weekend update.....

No transports this weekend. There was some cool air on Friday and Saturday so mom turned off the cool air machine and opened the windows!!!

Sunday was the monthly adoption event at Petco. Stella, Busch and Miller are still up there. After mom got set up, she notice Miller and Busch sitting next to each other - and Miller is a LOT bigger than Busch. The manager up there is a dog person with NO cat skills. He mentioned about separating the kittens. Mom asked why and he said that two of the kittens seemed to be hurting the other one. Mom snickered.....the boys are picking on Stella and she is a screamer - but they aren't hurting her. So no, they won't be separated.

Stella looking out at the world

Mom took the S kittens up there with her. Sorcha and Screech will go for their spay/neuter surgery on Wednesday so mom figured if someone fell in love with them, it wouldn't be a long wait to send them home. Siobhan and Sierra were in baby jail - the other two were in the Petco cages (cause mom figured they would be able to get over baby jail).

Busch is super cool and super sweet - where is his family????

Miller (back) and Busch (front - check out those ears)

July is usually a slow adoption month, but we wish there were families stepping up for the beer kittens before they get much bigger. They are dog friendly and just a nice group of kittens.

Blog the Change....

You know us a cat blog. Of course, mom does dog transport, but she is also a big supporter of ADOPTION for all animals....and making sure we do all we can to support change to keep animals from needlessly dying in shelters.

One of the breeds of dogs that don't get out of shelters is the most are the pit bull type dogs. Mom has worked with this dogs before and has yet to meet a mean one. They are generally super sweet and people oriented. It is the things that people do to them that gives them the bad reputation. Used as fighting dogs and despised by the media, these dogs (some of which if genetically tested probably aren't even pit bulls) take a beating.

But we want to talk about some successes. Most of you will remember back to April 2007 when a certain football player (who will NOT be named on this blog) was busted for dog fighting. The judge made an amazing decision....these dogs would be judged as individuals and not automatically euthanized for being fighting dogs. Rescues across the US stepped up, and Best Friends Animal Society took 22 of the dogs. Two of these dogs were deemed unadoptable - one for her behavior. Lucas because of his fight history - he was a grand champion. He lived a well loved life and recently passed away. You can read the blog of Gregory Castle as he tells us all about Lucas.
Picture from Best Friends Animal Society

All of the dogs that were able to be adopted have to pass the Canine Good Citizenship test. And some of those dogs are stepping up to be the face of this breed.  Cherry was super shy and yet now lives in a home with a cat, another dog and a child. You can follow him on facebook at Vicktory 4 Cherry.

Another of the dogs was Handsome Dan. Not only was he adopted, but his family started their own rescue to help save these dogs. Handsome Dan's Rescue even recently took in a momma dog and her puppies.

These are the people and dogs that are helping make a change for this breed. And we couldn't be prouder to support them.

Random Fridays.....

For those of you who don't follow Whiskers in the Window, they lost their 12 year old resident house panther Norman to the Rainbow Bridge yesterday and could use some love.
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Those S kittens are nutty!!!  Mom has thus far kept them in the play pen during the day but she thinks that may end soon. She did discover that Screech (seen in the first picture) is a little hand shy. We discovered that a co-worker of another volunteer found him, so he didn't get socialized until he came to the rescue. So, mom is gonna "force" the lovin' on him. Yeah - good luck with that mom.  MOL  The other kittens are pretty lovey. Sorcha has places to go but the smaller two like to shadow mom around the house and Sierra likes to snooze on mom in the evening.

Screech - waiting for the next kitten to wander by

Screech and Siobhan

Sierra

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We also got an award from Star at the Celestial Kitties. It is the "My Favorite Things Award".


We have to list 6 of our favorite things and then pass it on.

1. Maestro: my favorite thing is peace and quiet so I can get in my naps.

2. Tim and Tom: our favorite thing is snuggling next to mom at night

3. Mozart: mom.....love my mom

4. Ivy: the cat tree to get away from the barbarians in this house. [sniff]

5. Spud: dinner time

6. Junior: my favorite things are those foster kittens. They aren't scary and are fun to play with.
We are sure who has it or not, so feel free to take it and pass it on.....

Thankful Thursday.....

We are gonna let mom take this since we weren't really involved. MOL

I live about a 20 minute drive from work. Normally our office manager is the first one into the office, but for whatever reason she was running late on Monday. I got to work, parked and walked up to the front door. Next to the pillar in the mulch was a pile of black fuzz. Animal shaped and not moving despite the noise I was making. I was sure whatever it was had passed. However, I stepped closer and said "hey baby" and a black and white head popped up and gold eyes stared at me for a second. Then the skinniest cat I have ever seen (and I used to work with hoarding and abuse cases with our humane society) stood up and walked over under a bush. HOLY CARP!!!

I opened the front door, turned off the alarm and ran back to my car for the cat carrier I keep in the hatchback (and people laugh at me for that). I walked to the bush and the cat didn't move so I reach in, pulled her out and put her in the carrier. OK - now what???

Thankfully the vet that works with our rescue likes me. :)  I called and asked "are you booked this morning?" They squeezed us in between appointments and I took off...thankfully I work in a small office and they all know the rescue work I do on the side (plus the one partner has a dog and so does the office manager).

"Name?" "I haven't thought about it." "Gender?" "Didn't check." "Background?" "No idea - just found her."

Rob (their vet tech that I adore!!) took me back. Low temp but purring like MAD!! Rob gave her a treat which she barely stopped to chew. Weighed her - she weighed 4 pounds!!!  OMG.....  The vet comes in and checks her over - can't check her heart, she won't stop purring. No id, no microchip, not spayed.  So we discovered she has lice (ewww) which after some research I discover comes mainly from neglect/unsanitary situations (and can be treated with Frontline - yeah!) [and is species specific - which means I can't get it....though I did spend Monday with the "itches"]. She has a limp and her back left leg is "jacked up" as Dr T put it. The vet says it feels like something we should x-ray but is further down the list of things to worry about. We gave her fluids and a name - Licorice.

Oh - and the really important thing: her FIV/FeLV test was....NEGATIVE!!!!

Now, keep in mind that at that time I had: my crew. The space kittens in the bathroom. The s kittens in the playpen in the living room.  And the lice that Licorice has can be passed cat to cat or through common blankets. Great....  so, I set her up in a crate in the garage until I got home from work. I hated the idea of her there overnight and came up with the idea of putting her and the traveling crate in the bathtub. She stayed in the crate so no exposure to the space kittens but she was upstairs in the a/c.

The space kittens went back to the shelter on Tuesday morning. The 3 bigger ones will be spayed/neutered on Thursday and go to the adoption floor. The smaller two will go back into foster care. And, since I was going to stop fostering for this group anyhow, Licorice gave me the ability to say I can't take anything for the time being.

So, short term: she is eating, though she does seem to struggle to bite down (hard to explain) and doesn't seem overly attracted to the canned food (I tried the kitten version of fancy feast). She has been treated for the lice which should kick in by the end of the week. She has been dewormed and will be vaccinated tonight. From there it is just slowly put weight on her. Then x-ray the leg (more for informational purposes - I suspect it is an old injury) and get her spayed. The vet wasn't able to pin down age other than to say "she isn't a kitten and isn't 20" - awesome. LOL   She will make someone a wonderful companion. She is happy to see me when I walk into to spend time with her....makes biscuit, purrs and will (slowly) get up and come over for scritches.

Some of the comments on facebook said she was lucky I found her....there was no luck involved on my part - she was sitting right there.....I can't ignore that (though now I have to wonder.....last summer they found out where I live [the alcohol kittens] and now they know where I work).

 Wish us luck. I have a feeling she is a long term project....but once she is healthy I suspect it won't be too hard to find someone who wants this super sweet girl in their life.

Wordless Wednesday.....

Ivy edition

you aren't gonna pick this up are you?

yep - she gets out the space heater just for me

yeah yeah - sometimes I like the foster kittens

So we mentioned about some Monday weirdness around here - don't panic - nothing bad. More on that tomorrow.  :)  Anyhow, the cat caregiver emailed mom about the space kittens. Sputnik, Hubble and Orbit are big enough and will have surgery on Thursday and then go to the adoption floor. YEAH!!!  Corona and Nasa don't weigh enough....we are sure they will go into foster care with someone until they are big enough.

Another Tuesday another vet check....

Mom has to confess something.....  by Friday night, she was pretty frustrated. The kittens are still messy and while things are better, Nasa is still pretty drippy at times (sorry - only thing we could come up with). The kittens were messy and the bathroom was a wreck. Mom came home and they were screaming and mom was just over it all.

She spent a couple of hours on Saturday scrubbing down the bathroom and the kittens. Friday night she was better after she got something to eat and an adult beverage. However, then about an hour after she cleaned on Saturday, Nasa got all excited and poop got over the floor and on mom. Ugh....

Fortunately by Sunday they were doing better. Mom suspects that Orbit, Hubble and Sputnik are over 2 pounds. Nasa is the one we still worry about - his belly is full after meals but his body isn't filled out. Corona is filled out and just needs to put on a little weight.

Corona and Nasa

Nasa has food on his nose - Corona does have a black spot on her nose

Hubble

He has more white on his face - and while mom can't 

get a picture, his eyes are an interesting shade of blue-green.

Nasa and Sputnik (who wishes the lady would put down the camera and serve dinner)

Orbit (this is the only way mom could get her to hold still for 2 seconds)

 and finally dinner was served

Things got a little weird around here Monday (more on that Thursday - be sure to check back). So when mom took the kittens to the shelter this morning, she spoke to the cat caregiver...better her than the shelter director. It sounds like there may be space on Thursday to spay/neuter the bigger ones. Mom explained about the weirdness and said the smaller two (Corona and Nasa) can't come back. So.....the space kittens are back at the shelter. We will let you know what goes on with them.  :)

What the heck mom????

We want to take a second to send purrs to the family of Church Cat Tom....he got suddenly sick over the holiday and crossed the Bridge yesterday.
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We have said it before - we let her go to the rescue's adoption center, and she comes back with something. Really???

So Friday night she was dropping off Killian's paperwork and came home with a pink carrier.

Since the space kittens are in the bathroom, mom set up the play pen in the living room. 

Tim was ALL about it. 

 

"what mom? I am guarding the babies!"

There are 4 kittens total. 

These two are sisters: 

the siamese mix is Sierra, the tabby is Siobhan.

This is our boy Screech 

(he came with the name - apparently he was a screamer 

at the adoption center though he hasn't done it here)

Mom hadn't put the top on the play pen. Tim was in and out and mom didn't care much. And then she looked up and saw this. This is Sorcha.  She climbed the play pen and then the cat tree. And then mom put the top on the play pen.

Screech came with his name. Mom had Sorcha in her head and decided to look it up. It is Irish, so she picked two other Irish female names for the other girls and this will be the S crew. And yes, mom has screwed up and called him Scorch a few times (thanks to Robyn from Love and Hisses).

Siobhan and Sierra got to take a road trip on Saturday morning.

Siobhan has a weird thing happening on one ear. Rather than wait and see, mom decided to get it looked at. The vet took a sample to see if something grows. Mom made the comment that if it was December, she would say it was frostbite. Dr W actually sort of agreed. For now we aren't doing anything and we should have results by the end of the week....There are no lesions or anything - but a patch of fur and skin just kind of....peeled off. Odd.

But the girls had a good time running around.

Mom needs to ask a little more about their background - it was busy Friday night and mom just wanted to get them home. It sounded like a death match in the carrier on the way home (Siobhan and Sierra are sisters and the others are singles added to the group) and yet by Saturday afternoon, they were piled up sleeping together. awwwwwww

Siobhan weighed 1.5lbs at the vet and Sierra was 1.3 pounds. Screech and Sorcha are much bitter...mom has to get them weighed but suspects they can probably be spayed/neutered next week.

Random Fridays.....

Well, the space kittens went to the shelter on Tuesday for a vet check. They claim that that tests are "normal". Oh yeah???  Whatever. Anyhow, everyone came home Tuesday night in need of a bath. They are on a grain free diet for now and meds for the runs. Things seem to be about 75% better. There are still minor issues but it is no where near as bad. And they are HUNGRY all the time. Mom was hoping to give them some running around time yesterday, but she just doesn't trust them right now.

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Do you follow us on Facebook?   We got an update from Triscuit's new family and posted a picture of her and her sister Millie snoozing on the back of the sofa. (mom tried to post a link but keeps getting our "admin" page....there is a link on the left hand side of our blog)
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Guess who got adopted?  Our Killian boy was adopted on Wednesday. And....his mom and dad live in Iowa!!  Yep - you read that right. They were in town to visit their daughter for the holiday, walked into Petco with their 7 month old French Bulldog (Killian will be so excited - he loves dogs) and fell in love with our goofy boy.

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Because Kilian went home and it is a long weekend, mom took everyone else up there. So Busch, Miller and Stella are all up there. We hope their families find them soon!!

Happy 4th.....

To all our American friends....

Happy Independence Day!!!

To the rest of you.....happy Thursday??  MOL

PLEASE stay safe and keep your animals indoors - with ID on if possible. More animals get lost this week....and it is sad how many can't get home.

US?  We'll be under the bed until the banging stops......

Wordless Wednesday...

Junior edition

*so mom noticed after posting these pictures that last Wednesday was Tim and this Wednesday is Junior - so she is going to run with it and try to feature one of us per Wednesday for a little bit

no, he really doesn't fit in that bed, but he seems to love it

synchronized grooming (with Tommy)

Treats for us????

So a few weeks ago (our lives have been nuts recently, what can we say), we got an email from a nice lady from Primal Pet Foods. She wanted to know if we would be interested in doing a review for them. So we went over and checked out their website and discovered they frozen and freeze-dried raw food and treats for cats and dogs. We emailed back and said thanks for the interest in our blog, but we don't eat raw here. She emailed back and asked if we would be interested in their treats. Well geez - we have never turned down treats before. And after talking to other bloggers, mom is interested in learning more about raw. So we emailed back and we got a box from them from the man in the brown shorts. There were treats and also a bag of freeze dried food.

The treats were a hit. Well, except for Junior - not sure what he thought about them, but he wouldn't eat them.

 mmmm - liver treats: high protein, no gluten, no preservatives

The treats come in BIG chunks - which can be a problem when you are being mugged by 7 adult cats and 2 foster kittens.....mom finally had to stand up to avoid certain mancats (*cough*Tommy*cough*).  Mom is thinking about banging something on the bag to break up the treats but doesn't want to turn them into dust either....gonna have to think about that one.

Miller and Stella LURVED these treats. Once the adults moved on, Miller found a big chunk. He picked it up and growled at ANYONE that walked near him while he ate it. Even mom!!  Goofy boy.

my precious

don't even think about it sister

So we give them 6 paws up and two very excited foster kittens.

And then there was the food. Mom wasn't too sure what she was going to do with that. And then the space kittens got sick. Mom decided to give the freeze dried food a try - eliminate everything else from their diet and go from there. We got the Chicken and Salmon variety. The kittens fell on the new food like they hadn't been fed in days!!  And we have to say, by Sunday morning (mom started with them on Friday night), they did seem to be doing a little better.

The bag is REALLY light, which would be great for shipping purposes (though you can buy it in stores as well). However, there is weird math on the bag to figure out how much to feed your cat. It is one of those word problems (two trains leave from opposite sides of the country, when do they meet in St Louis types - mom was never good with math anyhow....). And with 48 nuggets in a bag, mom still isn't sure how quickly she would go through a bag feeding us, but suspects it would be pretty quick. And, the freeze dried nuggets have to be reconsituted with water. It gives you how much water to add, but no instructions after that. Do you put in the water and let it sit? (that didn't seem to work very well) How long does it need to sit? With screaming kittens, mom finally gave up and smashed them up with a spoon to speed up the process. Which sorta works but mom learned to do it in the kitchen to avoid being climbed. 

So, while mom thinks it is probably helping the kittens, she doesn't think we will be switching any time soon.

Final tally: loved the treats.....not so sure about the food. However, that being said, if you had been feeding raw before in this form, it might be easier for you. Our mom - not so much. To the Primal people - thanks for thinking of us.

*we got the food and treats at not cost in turn for our review. we didn't get any other compensation and all opinions are our own

weekend update

First things first....the kittens seem to be holding their own.  Thank Cod!!  Mom had a couple of concerns and decided to reach out to our friends. Miss Connie gave us some great advice about feeding raw and the kitten were switched to that (more on that tomorrow). It will obviously be short term since they will need to go back to the shelter good at some point but for right now it is more important to get food to stick IN their systems instead of run through it. And seriously....could we figure this out soon??? The kitts want out and spend a lot of time yelling about it.

And....Nasa, Hubble and Corona (you know, it occurred to mom over the weekend that she could also have been a member of the beer kittens - MOL) got a bath shower on Sunday morning. It is about trying to keep their poor buns clean. Mom has been using bleach in the bathroom for the last few days and did remark that there seemed to be "less" of a mess on the floor this morning. So hopefully we are making progress.

 "so not funny foster-mom-lady"

Sputnik and Orbit - trying to get away from the wet

(they aren't messy so they managed to avoid the shower)

She also thought their symptoms were familiar...so she did some searching online and it may be Giardia. Which won't show up on a standard test. In the effort of - better safe than sorry - mom is giving the kitts a dose of panacur that will cover that as well.

And....another Saturday, another slobbery dog in the car. :)  Ruger had been adopted and was on his way home. What a super sweet boy. Once he got in the back seat, he kept doing the little kid "I'm not sleeping" thing. Mom thought at one point she would find a big fuzzy pile of goo sleeping in the back seat. His new family emailed the group when he got home last night and said he was running around the backyard playing with his new boy.