bats away with paw* hey, that feels kinda fun.  *bat bat bat* OK, that isn't too bad, but could you just back off and give us some space??

wait, what? she backed off?? weird.

oh great, she's back.  now what??  HEY!! GIVE BACK MY SISTER!!  well if you aren't going to give her back, BE CAREFUL WITH HER!!  AND DON'T EAT HER!!.. oh my cat, Gretel, are you OK???


Yes brother, she held me so high up off the ground, and that was so very scarey, but she patted me all over and many of those spots felt very good - almost like when momma used to groom us.  Those hands apparently do more the harm.  I don't really trust them, but it is nice to know they aren't all bad.  At the very least they saw me safely to the ground so I didn't have to jump from such heights, that could have hurt!

Well that's good Gretel, I'm so glad you are OK *sniff sniff* what is that yummy smell?  Oh great, here she comes AGAIN!! why won't she leave us alone?!?!  watch out sisters.. *sniff sniff* what is this she put in front of us??  *sniff sniff* it smells like that food stuff the other people put in front of us that momma ate.  *nom nom*  it isn't bad.  It isn't great either, but at least we won't starve***

What was that??!?!?!  OH MY BAST!  Someone CATCH THAT THING!!  man it runs fast for not having any feet..

I caught it!! now what do I do with it?? well it isn't moving, it must be dead so I don't have to... HEY! GET BACK HERE!! *scramble scramble scramble* Gretel, get out of my way!!   *pounce* *jump* *wrestle* oh this is fun!!

*jingle jingle jingle*

What was that?!?!  *bat* *jingle jingle jingle*  woh.. *bat* *jingle jingle jingle* *scramble scramble scramble*

Hey, where is the person going?? now we are all alone in this great big room.. but it has a soft comfy place for us to lay.. "um, Hansel, it has like 100 soft comfy places for us to lay!" you are right Gretel, that's cool.  And this climby thing, and those taller things we can jump up on, and hide under and run through, this isn't so bad..

*play play play* *sleep*

Hey, it is morning.. oh great, that person thing is coming back.. well she wasn't the worst thing in the world, and she did give us food, and teach us to play.. Come on sisters, lets give her a cat scan.. BACK UP BACK UP SHE'S GOT THOSE HAND THINGS AGAIN!! oh cod.. why do humans have to come with hands???   Hey, wait she's opening up one of those can things that has the food stuffs in it.. OK, so maybe hands do have SOME uses that aren't horrible. I just wish this foodstuffs was better..




~~~~~~~~~~
When this story formed in my head, it was because I wished they would fatten up, and I felt like the witch in the story of Hansel & Gretel trying to fatten them up.. but some how that part didn't get in the story.. which is kinda sad now that I think about it, but it is probably a good thing in reality.

*so totally not their names, but I couldn't resist the imagry.
**the shelter uses intranasal vaccines, then they were dewormed and given revolution
***I have yet to find a can of food they will eat more then a few bites of.  Pumpkin did really like the Fancy Feast "green canned" food I brought, but even that he didn't eat all that much off.  I'm so hoping the panacur will work magic and increase their appetite.  Such a dramatic change from the "we eat everything in sight even if our stomach is full, we have empty legs to put it in" attitude of the last litter.

Three little kittens

Three little kittens who very badly need names.  At this point I'm calling them Apple, Cherry and Pumpkin and grouping them as the "pies" simply because I was being silly and "pumpkin" is one of those terms of endearment I use a lot (along with pudding).

I'm sure you know who Pumpkin is.. he is the only boy.  Cherry is a girl and is the tri-colored tiger and Apple is.. well she's just stunning.  She's also freaked out of her gourd.

the staff gave them their deworming and vaccines and trimmed nails before they left.  I felt a little silly "letting them" since I do all of that on a regular basis, but Jen insisted, and well frankly it was probably a good thing since Apple drew blood more then once.  Did I mention she is freaked out of her gourd?

I brought them home and left them in the carrier while I cleaned up the room. They were perfectly happy sitting in there while I watched a little TV and did some major cleaning.  I felt a little bad till I realized they fell asleep.  When I was done, I attempted to do a little socalizing to see exactly what was going on.  Cherry and Pumpkin were mostly OK, but Apple was freaking out and freaking them out in the process.  So I took her out for a while, wrapping her in a towel for her safety and mine.  Being a bit older she could do some damage with her claws and teeth (even a week earlier I might not have used the towel.  She calmed a bit, but then freaked out again when my husband showed up so I put her back in the carrier with her siblings. 

Cherry was the first to leave the carrier.  Pumpkin came next much to Apple's dismay.  Eventually she came out, and I ended up realizing that it isn't humans that freak her out, it is hands.  If she couldn't see my hands or if they weren't coming at her she was OK.  I can work with this.

These three were actually transported up from LA.  The shelter I work with routinely transports up dogs from high risk shelters.  The license laws are such that we don't have an over abundance of stray dogs, so mostly the dogs up for adoption are surrenders which aren't that many, so they are able to save many from other areas.  Fortunately the shelter, which is open admission, has such a high success rate (90% which rivals most "no-kill" shelters) that lately they have been "running low" on cats as well.  I heard from someone that they had contacted several other rescues in the area but none of them wanted to send cats to it because they weren't "no-kill"  Regardless of the stats, regardless of what they have accomplished and regardless of the fact that the shelter has spots to house cats and these rescues have a waiting list.    *sigh*  so the shelter where they get dogs sent up a number of cats.  These kittens came with a mom, but she was done with nursing and the kittens are old enough, so they came with out her while she stays at the shelter and gets the care she needs to put on some weight and will go up for adoption.  Unfortunately she was diagnosed with "lungworm" which I had never heard of before.  Since the kittens had some diarrhea the shelter gave me some panacur to give them for a few days to take care of any that infected them.  Apparently lungworm is a parasite that can get into the lungs and cause respiratory problems.  They look a lot like snakes too - kinda bizarre.  So hopefully with three days of panacur their parasites will be taken care of, and they'll start putting on weight, because right now they look like absolute waifs!  Pumpkin in particular looks very "kate moss"ish..

oozing attitude

you clean, we sleep, then we make mess

no hands please

I said, no hands!!!

I'm free!

What did you do with my sister??

What is my brother playing with??

I'm free!

Hey! Where did you go??

I come too

Don't you just love the tip of her tail?

Kitten Shower

One of the shelter's fundraising events is a "Kitten Shower" based on the premise of a baby shower.  They contact local groups and give a prize for the most donations - per pound.  So we get girl scout troops who buy bags and bags of clay litter and bleach because they are cheap and heavy - and every single bit of it gets used.. We also get lots of people stopping by with kitten type supplies, and then lots of others who stop buy with other random pet supplies (dog food/ toys, bird stuff, rabbit stuff).  It helps stock the shelves and it is always so incredibly heart warming to walk through the shelter after these types of events and see the shelves loaded up!

My day started out with these two adorable bunnies!  apparently three came in at just a few days old when their mother died.  The shelter manager bottle raised them.  While one did not make it, these two are doing very well and as a result of being hand fed are incredibly sociable.  I absolutely fell in love and I can't tell you how badly I wanted to take them home.. but alas, no bunnies for me (Skippy still suffers from bouts of bordatella)

kids crafting area

Main "Shower" area

Crafts for sale

Bake sale

Some of the raffle prizes

Kittens ready for adoption

Miriam still up for adoption

New beds for the cats

One of the 100 photos of Meira I took.

I think he likes the bed..

Meira says I go home now right?

Some of the cat trivia posted on the walls

Someone grew catnip to sell.

All gone!!

I'm assuming the winning troop (with all the donations up to that point)

Not the kittens I took home..

I was going to hold out till tomorrow to tell you which kittens came home with me, but I just love this shot!  that look says just about everything about what I'm dealing with. and they so need names!!