Wordless Wednesday - outtakes

Happy #LeapDay

A quick update on the kittens.  They are doing well. I have not seen any signs that they are missing their mother. Sprite seems to be a bit more outgoing as a result, which is nice. Wryn still runs from me when I walk through the door, but she is a bit more willing to walk up to me. Yesterday morning I brought down some baby food (because I forgot to get hot dogs). I underfed a little them the night before so they would be hungry for sure when I walked in the room. Sprite easily took it but Wryn was not a fan of my coming at her. If I could sneak up on here she'd take it... which in my mind was a win. I had a feeling it was going to be very slow going. I kept pushing, and at some point, she had had enough of my shenanigans and wouldn't come near me. I continued to sit there and play with them and she eventually came closer.

Last night I brought the camera down to get these photos, and we had a long play session. I then fed them and sat on the couch and caught up on some tv. Sprite climbed up on the couch and fell asleep. Wryn, not wanting to be alone, soon climbed up too, and she picked a spot right next to me and voluntarily touched the back of my leg. I nearly squee'd myself.  She too fell asleep, and I was able to pat her and she started to purr..  If she keeps this up I won't be able to convince myself I should be keeping them much longer. We'll see how the next few days go.

As I predicted, Lemonade was snapped right up at the shelter and had a home before Saturday had ended.  I went into the shelter in the afternoon to take photos and she was already gone, so she was barely there 24 hours.

And now.. we leap.

Cat tree in full bloom

The builder who built my house took absolutely no consideration to natural sunlight when he built it. I don't mind as I have a strong preference to twilight type lighting, but my solar powered cats seek it out whenever they can.  In the morning as I am heading out to work this cat tree gets a few hours of natural light, so there is usually at least one cat in it, and often there is two and one on the floor. This day was no exception, except Fleurp didn't think being on the floor was good enough for her..

although I'm not quite sure how much natural light she is getting in there..

Happy Jack

Jack is a very needy kitty, who needs a lot of attention. He is one happy kitty that both his mom and his dad are home with him. Last night he spent quite a bit of time getting his belly rubbed..

I do have to admit, I do love his feet..

Kittens, kittens, where are the kittens??

For those of you who follow me on Facebook, you know that when I walked into the kitten room yesterday morning two of the kittens were outside of the basket I am using for a nest for the family. It was so funny watching the two of them swim around the room because they were unable to get their feet underneath them that I had to run back upstairs to get my phone to take some photos and video that I shared on Instagram.

I picked up the kittens and gave them a once over, they seemed totally fine and I put them back in the basket and went off to work.

I brought up the dropcam website and scrolled back through the night to see when the kittens got out of the basket. I was expecting to find they climbed out, but it turns out Mina pulled them out of the basket herself.

I cobbled the video together of what happened. It started at 8 AM and I first went into see them at 8:30ish, so they weren't out for long so I was even less worried. The fact that she attempted to take The Kraken out and got distracted while doing it made me think she simply wanted out of the basket, possibly because I hadn't changed the bedding and it was really starting to smell like her and the kittens - a dangerous thing when there are predators about. I made mental note to change it out when I got home.

Then sometime in the early afternoon she ended up moving all five of them out of the basket and put them under the couch where she hung out so often when she was pregnant.

When you share things like this on social media, you often get advice as to what is going wrong and what you should do. I was told more than once that there must be something wrong with the two kittens she "kicked out" of the nest. One person even stated that I should remove them and hand rear them before Mina smothered them. There was also some speculation that the basket was just too small for the growing family (this has actually been speculated on several times over the past couple of weeks)

I share this as a starting point of a discussion. As you can see by my archives over there, I've been fostering since 2002.  I have no idea how many mothers I've fostered nor how many cats have given birth at my house (I do need to go back through my archives though because I have wondered that many times) but I know it has been a lot.

In my experience, cats do not abandoned kittens because there is 'something wrong' with them. I have had a few younger mothers with larger litters have issues but more because they were overwhelmed with the number of mouths to feed. They have a tendency to move the kittens they want to keep to a new nest while leaving some others behind. When I find that happening I will get some goat milk and feed mom as well as do a feeding with all of the kittens once or twice a day. This is simply a supplement to the nutritious milk that mom provides, and gives her a bit of a break. I would also double up on the monitoring and making sure they are well fed and are gaining weight to try to head off any serious problems.

I have also experienced mother cats care for and protect kittens that had no hope of survival. I had a mother cat continue to love and care for a kitten that had 'something wrong' and who had no hope of getting past her 12 week.

So to simply assume that a kitten outside of the nest has something wrong is a pure myth that needs to die; people need to stop making and sharing that assumption. If I were new to fostering and I had listened to the woman who said that Mina would smother her kittens I would have deprived them of several weeks of the nutrition that mom provides and would have put them on a milk replacer, many of which are made with sugar based and or GMO ingredients. It would have also deprived them of critical socialization time with their siblings. Yes this happens to orphan kittens all the time and they grow up 'just fine' but we really do not know the long term effects. Kitten milk replacer is so very helpful when there is no other options, but in this - and many other instances - we have the option to leave the kits with the mom.

As for the not having enough room, when given choices, mother cats often choose small spaces for their families. I've had a few mothers choose to move their families from where I have them to smaller spaces. They like to keep their kittens close.

So in this case, where were the kittens?? &When I got home from work Mina was sitting in front of the empty basket (see first photo up there at the top of this post)

this cat bed was peeking out from under the couch

Mina apparently isn't very good at the hide part of hide and seek

LADY!! we was sleepin!

The Kraken really does make me laugh

the space they are in vs the space they were in

and they are back in the basket.. but with new bedding

As you can see I changed out the old bedding and I also turned the heat back on in the room. I had turned it off because we have been having such warm weather, but apparently it has been getting cold at night, so part of me wonders if she didn't move them for reasons of warmth. If she moves them again overnight, I will just move the camera to wherever they are and deal with it and maybe I'll set them up in the cage over the weekend and see if that helps.

What cat myths do you wish would stop being spread

Coming, Coming, home*..

Happy Bear is going to be very happy later today.. I got the okay to take the kittens home about half an hour before the shelter closed on Wednesday. Since the owner of the company I work for had just walked through the door I emailed back that I would be in for them the next day. I asked after them and was told they were eating pate and kibble and while they still had diarrhea and were still pale they felt comfortable letting them go to me - knowing I don't just let things get worse without letting them know.

I spent too much time cleaning up the kitten room.  I was quite fearful that the smell was going to be overwhelming, but once it had dried it wasn't bad at all.  Don't get me wrong, it was still pretty bad, but it was back to the 'bad kitten diarrhea' smell.. and that is totally manageable for me - heck I even find skunk smell manageable. There were a few spots of stool on happy bear, and I did my best to scrub it off and then soaked the spots in bleach water.. I'm seriously tempted to just throw out the towel that I used to clean the little one off.. I need to talk to the vet about how virulent these worms are, and if a hot water cycle in the washing machine will kill them all, because frankly I don't want to risk contaminating household laundry if it doesn't**. It is hard to track down information on how long parasites lives in the household environment, and if when it gets really cold if I just turn off the heat and open the windows can I freeze it if the bleach didn't kill it all?   Considering all of the cleaning I did, I'm guessing I killed it all.. but I do want to replace the cat climber scratching post thing now.. I wonder if I can find a company to donate one.. because it would be on the dropcam and featured in videos on my facebook page all the time.. it needs to be under 3.5 feet tall and it needs to be enough for mother cats to help keep them in shape. Ah well, I'll deal with it once these kittens go up for adoption and I've got a vacancy at Casa de Gato..  Maybe I'll find another one on Craigslist..


* Thank you Peter Schilling for the inspiration of the blog post title
** (oh wait, everything in there is bleachable, I'll just bleach it all)

National Bow Tie Day!

I was on Facebook yesterday and Amy made it a point to tell me that today is National Bow Tie Day! Since Skippy is a charter member of the Bow Tie Club for ManCats, it is only fitting that we celebrate the day.

I put a bow tie on Skippy years ago and he didn't seem to mind in the least. He wears one constantly and has a whole collection of bow ties, including one made for him by Emily over at Kitty Cat Chronicles.

I got him two new ones recently, and he is currently wearing one.  I'm not sure I like it because it is so small it is hard to see, and I can't seem to get that darn bell off of it

Skippy will be enjoying National Bow Tie Day, I hope you do too.
I'm also LOVING this cartoon..

my trip to the shelter

I stopped by the shelter to see Ginger last night.  I couldn't find her in the front treatment rooms, I totally spaced that they have a sick ward in the back of the shelter so after I looked for her I waited to talk to a staff member to find out where she was.  In the mean time I saw Tina was STILL there so I pulled her out of the cage for some lovin.

After a minute a couple came to my attention.  I usually garner attention when I'm holding a kitten, and they were looking at me, so I smiled and made some sort of conversational comment - I really don't remember what I said.. Turns out they were looking to adopt a kitten and out of all of the kittens in the cages they had already been looking at her.  So I handed her over (I mean what better way to sell a kitten than to have hands on it) and continued to chat with them.  Very nice couple who already has two dogs but they were looking for a cat.  They still really hadn't made up their mind so after a really nice chat they didn't go home with her, but it looks promising.  Paws crossed Tina works her magic on them and they come back.

It was fun because a lot of the transfer kittens were out and up for adoption. They were a bit older - maybe 16 weeks - and they had so much energy to spare it was such a riot watching them try to burn off some energy in a cage.

Finally I was done talking and the staff was free and that duh moment occurred and I went off to see Ginger. She sounded less congested, but she still wasn't eating very well.  She had taken a few bites of the food they had given her, but not much.  She seemed interested in seeing me, but she's not a fan of other cats so she was a little stressed when I picked her up and she saw the other cats.  I tried to shield her, but she also isn't a cuddler, so after a few kisses I put her back.  She sniffed at the food again but than went and settled in the back of the cage.  So not great news, but she isn't worse either so that's something.

There was another pregnant cat that had been turned in, but it was not offered nor did I ask about it.  There were no kittens needing foster care either.  There is something nice about that, but it is a little sad on a personal selfish note.  It was sad to have an empty kitten room in August... DH said I have kitties, they are just bigger.  ha ha ha  (typed out while I have a cat sitting between my face and my laptop - say hi Skippy.. *purr*)

Is there room on Mom for me?? ~Jack

1200 miles

to be honest, I am still quite worn out from the trip.  I still haven't unpacked, I was nearly falling asleep last night at 6:30.. so info about BlogPaws is still going to have to wait.. sorry.

but the trip home.. I don't need to upload a lot of images for that or find links, so you get that story now :)

I set my trip odometer before I left the house.  When I got home I had nearly 1200 miles on my car.

When traveling with someone, you always have to make some sacrifices, but I was very lucky with Robin.  She understood my need to get going early.  We packed my car up with in an inch of its life and headed out a little later then I would have liked, but a little earlier then my "oh we really should have left by now!!" time limit.

We talked most of the way.  I will tell you that Robin has had one amazingly full life so far.  She has some wonderful stories to tell, and I really enjoyed traveling with her.

As a bonus, so did Odilia...

pict ©Robin Anderson

as someone who is afraid of heights, I have to say I am NOT a fan of the Delaware Memorial Bridge especially in the rain.. but I had  a good companion who kept me distracted, I kept my head down, and went slow..   Mentally I know there is nothing to worry about, but some how my stomach and throat are totally disconnected with that, and the second I see how high up I am they simply panic.

The trip to CT to drop Robin off was pretty uneventful.  There was some concern about going through or near NYC due to the train derailment, but with the help of Robin's cell phone and a call to Sam we got through it with minimal waits in traffic.

I stopped at Robin's for a rest stop, and I got to pat The Dood, which was nice.  As much as I love kittens, they simply do not compare to the joy of patting a big ol cat.

I did not hang out long, as I really wanted to get home before the sun set.  It was still drizzling and as little sleep as I got through the past few days I did not want to get caught in the rain in the dark.  I drove for a while then stopped and filled up the car, got a Subway sub and a bottle of Mountain Dew.

I have not had a MtnDew since they changed the name of it from Moutain to Mtn.. I used to have a huge addiction to it, drinking a six pack a day (if not more) due to the fact that I had to get up way too early and count money...I cut out all soda from my diet years ago.  I occasionally drink a soda that is made of sugar only (not HFCS) but it is rare.. but I wanted the caffeine and I don't drink coffee.  I have to tell you it felt like every cell in my body responded on the very first sip. it was a little disconcerting..

Still trekking along nicely, with Odilia sleeping in the back not giving one care that we are moving, I made a few merges as one road turned into another, when I made one specific merge.

This time I was 75% in front of the car I was trying to merge into, but he was not backing off.  I was uncomfortable stepping on the gas and getting in front of him, so I stepped on the break and let him go past.  As I finally merged, I looked to the left to make sure I was OK with the car that was there, then glanced behind me to see where those cars were and as I looked forward, I saw the car that had been in my way previously heading at a 135 degree angle  from the 'slow' lane that we were originally in... aka he was heading for the median.  It took me half a beat wondering what on earth he was doing when he impacted the guard rail.  the hit was shocking to my system, and my foot was off the gas and slowing me down by lightly breaking before I even realized what I was doing.  He hit the rail (which was post and wire) and bounced off it a bit like a bumper car.  he ended up damaging the whole side of his car, nearly ripping his rear view mirror off, and at least his front tire was flat.

the guy next to me had also slowed down, so the crippled car had room to limp off to the break down lane, which is good because that was where it was going regardless of what we were both doing.  I was never more thankful that I leave so much room in front of me and the next car that I get cut off all the time.  If I hadn't, or if my foot hadn't moved and started slowing me down, I am certain he would have taken my car out as well and Odilia and I would have been a world of trouble.

But we were fine, and the rest of the trip went off with out incident.

I finished the book I was listening to while I was in New Hampshire. Knowing the Pascataqua River Bridge was coming up, I turned on the Match Box 20 album I have been listening to "North" and as I came upon this..

This was playing..

To say I was overjoyed was an understatement.  It was still light, the rain had stopped.. I was nearly home.. (Just an aside, this video is special to me.  I met my husband on a carousel)

When I got off the turnpike, I found it near impossible not to speed.  Not because I had just spent the last 11+ hours going 65+ miles an hour, but because I simply wanted to be home..

I was so happy to be home.. The Crew was happy to see me, but then they remembered they were ticked at me for leaving and I got the cold shoulder for a while.  Muffin took nearly two and a half hours before she decided that I MUST make up for lost time and kisses not given.

I did make it in to work the next day..

btw, since Odilia was such a big hit at BlogPaws, and had her picture taken by seemingly everyone, I know her image must be on blogs.. If you happen to stumble upon any, would you mind sharing URLs with me?

A good day..

Well despite the fact that yesterday was Monday and my husband was out of town, and I had a killer headache for most of the day, I have to say that yesterday was all in all a good day.

It started out with Jack snuggling with me, licking my nose, wanting to be close to me.  He was avoiding being on the bed while he was having his medical issues, so to have him  up there when I woke up was really nice.

Then the shelter called to let me know I could bring the kittens in to be neutered.  I was so pleasantly shocked that they did.  Not only because there was space for them, but that the message got through the chain of staff and someone followed through.  Part of me was kinda hoping the phone call wouldn't happen and they would still be here, but they do need to go back so off they went.

During the day I made adoption cards for them, so after work I ran to the shelter to drop those off, and my boys did very well and looked very good.  Hawkeye and I cuddled, Trapper ran free and said hello to another kitty in a different cage.  Radar was just looking for mischief.  Talking to the staff it turns out Radar already has a home.  One of the staff members has a brother who saw him before I got him and wanted him.

so good for him.  This just means Hawkeye and Trapper needs a new home.  Together would be awesome, but if not that's OK too.

I stopped off at the grocery store on the way home.  I found large cans of pumpkin on sale for half price.  So I got a bakers dozen.  There were a few more left, but I just couldn't face carrying them to the car then into the house. (big headache.. remember)

I got home and had two packages waiting for me.  The first from a friend of mine..

How cute is this??  It is one of those mini books that are the size of a coaster.  I can't wait to read it once my head stops hurting..

and I also got a very large package sent priority mail from Purina.  I couldn't stop giggling because I knew exactly what it was.. the tote I won at the end of last year..

 it is nice and roomy, and I can imagine it will be awesome for all kinds of things.  CatLadyLand is one of those blogs I adore, and I love that I can tote around her logo.. cause Cats Are Funny.. (Of course this spurs me to want to make my own logo.. I just need to find someone willing to do it for little to no money.. )

I'm looking forward to bringing it to BlogPaws..