Monday, February 27, 2017

Adventures in cat sitting and a changeup in the kitten room



I received a message from Stephanie asking if she could come and get her kittens on Saturday night instead of Sunday as originally planned. Since I know that feeling of missing your kitties when you travel, I readily agreed.

Before she arrived, I was able to get the last of the mats off of Trixie, which I am quite proud of. I also had guests come over Saturday afternoon. Our friends Laurie and Peter stopped by to help celebrate the CatMan's birthday which is officially on Tuesday. Peter took a couple of wonderful slow motion videos of Nancy playing and I was able to get a copy and I edited it to the best parts.


I also want to thank Nancy for attempting to save me from the spider.



Then this happened..


Yes, I received an email and yes, I jumped at it.


My husband picked them up for me and found out they are from Mississippi. There is a girl (the solid tiger kitten) and a boy (the one with white) and are named Trina and Max, which I'm pretty sure I'll change. I was told they were in good health, and except for a few loose stools, things are going really well. They had to spend the first night in my bathroom because the girls were still in the basement. I found out rather quickly that they have a *LOT* to say about things. They woke me several times making suggestions about the accommodations (which was yet another reason I was okay with the girls going home a day early). They were very happy to move into the kitten room - warning, there is a bit of complaining at the beginning of the video.




Friday, February 24, 2017

Posing like a kitty should




I have to admit, this cat knows how to arrange herself for optimal cuteness. The first photo she is on my husband's gym bag. In the second she is in a basket I bought at a shelter fundraiser. I was hopeful someone would like it, but I know full when when I feel that way no one will use it... but somehow Muff thinks it is PERFECT for her and is in it frequently. Currently, the basket is up off the floor on my vibration plate (it helps my lymph system which is something that helps my lipedema) which basically makes it up on a pedestal. In case you were wondering, this indeed makes it the best place ever.

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Dinner with Fleurp and Chewy #chewyinfluencer


I am picky when it comes to the food my cats eat. I prefer that they eat raw food, but there are times when I need to rely on a can of food. Sometimes because there isn't enough raw thawed out for my six cats to eat, or because one of my cats isn't eating well and I need to entice them with something novel.

Fleurp has been falling under that latter category for a few weeks now. I am not sure I will ever understand why she will eat canned but not raw when her anemia starts acting up, but she does and I am willing to work with that.

When Chewy.com offered up a new and interesting canned food from Solid Gold in their influencers program that didn't have a lot of plant based ingredients I jumped at it. Solid Gold has created a line of food called Purrfect Pairings, a whipped mousse-like moist cat food that comes in a case of six 2.75 oz cups. I chose the Chicken and Goat Milk flavor.


She was none too pleased having to wait for me to take the photo and then open up the cup of food. When Fleurp hears me touch those little plates she becomes like Pavlov's dogs.


By now she was singing. She thought more photos were completely unnecessary. When I opened the cup I noticed a little bit of discoloring where the air sat in the container. I am used to this as it happens with meat baby food too. The ingredient list isn't perfect in my mind. I'm not a fan of pea protein in cat food, nor do I like it when they put fish in non-fish flavored foods. The flavor I tried did not have carrageenan, though, opting instead for guar gum.


Fleurp wanted me to know if I was going to go too slowly she was going to help herself.


Muffin really liked it, but Fleurp liked it so much that she decided to save a little for later.


Fleurp would like to thank Chewy for the opportunity but she's a little busy enjoying her little snack at the moment so I will say Thank You Chewy! 

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Adventures in Cat Sitting - part three




Yesterday was almost all about fun. I spent a little time holding each kitty until they asked to be put down and then we played.


These girls like to fly.

Their dynamic is very interesting. They have never been apart and the only other instance of siblings I know of is my own Muff and Eli who have a very contentious relationship because he loves to push her buttons and goat her into wrestling and she does not like it.

Trixie won't play if Nancy is on the playing field and Nancy won't play if Trixie is. Occasionally, they will but they are very cautious of one another, not wanting to start sparks which can happen if they both go after it at the same time. It is nice that they are respectful of one another.

I've been working on trying to capture just how orange the girls' eyes are, they are still light in these photos. I'm hopeful I can do it before they leave on Sunday.

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Adventures in Cat Sitting - part two


The girls are much more comfortable with me now. They really like playing with the mouse on a string toy and that makes up for a lot. Unfortunately, they aren't really food motivated, and they are free fed dry food so I'm not all that exciting when I show up.


Trixie still has some rather large mats on her hind end and she is still not all that interested in letting me take them off. I've gotten two and I was working on the third last night when she told me that she had more than enough of my shenanigans. I keep trying to tell her she'll feel better but she is not buying it. We ate dinner in the kitten room last night and my husband tried to offer them a little bit of his meat and no one wanted it. He didn't believe me when I told him they wouldn't be. A few minutes later we found Trixie investigating his plate.


Nancy likes to fly through the air. Unfortunately, her landings aren't always the most graceful. I'm hoping to catch a recording of it, but since she gets up to three feet in the air, she'll most likely jump right out of the viewing range

They are here until Sunday morning. I am hopeful that before they go they climb up into my lap for a little cuddle time, but if not, that is okay too.

Monday, February 20, 2017

Adventures in Cat Sitting



Taking care of Nancy and Trixie has been interesting. I am not the momma, so I'm not one they really turn to for comfort, but I do have hands that are nice for scratching chins and ears, so they have use of me.

The grumpy growling has abated quite a bit. I was asked to trim nails but the girls are not used to having their feet touched so I spent most of the weekend getting them used to being held by me and my touching their feet. Nancy came around rather quickly and I had her nails trimmed by Saturday. Trixie is much less trusting and she growls at me when I push too hard which sends Nancy into a set of growls. Trixie has a few mats on her pants and I've been trying to take care of those too. Fortunately, she is quick to forgive me but not so quick to forget. I shall go slow, and hopefully, I'll be able to get the rest of it taken care of soon.

On the home front, Fleurp is doing better weight wise. I'll probably start tapering her off the pred in the next few days. Muffin seems to be visiting the water bowl a little more often than necessary for a healthy cat, so I'll be keeping an eye on that. Skippy is currently curled up in my lap resting his head on my arm, it's kinda cute.

Friday, February 17, 2017

Former Foster Friday - guess who came for dinner


I reached out to Nancy and Trixie's mom to see if I could stop by and take some photos of her girls (formerly known as Wryn and Sprite)


They are just over a year old and are coming up on their "Gotcha Day" and I was hoping to invite myself over to get some photos. When I asked about stopping by I was met with a question "Do you know a good cat sitter?"

Do I know a good cat sitter? 😃

I offered to take care of the girls, but the more I thought about it the more I realized they might have more attention if they boarded at Casa de Gato. Since I have a spare room at the moment, it worked out nicely.

They are here until next Sunday morning.

Initially, everything went far better than I was expecting. They were both out and about and investigating and being social. Nancy became a little overwhelmed with the new scents and everything going on so she started growling at things. It was interesting because she was still rubbing on me while growling - it reminded me of Lemon - their mom who used to growl at the weirdest things.

It is easy to engage Nancy in play, which is a very good sign, but she seems disturbed by her sister, and I wonder if that might not be a scent thing, but her sister is giving her a wide berth. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being everything is awesome and I'm giving belly rubs and 1 is I'm worried about bloodshed, I think we are at a 7. I gave her a little Rescue Remedy and I'm fairly certain things will be calmer in the morning. If I am wrong and this goes downhill, I can always bring them back to their home and stop by twice a day to check on them.

The webcams are on if you want to check on them.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

The cats wonder when I'm going back to work



I took a couple of vacation days last week and then with only a half day of work on Friday, the weekend and then the snow day on Monday, I feel like it has been forever since I've been at work. I will say the rest was completely needed as I was feeling kind of burnt out and run down. Life is kinda harsh without kittens you know 😉

Snow. Yes, we received a bit of snow..


These images were taken at about nine am, and it didn't stop snowing until nearly 6 pm, so we received a couple more inches. Yes, the snow got inside the storm door.  The back deck was clear of snow last Wednesday, we received about a foot of snow last Thursday, and then this. The last photo is of the mailbox (and the neighbor's on the far right) Husband spent nearly three hours snow blowing the driveway once it was all over.. and we are slated to get two more feet on Thursday.. fun fun.. not.

Fleurp started showing signs of anemia. Her gums are still pink so I know her RBC hasn't dropped too far, but she started licking the mirror and her weight had dropped several ounces.


Fleurp's weight is normally around 11 lbs 10 oz. Any more than that and she really starts looking like a basketball with feet. Anything above 11 lbs 8 oz I consider good and 'safe'. Anything under 11 lbs 3 oz I consider a serious need to take her to the vet. She was eleven five. I weighed her the next morning just to be sure and she was eleven four and a half, so I started her on prednisolone. She hovered between four and a half to three and a half and I was starting to panic because I wasn't sure what else they could do for her. I started giving her liqui-tinic to boost her iron intake. But it was only when I started supplementing her with canned food that her weight started coming back up. I am fairly convinced that when her body is attacking its red blood cells she stops wanting to eat raw food. I have no idea why, but I think her early weight loss is the result of not eating.  She happily eats canned food and put the weight back on. I will continue to give her whatever she wants until she is stable again.  Last year it was once her coat was shed.

To help that along, I decided to help by shaving off some of the longer furs on her belly and some of her mane. She was not too amused by my attempts despite my attempts to make this as stress-free as possible. I fear that she had some traumatic events in the past with a vet I'm no longer going to which makes her fear the clippers because she associates it with blood draws. Anyway, I did my best, I went a little longer than I should have (and ended up with a warning bite on my arm for my troubles) but I was able to take off a good chunk..


She is not amused.. I'll probably try furminating her again later this week - Thursday if we have another snow day for sure.

Skippy hopes you have a lovely holiday


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