Thursday, May 31, 2012

thankful Thursday


Mom took Wild Bill over to grandma's house on Monday. Mom's niece (the kid) LOVES kittens. And she and Wild Bill were having a good time. At one point the kid was crawling across the floor with Wild Bill in hot pursuit - or as close as he can come with short legs. MOL

Annie is doing.....OK. Mom is going to ask the rescue lady to give her some fluids tonight to see if that helps. The meds are helping a little but she still isn't eating as much as she should be. Mom thinks she just doesn't feel good. Can't blame her really.....

Grandma is doing pretty well. Mom stopped over to see her yesterday after work and she looked much better than after the surgery on her other hand. We are sure the purrs are working!!

Oh - and Silver broke back into baby jail this morning. Not for breakfast....but to "play" with the kittens. Mom says she doesn't think about how much bigger (and rougher) Silver can be until she is in there. But, since Silver can get in and out by herself, there isn't much we can do about it. Although Doc and Sally were double teaming her when mom left for work, so they should be ok. MOL

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Let's see......

Mom spoke to her sister-in-law last night. They came up for the week to bring the kid and to spend the week with grandma as she recovers. Grandma had just gotten home from surgery and they were getting her settled. Mom did warn Abby to read the med bottle and not trust grandpa to get it right. :) But it sounds like all went well.

Annie did end up at the v-e-t last night. She is just so little that mom says better safe than sorry. Mom took Sally with for moral support. It was fun to watch them race around the exam room waiting for the v-e-t. OK - Sally raced and Annie waddled along behind her. :) The tech asked when Annie had last peed. Not sure. And then she peed on the floor - well, there you have it. MOL The v-e-t recommended putting her back completely on KMR and on a med called lactulose until her system adjusts. It may have just been too much change and she couldn't keep up. So.....Wild Bill is in with the bigger kittens and Annie is in solitary getting her meds and KMR. At least Bill can't try to nurse on her this way.


Wild Bill likes to sleep ON Doc Holiday

And in other good news, the rescue lady said she would accept this group of kittens into the rescue to get them adopted (when they are big enough).

Oh - and while at the v-e-t mom noticed a spot on Sally's front paw. It was....a TICK!!!! ewwwww  Mom got it off and drowned it in alcohol. And then went over the rest of her pretty well - and Doc when she got home. Hopefully it was just that one (cause mom said she felt like she had the cooties all night).

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

more invaders....

First - could we ask a favor? Our grandma is having surgery today on her wrist and could use some purrs. They are having to put in a pin and freeze a joint due to arthritis.  THANKS

Also, mom got a text yesterday that made her all leaky. You know our friend Miss Kelly?? She had to help her old mancat Murphy over the Bridge yesterday. He had been diagnosed with the evil cancer about 4 months ago but was taking a chemo pill at home and doing ok. He had a great day outside with her on Saturday while she planted flowers. And then was sick Saturday night and most of Sunday. Mom says she doesn't know exactly what happened Sunday night, but she knows Kelly would have done whatever she could for Murphy. He showed up at her house in college at about a year old as a beat up tomcat and turned out FIV+. He regularly beat up her dog and was the true man of the house. Safe journey Murphy - and we love you Miss Kelly!!!

OK - so the teaser on Sunday....

Mom got a call Friday night. Grandma the cat was moving the kittens. The kids caught two but two got away. They have moved the trap and are going to keep trying, but mom says for all their good intentions, the kids aren't very quiet, so we don't have much hope about catching them. But we got our paws crossed.

Anyhow, mom came home Friday night with 2 more kittens. This crew is officially known as the Outlaws. You have met Annie Oakley and Wild Bill. Here are the two new ones:

Doc Holiday (male)

Mustang Sally (female)


Wild Bill has been spending some time in "time out" since he keeps trying to nurse on Annie (and not in a good way). But, while the "new" ones are bigger (yep, bottle babies just tend to be smaller - those momma cats do come in handy), they are teaching Wild Bill and Annie to eat off plate. And Sally cleans him up some, so that helps too. Friday night they spent in a crate, but they moved to baby jail on Saturday and have been in there ever sense - they aren't big enough yet to escape on their own. Annie is now crated as of this morning. The bigger two smoosh Bill to keep him from nursing. And Annie hasn't pooped in a day or so and mom wants to keep track of her - she may end up at the v-e-t tonight.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Memorial Day


Happy Memorial Day to our US friends. 
THANK YOU to all those who have served 
in the military and their families.

To the rest of you.....ummmm - happy Monday????

Sunday, May 27, 2012

snicker....

Mom is mumbling something about men in white coats. We aren't sure, but we think this might have something to do with it (and you will have to wait until Tuesday for the rest of the story since tomorrow is a holiday and we are SALUTING our troops).


Saturday, May 26, 2012

Saturday funnies.....

Yesterday we talked about our layout here. Mom's theory is the more the merrier..... plus she says if you add up the weights, we technically don't have that many - for example, if you add up the fast food kits, you get about 6 pounds - which is one cat. LOL  We are making it work....

Now that Silver is feeling so much better, she is running around and playing a lot more. She and Junior conduct daily races through the house. Mom laughed so hard the other day. The two of them raced through the living room and Junior stopped at the beginning of the hallway. Now, his normal standing position has his tail held straight up - or mostly straight with the tip hanging over. He must have lost track of Silver cause she snuck up behind him and whacked the tip of his tail. He shot straight up and then straight forward. Mom swears she could see Silver laughing.....

The smaller cat tree was moved into "our" room. Mom heard a jingling the other night and went to check it out. Silver discovered the toys on the bottom of the tree.....we ignore them, but she was having great fun. And since they are on stretchy strings, she is completely entertained all by herself.

(oh, and mom had just served breakfast when she videoed this, so we were wandering through - that fuzzy tail belongs to Spud and you can hear Tim croaking in the background)


Friday, May 25, 2012

general layout.....

We have had a few inquiries about how things work around here with kittens. Especially as many as we have right now.

We live in a 2 bedroom condo that is about 1000 square feet. We technically live on the second floor as we live above the garages in our 4 unit condo building. However, once you get upstairs, everything in on one floor. The stairs open up into our living/room dining room. Then the kitchen and the hall to the bedrooms and bathroom (which if you stop at the end of the hall - the bathroom is on your left, mom's room on your right and "our" room in between).

(ignore Ivy's lazers - she is protecting the door to mom's bedroom)

Normally, kittens stay in the bathroom. Once they are vaccinated and big enough, they are allowed out for supervised visits until mom is sure they know where everything is and everyone gets along. And kittens stay in the bathroom at night.

However, we are a "little" overcrowded.

Wendy and the kittens are in the bathroom. Mom hopes to give them some supervised time out, but Wendy may not be allowed out depending on her attitude.

Silver kind of has free run of the house. She is big enough that mom is ok with it. And at night, she sleeps on the cat tree. She started that when Marble was still here since Marble wouldn't sleep in the bedroom with us. And of course, this allows her to supervise the white kittens.

Annie and Wild Bill are living in baby jail - in the living room. Mom tried to put it in the dining room since that space was empty when she sold the table. However, she kept hitting her head on the light and it was hard to watch since it was behind her chair. So she moved our condo in there and moved baby jail under the windows where our condos used to be.

(this is what you see when you get to the top of the stairs)

Confused yet???  MOL

Silver is much less snotty. Annie and Wild Bill have been enticed to slurp KMR off a plate. Next step add kitten food. (good luck with that mom) Silver is fascinated with the tinies. She sits outside baby jail and stares at them. The other night she ran back and forth and back and forth after Wild Bill. He finally fell over on his back and she could reach through the bars and just touch his tail - and he was waving his paws around over his head like he was going to get her in response. goofy boy..... Mom suspects Silver thinks that the babies are cat toys for her entertainment. She is none too gentle, so play is only with supervision.

Wild Bill & Annie - you can see he is smaller than her

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Wendy and the fast food kitts


The Bridge welcomed another Angel yesterday. We wish Parker as safe journey and peace and purrs to her family.....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mom and kittens were at the shelter on Monday for vaccinations, dewormer and more marquis paste (for the coccidia). Mom left them with the cat caregiver and snickered....have fun with that momma cat - she don't like to be medicated. MOL

Everyone is doing pretty well. There was a note about the tiny boy - BK. He is about half the size of his siblings. But active and eating - more or less. They want him supplemented with a combination of a/d (high protein/high calorie) and KMR. Mom had been syringe feeding him some KMR anyhow. About the only way to do this is feed everyone and then give him his own plate in the bathtub. Monday night and Tuesday morning he ate the a/d. Tuesday night - not so much. But he was all about what everyone else was eating when he was "released". Wednesday morning - slurped up the KMR and ignored the rest. Boys..... As of last night and this morning, he has eaten about half his body weight....in fancy feast. Mom says she gives up - so long as he is eating, we say let him have what he wants. He weighed about .75 pounds last night while one of his brothers weighed 1.25 pounds.


BK, Sonic, Arby

BK & Arby

Wendy is still pretty skinny. The shelter suggested giving her a break - only she hisses at everyone she sees. However, she is good about getting away from the kittens. She will lay down on her belleh or get up on the counter. Mom laughs when she walks in to find Wendy on the counter and 4 little boys lined up on the floor staring up at her......

Sonic

Arby

Sonic

The bathroom is once again a wreck - mom's project for the weekend.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Wordless Wednesday


Be sure to go wish ML Happy Birthday 



Annie & Wild Bill are in the carrier

not sure if Tim is "guarding" the kittens or just enjoying the height

but he looks pretty content

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

You can only laugh.......

Mom says it is a good thing she has a sense of humor.....

Thanks for the words of encouragement. It means a lot to mom. She got a little choked up reading some of your comments. :)

Oh and to @Furries - Silver is pretty snotty. She has an upper respiratory thing. Silver has been very good about eating, but Friday afternoon she was acting a little more....blah. Mom thought she was a little dehydrated - which can happen when she is eating little bits at a time (of canned food)....so mom had the rescue lady give her fluids to give her system a boost. And it must have worked. :)

Annie and Wild Bill got baths on Sunday.....they were a mess. Mom is hoping since they are getting their teeth in, she can start to wean them. That is the plan.

Oh - and baby-jail has been resurrected:

Annie trying the food - first and only time so far

Silver trying to figure out what is going on
(and yes, she has gone INTO baby jail to check out their dinner)

aww - Annie on the left, Wild Bill on the right

Here's the laugh or cry part of this: yesterday during lunch at work, she got a text from Bug's mom. They have seen Grandma around the house. With.....4 white kittens. (mom says she is having problems typing this without laughing) We know, it shouldn't be funny, but......

For now, Bug's family is keeping on an eye on the kittens (the neighbor can see them from her screened porch). Depending on how the weaning goes, mom may get them next weekend. We just don't want Grandma getting ideas and moving those kittens. And we tell mom it could be worse - she could have 6 bottle babies (wow - she went pale when we brought that up).

Monday, May 21, 2012

Weekend update.....

We were featured on Pet blogs united on Friday and we want to thank them for giving us a chance to meet new people!!!!

Mom says thanks for the support from yesterday. People ask her how she can keep doing this when bad things happen. She says that she either keeps going or stops - and stopping isn't an option. Besides, when she got home there was a small gray kitten demanding to be fed and 2 kittens in a carrier screaming for another meal. No matter how bad it gets, life still moves forward....

Mom drove another transport on Saturday morning..... Duchess (who mom drove before) is on her way from Ohio to a long term foster home in New York. YEAH!!! She is so sweet. She was great on the drive - she got a little antsy at times but was good. Maybe antsy cause she only got half the back seat since the other half was taken up by a crate with Tank and Tango inside. Mom says she loves driving for Ontario Bloodhound Rescue.


(yeah, they are actually black and tan coonhounds, but whatever)

All the kittens are doing well. Wendy and her crew get vaccinated today. Mom is going to try to wean Annie and Wild Bill this week. The condo will get set back up in the living room and hopefully they will adjust quickly.

And, Silver gave mom a scare on Friday. She took her over to the adoption center for the rescue and get her some subq fluids. And then Silver spent the rest of the weekend running around like her tail was on fire.....

Sunday, May 20, 2012

people suck.....

Before we get to that, we are sure most of you already know that Sammy from SASS ran for the Bridge of the weekend. We know Judi and the girls could use your purrs....

Now, we are going to hand the blog over to mom. We will warn you, if you have kittens, you may not want to let them read this....mom gets a little mad and used a couple of words from the bad werd list.

Most of you remember the whole thing with Louisa....  when I picked up this group of kittens with Wendy, I had one of her remaining kittens.

Until last night - Hardee was failing and I knew it. I called the shelter director and we made the call together and I took her to help her across the Bridge.

All told, this means that Louisa and 3 of 6 kittens have died. The shelter director said they have run some tests and there doesn't seem to be anything obvious.

But, I said it before and will say it again here....had the woman who found Louisa last summer taken just a LITTLE responsibility, then NONE of this would have happened. Either take her in, get her to a shelter or rescue or at least get her spayed. This woman did none of that until a 10 month old kitten showed up and had kittens. And maybe she has excuses or a story or whatever.

You know what? I don't care. I really don't.

And here is message to her: Karma is a bitch and I hope she finds you. And on a personal note from me to you, fuck you - times 4.

Friday, May 18, 2012

Finally Friday.....

Mom picked up Grandma last night - she was about 5 years old. She was lactating - so she most likely was the mom of Annie and Wild Bill, but rather than freak her out more, mom just let her go. One more baby factory closed....the tech said it looked like she has had several litter over her life and her ear tips had been lost to frostbite (mom thought she might have been spayed looking at her ears). We are glad Bug's family is committed to teh TNR - for that, bottle babies can be taken care of.....  :)

And don't forget to visit Tucker & Finn to help them support Back in Black 2 along with Best Friends!!

Hey - the man in the blue shorts stopped at our house the other day!!!


We "borrowed" mom's magic card and ordered some books for...her - yeah, that's right. :)  Miss Chrystal over at daily dose of dogs wrote a book - and of COURSE we had to get that. You can get your copy by going to xlibris.com. We can't wait.....  And then we also got Cat Daddy and a Cheezeburger book.  We know what mom is doing this weekend......

Of course, Tommy had to inspect the box to make sure everything was OK. Too bad it isn't big enough to climb in and take a snooze.

And, we can't leave you without some cute for the weekend....

Thursday, May 17, 2012

so much for that....

Sorry about the double post yesterday - mom planned the one about the new kitts for today but hit the wrong button. Good help is so hard to find. :)  MOL

Anyhow, mom fed the kitts last night and was watching TV when the phone rang. It was Bug's mom - they caught the momma cat!!!! Wahoo.......  Mom got right in the car (ok, after finding some shoes and running around the house) and went over to pick her up. She came back and got everything set up.

Mom borrowed a big wire dog crate from our friend Miss Kelly. She put the blankets inside and then.....


Meet "Grandma" as she is called in the neighborhood. This is the cat they were sure they were seeing with the kittens. Mom got her in the crate and then put in the kittens and food/water/litter.

She checked on them later in the night (though didn't take any pictures - have we mentioned the thing about good help). Grandma was eating, but the kittens were nursing. She decided to give it to morning. And while the food was gone, it didn't appear the kittens were eating. Grandma was being nice to them, but either those aren't her kittens or too much stress from being trapped and moved.

So a decision had to be made - in order to bottle feed the kittens, mom had to get them out of the crate. She decided to "re"trap Grandma and grab the kittens. And since she was in the trap, she got dropped off at the clinic today. Mom says the kittens are doing ok as bottle babies and the routine isn't too bad, so she is just going to take Grandma back to the neighborhood and release her.

Didn't work out the way we wanted, but hey....one more girl cat spayed!!! Plus the 2 boys from the previous days. Not bad if we do say so ourselves. And the neighbors want to continue to borrow the traps to keep doing TNR. Mom says for that alone, and setting a good example for the kids, she can bottle feed a couple of kittens. (guess this means we should let her off the hook for the picture/button hitting thing, huh?)

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Not what we planned....

Mom got an email about a week ago from.... Bug's mom!!! Not a Bug update though - they have a momma cat and kittens and needed some help and suggestions.

Mom looked back at the blog and realized not all of you may know about Bug. She was found Labor Day 2010 and was mom's first (and really only) bottle baby. That is the tiny white kitten you saw yesterday. She is now a year and a half old. Her mom says she isn't too wild about new people but LOVES her daddy. You can read more about her here.  Mom got to scratch her ears and love on her a little. She has grown into quite the big girl!! And she is a biter too..... some people's kids (wait - that would be our fault - oh well).


But, the call was really about the mom and kittens. The goal was to leave the kittens with mom and keep an eye on them. But, the kittens were getting bigger and the kids were getting worried. Mom agreed to help them with the kittens and the goal was to trap the mom, give her time in a crate with the kittens until they were weaned and then spay/release mom.

Mom ended up taking the kittens and the trap was set. And we caught.....a male orange tabby. Took him to be neutered (one more stop on mom's adventure Tuesday). The family agreed to keep the trap and try again. As of this morning, they have 2 traps and caught: a raccoon and another orange male tabby. That momma cat is being pesky.

So, let's do a head count: there is us. Wendy and the kittens in the bathroom. Silver running around (mom gave up on the crate - it was an issue of contagiousness but mom figured that ship had already sailed and Silver was screaming in the crate). And now this:


the bigger one is the girl (Annie), the smaller her brother (Wild Bill)

Bug's new family doesn't live that close to us, but don't they look suspiciously like a certain tiny white baby picture from yesterday??? Anyhow, mom guess them to be about 3 weeks old. And yes....this means we have bottle babies unless that momma cat gets her furry butt in a trap (please please let her get in the trap). Oh, and mom says don't do the math and get the total number - it might make her look even more crazy than she really is. :)

wacky week.....

Didn't mean to panic anybody yesterday..... we are all fine. And so are the kittens.... mostly. :) Mom ended up taking an emergency "vacation" day yesterday to get it all together.

Before we get to that, could you please go visit Finn & Tucker? They are holding a comment-a-thon to support Best Friend's Back in Black 2 event!!!

Silver was not acting right was had gotten snotty. Mom got the rescue vet to check her and she is sick. So, now she is crated and taking meds. And she is NOT happy about it. However, so long as she continues to eat, she should be fine in about a week....

Wendy and the kittens are doing ok. And we now have a list of who is who. Mom had the shelter vet check out Arby (male black/white) and BK (tiny male tabby). Arby is now on meds as his eye swelled up. BK is about half the size of his siblings. The goal is to give Wendy some time to herself to gain some weight and monitor BK to make sure he is gaining weight....Mom tried that last night.... yeah, she doesn't so much like other cats. Not sure how this is going to work. Mom said something about leaving the shower door open to give her a place to escape.

We don't want to this to get too long.....so we will leave you with this picture as a teaser for mom's other adventure:


Does this kitty look familiar????

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

reallY????

well, we are experiencing kitten weirdness..... no real post today while mom deals with that.....

Monday, May 14, 2012

Wacky weekend update...

First from yesterday, Marg asked about Swizzle's kittens - Martini and Mojito were the only two that tested negative for FeLV. Martini was adopted last fall. Mojito was as well but about a month ago our friend Miss Beckie found a post on craigslist trying to rehome a kitten - which is a violation of their contract. So, Mojito was picked up and readopted about 2 weeks later.

And on to our wacky weekend......

Marble is at Petco. There was an open cage at another store, so mom moved a cat there and took Marble over to the adoption event and she stayed. Silver came back home with her since she isn't spayed yet. The non-technical scale they use for treats said she weighs about 1.75 pounds. :)  Hopefully she will make weight in the next week or so. Marble was pretty chatty most of the morning.


The ees aren't doing so great. Mom took them to the adoption center on Saturday and the rescue lady gave them fluids. Miss Beckie is a people nurse but she is home a little more and offered to take them back to make sure they get a little more medical attention. We aren't sure what is up with them, but we know every effort will be made to keep them healthy.


The condo came down - no reason to leave it up since Silver won't stay in there anyhow. MOL

Wendy and the kittens aren't as snotty, but they still have the runs. Mom is gonna email the shelter today and see what is going on.

Mom says there are a few things in the work this week, so we shall see what happens. :)

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Mother's Day - foster style

Butterfly (1/08)

Butterfly's kittens: Marigold and Violet

Harmony (9/08)

Harmony's kittens: Daffodil, Iris, Rose, Lily and Ivy (yes, THAT Ivy)

April (4/09)
April's kittens: Hoisin, Mushoo, Tofu, Wonton, Lychee

Chloe (4/10)

Chloe's kittens: Treble, Nocturne, Minuet, Requiem, Cadence

Chiclet (9/10)

Chiclet's kittens: Utah, Dakota, Maine, Georgia, Nevada, Carolina

Swizzle & kittens (4/11)


Friday, May 11, 2012

oh for the love of......

Mom took Wendy to the shelter on Tuesday cause she and one kitten were snotty. Wendy is still...VERY snotty. We can hear her breathing under the door.....  And mom says she is pretty evil about taking the clavamox. There is talk about giving her a stronger drug, but mom isn't sure what that means for the kittens... gotta check that, though they are basically eating on their own, so no real worries.

However, mom got an email from the shelter. Seems 2 kittens from Louisa's litter tested positive for coccidia. And of course we have one in this litter. Which means the whole crew has been exposed (which could explain why Wendy is so darned skinny). They are working on a one dose treatment as opposed to the traditional 10 day course.... 

And now, of course for the cute!!

BK
(not sure about what names go with the rest of the kittens)