Random Fridays

Mom is going to have a drooly couple of hours on Saturday.....
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Mom also ran into Tostada's new mom last weekend. Our girl is doing very well - apparently follows her new mom around the house chatting up a storm. It took her a while to find her forever home, but it sounds like she has hit the jackpot. Mom did ask about the name and she is going to be renamed Sweet Pea.
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Both of the French City ninjas were adopted last weekend (not together). Apparently the secret to quick black kitten adoptions is to make sure they are the tiniest ones available. MOL

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Daiquiri has a new hobby. She waits until mom is asleep and starts shutting doors around the condo. The bedroom door is closed during the day and then left open while mom is sleeping. This is the primary door to close. Normally Daiq will close it part way but she has gotten it closed completely - and one time actually got it to latch. Now she has moved on to closing the bathroom door (which is open since we have no kittens in there) and the door to the second bedroom which has all the cat stuff in it (which won't close all the way due to being blocked open, but that doesn't stop her from trying).

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Nashville has a new hobby too. Wake up the mom at 4:30am. He is out and about 24/7 and sleeps on the bed sometimes. The other morning mom rolled over....and there he was. And since he figured mom was at least partly awake, he proceeded to roll around and get all lovey....and stick his toes up her nose. She finally had enough and grabbed him and shoved him under the covers. Fortunately for all involved, everyone got back to sleep pretty quick at that point. :)
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We suspect no new little kittens for a while. Mom has a plan for the dining room. With two towers now, she wants to set things up so that we aren't putting kittens in the bathroom unless we have to. First part of the plan is doing some measuring to see what fits where, then she wants to plan out rearranging the furniture. Then get the carpets cleaned and reorganize. We will keep you posted on her progress.....

Isadora Calais

We get updates pretty often from Izzy's mom. The girl has moved right in and made sure her new older brothers know she is in charge. She spent the first few days in D's office and then got some time out when D was home. Fortunately for Izzy, D works from home part of the week, so she isn't in her own space too often. Nicky still isn't too sure about her so D makes sure Izzy is in the office when no one is home to supervise.

 Getting to know her brother Dusty

(while checking out the cat tree)

overworked

on the lookout

we are fairly certain she has mastered the "who me?" expression

Izzy did go over the baby gate in the first couple of days home (mom says she should have warned D about that - no baby gate holds kittens of this age)....D couldn't find her at first and eventually discovered her staring at the bed....where Nicky was backed up underneath whapping at the bedskirt trying to make the introoder go away.

D says Izzy is very sweet and outgoing and smart (took her very little time to figure out the toy puzzle). We are very glad that she found the perfect home....and we know the boys will love her. Eventually....

Oh - and she has apparently decided to be her mom's new office assistant:

wordless Wednesday

attack of the scratcher

is that for us??

We heard the pop top of a can....we are here to help....

We are part of the Chewy Influencer Group and receive no compensation for our reviews. All opinions are our own. We did receive the food for free but it did not influence our honest opinion. 

This month we got ZiwiPeak Daily-Cat Cuisine in lamb. It is grain free and the first ingredient is MEAT. Good to know....  Mom also like this since these are 6 ounce cans as opposed to the normal 3 ounce cans. With several cats in the house, the less cans she has to open the better.

Of course, any can being opened gets everyone's attention. Mom put out the chip plate along with another smaller plate to make sure everyone got a chance to try it.

Nashville and Tim were big fans (though in an effort to be forth coming, there really isn't much in the world that Tim won't eat). Daiquiri (with her racing stripe) wasn't too sure at first but did try a few bites.

Tommy and Spud were very interested and mom eventually had to get another plate to allow Spud to eat in peace. That is Ivy's back end you see there....she came over, sniffed and left.

Everyone except Ivy seemed to enjoy it. Daiquiri and Mozart didn't eat a whole portion, but everyone else was more than happy to do clean up duty for them. Ivy doesn't seem to like too many kinds of canned food though, so take her opinion for what it is worth. The rest of us give it a paws up. Thanks to Chewy for letting us review a new brand....we use them for our regular food (and mom loves that she can order early one morning and generally get it the next day....good for her bad planning skills - MOL).

weekend report

Nothing exciting here this weekend....

Mom checked on Lyon on Saturday. He didn't have any applications yet but he was relaxed and happy when mom got him out.

 Before Lyon left, he discovered basketball on TV

 Nashville is hanging around here for a little bit. He is a bit sneezy and needs to get over that before he can be adopted.

He did give mom a scare over the weekend. Mom ran out Saturday morning to get groceries. When she got home, the door from the house into the garage was open. Mom slammed the inside door and ran upstairs. We were all there but Nashville was no where to be found.

Mom shook the treat container....nothing.

She looked all over and under and everything. No Nashville.

She had to run out so she set the live trap in the garage hoping that he was close and would come back in when it was quiet. She knew she would have to talk to the rescue at some point but wanted to hold off for the moment.

Mom got back after a couple of hours. She got upstairs and still no kitten. Now she is beginning to panic.....Nashville isn't very brave. And then....

He popped out from behind the sofa. Mom had looked there....must be some weird black hole back there to hide kittens. At least it didn't last more than a couple of hours.... sheesh

Random Fridays

We have some sad and then some happy news....

Some of you may remember our cousin polar bear woofie Minnie. She got sick before Catmas and ended up being helped over the Bridge right after New Years.

Well...the kid is 11 years old and quiet just doesn't work. So last weekend they went to their local shelter and found this cutie:

Her name at the shelter was Strawberry and she had a sister named Blueberry. The shelter thinks she is part lab, part cattle dog. She is about 6 months old and currently weighs about 20 pounds. They got to bring her home on Wednesday. The kid hasn't had school due to weather so they got to spend yesterday and today together. Her new name: Maple Pancake (we mentioned the kid is 11 right?)
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In other news, one of the blogs we check every day is the White Dog Diary. This wonderful couple adopts mainly special needs and senior Eskimo dogs. It can be rewarding and yet heartbreaking....and they have experienced another loss when Ferguson ran for the Bridge yesterday. We know they could use your purrs and support.

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We don't have much planned for the weekend. Adoption event on Sunday but mom suspects it may be slow cause we still have the VERY COLDS here.

For our friends on the East Coast, we hear you about to get lots of snow..... PLEASE be careful. Bring your pets inside (where they should be anyhow), report those that don't and stay safe.

a change in the line up

Tostada went home Wednesday night. Good luck sweet girl (we bet she has her momma wrapped around her paw in no time).

Lyon will go back to the rescue tonight....he is healthy and ready to go so there is no need to wait. There really aren't any little kittens available right now, so he should (paws crossed) get adopted quickly.

Avignon was spayed on Monday. We aren't sure if she will come back here for a few days or not. She was limping again last week and the head of the rescue recommended cage rest....

However, while mom was at the rescue on Tuesday, she found this guy.....

Yep....that's Nashville. He is once again snotty and not really improving being at the adoption center. He is on Petfinder, but mom suspects the stress of the adoption center isn't helping. She brought him home. At first he was in the bathroom.....but he howled like it was the WORST.THING.EVER!! So mom let him out....which freaked out Lyon and Tostada. Fortunately after a couple of hours everyone settled back in and there was peace (mostly). He is on meds and once he is healthy, mom is going to try to get him back in one of the remote adoption locations and see if that helps get him adopted faster and keep him healthy. She had forgotten he is a night time snuggler though - she woke up a couple of times over night and found him RIGHT up next to her.

wordless Wednesday (mostly)

Lyon - upon seeing Tostada for the first time.
(you can also see Daiquiri along the left)

Tostada

Mom went out to run errands on Saturday and came back with this.....

Yep - that's Tostada. Our girl who was here as a tiny kitten, went to the adoption center, got sick, got better, got sick....ended up here on meds....had exploratory surgery....got more meds and finally went up for adoption at one of the remote locations.

Well, mom got an application for adoption for Tostada the end of last week. The lady is out of town until today so rather than leave Tostada up at the remote location taking up space, mom agreed to bring her back here so that another cat could have that spot. Tostada will go home tomorrow evening and in the mean time is making herself right at home.

It took her a little bit to get comfortable around the house....and the French City Kittens were REALLY not too sure about her. However, she has relaxed some and it doing well with all of us (though if she rounds a corner too fast, Lyon still puts on his stranger danger suit).

What is making mom really laugh is how talkative Tostada has become. She started it up at the remote adoption location....she would yell when mom came into the store. Looking for attention most likely. While she isn't overly chatty here at the house, she certainly has opinions about certain things. Like Sunday morning at about 3am when she decided to inform mom that the food dishes were mostly empty. MOL

Anyhow....she will be the only cat in the house and we suspect she will be spoiled rotten by the lady adopting her.

On the road....

Our tiny tortie girl left for her forever home on Sunday. Mom got up early and met a transport that will take her east to her new mom. It will be a long day for the baby, but worth it when she arrives to lots of love (at least we hope her new brothers love her....eventually).

**Update: everyone made it home safe. She is now named Isadora Calais. She was tearing around her new "apartment" in her new home last night. Her new big brothers sat outside the door....this could be interesting.

All three kittens spent most of Saturday night stacked up in the cube together.

Avignon is scheduled to be spayed today (cross your paws). Then she and Lyon will go to the adoption center. Which will leave us kitten-less.....sort of

Blog the Change

Thinking outside the box

Last Friday night mom went to a fundraiser for the rescue that we help by fostering kittens. The main goal of the rescue as always been TNR - Trap Neuter Return.

Well, the rescue was approached by a local artist about doing an area specific fund raiser. She would get artists in the area (and out of the area as it turns out) to donate cat art work. The funds raised would be used for targeted TNR in the area around the art studio. The woman who headed up the fundraiser said she learned about feral cats and TNR when she moved to the area and discovered "wild cats" living in her backyard. After some research, she discovered Colony Cats and reached out for help with TNR. She now cares for that colony, but it made her aware of the issue and she kept seeing more and more cats around the area where her art studio is located. She decided to go with what she knows and raise money using art to help the cats.

Mom saw several art pieces being purchased that night and the sales will go on through the end of the month. Mom bought a small magnet from an artist shop but didn't buy anything for sale from the fundraiser. It was crazy busy and crowded so it was pretty hard to see everything too. But it was wonderful to see so many people come out to support cats and art and the rescue. The rescue brought some adoptable kittens and some cat toys to sell as well.

It certainly gave us something to think about. So often there are auctions or raffles or just pleas for funds for non-profits. But this was a pretty unique idea and we hope that other groups will think outside the box for fundraising.

thankful Thursday

First - mom got her laptop back!!! Now all she has to do is find the time to get all her settings replaced and software reinstalled. It took her 40 minutes just to get hooked back up to the wi-fi. She is VERY not happy with the tech company.

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Second - we have a winner in the Fresh Wave contest. We sent an email to them (check your spam please - it will come from RandomFelines)....if we don't hear from them in 48 hours, we will pick someone else.

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The kittens are all doing well. The office where mom works closed early on Tuesday (due to weather), so mom was home working on the above mentioned wi-fi issue when a kitten let out this blood curdling HOWL! Mom freaked out and was sure it was Avignon. She grabbed the kitten and it was....Lyon. He had been messing with his neuter incision (from over a week ago) and it had opened up and was swollen (say it with us people - OUCH!). Mom called the rescue v-e-t...they were thankfully slow...and got him down there and they cleaned him up and gave mom some antibiotics and pain killer for him. Mom took along Avignon and the vet looked at her too - her second abscess site is looking good. Still a little swollen but the v-e-t lady said there is nothing she can feel adhered to the abdominal wall, so it isn't a hernia. Keep your fingers and paws crossed Av can be spayed next Monday.

Mom did hear from the rescue - the one v-e-t had cultured Av's second abscess. And it is....a common strep bacteria. So the meds she is on should clear it up but it seems odd as to why it keeps showing up and how she got it.

Between that and Lyon's occasional sneezing, mom has made both the ninjas swear to keep their cooties to themselves and don't even THINK about giving something to their sister...... or ELSE!

Calais is still set to head to her forever home this weekend. There has been a hiccup in the transport but we are hoping it all gets ironed out. There are a couple of plans in place right now. Mom promised Miss Dee she would get her kitten and mom won't back down from that.

wordless Wednesday

Today is the last day to enter our Fresh Wave giveaway.....we haven't had many entries which is disappointing for us but lucky for you.

kitten update

Once again, sorry for the bad pictures....mom called the computer guys and is HOPING to get the laptop back today. To say she is not happy with their customer service would be an understatement!
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All three kittens are still doing laps around the house. Mom took them to the adoption center on Saturday to get microchipped and Lyon was snotty. sigh....  He is back at the house and mom has made him swear he won't sneeze on his sisters.

No thanks - don't wanna be stabbed

Mom has been keeping on eye on Avignon and she looks pretty good....not much coming out of the abscess so we are hoping that is a good sign. As of right now she is back on the surgery schedule for next Monday.

Calais is definitely the friendliest of the kittens. She will sometimes sleep off on her own or with a sibling, but she is more often than not curled up on the mom. Lyon will come over and look for attention too. And climb up when he wants. Avignon is NOT HAVING IT!! Mom can grab her and love on her, but the second there is a chance for escape, that girl is g.o.n.e.

Calais is being adopted by Miss Dee is CT where she will have 2 older kitty brothers (we hope they have been sufficiently warned). Mom begged a favor from her fellow bloodhound drivers and they are going to help transport Calais to her forever home this coming Saturday.

Pet Bloggers Challenge

Several bloggers are joining with Go Pet Friendly blog to answer some questions about blogging.

1. How long have you been blogging? And, for anyone who is visiting for the first time, please give a quick description of the subject of your blog.

Our very first blog post was August 10, 2009. It started out as mom talking about us and gradually we took over talking about our adventures and fostering and volunteering in animal rescue.

2. What is the one thing that you accomplished during 2015, either on your blog or because of it, that made you most proud?

We continue to talk about rescue and fostering. Just bringing awareness to the public about the continuing need for education and rescue brings us joy. Mom has posted a few times from her perspective about TNR and fostering and the day to day rescue things.

3. Which of your blog posts was your favorite this year and why? 

Mom blogged about getting what you NEED sometimes rather than what you think you WANT. She was talking about her original plan to adopt Coral, who passed away from FIP, and ending up adopting Daiquiri, which wasn't ever the plan....and yet has been a wonderful thing.

4. What is one thing you’ve done in the past year that has brought more traffic to your blog?

We are more active on facebook and instagram. Not sure how much that drives people actually to the blog, but it gets pictures of us and the kittens out there.

5. Which of your blog posts got the most traffic this year? Why do you think it was so popular? 

Hilariously, it appears that just telling people "Happy Turkey Day" got us the most traffic this year. Merry Christmas was a close second, followed by Daiquiri's first birthday. Bwahahaha

6. What is one blog that you read religiously – other than your own – and what makes you such a devoted reader? 

Love and Hisses. Her pictures and stories make me smile. She is also a foster for kittens and I have had the pleasure of getting to know her and sharing stories and information away from the blog as well. Tails from the Foster Kittens is our other favorite - she is another foster who has great educational info and takes great pictures. There are so many great blogs out there....we feel like we are leaving so many friends out.

7. What resources do you rely on to enhance your technical, writing, photography, social media, or other skills that improve your blog?

Friends and fellow bloggers. It is great to be a part of a community where you can ask any question and get an answer - and have them put it so you understand (have we mentioned recently mom is a techno-dork?).

8. What is the best piece of advice you can offer other bloggers?

Be yourself. Find a voice and go with it. Avoid the "cat speak" thing that seems popular in some places....it can be hard to read. Find something you are passionate about - that will shine through and keep your readers interested (at least we hope it does).

9. What is your vision for your blog in 2016? Do you have specific goals?

Probably keep doing what we have been doing - talking about rescue and walking the walk. It is much easier to tell people about change when you can show them an example of how to do it.

10. You have the attention of the pet blogging community – is there one blogging challenge you’d like help with, or one aspect of your blog that you’d like input on?

We would love to take better pictures, but we suspect part of that would be a better camera and that isn't in the budget right now. Mom could put in some time learning to edit however...  MOL  We love getting comments, but it would be nice to know if there are things people want to know about or do they enjoy hearing about our day to day adventures.

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Don't forget about our Fresh Wave giveaway.

Random Fridays

Recognize that face??? Yep...that's Acorn.

She was adopted about 2 weeks ago. And on day 14, the lady brought her back. Seems her daughter got her a kitten, but then her son bought her a new puppy (for $700!!) so the kitten was being returned. Oh - and she wanted her adoption fee back. That didn't happen.....

However, the next evening a very nice family with 2 teenagers came in and fell in love with this cute fuzzy face (wouldn't you??). The daughter is actually thinking about starting her in training to become a therapy cat. So it was all for the best..... The new family has an adult cat and a dog (mom said she would LOVE to be a fly on a wall for that meeting....miss diva isn't going to be really happy about a d-o-g)
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Lyon will head back to the adoption center tomorrow. He will be the littlest kitten available right now, so he should go pretty quickly. Fortunately he is also pretty friendly and that helps too.

Avignon?? Well, mom tried to drop her off yesterday to be spayed and that didn't happen since the first clinic "claims" they didn't know about the hernia that mom told them about. The head of the rescue said take her to another clinic. Mom headed off there....yes, the girl has a big bump on the same back leg. No hernia they could find....just....another abscess. We don't get it. Anyhow, no surgery and she is back to being tortured cleaned up on a regular basis.

We know what you are thinking....but what about that tortie kitten???  Well.....she has an application submitted on her and will be here for a little bit longer until she can get to her new mom.
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Mom dropped the laptop off yesterday so hopefully we will be back on track next week.
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Don't forget to enter our giveaway yesterday. Open for a week - US residents or you can donate it to a US charity.

Fresh Wave #sponsored

We were contacted by Fresh Wave asking us to review their products. We received several products free of charge to review, but all opinions expressed here are our own. Getting the products did not effect our opinions in any way.

Mom got an email asking us to review a natural ingredient based odor removing product from a company called fresh wave. What got our attention was a few things:
1. Natural ingredients - no fillers or funky smells to cover things up. The smell you get is from essential oils
2. Manufactured in the US (in Indiana)
3. You can buy them online, but you can also purchase them at Target
4. They give back to different charitable organizations

So, let's be honest....with 7 house cats and various foster kittens, things around here can sometimes be stinky not so fresh. The package we got had 3 products - the spray, a gel container and a package containing smaller packs. Mom pulled one smaller pack out to put in the bathroom and noticed a pleasant aroma....and after over a week, it is working great. The larger gel container is in our living room and should last 60-90 days.

"Fresh Wave® natural odor-removing products use simple, pure and natural ingredients — water and natural extracts of lime, pine needle, aniseed, clove and cedarwood — to get rid of organic and inorganic odors. As in gone. Adios. Good-bye. Rather than covering up odors with perfumes and chemicals, our products actually make the odor molecules disappear. So when we say that odor is outta here…we’re not kidding." 

A couple of very small negatives: 
We wish the oils used were listed on the packaging. They are on the website, but not the individual containers. Some people are sensitive to certain smells and deserve to know what they are getting. 
Also, when you first open a container or use the spray, the clove smell is a little much...but it fades pretty fast so mom didn't mind too much.

Overall - we give is several paws up. Mom likes it and plans to make it part of our regular household products. The smell is nice but not overwhelming and it is made in the US and it is easy to keep away from the cats...though it is pet friendly.

Here's the other cool thing - mom asked if we could give a package away to one of our readers and they agreed. The contest will be open for 1 week and the company will send a prize package direct to the winner. Because they are selling through Target, winners are in the US only. But....if you are outside the US, you can enter and send the package to your favorite US rescue. Giveaway runs through midnight January 13th.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wordless Wednesday (sorta)

*since mom's laptop still isn't working right and she can't connect her camera to the Kindle or to the computer at work (wow - she has issues), we are flashing back to a year ago when we got snow (we got nothing here at the moment but the COLDS) and Daiquiri saw snow for the first time

Surgery day

Well the kittens went off yesterday for surgery. Everyone made weight.

However, a certain ninja didn't get spayed. One of the vets we use is mobile. She is set up for spay/neuter and vaccines but nothing else. She thinks Avignon has a hernia and so we are going to get her spayed at another clinic that can fix the hernia at the same time. Mom has a call in to get that done asap. Makes us wonder if that isn't the cause of the limp.

Everyone else recovered well and now we get ready for the next step.