Miss Chrystal has picked out the names from "the hat" and has named the puppies (go check them out on her blog) and now the crew here has names as well:
Lana was the winner and the kittens are after gemstones.
Cleo (short for Cleopatra)
baby jail....we spent some time in here Sunday
Emma (short for Emerald)
Opal
Kyan (for kyanite)
Cory (for corundum)
Mom couldn't get the boys to cooperate for their beauty shots, and now that she looks at them again, she thinks she took 2 pics of Cory. Kyan doesn't have the stripe of white down his face (he is the guy standing up in the baby jail picture).
Mom got an email earlier in the week asking if she would do a "HV". Of course, she didn't have enough caffiene and was all..."HV"? Come to find out the bloodhound rescue wanted her to do a home visit here in town for a potential adopter.
Mom met with her last night and came home to scan the report back in (first time - now if we could just get that machine to print). Mom got it scanned in and went to put her dinner in the oven before emailing it. She came back and....
Our Spartans play the evil Wolverines on Saturday. Grandma and Grandpa are back from their vacation, so mom will be over there Saturday afternoon to watch the football game.
GO GREEN!!
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So far, feeding the kitts in the shower seems to be working. Mom finally remembered to get some kitten pate type canned food rather than the chunky stuff she had in the house.
Mom still says that chip and dip try was the best $1 she has ever spent. :)
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Luke and Duke seemed OK last night. Luke more so than Duke.....we will keep you posted on them.
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Speaking of dinner, mom got a shot of us after she put out dinner for us:
Top to bottom: Junior, Spud, Maestro, Tommy, Ivy and Tim (behind Ivy). Mo isn't very food motivated so he doesn't run into the room when mom goes to feed us. And mom thought Bourbon was in the picture, but apparently not. MOL
So, it seems that canned food doesn't necessarily agree with the momma cat. But....the kitts have decided they VERY much like it (see the video yesterday). Mom came up with a new plan - using the chip/dip platter, she put out some canned food and put the plate and the kitts in the shower and then did some other stuff to get ready. Mom cat gets a little bit of whatever is left over by the kitts. Oh - and both girls were growling at everyone this morning. Too funny.....
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In other news, a cage opened up at the shelter, so Luke and Duke will be heading back there tonight. We wish them quick adoptions and hope that they adjust to the new environment OK. Heaven knows they were learning to relax here:
(ignore the fingers - mom was trying to decide whether to hold the camera or put it on the floor - the growling is pretty funny - just ignore mom's allergy breathing.....MOL)
Alley Cat Allies is celebrating National Feral Cat Day.... TODAY!!!
Most of you know that we are BIG fans of TNR. And we are lucky enough to live in a city that has a very good local low cost clinic (SOS) that will take feral cats - the same day you trap them (ok, provided the clinic is open, but still.....)
TNR is how this guy came to live with us:
(who knew this would grow into the 16 pound orange menace)
And there are the cats we have trapped in the neighborhood over the last two years - and the kittens that we caught and have been adopted. Bug's mom was TNR'd, so was Doc and Sally's mom and the memorial day kittens.
Most recently there was Allie and the alcohol kittens......
Not only have the kittens found home (or are looking), the adults are no longer able to reproduce and are being cared for the best we can (shelter and food).
There are lots of ways you can help:
1. see if there are events in your area
2. TNR in your neighborhood - or contact a local group that is doing TNR in your area
we have two around here that mom supports: Colony Cats and Black and Orange Cat Foundation
3. Like Alley Cat Allies on Facebook
And there are so many other ways to help. And every little step takes us one more step closer to a day when ferals are not killed for being feral.
Mom put up baby jail and put the tiny kitts in there for a little bit while she cleaned the bathroom (by the way - Miss Chrystal has left up the chip-in for a few days if you want to throw names in the hat for this crew).
Bourbon came around as well as Duke and then Tim and then Ivy...... as you can see, the kittens acted all tough. Mom was impressed cause while their mom managed to escape from baby jail, she never went very far. And she was pretty good with us. She hissed a couple of times (once cause Tommy hissed at her first) but never went beyond that. Which is good news.
After all the excitement, everyone had a snack and then took a nap.
*If you turn up the volume, you can hear mom say "Tommy" in the background. Mom cat was laying in the hall to mom's left and Tommy walked by and hissed at her.
Mom swore he was just TRYING to get in trouble this morning. He went after Ivy's tail. Then he was chewing on mom's shoelaces - and when mom picked him up to put him back on the floor (he was on the hassock) he hung onto the shoe for dear life. Then he bonked Tommy in the face. And when mom leaned over to tell him to knock it off.....he bonked HER on the nose.
This face is NOT as innocent as he would like you to believe......
Evar have one of those mornings? Happened to mom yesterday. We were all snuggled in bed. She mumbled something about when the alarm was going to go off. She turned on the light on the clock and said a bad werd. She was 30 minutes late. She jumped out of bed, ran out and then opened the bathroom door. And momma cat decided to make a run for it. Down the hall.....into the living room.....under an end table. Really??? Mom grabbed her, got everyone fed and managed to get out of the house. We all ducked to make sure our tails didn't get stepped on.
who me??
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Breaking new: the babies are (sorta) using the litter box!!! Mom has caught them a couple of times. However, she thinks it is funny that kittens are kinda like teenage girls - they all seem to have to go to the bathroom together. There were two in there at the same time this morning.
(that shadow is mom's thumb - haha)
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Luke and Duke came back home with mom last night. They have Duke on an antibiotic though they don't seem to know what is going on with them. Duke was acting normal and ate dinner with everyone last night and this morning. Luke was acting lethargic last night but was out this morning though moving slowly. So, whatever it is, Duke seems better and Luke seems to have it now.
Duke was a little crabby when mom got to the shelter last night, but was MUCH better when she went back to pack them up to bring them home. And he has been chatty with her here at the house. Hopefully his attitude at the shelter was related to him not feeling good.
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We have NO PLANS for the weekend. Mom said something about taking it easy. We hope you have a good weekend as well......
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Squashies and her family could use some support right now.....
Mom just read an article online about a ruling that will allow low cost spay/neuter clinics in Alabama to stay open. If any of you read the blog love-and-hisses you will know she fosters down there and has been a HUGE advocate for keeping these clinics open. So, 28 residential paws up for a ruling that finally makes some sense......
We are lucky that we live close enough to a large city that we have access to great vets and great clinics. Mom's favorite is SOS of Ohio. The prices are right and she can take ferals in a live trap same day.
So, please support your local clinics.....pet population control is so very important.
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So, mom got a call last night from the shelter about Luke and Duke. Luke is still acting fine. Duke has shown no syptoms and seems to be ok - except he is hissing and being angry with staff. They want to keep them through Thursday to keep an eye on them. Mom has made sure there is no icky poisonous stuff in our house so we know he didn't eat anything (unless a bug got in that we didn't sees). Mom spoke to one of the shelter staff later yesterday. They aren't sure about what is going on but then had some concerns about Duke's attitude - seems he was hissing and growling at staff. Mom checked on them both last night and left a note - he acted fine with her but was still pretty wobbly.
Mom left a message for Grace's family earlier yesterday and heard back from them last night. Grace's temp (she is now named Maddy) is coming down and she is eating well. Mom said to call her no matter what.
Best we can do is keep our paws crossed......
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Mom got home last night and Duke (the orange boy) was acting funny. He was limping and didn't want to be touched. Mom sent a text to the cat caregiver at the shelter asking for advice. They decided to bring the boys in this morning. By this morning, Duke was weaving and just acting like he felt very bad. The vet comes in this afternoon to the shelter and hopefully we will know more then. Mom suspect calici but it could be any number of things.
Also, mom took new kittens to Petco on Friday. Grace is a calico and her brother Will is a black/gray/white tabby. They were found left in a carrier behind the adoption center. Grace was adopted (by a friend of the couple who adopted Whiskey) and went home on Sunday. Mom got a call yesterday from the store about Will. Mom stopped after work and he was drooling and had ulcers on his tongue - yep, that is definitely calici. Several calls later, mom ended up taking Will to the adoption center to get him started on drugs and keep him quarantined. Mom called Grace's new family and was told that she was acting lethargic Monday morning and they took her to their vet and her temp was 104. She is on antibiotics as well and mom said to make sure she is eating. Mom is going to follow up with them this morning.
So mom left early on Saturday for another transport....an all day affair. We will let her take it from here.....
Thanks guys. The transport coordinator from OBR offered to help Chrystal and I get the kitties here. However, there were just no offers.... Well, the family had to be moved and turns out OBR (Ontario Bloodhound Rescue) was trying to pull 2 dogs from a county humane society in Indiana.
I swear, I am going to start a petition to change Indiana's state motto to "Land of Orange Barrels". The speed limit may be 70, but it doesn't help when there is one lane of traffic and construction zones at 45mph. sigh......
However, Chrystal and I managed to find a halfway spot and dispite our apparent inability to comprehend the time zone changes, managed to show up with 5 minutes of each other. :) Mom and kitts were tranferred to the Beetle and I headed back east into Indiana. I am leaving out names, but the small country humane society that had the bloodhounds was just....sad. And yet they gave OBR a hard time and it took over a month for them to agree to release the dogs. Both seriously need a bath (OMG - my car still smells bad), neither are spayed/neutered, both have entropian (their eyelashes curl into their eyes and iritate the cornea), the female has a tumor on her side and the male has lots of nasty skin tags. And yet they were super sweet and eager to meet new people - and travel so well in the car.
Of course, both of them had to sniff the carrier in the front seat, but mom cat hissed at them and they backed off. I do love the looks I get traveling with these dogs..... it cracks me up.
Anyhow, got them dropped off with the temp foster and then came home to set up mom and kitts.
Mom cat isn't too sure about all the commotion outside the bathroom door, so she is hissing everytime I come inside. But she is outgoing and lovey and taking great care of the kitts.
Mom was gone ALL day yesterday. She made it back last night and ducked into the bathroom with a carrier. So we know she made it home safe with the mom and kitts from Miss Chrystal. :) She says they are little so it may be a while until we get to meet them.
Mom also transported some more bloodhounds. They were in a scary shelter in Indiana. The bloodhound people were going to help with the transport of the kitts, but we couldn't get enough people to sign up to help. But mom was going anyhow, so she picked up the slobbery kids on the way home and dropped them off in temporary foster care.
Mom says we can post more tomorrow, but she was tired on Saturday and has an adoption event today.
Recognize that cute tabby face (was she really that small when she got here)???? We have good news to report - Sally May was adopted and went home Tuesday night!!!! A nice single retired gentleman spent a lot of time with all four kittens at Petco and decided to take our slightly crabby girl. MOL (though in her defense, she was being pretty cuddle with mom that night)
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Mom is still laughing at the video of Bourbon from Wednesday. Have you ever seen the wildlife videos of leopards or lions carrying their kill where they are kinda hunched over and dragging it between their front legs? That was so what Bourb was doing - mom just couldn't get a good video of him in motion.
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Tim and Tom want to say THANKS for all the well wishes from yesterday. Mom however would like to know who brought the high-test nip cause Tommy is a mean drunk. Mom says we may have to send him to CNA (cat nippers anonymous). hahahahaha
I have no idea what you are talking about lady
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Be thinking about Mom and Miss Chrystal tomorrow. They are transporting the momma and babies from Illinois to O-hi-o. We will get you an update on Monday. Mom will be on the road Saturday and at Petco for an adoption event on Sunday. Gin will be staying and Bourbon goes for the day but will come back home with mom after the event.
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The plan was for Luke and Duke to stay at the shelter after their nootering on Thursday. However, there was no space at the inn, so mom agreed to bring them back here until early next week.
Luke is the orange and white boy (and weighs about 7.5 pounds)
Duke is the orange boy (and weighs about 6.5 pounds)
We may not have planned on adding 2 more cats when they came as fosters, but we are glad they came and glad they stayed. Tim has become our resident "foster mommy cat" and Tommy doles out the discipline.
So, our to residence head mancat and his ninja sidekick, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
We will be partying all day while mom is at work, so be sure to transport over. We will have hams, live dead shrimps, turkeys and gooshy fuds. Mom says no niptinis with the kitts in the house, so we are limited to milkshakes. :)
When mom brings kittens home from the shelter, she tries to bring a blanket and toy(s) from their cage so they have a familiar smell with them in a new environment. Saturday night, mom looked up to see Da Bourb coming down the hall with this toy....that does NOT belong to him......
Mom opened the door on Saturday to let the boys out. The orange and white boy was the first down the hall (geez mom needs to figure out which is which).....he was nervous and jumpy and didn't stay in the living room very long. His brother didn't come out for quite a while.
After some time, mom went looking for them.....
So she left the door opened about 4 inches to let some fresh air and to give everyone access in or out. There is still some hissing but nothing serious.....
Sunday went much better. The orange boy is still pretty jumpy but both have come a long way in a short time......
Right now they are scheduled for surgery on Thursday and will stay if there is space.
Mom was sitting on the floor Sunday afternoon and both came over for some loving. Mom was laughing at Ivy though - she walked down the hall and pinned back her ears and slinked around. Then she sniffed and cocked her head - must have realized those orange boys with mom weren't the orange menace she is used to. MOL
