lazy weekend

 

snoozing away the weekend

Junior is doing well after his dental so hopefully

we won't have to worry about him for a while

 

keeping it clean

 

lazy cat...though there were several

rounds of fetch over the weekend

 

found a good spot for a nap

The weather here was nice on Saturday so mom opened the windows, but it was warmer on Sunday so they are closed again. Since it is July, we are just happy to get open windows once in a while.Mom did laundry and got groceries but otherwise just hung out with us and played with Annatto.

Random Fridays

Did you see the post mom wrote for Cats Going Places about her and Chanel and a fundraiser?

he says: Relax and Chive on

unless you want his spring toy....

then you are in trouble

glamour shots

Chive

Annatto

Caraway

The tuxedo boys are up on Petfinder so we are hoping they will get some attention that way until there is space at the adoption center - probably end of the week. They are pretty hilarious and adorable, so paws crossed they get snapped up quick.

Annatto continues to do well, though he seems to be developing a "cranky old man" attitude about certain things. He MAY have told mom where to go the other night....though it is hard to be scary and grumpy when you weigh less than 2 pounds. Not entirely sure what we are going to do to continue he socialization once the tuxedo boys are gone though.

weekend review

Just lazing around on Caturday....under the curtain....like you do. 

A front blew through and the temperature dropped quite a bit and the windows were opened!! It was nice to have a fresh cool breeze blow through the house for a couple of days.

The boys continue to do well. The plan was to take the tuxedo boys up to the adoption center this weekend, but the kitten cages were all full. Fortunately, mom is able to get them up online so they can be seen and hopefully that will generate some interest. However, we know that kittens get adopted faster if they are seen in person, so as soon as there is space they will head out. We can't require people to adopt them as a pair, but considering how well they get along, we hope that they will get adopted together.

Annatto is doing well. He is a tiny bug, but he gives as good as he gets. Once the tuxedo boys go back to the adoption center, mom will be on the lookout for companion kittens for him to make sure he stays social.

Random Fridays

Annatto is checking out the Kitty Kasa in the foster room. A local store had them on sale. There is one in our living room too but mom has yet to catch anyone in it (and as she typed that sentence, Daiquiri walked in....).

Chive and Caraway came through their neuter surgeries with no problems. They are ready to go and will head up to the adoption center this weekend. Paws crossed they go together....they are a great pair.

Annatto will of course then be alone, so we have asked the rescue to let us know when a healthy kitten that just needs to gain weight comes in needing foster. Since he is FIV+, we don't want to take snotty kittens and expose him to a cold.

Mom gave the boys a new toy.

guess they like him

Annatto (front), Chive (middle), Caraway (back)

he thinks he is tough

Annatto, Chive and Caraway and getting along pretty well. We have discovered that Annatto is a bit of a drama queen - if he decides to pick a fight with the other boys, he turns into a screamer. MOL

Fortunately the tuxedo boys are pretty tolerant of Annatto. While he came in to the vet with siblings that passed away, he has been by himself for a couple of weeks so he is having to relearn some kitten skills. Mom grabbed him the other day and he actually purred for her. He is going to be a nice addition to a family.

weekend report

IT WAS HOT!!!

Also this:

 

What the???

 

Who the???

 

Meet Annatto

He was left at a vet's office. They had him for a couple of weeks, but when he tested FIV+, they said he had to go to rescue. So now he is safe with our rescue. Mom saw him on Saturday morning and kitten-napped him. He is maybe 7 weeks old, so he will hang around here for a while and we will have him retested (not that it matters - if the 2nd test comes back positive he will still be available for adoption).

random Fridays

OK - this was from a couple of weeks ago, but seriously those two are cute. Mom needs to call and get them back on the surgery schedule to be neutered and then they will be ready to be adopted.

It is supposed to be H!O!T! here this weekend, so not too many plans. Though mom mentioned something about a dog in the car on Sunday.....

Living with a semi feral cat

**a post by the mom

First a little background. Eight years ago now, a neighbor and I spotted some kittens and decided to do some TNR in our neighborhood. The first set of kittens were smaller and socialized really well and were adopted through a local shelter. Shortly after that we caught a slightly older kitten.

Once we had him, I didn't have the heart to let him go back outside. Unfortunately, he was about 3 months old which is about the outside edge of being able to socialize kittens. I will also say that I didn't know as much then as I do now. The downside to my decision is that I have what I term a "semi-feral" cat living in my house. He has been here since we caught him. He has been seen by a vet twice since I can't catch him easily or without stressing him out. He lives a good life and is good with kittens and the other cats that live here (mostly - he has some stalker tendencies with Ivy). But he won't come near me. Recently he has gotten up on the bed every once in a while at night when I am reading and will lay at the very edge, but that is as close as he is willing to get. But if I move - he is gone.

Don't get me wrong - I am a proponent of annual check ups for all pets. However, in Junior's case, it is more stressful to try catch him. However, a few months ago I noticed he seemed to be having some mouth pain when he yawned or ate something. I had to decide....let it go and hope it wasn't serious and knowing he was uncomfortable, or set an appointment for a dental and catch him.

 

Busted and headed to the vet

I am very lucky that the tech at my vet's office is also a friend. We talked about it a couple of times and I set an appointment.

However, how do you catch a cat that is afraid of people? I went through a couple of plans in my head. The other thing we had spoken about was trying to get gabapentin into him before bringing him to the office. After some thought, I decided to try to live trap him in one of the bedrooms. I could mix the meds in the food and have a safe way to move him. Plus once we got to the vet, the trap could be set up on one end to be able to sedate him with an injection.

Junior had other plans. Tuesday morning I locked the girls in the back bedroom, herded him into my bedroom and set the trap. After over an hour....nothing. I was now down to 45 minutes before I had to be to the vet. I moved the trap to the bathroom. However, once he got out the bedroom (and I shut the door behind him to limit his space), he freaked out. He bounced around the living room and would not head where I wanted him to go. I knew if I didn't catch him, he wasn't getting to the vet and moreover it would be months before I would even be able to try this again.

Finally he wedged himself behind a pillow on the sofa. It was now or never. I put one of the soft carriers on the chair and grabbed a towel. I threw it over him and wrapped him as much as I could then shoved him into the carrier. It wasn't elegant, but it seemed to work. I locked the zippers on the carrier, threw a towel over the top of the carrier and headed off.

The nice part about the mesh on the carrier is they were able to sedate him by injection right through the mesh - I hadn't thought about that but it was brilliant. He finally dozed off and they got him set up for surgery. I did get a chance to pet him a little and also get a look at his teeth.

I will admit, I did fear that we would find something really bad....up to a possible mass in his mouth. They clipped his nails and he had a full bloodwork panel done along with getting a rabies shot. The bloodwork came back excellent. However, he ended up losing 9 teeth. They could have done more but wanted to not take everything now. I joked with the tech that with a 3 years rabies shot, we would be back then.

The only thing that overcomes ignorance is education. I've learned a lot in 8 years. Would I make the same decision today that I made then? I honestly don't know. While he may be afraid of people, showing his feral birth, I know he has lived a much safer life inside. Right now, he seems to be doing OK. There has been canned food left out and while I think Daiquiri is eating most of it, he is eating. He REALLY does dislike me now though - I so much as breathe in his direction and he disappears. Hopefully that will taper off (or at least back to his normal) after a while.

I heard a

vacuum

Weekend report

Short post today. It was SO nice here on Saturday so mom took Chanel and met a friend at a local bagel place. Chanel did great....greeted a few people, took a short stroll (caught mom by surprise) and napped.

Mom had an adoption event on Sunday. She debated taking the boys with everything from last week, but they look and act fine, so she took them. They did very well though the week behaved doodle that passed us did freak them out a little. MOL

Junior is scheduled for a dental tomorrow. More on that later in the week. But please cross your paws and send some purrs.

Random Fridays

Keep cool this weekend....and nap.

Never fails...throw a holiday in and kittens tend to get sick (or worse). Mom dropped Clove and Chicory off at the adoption center on Thursday morning on her way to work. They were all snotted up and breathing hard. They got fluids and some time in the nebulizer at the center.

Unfortunately, Clove and Chicory passed away about 11am on Thursday. Sometimes kittens get an upper respiratory and are fine, other times, they seem OK and then crash all of a sudden. It really is the hardest part of fostering....

kittens

 

Chive and Chicory

 

they do enjoy climbing that cabinet and sitting by the birdhouse

(which is now stuck to the cabinet so it doesn't move around)

They were supposed to go for spay/neuter today. However....knowing this particular clinic, there is no way they were going to "pass" with their noses like they are. So we gave the spots back to the rescue and the kittens will go in another couple of weeks. Besides, mom was pretty sure Clove wouldn't have hit the 2 pound mark yet either (there is one in every crowd). They are doing better, but this clinic seems to look for any excuse to kitten rescue cats off the surgery list. We only hope they don't do it to the general public who may not come back.

Happy 4th

To our US friends, Happy 4th of July.

To our other friends, have a great Wednesday.

And PLEASE...if you absolutely feel the need to shoot off fireworks, be aware of your neighbors, pets and wildlife. Not everyone enjoys the noise.

new toy

We don't normally get in on the ground floor of new toys or inventions, but our friend Miss Debbie from Glogirly was talking about this toy called Sheer Fun for Cats and it being a kickstarter thing, so mom checked it out and we got in on it. The campaign went through and we got our new toy last week.

some cat wasn't quite sure what to do with it at first

It comes with velcro tabs to hold it in place on a table or chair or whatever. We don't have that many places in our condo, but mom found this one and it is working pretty well. Daiquiri hides behind it and Chanel sits on top and tries to kill it.

We also got some felt toys. So far the girls aren't all that interested in those, but mom threw one into the foster room and one of the boys grabbed it and growled at anyone who came near him.  MOL

*full disclosure - we paid for this new toy as part of a Kickstarter campaign. We have not been compensated for this post. We just like the toy and the concept and wanted to share it.

some sad news

We hate posts like this....

Cilantro passed away on Saturday. He had been fine and then he suddenly wasn't. He cried out about 3pm on Saturday afternoon and mom grabbed him and ran to the adoption center and then off to an emergency vet clinic. He had what appeared to be several seizures along the way. They got an IV in to him and the plan was to leave him with the vet overnight. Mom left and was less than 10 minutes from the clinic when the director of the rescue sent her a text that he had passed away.

Unfortunately, there is really no way to know what happened. It is sad however and mom is heartbroken. This is a group of super sweet kittens and while he was safe and love here, it is sad that he won't have a chance to find his forever family.