New friends on Sunday.....

Look who mom met at the rescue adoption center:

dad cat - think his name is Tut

check out those froot bats

and the wrinkles

mom cat and two of the boys

Yep - those are Sphynxes.... Yep - they came into the rescue. Mom and Dad came in together and a few days later....boy kittens. As far as we know, the kittens all have homes and they are still working on homes for mom and dad. One of the kittens has been adopted by a vet from the local university.
**as the story goes a lady was "breeding" but got out and gave mom and dad to an elderly neighbor. The neighbors grandson knew the cats needed to be somewhere else and called the rescue.

Saturday update.....

First THANK YOU for the comments....we so appreciate the love, tears, support and even outrage for mom. She is still hurting some, but knowing that you all are out there makes a difference.

Now, for the morning update: the roller coaster continues. Rocket and Sputnik were at the vet starting on Thursday. The operations director (a different lady from Thursday) called last night. Friday morning Rocket had a seizure and crossed the Bridge too, joining his sisters and mom. That is 3 kittens from this litter and NO ONE seems to have a clue what is going on.....  mom asked and the lady seemed not to have an answer.

The good news is that Sputnik is doing well and mom is leaving in about 30 minutes to go get him and bring him home. Of course, he has always been the largest of the kittens, so he probably had a better store of energy for whatever got him.

The four that are here: Orbit (now nicknamed the Marshmallow - she is kind of round, but seriously... who would eat a gray fuzzy marshmallow - mom is just weird) is doing great. Other than being down when the calici first hit, she has been great. Eating like a champ, never got the runs (knock on wood), playing like mad.

Nasa, Hubble and Corona still have the runs something terrible. Their poor butts are kinda raw. When the operations director called yesterday, she made it clear how important it is to keep them clean and the ointment on them (duh). But, all eating like mad and running around like crazy.

Here is what is baffling: they were treated for coccidia. They eat like they have never seen food and will never again..... and yet they have the runs (which may also explain why they seem constantly hungry). The shelter is running some tests (supposedly) not no one has any answers. If anyone out there has ANY ideas....we are open to suggestions. For now they are being fed often and confined to the bathroom only!! Mom is hopeful that maybe she will learn something when she picks up Sputnik (if she does, we will update later).

Random Fridays....

Random Friday this week is interrupted for some other news and mom is having a minor ranting moment....

As you all know, we lost Gemini this past Sunday.

Mom noticed on the shelter website on Tuesday morning that Rapunzel, their momma, was off the website - which normally means the cat has been adopted. So mom emailed the cat advocate asking if Rapunzel was adopted and when they next wanted to see the kittens.

Mom got an email back: Rapunzel wasn't adopted. Everything was fine Monday morning but when the advocate when back to check on everyone in the early afternoon, Rapunzel was curled up on a chair and had passed away. Not a mark on her and nothing around that would give any indication what happened. The shelter is running some tests, but as of right now, we have no idea what happened.

Run free beautiful girl

In the email, she said they wanted to see all the kittens back on Thursday when the vet was at the shelter to see what might be going on. Mom got a call from the shelter director Thursday afternoon. Aurora (one of the tabby girls) was pretty sick (the vet said pneumonia and a collapsed lung though heaven knows she was acting ok Thursday morning) and they euthanized her. Rocket (our black and white boy) and Sputnik (the black male) are being hospitalized overnight to get some supportive care. Rocket has been a hot mess and Sputnik was eating off and on and had the runs this morning.... The hope is to be able to get them back tomorrow. Please be thinking of all of them.

 Hubble, Orbit, Sputnik, Corona, Nasa, Rocket and Aurora

And mom - she has a case of the sads and the angries (see below).

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Mom here with a rant. I will admit up front, in an effort of full disclosure, that the shelter director is NOT my favorite person. She comes across a little false to me and I have had more than one run in with her where she "claims" someone has said things about me but can never back them up - but I am the one that gets the black mark.

In her conversation with me about the kittens (and at least she called me this time...as the story goes, she was supposed to contact me on Monday about Rapunzel and never did ), she mentioned that she only talks to me when it is bad news. This would partly be because I really don't have much to do with her and she isn't around during volunteer shifts anyhow. On top of the fact that I don't call for every stupid little thing with fosters as I know some families do. I can deal with the weird.

But then she said the following: "you seem to have some bad luck and maybe we can sit down sometime and go over some procedures and cleaning steps so this doesn't keep happening."

EXCUSE ME????  This is MY freakin' fault?????

She doesn't know about my fostering for the rescue....there is some animosity between the groups (don't get me started) and it just isn't worth the drama. But.....I don't have these problems with their kittens. Don't get me wrong, not every kitten that goes through here is a miracle healthy-no-issues kitten (though it does happen - the beer kittens were great). That is the nature of rescue - take in strays and ferals and everything else and you aren't going to get perfect litters of kittens.

But to make it sound like somehow I am doing something wrong.....oh hell no. I didn't say anything, but give me a break. No - the three messiest kittens didn't get a bath before going over this morning. Screw that though.....  I honestly think I am done fostering for this group - I don't know if forever, but certainly for now. Let her take it however she wants to - I really don't care. I know they are short foster families. I know they don't have many that will take momma cats with tiny kittens. And I know they don't have many that will take sick or snotty kittens. But to throw this back at me????  Unfair..... very unfair.

As for the logical questions: why would they give them back to me then? cause they are short handed and need the help. why would I take them back? because despite how I may feel about the people, I love those kittens and want to see them better and ready to head to their forever homes.

Thankful Thursday

We know some of you have seen this and even posted about it....but we wanted to add our two cents.

As we all know, FIP is an evil cat disease....with no cure. Now the Morris Animal Foundation and Cornell's Feline Health Center think they may be getting close to finding the genetics behind it that may lead to a test and treatment.

But here is what most of you don't know.....we had our own scary run in with FIP.

Ivy came to us as a foster with her mom and her sisters. Everyone was adopted and Ivy became a permanent member of our crew. At about 6 months old Ivy developed a hernia at her spay site and the humane society (where mom's was volunteering at the time and where Ivy had been adopted from) agreed to fix it. THAT is a whole other story....for giggles (and to embarass Ivy), we will tell it another time.

However, shortly after Ivy had her surgery, mom got an email from the family that adopted one of her sisters (Iris). It seems over Easter weekend of that year, Iris got very sick....and then she crossed the Bridge. Her family was very upset and concerned and asked their vet to run some tests to see what had happened. The vet came back and said he was fairly sure Iris died from FIP. 

Mom assured them that she was VERY upset and VERY concerned and so VERY sorry. She contact the humane society and the assistant manager and the vet both contacted the family to answer their questions. The mom emailed our mom later (the first email was from the dad) and expressed her thanks for the input and the help and that she hoped mom wasn't upset by her husband....that he was just sad about the kitten. And we certainly understand that.

As for Ivy, the good part about her hernia surgery was this....the vet got a good look at Ivy's insides (say it with us "ewwwww") and assured mom that Ivy had no symptoms of FIP.

So....we couldn't be happier that vets are headed in the right direction to end this.

To celebrate, an Ivy movie:

**we know there is a break in the action about half way - but hang on...there is an appearance by Miller and then check out the size of the tail on the princess  MOL!!!

wordless Wednesday...

ah yes....everybody love them some Tim

The blogosphere is going PINK today in remembrance of Skeezix

Tabby Tuesday.....

Well, Miller and Stella are still here. Stella should be big enough to be spayed....mom just has to remember to call. Then there needs to be a space at Petco. She also has to get them up on Petfinder (yep - slacking off, that's our mom).

Miller (sitting up) and Stella

you can see the difference in their stripes here

Miller is more ticked (his fur not his temperment)

Stella has bolder stripes

Stella toes

They are having a good time running around the house and being nutty. When mom leaves baby jail up and the door open, they will wander by and check out the space kittens but apparently don't find them too interesting.

10am update: Stella is being spayed today - she weighs in at about 2.5 pounds. And...mom managed to remember to send their info in to get them up on Petfinder. :)

weekend update....

The BarkPark event on Saturday was a huge hit. We aren't sure how much the rescue got yet, but we were surprised by how many people showed up....cause it was HOT here. Mom had to leave by 1pm and it was just about 90 degrees....and no breeze. And of course, she got no pictures.....sigh   :)

Then mom did a transport run for OBR. Gracie made it up from Kentucky to hook with with Timmy who came north a couple of weeks ago. They were both headed to foster homes in Canada. While we don't know much, we know they were found together, are about 7-8 years old, no one was spayed/neutered (yeah- we suspect they were used as a breeding pair) and both had very bad entropian (when their eyelids turn in).

There was high hopes for the reunion....which was uneventful. MOL  Neither dog seemed too interesting in seeing the other after 2 weeks apart. Timmy got right in the car - and then had to be shoved over to make room for Gracie. And then Timmy shoved Gracie into the corner of the backseat and sat on her. :)  We are glad they are rescued and safe and headed to very nice foster homes - and hopefully forever homes very soon.

yep - two dogs in the Beetle

guess she is more comfy than the car seat

 Timmy

Gracie

Timmy foster home posted a video of him that cracks mom up. You can see it here
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Thanks for the comments yesterday here and on facebook. Mom came home and Stella came up and curled on mom's chest and purred.....it helped some. Mom says the worst part is that if people were more responsible, foster families and rescues wouldn't have to make these terrible decisions and have their hearts broken. Mom thinks that Gemini may have been an orphan kitten that got slipped into this litter by the other shelter...we will never know but she was always so much tinier than everyone else.

The remaining kittens all seem to be doing better - though there are 3 that are going to get a bath. They are eating some dry but mostly canned. She is also stopping the antibiotic thinking that it isn't helping their systems either. The snotty noses and everything with the calici is clearing up and they are 8 days out from their first dose, so mom isn't worried about that part. But....they are a mess. Mom wants nothing more than to give them space to run and play and spend time snuggling them. Mom is a little frustrated and sad. But, those kittens seem pretty happy to see her when she goes in there. They do all seem to be doing ok.

We think that Gemini was just so tiny that we couldn't get enough weight on her to keep her healthy and going when a bump in their health happens. Not that any of that means that mom isn't playing "what if?" in her mind......

RIP sweet Gemini

So the space kittens had been ok and then most everyone seemed to haves the runs.

Mom ran out to do a couple errands and Gemini was not responsive when mom got home. Gem was rushed to the er vet but she was just too tiny. So the best they could do is help Gemini cross Rainbow Bridge.

Mom called Gem her "little garden gnome" due to Gem's big ears and tiny face.

Safe journey tiny gnome....we didn't know you very long but we loved you very much.

Random Fridays.....

We don't know if we have talked about it before, but we find it disturbing how many abusers keep people feeling trapped in abusive relationships by using fear of what might be done to their animals. Well, mom was reading an article and found this website for the Animal Welfare Institute that has a Safe Havens link where people can put in their zip code and find a location where they go find safety for themselves and their pets. In our area, our local humane society has a safe havens program that will take pets in while the people get out and get safe. And...once the animals are determined to be stable and if it is going to be long term, they are sent to foster in a special program with a local women's prison - so the women benefit from helping others and the animals as well. 
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The space kittens were dropped off this morning for updated v-e-t checks and vaccines (maybe). Everyone is doing much better...in fact, the dreaded (b*a*t*h) was avoided by all. Yep - even Rocket.  :)  He is still having some weird....issues. But he is about 90% in the box (thank heaven cause mom is threatening to use him as the sponge the next time she has to scrub the floor - MOL). Sounds like they will all be coming back. Some foster families are on "vacation" until after July 4th, and there was a litter of 3 hissy kittens that Miss Kelsey at the shelter needs to take to socialize. The bathroom is kind of small for all 8 of them especially since mom can't give them much freedom until she trusts Rocket. But....we will figure something out. Oh - and mom promises to get more pictures up next week - it has been kind of nutty around here this week.
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Ayla, Iza and Marley: thanks for the flower/plant tip (the comments is a good place to put stuff like that so the mom sees it). Mom looked them up online and we may have to have her get some.... We are petitioning for cat grass and maybe some nip or mint, but we aren't sure we are gonna win that one.  :)

Thankful Thursday....

It has been a hard week for lots of animals and peoples around the interwebs.....  But, we are thankful for those we have meet and are so supportive of each other.

Laura took in Marigold after Rose died. Marigold just ran for the Bridge and the CB is having an auction to help Laura cover the medical bills. There is lots of great stuff (we stoled mom's card and put in a couple of bids).


Then we found out that Benny the French Bulldog has the evil C and his family could use some support too.

And then we learned that Skeezix ran for the Bridge. It was way too soon (he was 8 yrs old) and we know his family misses him very much. But we bet he has already started petitioning for pink angel wings. His buddy Max has a great post up.


Around here....the kittens seem to be feeling much better (thanks for the purrs). Miss Kelsey at the shelter has current foster kittens and if hers are big enough to be spayed/neutered, they will stay at the shelter and Miss Kelsey has offered to take at least a couple of the space kittens to give mom a break. We will miss them, but know they will be in good hands....we will know more tomorrow. They go to the shelter for a check up and maybe vaccines (depends on how they are doing).

We love being part of this community and knowing we are there for each other.....in good and bad times.

Almost a year ago (part two)....

There were two more guys in the alcohol family kitten family. Bourbon and Moonshine were here much longer. Bourbon never went to Petco - he was born with no kneecaps in his back legs and mom wanted to keep him safe and keep people from feeling sorry for him. Shine went to Petco but was VERY unhappy there and ended up coming back to the house. And at the end of 2012, the boys were adopted together.

Well, mom told L and L when they adopted the boys that they were getting "two kittens and a stalker" which they were really ok with. Thank cod......

 picture from their mom - shortly after going home

And, last Wednesday mom got to stop over and see the boys. She doesn't normally get birthday presents for former fosters, but this group is different, so she had Miss Andrea from Celestial Kitties make us some special kickers for them with their names on them. And then mom forgot to get pictures of the toys.  MOL

(BTW - Tucker's mom says Tucker never growls or hisses at his sister....but he got his kicker in the mail and was NOT ABOUT to let her near his new toy).

Bourbon is the official family greeter and was right there when mom got to their front door. Goose (Moonshine) is a little shyer, but loves his mom and dad. They call him the land shark cause he will run across the room and jump on his dad for a ride across the apartment. The first thing mom noticed was that, while he still walks funny, Bourbon noticeably walks more like normal. His back doesn't have nearly the slope.  And the boys are VERY loved and spoiled.

When the toys were broken out, Bourbon claimed them both.

Goose wasn't having it though and took off with his.

think all of the money you could save - just buy him a paper bag

Mom sent them a note when she got home thanking them for letting her come over. She got this back from their mom:
Thank you again for the gifts for the boys- they are absolutely loving them! We feel so lucky to have added such amazing cats to our little family and really feel like they were always meant to be with us. Thank you so much for being such a great foster to our "babies"!


Awwwww - that is why mom fosters.  :)

We hope you enjoyed the updates. It was pretty awesome for mom to get to see all the boys now that they are just over a year old.

Almost a year ago (part one).....

First - yep, the kittens have calici. Antibiotics and other meds to help and just keeping them eating and comfortable.....  sigh
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So on Friday we promised you an adoption update....

Rather than make this REALLY long, it will be in two parts.

About a year ago, we got a note about kittens being born near our condo.

Allie (the mom cat) was spayed and caged with her kittens to get them bigger. Once that happened, the kittens came upstairs to stay until they could be spayed/neutered and adopted.

Along the way we lost two of them: Cognac and Amaretto ran for the Bridge while here. We are sending them kisses and know they will get them.....

Gin was adopted by a family with 3 kids. Mom wasn't sure about that one but the mom comes into the Petco store and says she is doing great. Named Mulberry she loves the kids - and does jump on the mom when she is cooking. :)

Whiskey - now Tucker - was adopted pretty quickly. His new mom and dad are a retired couple and keep mom updated on him all the time. They even sent a picture to mom of Tucker and his sister Cleo celebrating their birthdays.

picture from Tucker's mom

Last Friday after work mom stopped by and got to see Tucker in person. He is a very handsome mancat. He is a little shy around new people but his mom Judy says he is a total lap cat with her.

Tucker's older sister Cleo

Weekend update....

It was a wild weekend.....

Saturday morning mom woke up to the space kittens not feeling very well. Aurora was VERY stuffed up and Orbit was wobbly. But everyone was eating so mom decided to keep an eye on them. There is no staff at the shelter on weekends (it is all volunteer those two days) and mom figured the kittens were better here for the weekend. By Sunday night, Orbit, Corona and Aurora were all feeling bad. So they were dropped off at the shelter this morning to see the vet and get some care. Aurora has ulcers on her tongue, so mom is pretty sure they have calici. Which means the rest may have it as well, but they are all doing ok so mom chose to keep them here. Good chance they will end up on antibiotics just in case though. Purrs are appreciated....

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Mom drove a kitty transport on Saturday. An adult and four kittens were pulled from a shelter in Kentucky and were headed to rescue in Rhode Island.  Imagine Home is on facebook and has transports that kind of run all over....

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And our big news:

Triscuit went home!!!

She will have a new mom and dad and a big sister (a 2 year old calico girl). Tricuit came back here Friday night so we got to spend the weekend with her.  Congrats on the new family baby.

PSA for central Ohio woofies.....

Got plans for June 22 (that's next Saturday)???

If not, have we got a deal for you. Our local rescue Colony Cats (& Dogs) is getting a chance to raise money at Bark Park.

For $20 admission, you will get access to 10+ acres of play space - with a POND!! You gotta be vaccinated and bring proof (or a note from your v-e-t as to why you can't be vaccinated).  There will be food, raffles, stuff to buy, baths and nail clippings and treats!!  Plus all the proceeds go to Colony (that is who rescued a lot of kittens - including the current beer kittens and Triscuit).

So, if you live close, hope you can come check it out!!

Random Fridays....

A beer kitten movie to tied you over....

(and yes, mom can get our videos off of You Tube again - gotta love the interwebs)
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We know there are some pittie dog lovers out there. Mom saw this article and wanted to share it with you about Breed Specific Legislation (BSL). Now, it does say on there that Ohio repealed their BSL. Which is true - the language for vicious dogs no longer says "pitt bull or pitt bull type dogs". However, there are communities in Ohio that are still enacting local BSL. We suspect someone is going to have to challenge that one in court.
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Be sure to help us continue to get the Winnie's Wish kitties adopted. There are some that have been in the cat house a while and some new kitties just rescued!!

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Someone asked the other day about the microchip tag that Triscuit is wearing in this picture. Mom put it on the collar to have her wear at Blog Paws - you know, just in case. :)  Anyhow...it was HUGE on her and she HATED it. She would catch a glimpse of it and stand up on her back paws, grab the tag between her front paws and chew on the tag.
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Tune in next week for a very special update  :)

Have a great weekend!!! We got the kinda-hots here and mom refuses to open the windows anymore. Which isn't so bad as that means Mo and Spud can sleep on the floor vents and catch all the cold air.
Mom is going to tackle the space kittens and the bathroom again this weekend....wish her luck. :)

Thankful Thursday.....

What you want foster-mom-lady?

Just hanging

The beer kittens went to the adoption event on Sunday. As you can see from the last two pictures, they are terribly stressed out by all the attention.   Triscuit was not being nice to mom while she was up there, so she wasn't out much. Our local low cost spay/neuter clinic came as a way of getting out in the public. Two of their volunteers were teenage girls who spent the time loving on the kittens.

Since the boys are neutered, Killian and Busch stayed up at the store with Triscuit. Miller is neutered too, but mom didn't want to bring Stella back alone, so she brought Miller back as well. Mom set up the playpen, took out the kittens and ran next door to get some breakfast. When she came back, one of the girls who works at Petco had Busch out and said he had gotten out of the playpen. Uh oh.... time to break out the top (yep - it has a mesh top that can be zipped on). However, the kittens spent most of the time being out. Killian immediately curled up in the lap of one of the girls and fell asleep. Busch eventually climbed over and slept on Killian and Miller slept on the other volunteer. Stella was pretty wiggly but got to play some too. We hope everyone up at the store gets adopted quick!!!

Wordless Wednesday.....

Our Allie cat (momma to the alcohol kittens)

Mom is still on the hunt for the daddy cat, but she hasn't seen him in a while.

PS: the daddy cat isn't neutered yet. mom is trying to catch him....and she hopes he doesn't bring his kittens back here - we are up to our eyeballs!!