Returns....

For anyone who volunteers or works in animal rescue, returns are the worst. And they can happen in so many forms and for so many reasons. Thankfully with the advent of microchips, rescues can now get contact from other shelters if their animals are taken somewhere else. We don't know of any rescue that doesn't have language in their adoption contracts about bringing the animal back to the rescue if you can't keep them. Not that people are always that responsible.

Most recently our friend Miss Kelly had one of her kittens returned. But Garnet is lucky and will shortly be on her way to her new forever home.  Mom says we are lucky that we have had one return since we started doing adoptions from the Petco store....and Opal was much better off coming back (and was adopted again pretty quickly too).

Returns can be for any reason - and some are better than others. Moving, new baby, new spouse....those make mom nuts. Maestro has crossed MANY state lines with mom over the years. As for a spouse, she doesn't have one of those but tells us that it is "love me love my cats" around here.

But, financial reasons abound in this economy. We are seeing lots of returns as people lose their jobs and their homes and are barely able to take care of themselves.

And sometimes medical issues become an issue....and that is where this story starts.  more on that tomorrow

Happy Gotcha Day Maestro

Mom says that 19 years ago today she never could have forseen the journey she has taken with our old mancat. For those of you who haven't heard the story, mom got Maestro when she was in college. Her brother was allowed to get a kitten (see the orange guy in the second picture) and mom was SURE that Butterscotch was lonely. Turns out not so much.....B would chew on Maestro's ears until he yelled. And then one day Maestro went off and got neutered...sympathy was a good thing and they were buddies until Butterscotch left for the Bridge.

Maestro may not LIKE the kittens, but they do seem to like him

and Maestro is just too old to care enough to get up and leave

a good flashback picture - Maestro, Mo, Butterscotch, Tim and Tom

(not sure when it was taken though)

Maestro favorite habit now-a-days

looking good

snoozing with Ivy - sun puddles ROCK

We hope you can join us in celebrating 19 years with the old mancat. He has moved many times with mom and has gone through cats, fosters and roommates. He is pretty mellow and laid back. And for being 19 years old, pretty healthy.

Random Thursday

OK, normally we do random Fridays....but we have something else going on tomorrow.  :)

Thanks for the purrs for Amelia. She still sounds kinda yucky.....but the vet said she should start improving after a couple of days. Mom caught her actually sneezing the other day - after being SO stuffed up, that is improvement.....
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Remember us telling you about our friend Miss DeLynn and the kitten she is fostering?

She-Ra and her protector Jack

Well, Best Friends has a guardian angel program where special animals are featured. One of those cats is a boy named Piazza. Well is seems before She-ra went to live in foster care, she spent some time charming Piazza. And when she went in for a check up she got to see him again - and the picture of her is adorable.
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Mom has been slacking, so we decided to pin her down and make her tell you about some of the contests we participated in and won something:

Tails from the Foster Kittens had one (like way back this fall) where we won a box from Pet Flow. It had some treats and food and cat grass (get on that mom) and toy. What fun (though to be honest, the kittens that got the food didn't seem all that interested.

Then we won this book in a contest on Sparkle's blog. We are still waiting for mom to read it to us and show us the pictures. That Simon guy is pretty funny.

We won this one from Hilary - Lucy's mom on Feeling Beachie. Mom said she is going to use it with the foster kitts. Though it says size large....not sure which kitten she thinks that is going to fit on. But so long as she has no plans to use it on US its all good.  MOL

THANKS to all of you....we love getting stuff in the mail.

Wordless Wednesday

Toesday

Miss Amelia ended up at the v-e-t yesterday. She just can't seem to shake the snot that she got. She is back on another drug and we are hoping this one works. We can tell she just doesn't feel very good. And we don't think it is very nice that mom is calling her Darth Snot.

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  Rosemary contemplates how many toes she has
(a lot - she is a polydactyl or mitten paw)

 prior to his manicure, Basil wants you to know 

he has claws and is not afraid to use them

This is not the first time we have had polydactyl kittens, but Rosemary's white feet make her seriously even more adorable. And Miss Saffron's toes are a little more obvious as she gets bigger.

Let us introduce:

Rosemary (aka Rosie)

We got some good suggestions and will add them to our list. But this seems to fit her. We had a couple of suggestions for Thumbelina - that's kind of hard to keep saying plus we have NO idea how it relates to Basil and Saffron. MOL

She is cracking mom up. She has NO fear and the three kittens seem to be doing very well with each other. Everyone got manicures the other day....mom was tired of being used as a scratching post.

Mom has modified the paypen by adding baby jail to it. It gives them a little more room to run around. Rosie and Basil have both tried to climb the outside of the playpen to escape, but the manicures helped with that. Rosie is pretty bouncy and when they wear each other out, they go back inside to crash.

And of course the box is pretty popular. Normally either Saffron or Basil are sleeping in it, or Rosie is climbing all over it. But when Basil climbed in on top of Saff, mom had to get a picture.  :)

Random Fridays.....

we have NO idea where Saffron learned that smug espression from

Mav....hanging at Petco

Licorice - yep, mastered the leg dangle

Goose is wondering if he reaches a little farther if he can open the lock

Mo is protesting....he is hiding out until Caturday arrives

Thankful Thursday....

Today we are thankful for good friends.  :)

The other day mom got a call from our friend Miss Kelly. She asked....  "do you have kittens?"  When mom stopped laughing she said - yep. What's up??

It seems that a friend of Miss Kelly's called and said she had found a sick kitten in her back yard all alone. She brought the kitten inside and was caring for it but didn't know exactly what she was doing. So Miss Kelly gave her some advice and mom filled in the blanks through texts.

Miss Kelly fosters as well but everyone agrees that single kittens aren't a good thing - they are better in groups where they can get experience and social skills. Miss Kelly doesn't currently have fosters, so mom agreed to have the kitten come here.

No name yet. Little girl, short haired gray and white. And....polydactyl. Yep - she has thumbs like Saffron. We would like to stick with the theme, but we are taking suggestions.

She just came into the house last night after getting her "negative" test results. She is vaccinated and in with Basil and Saffron. So far they are checking each other out and it is going well. 

We will have more updates for you, but wanted to let you in on the newbie.

Not-so-Wordless Wednesday

This was going to be wordless until Monday night. See, Amelia was playing with the same red fuzzy toy you will see in the videos. Only Monday night....she was running around the outside of the playpen where Saff and Basil are living. And as she was running around - with the toy in her mouth - she was growling at the kittens. Saff was chasing her (to no avail) and both were a little baffled by the sound effects. Mom would have gotten video but it wasn't bright enough in the living room (ok - and she was laughing too hard).

Tiny Tuesday

Well it was an adoption weekend at Petco so mom decided to be there both days due to the fall season and trying to get some adoptions. We didn't have any adoptions, but mom talked to lots of people, got some donations and talked to potential adopters that might come back or go to our adoption center. Plus she said it was "old home" week as she got to talk to Cheerio's mom, the couple that adopted Cooper and Ashley, the lady (and her big dog) that adopted Jonny, and the couple that just adopted Luke - who said he came right out of the carrier and moved in like he has always been there. Plus on Sunday, the lady who adopted Busch and Miller came in so mom got to see pictures of them, and since she is related to the lady who adopted Sierra and Sebastian, mom got to see pictures of them too (everyone is getting so big - and Sierra appears to be slightly crossed eyed). Both of them like us on facebook so we hope to see some updates.

Friday afternoon mom moved Basil and Saffron from the bathroom to the playpen. They haven't been out yet, but Amelia finds them fascinating.

Yes, Amelia is ON the playpen in that first picture. 

Amelia was in baby jail with the kittens at Petco and was great with them. Since Friday night Amelia has been out and about with us all the time. Mom let her out way early on Friday am when Amelia decided she didn't want to be in the playpen by herself. Amelia spent part of Saturday night in there with the kitts (she wanted the canned food) but in the middle of the night was crying to get out. She hasn't been too bad to sleep with so far.  MOL

Veteran's Day.....

THANK YOU!!

To those currently serving and those who have served, we are forever in your debt.

Random Fridays....

Our friends at Perfectly Parker are asking for our help making people and animals aware that November is Diabetes Awareness Month.

Our friend Bella over at Paws and Effect even features a "sugar kitty" each week looking for a home. Bella is diabetic herself and has made it her mission to debunk the myths and show people that having a pet with it isn't such a big deal.
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So with Maverick and Goose at Petco, mom is faced with a decision.....Amelia is now on her own in the playpen in the living room. Basil and Saffron are in the bathroom. Hmmmmm

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Gonna be a busy weekend here.....Petco's adoption weekend is this weekend and rather than just Sunday, the manager asked mom to come both days. So hopefully we will have adoption news on Monday. In the meantime, she has to get organized so she can get over there with the three kittens from here and all her stuff.

Our guys in green aren't playing football this weekend. Mom says they have a "bye". If they are just off for the week, we have no idea why it is called a "bye". Peeps are weird.

Thankful Thursday....

We want to add our purrs to Ginger Jasper's family as he ran for the Bridge yesterday....
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Loved reading some of the comments from Tuesdays post about adoptions. Mom says she will never cease to be amazed by people.....

And along that line:

Luke went home last night. Yep - no sooner did we post about him than mom got an application. Nice retired couple....with no other animals. :)  Luke will be in heaven. They did ask about maybe some day getting another cat and mom talked about VERY SLOW introductions.  Concats Luke!!

And that means that Maverick and Goose will be on there way to Petco starting tonight. Mom talked to the assistant manager and the store is going to clean both top and bottom cages and then move Licorice to the top cage. Hopefully she will get a little more notice....and at the very least she will be able to see something outside other than people's knees. MOL

So, last night was the last night with these guys running around:

 Maverick snoozing with Amelia

 Goose and Ivy

Mav killing the mouses

Amelia is still kinda snotty....once that clears up she will get to go up there as well. It will be interesting to see how she handles being alone. Mom isn't ready to let Saffron and Basil out - maybe over the weekend the three kittens will get to meet.

Speaking of Amelia....did you read the Catster article about ****y faces on cats? Miss Janiss wrote it - she is Sparkle's assistant. We were thrilled when mom and Amelia were asked to be part of the article. 

Wordless Wednesday..... (mostly)

(yes, we suspect Goose may have a death wish - trying to smack Ivy's tail)

Adoption stuff.....

We would like to talk about adoptions.....and applications.

Oliver went home Sunday

As some of you may (or may not) know, mom gets the applications for the cats at our local Petco store. She reviews them, checks information, and then calls people to let them know they are approved or not or if she needs more information.

Here is the thing that blows her mind - the application isn't really that hard. Name/address. People in the household. Employer. Contact information. References. Committment information. Animals in the house. Past animal ownership.

And yet, surprisingly, people can't seem to get the stuff right...or complete. Or they don't "get it" when mom calls with questions about some of their answers.

Mom got an application for Luke (above) on Saturday. Good application - all the necessary information. But she has an 8 month old female cat at home. And Luke didn't do so well when Oliver was taken up to Petco a while ago.

So mom called the woman and said everything looks good and checks out. But could she suggest another kitten that might be a better fit. The woman said sure so mom took Oliver with her. It was love at first sight. And the woman said she was greatful that mom knows the kittens well enough to know what will work or not and make suggestions. (mom thought to herself that she is thankful the woman was willing to take suggestions)

But some other applications - it makes us wonder. One had a dog - when mom called the vet they said that the dog has to be muzzled due to being animal and people aggressive. Others don't have their animals spayed or neutered....and can't understand why we have an issue with that. Mom is willing to work with people - but they have to be reasonable.

But hey - we LOVE great adoptions....and sometimes we wonder if we could try to convince people to take more than one.

Dona Nobis Pacem

Today we blog for peace - along with bloggers across the world.

There is so much destruction and hate around us that sometimes it can be hard to fathom. And yet as a community of bloggers, we gather together - supporting each other and moving forward hoping for a future of peace.

Random Fridays.....

Mom has changed the meds for the kitten-snot and is also now treating Mozart. But she is kind of worried about him....poor boy may end up at the v-e-t. He just isn't acting like himself and we can tell he isn't feeling good.
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The new kittens - Basil and Saffron are doing great. They have been dewormed a couple of times but are eating like champs. Mom says they are going to get a b-a-t-h once they are in the clear and no longer have the runs. Heaven knows what they were exposed to before being rescued. But heavens are they sweet.  :)

Basil

Saffron

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Mom is gearing up for a BIG football game on Saturday. Our Spartans play the evil wolverines. We are wondering if they make earplugs for cats.
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And since you can never have too much cute:

Amelia (dust bunny) and Maverick