Former Foster Toby

I saw Tobin again today.. He's now called Toby.. and apparently he is a major terror.. but he looks incredible.. Very bright eyed and healthy looking. Did my heart good to see him. I know the shelter does what it can to find good homes, but I do know people lie or end up being overwhelmed with kittens.. so I'm sure that some of them aren't as happy as others.. but all the ones I've ever seen again afterwards are doing well.

and they are gone in record time...

So I brought the terror four into work with me today so I could be there when they were available for adoption.. I'm glad I did cause they were all adopted within an hour. The first to go was Tobin, and he was picked out while I was still at work. I brought him out front to cuddle with him for a bit, and one of the clients who came in fell in love with him. I told her that he'd be up for adoption shortly after noon time.. and she showed up.. then another woman showed up with her daughter and her friend. She took Kodi and Anika. That left poor Tig all alone. I tried to get the woman who took Tobin to take him, but she already has two older cats, and she worried what they would think of two new kitties. Then there was a husband and wife with two young - school age - kids. I tried to pawn him off on them, but she said she already had an orange kitty and was looking for a little diversity. She ended up taking two of another set of fosters. Then a young guy came in took one look at Tig and said he was the man. :) it seemed like the perfect fit. I had such a good feeling about it that I didn't ask any of the normal questions.. Amy went and asked him, and he had all the right answers. He said he was a new home owner and he thought it was time. I was there when they went over the application and he was born in 1980!! oh my goodness I felt old then. But I just knew it was a good fit.

Pictures from the last few days


Ok.. we're back in a cage.. what's going on?

OMG.. do you know what they just did to us..
Man I'm sleepy.. 

What a beautiful day to be adopted 

oh no.. not ANOTHER car ride

Kodi: oh man what a long day

Tigger: I might have been last, but I like my new dad..

back in business

For those of you who don't know, I live in New England. We just had a massive autumn storm come through here.. wind.. rain.. the works. It took my power out, and the power of about 20 surrounding cities. I was without power for 27 hours, then without internet access for another 24. It wasn't pretty to be me. But I've now gone through all 200 emails, and I'm so ready for bed. Got to work in the morning, then bring the kits in to the shelter to be adopted.

I brought them into the clinic to be neutered on Wednesday. It was fun. I got a couple of really good pictures, but the camera is somewhere not near the computer at the moment, so I'll have to work on those a bit later. Brought them home Wednesday night.. realized I didn't have power. Gave them a small amount of food - cause they hadn't eaten all day but I was worried that they would be nauseous from the anesthesia. Left the room, tried to entertain myself.. and not let the kittens get burned with candles.. Went back into the kitten room later and gave them some more food.. you almost wouldn't know what they had just gone through. They were a bit subdued, but only those of us who spent any time with them would have noticed.

They are all of good health, except Ennui. She has a bit of a heart murmur. There was a bit of a disagreement of exactly how bad it was. They grade murmurs on a scale of 1 to 6. the first doc thought 2-3.. the other thought 3-4. I let Taz know when I got home, explained what the doctors told me about what that meant for her (that she could grow out of it, or it could mean some heart trouble and she'd live a shortened life) and let Taz and her family decide if they still wanted to adopt Ennui, and *yay* they did. So Thursday morning - sans power - I got ready and meet her at the shelter. Was so hard handing her over as she was so confused why she wasn't with her brothers anymore... but from the sounds of it, she's doing just fine in her new home - like there was ever any doubt.

Thursday afternoon, the clinic called the shelter about some kittens they were spaying. Two of them had URI, so they wouldn't spay them, so the shelter called me and asked me to take them.. so now I have those two in a cage downstairs.. it's not the most ideal setting for them, but its temporary till Saturday night when I can clean the kitten room, and move them upstairs. My friend Rachel who fosters has a sick kitten she wants me to take care of.. he's got URI as well.. and.. get this.. a "large penis". Not exactly sure what that means.. will have to have a nice discussion about that and the care when I see her this weekend.

speaking of those kittens.. I need to get off this computer and go medicate them.. I still have a bunch of things to catch up on, but they can wait.

We have solid poop!!

yes.. yes yes.. I know you're all totally thrilled.. almost took a picture of it to share with ya all.. :) FINALLY mom's stool is nice and solid and looks like it should She left it right on top of the litter so I'd see it.. lol (ya'll will never look at butterscotch pudding the same way again!)

Kittens are going to the vet on Thursday barring any complications. I called the shelter to let them know they were ready and the clinic could do them. Taz is going to adopt Ennui.. for the few of you who visit here who don't know Taz, she's a friend of mine I met through Neopets We found out a while back that we live fairly close to one another.. when another of my sets of foster kittens were available for adoption, and she ended up taking two - Domino and Isabell who she named Minou.. and now she'll have three - of mine, four altogether. I'm very glad that Ennui is getting a good home, and that I'll get to see her from time to time. :) (now if I can only convince her hubby to let her have Tigger as well)

I bought my own kitties some kitty ice cream.. its high in protein low in sugars.. Jack liked it.. but Muffin loved it. My kitties are so silly.

Stool issues

so I went into the kitten room yesterday and was in there for a while. Mom went poop again, and there was a bit of formation, so I was getting optimistic, but then she went again and it was very very loose. again with the freshly made pudding. so I brought in yet another sample.. still negative. The doc consulted with the herbalist, and she recommended feeding her mice. Yup. The perfect cat food.. honestly. It has all the nutrients a cat needs.. like it was made to eat mice. But alas, I can't do that to the poor little mice. She also recommended white fish. but I don't do fish. She recommended pork.. now that I can do. so I run out to the store and get some pork.. torture my own kitties cooking it, bring it in the kitten room, torture the kittens by giving it only to mom, who does not want it. Poor thing. Although she did go poop once again and this time it was actually formed. So.. now do I give up and let the kittens eat the pork, or do I leave her alone with the pork and hope she eats it?

The kittens are all growing up wonderfully.. they are calming down a smidge.. almost to the point where I wouldn't call them obnoxious anymore. Not there yet, but close. Starting to become considerate and cute and cuddly... starting.. :)

the kitten cuteness can be overwhelming

The kittens reached the age a week or two or three ago where they start becoming overwhelming. If you've never had five 8 week old kittens in the house, then it really is mayhem. The other day they learned they could jump on the computer table and use that to get on higher shelves on the shelving units in the room. I keep the bottom shelf empty, but since they normally can't get to the second and third shelves, those are full of stuff. Well, the other day they got up on the shelf and pushed all kinds of stuff off it and into the litter box, which they then proceeded to use. It couldn't have been comfortable, but they knew it was mayhem, and thus needed to be done.

They also enjoy looking out the door to the rest of the house. I keep a gate up so they can't escape easily. However, they are at the point that if they tried they could get past the gate, fortunately, none of them have tried up until today when I saw Anika on the top of the gate about ready to bound into the rest of the house. bad kitty. So if they don't go back soon, my hands are going to be super full.

speaking of going back.. I weighed them the other day and I could have sworn that Ennui was 2.25 lbs.. today (and yesterday too) she was only 2lbs. Yesterday I figured it was just because they ran out of food and she ran herself silly.. and a whole bunch of other excuses. Now I'm wondering if the scale wasn't off when I weighed her. I'm hoping that it's nothing. She seems in great health.

Today after I fed them, I picked Ennui up and cuddled her. She's into cuddling and immediately started drifting into a kitty nap. Tigger stopped by and I started cuddling him. After a few moments, he started drifting too. Kodi stopped by.. I snuggled him into the group.. oh it was a site.. I wish I would have been able to take a picture for you.. although Kodi liked attacking my necklace, and my earrings, and then when those were no longer an option, my nose. How can such terrors be so overwhelmingly cute??

can we say.. obnoxious.. I knew we could.. :)

These kittens.. I swear.. are the worst set of kittens I've had to date. They are cute.. don't get me wrong.. but O.. M.. C.. what a pain. I had to lock the boys up in the crate to get any cleaning done.. and even then the girls were in my way. One of them had thrown their little pink mouse in the water bowl, so the water was all pink.. not a good sign for a toy if you ask me.. so out it all went.. Mom's stool is once again the consistency of warm peanut butter, but she's looking and acting much better, so I'm not going to worry about it so much. I'm sure once the kittens are gone and she's on a regular scheduled she'll be regular again. If she makes a turn for the worse I'll bring her in to the vets.

So anyway.. Took forever to clean up the room tonight.. when I was done I spent some time cuddling. They are all VERY mouthy, but with a little bit of the me-OW! treatment they stop... except Kodi.. MAN that kitten is obnoxious.. he bit every bit of me he could. my arm. my leg, my fingers, my toes.. and he cares very little about the fact that he's hurting me. I tried to get him to cuddle.. it was quite hard. Finally calmed him down a smidge, and the second I stopped patting him he was right back to biting me. I finally gave up and attempted to leave.. but I was covered in kittens. I tempted them off with toys, got up, shook Kodi off my foot cause he was biting my toe again.. walked toward the door, shook Kodi off my food again, and again.. (yes.. obnoxious) and finally made it out... thankgoodness for that baby gate. If they EVER figure out they can get over it, I'm in big trouble. So I'm sitting out here checking my mail (now obviously blogging) and listening to them kill each other.. I'm thinking one more week and they'll be big enough. Maybe not Ennui.. but hopefully she isn't far behind them.

New foster kitty picts

ennui is right on the top.. then there is a series of picts where anika got a hold of a mouse and would NOT let it go.. she kept growling and running away from her siblings..

That's Tobin hanging off the cage door..
Kodi is standing on the mop.
Tobin looking all innocent on the cage door again with kodi attacking it.

rain 1.. eli.. 0

Eli must have been out in the catio when the rain started this morning, cause he came in complaining and soaking wet. :) poor kitty.

also took a nice picture of Jack with his new collar..



The kittens are getting quite big. They are so cute now.. probably a week or two left. The metro didn't go over very well, but we forced it in mom.. her stools are still kinda soft, but she seems a lot better.. she doesn't seem so skinny, and her belly doesn't feel so lumpy. it's so hard to not give in and give her wet food when I give it to the kittens.. I try to keep it small. it's even harder not to give wet food to the kittens.. Kittens can be SO demanding..

(update 2016 - I would never not give a cat wet food knowing what I know now about nutrition. Giving a cat who has diarrhea only dry food is a sure fire way to dehydrate them. That is not how you cure diarrhea)

Gonna get you!!

and she smells like flea shampoo

Went to the shelter after work to help out with the adoptions. 11 kittens up for adoption today. There wasn't a whole heck of a lot to do, no one really had any questions about kittens - usually not a good sign that they are going to a good home.. unless of course they are like me and there isn't much to ask.. save for what kind of food they have been on. So I helped out back a bit and gave a bath to four very cute kittens.

Last night I separated Butterscotch from the kittens, by leaving them in the cage and letting her have run of the room. She's looking quite haggard, and I figured she could use a breather. I think she was glad. She showed a bit of concern that the kittens were distressed over not being able to get out, but on the whole looked relaxed. I cleaned the room up (a daily chore with them) and left for the night. This morning she left three HUGE piles of poo in the litter box, and they were the consistency and color of warm peanut butter. I brought in a stool sample, and the vet said there was a lot of fat in it, but no worms.. so she gave me a dewormer - which is pretty standard in any cat with stool issues, and some metro. She recommended that I not feed her wet food, and only give dry cat food. Not the best for the kittens, but I can work something out to get them what they need, and keep her from getting to it.

I ordered a new collar for Jack. It came in today. It's purple with pumpkins on it. It's a little darker than it is in the picture, but its cute. I'm going to take a picture of him wearing it and send it in so the woman who made it can put on her website.. now if only I can get Jack to take a nice picture.. You know him.. not too into sitting still.

Vaccines

Saturday I took the kittens in to work with me so hopefully the shelter was coming to pick up or drop off animals, but sadly they weren't. I called up a friend of mine to come and bring them to the shelter.. they needed their first distemper shot and dose of dewormer. Well they sat in their carrier unattended for the hour and a half they were there till I showed up. I gave mom a bath there.. she REEKED of urine.. I have no idea what is going on with her.. hopefully, whatever it is it will clear its self up when she's no longer nursing. The kittens didn't much care that they were in the carrier all day.. they just slept through most of it... probably nursed through the rest of it.

While I was at the shelter I noticed that someone had donated a number of bags of DM food. It was slightly expired, but food is still good after the expiration date.. probably not as fresh tasting, but it's still good. Emmy is on DM, and even with my working for the vet so I get it at cost +5% it's still obnoxiously expensive.. so I asked if they were going to feed it to anyone.. they weren't, so I asked for it and got it. Em has been doing really well on the food.. in just the past few days the improvements seem to have been in leaps and bounds. She's been on it for probably a month or so after the few weeks of transition. Her fur looks nicer. she doesn't seem to have as much dandruff, and she's been a bit more of a pain in general... she must be feeling great :) I just wish she'd lose a little weight.. great big kitty... teeny tiny little feet.. usually stepping on my nice full bladder when I wake up in the AM.

(update: there are far better options for food for diabetics other than DM.)

and I over react again...

I went in this morning and mom once again had feces stuck to her fur, but this time her "pants" were damp as well. it was strange so I picked her up and felt some very odd bumps in her belly. I tried to get a good feel of them, they seemed kitten sized, and despite her squirming, I could have sworn it moved. she gave birth four weeks ago, so she couldn't possibly be pregnant.. but I couldn't for the life of me figure out what the heck it was, so off we went to the shelter, and Bobbie said it was nothing out of the ordinary. Yup.. I'm just a little oversensitive when it comes to kitten health.

The ride down stressed her out pretty badly.. I was going to give her a bath when I got home, but I thought she should just relax with the kittens... she'll get one tonight.

the boys still don't have names.. arrrgh. No idea. I'll probably end up naming them Tobin Tigger and Kodi.

Aren't they cute?

I have become a glorified jungle gym for the kitties.. :) Ennui likes to sit on my lap and watch the action.. red and Anika like to climb up my back and sit on my shoulders.. and head if they can do it. Red and blue are getting quite mouthy.. they keep biting me. absolutely no means of saying 'no' sinks into them.. the minute I'm done, they are right back to chewing on me.

The scabs on their heads have cleared up nicely.. So it must have just been some rough play instead of ring worm.. thank goodness!!

I brought in a comb cause mom was looking a bit scraggly, and she LOVED being combed. The tail wasn't much fun, but then again it was pretty bad off, so I can understand that.

Mom is still sneezing up a storm.. the kittens are still a little snotty. Will have to give this a couple more days then look into different medications..

I bought a new cat comb at Target. it works really well!! I'm so glad I got it. I was afraid it wouldn't be effective.. its a bit like a flea comb, only the tines are further apart. I was amazed at all the different products they now have for pets.. breath strips.. like the Listerine pocket paks.. but for dogs.. *rolls eyes* a first aid kit for pets, that had nothing unique in it..and a whole line of shampoos and conditioners.. it was worse than going to petco.. at least there you expect a wide variety of totally useless pet products..

blah blah blah

the kittens are not going all that smoothly. I know I'm over reacting. I should have weighed them when they got here, but I haven't. Their teeth are coming in, they are playing, walking a tad more steadily.. their pupils aren't quite so big they don't seem quite so dehydrated anymore.. I still see black things walking across them, though. *grrr* however, there is still no flea dirt. Lots of sneezing going on.. mom is getting sick and tired of being pilled. I'm thinking of calling her Butterscotch... and I'm thinking of naming the second girl Anika..

but they are still slightly dehydrated, there are the fleas, the boy with the blue collar is still sleeping like the dead, mom doesn't seem to have any interest in the kits once the cage is open, the boy with the maroon collar has all kinds of scabs on his head (btw.. how does ringworm present itself.. do you know?) mom doesn't like to be pilled.. Ennui doesn't want to eat, and while I got her to go pee, I couldn't get her to go poop.. she got too squirmy

oh hey.. you'll like this one.. blue went into the litter box and started pooping.. but he couldn't figure out how to stop pooping.. so he's walking around with this large poop sticking out of his butt. He tries again.. ends up with a little more out of him.. enough to touch the litter so that now he has litter on it. he walks around the litter box again.. I gave up and pulled it off of him. lol

Kittens are so good at scaring you

I went in to take care of the kittens, I sat down in front of the cage and gathered up all my supplies. I make sure I have everything I need before I open up the cage so I don't have to leave the room while they are free. It took me a few minutes, and the kittens were scrambling to be let out. I opened up the cage door, and everyone tumbled out except the little boy with the blue collar. He just laid there, not moving. he was way in the back of the cage.. not easy to reach, so I poked him with the litter scoop. still didn't move, but I did see him breathe. I freaked out and called in the hubby.. and blue proceeded to start twitching.. I bravely reached in and picked him up, and he woke right up and started scrambling to be put down.. guess he was just having a really good dream.

I got some advantage for them, so fleas shall be history! boy, I hate fleas.

these guys are starting to be really cute. Even though they still all act the same, they all now want to sit in my lap. :) it's fun..

Mysterious case of the kittens

the kittens have been pretty lacking in the personality department. The ribbons helps in identification, but they are all very much the same.. they crawl over me, they crawl over other things, they eat litter. They have started sneezing more, so I'm continuing the clavamox. I hadn't been able to give it to them for the past couple of days due to the fact that I forgot to put it in the fridge.. oh shoot.. I forgot again!! *runs to get bottle and put in fridge*

anyway.. this morning I noticed a few of them were a bit dehydrated. I have absolutely no idea why. Mom is supposed to be taking care of them. I gave them some water, and some more KMR.. some liked it, some didn't. Ennui still doesn't like it. I don't know what I'm going to do with that little girl. Her eyes stand out like those cats in the weird hallmark cards. I went to the shelter and talked to the staff. not much came of that. I decided to give some KMR to mom to get her some more nutrients.. hopefully, that will help. I'm not 100% sure that it's not the fact that they have fleas that is causing this problem. I tried to get some flea meds today, but the shelter was out. I'm going to get some from work tomorrow. If this isn't cleared up by Friday (or if something else pops up) I'm going to have to bring them in for a check up.

I also got peed on tonight. The little boy with the blue collar sat by my foot, cried a couple of times, then my foot was 'mysteriously' wet.. and so was he. I cleaned him up.. and sent him on his way. When I went to put them back in the cage, he started digging around.... in the food bowl!! So I put him in the litter box, and he proceeded to go to sleep.

he's such a strange little boy.

and more fleas

I looked down at a kitten tonight and saw a black speck. I picked it off and it was a flea.. *shudder* I hate fleas. I saw one other, so I'm going to jaunt down to the shelter tomorrow and get some meds for them. I found one on my kitten clothes when I left the kitten room, so I should probably get something to treat the house as well.. man I hate fleas.

I put ribbon collars around the boys necks. Very loose.. I hope they don't come off. I've got blue, red, and burgundy.. the girls are easy to tell apart.. the big one and the little one, so I didn't scrounge for more ribbons. Ennui is so cute. She no longer wants KMR though.. so I've taken to feeding her the juice that is in the cat food... she very much likes that. They are quite cute.. like using me for a jungle gym. :)

Kits, cats, and kmr

day two down.. the clavamox is going way too well at this point.. I still have all my fingers. Mom is pretty easy to pill. she put up a bit of a fight today, but I won :) The little runt.. Ennui, likes her KMR. I fed her about 6cc's.. then gave a bit of clavamox.. she wasn't thrilled about taking more KMR after, but eventually she found out that it wasn't clavamox, and had another 6cc's. Two of the other kit are totally into eating cat food.. which is so strange as they barely have teeth. One is REALLY into it.. almost pushing mom out of the way. thinking about naming him Cerdo I can't help but wonder if she's producing milk.. but they do seem to be getting bigger, so I'm not going to worry about it.. One of them crawled up into my lap for a little attention :) it was nice. I'm so going to have to get in there with some nail polish and paint their claws so I can tell them apart.

Kittens in the house!

Well I was annoying today, and lookie what I have!!


They have a bit of URI, so they are on clavamox. They are all orange, two of the kits are girls Two have conjunctivitis and are small so they need a little supplementing with KMR. The runt is trouble already. I filled him with KMR and put him in the cage and few moments later I put some fresh water and dry food in the cage, he jumped right in it and routed around and picked out a piece. He actually ate it.. despite not having teeth. I thought he was going to be ok for a moment, but then he started crying and trying to throw it up. He eventually did... or should I say she? I can't remember now.. oh well. I'll figure it out tomorrow.