Jack is in isolation

Jack has now been confined for two days. He's breaking my heart sitting down there and crying and howling to get attention. The vet recommends he stay down there for a week while everyone else builds up their antibodies. I don't know if I can last that long. Every time I go down there he's dying for attention. totally hurts to leave.

Was able to get into the local clinic yesterday. Everyone is now protected. they will get their booster when they go back for their retest in five weeks. Do you have any idea how hard it is to transport four kitties to the vet? almost as painful as it was to transport five.. lol. I've decided I'm never going back to my old vet, in fact I'm going to write a nice little letter to the state vet association letting them know what happened. Technically I believe they are responsible for jack becoming positive for leukemia. I told them I was fostering kitties for the shelter. I assumed that he had been vaccinated for it. I suppose I should have been a bit more cautious in it, but they should have at least mentioned it.. which they didn't.

Muffin got herself locked out on the sun porch a little while ago. I heard her scraping at the door so I let her in. She followed me back to the chair and crawled up into my lap and got all purry and cuddly. She really is a very cute kitty. Not only in appearance, but also in attitude. Granted, she's got a stubborn streak a mile and a half wide.. but she just raises the bar for cuteness to almost unobtainable levels. and I can say this even after having fostered 100 kittens in the past year. I should thank linda for "convincing" me to keep her.

She just got up and ran away with my bottle cap. She loves those things.

Felv vaccines

apparently none of my kitties have been vaccinated against leukemia. The vet said we refused it because they don't go outside. Now.. this MIGHT be true for Ollie, but neither my hubby or I remember being asked for either Jack or the three pack we most recently adopted*. The vet can't get them in till Wednesday. They also recommend we isolate jack. which we did, and it is TOTALLY breaking my heart. I'm so incredibly pissed off at them that we are going to call the shelter clinic in the morning and see if they can get us in any earlier.

I can't imagine I would turn down such a vaccination knowing that I am fostering kittens.

Five days left

Gave the kitties some premium cat food last night. sheba roast beef.. it was a big hit with the kittens, mom didn't seem all that interested. Melvin loved the taste, but wasn't that great at eating it. He's a licker of food, and that stuff doesn't break up upon licking, so he ended up pushing the tray around a bit. Several times he put his foot on the food to keep it from "getting away". Not sure he liked the feel of it under his foot though, as he often took it right off. Scooter was more interested in licking the container the food came in (yes, she is nuts) Izzy for once didn't search out what food was in every dish. Guess she figured what she had was "good enough".. lol

It snowed here something fierce last night. There was ice pellets driving against the window. That really interested mom, she ran across the room to jump up on the desk, then into the window.. but the desk was too slippery, and she ended up falling off the other side before jumping up into the window (its a basement room) she was none too happy about that. I eventually decided to lock the kittens up in the cage and play with mom. She was happy to be able to play, but she wasn't much into chasing and pouncing. She'd swat at it if it came near her, and try to eat it - with quite a bit of enthusiasm too - but one I started dragging it away she was pretty much no longer interested.

I fed them late last night. Went in quite early this morning. They acted like they hadn't eaten in days (although there was plenty of dry food left) They are such the bunch of liars.

I cleaned out Bugsy's and Melvin's ears. They get so bad. I still think its mites... but Bugsy was treated. Izzy wasn't but now her ears are pretty much clean all the time. they don't mind when I clean them with q-tips (yes.. I know.. you really shouldn't, but I am very careful) in fact they start purring. But they do NOT like the wash I have for them. Melvin took it the worst.. and fought me every step of the way... but then a moment after he was down he was cuddling up to me and purring. :) guess they are glad their ears are clean.

Sigh. five more days.. I still haven't decided how many of them I'm keeping. Some days its one. (cause the hubby wants bugsy) some days its all four.

Catching up

wow.. its been since the 18th since I told you how wonderful the kittens are? lol. well then, they are wonderful. Melvin and Bugsy take tiny baby steps to being better. Today Bugsy had no snot caked on his nose, but his eyes looked like he just saw a really sad movie. Melvin had some caked on his nose. I went and saw them last night after being away for 24 hours, and they seemed VERY happy to see me. Scooter used me several times to get to some place else.. She jumped on my back then jumped on something else. She's such a riot.

Broke out the bubbles again. They so love those. They have started swatting at them more, and once they pop them, they keep looking around wondering where it just went. Bugsy tends to do it with two paws, and ends up in a praying position. Scooter jumps around standing upright on her back two feet.

They all really want to leave that room. Nine more days.. well eight.. sigh. *prays for a good outcome on their tests*

Melvin update

I got a call from the vet this morning. Melvin still isn't eating. :(

Checked in on Bugsy last night.. he was wheezing something fierce. and his eyes were still watering. sigh.
I have a feeling this blog is going to get pretty boring till the new year. :)

Need to get down there and feed them and medicate Bugsy soon. I really hate this quarantine thing.. and I know they do too.

This is not going to be easy.

well.. *sigh* this is hard... we have to quarantine the older kittens and mom for six weeks starting last Monday.. so at least they will be here for Christmas. :) we moved them down stairs into the future master bedroom suite. It's a little chilly down there, but they seem to be coping just fine. in fact their ears have cleared up considerably. I don't spend nearly enough time with them, but I think that's more of an emotional thing than a they are downstairs and I never go down there and there's no chairs or tv down there thing.

Last night however I panicked something fierce. I was late in feeding them, it was about midnight, an I decided to medicate them first (they are still on antibiotics for their URI) then feed them. Everyone ate but Scooter. She just sat there sniffing at the food and then walked away. She did have a small lick at the empty can, but soon gave that up too. Wasn't even interested in playing with her favorite toy. You know, it really will destroy me if these guys have to be put to sleep. Fortunately this morning she was eating just fine. She still wasn't interested in her toy, but she played with my toes and a few other attacks on things. I still think I'm going to insist they test mom early.. like this week. She was living with the kits for the whole time, and was cleaning them up when they couldn't go on their own. But I think I'll wait till after Monday. Hubby wants to bring them back and have someone else foster them during the next five weeks, but I don't think I could handle that either.