wordless wednesday.....

It appears that our connection to You tube isn't working. But....mom took video of Triscuit walking on her leash in the hall at Blog Paws. You can see it here

We got a comment Monday about Triscuit becoming a therapy cat. We got lots of comments about that at Blog Paws too. Certainly something to recommend to her new family. As for no one taking her home, mom said one lady offered but turned a couple shades of pale when mom said Triscuit was already spayed and her paperwork was in the car. MOL

Anyhow, more pictures from Blog Paws.

Mom got the collar from the very nice ferret people

Space kitten update

Like so many others around the country and the world - we are sending purrs and positive thoughts to those in Oklahoma....we hope families are reunited quickly and safely and can start to rebuild their lives.
~~~~~~~~~

Never fails - mom leaves for a few days and comes home to squeeee all over the tiny kitts about how much they have grown.  They are certainly getting around more in the bathroom - in fact mom walked in there on Sunday and missed someone exiting - fortunately the baby didn't get very far. MOL

There has been some changes....mom put out the litter box with the non-clumping litter so they can start trying that. And there was some screaming so mom tried putting some canned food on the tray. Mom put the kittens by it but only had a couple takers - Rocket and Corona. Actually, not too bad for a first try.  :)

Blog Paws wrap up....

First announcement - mom got us a page on facebook - come visit and like the Random Felines page. We think you can just search for it. We would love to give you the link and maybe put it on the side bar, but despite Miss Connie giving mom a link to the plugins for facebook, she can't figure it out. Go figure......

Update: THANKS to Miss Connie (who did it for us), we now have a "follow" button on the left hand side of the blog for our facebook page.

OK - take it away mom to tell everyone about your trip:

I had a good time. I met SO many wonderful people that I don't dare make a list for fear of leaving someone off.  :)  It was great to meet so many animal people and put faces to names to blogs. Everyone was friendly and welcoming. Of course, I took Triscuit, so having the cuteness didn't hurt. I am pretty sure between Triscuit and Odilia, if there had been a cute award, we would have had to share it.

I will say this up front - I was disappointed with the amount of cat information and products. OK - there was the Cat Lounge, but the companies that sent products didn't send representatives. The swag bag had barely any cat stuff in it - and they asked if I wanted cat or dog when I checked in so they obviously thought they had enough to make a difference. Sparkle's mom posted on facebook that she took the bag back - I don't blame her.  The sessions were ok...some WAY better than others. My thought would be to pick the good ones and expand the time so we could LEARN something rather than just get an overview. There were lots of sessions about tech info and monetizing your blog and getting more readers. I am sure that is all great, but I do this because I love it. I don't want it to become a job....that sounds too much like work. :)  I had a good time, but unless there were some serious changes, I don't know if I would go again. It would be an expensive way to see people I like. Of course, the award party was GREAT fun!!

Coco from Curlz and Swirlz

Deb of Zee and Zoey's Chronicles and Triscuit

 Dorian from Your Daily Cute and Triscuit

Triscuit curled up with Ingrid of The Conscious Cat the first day and snoozed

Maus and her mom from coffee cats n yarn

 Odilia from Tails of the Foster Kittens

She and Triscuit weren't too sure about each other. Odilia is a single kitten and doesn't yet speak "cat" fluently. So Triscuit would walk up to her and wait for a signal to play which she wouldn't get as Odilia wasn't sure what to do. But they never fought and finally on Sunday morning as we were getting ready to leave, they were chasing each other around the hotel room. Figures...

 Tamar from I Have Cat and Triscuit

Notice a theme???  That kitten was SO popular. And honestly, I figured she would behave but I never could have figured she would be as good as she was. I took her to sessions and she would sleep in my arms. I would have her out for 2-3 hours at a time before giving her a break in the room. She posed for pictures and was kissed and was passed around and was GREAT!!  Barking dogs, applause and catbells during the award show..... she didn't mind a bit. Her new family is going to get a great addition to their family.

I have lots of other pictures that I will try to get up later....

Having a good time...

The mom here. Triscuit and I are having a good time at blog paws. I do have to say it is a bit dog-centric.  The swag bag was supposed to be "cat" but still had a lot of dog stuff.

Triscuit has been wonderful and a big hit. I think almost everyone that has seen her has taken her picture. She has gone to the sessions with me and slept in my arms. We are rooming with Connie and Odillia from Tails of the Foster Kittens. They have met but triscuit isn't sure what to think about her.

We've met so many great people and I love meeting those from the blogs we follow.  Well...time to leash up Triscuit and head back out!

Wordless Wednesday.....

(how exactly can that be comfortable???)

~~~~~
Couple of quick things:
Posting may be sporadic the next few days....but lots of pics next week.

Please purr for our Frito boy. He hadn't been feeling well at the store so mom took him to the rescue's adoption center yesterday to see the v-e-t. He was running a fever and is now up there on meds. We know he is in good hands, but just one more thing for mom to worry about. Of course, he was feeling ok enough that when they tried to give him some fluids under the skin, he bit the v-e-t. MOL

Both Cookie and Samoa have applications. Cookie will go home next week since mom can't get coordinated with her new family before leaving. Though mom is trying to reach our friend Miss Beckie to coordinate things so Cookie can go home before that.

And....Samoa went home last night. Nice family, 3 year old toy poodle (won't that be fun...snort), and twin 11 year old girls. Poor Samoa isn't gonna know what hit him. This is there first cat but mom told them that after the dog and kids, the kitten will be easy.

Blog Paws or Bust.....

Well, mom is leaving tomorrow to meet some peoples and anipals at Blog Paws 2013.

Mom is packed.....more or less she says. She has left instructions for our care with grandma (and emergency contact information for the v-e-t and a friend who is now running her own pet care business and is a vet tech).

She is taking the laptop and camera....but we can't make any promises about her reliability of posting while she is gone. We suspect she will be out partying with her friends and slacking off. sigh.....

And, along that line, she is take a guest with her. When she bought her ticket last fall, she thought about taking Bourbon. And then Bourbon found his new family. So she figured it would be easier to not have to deal with it anyhow.

And then......  she changed her mind. She emailed Miss Connie who she is rooming with and asked about bring a guest. Miss Connie said that would be fine. Of course, Miss Connie is bringing a surprise guest too!!!

So when mom leaves, she will be taking someone with her:

Triscuit looking smug about her upcoming adventure 

and Frito's upcoming jail time at Petco

weekend wrapup.....

Well, the transport ended up being a bust. MOL Mom got to the pickup point (the v-e-t) to get the dog and her phone rang. It was the rescue lady calling to apologize cause she forgot to call mom the night before to let her know it was cancelled due to lack of drivers at the other end. Oh well....mom got breakfast out of it (and hey Connie - she had a krispy kreme too....nom nom nom).

The adoption event was pretty slow. Mom swears that the corporate people don't check a calendar when they set these things up. Oh well. The boys stayed up at Petco and mom hopes someone will see them in the next day or so and fall in love. They are in the cage with Cookie and it is pretty funny. Cookie is slowly learning how to play and is treating the kittens like very active cat toys. No rough stuff - and it is funny to see Samoa egg her on at some points.  :)

Triscuit spent the entire event snoozing in mom's arms. She didn't stay at the store...check back tomorrow for more on that.

The space kittens are getting bigger every day. Three of them were out of the bed the other day nursing. When mom went back later to check, only one was out. Sure, Rapunzel COULD have put them back, but mom has her doubts.  Mom did see tiny baby teeth on one of the tabby girls, but they will be nursing for a while yet.

Rapunzel goes Wednesday morning for a vaccine update and the kittens will get weighed. Momma cat is sneezing some, so mom will get that checked out too. Not sure how much can be done at this point so long as Rapunzel is still eating and doing ok since the kitts would be exposed to whatever she would be given.

Busy Sunday.....

Mom is running around like a crazy person....

Adoption event in the morning with the kittens.

Lunch with grandma and grandpa. HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to grandma and mom!!!

Triscuit says the heck with that.....

Random Fridays.....

BREAKING NEWS: All the kittens made weight, so by 5pm today (eastern), Triscuit, Samoa, Dorito and Frito will be spayed/neutered and microchipped!! Dorito will go home with his new mom after that.  YEAH!
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Brian posted this great article about Hero Moms and the Petco adoption weekend coming up. We will be at our local store on Sunday.  Hey - that is Mom's Day!!!  If you know anyone in central Ohio looking for a nice kitty, we have a pair of mom (retired - MOL) that are looking for homes. Come meet Cookie and Legacy and the kitts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is another thing we found: Ohio State has started the Indoor Pet Initiative website. Now, being MSU Spartan fans, we aren't so sure about those Buckeyes, but we can get behind pets being indoors. 

They have sections for pet owners and vets.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TNR - sorta....  MOL.  Mom got home from the shelter Tuesday night and that big brown tabby boy came out of the garage again. Mom figured this might be the ideal time to catch him. So, she set the trap, baited it and went upstairs. She then heard some cat singing - and looked out the window to see him sitting in the driveway calling. Weird....mom went down thinking someone was in the trap already - nope. So, she went to bed and then Wednesday morning ran down to check (remember our condo is over the garage). Trap door was down. She lifted the blanket - yep that is a cat shape (this is important as she has caught some non-cats in that trap before).  Lifted the blanket higher - and got the look of death from Allie. Drat!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~

And of course....kitten pictures:

That may be Nasa giving the camera "the look"

~~~~~~~~

Oh man - the mom is in trouble AGAIN: she forgotted Junior's birthday!!!  We will make sure he gets extra treats. We would invite you over to party, but he will just hide.  :)

Thankful Thursday....

Once again, mom is happy the v-e-t comes to the house....and has a sense of humor. :)

Mozart, Spud and JUNIOR were up this time. And of course Maestro got his 6 months "still going" check up.

Mom swears we misbehave on purpose. We don't - we promise. But seriously - the lady v-e-t comes with pointy things. (everyone but Maestro) was vaccinated. Spud went first and wasn't happy but it wasn't so bad - except for running over Frito as he made his escape. Junior was next - and what an adventure. Yikes.....  he struggled and when he was released from the bathroom he ran out and scared Mo. Maestro was next....both the vet and the tech said it was a nice change to have someone just kinda stand there.  :)  And then Mo. ugh.....  Dr T suggested next time that maybe it might help is mom holds Mo. But everyone is good weight (a little lighter which isn't so bad). Spud and Junior do have ear mites and a minor yeast problem (great - cause there is nothing better than medicating flighty cats).

The snack kittens go in the morning for their spay/neuter appointments. Mom has just about everything crossed that they all make weight. Frito and Dorito will go home that evening if they do.

Frito's after dinner clean up (photobomb by Tim)

Triscuit chowing down (with Tim in the background - notice a theme??)

Samoa

Dorito and his fuzzy buns

Added notes from the mom: our vet charges a one time "travel" fee.....but it ends up being really no more than any other vet visit. And worth it to avoid stuffing cats in carriers.  As to running around to catch everyone, I know when they expect to arrive, so I start shutting cats in rooms well before that happens. In this case, mom and kittens went in my room, Spud was in the bathroom and Junior was in the second bedroom (the cat room) with the door closed. So when Spud was done, we just had a closed room to find Junior (he hid in a bookcase). Mo is easy to catch....just a pain to vaccinate.

Wordless Wednesday..... (or not)

(umm - you MAY want to turn down your volume - just sayin')

right to left:

Orbit, Aurora, Hubble and Nasa

halp!!!  kitten down!!!
not sure about which black kitten is which,
but we think that is Corona on the bottom of the pile

So, Rapuzel is such a good mommy. We know some of those kittens (we suspect the 2 black and the black and white) aren't hers and some of them are hers, but she doesn't seem to care. The only thing that really cracks mom up is that if Rapunzel is chilling outside the bed and one of the kitts gets out, she doesn't seem very motivated to get the kitten back in. Maybe cause in the week they have been here, she has realized that our mom is well trained and will come pick up screaming kittens. MOL

Mom is pretty sure about the 4 males, 4 females thing.  Here is the breakdown and names (if you have a suggestion for a name, let us know, this isn't set in stone quite yet except for Rocket):

   black and white - male - Rocket

   gray and white - female - Orbit

   black - male - Sputnik

   black - female - Gemini

              (can we get an "amen" that we got one of each gender for the same color)

   brown/white tabby (spot on her nose) - female - Corona

   brown/white tabby - female - Aurora

   buff tabby - male - Hubble

   buff tabby (more white on his face) - male - Nasa

Tuesday Tails......

dogsnpawz.com has started a Tuesday Blog Hop that is showcasing adoptable animals.
Yep - we can get behind that.  :)

Miss Maxwell is available through Colony Cats which is the rescue where we foster. Maxwell came here when we tried to get her to Petco. However, she is perpetually sneezy (though not sick) and became a HOT MESS when we finally got her up there.  So she came back here. She is kind of shy and needs a nice quieter home where she will have a chance to come out of her shell. She is good with other cats and would probably be fine with a quiet dog.

~~~~~~~~
Cousin Trooper lost his mom Elinor over the Bridge. We are sending everyone purrs......

Blog Paws wrap up....

the mom here again - back to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow - haha

Triscuit was a rock star. The first hour in the car she was  kind of whiny about being in the travel crate in the back of the Beetle, but she settled in and it was all good. Took about 7 hours with stops but no major traffic - just a few sections of the dread orange cones.

We roomed with Connie and Odilia from Tails from the Foster Kittens. Wednesday night was a different hotel (we had to sneak them in) and then Thursday over to the Sheraton for the event. I will say that staying on site is a good idea.

I got to meet some great people. I could make a list but I don't want to leave anyone off. Just please know that I LOVED meeting all of you. Putting names to faces to blogs as well as meeting new people.

Triscuit went to most of the seminars with me and slept through them all. I learned to sit at a table so I could put my elbows up and let her sleep on my arm.

As for the conference itself, it was.....ok. Being a self confessed techno-dork, a lot of the stuff went over my head. They offered a cat or dog swag bag, but the cat bag was still mostly dog stuff. I wish there had been longer sessions with smaller classes you could sign up for and get some better understanding of things. You just can't get into may details about ANY topic in an hour. The tech sessions were over my head and I didn't attend anything Saturday morning since nothing appealed to me.

That being said, I attended great sessions Thursday by Robin from Covered in Cat Hair about how she decided to open her rescue to allow kids from her town of Newtown CT into her home to visit her foster kittens and give them a reason to smile again. The second session was by Sybil Stershic annd Kristin Elliott about Strengthening your Brand and Marketing. Lots of great info that I am hoping to pass on to the rescue and to Chrystal.

Friday morning was another bust for sessions, but Friday afternoon there was a great session about Pet Welfare in America sponsored by Purina and Adopt A Pet. I was going to stay for the second session about social media and being an advocate, but Triscuit woke up and I figured an awake lively kitten would be WAY to distracting.

I do wish they had more things geared toward cats. I wish they had TOLD us what meals were included and not. I wish that there were more sessions geared toward learning and impacting lives and not just the brief overview that you can get in an hour.

I love meeting new friend and friends we have known online for a while. But I will be honest - if I had to decide RIGHT NOW if I were going to the conference next year, the answer would be no. The cost wasn't cheap between ticket, hotel, food and travel. And while I got some good contacts out of it, I am just not enough of an outgoing people person to be able to schmooze....I took refuge a few times up in the room.

So - overall score - 2.5 paws out of 5.

and the answer is.....

OK - so it really wasn't MUCH of a puzzle...at least not around here.  :) Though several people guessed it was us....um - there are only 7 of us total....so close, but no treat for you.  MOL

The cat advocate at the shelter went to a neighboring county (the same one that gave us Daisy) and brought back 3 moms with various kittens. The shelter didn't have any info on the mom we got....mom thinks she is pretty young. The other shelter named her Rapunzel and our shelter is keeping the name. We do know that all three moms have their own kittens plus orphans. Which is how we got this:

hey lady...what is with the flashy box thing???

Yep - there are 8 little heads in there. The estimate is they are about about 14 days old today. However, mom suspects based on open eyes and size, the 2 black kittens and the tuxedo may be the orphans are are a couple days younger.  Rapunzel is a good mom - if not already a bit tired of this many kittens.  :)  But she is a good momma cat and is taking good care of them - they are clean and have stuffed bellehs. Mom picked up one kitten the other day and he SCREAMED and Rapunzel just gave mom this "you gonna put that back now?" expression. The first couple of days there was some hissing at mom by the kitts, which cracks her up.

We have 4 boys and 4 girls. Once again, subject to mom changing her mind.  hahaha

That mom kinda looks like Cookie - mom was laughing when she picked up this crew last week. Normally the shelter names the kittens, but since they are pretty young and there were lots of them, they are letting the foster families name the kittens. Mom is thinking about a space theme: Aurora, Corona, Gemini, Hubble, Nasa, Orbit, Rocket and Sputnik. It appears we have pairs this time around too: pair of black, paid of tabby with white, pair of buff and white tabbies and pair of tuxies - one black one gray.  Everyone finally has their eyes open. The black tuxie is gonna be trouble - he can get out of the bed and once he does he SCREAMS about it. Mom has had to put him back more than once.  Mom will have to sit down with a piece of paper and a pen in their room in order to remember which color is which gender.

Random Fridays.....

Speaking of Triscuit, mom got this video while taking the pictures from yesterday....

~~~~~~~~~

Mom was smiling at the comments about Tommy on Wednesday. What you should probably all know is that "kitten-sitter" is Tim's job. "Kitten-enforcer" is Tommy's job - which he promptly performed after mom got that shot by biting Samoa's ear and walking away. MOL

Oh and NO Triscuit is NOT staying...if Da Bourb didn't stay, no one else is either.
~~~~~~~~~~~

Alley Cat Allies took their petition to the Smithsonian this week with over 55,000 signatures asking them to STOP using junk science to support killing community cats. They have also started a new website called common sense for cats.  You guys know us - we support TNR....and we love our Allie cat  :)

~~~~~~~~~~~

Quick questions:
    1. Samoa is a biter. And mom means the "walks up and bites her toes for no good reason" biter. She has tried the things she normally tries and he hasn't given up just yet.  Ideas???
    2. Is it wrong that mom keeps going out to facebook and putting in Cheeto's dad's name to see if he put up new pictures of Cheeto?  Just sayin'.

  Mom took the available kitts to Petco to meet a woman with an application (she has decided to become Dorito's new mom). While up there, mom used the "un"scientific method and put them on the treat scale. Everyone is VERY close to 2 pounds (Dorito appears to be over). And the a certain tiny girl curled up and took a snooze.  :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~

We will leave you with a puzzle to think about over the weekend:
     What is gray and black and white and brown and orange and has 9 heads?
~~~~~~~~~~~

Have a GREAT weekend!!! It is supposed to be in the 70s here so we are planning some serious window wiffin!!

Triscuit

Mom says over and over - she has NO favorites. Sure, and if you believe that, we have a bridge to sell you too.  MOL

Anyhow, she has developed a soft spot for a certain tiny white female kitten with gray spots. Triscuit is pretty cute - it is hard to describe to people her cute round little face.

getting clean

eeep - check out those jelly bean toes

those toes can be pesky

Samoa LOVES to sleep with on anyone who holds still

oh the cute

Mom will get better weights on the kittens this weekend. She has been mumbling something about the v-e-t coming on Saturday. We checked the calendar, but we can't remember who is up this time. drat......

wordless Wednesday

That is Tommy with Samoa and Triscuit