Photos

 

Fleurp is turning into quite a beautiful young lady.  I took her collar off to get some good photos of her "mane"  I just feel bad about that eye of hers.  I don't know if anything can be done for her, but I am going to ask at her next vet visit.  Poor thing was trying to catch a fly that made it into the house, and with very little depth perception there was just no way.

Skippy is totally miserable hun?  I guess I shouldn't be that sorry about adopting him :)

Kitten saga

So I got an email last week asking me if I could take a kitty that weekend.  Then I got a call saying I didn't need to pick her up that weekend, but the next would be fine.  Well I got a call today that the kitty COULDN'T stay at the place where she was (with a staff member) because the landlord was going to do an inspection that week so could I come get her today?

Which of course I could.  I didn't do much more than give mom some food (which she growled while she ate) and set them up in the cage (and take a few photos).  No names, no real information except the baby is a girl, and her eye closed up on her after opening.  I'll have to take her back in about five weeks for FIV/FELV testing, but things seem like this will be an easy one.  *crosses fingers and knocks on wood*

I'm so sorry Skippy..

I so wanted you to have the perfect for you home. I wanted you to have family that could give you all the love you could possibly handle.  I wanted you to not have to put up with a pack of kitties watching you pee, and having to struggle for food.  I wanted you to have your choice of laps to curl up in when ever you wanted to.

I just couldn't handle the 'what ifs' of leaving you at the shelter.  I could not deal with the possibility that you would end up in a situation like you were in before, and being returned to the shelter again - or worse..

So I struck a bargain with the shelter, and I traded for you.  I had some old aquariums in the basement, and in the middle of an email exchange about a foster situation for a cat found in the middle of the road last week* I jokingly suggested that I trade for you, and she took me up on it.  She knew how upset I was at leaving you at the shelter, and how much of a toll on me it was taking to come visit you every couple of days and to keep leaving you there.. so I ran to the shelter after work, signed the paperwork, and brought you home with me.

and now you have to put up with my crew harassing you, and when I took you down to the litter box (because you seemed to be looking for your litter box in the bathroom where it was the last time you were here) you had all seven of them watching you pee.  Will you ever know peace?  Will my crew ever accept you?  Will you find a lap to cuddle on when you need it?

I love you so much.. I hope you are happy here.



*the new foster is coming on Saturday.  She was found in the middle of the road, either hit or thrown from a car.  She was pregnant at the time, but she ended up aborting.  They said her kittens were the size of mice, so it must have been several weeks before the due date.  They had a week old kitten who needed a mom, so they matched them up, and it worked out nicely, except for the fact that she is being fostered by a staff member who is not allowed pets in her home.

*headpalm* or why 8 kitties is a bad idea

Ok, seriously, I know owning Skippy would be a bad idea.  Doesn't mean I don't want to do it anyway though....

but this morning my kitties showed me very clearly why.  Mostly it would be that there would be more of them then I could handle.

So in the wee hours of the morning I woke up.  Not one of those *oh crud I'm awake in the middle of the night and I can't get back to sleep* bits.. but I had left my heating blanket on and I was a little warm, so normally I would have rolled over, shut it off and fallen back asleep.  But there were kitties on the bed who were missing me terribly, so when they realized that I might be conscious they sprang into action, and surrounded my head purring up a storm.  15lb Muffin, 12lb Jack and 6lb Fleurp were all there.  9lb Twee showed up a few moments later jockeying for a position to worship at the head of the sleeping mom.

Now if you have never had this experience, let me tell you it is a bit overwhelming.  I have blogged about it before, but it really is something to have four cats up in your face when you are barely awake... not to mention the fact that their bodies are the perfect length for their noses to be all up in your face, and their back feet to be targeted to your bladder.  *sigh*  off they all go as I stumble towards the bathroom.  I hate kicking kitties off me, but sometimes the bladder wins.

I stumble back into bed, get comfy, and once again there are cat noses where there shouldn't be cat noses.  Those things are COLD when it is cold in the house.  I finally convince all the kitties to settle down somewhere around the area of my legs, and drift off to sleep (but not before annoying the daylights out of DH who went to sleep on the couch.  Kitties were happy - more room for them)

Morning begging is reserved for DH who feeds them since he gets up first.  But when I got up, Jack was all up in my business begging for attention.  Fleurp dug out a superball and was playing with it.  I picked it up and realized that someone had chewed chunks off it.  I probably should have put the ball in my pocket to be stored in a drawer (ok I admit it, I really like superballs.. and yes it is appropriate to give me a gift of one) but I bounced it into the other room, and watched Fleurp fly at it, and look so adorable doing it.  something between a rabbit and a flying squirrel (I so wish I had video proof of it).  The ball ended up back at my feet, so I bounced it again, and this time she was so intent on getting it she missed the fact that the ball was bouncing towards the fridge, and she ran right into it.  Yes, Fleurp makes me laugh every single day.

But later, after I exercised, I went back into the bedroom to get dressed for work, and realized that a flipflop I have not work in over a year (wore them the summer previous) was on the middle of the floor.  I shook my head, knowing my Fleurp thought it was irrisitable and some how had dragged the thing from my shoe rack in the front of the house, through the kitchen, down the hall, and into the bedroom.  I KNEW it was her, only from the evidence of the lone flop on the floor.  Sure enough a few minutes later, she came and flopped next to the shoe and proceeded to "kill" it. I got a photo, but it only looks like she's laying on it.

Then I went to feed the rabbit.  Her water bottle was empty, so I bent over to take it off the cage, and went and filled it.  I bent back over to reattach it to the cage, when Kit in all her claws decided to jump up on my back.. OUCH!  I had been saying for a few days I needed to trim claws, well now was the time!!!

I also think one of the other kitties has convinced Twee to play Hide and Seek, because she has taken to hiding behind the curtains in the kitchen.  They are floor length, and mostly sheer.  When I went to pat her through the curtain, she was quite disturbed that she wasn't properly hidden, so I pretended I was just fixing the curtain so she could be happy.

Ollie is still quite annoyed with life.  He's annoyed that the other kitties want to do what he wants to do, and there for are in his way.  Doesn't matter if they were there first, and he walks in on them, if they are in the spot HE wants to be in, they get smacked.  If he offers his head for grooming and they don't groom fast enough, the smacking will commence.  Not quite sure who I feel worse for, him or them.

They definitely bring a depth and richness to my life.  The love, the cuddles, the laughter.  They do add a certain emptiness to my wallet though, the annual vet visits, the $800 surgery for Ollie, then the $500 revisit this year.  Eli needs a dental.  He has for a while, but I put it off, well I can't put it off any more.. Jack is having issues with his bladder.. at least I'm assuming his bladder is a little uncomfortable and he doesn't just like the Brazilian look.  All of my kitties are under 10 years of age, so I'll have multiple seniors at the same time in a few years.  Being proactive costs money, not being proactive either means more money or the loss of my kitties too young.

I just wish my heart understood all that..

Dear Skippy's new owners

You have adopted yourself one special little boy.  He is playful and cuddly and all around a great kitten.  He has a long back story before you found him, and I hope you won't mind listening to it.

He was found in a neglect situation.  He was so badly off, he was almost dead.  He was brought to a vet and survived, but he developed a urinary tract infection.  UTI can be a problem for cats.  Once they have them, they can happen again, so I hope you keep a good eye on his health.

While at the shelter waiting to get better and for a foster home to come along, he was exposed to ringworm.  Having just met him, I could not allow a simple exposure to risk his life.  Ringworm is fungal, and not fun to treat, but it is not fatal.  Unfortunately though there are lines that have to be drawn in a shelter environment.  Ringworm is very contagious. 

This is where I came in.  Sometimes when I visit the shelter there are kittens or cats that just cry out to me to help them.  This is probably why I own seven cats now.  Skippy was one of them.  Knowing what he suffered before I came into his life, I could not risk ringworm being his downfall.

I brought him home and set him up in my bathtub / shower in my bathroom, hoping that if he did bring ringworm into my house, that this double barrier to my own cats would prevent it from spreading.  It was a very long 10 days while he lived in my shower.  He was very good the whole time.  Every time I went to spend time with him, he simply wanted to cuddle.  In the past overly cuddly kittens has always been a sign of severe illness.  In Skippy it was just a sign of his personality.  He had to get in his mandatory cuddling, then he would be off to play.

When his quarentine was over, I brought him down to meet the other foster kittens I had.  They were smaller than he was, and I realized almost immedately that his prey drive is VERY strong.  He was relentless in his play with anything smaller then he is to the point of harassment.  I would strongly recommend that you not bring in another animal into the home that is smaller than he is.

Because he could not play well with the others, he went back into his bathroom, but he did not want to be contained.  Often he would slip out of the bathroom and run straight into the room that houses my rabbit.  Bri is a pretty standard size 5lb rabbit, which was bigger then he was when he met her.  Skippy fell in love with Bri.  He would always go and visit her first, and play very gently with her.

He never outgrew his need to spend time cuddling though.

As he grew, it was time for him to go up for adoption.  I reluctantly brought him back and he was adopted.  Unfortunately he came down with pnemonia and they returned him.  While I hated the idea of his being sick, I was overjoyed to spend more time with him.  He was very slow to recover so he spent quite a few more weeks together.  As he became healther and stronger, I introduced him to my own cats, hoping that a love match would be made, and I could justify taking on another kitty.  While he did enjoy playing with my younger kitties, his style of play just did not mix with some of my older kitties. 

It was so hard to return him a second time, and hope that his new owners would care and love him as much as I do.  He is a very special boy, being one that demands to spend so much time cuddling.  Just watch out.. he drools when he's happy!

He will bring much joy into your life if you let him.  I hope you bring joy into his life as well.

(and if you EVER need a pet sitter.. I am so there!)