Cats love Core with #Chewyinfluencer

This month in Chewy.com Influencer Program (where I get to pick one or two items out of a set list for free in exchange for an honest review) I picked the Wellness Core Simply Shreds. I chose the Wild Salmon and Tuna flavor because my cats do not get a lot of fish and I would like to get more Omega 3s in my cats as the vet recommended them for Muffin's arthritis and her kidney issues.

Fleurp is quite excited to give it a try.

They are not meant to be a meal, but a snack or even an enticer if your kitty isn't interested in eating your regular meal for some reason.

Each package is quite small only 1.75 oz and it is mostly liquid (there is one ounce in each one) so opening it is an adventure in not getting fish broth on your hands. It comes in four flavors, three are fish based: the one I tried, Tuna and Shrimp, and Chicken and Mackeral. Because they have two types of proteins, these flavors have four ingredients. The protein sources, broth, and water. There is also a chicken flavor which only has three ingredients.

Despite being in a pouch, I found it hard to get the fish out so I had to use a spoon to pull the rest of the fish out. Fleurp wasn't a fan of waiting for me to dish it all out.

I let them have four packages among the six of them. I'm not sure how much Twee got because she tends to wait until the feeding frenzy slows down.

Fleurp says thank you to Chewy for the yummy treats. She just wishes I wasn't so stingy with them.

Hanging with the Catman

My husband has come down with a cold so there is a whole lot of this going on.

In case you can't tell, the Catman is back there covered in blankets and then cats. I'm sure he'll be better right quick, but it is always fun to remember that cats really want to hang out with you when you aren't feeling well.

A chair for Fleurp

Momma bought me a new throne to sit on, and I must say I think it makes me look good.

Just pay no attention to Muffin trying to ruin this perfectly good photoshoot I had going on.

~~~~~

Our new living room is much smaller than our old house, and so the sectional we had doesn't fit. We have a love seat and a big comfy chair (Eli's throne) in there now but we could use a new chair or two. We stopped by a Pier One and saw the Addyson Chair and we bought it. I'm contemplating buying a second one and might have if they had it in the store.. but we still have decisions on what we want to do with that room in general, so I haven't bought it yet. We'll see.

Working in the kitten room

I was working in the kitten room this weekend going through several rolls of fabric I was given when I was still in Maine. I like having large pieces of fabric to make backgrounds to take photos of kittens and my office was right next to a business that made custom upolstry fabrics. They would often order samples and no longer need them and instead of throwing them out they would come to our office and offer them to us. I grabbed everything that was left over from what the other women wanted and I ended up with a few decent sized pieces that would work as a backdrop.

Skippy thought he would help me test the out.. but I am not sure he thought they were really appropriate..

Mom, are you sure this isn't too busy? and where is my bowtie?

I have a new bow tie? COOL!

IDK, stripes just aren't my thing.. 

What do you think Fleurp? 

I agree, we look much better without the backdrop

They totally refused to sit still, even with the promise of treats, until I removed the backdrops. Just something you have to deal with when photographing cats I guess. I was quickly running out of daylight and there is no light fixture in this room yet (we are going to hire an electrician to put one in) so I didn't really have time to wait for them to cooperate.

I now have a total of nine different backdrops and a nice pile of fabric that was just too small to work that I am going to try to turn into something.. either catnip toys or cat beds. We'll see. Since right now I don't have anywhere to set up my sewing machine, it will be a while before I get to it.

Off on an adventure with Fleurp

Remember last week when I mentioned how I thought my new blue walls were great for photoshopping?

Two of my readers took me up on that challenge. First there was Rene:

and then I received one from Debra:

Looks like Fleurp had a lot of fun! 🐱

Sisters - Fleurp and Muffin

I find it interesting that these two hang out together. They both have such strong personalities I would have thought they would prefer to avoid each other. They don't hang out a lot, but they do regularly..

Don't these walls scream photoshop?

Every time I try to take a photo in the bedroom which we ended up painting a nice bright (TARDIS?) blue, I think about how awesome it would to photoshop something interesting in the background.. except my photoshop skills leave a lot to be desired..

Anyone else want to give it a shot?

I am king of this castle

Or at very least this chair..

The cleanest mouse in the house

You know it was bound to happen with six cats in the house.. one of the cats put a toy in the laundry and we didn't notice until it came out the other side.

Eli's great disappointment with #GoogleArtsandCulture

We were watching the news this morning and they were talking about the Google Arts and Culture app where you take a selfie and they show you what artwork looks like you. Eli really wanted to play

I downloaded the app and sadly it just doesn't work on kitties. Neither does Celebslike.me so I did a google image search.. Google thought I wanted to learn about whiskers. I kept digging and eventually got google to tell me that Eli looks like Penelope Pussy Cat

But I wasn't sure how he would react if I said looked like a girl.. I try to get my cats to be accepting of diversity and not be insulted by such things, but google wasn't really committed to saying he looked like Penelope so I thought I'd tell him he looked like Pepe,

but at this point, he had completely lost interest and wandered away

A long winter's nap

Wordless Wednesday - random photo from the blog

(this photo isn't 100% random. the first image I chose was something I didn't really want to share again, so I picked again. This one is from June 2015)

A look at FeLV aka Feline Leukemia

When you spend any time around cats without homes, you run into the illnesses that affect them. Most of them are described in acronyms; FIV (Feline immunodeficiency virus), Felv (Feline Leukemia), FIP (Feline infectious peritonitis), Feline coronavirus (FoCV), just to name a few. Today I want to take a look at FeLV commonly known as Feline Leukemia.

Jack - exposed and diagnosed with FeLV in 2003/ FeLV- in 2004

Feline Leukemia is unlike leukemia in many ways, so the fact that they have the same name is very misleading. Leukemia is cancer of the body's blood-forming tissues, including the bone marrow and the lymphatic system.¹ Feline leukemia is a retrovirus, a virus that changes their genetic characteristics, that can cause tumors (mainly lymphoma), bone marrow suppression syndromes (mainly anemia), and lead to secondary infectious diseases caused by suppressive effects of the virus on bone marrow and the immune system.²

FeLV is less common now than it was twenty years ago. The experts believe it is due to better testing and proper management of cats who are found to be positive to prevent them from spreading the disease. There is also a vaccine for FeLV that is 80-90% effective so if your cat is free roaming and comes in contact with a FeLV+ cat their chances of contracting the disease is greatly reduced.

Our knowledge of FeLV continually evolves. When it was first discovered, many assumed it was an automatic death sentence. Unfortunately, many vets and shelters still subscribe to this philosophy thinking they are saving the cat from a painful death and preventing the spread of the disease. But with the information we now know, euthanizing a cat simply because it tests positive is happening far less.

We do know that the virus is communicable and that cats pass the feline leukemia virus to other kitties through saliva, nasal secretions, urine, feces, prior to birth from an infected mom or after birth from her milk, through bite wounds, via grooming of each other, and by sharing food dishes and litter boxes.³ It was once thought that the virus was quite hardy and that it would survive in the environment for a long time but they found out that it can only survive a few hours at most.³ and some people believe that it only lasts a few minutes.⁴  So if you come in contact with a FeLV+ cat, it would be highly unlikely that you could bring that virus home to your cats.

We also know that cats who do test positive can live long happy healthy lives⁵. Not every case of infection is active. While we can't say for certain they will survive their normal lifespan, we can't guarantee that for any cat. My cat, Kit, passed away at age nine from cancer. My other cat Ollie passed away from vaccine-induced sarcoma at age eleven.

As something to consider, there has been some work with FeLV and Vitamin C⁶. Dr. Wendell O Belfield had some pretty interesting success stories regarding FeLV and FIV and vitamin C. I know that the veterinarian community as a whole is not convinced that it helps, but read Dr. Belfield's book, you will find it fascinating. If you are willing to think outside the box, it might help you as well.

Dreaming of Spring

It is just too freakin cold here to do much of anything but hibernate.  While the kitties are enjoying that, my to-do list is not. Fortunately, it is supposed to warm up here this week. Fingers crossed it does.

A great big thank you

You have no idea how flippin excited I was to find this on my doorway yesterday. I was absolutely giddy with delight. I had seen this container posted on Facebook something like two years ago and I have been searching for one (okay, fine, not very aggressively, but actively) ever since. Apparently, Dee knew me well enough that when she saw it at her local store she grabbed one for me and it totally MMD!!  Thank you, Dee!! This freakin rocks (and it looks like Scottish kittens don't wear anything under their kilts either)

Now, for those of you who were wondering, as I totally was, if the cookies inside were kitten shaped..

They are not. I know the Walkers Scotty Dog cookies are dog shaped, but these kitten ones are not. I am surprisingly okay with it though, as I am not sure I could have eaten kitten cookies.

I also want to send a great big thank you to each and every one of you who sent cards to me. We were so light on Christmas decorations this year, because of the move, that it was nice to have something to brighten up the kitchen.

I loved each and every one and they are currently being moved from the kitchen to my secret stash of cards people have sent me.

...but I am giving bonus points to Amy J for sending me a card with a cat's behind prominently displayed. I laughed so hard, and every time I looked at it I smiled. I mean seriously, what is Christmas without a cat butt in your face?

For those of you who didn't request a holiday card from me, here is this year's card:

I had one returned to me for an improper address, and so if anyone who wanted a card didn't get one, you can just let me know by emailing me at connie @ kittyblog.net as I still have plenty. Hopefully next year we can get back to kittens on my cards

I am King of the Castle

Where ever I sit is the best seat in the house.

Everyone is always tryin to horn in on my attentions, but ALL the attentions belongs to me..

The Royal Photographer then tried to get all artsy.. But I decided it was time for those attentions I like so much

Wordless Wednesday - Personal Space Dude..

Sending good thoughts to Lion and his family

Five years ago we fostered little Lion. He showed up here with his siblings and covered in burrs. He went on to be adopted by a couple the CatMan and I have become friends with over the years.

Over the holiday Lion found himself some ribbon and gobbled it down rather quickly when no one was paying attention. Fortunately, it came out okay, but while at the vet being checked over he caught a bit of a cold and then passed it on to his siblings and none of them are eating at this point.

I hope by the time this is published everyone is eating again and his parents can get a break from the stress of it all.

Tails from the Foster Kittens - a year in review

January:

2017 started out kittenless and I was grasping for things to blog about so I talked to you about an unconventional rescue I was a part of and learning about the unicorn I adopted. I also performed major surgery on Raffe and then poof..

I had another kitten to take care of. Rupert. Rupert was a stealer of hearts and super adorable, unfortunately, he was very ill and we could not fix him. After caring for him for several weeks he was returned to the shelter to make a final determination as to what could be done for him and it was decided it was kinder to let him go.

Eli started showing signs of illness that didn't turn into anything (which happened this January too, so I will have to keep an eye out next January) and I had a little fun with a feather Jack got stuck in his tail.

February:

I went to the shelter to take some photos of shelter kitties. I also did a recap of life with my cats and their various health concerns. February is notorious for being kittenless so I usually do a found of Former Foster Friday posts and this year was no different. I also was able to offer my foster room to two former fosters who needed a place to hang out while their mom went on vacation

at the very end of the month, another set of kittens were bestowed upon us.

March:

Max and Trina were brought up from Mississippi and had some fun adventures here including their first taste of raw food. Jack had a little issue with a toy mouse and the magnet on his collar that had me laughing so hard. I then did a little house cleaning of some sponsored posts I wanted to talk about before heading down to Florida. Jack fell in love with a Polar Bear rug Rachel sent us, and the amazing Julie from Cats Going Places offered to put me up so we could go to Global together. It was a very interesting and nearly overwhelming experience. It was so nice to be staying in a home with cats to decompress each evening. We even went to a cat cafe.

April:

I was without kittens most of April, so I went back to the shelter to take more photos of shelter cats. Once again, I talked about not gifting rabbits for Easter. While I do believe it is possible to give a pet as a present responsibly, too many people believe rabbits are fully capable of surviving on their own so they get them with the intention of releasing them when they are tired of dealing with them.

I learned of the loss of a former foster Abby, who came into the shelter because she was diabetic and then never found a real home. She was fortunate to have a serious of foster homes in her last years and I am very grateful for that.

I tried to keep the blog interesting by sharing a few amusing things that happened like losing the auto duster and Jack being all handsome on the polar bear rug.

May:

I decided to reorganize the kitten room, which was a project in and of itself. I am of the belief that when I clean and set up the kitten room, kittens will come and low and behold...

Sherlock and Watson arrived at Casa de Gato and they had some fun. They were only meant to be short-term fosters, and when Watson was having a hard time fighting off a bug, after one trip up to see the vet they decided to keep them just to make sure they got over it before going up for adoption, and we were given Aloe and Aaron.

June:

Aloe and Aaron had just arrived and we were getting to know one another. They were a fun pair of kittens and I enjoyed having them immensely.

I took my own cats to the vet, which is always an adventure, and also went back to the shelter to take more photos of shelter kitties.

Aloe and Aaron were adopted and I brought home another set of kittens nicknamed the SuperHero Kittens.

They were another set of short-term fosters while they reach size to be neutered.

July:

I didn't think I would have kittens again for a while so I started with a series of "Then and Now" for my cats letting you see them as kittens as they all started life here as fosters. Jack, Muffin, Eli, Twee, Fleurp, Skippy. I had to interrupt that series though because we were able to get two more fosters

Yukon and Potato gave me a lot to work with in regards to amusing blog post titles.

Muffin and Fleurp had a canned food eating contest. They both have been clamoring for a rematch ever since.

Yukon and Potato went back for adoption and we received another set of super adorable kittens.

August:

These kittens were very short-term, but we had a couple of Nebelung lookalikes in the bunch so it was a lot of fun.

I created another "What I Know" post about dealing with mouthy kittens, I volunteered at a performance of the AcroCats in Portland and celebrated Black Cat Appreciation Day

I then brought home four more kittens who needed a little socialization

September:

The kittens came down with a touch of something that was making them feel wonky. I brought them up to the shelter to be observed and they improved rather quickly so the shelter kept them and put them up for adoption. I finally admitted we were looking to move to Vermont after having spent months looking for a new home. We were having such trouble because the CatMan was going to cover the whole state and there was no one location where there would be an office (but there will be one day and we were trying to guess where that might be) We both had some pretty specific requirements too - mine being a kitten room and a shelter to foster for and a vet nearby - and we probably looked at 100 homes. We finally settled on a house just outside of Vermont in NH - but that is for a different part of this review.

It was hard for me to not have kittens so I started blogging about caring about the Monarch caterpillars that were in my garden. I even tried to bring one in to watch it hatch.

October:

October was a little slow. I blogged about my cats, about a piece of tartar I pulled off of Twee's tooth, and the hatching of the chrysalis I found outside

I had started packing and doing so was stressing the cats out pretty bad.

November:

We were still packing and were dealing with moving into the new house. We had some issues that delayed our original move date of November 11th (the anniversary of Kit's death)

We ended up moving the Monday before Thanksgiving and we have been attempting to adapt to new work schedules, new home, new stores, new everything. I thought it should be a while before I started fostering as the cats really needed to get used to the house first. This left a huge hole in my heart as well as this blog, only having ten posts in November and ten more in December.

December:

The Crew took this move much harder than the last one, I am assuming because they are much older.  We have had a few trips to the vet to make sure they are in good health, and we spent most of the month attempting to finish moving out of Casa de Gato. We are 99% finished at the end of the month and basically just have to get the realtor to the house to take photos and put it up online. I really need it to sell quickly if for no other reason to be done with this whole thing. It hasn't been a full year we are dealing with it, but it feels like it.

I wasn't sure we were going to put up the Christmas Tree this year as the one we have is nine foot and our ceilings are much shorter. We found a place to put it and we once again decorated it in my favorite way.

And for those of you keeping track, it was Fleurp who was the first one to remove a toy from the tree.

Christmas was quite special for The Crew, as Santa brought them a real live mouse!!

I have been quite paranoid in the past week thinking they have found another, but each time it ends up just being a 'practice' mouse and they are so annoyed that I interrupt their training. Twee even worked on ambushing her mouse by putting her training mouse on the stairs to the bed and 'ambushing' it.

I will be going to the local shelters in the next couple of weeks to introduce myself and sign up for kittens. Hopefully, I'll find one that is importing kittens and needs help during the winter. I'm guessing not as it will be April or May before I have kittens again. Only time will tell.

I hope you enjoyed this small recap of the year and may the next recap find us all still together.

2017 Foster Stats: 23 kittens, two caterpillars, one unicorn.

Year in Review:

• 2016
• 2015
• 2014