Friday, January 30, 2015
Happy Birthday Dad
I just wanted to take a moment and wish my dad a very happy birthday. Seventeen years ago we nearly lost him to a blood clot in his liver. He was one of the first people to get a splenopneumopexy as a radical way to correct what was going on.
He and my mother are being 'snowbirds' this year and are headed down to NC to spend some time away from the cold..
Happy Birthday Dad.. have fun!
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Tails from the Foster Kittens - a year in review.
January:
January started off with some leftover kittens from last year, and some serious bladder issues for Jack. I shared with you some photos of my time in Kansas where I got to meet the incredible kitties of Sebastian the Sensitive Soul and A Tonk's Tail. I boasted about four amazing kittens and three wonderful homes for them, and my B4tC post was about taking your kitty to the vet. I also had a serious breakdown admission about how sometimes I simply have no clue what is going on.. because cats are like that.
February:
This month started off with Maxwell over A Tonk's Tail injuring himself and we were all quite worried... thankfully he was just fine, but it was a tense time. I took home a kitty that had high blood sugars named Gigi, and then took home an injured kitten named Charlotte. I fully accept that sometimes I can not help myself ;) Jack and I watched some Olympic skating.. I went shopping for Charlotte and I showed off Tweedle's spots.
March:
Little Miss Charlotte and I developed a routine after sending Gigi back to the shelter to be adopted.. Then the giraffe Marius was killed and there was some major upset over that, but I had a different perspective. Skippy showed off his bow tie, while Charlotte showed off her toes and Fleurp enjoyed it when we changed our sheets. Jack had more bladder issues. I also introduced you to one of our chipmunks (we have one in the front of the house and a pair in the back)
Charlotte's wound started healing up nicely, and I shared some of her glamour shots..
April:
Charlotte was still with me, so I took her to work to let her get used to new things. She went back for adoption shortly after that and we started the Great Kitten Watch of 2014, which was interrupted by Chandler and Abby, two diabetic cats that needed a little help. I did another post about adopting rabbits for Easter, and the "Make Mine Chocolate" campaign and my B4tC post was about adopting diabetic cats. I ended the month with a nice photo of Eli
May:
May had CBS promoting cat adoption on The Bold and The Beautiful. Thirty one days into kitten watch three little hissy kittens showed up.. and the annual kitten shower at the shelter happened. The kittens found Happy Bear and baskets.. well I posted a lot about them..
June:
The kittens continued to improve. I brought a meal down to the kitten room and ate with them and that was a bit of disaster.. but it helped them understand I don't eat kitten.. Kit helped my husband celebrate Father's Day. I returned the three kittens to the shelter and took two more home. We celebrated International Box Day and my birthday which introduced a DropCam to the foster room so anyone can stop by and view the kittens any time (unless I'm in the room at which case you just see gray)
July:
My foster kittens had gone up for adoption so I kitten sat for another foster home and four new ones showed up. I did a series of posts on most of The Crew..this time in reverse age order starting with Skippy and working my way through to Jack and my B4tC was talking about 'Unnecessary Vet Visits" because I was sick and tired of hearing people call vets money grubbers.. and because one of those suggested tests for my kitty diagnosed him as hyperthyroid despite not having any standard thyroid issues.
I also took home four more kittens who needed a little tlc and were only here for a short stay.. and Skippy rounded out the month with a unique staring contest..
August:
Another month, another batch of kittens.. I blogged about copyright and what you should know if you use images online. Traveling Jack had a pool party thanks to Chewy.com
I also took on three bottle babies.. Shared with you how we often eat dinner at our house, and celebrated Black Cat Appreciation Day and National Bow Tie Day. I also introduced the world to the "Morning Mews" and some of the silliness that comes with motherless kittens. I also reviewed Hartz litter.. and it was a big fat no.
September:
September opened up with The Tribute kittens growing and trying new things.. including Happy Bear.
This month also saw my first gig with BlogPaws, which was fun and interesting. I made yet another photobook, I love those things, this time with Shutterfly. and I had to break out my soapbox and rant against NBC. Raffe made his first appearance in the kitten room - and I still seriously need to get off my duff and fix his neck!
Jack and Eli went in for a dental.. sadly it set off a huge firestorm for poor Jack who then ended up in the emergency room.. and the month ended with the Tributes going up for adoption.
October:
My foster kittens were leapers, which is always fun and makes for pretty good blog fodder.. B4tC came around again and this time I chose to focus on the upcoming election here in Maine where we were voting to ban Bear Baiting; sadly it did not pass.
The month ended with my getting ready to go to Barkword and taking Jack down to Angell for his I131 treatment - which I didn't blog about until I got back.. (so that post is technically in November, but it happened in October, so I am putting it here)
November:
Upon returning home from Barkworld, I ran right out and got myself some more kittens.. These two were a hot mess of health issues having lived alone in bad conditions for far too long. Hindsight will also tell us their rough start started long before they were born as one of them was born with a deformity. I blogged a lot about these girls this month.. as they simply amazed me since I really did expect them to die when I brought them home.
We celebrated Thanksgiving happy that things were relatively stable health wise in the household, and celebrated our 3000th post with a little giveaway
December:
December brought us the infamous Target Gingerbread House - which to this very day lives on and is Kit's favorite place that is not her daddy to hang out. The Fluff Kittens were still with me, and I started doing regular Monday morning updates on them. The Elf on the Shelf showed back up as well as Hanukkah Harry.
Eli also ended up with urinary issues. He had them years before as a young mancat, but the distress of Bravo foods changing their formula and going into recall and selling us a couple of batches that stunk to high heaven was too much for him.. and we ended up starting to make our own food again.
I took home three more kittens, which brings my total for 2014 to 32 (not including the four we started the year off with.
Sadly we lost one of the Fluff Kittens during their neutering.
We had anniversary celebrations, and Christmas celebrations, and there was much rejoicing. I ended the year by dressing up the kittens in holiday attire.. The new kittens got their names in 2015, and were here for a few more weeks.. and then I brought Abby back home, and here we are..
I was able to get six people to participate in my "Interview with a Fosterer" series.. I had 20 sponsored posts, including one of my two new favorite products, and posted 314 times..
Yup, that was one busy year..
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
BlogPaws nose to nose nominations
Over the past few years I have thought of ways I could grow my blog and possibly do more with it than just share with you cute photos of kittens.. I have made some improvements, I have more to do, but I'm starting to think that getting an award for my blog is important.. it seems so much more impressive to be able to say you are an award winning blogger.. no?
I asked for nominations last year and several of you nominated me. I also nominated myself in a few categories.. if you don't enter you can't win.. and sadly I wasn't chosen to be up for consideration.
Nominations this year are open until the 31st. If you would like to take a moment and nominate me, I would appreciate it. I fear nothing will come of it again this year, but I cling to the fact that if I don't try then I never will.
Regardless of winning or not, or being chosen for a nomination, I can not tell you how much I appreciate all of you. I was blogging for years without an audience.. if I got a comment a week I would be thrilled.. and for your interest and your taking the time to read and comment, well I already feel like a winner..
So the nominations..
You will need to know my name. I still choose to go by Connie Kittyblog. Many of you know my legal given name, but this being the internet I choose not to use it. I know that is probably pointless because if someone really wants to track it down they probably can, but I don't want to make it easy :)
My email is connie at kittyblog.net
My email is connie at kittyblog.net
my facebook is https://www.facebook.com/TFKblog
my twitter is http://twitter.com/TFKblog
Shooting at the Shelter Series
Once again I took my camera to the shelter to see what I could capture from the kitties just hanging out at the shelter. I spent some time loving on these and the other kitties there. Such beautiful kitties end up without a home through no fault of their own, and because of the great lack of education people just do not know this.. People still think there are only old or broken animals there..
and all too often staff just do not have enough time to take photos that do these pets justice.. If you have any type of photography skills, you too should head down to your local shelter and practice them, and maybe even offer to share your photos with the shelter for their online presence.. or share on your own platforms.. (man this so should have been a B4tC post, shouldn't it??!)
Monday, January 26, 2015
Abby is back at Casa de Gato
When I went to the shelter the other day I talked to my foster coordinator who mentioned that Abby was not doing well in her cage. She is so freaked out, that no one really wants to stress her out more and take her out of her cage to give her walking around time, so I said I would. I stopped in Saturday and because of her legs I thought I would bring my glucometer and see for the fun of it where her glucose levels were. I showed up after their breakfast time, but before the shelter opened to the public) and got her out of the cage. She freaked out not being in her cage too. Getting her walking around was very hard. I used a few temptations because the freeze dried chicken I brought wasn't enough to tempt her to walk.. I spent some time with her, and then I took her level which was in the 50s. This concerned me greatly.
I was told that they were giving her three units of insulin. This is a pretty high amount considering she was on a high protein low carb food. Some cats need that much so I wasn't horribly concerned when I found out, but to justify that amount of insulin her bg should be in the 300s or 400s that soon after breakfast.. so to be in the 50s.. well I was quite concerned about her going too low - which can be deadly.
I mentioned this to the staff and they directed me to the manager.. and I explained why I tested her and my concerns, to which she replied "So do you want to take her home"..
(and this was RIGHT AFTER I was just offered three kittens that were coming in that afternoon!!!)
*sigh*
but Abby has been in a cage for eight to nine months.. and there really isn't anyone else fostering for the shelter who is comfortable with diabetics (that I know of anyway) She needed me more than kittens..
When she got here, she IMMEDIATELY tried to hide under the afghan, so I let her. I went about putting food down for her, which interested her quite a bit. Because of her low blood glucose levels I wanted to make sure she had access to and was willing to eat food, so I sat with her for a while. She came out from the afghan, hopped down, chowed down and then came back and hopped up on the couch and snuggled down next to me and started purring.
She needs.. She needs exercise, she needs a tight watch on her glucose levels for a bit, she needs combing pretty badly as she is shedding quite a bit too. She needs love..
It is a shame she is so freaked out at the shelter, because she shows a lot better here.. it is hard to tell people "oh yes, she is a lovely cat' when the cat is hiding in the back of her cage begging you not to see her.. She has also gained quite a bit of weight, and the gait on her back legs is off.. not sure if it is cage stress or diabetic neuropathy.. Right now my plan is to see if we can get her out of rebound and back on a dose that works for her.. if that is 3 units, I accept that as Emmy used to be on 7 units, but I have a feeling it will be less than that.
She has also gained a dramatic amount of weight since the last time I had her..
before |
now |
Here is a time lapse of her first few hours here. That patchwork quilt came with her from the shelter, she had been laying on it for quite some time. Looks like she still likes looking at herself in the mirror.
now the housekeeping question becomes, do I count her as a whole new foster?? I mean do I give her a new label? na.. probably shouldn't add her to my foster count again either.. but darn it I really want to..
Friday, January 23, 2015
Former Foster Friday February..
Last February I did a "Former Foster" post on each Friday. I'm hoping that a few of the owners of some of my former fosters will volunteer to write up a few words on their kitties and how they have fared since adoption..
I thought I would start this off with Kit. I know this is kind of cheating since all of my cats are former fosters at this point, but it is late, and without kittens I really don't have much to say and I had this photo of Kit on my husband that I wanted to share.
Kit adores my husband with a wild abandon that I don't think any of 'my' cats even begin to rival. She curls up on his chest when he is sitting or laying down, at least once a day and stares up at him with such love and adoration that he will often lament he is just not worthy of. She will sometimes come and snuggle up to me, but that is only if she is in a snuggly mood and he is not available.. She only weighs six pounds, but she is a little spit fire when it comes to trimming her nails and grooming her, and the only way I can usually get it done is by having my husband tell her that he wants her to have her nails trimmed. Jack sometimes gets a little jealous of her, I am unsure of why, and will harass her for a few days.
She used to, and will still occasionally, play fetch - chasing toy mice we throw for her and bringing them back to us. She also has started to become viciously car sick when ever we take her to the vet, drooling quite badly and doing so for hours after the fact, which can make caring for her difficult, but fortunately other than a few abscesses (thanks to Jack) she has been pretty healthy.
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Saying goodbye.
Well this one was harder than I expected it to be. Interestingly enough not for the new kittens, I know they will be fine, but for Lena. I love Lena, I do, but I have known all along she is not my kitty. So, knowing this, I though I would be sad to bring her back because I love snuggling her and I knew it would be hard on her, but I didn't expect to cry..
Before |
After |
*sigh*
I will write up an adoption card with her history, her likes and her dislikes.. the staff know her story and will adopt her out with those considerations, I can hold on to the fact that they will work to find her a good home.
After leaving her there, my eyes started to tear up driving to work.. the radio was on and I noticed the song that was playing..
I don't need you to worry for me cause I'm alright..
this is not the first time a song has been playing on the radio as I have left the shelter in tears that seemed to be talking to me. It is pretty amusing too because I so infrequently listen to the radio these days, I tend to listen to books on tape. After that song came
and I had visions of a 10 yr old me at the roller rink, (seriously check out the link) which for me was some old warehouse type building in the back of an industrial park in the middle of nowhere except it was THE place to go because it really was the only place to go, being so excited this song came on and jumping up and rushing to get out on the floor to skate to it.. It made me smile..
So while I'm weepy today, and probably will be for a bit.. I shall randomly yell out in my mind (not stand up in the office and do it because that would just be weird) REVERSE SKATE! and think of Joan and music from the 80s..
The kitten's time at Casa de Gato has come to an end
As I mentioned on Monday I had someone come to the house to take a look at the kittens. They were looking for just one kitty, not thinking that they could responsibly take two. I gave them my 'spiel' of why two kittens are better, and said I respect their decision if they feel they can only take one. I left them alone in the kitten room for a while to let them get to know the kittens. They were all initially a bit freaked by the newcomers into their territory, but with our chatting and some encouragement from toys, they came out much quicker than I had expected. Formerly feral kittens tend to have a hard time with change. Tawny was the first one out.
They had originally come to see Lena, but with my thinking she would be better with a friend and their limitation of only being able to adopt one, and Tawny's fierce adorableness.. well hopefully you can see where this is going. They left that night without being sure, but the next day I got a message that they were going to adopt her. I can't blame them in the least, Tawny is pretty awesome. I think she will do okay as an only kitten.
Now we have a more pressing need to get these kittens in to be neutered, so I sent another message to the shelter and they have a opening for them today, so I will be bringing them back this morning. I doubt they will be coming back to me, so last night was my last night with them. I walked into the room and they were all 'oh love me love me pat me pat me' but probably because they were out of food. I brought the camera down with me in hopes of getting a few more good photos of them for adoption cards, but these guys would NOT sit still.. after feeding them I had them running around and leaping for almost two hours.. it was crazy..
I finally got another good snuggle in with Lena, and when she was done I left to go edit photos and blog. A huge part of me doesn't want them to go, but the practical side of me that not only knows it is beyond their time, but knows they have entered that crazy, into everything, so much energy if you could harness it you could power the world phase, and with them all in that one room it is just too much mayhem. I'm really surprised they haven't broken something yet *knockwood*
So here are the pictures from last night..
Lena is looking a bit ragged these days. It is tough being a long haired kitten as they need to lose their kitten fur for their real coat to come in.. I've been combing her regularly but even still there is a lot of fur laying about the kitten room.
Good luck sweet kittens. I wish you well
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
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