2 weeks old

 Time flies. Mom and kittens are doing well. Ricotta is just over 300 grams and the rest are over 275 grams. Eyeballs open and starting to march around a little bit. Fromage is spending time snoozing outside the crate so she's clearly comfortable. 

In some fun news, mom has been looking for a new cat tree to put in the back bedroom. She found one at Aldi and liked it so much she bought a second one for the living room. She's hoping with some padding and the steps that Buttons will be able to get up to window level since she no longer ger has access to the sliding doors with the foster room closed. 

Otherwise we are enjoying some nice weather and nice quiet days. Unless mom is yelling at those basketball guys on the TV. 

A new thing

 First, if you missed it on Instagram or Facebook, the kittens were all adopted over the weekend!! Yay

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Mom saw an ad for a cat tree from a seller on Etsy (https://www.etsy.com/shop/WelterWallArtDecor) and was interested. We have a landing at the mid point of our entry way stairs and she thought it would be interesting to put it there. Plus it was on sale. 

Ivy was the package inspector

It came from Turkey and was well packed

Ok that's a lot of parts

Halfway there

And only one screw up so far

It came with picture directions. They were 95% helpful. Probably could have had a little more detail but not bad.

Two shelves have a rope wrap

Finished

Unimpressed

Notice it is in the living room not on the landing. Mom thinks it is pretty so she left it here. And of course it on over 48 hours, no cat has touched it. 

Took her about 90 minutes to get it together which isn't bad. Shes going to move it around and see how it fits. It does have metal plates so when it is put in a corner it can be screwed to a wall for safety. Since this isn't a corner and may not be the final location, mom didn't screw it to the wall. 

not really wordless Wednesday

There was an epic battle for the cat ladder

I sees him down there

gotcha!!

no no - my level - go back orange menace

crap - he's still down there

call me a menace will you?? brat

Mom loves how much Daiquiri interacts with Junior. She will chase him around the house, stalk him down the halls and plays with him like mad.

a new tree

 We got a mystery box the other day. Mom has seen an article on Hauspanther about a tree. Normally mom doesn't like spending a ton on trees, but she has been trying to get new things and after doing some math about putting up other shelves, this made some sense to her.

 It was pretty easy to put together. It comes with an allen wrench so you don't need any tools either. It took a little time (maybe over an hour or so) but it doesn't have a deep foot print.

And here is the other pretty great part. It tensions to the ceiling....no screwing to the wall or the ceiling or anything else. 

Got the shelves on. Mom says the only thing she really wishes is that the covers on the shelves were removable. These covers are glued on and won't come off, so it could be a little harder to clean. And there are no other options - leopard print it is.

So far there have been some cats checking it out. Mom moved the other cat tree into the back bedroom. She needs to move some things out of there and wants to create a "super highway" back there that includes the tree to give us, especially Spud, a way to get up and around the room off the floor. But that is a project for another weekend.

Though mom says this plan may have backfired....Daiquiri has taken to sleeping on the tree in the other room.  MOL  This is pretty sturdy. Mom has had to tighten the screws at the top, but she doesn't think she had it quite right the first time. Sunday morning Tim and Tom were both on it so it is pretty sturdy too. We give it 4 paws up.

Random Fridays

Thanks for all the purrs for Cass. Mom spoke to the rescue vet yesterday and she had spoken to the specialist. Nothing shows up on x-rays. And since she is walking better than a week ago, mom and the vet agreed to stick with limited activity for now and then reassess once she is done nursing. Since we will never know when something happened or what exactly happened, the best we can do for her is treat the symptoms and get her healthy.

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An update....some of you may remember reading one of our Opt to Adopt posts about a senior guy named Ebright. As a reminder, he was living in foster care, was adopted by a lovely older woman, she passed away and her family called the rescue to "get the cat out of the house". Ebright went back into foster care with our friend Miss Beckie. But he wasn't very happy about it. Ebright's greatest joy was living in a house with just HIS person. Well....as it turns out, another senior lady called the rescue and...wanted Ebright. No other cat would do. So, Ebright is now in his new home with his new lady sleeping on her couch. She said he is a little grumpy and she wouldn't have him any other way.

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dang photobombers

(that's Tommy's tail)

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Over last weekend, Junior jumped off the sofa, strolled over and laid down - right there. He is less than a foot from Ivy. Not sure if he was doing it to torment her or just ... whatever (hard to say with that boy). But weirdly, Ivy just sat there. It lasted 2-3 minutes until Junior stood up, stretched and wandered down the hall. Don't get any ideas though - later that evening she was snoozing on the footstool and he was teasing her until she hissed at him.

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Mom has been working on the cat tree. So far the carpet is off two of the big posts and two of the platforms. Mom says she is fairly certain whoever put the thing together was paid by the staple....there were like a bazillion. She wrapped sisal rope around the parts of the posts that we like to scratch on. She found donut beds on sale for the platforms. Now she just has to figure out what to do with the platforms. She was considering paint. She doesn't want to put fabric on since she isn't sure how to attach it so that she can get it back off if she needs to. The sides are cardboard though. Plus mom noticed the other day that Coral had gotten used to climbing the high post and using the carpet to climb over the top platform - Coral is now slightly confused.  HAHAHA  Mom just has to remove the last part of the carpet.

And then maybe someday start working on the shelves she wants to put up for us. (yeah right)

weekend wrap up

Mom decided to do a DIY project. She wants to recover our big tree but decided to start a little smaller with one of our other scratchers.

So a couple of things. Sisal is itchy (and smells funny at first). It is going to take WAY more sisal than mom originally thought to cover the big tree. It takes a little longer than she thought. That being said, it is WAY cheaper than a new tree and really didn't take that long. Now on the the big tree (you can see it in the background).

Good news:
Cumin was ADOPTED on Saturday. A woman came in Friday, brought back her 15 year old son that evening and filled out an application. Everything checked out and mom spoke to them at length about how to help Cumin socialize in his new home. No other cats and while mom suggested adopting two, that wasn't their plan right now (though the new mom was open to it at a later date if they think it will be better for Cumin). Cumin is basically for the son, so they are going to set up the kitten stuff in his room and he is going to be the main one responsible. We expect a good report. Oh - and his new name will be Julius. MOL

so that's how she does it.....

For the longest time, Ivy couldn't get up on the top of the cat tree.

Every other cat could. Spud doesn't like it up there (not enough cover),

but even the kittens could climb up there after a while.

Not Ivy....she was kind of gravity challenged.

She would put her front feet up there and try to shove herself, but no luck.

Until one day she figured it out.

"made it"

And gets to hang with Uncle Tim.....

Random Fridays....

We have a couple of quick requests: (yes - some of you saw this on Monday - mom hit "publish" without changing the schedule date....wow she needs help)

1. Does anyone know of a free app for mom's smart phone (which after a couple of weeks is still occasionally proving smarter than mom) that is good for cat vet info? We thought we read  about one somewhere but can't seem to remember?

2. Do you have cool cat furniture you would like to share pictures of with us? We may have mentioned before that our grandpa works with wood. He made mom a coffee table (though for the weight, she says it should be called a coffin table - MOL). Anyhow, someone had said that she should suggest to him to make cat furniture. Mom said yeah right, that wouldn't happen. Anyhow, grandpa saw cat furniture at the pet expo and waved mom over - "this is marked $250 and the material costs about $25 - are you kidding?" mom said nope - that is why we don't have much furniture. And all of a sudden you could see the wheels turning in his head.  :)  So, if you have pictures you don't mind sharing, leave a link in the comments or email us at randomfelines at hotmail dot com.  He won't get started for a while cause they are trying to sell the house (though if it takes much longer grandma is gonna let him work in the garage anyhow cause he is drivin' her nuts) but he is making mental notes.
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Mom got a text from the rescue lady about spay/neuter appointments on Wednesday. Mom knew Cheeto and Milano were big enough. Chex was pretty close. Miss Mona said to bring Frito too. Mom said no way was he big enough, but she wasn't going to argue. The kitts ended up spending a little time with mom at work (no, she didn't let them out) before going and then mom picked up everyone (it is a mobile clinic). Well, wouldn't you know....that little Frito guy didn't make weight. <>  Of course, he is the only one with an application so mom has to call the people and say "really sorry, hope you don't mind waiting a couple of weeks". And this being the case, Chex, Cheeto and Milano will be heading to Petco on Saturday. We suspect will have news of some sort on Monday.....

let's see (left to right)

Chex's tail, Cheeto (white w/buff), Frito (tabby),

Dorito (buff), Milano (gray w/white), Samoa (black) and Triscuit (white w/ gray)

Chex 

Milano 

Samoa (he has goopy eyes, but they are looking better now)

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Mom will be driving around like a crazy woman on Saturday and we all plan to be lazy on Sunday!! Have a great weekend.

wordless wednesday

Junior

Power

Bourbon

Saturday funnies.....

Yesterday we talked about our layout here. Mom's theory is the more the merrier..... plus she says if you add up the weights, we technically don't have that many - for example, if you add up the fast food kits, you get about 6 pounds - which is one cat. LOL  We are making it work....

Now that Silver is feeling so much better, she is running around and playing a lot more. She and Junior conduct daily races through the house. Mom laughed so hard the other day. The two of them raced through the living room and Junior stopped at the beginning of the hallway. Now, his normal standing position has his tail held straight up - or mostly straight with the tip hanging over. He must have lost track of Silver cause she snuck up behind him and whacked the tip of his tail. He shot straight up and then straight forward. Mom swears she could see Silver laughing.....

The smaller cat tree was moved into "our" room. Mom heard a jingling the other night and went to check it out. Silver discovered the toys on the bottom of the tree.....we ignore them, but she was having great fun. And since they are on stretchy strings, she is completely entertained all by herself.

(oh, and mom had just served breakfast when she videoed this, so we were wandering through - that fuzzy tail belongs to Spud and you can hear Tim croaking in the background)

wordless wednesday

(yeah, Tim gets on the middle seat of the cat tree, and Ivy climbs up and curls up with him - we believe the phrase you are looking for is - lots of cat, not enough tree)

Finally Friday.....

Mom says this has been a long week. But we think she says that EVERY Friday.....

Spud is afraid the weekend is just going to FLY by.....

Not much new here.....it is back to normal spring weather....we have the windows open for fresh air, but mom says it is a little chilly going to about 55 during the day and the 40s at night. :)

As you can see however, the cat tree has gone back into hibernation.