Monday, July 31, 2017

Step right up and get your fluffkins right here.


These kittens are killing me. They are so sweet that they start purring as soon as you walk in the room. They eat well which always makes me love kittens and they like it when I pick them up and give them a good cuddle. The girls all seem to be a little jealous when you are giving attention to the others, which is downright adorable. The boys are always the first one up in my lap, but they are absolutely everywhere all at once, so I'm not quite sure that counts.

However, they do not like to sit still, so these were the best close up images I was able to capture. I'll have to try again soon.


Since they are only here until they are ready for their booster vaccines, they will be going back on the sixth.

Saturday, July 29, 2017

Um, Skippy, watch out!!



Looks like we placed the cat tree a little too close to the ceiling fan, which was running when I took this photo and I'm pretty sure Skippy was wondering how on earth he was going to make his attack.

Friday, July 28, 2017

The kittens have names..


I was told: "Shane is the Buff&White male, Shay is the buff male. Sadie is the grey&white female, Sandy is the grey female with thumbs, and Sara is the grey female!"

Shane

Shay

Sadie

Sandy

Sara

Thursday, July 27, 2017

This is not Jack...




Neither is this...


and I know you know this isn't Jack either...


I'm sure you have guessed by now I have five new fosters to care for. They were transfers from... somewhere... and they were neutered but they are going to hang out here a couple of weeks until they are ready for their vaccine boosters. The two buff kitties are boys. The one with white feet is polydactyl. The three gray cats are girls. One is polydactyl, one has white feet and bib, and the third (the one in the very first photo) looks just like Jack did as a kitten.  I didn't get any paperwork with them, so I don't know if they have names. I will ask and report back what I find out. If they force me to name them,  you know one is going to be Jacqueline and the other Jackie 😸

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

A Donation for the Shelter Bunnies #chewyinfluencer




This month's Chewy.com Influencer "free product for an honest review" Program's list also had a nice bag of Oxbow Essential's Adult Rabbit Food. It has been a while since I made a donation to the shelter for the bunnies, something I like to do from time to time so I asked if they would be okay with my asking for that product and donating it. Chewy was fine with the idea.

Rabbits should eat mostly hay and dark leafy green veggies but adding in a bit of rabbit food each day makes sure you hit all of their nutritional needs. I found it quite interesting that I saw this particular brand being sold at my vet's office when I was just recently in there, so you know it has my vet's approval.

Rabbits also need to chew constantly to help wear down their teeth.I thought using the Chewy Box to make some chewy toys would be a great idea.  I bought a bag of Timothy Hay to make the toys more interesting.

I checked out Pinterest to find some ideas for DIY cardboard rabbit toys.  There were some really amazing projects but I wanted to keep it simple. I used this pin and this pin for inspiration.

Since I had just acquired myself an empty roll of toilet paper, I thought I'd make the simplest of rabbit chewies first. Shove timothy hay in the tube.


Done! Wasn't that simple? The bunny that gets this can eat the hay and chew the cardboard to reveal more. They can also "nose" the roll around the cage for something to do.

Creating cardboard Xs is another simple toy for rabbits. They can chew them, pick them up and toss them around and dig at them with their feet.  I cut the short sides of the Chewy.com Box off and cut them in half.


For the longer sides, I had wanted to create more stuffed chew toys like the toilet paper roll one, but I could not place my hands on my natural twine.  If I had found it, it would have looked a lot like the one below with the pink ribbon.  I probably would have put two or three ties on it to give the bunny something to investigate and chew on as well. I made sure all of the tape was off the box first.


But alas, no twine, so I decided to shove hay through holes in "cards" of cardboard. Jack thought he needed to help me at this point and his distraction led me to not get any photos of the final project. I cut both long ends into four squares and then cut holes in the middle.  For several of them, I kept the simple approach and just shoved a tuft of hay in one card. For others, I used two or three cards to make the toy a little more 'challenging"


I piled everything up in the base of the Chewy.com box. I decided to not deconstruct it and make more toys for two reasons, one it made an awesome carrying case and for another, it might be a nice for the shelter to have the box to give to a rabbit to chew on.

I then called the shelter and spoke to Peter (no, the coincidence did not escape me) and asked him what they might like for some goodies for the rabbits. Shelters will often get large donations of greens so I wanted to make sure I wasn't buying anything they didn't need. He asked for some apples, some dark leafy greens and some cilantro because it helps them wake up from surgery (which I had never heard of before). I stopped at the grocery store on my way to the shelter, and thought a few boxes of popciles for the staff would be nice because it was such a warm day.


All told, the donation cost me just under $20 and it was very much appreciated.


Peter let me feed some craisins to the rabbits and I had to be mighty careful that this little girl (above) didn't try to nibble on my fingertips which still smelled like them. You can almost hear her asking "Hey, Lady, you got any more of them craisins??"

The small animal area consists of two rooms and in the 'office' area they leg the rabbits run around for some exercise. Here is another cool cardboard box craft. The two bunnies in the box really love the green tube and seemed to prefer to use that enterence.


Peter and I talked bunnies for a few minutes and he let me pet a few of them. Sometimes it still really hurts that I feel can't have a rabbit right now due to what happened with Bri (she came down with a URI which I believe she caught from Skippy) Rabbits do make wonderful pets if you are prepared to deal with their unique needs.

Thank you to Oxbow and Chewy.com for being the inspiration for this donation. I hope it leads to other people thinking about supporting nontraditional shelter animals.

Oxbow is currently having a giveaway until August 31st. Nominate your favorite shelter to win $5,000

Monday, July 24, 2017

A cat food eating contest with Muffin and Fleurp #chewyinfluencer



I've often considered doing a cat food eating contest with Muffin and Fleurp. They both seem to inhale food rather quickly, but each one has their own method of eating. When this month's Chewy Influencer offerings in the influencer program where I receive free product for an honest review included a Blue Buffalo Wilderness Pate Variety Pack I thought this would be a good opportunity.


Muffin and Fleurp were so anxious to participate that getting a nice photo of them with the box wasn't easy. They received quite a few treats to try to get them to line up, so they weren't quite up to their usual level of food inhalation when the 'contest' finally started. I asked the Catman if I should pick the chicken, duck or salmon and he suggested the chicken.


They really enjoyed this little bit of fun but there really wasn't a clear winner. Who do you think "won"?


Ever since the contest, both Muffin and Fleurp have been begging for a rematch. Fleurp thinks we need to go two out of three so she can try the duck and salmon. Muffin is a bit more aggressive and suggests they go seven out of twelve - or twelve out of twelve if there is only ever one winner - because the food is just sitting there and she really wants it.

Friday, July 21, 2017

Why I don't say congratulations to a kitty when it is adopted




So, I thought I would take a moment and address something that I think is important. I know this is a very minor thing, but words matter. Words we use about cats and dogs can also make a huge difference in how they are perceived by others

Often, when hanging out on social media, I see posts about cats looking for homes. When I see that they are adopted people often say "Congratulations" to the kitty. I never will.

Way back when I was getting married, I was told by someone that you offer best wishes to the bride and congratulations to the groom. The reason being that it is a bit offensive to imply that the bride needed luck to catch herself a groom.

"Congratulations" to the bride implies that she is to be congratulated for being lucky enough to land a husband, when the luck is more properly assigned to the husband for getting such a wonderful wife.

When I thought about it, I realized this applies to cats as well. They are beautiful creatures that all deserve a home. Whoever adopts them should consider themselves lucky to have been able to bring such a beautiful creature home. This is why I always say congratulations to the people and I send my best wishes to the kitties.

Thursday, July 20, 2017

My cat is lucky he is so cute



Jack is still having some health issues and as a result, he is peeing inappropriately again. It is so frustrating because I know he doesn't mean to drive me up the wall, he just is really good at it.

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Connie Can Craft - a gift for a friend



When I met Stephanie (who adopted Nancy and Trixie) I was in a position to help her adopt. She was about to move and her daughter had brought her into the shelter to get her to start thinking about adopting some kitties. Stephanie fell in love with my little foster kittens but didn't feel comfortable adopting two small kittens when she was about to move, so I offered to kitten sit for her, my only requirement was that she adopt them and make it official, which she was willing to do.

I was blessed that Stephanie has continued to share her girls with me and I wanted to give her a little gift to celebrate the girl's first birthday. Unfortunately, the timing didn't work out so she received this in honor of their gotcha day.

This project started out with a frame I found when my neighbor had a yard sale. I didn't realize that the silver paint trim wasn't complete until I got it home. I also was thinking I needed to do something with the backing.


The first thing was to paint the missing silver (see above photo, top left side) I dug around in my supplies and found a silver paint and so I tapped off the frame and gave it a go.


Unfortunately, my silver was a little too gray, so I decided camouflage was my best option. I dug around in my supplies again and found some Modge Podge and some white glitter.


While that dried, I thought I'd attack the back panel. More digging and I found my stash of scrapbooking papers and I found a pretty print that was large enough. More Modge Podge and that junky backer now looked really pretty. No one will really see it, but I'm happy to know it now looks pretty.


So I printed out a nice kitten photo of each of the kittens and then assembled the whole thing once it was dry.


Stephanie really appreciated the gift and the girls really enjoyed the box and the tissue paper. I was happy to be able to do something nice for her.

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

More baby pictures


Jack

Jack and Eli

Jack, Catman, Eli

Muffin after a bath

Muffin enjoying our return from Walmart

Muffin her sister and her mother.

Muffin

Muffin and Eli - back when they liked each other

Muffin and Kodi and the Catman

Eli

Eli

Twee, her mom and her siblings

Kit

Fleurp

Skippy

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