Year in Review - Part 1

January
  Those French City Kittens were still in residence.

  A local group of artists donated cat art to raise money for targeted TNR in our area:

  Miss Calais (now Isadora or Izzy) went home to Connecticut. And we got an update.

  Tostada finally got adopted!!
~~~~~

February
  Nashville came back and hanging out with us to get over a cold.

   After several weeks at one of our partner stores, Margarita found her forever home!!!

~~~~~~~~~

March
   Mom started working on the "new" foster space in the house. It is still a work in progress, but she is glad she figured it out and it gives her the bathroom back. MOL

  Daiquiri developed a weird fascination with the TV in the bedroom.

  Nashville was ADOPTED!!!!

  On March 25, the air was sucked out of the house when Tim crossed Rainbow Bridge. Mom still misses him very much....especially when she sits with the foster kittens since he was so much help in raising great kittens.

  Fortunately to lighten mom's heart, we got a laugh out loud update on Izzy.

  Then these guys arrived:

~~~~~~~~~~

April
  We celebrated Mom's birthday and she got a cute present from the kid. And of course, LOTS of pictures of the new kittens - who were named after a flower theme: Amarylis, Muscari, Trillium, Orchid and Dandelion.

  We got some eyeballs:

  And the baby antics continued:

  Then suddenly the flower kittens were 4 weeks old:

Orchid (her leg warmer gives her away)

Dandelion

~~~~~~~~~~

May
  The flower kittens turned 6 weeks old and mom began to notice some medical issues with Trillium.

  Mom posted about Dog Bite Prevention Week along with 4 other bloggers.

  The kittens continued to grow though there were continued concerns about Trillium.

  The kittens turned 2 months old!!

  Mom took a trip to Best Friends Animal Society with the kid and her parents. part 2 and CalMar
    Mom also wrote about the measure of character after meeting a special cat there.

~~~~~~~~~~

June
  The first of the tree kittens showed up to gain some social skills and were introduced to the flower kittens.

  The tree kittens got names and both groups of kittens melded into one family (though momma cat Amaryllis surely would have been fine without more kittens in the house).

  We posted about Amaryllis trying to find her a home since she was ready to go.

  The 6th tree kitten showed up.  The kittens continued to grow and goof off.

  Trillium continued to stay with another foster mom and the remaining flower kittens went up to the adoption center.

  Mom continued to work with the tree kittens hoping to get the skittish kittens more social.

Random Fridays

Funny story: so mom moved some things around in the foster room again and thinks she likes this set up. She took out the chair since the kittens were sleeping under it and couldn't be seen on camera. With Trillium coughing, she has been checking on them during the night as well. Last weekend, she got up and looked through the screens. Amaryllis was sleeping in the middle of the floor....and there wasn't a single kitten to be found!!Not what anyone wants at 3am. Mom went into the room....the kittens had flipped over the pink cube and were piled up sleeping inside (except Dandelion...he must have been part way in when it flipped - his head was IN the cube and his body was UNDER the cube).

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Remember this momma cat? This is Lille of the French city kittens. And....after finally healing up from that abscess, she went to one of the remote adoption locations and was adopted!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~

We are hoping for some open windows this weekend since it is supposed to be nice (at least on Saturday). Mom said she is going to be busy trying to "get things in order" since her next few weeks are going to be busy. We did get her morning off with a bang as some cat threw up on the kitchen counter and hit her phone and the kindle. And some big headed nameless kitten will be getting a bath when she gets home from work - the accuracy level in the foster room isn't quite 100%. 

wordy Wednesday

you recognize this face right?

Isadora Calais of the French city kittens

Well, her mom sent our mom a message the other day and we thought we would share the exchange cause it completely made mom laugh.

D: Just so you know I just had to chase your foster child around the house to get the slice of Swiss cheese she stole off my sandwich

M: Hahaha....thanks for the laugh. She may have gotten cheese head lessons from Tommy. Did you let her have some at least?

D: Yes. I'm a total sucker. She's been stealing animal crackers for a while. I turned my back to put the knife away (she has no fear so I can't put a knife down anywhere) and when I turned back she and she cheese were gone. Under the table, down the hall into the living room. She managed to eat a quarter of it on the run. She's amazing!

M: And maybe some "brat" lessons from Daiquiri. Tommy stalks me when I'm eating cereal or ice cream. He is a total dairy hound.

D: Who taught her the love of water? OMC she loves water! She's been in the shower with me twice. I have to be careful as she doesn't seem to notice if it's hot water.

D: She's in the sink. Not content to supervise. The first time in the shower I had a head and hands full of shampoo and my eyes closed. She couldn't get out and I couldn't help her. I was crying and she was terrified. She was still very tiny then. She was scared off the shower for a few weeks but it now back to trying to get in with me. If I don't lock her out it takes three times as long to shower while I battle her. She's hilarious!

Apparently the tiny tortie also talks to herself as she walks around the house. She has her brothers under her paws and has made herself right at home. That's our girl.....

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:

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

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)

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

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.

~~~~~~~~~~
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.

~~~~~~~~~~
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.

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!
~~~~~~~~~
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.

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)
~~~~~~~~~~~

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.
~~~~~~

Mom dropped the laptop off yesterday so hopefully we will be back on track next week.
~~~~~~

Don't forget to enter our giveaway yesterday. Open for a week - US residents or you can donate it to a US charity.

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.

2015 Year in Review (Part 2)

July:
The month started off with a bang (see what we did there) as we took in 3 kittens from a TNR project. To go with the theme, they were named Topeka, Nashville and Reno.

We added more to the full house of kittens here with the spice kittens and their mom.
We did a Blog the Change post about volunteering in rescue (and dealing with the public).
London and his snot were still here.

Cairo got adopted.
The TNR kittens gained some freedom.
Mom bought a tower to replace the playpen for foster kittens.
There was an update on the spice kittens.

August:
We celebrated birthdays and gotcha days.
Mom did a post about applications and being in rescue.
We celebrated our 6th Blogoversary.
Chaos broke out with 8 (!!) kittens running around the house.

We talked about the importance of microchips for Check the Chip day.
In a moment that still makes everyone laugh, mom got the DNA results back on Grandma and Grandpa's woofie Izzo.
Daiquiri turned a year old.
London was adopted.

September:
Cinnamon the foster kitten ran for the Rainbow Bridge (they think it was FIP).

Morocco the momma cat to Cairo and London got adopted.
Once again we have to convince Mo that Mo Cats Day isn't about him.
Mom got attacked by bees!!!
Spud turned 7.
Tostada was sick at the adoption center, came back to our house and needed surgery.
                THANK YOU to everyone for their moral and monetary support!!
Anise and Topeka were adopted. (mom posted that Reno was too, but that was a false alarm)
The nuts arrived here.

Mozart turned 9.
We also briefly had a mom and kittens named Devon and the Moos. Sadly mom cat didn't adjust to being in a home...they went back to the adoption center. The kittens didn't thrive and mom went back to her colony.

October:
Tim and Tom turned 12 years old.
The apple kittens came to the house and mom posted about a great adoption story.

A nut-date.
We got a haunted house.

We did a Blog the Change post about TNR.
We posted about the differences of having kittens of all ages at our house.
Mom helped others celebrate National Kitten Day by taking kittens for visits to offices with the help of Uber.

November:
None of the Apple kittens survived. They all went downhill pretty fast. Mom was heartbroken but knew that at least they were given a chance and knew some love with us.

Mom headed off to Bark World. She got to meet the Canopy Cat Rescue guys.... happy sigh  :)

Mom vented a little frustration about why we do what we do with fostering.
Mom won a MeowBox at Bark World and finally broke it open for us.
Lille and the French City Kittens made their arrival.

Orleans, the little orange baby didn't survive however. (we were never sure if she wasn't related to the rest or just tiny)
Lille ended up back at the adoption center when she developed a huge abscess on the side of her face.

December:
We discovered Margarita hadn't actually been adopted - and got to see her when she was moved to a remote adoption location closer to us (and the same one where her daughter Tostada is at).

Tostada

Margarita

Acorn was supposed to be spayed but wasn't spayed due to her eye issue.
Mom posted about an accident that happened here with one of the kittens (hard to read - you may want to skip this link).
Reno got ADOPTED!!

We got a gingerbread house and mom finally got it set up.
We had kittens gone wild around here.
Spud and Ivy celebrated their Gotcha Day.
We posted about a video done by our friend Miss Lisa promoting Our Wish for animals.
Daiquiri celebrated her first Gotcha Day.
The French City Kittens got a little more freedom (except for Avignon).
We got to open our Secret Paws box.


And then it was Christmas and New Years and wow....where did 2015 go??  THANK YOU for reading and commenting and lurking and being our friends.