Weekend Report

Sorry the pictures aren't great. Mom was using the kindle. We enjoyed a nice long weekend. Mom ran some errands and did some stuff around here, but it was pretty quiet.

The French city kittens are almost ready for adoption. Calais and Lyon will seek out attention. Avignon is still a little skittish. But they are all just about big enough for surgery. This has been a tough group to end the year but there is a sense of satisfaction too knowing they will go from here to a forever home.

We don't have any grand plans or resolutions for 2016. Mom is going to get some things done around here before the next group of kittens come. (In theory)

HAPPY New Year

We hope last night was quiet for you. Considering that mom was planning to be up watching football (probably untilmidnight), not likely around here..... and since this is scheduled to post before she will ever crawl out of bed, we can only hope her team won!

We are sending you 

warm wishes for a safe and healthy 

and happy 2016.

We wanted to share some numbers from last year with you from the rescue where we foster and mom volunteers - just to give you a happy start:
  1,225 cats were adopted
  71 dogs were adopted
  1,800 spay/neuter surgeries were performed for TNR
  18 families were assisted with temporary housing for their pets due to financial or domestic violence issues

Since we are doing that, how about some of our numbers?
  32 cats and kittens fostered this year:
     4 momma cats
     15 females/17 males
  245 total fostered since we started in August 2006 (which means we have been doing this 9 years)
     17 momma cats
     125 females/120 males

Thanks as always for being our friends!!

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.

2015 Year in Review (Part 1)

The end of every year we have taken a look back at what has gone on here. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do. Sometimes we get caught up so much in the day to day routine that we forget the things that have happened.....

January:
adoptions galore - Kahlua and Mae West and Cassidy (surrogate mom to the alcohol kittens, including Daiquiri)

Mae West sure was a chatty girl

The Lucy Pet Foundation reached out to bloggers to help spread the word about spay/neuter.
We got our new cat ladder and mom got it set up.
Mom got to meet D'Art who lives at the Dublin Art Center here in our home town.

February:
Mom watched the kitten bowl (and so did Daiquiri) and Daiquiri got to see her first snowfall.

We got our first litter of kittens for the year - Strawberry and her kittens Fanta, Faygo and Rootbeer. (the soda kittens)

We got an update on the orange kittens (Tangerine and Clementine).
The soda kittens continued to get bigger.
The mom posted about sometimes getting what you need rather than what you thought you wanted.

March:
The soda kittens got their first taste of freedom.
We discussed what we would do if we had thumbs
The soda kittens decided freedom was pretty awesome.
Mom took some of treats for a review at the shelter.

It was time for the soda kittens to get fixed, or so we thought.

that Rootbeer lurved his momma

And Rootbeer and Faygo both got adopted!!

April:
Mom trapped an older kitty that had been running our neighborhood and posted about her thoughts about strays and TNR.

Fanta got adopted (and the story was pretty funny)

The Fiesta kittens and their mom Margarita arrived:

We Blogged the Change about transports
The fiesta kittens had their eyeballs pop open and continued to get bigger (and bigger).

May: 
The fiesta kittens turned a month old.
Mom put a Great Dane in the Beetle.
We did an Allie (our feral) update.

The cute was seriously strong with this group:

yes, that is Tostada

The kittens all weighed in at over a pound.
We posted about a huge adoption event in our area.
A 6 week old fiesta kitten update
A wordless Wednesday of our girls.
Then mom headed out to Blog Paws.

June:
BLOG PAWS!!! (part 1 and part 2) Mom took Queso, Salsa and Taquito.

Margarita was spayed and went to a remote adoption location.
Morocco and her kittens joined us.
Mom got the sads when we learned our first bottle baby Bug passed away suddenly.
One of Morocco's kittens ran for the Bridge.
The fiesta kittens were spayed and neutered.

Then mom had to solve the "case of the missing meezer".

The kittens did some serious house trashing:

Queso and Salsa were both adopted (separately). And the heat caused London to melt:

*Be sure to check back tomorrow for part 2!!

A Limping Ninja Christmas

(no pictures....sorry, the laptop is still needing repairs. But we will get posts up cause it dawned on mom that she needs to do our year end reviews)

Last Monday mom dropped Avignon off at the rescue vet. They couldn't figure out what was going on with her and recommended a vet with some orthopedic background take a look at her. Fortunately there is another clinic that has such a vet and has a relationship with the rescue. Mom got Av over there on Tuesday. And it seems that she may have some orthopedic issues, but in the meantime she had also developed a huge abscess in that back leg. The v-e-t cleaned it out and gave mom some antibiotics for Av.

Since Av was going to have to be monitored, mom called grandma and got the clearance to bring the kitten to Tennessee for Christmas. The kid (mom's niece) was THRILLED.

Mom set Av up in the bathroom to keep her contained. However, about midnight on Christmas Eve, Av decided that she didn't like that idea so much and was lonely and started to howl. LOUDLY!! Mom was afraid that grandma and grandpa's woofie was going to hear the kitten and have a fit, so Av and her stuff moved into mom's room. The only reason she wasn't in there in the first place is that mom didn't want her under the bed. So much for that plan. Av still wandered the room some and complained, but it was better.

The kid spent some serious time in with Avignon both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Amazingly, Av has started to purr and was playing with the kid. And once mom went to bed on Christmas night, she jumped on and off (and on and off and on and off) the bed and even curled up next to mom for a little bit.

Mom kept the leg cleaned out and Av has started to extend it some and put her foot down - though she is clearly still limping. Mom is going to give her a little more time and then see if she is using the leg or not and then get back to the v-e-t.

Posts this week

May be slightly irregular. Mom tried to update the laptop to Windows 10. Now the laptop doesn't work. She can do some stuff from work, but not much. 

Merry Christmas

Mom didn't get it together this year and get out Christmas cards.

Enjoy this shot of Daiquiri from her first Christmas here.

Have a safe and wonderful holiday season!!!

wordless Wednesday

Secret Paws

This year our present for Secret Paws came from Truffle, Brulee and mom Paula of Sweet Purrfections. We were pretty excited to see the box (once mom brought it inside - MOL). We know some cats out there are having to wait for actual Catmas Day, but since mom will be visiting her family, we got to open ours a little early.

the box was properly inspected by several of us

"we hit the mother lode"

Mom finally opened one of the bags of treats and tossed them out to distract us a little.

Notice she is such a bad shot she actually got one treat ON the back of Calais.

There were treats and toys and a calendar for mom. We already broke out (and finished) a bag of treats. Mom did say that she is going to put some of the toys aside for future foster kittens....we are ok with that. Daiquiri was pretty excited cause there were some of her favorite spring toys in there.

THANK YOU SO MUCH to our Secret Paws!!! 

weekend report

We hope you had a nice and safe and WARM weekend. It got cold again here this weekend but at least mom turned up the heat. (yes, we know we live in the midwest and it is December and it is SUPPOSED to be cold, but it was SO nice last weekend).

Avignon was on crate rest for the weekend. She started limping last week and mom dropped her off at the vet on Friday. They took an x-ray and nothing was broken, but apparently baby bones are tough to see. They decided to cage rest her on some pain meds for a couple of days to see if that helped. By Sunday night mom knew it hadn't made any difference, so she is back at the vet today. They are going to sedate her to try to get better pictures....

Lyon and Calais have been enjoying having their freedom. Daiquiri is enjoying having them out too. And - mom was all excited because on Saturday BOTH kittens climbed up in to her lap and snoozed. YAY!!

Mom did some errands and some movie about a war and stars and whatever. She says she also has all her Christmas presents bought and wrapped. We do apologize....time and money didn't permit us to send cards this year.

Happy Gotcha Day Daiquiri

Don't ask

Has it really been a year???  Who would have thought.

Daiquiri has been a wonderful and fun addition to our family. She is (mostly) great with the fosters (she can be a little rough sometimes - doesn't know her own size or strength). She keeps Junior jumping - which is a relief to Spud and Ivy we are sure. She is just funny too. She despises having her eyes checked for boogers. She tolerates (at best) having her nails trimmed. She plays fetch....sometimes - good about bringing it back about 3/4 of the time but has been known to drop it JUST out of reach of the mom. She sings in the entry way to the condo. She knows her name....and her nickname (The Brat). 

While we never intended to add her to the family, we can't imagine life without her.

hard to believe she was that tiny when we got her

treat review

**as part of the Blogger Influence Group, we get a free product once a month to review for Chewy.com but that does not influence our opinions. The product review is our honest opinions. Chewy.com is not responsible for the content of this review.

This month we got the Pet Naturals of Vermont Calming treats.

Mom was kind of interested in trying these to see if it would help with some of the stress around here between Junior and Ivy and Spud. The good part is that Junior seemed to like them. The down side was that the only other cat that would eat them was Mozart. They are sized so that it takes a few bites to get them apart and chew them too, so mom ended up having to get Junior to one side to give him these and give everyone else something different.

As you can see, any offer of treats gets everyone's attention - whether they end up liking them or not.

The treats come 21 to a pouch, so if we were trying to give one to everyone here, that would be 3 days... probably not even enough to get any effect. But mom has been trying to exclusively give them to Junior and Mozart. She isn't sure what the overall effect is supposed to be, but she sure hasn't noticed anything.