Saturday, January 31, 2009

Photo Hunts - Furry


Ok this one was easy :) This is Muffin sitting on my lap as I'm playing on my laptop. Last week was Chipped, I couldn't figure out a good one for that. Microchipping your pets is a good thing, but that isn't very photographic.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

An Open Letter to my Kitties


My dearest kitties,

I know I spoil you rotten. I pat you pretty much when ever you want, I make room so you can sleep in my bed (on my pillow, on my head) and you have free run of the house. You have more scratching posts / trees in number than there are of you. You get the best I can provide for you.

But please, do not forget, you are actually CATS! see those claws at the end of your feet? the tail? have you forgotten the sharp pointy teeth you have in your mouthes??

No?

well then why oh why will you not dine on the flesh of the birds I bring home to you..

and WHY is Tweedle the only one of you who will actually dane to chew the flesh off those bones?? Twee! yes, my special little girl who looks at me cross eyed when I talk to her, and who took till she was eight weeks of age to eat on her own with out her face burried in the food (because that was the only way to teach her to eat)

Now Jack, I know you did eat the meat I provided for you, but don't forget - YOU HAVE TO CHEW IT!! or else it comes right back up like it did today. It is not supposed to enter your stomach as your eyes saw it you know. That is why you have those sharp pointy teeth!!

*sigh*

so I will clean up the vomit and throw away the meat filled bones, and I will eventually cave and give you the ground up raw you so very much want (but not the gooshey food nor the dry you REALLY REALLY want) and maybe we'll try again another day..

cause honestly, trust me on this, you are cats!!

More Joy


You know, the problem with being vigilant and noticing issues when they first crop up, is you spend way too much time obscessing about them.

So Joy went to the vet last Friday, and was put on anti-biotics for this swollen lip. Well she is SICK AND TIRED of me looking at it now. So a squirmy kitten is not an easy thing to look at and examine, and try to go from memory if the lump is bigger or smaller or just changed from the previous exam.

She isn't holding her eye closed as much any more, so I'm thinking the medicine is working.. I think it looks slightly better from before.. but it is so hard to tell. Either way, she is absolutely holding her own, not getting worse, active, eating, playing, so I'm not going to worry about it just yet. If it is still a matter of degrees on thursday/friday I'll bring her back in.

After medicating her and poking her last night, I let them run around a bit. They still don't have free run of my office because they still cower when I go to pick them up. I do not want to re-inforce the "MUST RUN" instinct that happens when they are running loose. So what I do is let them run around before a meal, and when I want them to cage up I put food down. What one kitten does, the other kitten does, so one will go sample the food and the other goes in with her and poof, I have two caged kitties. Works out nicely.

But while running around, they decided to share the roll of paper towels with Fleurp. I was sitting at my computer wondering what the weird noise it was making was, and I all of a sudden realized I was also hearing the shuffling of paper towels. Now a roll of paper towels is an amazing cat toy (don't know why, it just is.. always has been, always will be) and I guess they decided to share it with Fleurp, who was helping them get it under the door. When I walked over they ran, and poor little Fleurp was left *holding the bag* if you will.. as I saw her little paws pulling the paper towels. I tried to pull them back, but she dug her claws in. So hard to unclaw a cat from a paper towel from the wrong side of the door, that is for certain! But fortunately I caught it early and only one sheet had made it out, so it didn't take me long to get it taken care of :)

Funny that they would share their bounty (oh the pun) with Fleurp, since they don't much like her when she makes it into the room with them.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Poor Joy


Well this isn't good.

last week I noticed what might have been acne on Joy's little white chin. I cleaned it off and it came pretty clean with just a basic picking. I thought maybe it might have just been food debris since it didn't come back and she eats out of ceramic bowls. Well yesterday I noticed the corner of her lip was swollen, just as Muffin's lower lip swells after she has a bout of acne. The vet called it a rodent ulcer, and we leave it untreated and it goes away.

Well Joy's lip seemed even more swollen last night, so I sent an email to the foster coordinator, but since I haven't heard back, I think I'll try running her in after work and get her looked at tonight.. although chances are they'll want to send her to the vet.

Joy doesn't seem to mind it though. She didn't much like my pulling on her lips to get a better look - but then no cat likes you when you pull on their lips.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Photo Hunts - Hats


I saw this new (to me) blog that generates "hunts" for photos that fit the theme. Looked like a lot of fun to me, so I thought I'd play along.

This week's theme is Hats. Well, Jack has a "hat" on in this photo.. granted, not really a real hat.. but it is on his head, and my nephew always calls anything he puts on his head a hat (including his toy dump truck)

Photobucket

Last week's theme was aftermath.. I think my Christmas slide show fits that well..

Friday, January 16, 2009

Jack


Oh my boy is a special one, that is for certain.

Last night he started crying out very pathatically.. broke my heart. I wasn't sure what he wanted, and I was 99% asleep, so it took me a bit. He cried and cried.. finally I roused and rolled over to see what I could do for him, and he dropped a toy on the floor and jumped up into bed with me.

Um.. what? did he want me to get up and play with him? if so, why did he leave the toy behind? Did he just want to wake me up? well then why didn't he just jump on my chest or start kneeding me like he usually does??

Regardless, we both got a good cuddle in before I fell back asleep.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Kittens love real meat


I bought a cornish game hen again to cut up and give to my kitties to snack on. Chewing is good for them, so I tried it once before, but I didn't have the chutzpa to cut up the bones, so it pretty much ended up in the trash. The few pieces I did get off were ignored by my spoiled rotten cats.

Well they were on sale, and this poor little hen was only $2 so I figured I'd give it another shot.

yea, I'm pathetic. I could crack the bones this time, but each time I did I apologised to the bird. Those things look so much like a bird (well duh they are) that I got all sad.

I don't think I'll do it again. I'll stick to the bigger birds that are already cut up so I don't think about it as much.

Well my kitties already had lunch, and I gave them some larger pieces of turkey leg to snack on, so by the time I got to the hen they didn't munch much. I'll save it for breakfast.

But in the process of scraping bones and cutting off meat, I had a few smaller pieces, so I saved them for Happiness and Joy. They are having a BLAST eating it. No growling which usually happens with kittens when they get their first taste of real meat, but maybe they are into sharing. Its so cute, you can just tell they are so thrilled by this snack!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

OMG OMG OMG!!!


Ok, so I was sitting here uploading photos to photobucket, and I heard purring, so I turned and looked and Happiness and Joy were cuddled up in the uppermost corner of the cage (as close to me as they can get) just purring away. I thought it would be a cute photo, so I turned my camera on which of course got their attention and they sat up.


they looked so hopeful, and were purring so loudly, that I got up and went to give them attention. They kept purring and Happy reached out to me, so I thought they deserved a cuddle.. and JOY WANTED TO COME OUT!! she balked a little because I was pulling her out with one hand, but the second I supported her behind she relaxed and started purring and came right along.

so I had them side by side on my chest, giving them kisses and wrapped them up in my arms in a big hug, and they kept licking my nose (Joy likes to nibble my nose) and playing with my glasses. At this point Happiness starts to slide herself on her back and presents her belly!!!!! OMG.. *faints*

so friggen rewarding, so wonderfully amazing that I can earn the trust of such scared little kitties.. made my heart grow three sizes today..

Of course they are almost of size, so they are that much closer to going to find their furever homes now.. *sigh* but for the moment they are still mine, and they love me.

Benny


Well Benny is doing better at the shelter. Finally got her into Office Foster so she's getting some more one on one interaction. She was getting pathetically little of that here (I was overwhelmed with kitties) and even so she put on all that weight. Well she lost a lot of it stuck in a cage, but being in the office with 8 hours of direct contact with a staff memeber she's gaining again.

Bonus points because the office she is in is the shelter manager who has fell head over heals for her and now she's being advertised on the front page of the shelter website :D

Happiness and Joy


I think I'm making good progress with Joy. Each day there are new little *oh yea!*s like I get to pat her when she's eating and she doesn't flinch. She runs up to the cage to sniff me, etc. She's not bad, don't get me wrong, but I want her to be fully socialized.. not sure I'm going to be able to do it, as she still holds on to that wariness (as you'll see in the video)

Happiness is fully transformed.. I let them both run free in my office, and when I came back after dinner to clean up, Happy hugged my ankle, sat near me and purred so loud I thought the room was vibrating, and she attacked my toes!! :D I brought in a feather toy on a stick and engaged her with it. She was SO friggen adorable, that I then got up to get my camera for the following videos, but unfortunately the spell was broken and I only got a glimps in the first video of her attacking the toy. The second video is of the two of them playing together.

You can see Joy's wariness. It's there.. but fortunately I think it is fading fast.


giggles


Ok, Fleurp kills me. I was scooping the foster kitten box, and when I do that I go and scoop Fleurp's "Kitten Box" too. When I have kittens under 6 months of age, I usually keep a box upstairs *just in case*

Well this time around the kittne box is well used. Apparently I have very lazy cats, and they don't want to wander downstairs to use the two HUGE boxes they have, they want to use the one lonely overly used box upstairs. One time I cleaned it, I think I scooped out every spare piece of litter in the box..

anyway.

When I scoop out the box, I can either sit on the floor or lean over at the waist and scoop. I prefer to stand. (if I squat too long my legs go all pins and needles)

today while I'm scooping, I've attracted the attention of Kit as well as Fleurp (who loves to be the first one to christen theh box when I'm done) and they were circling around waiting for me to be done, not really able to contain themselves, they both at one point got in while I was still scooping and started digging. I kicked them out and kept scooping. Well Kit (the shoulder riding cat) thought it would be fun to watch from the top of my back *rolls eyes* so she jumps up from the floor to my tushie, and climbs up.. yes, with claws.. Fortunately she doesn't weigh much, so it wasn't THAT painful.. I mean I kept scooping.

So I was finally done and they both jumped in and started digging around. Well one dig landed on another paw, and soon wrestling ensued in the box. THey are so friggen cute.

Kit finally gave up and jumped out and Fleurp had her way. SHe hates it when I scoop before she burries though. I got her BM, but when it came to her urination, she started covering before she was done.. *giggle*

So then Kit jumped in and urinated first and started to leave so I scooped and started closing up the bag. Well since I was closing up the bag, she thought she'd go back in and mark up the box again *rolls eyes* well I fooled her, I only half closed it up, so I was able to open it right back up again and take her stool with me.. ha ha ha :P

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

shhh


be vewy quiet.. we be hunting happiness..

*giggle*

Happiness and Joy got out of the cage today. Ok, so I was snuggling Happy and she just jumped down, so I let Joy out to run around with her. I got Joy fairly easily.. there was a moment of hesitation as my hand closed in around her, but once I had her she was fine. I snuggled her into my neck and she started purring. Her sister kept running, and so I pretended I was Elmer Fudd and wispered the above to Joy who was still purring.

Man I love my kitties


This morning I did NOT want to go to work. I wanted to stay in bed all snuggled down and watch movies surrounded by my cats..

but that is not an option, so I got up.. I was putting together my lunch and I needed a hug from a kitty. I went after Muffin because she is the one that usually puts up with my shenanigans. Well Muff wasn't that much into being hugged. As I was hugging her, Jack jumped up on the chair Muff had been sitting on and rubbed my thigh, so I put Muff down and picked Jack up. Well Jack really didn't want to be picked up and immediately started squirming to get down.. I saw Ollie, aka my grumpy ol man, sitting on the other side of the room, and I said to him "If you want a hug, you should come over here, cause I won't force it on you" well darn it if he didn't get up and walk over. I picked him up and gave him a quick hug, then put him up on top of the fridge for some treats.

Then as I was putting on my boots to leave my kitties started gathering around me. I'll admit, I got emotional. I didn't want to leave. So I sat there for a moment soaking up their presence. and darn it all if Ollie didn't show up again for some lovin.. I have such good kitties.

*ok, I think this is really cute, spell check knows how to spell shenanigans

Monday, January 12, 2009

Progress!!


Oh I'm so thrilled!!

Ok, lets see.. Saturday I took them to the shelter for a little outing. I'd bring them to work, but they are so scared, that I didn't think an extended stay anywhere yet was a good idea. So I took them to the shelter to be held by animal lovers.. I also got some new medication for Happiness, but once she got home she seemed to clear up, so I'm holding off on that.

The trip was good for them, they got some snuggles, and an outing, but it freaked Joy out, and when she got home she hid from me. So I left her alone. Wasn't sure that was the best move either, but I didn't want to re-inforce that *MUST RUN* feeling she was in.

This morning their box needed to be cleaned, so I did that. Joy watched me from the upper most level. I then took Happy out and snuggled with her. Joy really wanted to be a part of that, but my hand going toward her was still something she just can't handle. So I put my hand lower than the level she was standing on and scratched at the base - making her playful and interested. I was able to put my hand on her with out her flinching too much, and I pulled her out for a snuggle. I put Happy back and she started eating. I put Joy back and patted her while she had a bite to eat. I sat there for a few more minutes, patting Joy and playing the scratchy game, and Joy actually leaned out of the cage and asked to be picked up!!!! *happy dance*

She is going to need to go into a home that understands under socialized kitties.. but to me this is HUGE and shows such a huge leap forward in her progress. I need to get them out and play with them in the room, but I've been so tired lately that I just haven't been able to.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

My handsome boy Jack


I brought him into the vet for a sterile urine draw and a culture and sensitivity, since he's still peeing in the tub randomly and being pissy.. He didn't want to go.. he complained the whole way down in the most pathetic voice he owns.. made his mom feel like a big fat meanie..

complained when he was outback being stuck..

complained when I didn't pack him up soon enough and get him home.

although he did like the praise and love I heaped on him before I zipped up the carrier to go home..

I reschedualed his appointment from the PM to the AM since it is snowing pretty badly and I figured they would have some cancelations.. which they did. I was glad to get it over with... but I will admit I hate being here at work and not being able to be at home and make sure he's ok.. I mean why wouldn't he be ok, he just had a huge needle shoved into his bladder..

I so need to buy him something yummy for dinner...

Monday, January 5, 2009

very confused


Well when I started thinking I wanted Fleurp, I introduced her to my crew. She was THRILLED to have kitties to play with, loved the whole thing, and didn't show a nanosecond of hesitation.. because that is just the kitten she is.

I was expecting my crew to growl at her, and show me their general displeasure.. which they never did. They all seem to love her.

HOWEVER...

Ollie has gotten excessively grumpy at EVERYONE, including myself and DH.. Jack has urinary issues again - I'm assuming brought on by stress.. and there seems to be general discord in my house.. last night I had to lock up Jack because he was attacking Kit. None of this seems directly related to Fleurp..

Even this morning when I gave out treats, some boiled chicken, no one cared that Fleurp came in and took their piece. She even took Muffin's piece right out from under her nose and Muffin did not react at all. Simply let her take it and then sniffed around for another piece. When I went to take it back from Fleurp, she was quite posessive, but I split it up and gave most of it back to Muff, who chewed it right up.

Now Muffin doesn't stand for ANYTHING, but she stood for this?!?!?

so is Fleurp a good addition to the house since she plays with Kit and Twee, or should I send her back to find a new home? I've always said my kitties would revolt if I tried to bring anyone else in.. and there does seem to be a revolt going on, but NOT in any way shape or form tied to Fleurp..

I'm just so confused..

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Joy is just too smart / currious


oh the mischeif she's going to get into! :)

yesterday we had Happiness out and were cuddling her and Joy sat on the perch in the cage and wimpered out towards my DH. He responded: "What, do you want to come out too??" and Joy actually nodded her head in the affirmative. When he went to get her, she freaked, and he has no tolerance for that so he just left her in the cage, but he was a little weirded out by it.

Today I cleaned out their cage and put it back together. I put in a fabric cube for them to sleep in (which they don't, but they do hang out in it) and when they jump on top of it they cause it to fall over and what not. So I put a box on top of the cube that *just fits* between the space from the top of the cube to the shelf above it. Well apparently Joy likes to sit in that box.. cause she wormed her way into it, knowing if she stepped just right on the top of the cube a space is created for her to squeeze through.

Yup.. they kill me :) Joy likes to play with my hair, and chew on the bows on my jammies.. she's 97% there.. she still is quite concerned when in new situations and when you go to get her out of those situations.. but with practice she'll come right around and be a perfectly well adjusted kitty.. :)

Friday, January 2, 2009

I guess I'm ok


well in the mind of the kittens anyway. Ive got them both out of the cage, and I figured they'd be exploring my desk, and causing general mischief..

well they are causing general mischief, but that mischief is confined to my lap. Joy is hanging on my arm, chewing my sweater, wrestling with her sister, looking for a place to nurse, purring, and sniffing my nose. She even sat on my shoulder for a few minutes. Happiness is a smidge more adventerous. She went up on the desk and had a few bites but then came back and sat in my lap.

What is the sound of two kittens purring?? Happiness and Joy (and yes, that's corny, I know it and I don't care.. )

the great escape.


last night Joy didn't run from me when I entered the cage, so I thought it would be time to open up the whole cage to them. Up to this point they only had the upper loft. Well having more than one level THRILLED Joy. She was a kitten possessed. Jumped up and down from level to level like she was in the circus. Happy was a little more reserved.

I watched them for a couple of hours to make sure they could handle it and went to bed.

Well I must have forgotten to lock the bottom door, because this morning they were both free roaming kitties. Joy was a little shocked to have me pick her up, and as a result I got a couple of small puncture wounds, but nothing serious. Happy went back very easily.

They didn't eat the food I gave them this morning. I think they prefer it in mash (soup) form, so we'll try that for a couple of days and see how that goes.. I forced some food into Happiness and she enjoyed being fed. Joy kinda likes it too.. and is currently telling me to stop typing and shove some more food in her mouth or she's going to eat my sweater. Cute little girl. She's still having problems with transitions. When I went to get her out of the cage she didn't balk at my wrapping my hand around her, but when I tried to pull her out of the cage she made it difficult by holding on as tightly as she could.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Benny update


*sigh*

Poor Benny. I went to see her today, and she seems bright and active, but her weight is down to 9lbs. Her BG was 83 which is ok.. not great since she was running in the 60s. She hasn't been eating.. When I looked her over, I noticed her breath was pretty horrid, and her teeth look bad.. so I made note of that to the staff. Hopefully they'll get her in for a dental and get those teeth cleaned up so she'll start eating again..

I've offered to take her back for a while.. get her weight up again. Not sure that is the best idea in the world, but watching her lose so much ground is something I just can't do.
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