After the adoption event, I went over to the shelter to visit with Art3mis. She has been adjusting to living at the shelter, but she still has some quirks that I wanted to help her with. She does not like to be held at all and picking her up is still questionable. She loves to be petted, even offering me her belly to be rubbed, but new people are hard on her - which is why I hadn't been going as often.
I almost didn't recognize her when I first saw her. I only knew it was her by the little red dot in her left eye. She has filled out quite a bit and is sleek and looked so darn happy. She had recently taken ownership of the room she was in. It was hard for her because there was another cat with a strong personality that had tried to take control of both rooms. She eventually took ownership of hers, and now with the adoption of the other cat, I think she has really blossomed.
I would say she would get along well with other cats as long as they don't expect her to be submissive. As long as you don't expect to pick her up and carry her around all day she will be a lovely companion to anyone. I am so happy with how far she has progressed from the cat I met that first day who went right under the couch and didn't come out for nearly five weeks.
I am a little late getting my Chewy.com influencer reviews up for this month. Probably had something to do with the box being occupied for a few weeks every time I went to open it. I am a sucker for a cat sitting on a box.. (Yes, Fleurp gets away with way more than she should)
This month I was offered a new food I hadn't heard of before. It is by Whole Earth Farms and it comes in several different varieties. My cats tend to like duck and since I feed chicken pretty exclusively and I like the idea of rotating my proteins, I try to get non-chicken foods whenever I can.
I took a look at the ingredient list and was impressed.
Not a fan of flaxseed for cats, but if that is my biggest complaint, sign me up. (While alfalfa is a plant, it gets a pass from me into the 'okay' column because it is green and low glycemic. My cats seem to do better when they have a very small amount of low glycemic greens in their diet vs a zero plant matter diet. The fact that it is organic is a bonus. Considering that the alfalfa meal falls under the 'natural flavor' ingredient, it is fairly obvious there isn't much in there.)
Daito thought the cats were "superfun" to play with.. but how would he like the food?
I just love Parzival's tongue in this last shot. The Crew loved it too. The new kittens love it. I totally wish this came in large 'multi-cat' sizes. 3oz sizes are nice for people with just one cat, but the trend is moving to multi-cat households - which is how we can have more owned cats in the US, but more dog households.
My not yet famous pro/con summary.
Pros: canned food, interesting proteins, not a lot of plant matter, yummy
Cons: flaxseed, they need to make bigger sizes.
Fairly certain I'll be buying some of these for those times we are out of raw for my cats. Opening seven cans at meal time isn't going to be fun, but The Crew will love it.
I know, but that is not what time it is. It's time to find a
DINOSAUR!! RAWR!!!
Okay, you are awfully cute, but no.. it is not time to find a dinosaur, it's time to find
Santa?
No Daito, not Santa. Santa doesn't come for months and months, long after you've found
A pumpkin??
No Aech, but that is also months away. No, right now it is time to find a
Sock Monkey Moose? or is it a Sock Moose Monkey?
That is a very good question Samantha, I'm not sure I can tell you for certain but you are distracting me from trying to tell you that is time to find you
A llama?
No Evelyn.. not a llama.. what on earth are you going to do with a llama?
They are crunchy and good with ketchup
Seriously? how do you even know what ketchup tastes like?? Goodness you are distracting NOO.. it is time to find
Nemo!
Seriously Shoto? Nemo? Aren't we onto Dory now?
So we weren't looking for Nemo?
No honey, it is time to find a home..
Yeah, okay, close enough.. for the moment, but you are most likely going back to the shelter today. There you will meet people and you will pick out your forever people. And they will be darn lucky to have you. You six turned into some of the sweetest loveliest kittens.
The kittens came home from their neutering absolutely exhausted.
See, they took another detour and ended up in my office for two hours. I posted a photo of them on my FB page, and within moments of notification that the post went live the phone rang. A co-worker who only works until three saw the kittens were at the office and asked if it was okay if she brought her three kids to visit them. So with the surgery that morning (it was uneventful according to the vet, we like those kinds) and an hour of running around the office (drunk and a bit confused) and then an hour of interacting with three school age kids.. well yes, they were tuckered out.
Aech was laying there making biscuits on my arm.. it was soo cute. Then they decided it was time to pile on the woman and snuggle, so I laid down on the couch..
They turned the volume up to 12 on the purrs and started nursing on my shirt. My life is so difficult sometimes..
MOM! that was way too much time with those kittens!! What about MY needs?!?!
The kittens are going back to the shelter to be neutered today. I know this makes some people sad; I hope this post will change your mind about that.
I know that going through surgery is hard, and I imagine not know what is happening makes it a bit harder, but kittens generally handle the surgery pretty well, waking up a little groggy but not showing any outward signs of really knowing what happened. Sometimes they will lick their incisions and their shaved bits, but it appears to be more of a 'this is so weird' kind of feeling more than anything else. I've had a few pick at the glue they use to close up the incisions and generally when this happens it is because there are a few extra bits of glue sticking to their skin. I know I can't ignore it when I have super glue on my skin.
I also know that there is some risk to the surgery. I have had a small number of kittens pass away while being neutered and one in particular who "died" twice (points at Twee). Every time you sedate someone there is risk but being neutered is a very important part of a housecat's life. Without it, they are generally not very good companions, caring more about reproducing than anything else.
There has also been some discussion about the harmful long-term effects of neutering and how a cat might live a longer life if they are allowed to progress into puberty or even keep their sex hormones throughout their lives. I don't believe the current information translates to cats. I also believe that the risks of neutering young and the possible risks of disease because of the lack of hormones is minimal compared to the known risks of the diseases that a cat faces when the hormones are on board. The behavioral issues are also a serious risk to cats. So many people want to 'get rid' of their cats simply because their cats are being hormonally intact cats.
So let's change the narrative. Neuter day is a day to celebrate. It is a right of passage that turns a kitten into a housekitten. It is the day they get their golden cat bed and makes it possible for their humans to find them so they can live a long happy life.
This past Sunday the kittens took a little field trip and ended up back at the shelter for a final weigh in and the booster to their distemper vaccine (their rabies will be done when they are neutered since by law that needs to be done by a vet) and another dose of dewormer and another dose of flea preventative. They are ready to be adopted save for the neutering which will happen tomorrow.
I was able to get photos of the girls, but I needed to help identify the boys and get another vaccine drawn up (let's just not get into why). They were very well behaved and they were a breeze to deal with. I was a little worried because the first round of nasal vaccines caused them to sneeze randomly for two weeks and so far that has not happened.
Once they were taken care of I went off to visit with Art3mis. She is in the community room, so finding her is a bit of a challenge. There were three or four mostly black cats in the room. There are different levels and many hidey holes for the cats so I had to wake a few up so I could take a look at their eyes before I knew which one was her.
But before I could, my search was interrupted by Spencer.
He has a very strong personality and commanded the room. Unfortunately, this 13-year-old boy had a rough time of it before entering the shelter necessitating a very handsome lion cut. This shaving also has the added effect of showing off his body which because he is hyperthyroid looks pretty sad.
He was working his way up into the bay window where food is usually kept for them.
He was sorely disappointed because the food had been removed due to a visitor to the community room. Jet, a diabetic cat, was given access to the room so he could stretch his legs and visit the catio and the bay windows. His expression reminds me of Waffles.
I ended up sneaking both Art3mis and Spencer a little snack - which of course when Jet showed up. He could smell the dry food from across the room and came over, nearly running. I had to keep him occupied while they ate.
I digress. I found Art3mis up on a shelf again.
I spent some time with her. She does seem to be adjusting a bit to being there as it didn't take her long to ask for attention.
I don't like that she is always up on the catwalk, and often there are cats between her and the exit down to the food or the litter boxes, but she stresses out when I move her, so I left her there. When I was done I went back to the kittens who were so "stressed out" over the whole day.. so I carefully picked them up to not to disturb their nap and took them home.
The kittens are doing very well. They are growing by leaps and bounds.. well okay technically they are growing while they sleep, but they are doing a lot of it. They feel amazing. Nice solid study healthy kittens. Save for the fact that I missed out on the first few weeks of their life, there really hasn't been much to complain about with these guys. There has been some vomiting, but that isn't unexpected.
They went into the shelter yesterday and were weighed, vaccinated and dewormed again. Plans are in the works to schedule them to be neutered. Not sure when that is going to happen, but I imagine it will be either this week or next, not that I mind if it is later.
The kittens have turned into pretty snuggly love-bugs. I went to give them food last night and as they were eating I laid down on the couch. Pretty quickly I had kittens all over me. Hey, it's a tough part of the job, but someone has to do it!
Speaking of tough jobs..
Daito and Shoto
Evelyn
Shoto
Aech and Shoto
Aech, Samantha and Daito
Samantha
Daito
Aech
Parzival
Parzival was having nothing to do with that kettle.. He was a little too busy to sit still for more than one photo, so I was lucky to get this on.
I think this is going to be their last official photo shoot. I had a few props out before the kettle, and those didn't go over well either (but a few good photos came out of it) so I'm not quite sure what I'll do next Monday. Any suggestions?
Samantha climbed in behind the backdrop
Shoto tried to climb it, that didn't go over well
This fabric is fun!
ooh, this kettle looks like a good place to..
wash my behind
My turn!
They are either on or off. If they are on they are going 100 mph, and are into everything. Off means they are sleeping, but they are a blink of an eye away from being on again.
