Hey Mom, it's your Birthday!

So let me FINALLY come out of my shell, and POUND on the door and scream at you all night long..

OMG Bear was a total PITA last night.. he finally decided he wants out of his room - he must be feeling better - so he was pounding on the door and meowing. Fortunately his meow isn't that loud, and I FINALLY wised up and stuck a shirt in the door to make it tighter so it wouldn't bang against the frame. But twice in the night I got up and opened the door to see what his issue was. The first time he poked his head out then very cautiously walked down the hall. Ended up in the bathroom where we feed our cats. He was walking low to the ground, so he was still a little unsure of himself. He ran into my cats, started hissing, so I put him back. an hour later he started pounding again, so I opened up the door and this time he went very quickly in the other direction. I didn't want him to go into the room where I keep my rabbit, so I shut that door on him. He went and explored the back bathroom, then went back to the original bathroom. My cats hissed first this time, but he didn't slack off in that department, and after my last experience with Dovey I was a little reluctant to let them 'work it out' so I grabbed him and put him back, and in another hour he was pounding again - which is when I stuck the shirt in the door. He kept at it for a while, but it wasn't enough to really get to me. I had also gone in to visit him, and he was all up in my lap, licking me, and head butting me. OMG I could easily fall in love with this cat..

Speaking of Dovey, she went back to the shelter today. I felt so bad, but it needed to be done. Friday I took the kittens in to work... no wait, let me digress a little further. Kit has wanted to play with kittens since the last set went back, but I really didn't want to let the kittens out in the house, so I put her in the kitten room. Lovey didn't care but Dovey went off the deep end. Actually attacked Kit. Fortunately I was very quick to break them up, but she was quite upset for a while afterwards.

So I took the kittens to work on Friday, giving Lovey and Dovey some time alone. The kittens were very reluctant out and about, and overly concerned. Fern was fine and quite the little show off, but the rest would have rather gone home. So sad. they are going to have such a hard time with adoption.. *shrug* they'll get over it.

When I brought them home, Dovey once again went off the deep end. Growling and hissing and spitting at the kits. I tried to corral her to try to calm her down, but my attempts only sent her further off into la la land. I was actually afraid of her. I finally got her, and locked her up in the cage. I called the shelter to see if I could bring her in, and they said I could, but I then thought a little better of it and thought I'd let her calm down a bit. After an hour or so she was eating treats out of my hand, but overly concerned and growling when I showed her a kitten of either her litter or Lovey's. I took all of the kits weights and emailed the shelter asking to bring some of them back, and told them how Dovey was done being a mom. They told me to bring her back right away, and I have Huckleberry, Bilberry and Azalea scheduled for surgery on Wednesday. I am not a fan of doing this, splitting up groups, but I am getting horribly overwhelmed with them all and Bear.

Dovey did not take well to the shelter. I was able to capture her pretty easily but not with out some torbi-tude. When I got there, she was shedding up the wazoo, and her eyes were as big as saucers. I gave her some food and tried to comfort her, but then again she was never my biggest fan.

I checked up on Licorice while I was there. He's still there. very mellow boy. However he's either got a food allergy or ear mites pretty badly. His ears were a MESS and he was tearing them up as well as the back of his head. I know that it is hard with so many cats, but you'd think they'd take a short amount of time and touch each one each day or two.. Yes, I'm ranting, I just feel bad for him.

ok so I feel bad for all of them, but some adjust to shelter life better than others. It is a crying shame there aren't homes for all of them.

what really got me thought was a pair of kittens they had in the manager's office. OMG they were so full of personality that I was drawn to them before I even knew they were there! So brighht eyed and social. the one (they were both black and white) that I saw first had six toes on each back foot. The other bit is that he had one foot all bandaged up, and the other was bent inward at a 45 degree angle. The other had both front feet bandaged up. I will admit they looked a little pathetic, but I didn't feel sorry for either one of them. They were just so happy and wanted attention. I wanted so badly to take them home, but I'm stretched pretty thinly at this point that I didn't think it was fair to anyone. but I so totally want!!

Licorice photos

the first three are from the night before he went back, the other two are from Feb..

Licorice is available for adoption

The grumpy ol guy went back today. I really shouldn't call him that, as he is really sweet. was just really grumpy that his fur was all matted. Can't blame him for that.

He likes a cuddle, he likes being groomed, and he likes a lap.. well to be near one anyway.. he is food picky.. hopefully he'll get over that.

He came out of the foster room last night. He wandered around the basement for a while, then started pounding on the door to get back into his room (Had to shut the door or my cats would have gone in and messed up everything) He is so ready for his fur-ever home.. and he so deserves it!

Kitten season is upon us. I got a call to take more kittens, but I was at my limit with Licorice and my aunt's cat.. speaking of which.. I've got a story to tell about him too!

Boots has been staying in my office, and not really minding that much at all. He isn't too fond of other cats. Hisses at them - and that's about it.. well after a few days of intros, we let him wander about the house. More hissing.. fortunately no other issues.. more of a "Get Out Of My Way!" kind of thing. He'd wander down to the sunroom and lay on the sofa, or the living room and do the same. So this weekend we tried an overnight - left him out all night. Everyone did really well, so on Saturday morning when we had an errand to run, we just left him out.

Well when we got home, I thought it time to see if he was hungry. He eats a different food from my guys, and since two of my cats have the nick names garbage disposal and dishwasher for a reason, I tend not to leave his food out if he's wandering the house. So we went in search of Boots to lock him back up with some food for a while. Well.. no Boots.

He wasn't anywhere. My Dh was frantic. He said he is NOT in the house - well that wasn't really an option. he isn't a sneaker, so he didn't get past us and get outside, and if there was a hole in the house somewhere, one of my cats would have found it by now. I said there must be 4,582 places for him to hide, and we've only looked in 4,581! well hours of searching went by, we were feeling quite stupid and looking in places he couldn't even possibly fit.. finally I said lets give up and he'll show up. DH went to store to get chicken to make cat food with, and I went into the bedroom and opened up a window - something totally irrisitable to our own cats. Every single one of them showed up and sat in the window for a bit. but no Boots, and I froze my tushie off.. so I shut the window and went in the basement and watched TV, figuring he'd show up for a cuddle. Still no Boots. Well DH came home, and after a few trips in with groceries, there was Boots, sitting in the middle of the kitchen like nothing had happened *rolls eyes* Silly cat.

9 pounds! :)

Licorice is an absolute laugh riot! he knows the drill, each morning I put him in the scale, and he flomps over and lays on his back waiting for the scale to settle so I'll pat him on his belly.

I can not keep another cat.. I can not keep another cat..

but man this guy is a cutie!

I bought him some Meow Mix.. that was a no go. So was the Iams and the nutro! I need to get to the shelter and return the bags of open foods, but I know if I do I'll be tagged into taking bunnies.. I can't resist baby bunnies..

Come on Licorice!!

Dude! what is your major malfunction?? you are eating, you are drinking, but you have not only stopped gaining weight, you've lost an ounce or two! I was so hoping to tell the shelter manager you hit nine pounds this weekend, only to find you fell back to 8lbs 13 oz! *sigh* I don't know what to do for you! I've offered you wet food you were eating, but while you nomed some of the juice, you proceeded to vomit it up a few moments later. I offered you some different dry food, but you say you are fine with the M/D... well eat more of it!!

You are such a sweet and loving boy! You deserve to get out of that one little room you are in and find your fur-ever home.. you deserve so much more than I can give you, but you can't get any of it till you put on some weight!!

and I am sorry about digging at your ears, but truthfully, don't they feel better??

So please.. eat more..

Licorice's field trip

Well Licorice is all alone once again now that Reece/Roxie is gone.. he seems ok with it. Although he does seem very interested in meeting the kitties on the other side of the door.

I went down last night. He stood up from his perch, and I realized once again just how LONG his legs are. I swear he has some horse genes or something..

I am trying so very very hard to control my impulse to pick at the few remaining mats. It is so hard. They are small and come off pretty easily, but it does annoy him when I do it. However last night I was cuddling with him, and realized his nails needed trimming pretty badly, and his ears - OMG his ears.. Caked with black desbris and bleeding (ok just a little but still) how could I have missed that?!?! *sigh* so once again I was the "evil lady" and pulled off a few mats, trimmed his claws, and did some surface cleaning of his ears. (I need to get some more mite medicine - so treatment is going to have to wait a short while)

So to distract him and make him forget how 'evil' I was to him, I took him on a little field trip up to the bedroom. He was ever so interested in the house as I walked past the kitchen and the bathroom - he took in EVERYTHING! Got to the bedroom, and shut the other kitties out and let him have his fill. Well he couldn't sit still. He was all over the room, all over the bed, up on the scratching post (yes, I have one in my bedroom - feel free to laugh) back on the bed, under the bed, in the bathroom, well you get the picture. He stopped to visit me a couple of times, but he just didn't want to sit still! after a few pats he was off again. Not running.. not stressed.. just actively looking around as if enjoying everything and not wanting to miss anything

This boy so deserves a special home.. one where he is spoiled rotten and where he is combed (he likes it as long as there is no pulling off of mats) every day.

Reese was Reece and is now Roxanne

Well the transport went well. We got her all bundled up in a big ol crate. Got out of the house, immediately had to turn around because we forgot something, then started back out again. Reese immediately started drooling.. poor thing. She didn't much like it either. We realized we put the cage in the truck backwards, so we stopped at the first convenient place and turned it around so I could have access to her. I got her cleaned up and we started off again.

Before we even got on the highway, she lost control of her bowels, and I had to clean that up. Fortunately I noticed it right away and so there for the car didn't stink up. Right after I got that cleaned up, I noticed she was about to hurl, so I quickly got the blankets out of there, and she vomited on the plastic bottom - very easy to clean up. Put the blankets back in, cleaned up more drool, covered the cage again, and tried to get her to settle. She didn't settle in the dark, she didn't settle with the cover off, she didn't settle if I held her, so I put her back in the cage and covered it. She'd whine on and off, and each time she did she was covered with drool so I kept cleaning her off.

My part of the journey was about 2 hours. Met up with the second leg of the journey and did the hand off in the mall parking lot. It was amusing. Just the whole thing..

Reese became Reece because I typoed.. Carolyn - her new mom - liked that spelling better, but then once she met Reece, realized that it really wasn't her name. I knew that from the begining. She came up with Roxanne. I like it.

Roxanne charmed absolutely everyone on the trip. She is an absolute belly slut, LOVES to roll over and present the belly for patting. Greeted everyone with affection and interest. She had a three part journey down to meet her mom, who traveled up and was staying in a hotel - so she had another journey the next day to get home. She also went on a few visits while she was in the area - other members of the felinediabetes.com website who lived in the area who wanted to meet up.

She got home and met her new 'brother' Niko. Like at my house, she ate his food, played with his toys, and just sauntered around like "ok, what's next?" Niko apparently was not impressed with her charms, as he was bullied in the past by a girl kitty. From the description of the meeting, he was completely unimpressed and would slink away quitely after she came around. I'm sure once he realizes that Roxanne isn't the kitty from his past, they'll become fast friends.
~

Licorice is a very interesting case for me. I'm not quite sure what to do with him. He goes off his food every couple of days - although he's stayed with the M/D dry for a week now. I've offered him multiple varieties of canned food, treats, and even the raw I feed my own cats - all he turns his nose up at. Now that he's been shaved, he's slowly putting on weight, a couple ounces here a loss there a few more ounces here, but its frustrating.

I am working on gaining his trust again. I know I know.. I'm obsessive about mats and removing them, and he's totally ok with leaving them right where they are "thank you very much" or at least I should say he absolutely does not want me to pull them off. I can't help myself! I need MA - mats annonomous. Hello, my name is Connie, and I have a problem :D

DH and I spent some time with him last night. He wanted attention but wasn't sure I wasn't going to tug at his fur. So he stood just at arms length. I'm sure if I can just restrain myself he'll be back to his "PAT ME" ways.

I guess I'm also not used to how much food ONE adult cat eats. I'm expecting them to both (Lic and Boots) to eat way more than they do. They both eat about a handful of dry a day. Which after watching my six pigs and room fulls of kittens eat, seems like nothing.

So I guess Lic is my life lesson in patience and just letting nature take its course. *sigh* I am really not good at that.

updates

So, I go and get "Reese" the diabetic cat. She's cute, and sweet, and a belly slut. She has more fur than a bear, and loves rolling around on the floor and picking up dust and debris for me.







I didn't have any test strips, so I followed the shelter's regime for her for three days. Got test strips, tested with the control - got 114. tested her, got 74. No insulin. Licorice still wasn't home from being shaved, so I gave her only the prescribed foods. tested in the morning, under 100 - no insulin. Kept on prescribed foods. Licorice came home that night. Gave some different canned food. tested in am, under 100 no insluin. Gave regular ol dry food that licorice liked, still under 100. Stopped testing. Tested a few days later, still under 100. I have NO idea what is going on with her, but that's ok.

Cause I found her a home. I post on a board about diabetic kitties, and before I had even posted a pict of her, she had a home. :) now it is in Virginia, so getting her there is going to be interesting. we've lined up four people to chain her down there. We are driving her to MA on Saturday.

Licorice is doing very well with his silly shaved tushie too. I think he's a bit embarassed by it, but since he's feeling better, he's eating better and slowly putting on weight.






Boots however is a completely different story. I don't know what to do with him. He has allergies to something, so I didn't feed him any beef products.. although I'm sure the food probably has some beef in it, because he's got scabs on his upper body, and the space between his ears and his eyes are all red and scratched up. His eyes are also a little inflamed. Not my cat, so I'm kinda limited in what I can do. His owner has brought him to the vet, and they've given him cortisone shots for it.. but apparently no one has thought to put him on an ingredient restricted diet. how can a vet not have suggested that?!?! he's with me for a little over a month more. I tried again to introduce him to my crew, but he is steadfast against it. It was a riot watching him hiss at Eli Kit and Jack. Kit just thought it was fascinating - but then she thinks EVERYTHING is fascinating. Jack had this look on his face like "Hey! that is MY line!!" and after getting hissed at three times hissed back. :) Eli just kept reaching out to Boots, as if to say, don't worry, it's all good, but boots wasn't buying it.. so he's still locked up in the office. Muffin is very determined to get in there, knowing there is gushy food in there.. Kit made a break for it this morning too, trying to rush past me.. was just too cute!

I wish there were more hours in the day to give everyone all kinds of love..

but now the shelter wants me to take more Bunnies. I'm going to look at them tonight, and will probably bring them home.. but OMG, my life will be overwhelmed if I do!

Somewhere there must be "Sucker" written on my forhead

really..

A few weeks ago I took in Licorice, because my kitten room is just too cold for kittens.. Poor thing is holding his own, but is miserable.. So I've contacted the shelter about getting him shaved and said it might be a good idea to get him a companion..

In the mean time, my husband's aunt reminded me that in November I agreed to cat sit for her.. so now I have "Boots" at the house.



Let me remind you that I do not like cats that talk to me. I do my best not to encourage meowing for no particular reason. Tweedle does it, but she'll usually stop if I tell her to. Being Siamese, Boots enjoys the sound of his own voice, and at 3am he started singing opera.. *sigh* some attention and some food for distraction got me through the night. Last night we gave him lots of love, and held off on the food as long as possible, and I did get through the night. Not sure if he'll intergrate into the house because he smelled the previously used scoop and hissed. But I'll probably try it this weekend because he is going to be living at the house till April.

So then after the night of broken rest, I get an email from the shelter regarding getting Licorice in for a shave. and btw, how would you like a diabetic cat to be his companion :) Will be nice to put my knowledge to work again, but like I need this kind of additional work.. *sigh* But they need the help, Licorice needs the companionship and he absolutely needs to get off dry food and on to wet.. Maybe I can even get the new kitty Reece (haven't gotten her yet) off insulin.. it's been known to happen..

Oh to have a sick orphaned kit.. I miss little kitten licks..

Rebuilding Trust

Well Licorice is annoyed with me. Didn't trust that i wouldn't try to take matts off him last night, so he wouldn't sit with me. We did find out that he is a chase kitty though. Although he's too smart to get a good chase game in, because he kept jumping over the ottoman.. *rolls eyes*

also was NOT interested in the raw. Good for my budget, but not so good for him. He is ditching the dry for fancy feast though. That is something. I weighed him yesterday.. which was not easy. seems to have gone down a bit... I weighed the fur, which was 1/2 an ounce.. not enough to account for the suspected loss. Not going to worry about it for a few more days.. could have just been the time of day etc

This morning I put down another can of FF, and he was VERY interested. got right into it. I was able to pull a few small mats off him with out too much of a problem. at this rate I MIGHT have them all out by the time he is to go back. I was considering asking them to sedate him and shave him down.. but I know they don't much like investing the money in that... and with his suspected health issues.. *shrug* who knows. I am going to try to get them to shave his belly though. no way on earth he's going to let me do that. Maybe next week or the week after.. depending on how things go.

I am getting another boarder. My husband's aunt's cat was going to board with us last year, but she ended up finding him a new home. Well she missed him so much she got another cat.(don't get me started - she's a nice older lady who thought she was doing what was best) Anyway.. guess she assumed that last years offer transfered to this year because I got an email saying we could pick him up in a couple of weeks.. um.. ok. Not that I mind one little bit.. it was just weird on my end. Had to check with DH to make sure he didn't talk to her and I didn't know about it. Not quite sure what we are going to do with her cat (not even sure of his name!) probably set up in my office - which is what we did with Teddy and Gypsy.. we'll see.

More Licorice

Well I gave him some more canned food last night. Mixed some Vit E and some minerals in it, and he ate about half of it. I opened up another can and gave that to him for the night. He ate maybe 3/4ths of all the food I gave him. I threw out the dry, and gave him more of that and another can of wet this morning.

Tried to get more of the matts off him last night. I was being agressive because they really irk me. I swear I have a problem, I just can't let things like that exist. Eye goobers, dirty ears, and mats.. all have to go! Well he kept getting frustrated with me, and at one point wrapped his teeth very gently around my wrist. This boy was owned and taught well prior to his coming to the shelter. I hope his owners aren't missing him too much. Not much that can be done on that front. He's been in the shelter since October.. if they haven't come looking for him by now...

Since he was quite clear he didn't want any more help, I'm going to give him a day off. No mat picking tonight.. which is going to be HARD for me. Even this morning I wanted to pull out some of the looser ones..

The pile of fur I've gotten off him so far


a few glamour shots













Trying to show his bare neck

interesting

I went down to check on Licorice this morning. He was just hanging out on the couch. He seemed happy to see me. Hadn't touched his food either the wet or the dry. So I threw the wet away and opened up another can. Put him on the window seat were the food was, and he dug into it. Guess he just couldn't find it last night.. which is kind of surprising. Hopefully now that he knows where it is, he'll eat it all up!

Still so much work to be done on his coat.. poor thing. Will try to get some photos tonight and groom some more.

Licorice

Well then, I now have a new foster. An adult male who lost lots of weight while at the shelter. They put him in Felidae, and he had started to gain, but they wanted to get him out of the shelter environment to see if that helped. Since my foster room is pretty cold in the winter, I didn't want to take kits (although they had a couple of REALLY cute ones which I very much wanted to take.

He's sweet, and wants attention, but he's so matted that I can't help myself when I pat him, I want to take them out. I got a number of good ones out, and he was getting more and more frustrated with me. He's got a couple of huge, meaning basically encompassing the whole area, ones on his back legs/butt. I actually cut them trying to make them easier to break up (and I know better than to cut mats.. but I wasn't cutting them out, just in half to try to help them break up easier)

I pulled almost a loaf of bread sized amount of fur before he got so frustrated with me that he bolted - and scratched my pinky pretty badly in the process. I'm kinda glad I trimmed his nails before I started, because he pretty much had daggers, and I'd probably be needing a trip to the hospital for stitches if I hadn't.

The shelter was feeding him just felidae dry. It is the food my own cats were on before I learned of the benifits of raw. I'm going to leave the felidae down, supplment with good quality canned food and some raw. I even have some vitamins and mineral supplement that I think I'm going to get into his diet in a couple of days.

8lbs 4 oz on my scale upon coming home. I'll have to weigh the fur I took off him..

Kit is still looking all over for Spud. I went to clean out the foster room for Licorice and when I came out Kit looked everywhere for him. Followed me upstairs, didn't see him, went back down stairs. I feel bad. I wish I could have kept him.. but how silly is it to get your pet a pet? a petpet? lol