VIsiting friends #formerfosters

I knew for a couple of weeks that I was going to go to the shelter from yesterday's post, so when I was invited to visit Casey and Cabana I couldn't resist piggybacking a trip down to see them.

Lauren was incredibly generous to invite me down and I was glad to know. She had been sharing photos of the duo on Facebook so I knew they were adjusting well, but seeing it in person.. of cuddling them one more time.. well, I couldn't resist. As you can see I got the trademarked cuddle from both of them.. (and they didn't even know I had treats at that point.. yes, I am not above bribing my former fosters for attention)

Sadly, my camera was dead so I only had my cell, and they were so excited and active that I got relatively few photos.. (and most of them were quite fuzzy) but it was wonderful to spend some time with them, to feed them some treats, and get to know their mom a little better. I knew Lauren was a lovely person by how generously she has been sharing them with me, but spending time with her was a delight... and seeing her goats was such fun!

But then there was this..

Yup, they ended up right where they were supposed to be..

Then I received a message from Jasmine's mom (former foster Slate).  She had some food her kitties weren't eating and she offered it to me. I figured I could swing over to see them and it all worked out as well..

Jasmine showed off for me a bit, showed me her bed, told me I was not going to take her back, and was downright adorable.. It was lovely to see her and spend a little time with her family, but it was getting late (there is so little sunlight this time of year in New England and driving at night is not a lot of fun)

I also visited another set of fosters a while ago..

My friend Kathleen, who adopted two of my fosters years ago and who has connected me up a number of people who have ended up adopting from me, invited me out for a visit. I had to be in the area for work, so I made a quick jaunt over to see them.. yes, on an island off the coast of Maine, yes, it was absolutely amazingly stunning.. Meghan who also adopted some of my former fosters came along. It was a wonderful time among friends.  While Kathleen's kitties were mostly a no show (except for Rocky who decided to pose for me so beautifully) I did get to go over and see this year's most popular foster kitty and his sister

Now I swear there is no food in my purse and trying to get in it was completely her idea.. :) (and yes, I was frisked before leaving)

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I do want to remind you that I am sending out Christmas postcards again this year. If you would like one you can submit your address here. I am also selling a calendar with photos of my fosters from this year. You can pick it up here

An update on Hedy

I know many of you have been wondering what is going on with Hedy. I talked on FB how she was up for adoption for a while after she left us. She went back early to be neutered to see if removing the hormones from her system would help with her weight loss and diarrhea, and it did.

The woman who runs the rescue was very much wanting to keep her but she has enough on her plate right now so one more kitty wasn't really in the cards. It turns out one of my loyal readers reached out to the rescue and ended up making Hedy part of her household, and I could not be more thrilled.

From Marianne:

We were adopted by Hedy on August 27, 2019! I know Hedy has a lot of fans out there so I’m writing to let you know what she’s been up to. She settled in easily, and loves exploring the house in great detail; eating and drinking quite a lot for such a small cat; loves her cat toys, especially her flirt pole, and loves to sit on the windowsill of an open window. I know she was a great Mom from following “Tales from The Foster Kittens,” and that she is a great face buffer. I was messaging Connie earlier today that Hedy rarely seems to stop moving, and doesn’t like to sit still for long. I can get a quick face buff if I lean down where she is walking or playing, but sitting still on a lap is just not her thing yet. When she wants to sleep, she favors a spot behind the sofa that no one can reach. She is exceptionally alert to every new sound in the house. She’s just as talkative as you might have seen from Connie’s videos! She will talk to you nonstop if you keep talking back to her!

We are keeping her separate from our beloved 6-year-ikd rescue dog, Theia, who has been in environments with cats before (a dog daycare, where the resident cats walked around freely) and is very enthusiastic about playing with her dog friends, but needs to learn to be calmer around the cat. Hedy is unafraid of the dog… she would walk right up to Theia, and Theia is anxious to play too, but we are working with Theia to be calmer around Hedy. We are working on having Theia be able to see Hedy from a distance (we’re down to only 4 feet!) while staying calm and flat on the floor in a “down”, “relax” (on one hip) position. So we’re almost there, but I will still keep Hedy separate from Theia if we aren’t around to supervise, at least until I am sure that Hedy has suitable “escape hatches” (up or under) in every room. Quite reasonably, Hedy’s extra alertness may be due to Theia’s occasional moaning to be allowed in to play with us. We are a family that has always, always had cats (multiple cats, actually) and Theia is our first dog. Once we had Theia, were not sure we could even have a cat, but Hedy’s exposure to Kristin’s two dogs convinced us this could work. Hedy is the perfect cat, and we are so thrilled she has joined our family!

She loves to sit on this toy; takes most of her after dinner baths sitting right here! It looks like she's locked up in a castle with a moat....

Thank you, Marianne. Know that a lot of people love your girl and are so glad she landed the good life.

Updates on Hedy's Lamarrs

For those of you following along on Facebook, you have probably seen the updates on three of the five kittens Hedy gave birth to here a few months ago, but for those who haven't here they are

Slate from Judi:

Slate's new name is Jasmine. She was too cute. We were talking to her and she was alert and responded with facial gestures and alert ears. We gave her the name options and she responded with her tongue hanging out of her mouth to all options except for Jasmine. It works well keeping with a Disney theme since our other cat is Tinkerbell. So now I have 2 princesses in the house. She had a good evening. She rode the 45 minutes trip well. My daughter and her sat in the back seat both with the seatbelt on (my carrier straps to the seatbelt for safety). She used the kitty litter box once we showed it to her. She has several sleeping options but she decided that on top of me was the best option. I fed her wet Kitten food and she loved it. I will send you some pictures soon. Letting her get adjusted first. Again thank you for taking such good care of her and for the great socialization. I appreciate it greatly.

Sunsweet and Marble from Brenda:

Disney and Vegas (aka Sunsweet and Marble) made the long trek to their new home and are settling in nicely. They had a snack, used the facilities, explored nooks and crannies and yes, got stuck in the lobster trap..

I have actually gotten a lot of updates from Brenda about Disney and Vegas and they are absolutely LOVING life in their new home. Since they don't have other pets in the house to deal with they pretty much got free run from the beginning and have been getting into the normal kitten shenanigans.. If you have fb, Brenda has been sharing a lot of photos in my Tails from the Foster Kitten Group there.. (which I started because you usually get notifications for a group long before fb will share with you a post on a page.



I have also heard from Holly who adopted Agate and Midnight - who are now Aggie and Smudge (subject to change)

Agate and Midnight from Holly:

I meant to message you earlier to say how wonderful Aggie and Smudge are doing -- although we keep calling Smudge "Punkin" so not sure what her name will eventually be! You gave them such a good start to life and we are so grateful to you for that. We're keeping them in our kitchen/great room area for a while and eventually, we'll open up the rest of the house too them. They've used the litter boxes from day one -- always thankful for that, right?! We're so glad we adopted two -- they just love playing together and keeping each other company. Since I have no clue how to post photos to FB, can I email you some and then can you post them??? If so, please give me your email address. Oh, and they're eating like horses -- it's been 14 years since we had a kitten and we forgot what their appetites are like! Many thanks again,

And since she shared with me multiple photos, here they are..

As for Hedy, last I heard she hasn't found her people yet, but she is in the loving care of the rescue coordinator who adores her.. so I am not worried about her in the least..

The Big Goodbye

I was told that the kittens had a vet appointment on Wednesday at 3pm so I packed the kittens up and off we went. I went down to the foster room and packed up their blankets (so they would have something to smell like them) and some of their favorite toys and then rounded up kittens.

Sunsweet and Marble were the last ones to be snagged and when I turned around to find them they were sitting close together on one of the toys in the room. It was so sweet. I have said it before if they weren't picked to be adopted together I would have insisted on it.

I picked up Marble and gave her some love and plopped her in the carrier and turned around to find Sunsweet and found he decided to "use the restroom before leaving".. he is such a good boy.

Their physicals went well, no reason to put off adoption. The fecal was negative, they didn't have a fever, their heart and lungs sounded good.. so the rescue took them from me for their adoptions. Two were that afternoon another was to be the next day.

I knew it was coming, but to come home kittenless is hard.. that's okay though, the room needs a good cleaning and I'd like to get up the climbing wall we have planned.. (ha ha ha.. with this heatwave coming probably not). I also want to change out the sink in the bathroom and put new flooring down. I'm trying to decide if we want to replace the toilet that is in there and I'm thinking I do.

But I do have to say, I hope I get kittens before all that happens (since I've been looking for a sink for months now and haven't settled on anything at this point)

One final look at Hedy's kittens..

Sunsweet

Sunsweet

Slate

Midnight

Midnight

Agate

Agate

Marble

Sunsweet and Marble - being adopted together

Why Marble, when did you get an orange tail?

Midnight and Agate - and yes, the size difference is real
They are also going home together

Agate

Marble

Midnight says "Goodbye"

The removal of the kitten bits

This past weekend the kittens made weight and went off to the spay / neuter clinic and poof, we now have adoptable kittens.

The future owners have been contacted and I know they are all chomping at the bit to get them, but they have been in recovery mode here making sure that they remain in good health until that time comes. Wednesday they have an appointment for their health exams and if they come home with me from that I will be surprised. (I won't mind, but I'm guessing not)

They were still a little groggy when they made it back to me. They were slow out of their carrier and while they were hungry and ate, they didn't eat much. I checked on them again a few hours later and made sure they had enough food for the night and they did.. but like most when they have surgery, this is what they really wanted to do..

Sunsweet wasn't quite sure why his sisters were a little more testy than normal. His belly felt weird because of the tattoo but he wasn't in nearly as much discomfort as they were so he ended up wandering off and sleeping elsewhere.

They have recovered quickly. Midnight had a second incision for some reason and is taking a little longer to be back to normal, but she is totally okay and they are all active and playing and eating .. oh how they are eating.. oh how thankful I am for all of the donated food..

This was a very nice bunch of kittens.. it was wonderful getting to know them and help them grow.. but I will say, next time I'm so lying about kitten weights.. cause the disappointment from excited future owners when they aren't making weight when they are so close.. well yeah.. 😺 I can't blame them in the least.. I'm getting excited to meet my next batch of kittens (no, there aren't specific kittens waiting for me)

Throwback Thursday

I thought it would be fun to see how far they have come..

Sunsweet then

Sunsweet now

Slate then

Slate now

Agate then

Agate now

Marble then

Marble now

Midnight then

Midnight now