new kittens...

Here is the new crew. Since it is kitten season and I have a revolving door on the bathroom (OK, not really, but I should), I took a new group home the same day Chloe took up residence at the shelter. I was there all day anyhow and told our processing department to save me a trip. As Deb (our tech) said, she was giving me the rowdy bunch. Just my luck. :)

Actually, this is a nice group of kittens. Probably around 6 weeks old. I am not convinced they are all actually related though. I didn't get a picture of the boy - he is all black and yawned as I shot it (which I didn't realize until I uploaded the pics from my camera - gonna have to try again). I wasn't sure about names and then made the comment that they were a little nutty.

So, the gray tabby is female named Pistachio. Pecan is the female brown tabby. Hazel-nut is the tortie girl. And their brother is black and named Walnut (aka Wally). I had the gate in front of the bathroom door over the weekend and both tabby girls would puff up and hiss everytime one of my crew walked by - being ignored by everyone but Spud of course.

adoptions.....

Chloe went back to the shelter on Saturday. You can see her on Petfinder: http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/16703866 The photographer at the shelter thought her momma pic was pretty funny so that made in online at the shelter website and I posted it on Petfinder too (I update Petfinder for our shelter). No interest yet, but she is in a room surrounded by kittens, so that doesn't help.

Speaking of kittens, all of hers were adopted. I got an email from the family that adopted Requiem saying he is trouble of the fun kind and was currently killing a toy mouse I had sent him (all my fosters go home with a bag of treats and toys). I love getting updates and knowing my "kids" are being loved as much as I loved them while I had them in my house.

black cats and sunshine

What is it with black cats and sunshine?? It has been in the mid to upper 80's here in Ohio for over a week. I know it is June, but I hate being hot. I stood in parent's garage talking to my Dad last night and got sweaty doing nothing.

Anyhow, despite the layout of my condo, there is regularly a patch of sun by the sliding door by mid-afternoon. Saturday, Mozart spent a lot of time over. At one point I leaned back over my chair to check on him and he cracked an eye at me. That must have been enough invitation, cause at that point he felt the need to come over and share the love. Now, I have the a/c on, but there is just something extra hot about the black and now very warm furry hot water bottle. Love the boy, but way to hot to be loved on by him at that point.... :)

Poor momma cat....

Well, the kids went back to the shelter to be adopted this past weekend. Requiem, Minuet and Cadence stayed after their appointment. I took Treble and Nocturne home with me. They all made weight, but there was only one open cage. However, processing called Sunday morning to let me know another spot opened up, so I took the other two boys back Sunday morning. It is pretty quiet with no kittens in the house.

However, Chloe is the first momma cat I have had that still looks for her kittens. She was pretty good the first night. But Monday night I was passing Animal Planet on cable and stopped to watch. There was as tiny kitten that squeaked and Chloe's ear perked right up and she looked around. A few minutes later, the show came back to update on the cat and the kittens and Chloe got a little frantic looking for kittens. I wish I could explain to her that her kids are OK and she doesn't need to look for them.

Cadence has already been adopted. They were neutered and spayed yesterday, so he will go home today. Requiem has a hold and hopefully his new family will come in today for him. And I was told that a family had expressed some interest in Treble. YEAH!! I was concerned since there are so many kittens right now and these guys all look alike. I really think it makes a difference that I put up signs telling people about their personalities.

individual portraits (taken 5-31)

Chloe Requiem

Nocturne

Minuet

Treble

Cadence

The kittens will be 10 weeks old 6/5/10. They have an appointment at the shelter and I suspect that they all might be big enough to stay. I was sure that Cadence and Requiem would be big enough, but I am not sure I am ready for everyone to go back. Chloe will stick around for a couple of weeks so she is dry to be spayed.

May 23rd kitten update

The kittens went in May 22 for their revaccinations. Nocturne is the little guy at 1.6#. Requiem and Cadence weigh in at right around 2#. Minuet and Treble are in between. I took Chloe also and she weighs around 6.4#. She is still nursing right now. At this rate, I am looking at around another 2-4 weeks before they go back.

vaccinations wear us out...but not for long (see video of Requiem vs Minuet below)

wow are they getting big

These pictures are from May 16, 2010 - which makes the kittens officially 7 weeks old. I have to get new paper collars tonight as they seem to be outgrowing theirs. Tommy & Spud still hiss at everyone. Bless Chloe - she either ignores them or rolls over to avoid things. Of course, I looked on Sunday and found Treble using Spud's tail as a pillow. :)

Chloe

Treble & Spud

Treble sleeping in the cat toy basket

the doorstop

I know what you are thinking...how could something that cute be trouble?? I will explain:

First, Treble (in the green) ALMOST made it over the baby gate this morning. I have been putting it up to let Chloe run around for a few minutes as I get ready for work. The scrambling noise tipped me off - I looked over and 4 kittens in the bathroom and one in the hall. I showered with the bathroom door closed to make sure everyone stayed in.

But I will never understand why the doorstop in the bathroom is such an amazing toy. I mean, last night there were 5 kittens, one momma cat and at least 2 cat toys. What do I hear around 2:30am? The twanging of the doorstop. Which means there was a kitten jumping on it. I finally figured out the noise a few litters ago. And it seems every group eventually finds the door stop and feels the need to try to turn it into a toy.

kitten update

The time of chaos has arrived. Everytime the bathroom door opens, everyone scrambles to make a run for it. I can at least put up the baby gate to keep the kittens in, but that may only last a couple of days...I almost had one get over this morning.

You may notice they are wearing collars. I got paper collars from the shelter and cut them to size. Starting in the upper left hand corner, they are as follows: Cadence (no collar), Nocturne (blue), Requiem (red), Treble (green) and Minuet (pink). They will run around in their pen in the evening and then fall over to nap - sometimes in this figure and sometimes in a big heap.

the babies have names

I decided to go with musical terms:
Minuet is the girl
Requiem is the boy with the white toes
Cadence is my big laid back boy
Treble is the smallest boy and the whiniest
Nocturne is the darkest of the three boys that look alike

They are just darned cute. Nocturne appears to be possessive of the canned food - he was growling last night after I put down the plate. However, without missing a bite, Minuet reached out and smacked him in the head!! That's my girl....

My Saturday

I met Mom for breakfast at Panera. Dad was on his way over to the house to work on the final project - getting the half wall up before finishing the painting. Mom said she would go to the shelter with me to get the kittens vaccinated and tested. Dad started working and Mom and I headed to the shelter.

As we were working on the kittens, Amy (volunteer manager) came in and said I had a flat tire. Great. We get done and wait for Amy to come back from Pet People since she offered to help me change the tire (something I didn't know how to do until yesterday). We get the flat off, get the spare on (which is a nice new full size tire), put the car down....and the spare is FLAT!!! Are you kidding me???? I remember that I got the tires from Discount Tire, which is about 3 miles away. We load the original tire in Amy's car and she takes us over. Well, on my way back from breakfast, I hit a curb. And apparently bent the rim of the tire right away from the rubber causing the leak. They can't fix it - gotta order a new rim. In the meantime, they will put air in the spare - which is back at the shelter on the car. So, back to the shelter, take off the spare, back to Discount Tire, fill the spare, back to the shelter and put the spare back on. NOW, I know how to change a tire.

We get back to the house. Mom heads home and I head upstairs. Dad has the wall built and we discuss putting on the drywall. He wasn't planning on getting that far, but since I was there and able to help, might as well get it done. We head to Home Depot, get the drywall and wrestle it up the stairs. Note to self: next time buy a ranch! Anyhow, we get the drywall up with little argument, get up the wall, put the drywall on the other side and VIOLA!! Half wall! I left to get groceries and Dad finished spackling the wall (it looks like it has chicken pox).

I got home, put the groceries away and cleaned up the construction mess. Then popped dinner in the oven, took a much needed shower and settled in for dinner with one thought - thank heaven I bought ice cream at the grocery store!!

Kitten update

Well, they will be 4 weeks old this coming Saturday. And it is official - 1 girl and 4 boys. I still haven't decided on names. I was leaning toward Venus for the girl. Then other Roman gods for the boys. Ends up they would also be named after planets. And it wasn't working for me. So, they are yet to be named...

But they are getting fiesty. They were nursing the other day and the girl was nursing while kicking one of her brothers in the head to get him to move.

My new favorite thing is to go in and lay on the floor so I am eye level with them. They aren't wild about being picked up, but they will come up and I can pet them from there. The one smaller boy (with one white toe) will come right up to me and ask for affection.

That being said, my days are numbered - they are learning to get around. Right now I only have to deal with Chloe trying to get out the door as I come in and out....give it another few days and I will be tripping over kittens as well.

Solomon the kitten

Once per month some volunteers take shelter animals to the local Petsmart for adoption events. We went on April 10th.

As we were sitting at the table with 3 dogs and a cat on leashes that were lounging around us, a Petsmart associate came up and asked if we were taking cats. I said not here, but the shelter would. Standing behind the girl was a mother and daughter with a small brown tabby kitten. I found directions in my box of information and gave it to them.

However, something bothered me. I looked at Terry (my co-leader) and said I was going to go get the kitten. She said sure. I caught up with them in the parking lot and said I would take the kitten. The mother said it was given to them and the father wouldn't allow it to stay in the house. The daughter was upset, but going along. She did ask if I would take his bed with us - I said sure.

Terry did tease me that we are supposed to come back from these events with LESS animals than we started, not MORE.

We got back, got him booked into the system and the vet agreed to process him right then. He was about 4 months old, tested negative for everything and got his vaccines. I named him Solomon. He was neutered Tuesday and was in a holding room waiting for a spot on the adoption floor to open up.

After walking dogs last night, I got him out and was sitting in our adoption office. He was being very sweet, cuddled up and purring. A gentleman came in and was asking about one of the cats on the floor and if he was good with dogs. We explained that we can't be sure, but since this particular cat was under a year, he might adjust pretty well.

As we were talking, Solomon relaxed in my arms and was looking at the man upside down. He asked who the kitten was and if he could hold him. And Solomon turned on the charm. He asked if Solomon was available for adoption, and with a nod from the adoption counselor, I said that he was. We walked out to the adoption floor to see Solomon's reaction to dogs, which went well until a beagle started barking and he got a little scared, but nothing really bad.

So, last night, Solomon was adopted and went home with his new family. It must have been meant to be to have everything line up like that. And it makes me smile that things work out like this sometimes.

New foster cat and kittens

Chloe was brought to CAHS on March 26. Sometime on the 27th, she gave birth to 5 little clones. I picked her up on March 28. She is a nice, very petite and VERY chatty brown tabby girl. I am not sure about the kittens yet....at least 1 girl, but I am not too sure about the rest. She has an appointment on April 11 to get her vaccines updated, so I will get an expert opinion at that point.

So far she has been very good with them. Staff think she is about a year old, so she has had a few teenage mom moments, but is pretty attentive. However, she does think she needs to come out of the bathroom where she is living with the kids. She isn't too bad with the other cats so long as they aren't too close to the bathroom door. She caught Tim being "too close" for her standards and she charged him. She did stop right away and came back to the kids.

I just wish we could cut back on the whining. She sits by the bathroom door and cries. No idea what she wants, but she has quite the voice.

Friday morning.

Friday morning was Morgaine's Place. Here are probably the most friendly cats (in my opinion). I was set up to clean the first room there.

Now, what I found interesting was that the outside rafter system was closed off with panels. I asked the caregivers and they said that some are cut off in summer due to cats going up and refusing to come down no matter how hot it gets. In this case, the panels were put in place to force Cara and Baron (see left) to deal with people. They are semi-feral sibling kittens. Cara will allow herself to be petted once to twice by staff, but Baron is still unconvinced.

Samco was a new occupant in Morgaine's. Since I was going to be in there, the caregivers asked if I would be willing to supervise his introduction. They had him in a tower/condo in the room for a couple of days to see how things would go. Since I was going to be in there, they let him out to check everything else out. There was a little smack talk, but I never had to break anything up. He never figured out the cat doors to the outside while I was there that morning, but he shot out the people door when I went out to clean. And of course, he felt the need to help me clean by attacking my mop.

Rambo here is showing off the boxes attached to the center pole in each room. All the boxes are a different bold color. Some rooms have color coordinated bedding and others not so much. It is up to the caregivers in each house.

Sunny

Wild Child (making sure the laundry doesn't try to escape)

Angel's Rest

Angel's Rest is their cemetery. As strange or creepy as that may sound, it is just so incredibly peaceful. They make a committment to care for these animals during and after their lives. Angel's Rest has 3 caretakers and they do an amazing job. The sand is raked every day to erase footsteps. The gate was designed by one of the founders of the sanctuary.


The last Thursday of every month they have a Blessing at Angel's Rest. We were lucky enough to be able to attend the one in March. They remember all the animals that passed the previous month. They do a big one once per year also. There are volunteers and caregivers. Some tell stories about the animals that have passed and others raise concerns and praise for animals at the sanctuary and beyond. And the entire time we were there, you could hear the windchimes that are all over Angel's Rest ringing. It was an amazing experience.

Thursday

Thursday morning I got to help with Puppy Class. All puppies must attend at least 10 classes before they can be adopted. Before they started this program, their return rate on puppies was about 35%. Since starting this about 5 years ago, they have had 2 puppies (not percent) returned. Puppy class includes walking on a leash, learning their name and some basic commands (sit, down, come). I left my camera in the car as I didn't think I would need it. That will teach me. They were opening their new puppy pavilion that weekend - I didn't get to see it, but they will have more space, no exposure to adult dogs (for disease purposes) and they will be able to expose puppies to household things like dishwashers and door bells.

From there I went to old dogs and did some more walking.

Thursday afternoon I went to Kitty Motel. This is the home of the FIV cats.

Lucky is one of the cats I spent some time with. The cleaning had been done for the day, so I got to sit and socialize. Some of the cats were more standoffish than others, but Lucky climbed right up in my lap and curled up. I sat in a chair next to Knox with Tweak behind my head.

Cornflake

Special needs cat? No problem here. See, Cornflake lives at Colonel's. But he has some....agression issues. :) So, he lives in a crate in his room at night. Every morning, they give him a pill and let him out to wander the halls outside the room (Colonel's is the only house I was in that doesn't have lobby cat - though they do have one that lives in the kitchen) for a couple of hours to let the pill kick in. Then he goes back to his room to hang with the other cats. And no, he isn't missing his one ear - but it doens't stand up right either.

Wednesday

Colonel's Barracks is part of Wild Cat Village. This is where they have some of their more wild kitties that need some social skills or may never be social.

I got over there and was set up to help clean. There are 5 rooms in Colonel's and there were 2 caregivers that morning. In addition, Mike told me that one of their older cats was having some problems and he had made the decision with a vet tech to let him cross Rainbow Bridge that afternoon. So Mike was trying to spend some time with that cat and letting other caregivers know what was going on.

Each room is set up with a board that has pictures and names of all the cats on it for ID purposes. Most also have a list of the room cats that has id information and ages on it.

Each room is set up pretty much the same. There is a center post with runways along the top and boxes down the post. There are cubbies on one wall and the table you can see is on wheels and sits over the kitty boxes.

Their cleaning protocol is interesting. Once per week, EVERYTHING gets wiped down.... Every day, they check bedding and if it smells like pee, it goes in the laundry. If not, it is brushed off using a stiff brush and a mix of Downy and water (1/8 c. Downy to 32 ounces of water in a spray bottle). Picks up cat hair, makes the bedding smell nice and helps with static. WOW - love that idea!! Then flat surfaces are wiped down. Litter boxes emptied and wiped out. Once per week they are changed out and replaced with sanitzed boxes. Then sweep and mop the floors. Then repeat outside.

Callie

After a bad Monday night with Lucky and Quinton (who didn't want to be there and paced and cried all night), we decided to ask for suggestions on who to take overnight on Tuesday. Callie lives in Cat HQ - she is part of the "Jenny Craig" crowd who lives there. This group is on VERY restricted diets due to their weight. We liked Callie so much we decided to take her overnight on Wednesday too. She cried some on the way back in the car, but the minute the carrier opened up, she checked out the room and jumped up on the bed.

We did try to get more information on her Wednesday night and couldn't find her on the website. So I asked about this on Thursday morning when we dropped her back off at HQ. It seems she is a Legacy pet. Meaning her owner gave money to Best Friends for her care after her owner could no longer care for her. They explained that at first these animals weren't made available for adoptions. Then they reconsidered and decided that if someone came to the sanctuary and fell in love that these animals should be able to live their lives in a home. So, they aren't on the website, but they can go home with someone who falls in love with them. Callie isn't wild about the other cats in HQ, so she might do better by herself or with another older cat who would leave her alone.