Nail trim

I took Elsa to the shelter on Friday for a nail trim.  I figure if I'm a little less afraid of her it would make things easier.

I was horribly impressed that the staff member took her out of her carrier right in the lobby and she and the manager took care of them right there.  There was talk of getting her spayed - hopefully on Tuesday - and then I brought her back home.

She freaked out on the way to the shelter, but on the way home she was all calm and happy..

After getting home I left her in there to quickly pick up the room.
Ella was unimpressed that her mom was gone..

Party Time!  Excellent!!

Oh, she's back.. OK.

after the trip I thought I would push the envelope and try picking her up.  The first time went not so smoothly, as she didn't trust me and had no idea what I intended to do, so I very quickly put her on the floor.  After that I tried again and got her up off the floor and transported her and it went very well.  I'm no where near ready to do the cuddle hold.. but maybe in time.

I also brought my husband down into the room.  That went good too.  She was over active as usual  but he stayed still and nothing more happened than her asking to be patted.  Ella however did her best to take him down.  She bit his foot, rabbit kicked it, and worked her cute charms on him.. it was really sweet.
While I was at the shelter I noticed that both Tiki and Niki were still up for adoption.  I so hope they went home this weekend..

Pat me, hold me, snuggle me!! ~Tiki

Niki has a toy

Goodbyes and Hellos

We are out of here!

I brought them to the shelter this morning.  It was a little harder on me this time then a lot of the other times, mostly because of Pumpkin and Cherry.  I used to like to be at the shelter for foster adoptions, but over the years I keep running into people who I'm not fond of owning another pet.  There was one who had three cats in four years and kept losing them to the fisher cats but they wanted to adopt another.  At some point they had to realize they were just feeding the fisher cats, but they didn't see that and believed it was cruel to keep cats indoors.  *sigh*

I have to keep reminding myself that they aren't all like that.  there are so many wonderful pet owners out there.  Surfing cat blogs helps remind me of that, and for those of you who write blogs and share kitty stories with me, Thank you!  It helps me help them.  I remind myself that my job is to love them and nurture them while they are here.. what awaits them in the world is not in my control.  I HATE that, but it is where I am.  I can sympathise with people who run their own rescues and make those life long decisions for their kittens and end up on that very fine line of taking on more than they can handle.

Well anyway...  with an empty kitten room comes..

Momma and her little girl.  No names at this point.  I have Elsa and Elise on my list of names that kind of stood out.. but I'm not quite sure. (I have aunts named Elsa and Ella.)  I really haven't gotten to know her yet.  She's a growler and overly protective of her daughter.  I've got her in the cage for now.  There is a lot of turmoil going on right now with the move into the shelter then out of the shelter room cleaning etc.. so I will probably try her out tomorrow and see if she calms down a bit.

Feeding kittens

I'm so tired because I haven't been sleeping very well since Tuesday, so this is going to be a short post.. but I think you are going to enjoy it.

At this point I say they are back to about 90% what they were pre-surgery.  When I went down last night to take these pictures they were all playing and having a grand ol time.  They weren't throwing themselves around a la parkour like they had been, but there is a possibility that it might be because their nails were clipped quite short during their stay at the vet.  Just as I was about to leave they decided they wanted to cuddle.  Somehow I was able to avoid all of their purr and cuteness and escape... but it was quite hard :)

Recovery

Last night there was more improvement.  After spending about half an hour with them Tiki worked her way over on to my chest and started nuzzling, then started making up lost time for not having been able to 'nurse' on me since Sunday.Very shortly afterwards we were covered in kittens.. Everyone is eating and so things are looking up.  This past weekend I was hoping they would go back by Wednesday or Thursday.. now I'm not really sure when I'll feel comfortable bringing them in.  Guess we'll play it day by day.

Post surgery update

I've been watching the kittens on the web cam.  Theo and Thea are almost back to normal.  Riki is quite improved too.  But the three of them are eating and playing so I am sure in time they will be fine.  Niki is eating, but she is isolating.  I checked on her incision and the edges came apart a little so I put some antibiotic ointment on it and put a bitter ointment outside of the incision to deter licking.  Tiki did seem happier to see me and even purred when I patted her.  She also came to check out the food I put down for them, but did little more then sniff at it.  While I wish she would eat, check out the food is far better then ignoring the food all together.

I wish I had some buprenex for them.

Post surgery

I picked the kittens up last night at 6pm.  They were done towards the end of the day so I was told that Niki would probably be a little loopy.

When I got them home and opened the doors they all came out except Niki (little miss into everything just sat there, it was a little odd)   All of the kittens (even Theo but to a much lesser extent) were quite reserved and almost guarding their bellies.  I need to take a look at their incisions because I need to know if they are healing or not, and no one wanted me looking.  I felt bad for intruding and because I was a little concerned that it might be painful.

This is a new experience for me.  Usually when I bring kittens home after being neutered (and I've done it for probably 100+ of them) they are either drunk on the sedation or they act like absolutely nothing happened.  I know every cat is different and there is a good chance that it wasn't pain but something else like maybe self consciousness or their version of being loopy, but I am concerned.  I left them alone with a half meal and some water so as to not rile them up... because when I get nervous about kitties my energy rubs off on them and they almost expect something to be wrong.

I checked on them before I went to bed.  They had a definite preference for my husband and I felt shunned.. Yes, I know, I'm projecting.  They were still very subdued.  They ate some of their food so I gave them a little more.  Tiki has it the worst of it, being very quiet, almost to the point of isolating.  I gingerly picked her up and put her on my chest and she just sat there for a while then cautiously hunkered down and put her head on my arm which caused her to sit at a really weird angle.  Even my husband who tends to be the last one to pick up on signs of illness said they looked very uncomfortable.

Since there was really nothing that could be done at that hour aside from taking them to the eclinic (which this didn't quite warrant a trip) we cautiously picked cats off of us and went to bed.

In the morning four out of five were better but still no where near as active as they have been.  At least they happily jumped on me and purred for attention.  Tiki however stayed inside the carrier.  I finally got myself out from under kittens and picked her up to examine her.  She didn't feel overly warm, her incision looked nice and a healthy pink.  She didn't want breakfast. She didn't want me to pat her, she just sat there then laid down looking quite pathetic.  I turned the heater on and put a pillow in front of it and a couple of kittens have taken advantage of that.

I've got an email into the shelter to see what they want to do.

Flying kittens

I have no idea why their "brown shirts" were showing under their tuxes, because they don't actually have them... but it showed up twice in this series..

The kittens are actually being neutered today.. They'll be back after they are done to recover then they'll be going back to the shelter to go up for adoption.

Four out of five kittens agree

Four out of five kittens agree, these shoes are REALLY INTERESTING!!!

Adoption Photos

Niki

Riki

Tiki

Theo

Thea

Toesday

Talk to the paw!

How was your weekend?

Mine was covered in kittens...

to vote for Fleurp

Sorry Kittens, your stuck with me

I finally got in contact with the shelter and it turns out they are not only full up but there are no spaces at any of the vets for them to neuter these kittens so I've been asked to keep them over the weekend and we'll try again next week.

I have been trying to prepare them for moving on, telling them that they were going to leave and have their own homes to run around in and beds to sleep on etc.. well when they realized that they weren't leaving they pretty much shunned me and started playing then tried very very hard to escape the room when I decided to leave.

Such a hardship for me, putting up with all this cuteness for a few more days :)

you should notice their micro attention spans.. 

Tiki update

She was happy and active this morning and willingly ate.  So what ever bugged her last night was transient and is all better! yea!!  now to schedule them to go back :( to be neutered and go up for adoption :)  I'm sure their furever homes are just waiting for them.

The good and the bad

2lbs 1 oz

102.8

Well Theo hit weight last night.  Unfortunately Tiki wasn't doing very well.  At first she snuggled with me and that was wonderful, but then she kept snuggling with me, and kept snuggling, to the point where I was getting concerned.  When my husband showed up the rest of the kitties went and played but Tiki kept snuggling.  Now I was pretty sure something was wrong, but then she jumped down and went toward the food.  I said to myself that I must be being paranoid, but then she vomited. :(  I picked her up and she purred, but then she stopped and felt like she was shivering.  She continued to snuggle with me even while my husband scooped the box - which at this point I KNEW something was really wrong.  Then she got up and went to the litter box and vomited again.  There was a pile of vomited up food in there that looked like it was there for a while.    She vomited a fourth time after I took her temperature.  You should have seen the look of pure annoyance that she gave me while I was taking it - so she can't be that bad off.

Paws crossed this is just a blip, that something isn't agreeing with her right now and soon she will be as right as rain.

Seems to be a pattern with me this year.  I take kittens that I'm only supposed to have for a short time and by the time I can get them back something goes wrong.  *sigh*

so close..

1lb 15.5 oz

At two pounds they go back to be neutered.. dude, couldn't you have eaten just a bit more this morning???

Lady, you are just weird!!

He still feels like fur and bones, but I think it will probably be in his best interest to get away from his sisters and into a home of his own (or with one sister) because of how slowly he eats.

I bought home more food for them since they seem to strongly prefer chunked food.  I put this on top of the post they climb and Niki and Tiki HAD to investigate.  I said this was not a good idea, my husband said, if there is a bad idea, the kittens will find it..