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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A little trick for a big treat - visiting former foster kittens

On Halloween, I like to go in town and people watch. I live near a town that really does Halloween and they shut down the street so the kids can safely run back and forth.

Last year two of my foster kittens moved into a home in the general area, so my husband and I took the opportunity to go knock on their door and say hello.

Nancy and Trixie's mom is so gracious and happily invited us in to see the girls. This was them when they first showed up here on February 2nd and I named them Wryn and Sprite and their mom was Lemonade

When I stopped by and called out Trick or Treat, there was a lot of chaos going on and the kitties weren't quite sure they wanted to visit. Nancy (formerly Wryn) was willing to say hello but she was ready to leave if things escalated. Trixie (formerly Sprite) was not quite willing to risk it and stayed upstairs.

We visited for a few minutes and then we were off to see the celebrations. Stephanie had invited us to stay so when we finished walking around town we decided to stop back in for a visit.

The kitties are lovely, their owners are even lovelier people and it was a nice visit. There was even talk of birthday celebrations for the kittens which just totally MMD :)