A year in review......

January:
We started the year off telling you about the adoption of Bourbon and Moonshine. Amazing that it has been a year already.

 We had a few short timers come and go into foster, including Nurdle:

 Tim lost all his teefs but the front ones.

And then the arrival of Mist and the pepper boys:

February:
Mom bought the playpen and put it to use with the pepper boys at Petco.

We posted about the sweet kittens that went up for adoption at Petco for Valentines.

Mist and the pepper boys got adopted!!!

March:
The Brat Cat (aka Emma...the longest running foster ever) was finally spayed and went to Petco...and had an accident and managed to get adopted!!

And then we got a new family - Cookie and the snack kittens: 

 

April:
Most of April was spent getting the snack kittens bigger. They cracked us up most of the time.

no idea what Cheeto is laughing about

They went on their first adventure to an adoption event.  And then we picked up Frito.

Mom got new (more) ink.

And some of the snack kittens got adopted!!

May:
We took in another new family - Rapunzel and her kittens from the shelter. This ended up being a fiasco and the end of mom fostering for the shelter any more.

Mom went to Blog Paws in Virginia - and took Triscuit with her. They met lots of blogging friends.

The rest of the snack kittens were spayed/neutered and adopted. And so was their mom Cookie.

We had our first return from doing adoptions at the Petco store. Opal was returned...fortunately she was adopted pretty quickly as well.

And the beer kittens came to us as fosters from the rescue:

June:
Mom continued to have issues with the space kittens.

And the beer kittens got their freedom.

Triscuit got adopted!!! Despite the bowl on her head....MOL

And we got updates on Whiskey/Tucker and Bourbon and Moonshine/Gray Goose and they celebrated their first birthdays!!!!

And then mom hit the end of her patience with the shelter about the space kittens.


Tune in tomorrow for the second half of the year (we split it in half or this post would have gone on forever).

the holly-days....

Mom made it back from Tennessee. She said it is nice to see family but it is nice to get home too. We are behind on blogging and commenting....she didn't take the laptop. We are trying to catch up.  :)

A bit of business first: The Swiss Cats asked about Petco. It is a national chain of pet stores. They don't sell animals (other than fish and mice) and have cages set up for local rescues. We have several stores....the applications are reviewed by the rescue volunteers and the adoptions are through the rescue not the store. :)

And we just realized we forgot to tell you news from before Christmas....Rosemary got ADOPTED!! She was adopted by a mom and daughter. They have a 4 year old kitty. We will let you know if we get updates!

We had a pretty quiet Christmas. The pet sitter came and went and otherwise it was just us. We were happy to see mom get home.

the kid playing with cousin Boots

once everybody gets up, the kid sorts out the presents

 opening presents

we were kind of surprised Boots stuck around like that

no, the polar bear is not supposed to be sleeping on the bed

progress at Grandma and Grandpa's house

The stone on the outside it up. Some of the siding is up. There is primer on the walls inside and the tile guy was at work. The floors had started to go down but the discovered a problem with the way they line up, so they are going to have to pull up what was put down and then do it slower to check all the joints. They will start again on Monday and see how it goes....hopefully it won't slow everything down too much as they can't put in cabinets or anything else without the floors down.

easy like Sunday

This was taken before Rosie left for her forever home before Christmas.

MERRY....

MERRY

CATMAS!!!

We send you wishes for peace love and joy this holiday.

weekend update....

We want to let you know we will be hit and miss this week with the holiday. But we will be thinking about all of you and send you all love and health!

Mom took the girls to different Petco stores this weekend. Saffron and Rosemary went to our local store on Saturday. Mom spoke to someone who might be interested in one of the little girls and a couple of people about Milano.

Still no interest in Licorice, but she is obviously very comfy up at the store. :)

 Mom is very impressed with Milano....she has come out of her shell and is asking for attention and being very lovey up there.

Then Sunday mom took all three girls (including Amelia) to another local store. Amelia spent most of the time curled up in the bottom of the tower snoozing. Saff and Rosie weren't too sure about the whole thing but eventually figured out how to climb the cage and sit on the top shelf. Mom put the collar with the bells on Rosie and it was pretty adorable....and she didn't seem to mind at all. :)

Our Secret Paws present.....

We gotted another box the other day. It was from our Secret Paws kitty.  Mom opened the card and started laughing like mad. It would seem that the kitty we got also got us. MOL

So - THANK YOU Miss Cathy Keisha for our presents. There was even something for mom in there. We have already opened one of the bags of treats (nommy) and some of the toys. Tommy is stalking that feather but that is for use with mom present only. And mom said one of the bags of treats will be for Licorice since they are all grain free.  You and your peeps rock!!!!

Tommy inspecting the box - check out the fancy tape

Saffron says: is dat fevver for me????

Maestro doing package inspection

Tommy is gonna get that feather

What a haul!!

THANKS Cathy Keisha!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Our catmas present

Mom got us a Catmas present....  she bought us a lounger from Peach Industries!!  Mom is hoping that Maestro will have somewhere comfy to lounge - she got the mini cause it is a little lower (ok - and there are kittens all over that don't need to fall off a taller one - and they WILL fall off).

Saff is checking out mom's construction

hmmm....two kittens fit very well

That is the Dust Bunny and Rosie

Junior see if it will hold the large sized mancat

It was VERY easy to put together.  We love it and even as mom is posting this, Chex is snoozing on it. And Rosie is running around and getting underneath the edges and smacking Chex.

We have lots of pictures and another video of Ivy checking it out too.....more later.

Changes.....

Mom has been doing the logic problem of who would be here over Christmas and how to deal with that and the pet sitter.....

Well, some of that was solved over the weekend.  And it is all good!!

 First Basil was adopted and went home on Saturday. Mom picked him and Amelia up from Petco on Friday after work as their snot had returned. Miss Beckie called mom on Saturday and said a woman had come up to the adoption center as someone at Petco had said he was up there (not sure why they would have said that, but whatever). The woman wanted to meet Basil, so mom drove him over. It was love and he went home with her that same day. He will be on meds for his snot while he adjusts to being in a new home. He will have a new mom and a big 4 year old cowcat brother named Apollo. In fact, his new mom posted an update on our facebook page - Basil is now Loki and did great at his first vet appointment.  :)

Maverick told Santa last week that he wanted a family for Christmas and his wish came true on Sunday. He is going home with a nice man and his girlfriend. Mav will be their only kitty.

Milano is now up at Petco. She was kind of grumpy with Mav (she moved

up there before he left) so we won't be putting anyone else up there with her

unless Chex gets over his snot sometime soon.

Rosemary and Saffron got to meet Santa on Sunday.

They are (currently) scheduled to be spayed on today.

(but the post goes up before they get there)

Cross your fingers - mom said if one of them sneezes on

a vet tech, she may have to scream.  MOL

Rosie, Saff and Basil on Saturday

So the pet sitter will have the permanent crew plus 4 kittens. Though mom said something about maybe taking Rosemary and Saffron up to the store over the weekend to see if we could get any takers.

Something different and interesting....

A while ago, our friends at Glogirly did a review of a interview they had with a pet psychic.  We left a comment that mom often wonder what some of us were thinking.

Well then out of the blue we got an email from Sunny saying she had seen our comment and asking if we would be interested in a reading and review it here. We were going to talk to Nancy from Psychic Source.  Mom mainly worries about the three youngest ones here and how they get along with each other, so she sent a picture of Ivy, Spud and Junior.

Last Friday night mom settled into her chair with these two:

And then she dialed in to talk to Nancy. We will let mom take it from here:

I will be honest - I wasn't sure what to think going in. Like many others, I am kind of skeptical about this sort of thing. Now, I do believe there are things going on out there that I don't understand, but someone "reading" my cats from far away based on a picture? Not so sure about that. But I was curious and willing to give it a shot. I was most curious about the youngest three as their dynamic is the one that makes me the most crazy. None of them seem to get along and there are days I am sure Spud and Junior are going to start a death match.

As I started speaking to Nancy, she asked about Ivy first. It was interesting as Ivy was sleeping across the room on the floor vent (no, my house is not that cold but whatever). Nancy said that Ivy is very self confident (check), very calm (most of the time) and very comfortable. At this point I burst out laughing cause I am not sure Nancy meant literally comfortable, but as she said it, Ivy had rolled over onto her back and was heating up her other side on the vent. Nancy went on to say that Ivy views herself as the queen of the household and gets annoyed with the younger boys when they don't treat her with the respect she believes she deserves. But she said that Ivy is peaceful and content and knows she is living with us for a reason. I found that interesting since of all the cats, especially the foster-failures, she is the one that I can never give people a good reason for adopting. She needed to come back.

We then went on to talk about Junior. Now, if you have been following us for a while, you know that Junior was live-trapped at just over 3 months old as a kitten and came to us from a feral colony. I am fairly certain based on kittens we caught the following summer that one of the girls we trapped then was his mom as well. However, Nancy wouldn't have known that based on the picture. She said that he is afraid of people due to being kicked as a kitten by a young boy. Which is interesting....I am not certain anyone could have gotten that close to these kittens, though a couple of the memorial day kittens were pretty friendly once we caught them. Nancy also said that Junior is a big kid and that is part of the issue with Spud. Junior thinks he should be number one and is struggling a little to find his place. She did say that given some more time (maybe a couple of years), he will learn to trust me and our relationship will blossom. OK, I have waited this long, I am willing to give it more time. I told her this is his home no matter what.

And then on to Spud....Nancy said it felt like he was healing from something. I told her that he hadn't been injured or had surgery or anything. But then I told her about how I decided to keep him and have felt guilty that I was trying to replace Tigg (that is a whole other story). She said it could be emotional healing but that he is balanced and centered and looking for peaceful coexistence.

Nancy went on to say that Spud and Junior may never be best friends but as Junior settles into his place, they will learn to get along.

At this point, Junior came walking out from behind my chair and went over to lay down (seen above) next to Tommy. I would have sworn he was in the back bedroom as I knew that Spud was under the end table behind my chair. Junior had been in the room the entire time.  :)  I have to say that it is definitely the dynamic between him and Spud since Junior is visibly relaxed with the older cats - and will seek affection from them as well (Tommy had been grooming Junior's head just prior to the picture).

Ivy on her floor vent - warming her buns

At this point she asked if I had any questions and we went through the rest of the crew. She didn't have pictures, so I described them and gave her their ages.

Maestro: peaceful (he was sleeping on the arm of the chair next to me - his favorite spot). He sees himself as the center of my world.

Mozart: Nancy saw him as "religious" and an "emporer" (we may not want to discuss that part in front of him). She said that he is relatively undisturbed by the other adults in the house as he sees their mysteries and understands them.

Tim and Tom: she said they are very bonded and peaceful and happy.

I did ask if there was any sense that they were unhappy about the foster kittens that are constantly coming and going in the house. I have often wondered. They seem ok with it but....  Nancy said that they really are fine with the kittens. They see themselves as mentors and playmates and helping me help the kittens.

Then she said she had a couple of things about me. She said that I love what I do with the cats and the rescue and that I was meant to be doing this work. And here is the scary part: she said that in 2014 she sees a yellow male cat coming into my life that is meant to stay here.  YIKES!!!  :)

Overall, I was impressed. Sure, the cynic in me could say that she used a lot of generalities and could have learned some of the things if she read the blog before the call. But....I don't often discuss the "bad" dynamic in the house, so someone would have to do some digging to find all that. As for the other part of me, it was interesting to get the perspective of someone who has never met the cats and yet got a similar impression of them that I do. It was reassuring to know that they seem ok with the constant changes and are really ok with each other for the most part. And that maybe, just maybe, there is an end in sight for the conflict with the younger part of the crew. It was a very interesting phone call and I enjoyed talking to Nancy.

*We didn't pay for the interview but all opinions are our own.