She's goofy

First, some news: mom stopped at the adoption center on Friday to check on Kahlua. They were open on Wednesday and.....KAHLUA GOT ADOPTED!!!  It was busy so mom didn't grab a copy of her records, but we are pretty excited our fuzzy house panther has a home.

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Mom tries to explain to people about Daiquiri.....she is adorable, but she is a nut. Everything is an adventure.....

From helping with laundry.....

To checking on the gingerbread house....

To the dishes in the kitchen.... (no, we have NO idea what she was doing)

She is fun loving and has a blast....She ran down the hall the other day and wrapped her paws around Junior as he dragged her down the hall. As mom is typing this for us, she is wrestling with Tim....

wow they were little

Kahlua and Daiquiri

Good heavens they were tiny. It is funny to go back and see these pictures and remember that the long legged big eared kittens in the house were once very tiny. Kahlua came to us found outside and Daiquiri the same way.

A couple weeks later and they were getting bigger....and getting attitude.

And now look at them.....

Kahlua is now up at the adoption center for the rescue. Mom took her up Sunday when a spot opened up. Hopefully her forever family is looking for her and she will go home quickly. She has blossomed into a super sweet outgoing and playful kitten. It is funny though - for as much as she is willing to cuddle, she walks up to mom and asks to be picked up rather than jumping up in mom's lap.

Daiquiri is a whole different issue.....the company that makes the tests ran her bloodwork and came back with the same results that we got. So, medically she is negative, but from a PR perspective, it could cause problems for the rescue. Or even worse, if she were to get lost and be picked up and tested without someone checking for a chip, it could cost her her life....and we won't risk that. Mom talked to the head of the rescue who suggested one more test in a month to see if anything changes. Mom has been talking to us, and we are pretty sure she is now part of the family. Everyone here adores her, so she is more than welcome to stay. :)

weekend wrapup

Mom did some "spring" cleaning. Yes...we know it is winter here, but we never said the woman was right in the head....She took out some old stuff to toss or recycle. And then move around a couple of shelves. One now in her bedroom and the a new one in our room. She said next step is to move some other stuff and then put up some shelves to make us a super highway. More on that later.....

The kittens are having a blast. We are trying to figure out the next step for them at this point. But in the meantime, it is a party around here.

thinking about attacking the gingerbread house

ready to defend the house

is she coming or not?

 This cat sack was part of our Secret Paws box. No one seemed willing to go inside, so mom grabbed Daiquiri and shoved her in it. And suddenly she discovered it was pretty nice in there....until Kahlua heard the crinkling and came over to investigate.

a nice surprise

Kahlua and Daiquiri are still here with us. There isn't space at the adoption center but mom took them to an adoption event on Sunday and they are on Petfinder. They have had all access to the house since last weekend and are having a blast. Running all over and playing like mad. They have even been well behaved at night.

Daiquiri has always been very lovey and looking for attention. Kahlua not as much - she is ok if mom would pick her up to love on her but wouldn't come looking for attention. Well, on Saturday Kahlua was sitting on the arm of mom's chair and mom scratched her head. Kahlua thought about it and then moved over and sat on mom's lap for a while. Daiquiri came up...and then a wrestling match broke out. MOL

Since then, Kahlua has come up to mom asking for more attention and has even slept with everyone at night. Those breakthroughs are wonderful to see....

Another 4 word Wednesday

We hate Santa hat!!!

test results of a sort

So Daiquiri and Kahlua were tested for FIV/FeLV and were spayed yesterday. Kahlua was negative no problem.

However....Daiquiri wasn't.

Here's the thing....the rescue uses an ELISA (or snap) test. Which can give a false positive. Every tiny variable has to be exact or it could come out wrong. Negative is negative, positive is not always positive. Once the test is started (snapped), it has to run for 10 minutes. At the one minute left mark, a VERY faint positive for FeLV showed up. [you can read more about FeLV in a Best Friends article here]

Mom spoke to the vet and they agreed to try something else. Normally the test is run with whole blood. But again, any infection could possibly throw it off (though Daiquiri may win the prize for the healthiest kitten to ever pass through this house). So the vet suggested spinning out the red blood cells and just running the serum. So they did that....another 10 minute wait (mom went to get coffee by this time - so much for a quick test).

This test was negative.

Now what???

The vet had the tech call the company that makes the test and explain what we did and everything else. They agreed that the second test was more accurate - not actually because it was serum based but because it had been out of the fridge longer (see - twitchy test). Enough blood had been drawn that the remaining sample has been sent to the company and they are going to test it as well.

But what about Daiquiri (and everyone else)? Mom said to the vet - if I take her home now, you are confident enough that she can be out with the resident cats and the fosters...and any other cats she comes in contact with? Yes - absolutely according to the vet.

This leads us to the rescue. And this is more an image problem than a test problem. Most vets are going to run a whole blood test (if they rerun it for some reason). If we adopt Daiquiri out as negative and an adopter has her retested and it shows that faint positive, regardless of other tests, the rescue looks bad. Very bad. And as anyone in rescue can tell you, bad PR is a very bad thing.

Mom decided to talk to the head of the rescue and leave it in her hands .....

Anyhow, mom spoke to the rescue lady last night: for now both Daiquiri and Kahlua are back with us due to lack of space at the adoption center. She agreed that for our purposes, yes, Daiq is negative. Once the company runs the test, if we can get the results in writing, then we will attach that to her records and she will be negative and our PR butts are covered.

And we know what some of you are thinking: why let them out if they aren't tested. Normally we don't but in this case it was a coordination issue - the older two were tested and were negative. Daiq's mom was later caught and tested negative. So, the risk was fairly small until mom could get it together with travel and the holidays and having them old enough to get them tested.

Now to get them online and get their furry buns adopted!!

Random Fridays

A friend of mom's sent her this link to all things Michigan (which is where mom was born and raised until age 13 - still has family there). It kind of cracked her up....oh, and that first picture you see - the only reason Hell looks so nice is it hasn't frozen over yet for the year. MOL
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Our buddy Crepes is starring in a new movie - Smash Bros. you gotta check it out!!!
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OMC - have you seen the video put out by Tidy Cat about #kittentherapy and stress relief?? No?? you gotta check it out here   Be prepared to spend some serious time watching kitten videos though  :)
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Yep - that is Kahlua getting her we don't know quite what on.....  She is just about big enough to be spayed, so that is on the agenda.....

It is seriously cold here now.....please stay safe and warm - and take care of your pets and neighbors.

Random Fridays

Our friends at the White Dog Diaries had a post on Wednesday about a potential cure found for parvo. If you have ever been with a rescue or shelter that has dealt with this, you know that it can be seriously fatal or very expensive to treat. This sounds like a great leap forward.
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Mom was laughing this morning at the bathroom crew. Since Cass seems kind of uncomfortable with the kittens, mom has been supplementing Daiquiri and Kahlua. They have that figured out and now stand and SCREAM at mom for their meals. As mom was getting ready for work this morning, they were giving her the same routine. In order to distract everyone else, mom got the canned food out and put it down. As she was getting everything else set up, the screaming stopped. She looked down and saw ALL the kittens and Cass eating on their own.!!  YAY. Of course, a few minutes later Kahlua was back screaming at mom, but it is still progress.

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No plans for the weekend. Mom would like to take another trip with Coral - just to keep getting her out and used to everything. No progress with the new carrier....this morning she got close and looked inside, but that was it. The cool weather has returned and we are enjoying open windows!!!