Former Foster Friday - Joan

As I mentioned last week I came across photos of Sebastian aka Jake.. well with that I found photos and a nice letter sent to me by Joan's mom too.

August 2004

Joan is actually Twee's mom, so it was very special to me that her mom sent us a letter and pictures.  This was back in December of 2004 that I got the letter (she sent it on Christmas paper) and photos. Remember photos.. what a pain it used to be to take them, then get them printed, and wait for them (I can't tell you my excitement when I got my first digital camera!! it made blogging so much easier!)

I haven't heard from them since, I've got an old address, I'm horribly tempted to send a letter, but I don't know if that would be intrusive or not..

Anyway.. Joan above was a total mess. Here she is just a few months later loving life in her new home.

I love that they kept the name. I don't know if I named her (I think I did because one of the first posts I did after she arrived just said the new mom) and Joan seems like such an odd name for me to come up with - I bet she picked it.. :)

Updates

Tweedle went back to the clinic for surgery. We used Iso on her, and she still turned quite blue. They did get her spayed, but they highly recommend that she never go under anesthesia again. She has been living at my house now for a while and is trying very very hard to become a member of the family. We are resisting, but she is a pretty unstoppable force! She takes no guff from the other kitties and fits in very well. We'll see.

I brought home a pregnant cat on the 8th. The shelter named her Dixie. She was extremely pregnant and not eating, so I assumed she would go at any time. After five days, I was pretty concerned and brought her to the clinic where I work for a physical. She showed no signs of distress, and her x-ray showed five or six kittens. Her temp was down, which is a sure sign of impending birth. I brought her home and spent the evening with her, but still nothing.


The next morning, there was one kitten and part of the placenta in the cage, so I brought her in to work for observation. Considering my past history with pregnant cats, I wasn't taking any chances.


She gave birth to one kitten an hour. She loved having her belly massaged. The first time I did it made the weirdest noises like there was air and water inside her. I would massage till the noise went away, and the next time I would check in there would be a kitten. By 11:30 we had four kittens, all looking exactly alike.


Then nothing. She pretty much stopped being in labor. I could feel what I thought were two kitten heads, but I wasn't sure. They just put in the new x-ray machine at work, so I volunteered her for an x-ray. There was one kitten left in her. At four PM there was still no progress and I was getting concerned. I massaged her belly more, and this time heard the squishy noises again. At 4:30, I went back in to check on her. I couldn't see things very well because she had her butt to the back of the carrier, but it looked like she was in the middle of delivering another kitten. One of the other kittens that was delivered breech, I found half way out of her, and I was concerned she stopped half way through this one too. I unscrewed the carrier and found this to be the case. She was cleaning the kitten off but didn't seem to be pushing anymore. I got a doctor, and the doctor pulled the kitten out, but things just didn't seem right. She was stiff and unmoving. We rubbed her, and she breathed, but I was still concerned. There is so little you can do for such little kittens, so I left her with Dixie to clean and stimulate. At 5, I took them home, and she still didn't look right. Her arms were out in front of her and stiff, so when you went to put her on her belly, she'd fall over. She had no suckling instinct and was cold. I stimulated her by rubbing her and moving her arms back and forth. I even made up some KMR, thinking the warm food would help "bring her around" Nothing really helped. At one point she did seem to want to suckle on my thumb, so I put another drop of KMR in her mouth, but she didn't seem interested. I had to go out, so I put her with her siblings and left, expecting to find her dead when I got back.


I was wrong. She is doing really well. Four kittens that look exactly like their mother, and one black one. Four girls, one boy. The boy weighs about an ounce more than his sisters. I was weighing them, and mom got a little concerned. By the time I was done with the last one, she came over, and picked her up, and brought her back into the cage. It was the cutest thing.



Now if I could just get Tweedle off my chest, I'd go give Emmy and Jack a bath. Emmy has tons of dandruff, and Jack's fur is so thick, that he still has flea dirt on him. But she looks so sweet, half asleep.. I can't bring myself to disturb her.

when it rains, it freakin pours

I brought the four kittens that were ready to be adopted back to the shelter today. It hurt that I couldn't be there. K offered to stay late so I could come in and say goodbye again, but unfortunately I couldn't.

See... I also had to bring Emerald in this morning. She has been coughing for a few weeks now, and it is starting to sound worse. I figured before I went on vacation I'd get her checked out. Well, she has fluid in the lungs - the doctor things it might be pneumonia. Although her heart is a little out of whack, and her lymph nodes seem a bit enlarged, so this also might be the beginning of the end. (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO) So she is on baytril (antibiotic) and lasix (for her heart aka to help drain the fluid out of her lungs) He wants to recheck her in two weeks. (when I say beginning of the end, I'm not talking something imminent)

Em was supposed to spend the next week with my mother, but I was concerned how she would deal with the three pills a day she has to have. I am beyond fortunate to have a woman at work who also has five cats who knows my pain at this, and she has offered to take Em to her house for me. Her bedroom is off limits to her cats, so Em has a place to go. I'm torn up about leaving her, but I know that if she can't be in my care, my co-worker is the next best thing.

I also have a new foster here for the night. A little peanut of a thing that came into the clinic today with seizures. They weren't sure what was wrong for a while. His blood sugars were too low to register and he was severely dehydrated. It turns out that for some reason he went into kidney failure, and that shot his blood pressure up so high it detached his retinas, and burned up all his glucose, thus resulting in everything else. We have given him fluids and A/D, and he has perked up 100%. He's still not perfect, and by no means out of the woods, he is here in my bathroom at the moment hopefully sleeping away. I'm giving him food and fluids every hour or so. We'll see what happens in the AM. I'll have to take a picture of him... although he's a mess from all the food. I'd give him a bath, but he has a catheter in him.

no spay for tweedle

Well, they didn't spay Twee today either. They felt it would be better to give her more time and the tech on duty wasn't comfortable giving her gas after what happened. I can't blame her. So I'll send the troops all back together on Tuesday, and have to trust the shelter to find them good homes.

I helped the staff at the clinic give birth to puppies today. We had a bulldog go into labor at least a week early. There were six puppies all together, three made it.

Ollie seems to have a URI now. *sigh* I'm trying to decide if I should medicate him or just let it be.

Emotional rollercoster

Well.. Ollie is back to his old self. We had poop the other day (he kept getting constipated) and no vomit now for several days. I had to wonder if it wasn't the herb I was giving him to make him less grumpy. I had increased his dose to what the vet had recommended originally. I had been giving him one a week simply because I had been forgetting about it, but I had gone to once a day until pretty much the day he started vomiting. Regardless, I doubt I'll be giving him any more of those on the remote chance it was that.

So good news there.

More good news was Tweedle had put on enough weight to be spayed. I had brought them all in because the surgery was light today. However....

Bad news was she had a reaction to the anesthesia that they used, and they couldn't spay her. They started reversing it when I noticed that something was going on, so I stepped in to find out. She was breathing rather heavily, and that is a sign that fluid is building up in the lungs. All of a sudden she seemed to stop breathing. I asked the surgeon if she had, and he felt her heart and said it was beating just fine - but I know it can after the lungs give out. He then put on his stethoscope and asked the tech to pump some oxygen. I then said I had to go, and headed back up front. I told a co-worker that Tweedle was having a bad reaction. I had another one die on the table before, so she asked if it was the same kind of reaction. I said it looked like it, so she went out back to check. While she was gone, I heard a major kitten scream. Tweed is very very vocal when you are making her do something she doesn't want to do, so I had hoped it was her. My co-worker came up front a few moments later and told me she was fine. They had taken an x-ray to make sure her lungs would be okay, and she woke up half way through, having hallucinations. I so wonder what kitties hallucinate about.

so good news is she's fine. Bad news is she isn't spayed. Good news is they can do it tomorrow. Bad news is she's still got a problem with the anesthesia, so whoever adopts her has to be very careful. Good news is I can bring them in on Saturday and do their adoptions myself. Bad news is there is no guarantee that they will be adopted on Saturday.

Yes.. I am exhausted.. :)

Ollie, would you please stop vomiting!

For the past week, Ollie has been vomiting nightly. Violent hairball hurls, that wake us up in the middle of the night. I took him to the clinic on Thursday, and the dr didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. I brought him home and he proceeded to vomit four more times. Back in he goes, and we take more X-rays, and do a barium study.. nothing is moving in his intestines nor in his colon. so we do an enema. A small amount of movement at that point.. but I doubt we are out of the woods yet. At least he is still wanting to eat, and he's not dehydrated, so I caught it early.

THEN.. get this, cause when it rains it pours... I went to feed the kitties tonight, and I cleaned out the litter box. Doing so is a radar to all kitties to come pee. I don't know why, but it is. Muffin got in first. Eli climbed in a few moments later. I was intent on watching Emmy eat, cause she was slow to start, when I realized Eli was still in the box. I walked over near him and sat down, which didn't phase him. Which in itself is odd. He continued to sit there, as if in a trance. a full 10 minutes past, and he finally got out and started licking his gentiles.. I hope to all get out he isn't blocked!! So he'll be going to visit Ollie, who had to spend the night at the clinic. Guess it's a darn good thing I started working for a vet! two surgeries, two dentals, and now this!! Who's smart idea was it to get 5 cats anyway?? (oh hush.. of course I want more!)

Tweedle, Dennis, and Google.

I apparently have a problem

I was searching through my draw of cards that I keep so I can send them to my friends when the occasion or spirit strikes me... and I realized I have a draw full of kitty cards that I can't bear to part with. I'm not kidding when I say a draw full. I have some that are from collections so I have several of them, so I could send one of those, but I was planning on sending a birthday card to a friend of mine who doesn't like cats (yes.. I know.. it doesn't seem right does it?) So now I'm going to have to go out and BUY a card, when I have a draw full of them.. but not one generic birthday card in the bunch.

On the kitty front, I brought mom and the kittens to work the other day for a quick once over. Mom has been hacking badly, and I wanted a full work up on Tweedle. Mom was put on pred and baytril, and tweedle is apparently in perfectly good health. X-rays showed nothing wrong with her although her belly was still full of food - despite not being fed since the night before and it was food no one liked. She's just the runt, and slow going. She is 1.5 lbs, where her siblings are 2.

On a side note, I'm not quite sure what is going to happen to them. See, October 1st, we are going to Florida for a few days (yes... hurricane season, I know, but it is a spa resort hotel and the room is paid for.. how can I refuse?!?) All of the kittens except Tweedle will be big enough to be neutered and go up for adoption, but I doubt she'll put on an entire pound in three weeks. I did joke that I was going to bring her to FL with me, sneak her into my carry on, but I don't think that will go over well. The resident cats are going to have fun. I have a friend from work coming over to feed them, and Emmy is most likely going to be staying with my parents (because of her insulin) It's going to be so hard to leave them! I did it for one night a few weeks back, and it hurt. What am I thinking leaving for five days?!?! (SPA RESORT! oh yea.. that's it.) they will be fine.. I know it. I'll just miss them.

birthday suit dash

Last night, at midnight, there was a huge cat fight in the house. I dashed out of bed and ran to the noise, giving not one thought to the fact I was naked. I assessed the fact that the fight was coming from the kitten room. Whitney and the new mom cat (that we are calling Joan) were having a row. I THINK that Whitney ticked Joan off somehow and that Joan was the instigator. They were running circles around the room. I cornered Joan, Whitney crawled in behind the treadmill that is in the room. Joan went after her again, and somehow I separated them. Joan sat under the table, Whitney behind the treadmill. This is the point that I realized I was naked, and blind, cause I didn't grab my glasses either. There are no blinds on the windows, so if I had turned the light on, I would have flashed the entire neighborhood. I called out to my husband to help. He came in. I moved around and found that Joan was calm enough to be taken and put into the cage. This is when my hubby realized the kittens were missing. He panicked and wanted to find them NOW. I told him they were fine, but he wasn't willing to hear that, so again, naked blind and in the dark, I'm now searching for kittens. Tweedle was hiding on one side of the room, the other four were behind the couch. Not willing to leave them exposed to whatever Whitney had done, again naked blind and in the dark, I'm throwing kittens into the cage with mom. At this point, I stopped and told him to keep an eye on Whitney, and left to get some glasses and some clothes. I threw Whitney into her cage. She slunk to the back. We sat and watched them for a bit. Whitney started slinking to the front of her cage, and Joan saw her, and again screamed at her. A toe-curling scream. it scared the kittens. I blocked the view totally and gave it a few more minutes, and things seemed to settle down, and I went to bed. I brought Whitney into work for a quick double check before bringing her back to the shelter. Although this morning I found she had escaped from her cage, and Joan totally didn't care, so it might have just been the full moon.

Mia and Prince Charming went to the shelter on Saturday. The shelter was deader than a door nail.. three adoptions total. I had the perfect client come in to adopt a cat but she could only take one.. so sadly they spent the night. It broke my heart. I found out this morning that they were adopted by a family nearby with no other pets, and K said it was a really good adoption. The woman went into the shelter today because she forgot something, and K told her that I worked at the clinic, and I'd love an update. She mentioned it, cause when I talked to her after finding out about the adoption, I asked if it would be horribly rude to ask her to come to Mann for their care.. :) I so miss them. I hope they are having a wonderful time and are bonding to their new family and don't miss me too much!

*sends out kitten kisses to Mia and PC*

Lastly, we had a woman come into the clinic with some four week old kittens that were anemic because of fleas. One was so much so, that the kitten was almost unresponsive. It totally broke my heart and I just wanted to steal them from her. We treated the fleas and gave her some A/D and hopefully they'll pull out of it soon. *sends more kitten kisses out to the kittens*

sometimes I really hate people!

Update and cute picts

Well it looks like Mia and Tubby will be heading back to the shelter this weekend to be adopted. The people who were going to are dragging their feet big time, and frankly, it's not fair to the kittens, nor to me, nor to my own kittens, nor to the shelter. I called the other family who was interested to let them know, and since I'm not working this weekend, I'll go down and find them a good home.

hi.. I'm Connie and I have 8 cats

Just trying it on for size.. Mia and Tubby are sitting in my lap purring away.. they are sooo cute and they love me sooo much.. - but alas, muffin hates them, and frankly, 5 is pushing it sometimes..

I say eight cause of the kitten in the food bowl that my hubby has fallen in love with.. hopefully, he won't stay with us, cause frankly, that will be one heck of a lot of work!

Yes yes.. I need more pictures.. I also need to name the new ones too.. don't I? how about Ennie Meenie Miney and Moe. nope.. that's only four.. darn

And now there are 14

Whitney, Mia's mom, is back in the fold because she came down with a cold. Tubby is currently trying to catch the cursor on my screen, so this will be a difficult post to create :D

Anyway. Mia and Tubby are still here.777777777777+ (really.. see). They will be going soon. I will miss them terribly, but Muffin will be uber glad to see them go. She is beyond jealous of them. She'll often sit between me and them and hiss at them. I have forgotten the havoc that the pitter patter of little feet can create. My five all have fairly good manners now.. unlike these two. the other night they were playing at 3 AM and knocked over the baby gate, creating a ruckus. But oh they are so cute doing it. Tubby is now just sitting next to my monitor purring away.

I went to feed them yesterday. Since they are still kittens they need kitten food - and I didn't want them bugging Muffin by eating with her, so I went into the bathroom to feed them wet food. All five of mine were sitting by the door asking for theirs. lol.

The new five are doing rather well. The little girl's eye is much better. The runt is getting the hang of feeding himself. They are going through quite a bit of food and thus quite a bit of litter. I think I've reached my limit on names, though, cause they are STILL nameless. I feel bad. I'm pretty sure I have two girls, three boys and of course the mom.

speaking of which.. I really need to get in there and feed them.

What is it with kittens and food bowls?

oh the guilt!

I have to go out for a little bit, so I didn't have a chance to medicate the kittens, so they have been stuck inside the cage now all day. I went in to throw them some food, and they haven't stopped crying since. hey.. let us out!! hey! hey! out!! OUT!!

Four-weeks-old and already they know how to lay on a guilt trip!

Still no takers on Mia and Prince Charming. *sigh* Hopefully soon. Although, I am totally enjoying having them here!

kittens for sale.. sweet sweet kittens for sale

Oh my goodness, Mia and Tubby are so sweet!! I picked up some new kittens and a mom on Monday night (five four week old kittens) and they are sneezing up a storm and had ear mites, so I moved mia and Tubby out of the room so I could bring them out of the cage to clean them up and medicate them. the kittens were NOT happy about having their ears cleaned. after I was done they all screamed like I had ripped their legs off. Goodness, four-week-old kittens are cute. and the mom is an absolute sweetheart! but painfully thin. I'm feeding her three times a day.

but back to the twosome. I put them in the bathroom while I had the kittens out so they wouldn't sneeze on them. I let the room settle after returning them to the cage, and I just opened the bathroom door and the kitten room door and told them to go back into their room, and they just trotted across the hall to their room.

they are SUCH good kitties!! I posted a notice about them at work. Hopefully, someone there will offer to adopt them. I so want them to come back to the clinic. Tuesday a very good client of ours is coming in. she recently lost one of her kitties. I'm holding out hope that she might be ready for a new one. If they aren't adopted by then, I'll bring them to the shelter. This one is going to be hard. very hard. you sure you don't want some really cute, sweet, people orientated, smart kitties?? :)