adoptions

Well that Saturday I went in for adoptions. Tommy was the first to go. Went to a woman who just lost a cat who looked like him. Buddy went to a family who has a rottie, and who is planning on letting him outside. I felt bad - but if anyone is going to be ok outside, it would probably be buddy.. besides, he'll have the rottie to protect him.

A woman came in and spent several hours trying to decide.. she eventually settled on a kitten that wasn't from my bunch.

a family came in after returning a cat.. they were going to take Nina (or was it Cin?) but the shelter had a policy not to adopt immediately after a return.

And that was Sat. Sunday I went in with the new fosters, and had them tested (they were negative) and saw Cin and Gin go home together :) That left Oscar and Nina. Tilly was at the house because she wasn't big enough.

Friday I went in and noticed that Nina was still there.. so Oscar had gone home. Miss Molly and Miss Martha were still there. :( I hope they get a special home. I am thinking of writing up a little bio for them..

I emailed the family about Nina, and they said they were going to go in and get her Sat AM.

Tilly is still at the house, cause frankly she's still underweight.. barely. However I think we've decided we are going to keep her. I mean I already ordered her a collar.. She loves DH most of all.. but she's up for any attention she can get :) I so want a different name for her though.. I was never a fan of Tilly..

Now I named the 8/07 fosters. The gray one is Obby and the buff one is Nox. Shortened versions of obnoxious.. which they are. I named the orange twins Fred and George.. which left the tortie girl so I named her Ginny. I kept them caged up when we weren't in the room, and they were so obnoxious and so full of energy, that I started letting them out twice a day. They are starting to turn into good kittens, so I let them have run of the room all day today.

Obby and Nox are growing VERY fast, and will be going back next week.. They are very well spoken, and will yell at you if they aren't preoccupied doing something else..

I'm worried about one of the orange twins. I can't tell them apart except that one has an excessive amount of eye goop - which is the one I'm concerned about. he's a little more laid back, and a little more conservitive.. he might even been a smidge dehydrated *shrug* I'm not sure. I am going to wait a few more days and see what happens.. hopefully nothing and he'll be fine.

coming to an end

Well I have set up an appointment for the May fosters.. they will be going up for adoption this weekend..

which stinks on a couple of different levels since there is a cat show that I would like to go to, and a gathering of people I know on the internet which I think would be good for me to go to..

the woman that emailed me about Miss Molly and Miss Martha emailed me and apologied for not showing up that weekend, and asked if she could come this weekend.. well she never emailed or called me with more info, and it never happened. I feel bad that they will be sent into the system, but I know the shelter will respect the fact that they should be together..

I'm still horribly torn about adopting Tilly. I talked with the animal communicator yesterday - which was very funny and very painful - and while muffin is very "anti-kitten" (which just knowing her for 10 minutes you'd know) and Ollie is against it too, the others were sorta ok with it. Although I know they'd like Buddy - who is quite handsome - but a total handful and looks too much like Emerald - who escapes every time I open the door, and my cats like to chase him around the basement.

The new fosters still don't have names. I'm waiting till they are tested I guess.. make sure they aren't going to be taken away from me.. They are totally the "spawn of evil" as my DH likes to call them. They look up at you with their pathetic eyes, and purr and want to be patted, but then they jump on you and try to take you down. Already they want OUT of the bathroom. This morning four of the five were curled up on my previously used hair towel (one of those specifically designed for you to turban around your wet hair) The cuteness is overwhelming.. and their bellies are still way bigger than their head. I wish they would grab on to the fact that dry food is food, so they would know there is always food available so they wouldn't feel the need to eat EVERYTHING I put down.

anyway.. I am happy only having five cats - sorta - but I do know I have this opening that could be filled.. and I have this adorable kitten that is so cute.. we've nicknamed her the hypno-toad kitten (from the tv show futurama who had a hypno-toad in it that made anyone near it do what ever it wanted)

there will be other adorable kittens.. obviously they are upstairs in my bathroom... there will be other kittens that will need me.. I dont need to rush into this..

I guess like the bane of my existance "emotional eating" I want to do "emotional adopting" it feels so right to do it, but some part of me somewhere is saying no.. (actually I think it is Muffin projecting her "NOOOOOO" onto me.. but that's a different post)

I'll post more about my A/C session once I can do it with out crying..

Even MORE kittens

Yes, I am insane. my poor resident cats are worried about me. I brought home another group of five. Two older ones about four weeks old, three younger ones about three weeks old.

I set them up in a cage in my office, and set up a web cam to watch them while I'm at work :) http://cesg.camstreams.com/

they are constantly hungry, and fight each other for food. the younger ones are very much into getting attention, but the older ones not so much. Only one girl in the bunch..

they do keep me distracted from wanting to adopt from the May fosters, but not by much. Went down last night to cuddle with them, and Tilly let me cuddle her for what felt like hours.. Cinnamon wanted in on the action too, and we cuddled with her. *sigh* I do want to keep them all..

I had someone email me intersted in adopting the mothers. We set up a time for her to come down and meet with them, but then she never showed... well at least my house got cleaned. I'm thinking next week they will be ready to go back. I pray that just the right family comes along and takes them. Not that I don't wish that for the kittens too - especially Tilly.. but those moms have been through so much, they deserve a little pampering..

I can NOT adopt a new kitten

Oh my goodness I want to though. Buddy (the tiger) really LOVES playing with my cats. Every time we open the door he bolts out to attack someone. Eli loves him, Tweedle LOVES him, even Jack doesn't hiss at him. He's quite beautiful, almost looks like a bengal at this stage..


I however love both Cinnamon and Tilly. Both of who do not love my cats.. so do I adopt a cat for my cats?? or do I adopt to fill a hole in my heart, or do i remember that losing a cat is so incredibly painful and wait to put a little more time between my 3 yr old baby and a new addition. Jack, Muffin and Eli are all about the same age, with Twee only being a year and a half behind them.

sigh. Twee really LOVES Buddy though. DH and I joked that she wants to adopt him, and she'll have to go down and "sign" the adoption papers with a paw print :)

gumble gumble grumble

Something I have always feared happening with fosters finally happened last night.

Kittens LOVE to play in litter boxes. the only thing they love to do more than play in litter boxes is to watch what others are doing in litter boxes, including their mothers. well the mom's tushie is very high up in the air when going #2, and since my current moms have diarrhea, they are very uncomfortable going, and are perched on the side of the litter box.

Went down this morning, and found Tommy had apparently gotten a little too close to the action, because his right front side is dabbled with grossness. that boy needs a bath. I didn't have time this morning, so I'll be doing that this evening... along with a million other things on my to-do list.

You know, any other time, this would actually be funny.

ok, well maybe SOMETHING is wrong..

Geeze.. *shakes head*

I spoke to the manager at the shelter who I seem to work best with. The cat (or cats I'm not sure exactly who went and who was left behind) went to crazy psycho's (to be known as CPV) practice. as previously stated I was told (now granted this was third hand) that they were in good health, nothing wrong, try the low ash food. When manager called this morning I said they were given a clean bill of health, and they were still having major issues, and I didn't hide my frustration. so she suggested I call the vet I like, and see what he suggests. He suggested doing a stool and go from there.

Got a call back from manager. She said crazy psycho vet called to check up on said cats, and that maybe they should be on medication for three weeks.. arrgh. Ok fine. but I'm still gonna bring said stool to said vet and talk to him. cause CPV suggests that they only eat dry and no wet.. hun? what?? hasn't he ever read that the optimal diet for cats is protein, NOT carbs??? apparently not.. but there is no telling CPV anything that might even remotely be different from his opinion - even if you have clinical evidence. (cause JAVMA has published many an article on it) I'm a little surprised he didn't tell me to find a semi moist diet for them - like tender vittles - which has been his recent "cure" for loose stools.. yea.. cause all the chemicals and the carbs in that are a PERFECT diet for cats.. arrrrgh.

and honestly, keeping these kittens for another 3 weeks is freakingly dangerous. Both Cinnamon and Tilly are campagining hard for "cutest kitten" award. Cinnamon on her adorable actions, Tilly on pure looks. That kitten POSES!! Honestly.I need to get my camera back down there.. hopefully I can capture all that cuteness with out breaking my camera.

grumble grumble grumble.

Since CPV is the main vet for the shelter (provides services and medications, etc, at cost or at a very good cost) and they don't want to risk that by upsetting him (he doesn't have the title CPV from me for no reason) I have to follow the proticol and hope it works. I actually hope it doesn't work, but then I have to deal with three weeks of loose stool, cats and kittens not gaining - if not losing weight, etc.

from my limited experience from fostering for several years (not to be discounted - those who have their hands on things learn a lot) I have a feeling the medication will EVENTUALLY fix the problem - since I have a feeling they have an intestinal parasite that is fixed by this particular medication.

it will have nothing to do with the low quality food..

they say that nothing is wrong (fosters)

so I have been dealing with diarrhea with some of my fosters for a while now. We got a diganosis of coccidia, so we gave them all marquis paste which kills it in one dose. I also gave them nemex which kills round worms. Things weren't getting better, so I gave them a second dose of marquis paste. did another fecal - it was negative. was given metro (and I gave albon to the few kittens) and still no major improvements. - well five of the kittens are fine.. fat, happy, firm stool. two of the girls are still very small. and the mom's are still very VERY thin.

so I got them to go to a vet. Fecals were negative, physical exam unremarkable, everything seems fine, and in good condition - except the fact that the mom's are remarkably skinny, and have very loose stool. Not to mention the vomiting going on..

sigh

I hate not getting support for fosters.. I wonder if I can get my vet (who does work for the shelter) to look at them.

kittens

the kittens have entered the *we will NEVER sit still again* phaze. They are like kitties on speed. the only time they aren't moving is when they are eating (or using the litter box) but even that isn't assured, as they jockey for position.

I'm slightly concerned about Cinnamon (the orange girl) she has been sitting still. Her weight has been consistant around 56 grams. I told her if she didn't put on weight she was going to see the dr, so it was 57 last night and she ate for me. we'll see where she is when we get home.

Kitten Picts

Tilly


Oscar - you can't see it real well in this photo, but he's getting a very light gray smokey under coat.


Nina, Buddy, Cinnamon, Tommy, Ginger, and Tilly in the front. Can you tell that Tommy is Male?


Tilly, Nina, Buddy, Cin, and Tommy


Miss Molly (front) and Miss Martha. I was cleaning the room and the kittens were locked up and they were THRILLED. They begged me for attention, they snuggled with each other. Almost felt bad letting the kittens out of the cage. I so hope they find a great home together!

The unbearable cuteness of Tilly

This kitten is dangerous. VERY dangerous. She's almost irresistible. with the big fluffy coat, the huge "submit to my will" eyes, and the daintiest of meows.. that and she's so much smaller than everyone else (still not on solid foods)

I walked into the kitten room the other day and she was sitting in the metal water bowl I put down a few days ago when it was really hot and wanted to make sure they didn't run out of water. Well it had dried out... and she was sitting in it just as happy as could be, giving me the eyes, being obnoxiously cute. She's also quite the lady.. sitting right proper.

I brought her out to meet Tweedle, who is dying to play with the kittens.. Tweedle was all excited, but it just freaked Tilly out. she hissed, she rolled on her back, splayed her ears back.. (which in and of itself was stunningly adorable) I so can't adopt another kitten right now.. and if she doesn't fit in, she doesn't fit in. but I'm mentally trying to fit a square peg into a round hole if you know what I mean :)

Oscar finally figured out the whole eating process. He still wants food from me, but thankfully I don't need to any more. Just Tilly and Cinnamon seem to not have it down. They both are on the small side, but are getting nourishment from Mom (and maybe eating when I'm not around??)

the kittens all love each other too. Quite often find them all piled into a too small basket I have down there. Talk about your kitten piles!

I started Miss Molly on Metro the other day as her stools got soft again. She is obnoxiously skinny, and will nibble on dry food, but doesn't eat much more than that. This morning her tongue looked on the pale side, so I went into the shelter for some A/D and nutrical. Will force her to eat some, maybe give her an appetite stimulant and lock her in the cage with food and see what happens. Obviously if anything else shows up, she'll be making an emergency trip to the vets, and if she doesn't show improvement before Thursday I'll bring her in to see a vet. Miss Martha is starting to fill out nicely.. she needs some more combing as she has a few more mats. I feel bad, because by taking out the mats I'm leaving bald spots. Fortunately they aren't visable to look at her.

I did a post on Craigslist.org to try to find them homes before they go back to the shelter. I'm hoping they can go somewhere together. I got an email asking about them, but haven't heard back yet. I so hope this works out..

*sigh*

I have been putting off journalling about the kittens because things have not been going well. Oscar and Cinnamon are not eating on their own yet. I keep trying - putting food in their mouths, which they like, but they just are unable to make the connection that food in a plate is food. Oscar is certain that food comes from the sky. when ever he is hungry, he points his nose up in the air and screams.

and I am 99% certain I made a mistake.. Cinnamon is not a boy.. but is a girl. Its so hard to be certain. There seems to be fur between the two openings, but s/he won't let me get a good look... and while there is fur, there are no testicles. So either s/he is a crypto (meaning the testies still haven't decended) or s/he is a girl. Good thing it doesn't matter much with the name.

Jupe has told me that he would much prefer to be called Tommy. He is ALL BOY.. it is a riot.

the stools are still quite soft. One of the mothers produced blood with her stool yesterday. this morning we had kitten vomit, and we have mustard yellow and also very pale colored stool and very dirty kitten tushies. this is not good. Dont quite know what to do about it. Do I let it go on and hope it clears up, or do I fight the shelter to get them some help..

They are also all very human dependant. They are starting to learn to play, so when I go in there, they all crawl up on my lap, then start wrestling with one another. its freakingly adorable!! Tilly very much wants to live with me. I think she wants a new name too, but isn't sure she wants to tell me that she doesn't like Tilly.

I put a couple more litter boxes down last night. the curse of having so many fosters is so much poop.. :)

Kittens first bath

Well then.. lets see. The kittens are doing very well pooping on their own, unfortunately with free run of the entire room, they figure as long as they aren't pooping where they sleep or play, all is good. So I have had to resort to locking them in my cage for the time being. It is a two story cage, with two doors, so I have left the top door open for the moms to jump in and out. The kittens all used the box very well last night, then once they were out started going on the floor!! arrgh.

Noticed their, and the mom's, poop is VERY soft, so we did kitten's first dewormer tonight, and a booster for the moms.

So soft poop, and dewormer, led to very messy kittens, so I packed them all up and brought them upstairs for a quick bath. It was so cute. They stood around my feet the entire time. Buddy crawled up my leg, Tilly crawled up my leg, up my shirt and stood on my back! :)

They all did really well. Nina didn't like it the most.. or should I say liked it the least. Everyone else was like... oh hey.. I'm all wet. Oscar gave me those big puss'n boots eyes from Shrek.. it was very adorable.

Maybe it's mean of me, but I just LOVE giving baths to kittens.. the more I do it, the more the kitties seem to like water in the end. My first set of fosters were very messy and got lots of baths, my sister adopted one and tells me that their kitty is in the shower with them a lot :)

Everyone is doing well. Small little teeth that look like baby vampires :) they are all very human dependant too. When ever I'm in there I'm covered. I love it.

Em had a micro bleed tonight. I was trying to get her back down to 5mg of pred, I guess she really needs the 7.5, She seemed very tired tonight, but very interested in attention, and dinner.. Even went out for a few minutes..

As promised... Photos

Oscar


Nina

Nina, Jupe, Cinnamon, Ginger, Tilly

Nina, Jupe, Oscar, Tilly

Jupe Nina Cinnamon

Buddy


Miss Martha and Miss Molly

kitten names

I need new pictures I know.. but I thought I'd share the names I picked out.
the buff colored boys are ginger and cinnamon
the fluffy boy is Jupe (as in jupiter but I am pretty sure I told you that one)
the fluffy girl was Mouse, but she seemed so regal for that, so I googled Mouse Queen and came up with Tilly
Nina for the little spit fire girl
Oscar for the solid black boy
and buddy for the tiger boy - but I always call him buuuuu-dy.. the way i think that it is adam sandler or one of those other comics does it.. he really likes it :D

There is trouble in this world, and it is at my house

Well that little girl kitten.. the one poised to take over the world.. has learned to use litter.. She is too freakin smart for her own good!!

last night all but one of them had gotten out of the nesting boxes they had been in. she had been getting out for a few days now, but at this point everyone wants out. They have had a taste of real food. Some are ready to snack on it, most aren't. They still want mom.. which is understandable, as they are still so freakingly young!!

but last night since they were out of their box, there was little kitten droppings around the room. This isn't a habit I want them to start. I found a shallow box, and filled it with a small amount of litter. One by one I put them in it, and she started eating it. She didn't like it and started pawing at her mouth. Why is it kittens want to eat litter long before they want to eat food? Anyway.. I cleared her mouth, but she and every one else was confused by the litter so I gathered up the kitten droppings around the room and put them in the box, figuring that would help them figure this out.

Usually they just get it. They see mom using the box, and they start. But they are too advanced and yet too small to see over the box, so they haven't made the connection. So I then took the little spitfire girl and started to rub her to make her go pee. Once she started, i put her in the box.

She didn't seem to make the connection.

this morning I went down to make sure all was ok. Those kits love to see me.. it is so sweet!! Oscar is in love with me.. is right on top of my foot, and begging for attention (or maybe food) Anyway, I had set the kits up on the floor with a blanket and secured the area so they were limited with in the room. Don't want to have to move couches at this point to find them :D. well they went to the edge of the pen, and were all screaming at me, when the spitfire girl climbed into the litter box and started digging. I thought she was just playing, but then she stopped and stood there, and I heard her peeing!!

You know your pretty sad when you get all excited about kitten pee.. but OMG it is soo freakingly cute to have barely four week old kittens using the litter box..

put the ark away for another day

Em is stable at 9.5 pounds.. Miss Molly and Miss Martha are back to feeding their kits very well. I still supplement them once a day, but I think that is more for me, than because they need it. I was concerned about the 'what ever dude' kitten, since he was skin and bones... but I gave him 3ccs one night, he took 6 the next. he feels like he's got more meat on him now.. still incredibly laid back.. but things look good.

The buff boys who were sneezing and having problems keeping their eyes unglued are doing much better. The bigger one is in fact the biggest of all the kittens.. eyes are staying open, active, and can scream with the best of them :)

I still can't seem to get the mothers to eat very much, but I'm sure they'll pull through just fine.

Em spent a lot of the weekend outside with us as we did yard work. I swear she does better when she gets outside. but that could just be me projecting. This morning there was blood in her nasal drainage.. Could just be from the fact that her nasal passage is quite irritated from everything going on. Hopefully it was just that little bit, and I won't get home to blood all over the house.

Ok, Where is the Ark??

When it rains it pours!!

Em is down to 9lbs 8 oz!! WTH?! I thought she felt heavier so I weighed her. I just looked at the ounces and saw 10 ounces and got excited for a minute thinking she was 10lbs 10 oz.. hence gaining weight, but it was 9lbs 10 oz. I weighed her again this morning (after she didn't eat her mid meal snack) and it was 9lbs 8 oz. Makes me want to cry. She has been doing ok for the most part. she has a lot of drainage out of her nose despite the antibiotics.. little annoying to keep picking it off the bed, but as long as she's with me, I can't complain. She did have another episode the other day. Remember when i stepped on her tail and she seemed out of it afterwards.. it was like that. I suppose I should get her back to the vet.. but I don't think they can do anything for her, so what would be the point?

Then the foster kittens are having issues. The moms (I've named them Miss Molly - for the younger one w/ white and Miss Martha for the tortie) are having issues. They aren't eating all that well. Miss Molly is barely eating. Last night her kits were hungry but not STARVING, so I thought we were still on the far side of ok.. Miss Molly was definately dehydrated and skinny, but bright and allert. I gave her some more KMR, and went to bed. This morning she was still on this side of OK but I was concerned. The little boy tiger kitten (winky) was very slow to respond, and also dehydrated. So I took her and the kits in to the shelter for some fluid. It almost ran into mom.. a steady stream. Hopefully this will perk her up enough to eat and start producing milk again. winky seemed to feel better. the solid black one is extremely laid back. He's the "what ever dude" type of kitten. Which scares me, because when they don't care it is usually a sign of health issues. However he's been this way since I got him home... so it might just be his personality. I gave Miss Molly's kits some KMR (Miss Martha's kits seem to be doing fine except for the goopy eyes) and they all had about 6 ounces except the little black one who had about half that despite all of my tricks..

Sad thing is, that there is about a week of difference in their ages, but both groups seem to be about the same size now..

covered in KMR and snot

What is it about one that gets me covered in both?? :)

Em is still snotty. Lots of white to greenish white drainage. She's back on antibiotics.. don't think it is helping, but then again I have only given it a short time. Other than that she's pretty stable. BGs almost always hit 300 by testing time. still wants to go outside on a regular basis. Still likes to lick me in the middle of the night. Yup.. she's hanging in there.

The fosters are sneezing.. just the mom's younger kittens. Did I mention that I think the two moms are mother and daughter. Mom (tortie medium hair) has much worse teeth and isn't nearly as obsessed with her kittens as the daughter (torbie - tortie w/white - long hair) Mom has the younger kits, daughter had the older. Daughter is in with her kittens 90-95% of the time.

Neither one of them is eating well. Its frustrating. They are both oboxiously thin. The only saving grace is that they are so fluffy that I can barely see it. not that it is much of a saving grace. their input is like half of their output.. I have no idea how they are doing it. I keep offering them different types of food and nothing really tempts them.

one of the buff colored boys (younger set) is sneezing up a storm and is constantly snotty. I thought we were out of the woods the other day as he was much much less snotty, but this morning he was all covered again. its funny cause when he gets covered, he nurses, and grabs some of his mom's fur in the process which is black, so he ends up looking like he put on a fake beard and mustache..

so because I was worried for the moms, I brought some KMR down, and supplemented the kits. almost all of them totally appreciated it. One in each group (snot boy and the girl in the older set) was like "what the heck are you sticking in my mouth!?!?" One of the older boys LOVED it.. sucked it right out of the syringe :D too cute. I gave some of the KMR to the younger mom, she wasn't thrilled that I did that, but she so needed it. she's nothing but skin and bones, and if her kits are attached to her all day and that hungry you know she's not producing much. Hopefully it will be like priming the pump and she'll start eating well on her own.

names.. I so need to get them names..

Em and the kittens

Still really need to come up with names for everyone.. this is always the hard part for me.

mostly not about Em :D

I was going to not post about Em at all, but then I remembered the drainage was worse this morning, almost an opaque white.. it was weird. It blocked up her nose, and when I cleared it off and "milked" her nostril, quite a bit more came out, so I upped her prenisolone to 7.5 mg SID. apparently I can so up to BID, but I am no where near ready for that. I am considering dropping back down to 5mg, but breaking it up into two 2.5 mg doses through out the day.. But I have to wait and see if the increased dose clears up the drainage.

Now on to the "good news" :D

I have KITTENS!!

the shelter took in two strays from the same place. Two torties.. One with three one week old kittens, the other with four two week old kittens. The mom's look like sisters, and are incredibly close. they nurse each other's kittens, climb into the same box together, groom each other and obviously get a lot of comfort from one another. It is so sweet. out of all the foster I have ever had, this is the first time I am in love with the moms.

One of them (or maybe both) were vomiting quite badly.. the first night I had them I gave them a once over.. the "older" one (for lack of names and better descriptions) has foul breath and is missing some of the little front teeth. her ears were attrocious too, so I tried to clean those out a little. the "younger" is good.. but her ears need some help too. Last night because of all the vomit, I gave them some dewormer. the older one fought me tooth and nail and HATED it.. the younger took it just fine.... almost acted as if she liked it. this morning no vomit, but the older one refused to come out and see me. I'm going to have to spend some time in that room tonight and NOT clean or medicate anything :D

The "older" one is pure tortie. The "younger" has a black mask and white on her chest and paws. I THINK the younger one has the two week old kittens, but she's in and out of both boxes, so it is hard to tell.

the younger kittens are two boys - buff colored - and one girl. the older kittens are three boys and a girl. the buff boys are so close to one another, that they often look like a two headed kitten :)

I'm going to try an experiment with the two week old girl. Going to take a picture of her every day and watch her develop.. see if I can't create a video out of it.. I think it will be interesting if she co-operates.

now on to the pictures....


the "younger" cat in with the younger kittens, and the "older" one with the older kittens


the "younger" cat changed boxes..


Older Kittens


Younger kittens


how can you resist this much cuteness??