weekend report

Daiquiri would like to thank everybody for their birthday wishes. She got a new spring toy and mom broke out a couple of foam balls, so it was a good day for our youngest kitt.

 Friday night was a festival in a local suburb. They do it every Fourth Friday and the one is August is called the Dog Days and the invite local rescues to come out and set up. Mom set up a table with rescue information, items to sell and the meezer. London was a big hit and did very well. OK - until the band started playing. There is a small college in this suburb and their marching band came out to play a few songs. Mom didn't see them set up right near the table and when they hit their first note, both she and London jumped. London kind of freaked out so he went back in his carrier until they were done playing.

 In other meezer news..... London has been ADOPTED!!!!!

Mom got an application for him via email on Saturday, checked everything out and he went home with his new mom and dad on Sunday. Just adults, no kids and they have an older labrador. When they met on Sunday, it was at a local coffee shop and mom had London on his harness. He got up on the table and walked right over to his new mom. She picked him up and he gave her the long sighing PURR....  No idea if they are keeping his name, but he didn't seem attached to it, so no big deal if they don't. They have all our information so hopefully we will get updates.

And check out the scratcher we got from Chewy.... Daiquiri decided the paper design had to be removed. So she pulled it all off and within an hour it looked like there was red snow all over the living room.

Happy 1st Birthday Daiquiri

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY!!!

Hard to believe Daiquiri was this little when she came to us as a foster.

And got goofier with age....we love this picture.

we sure had our ups and downs and testing scares

She still loves a good snuggle. Tim is her favorite guy.

This picture was just taken the other day. She is completely adorable and goofy. Her racing stripe is crooked but what else would we expect. She has several nicknames (don't we all) but will respond most often to "Brat". She LOVES Junior and plays with the kittens all the time. Mom has had to warn Daiquiri off a couple of times when she gets a little rough with the littler ones, but Daiq backs off and watches. She has been a joyous addition to the family.

Happy Birthday Daiquiri!!!

Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day

Our friends at Zee and Zoey decided to set up a day to remember all our friends who have gone to the Bridge. They lost their cat Mr. Jazz just last year on this day and while they are still grieving wanted to share the day with all those that have experienced loss....as we all have. Deb even wrote a book called Purr Prints of the Heart in honor of Mr. Jazz.

You can join the event on facebook too.

We have lost several members of our family over the years....and fosters as well. But last year was hard when Maestro crossed in May and then we lost baby Coral in October. And while they are gone from this world, we know they are healthy and safe and we will be together again someday.

Thankful Thursday

Adoption news:

Tamarind and Tumeric were both adopted last week!!! (not together, but still) Since mom doesn't do the adoptions at the center, we don't know anything about this new families, but we wish them good luck!!

Nashville and London are now both on Petfinder. Mom is reluctant to send London to the adoption center just to avoid him getting snotty again....we shall see. However, we suspect just getting him up on Petfinder will get him a home. :)

Speaking of snot, Tostada is back with us for a little bit. She had gotten pretty sick right after going to the adoption center. Then she came back out to the adoption floor, got sick, came back out, got sick.... notice a pattern??  Anyhow, she was on the adoption floor on Friday when mom stopped by and when mom got her out, she noticed Tostada seems kind of wheezy. Rather than put her back, mom said she could come to our house in the hopes she would recover a little better. For now she is in the tower so mom can catch her to medicate her. We don't care but she has been growled at several times by Topeka and Nashville.

Mom will be at an event tomorrow night and plans to take London. After last weekend, he appears to be pretty bomb proof. :)

Wordless Wednesday

Nashville and Topeka

scratcher review

**as part of the Blogger Influence Group, we get a free product once a month to review for Chewy.com but that does not influence our opinions. The product review is our honest opinions. Chewy.com is not responsible for the content of this review.

This time around we were offered several things but decided to give a new toy a try since mom says we don't need more treats (whatever). We got the Catit Bench Scratcher and LOVE IT.

We had solely been using vertical posts until one momma cat refused to use those and insisted on using the carpet to sharpen her nails. Mom decided to get one over on her and bought a cardboard scratching pad for her. Not only did the momma cat like it, but the rest of us did too. We beat the daylights out of the last one, so it was good timing when we were offered this one.

As head mancat, Tommy was the first to check it out. Snoopervised by Topeka of course....

hmmmm.....what is it??

(keep in mind no catnip was used....we don't get that much here

due to a certain head mancat being a mean drunk)

Tim decided it makes a wonderful throne.

Notice Nashville balancing on one end.

This would be one drawback to this particular bench....

when an adult walks on it, they tend to avoid the ends so big problem.

The kittens tend to step on the edges and make the whole thing pop up.

Except in this case - he must not weigh enough. MOL

also good as a head rest

or a sleeping bench

If you look closely, you will notice some of the red paper missing. A certain 1 year old kitten (*cough*Daiquiri*cough*) decided that is didn't meet with her approval for some reason and has taken to removing the paper. Which of course leads to pieces of red paper all over the condo. But it isn't a very big deal and mom says she can live with it.

We have had it out now for over a week and considering the number of cats using it, it has held up to the abuse quite well. Mom has to order us more food and did notice that Catit makes bench that doesn't have legs and she may order a couple for us with our next food order.

Altogether, we give it paws up!!

weekend report

Mom got the laptop back and it seems to be running ok.....thank cod she didn't lose any files.

Nashville was neutered on Thursday. He is doing very well - as most boy cats do. Mom took him and London to an adoption event on Sunday.

We had VERY nice weather this weekend....mom opened the windows Thursday night and it has been getting cool enough overnight to keep us cool during the day. Sunday warmed up some so mom turned the a/c back on - remember we live on the second floor so it warms up here a little bit. But this coming week should be nice too, so back to open windows!!

Nashville and Topeka take a break from weekend kitten games. It has been some serious fun and games around here with this many kittens all about the same age. London is probably 4 weeks older than the spice kittens who are probably only 2 weeks older than the TNR kittens. It is interesting to see how much bigger London is than everyone else. Presuming London stays not snotty, he and Nashville will most likely go up to the adoption center this week.

Otherwise we spent most of the weekend relaxing....

it sure does seem to be something we are good at.

Random Fridays

Nashville went yesterday to be neutered. Mom will be taking him and London to an adoption event on Sunday. Wish them luck!!  The girls weren't big enough for surgery yet and Reno has the snot (apparently a gift from London).
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mom got the laptop back yesterday. All files intact so we should be up and running on schedule next week. Seems it wasn't a hardware issue (thank cod) but some malware and virus issues. Mom is going to make sure that she is running some super virus scans from now on along with backing everything up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last week when the Tabbies of Trout Towne won our blogoversary give away, they emailed us and said they have plenty of things and would like to donate their prize to another shelter or foster. We gave it some thought.....  our friends over at Love and Hisses have had a miserable 2015 with personal losses. We decided to put a bunch of stuff into a box and send it to Challenger's House which is where the fosters at LH come from. Thanks for all the comments....we know that the cats and kittens will appreciate the treats and toys.
~~~~~~~~~~~~

your dog is a WHAT

This is Izzo.

 Izzo is the woofie that owns our grandma and grandpa in Tennessee.

The shelter here he was adopted said he is a corgi mix.
Mom says he is brown, short, long and has no idea what all is in there.

Now, when she went to BlogPaws in May, she got a chance to take a tour at Mars Global Center. As part of the tour, she got a bag full of Mars products....dog treats, Tempations (yummy), Sheba (she fed the kittens that), and other stuff. Including - a Wisdom Panel. Now THAT got her excited! She had said before that she wanted to DNA test the dog and here was her chance!

Of course, to do that you do need to have access to the dog, so last time she went visiting, she took the test. It was easy to register online. Grandpa told her to do it in her name since she was going to talk about it. Then you have to get the sample from the dog....it is as simple as opening the swabs, roll each around under the cheek, let it dry and mail it off. (there would be pictures but mom forgot to take her camera - of course)

Mom got an email the same day telling her the test was activated and then another email telling her it was received and being processed. From there is states it will take 2-3 weeks. We got the results in about 14 days.

In the meantime....why test?
For some people it is merely curiosity. At the Mars facility, they use it to determine the background of their testing panel dogs so that they can help enrich their lives. For example, if you have a hound, then you can help enrich their surroundings with sights and smells to keep them interested. For each different predominate breed, you can do everything possible to keep them engaged. For others, it is about breed restrictions and legislation....for example being able to tell your local animal control that in fact your dog is NOT a pit bull.

Well.....the results are in.
The panel lists the 3 predominant breeds. However there are no percentages which mom found kind of disappointing. If you think about it....predominant simply means that those 3 numbers are higher than the rest. It DOESN'T mean that a high percentage of the dog is that specific breed. The predominant breeds could be less than 10% each and still be higher than everything else. The chart mom got showed about 90% of his background as "mixed breed" so he truly is a mutt.

For background:
Izzo is about 12 inches tall, no idea how long, 22 pounds, reddish brown with medium long fur and feathered back legs and tail.

The three dominant breeds:
                          Labrador, Chow and St Bernard.

Mom almost fell out of her chair laughing. She suggested that grandma take a camera and tell people Izzo is part St. Bernard. Hahaha


**we were given the Wisdom Panel for free. We have not been otherwise compensated for this blog post and receiving the test did not influence our opinions. 

weekend report

Live from.....moms kindle. We are experiencing technical difficulties. Mom opened her laptop on Sunday to get posts ready for this week. And her screen turned chartreuse. We thought the "screen of death" was blue, so no one is sure what's going on. Fortunately everything backs up every time she is on using a company called SurDoc so we should be able to recover everything. She just has to find somebody with some skills.

Tamarind and Turmeric went up to the adoption center on Saturday. Stopped by early on Sunday and they were both still there but hopefully get adopted quickly.

Otherwise it was kind of slow around here which is nice sometimes. Reno got the snot from London so they are both on meds now.

The girls: Topeka, Anise and Cinnamon

check the chip

Microchipping....we've talked about it before. It is SO important. So the AVMA has set up today as:

CHECK THE CHIP DAY

All of us are microchipped....but it is still important to take a second to get scanned and make sure it comes up. And of COURSE - make sure the chip is registered with the company and you keep your information updated!!!

In just the past 3 weeks, mom has run out for the rescue and picked up cats that have been found by good samaritans....the rescue gets called because the chip ultimately comes back as "owned" by the rescue and the person who adopted didn't register the microchip. The rescue will then go back through our records and attempt to contact the adopter. Here is what happened then:

  Cat #1 - mom got in touch with the adopter, she said she wanted him back but then stopped responding to mom about making arrangements to have him returned. he has since been adopted by a new family.

  Cat #2 - messages were left for the adopters. no response was ever received. she is now looking for a new home.

  Cat #3 - we contacted his owner. he had slipped out and his mom was SO HAPPY to have been contacted and drove right over to get him back. she was told again to be sure to register the chip

And that is just the recent ones. Sadly, sometimes even with registered chips you can't reach people - but how is anyone who rescues supposed to contact you if there is NO chip or the chip isn't registered!!!

It is pretty easy, relatively painless, and most clinics don't charge a lot. Around here, our local Petco stores have vet events once per month and those clinics will microchip as well.

FYI - mom went out to Found.Org and registered all our chips....for free!!  It was easy too.

BlogPaws has a great article as well as our friends from Cats Herd You

Random Fridays

First, thanks for all the lovely notes on our blogversary post. And now.....we have a winner!!! Da Trout Talkin Tabbies  (send us an email to randomfelines at hotmail dot com)

Since the bigger boys are now neutered, it will shortly be time to get them back up to the adoption center. Plus we have to get them on Petfinder - though mom questions if it is worth the time posting London and Tamarind since she knows they will more than likely go pretty quickly.

London was going for the hooligan award the other night. Remember that he is out and about 24/7, so he came into the bedroom as mom was getting ready for bed. She heard and noise and turned to see a certain meezer climbing the bedroom curtains. She pointed a finger at him and said "NO!" .... and he proceeded to climb up another foot. This after having just spent about half an hour curled up against mom's neck purring while she was reading. He is going to give someone a run for their money.

No real plans for the weekend....which mom says is a good thing. We still got the hots during the day, so no open windows quite yet for us. 

Cat Lady Box

Our friend Miss Dorian started a new company CatLadyBox which is a pretty neat idea. She searches out new and interesting small companies and each month puts together a box with a few cat related items in it - for PEOPLE!!! Of course, you can order a box that includes a couple of items for the cat in the house too. :)  You can order you own box...or a subscription....or as a gift for someone else!! And part of the proceeds will even go back to cat rescue.

The card is lovely on the front - mom says she may frame it.

And on the back it has information about every item in the box.

The card was made by a lady named Lisa 

who sells her work at the etsy show PrintsofHeart 

check it out....we got the box with cat stuff too!!

The white envelope had a nice note and some temporary cattoos

Daiquiri wonders if there is anything for her

Cute ceramic cat pendant

Southerngracie

There was a t-shirt in there for mom made exclusively for Cat Lady Box. It has a big MEOW on the front and even a tail on the back. MOL There was also lip balm for mom with CATNIP in it...she hasn't been brave enough to try it yet....something about fear of attacks.

Since this was the "crazy" version, there were treats and a toy in the box for us. The fortune cookie catnip toy is handmade by MisoHandmade and has some premium nip in it. And there were treats from Omega Paw as well - we got the Meowmosa version with salmon and a hint of orange juice. As you can see below, the treats were a hit.

We know there are a lot of subscription boxes out there, but honestly this is the first mom has seen that is for Cat Ladies!! We love that Miss Dorian takes the time to find small places that take the time and effort to put love into their products. We give it 7 paws up....and recommend it for yourself or your favorite cat lady!



**Disclaimer: we got our box for free in return for our HONEST review. Getting the box for free didn't influence any of our opinions (or that of the mom). All sponsored reviews contained our unbiased remarks.

wordless Wednesday

weekend report

Starting Friday afternoon, mom released the spice kittens. Which means we are now officially outnumbered... for those of you keeping track, that is 8 KITTENS running around here. HALP!!  :) Normally we don't have quite that many around (unless it was a BIG family) but London can't seem to shake the snot and the TNR kittens were an add on (by the way - mom 'fessed up to the rescue lady that we had them and her response was an eyeroll and "I knew" oh well....so much for that - at least mom isn't in trouble).

Surprisingly, all the kittens integrated very well. There was some minor name calling and the TNR kittens still howl like brats when they are playing, but otherwise there was lots of running around and toys flying and then piles of snoozing kittens. The spice kittens seem to be doing well...we aren't entirely sure what was causing their issues, but the meds and some Forti Flora seems to be helping.

London, Tamarind and Tumeric were all neutered on Sunday. A local mobile clinic was out and did surgery on 35 cats for our rescue!!  London appears (again and again and again) to be a little snotty, but when there is space the other two boys will go to the adoption center. The girls and the TNR kittens aren't quite big enough yet.

mom didn't realize how funny this picture

appeared until she got it up here....

left to right:

London, Tumeric, Tamarind and Cinnamon

Nashville always appears baffled for some reason

(that's Uncle Tim he's next to)

Mom drove a bloodhound transport on Saturday morning. Since her next stop was an adoption event, the 3 boys went with her. Ginger the hound didn't even seem to realize the kittens were in the car (and it wasn't like they were quiet or anything).

After laundry, some cleaning and running around, mom took Sunday afternoon to relax and even got in a nap with Topeka, Anise and Cinnamon snoozing with her.

Happy 6th Blogoversary to us!!!

Who would have thought we would come so far and still be around???

Some numbers for you:

We started fostering in 2006, meaning as of now, we have been in the foster business for 10 years!! Wow!

With the current kittens in residences, we have fostered a total of 234 cats and kittens.118 female, 116 male. Huh....that IS interesting.

Not to mention various dogs and cats driven on transport. :)

Some blog stats:
             1527 posts....who would have thought???
             In the last month our July Blog the Change post got the most views
             Overall views: more than 244,000
             Top traffic sources: Feedly, Cat Blogosphere, Broken Teepee (thanks Miss Patty)
             Views by country: mostly the US, then Russia, Ukraine and various European countries
             Other things mom found interesting: 41% use Foxfire, 22% use Chrome, 62% are Windows users

Not bad considering when we started mom mainly thought she was talking to herself.  MOL


We lost some of our permanent residents and gained some as well. We have gained and lost friends - some we have met in person and some we have not. We have seen our community band together to help those in need and blog to make changes to the world around us. Mom has traveled to Blog Paws and BarkWorld and met some great cat people in person!!

Mom figures she would still do this as a way to document us and the fosters, but knowing that others are out there - enjoying our pictures, sharing in our highs and lows and enjoying what we talk about (and maybe sometimes learning something) - that is so important as well.

In that spirit, we are giving back to ave a comment and we will put together a prize package and mail it out to one winner. Since mom has never really gotten to be more than her techno-dork self, we will just take all the names, put them in a container and let a kitten pick one out. US, International - everyone is welcome. (we will announce the winner on Friday, so we will take comments made through Thursday 11pmEST)

We love you all and THANK YOU for being our friends!!  We know we don't comment as often as we should sometimes, but know we are around.

Oh - and for a quick laugh - all the kittens have been out for the last few days (talk about chaos). Mom was trying to get video of Tamarind and Cinnamon playing when someone wandered through the shot.....

World Cat Day

Wait....isn't that every day?????

To help you celebrate, some pics of....US!!

Angel Maestro, Mozart, Angel Butterscotch, Tim and Tom

Ivy - the picture that became mom's tattoo

handsome Spud

the big bad tabby brothers

Junior - day one 

Mo and Ivy - snuggling

Maestro - we miss that old mancat

more Mo and Ivy

Junior - all grown up

can't forget Daiquiri