new baby

Mom made a mistake on Friday....she stopped at the adoption center to drop off the contract and fee for Marilyn. Then she wandered through the intake part..... And came home with this:

When mom picked her up Friday, she was tested (negative - YAY) but was COVERED in fleas. It was bad. She had been sprayed with Advantage spray on the 15th when she came into the rescue - after being left at one of our partner stores (anyone sense a theme for this fall....Wheat, Saldano, this chick), but it wasn't working.

Mom gave her a bath in Dawn but it was still bad....so they pulled out the big guns and gave her a part of a capstar. And tada!! no more fleas.

The original plan was to introduce her to the brandy kittens and make her an honorary "brandy". However, after a day in the tower, she is still fighting off some serious parasites and mom wants to give her a chance to put on some weight and start feeling a little better. For now she is living in the tower.

Cassis

So anyhow, meet Cassis. She is about 6 weeks old and was a hot mess. She has been sleeping and eating and that is about it for the past few days. But she is already purring and greets mom asking for attention, so that is a good thing.

Momma cat Monday

Most of you remember this girl:

You know - she came with these guys???

Yep - that is Marilyn. She was super sweet and a wonderful momma while she was here - even helping out with the brandy kittens.

Well....last Thursday night mom got a text from the rescue that there was an application for Marilyn if mom wanted to process it. YES PLEASE!!!

Marilyn was adopted Friday afternoon to a single retired lady. She is going to be spoiled rotten. When mom spoke to Miss A on the phone, she said that she lost her previous cat in October and wasn't really looking to adopt. But she was out running errands and saw the store and stopped to pick up something for her daughter's cats. And she saw Marilyn in the adoption windows and asked to see her. An employee got her out and they sat on the bench. Marilyn reach out one paw and tapped Miss A on the arm...and she knew this was the one. 

Congrats to Marilyn and Miss A!!!

Random Fridays

So over the past week, this happened:

ADOPTED

Russell and Saldano were both adopted - not together, but still!!!
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Nothing much going on here....mom said she heard from the weather guy that it might (whispers) snow....

quick surgery update

Mom weighted Chambord yesterday morning before leaving and she was JUST 2 pounds. Mom was afraid the v-e-t scale would be different, so left her home. Which meant Kirsch, Calvados, Liberty and Freedom went to the clinic for surgery.

Well.....the vet said Freedom was sneezing and wouldn't spay her. Which sucks since a cage had opened up at one of our partner stores and the girls could have gone there.....rats!

Anyhow, everyone came through with flying colors. Calvados and Kirsch were reunited with their sister when they got home and the growling commenced after a quick dinner. MOL

Have a Party with Your Bear Day

Mom occasionally clicks on this link that show different days of the year. Some are interesting, some are fun and some are just plain weird. However, she found out today is Have a Party with Your Bear Day and decided to see if she could get the brandy kittens to participate.

Kirsch was first up to check out the new guy in the foster room.

She found him uninteresting and left fairly quickly.

Calvados was next up to see what was going on. He gave the new guy a good sniffing, but couldn't seem to get any reaction.

"Hey lady - who's the new guy??"

Chambord sniffs out the situation

They finally sent in the princess after telling her that there was an intruder in the castle. Even she couldn't get a reaction out of him.

Seems the bear wasn't in the mood to party and the kittens just gave up....

brandy kittens

As mom noted yesterday, the kittens got out in public on Sunday and they now all weigh over 2 pounds so should all have surgery on Wednesday. All things considered, they have come a long way from this:

Still no sign of Fiona....sigh

By mom's math, that would make them now 14 or 15 weeks old....we are sure the vet on Wednesday isn't going to believe that at all.  hahaha

Chambord

the princess of the family and the current lightweight

She was the first to purr and throws herself at mom asking for attention

Calvados

The reigning heavyweight and not afraid to use it.

Though he was the most freaked out when Daiquiri got in last week, 

so does that just make him a big chicken??

Kirsch

The adventure seeker of the family.

She has already ducked out of the foster room a couple

of times....fortunately food quickly brings her back.

We have no doubt with their coloring and personalities, they should get adopted quickly. Though we like to think that about every litter of kittens and it doesn't always happen. The rescue has a lot of late summer kittens available now, so there are surprisingly more available than people think for this time of year.

Considering the turn of weather to winter, we don't know when we will get another set of kittens. Could be this winter or we may be waiting until next spring....

weekend update

Not much exciting around here. Mom watched some sports on TV and yelled some, but that isn't really new this time of year. MOL

The brandy kittens went to an adoption event on Sunday. They are FINALLY over 2 pounds and are scheduled for surgery on Wednesday. They are all super friendly at the house with mom. Chambord did great at the event. Calvados and Kirsch were a little freaked out at first but settled in pretty well. Poor Calvados was first into the cage and then a couple at the dog wash set off a dryer...he lost it. Lucky for him the dog wasn't too happy about the noise either, so the couple stopped it pretty quickly.

Daiquiri actually got to meet the brandy kitten late last week. She wasn't all that interested but the kittens gave her the full "freaked out" routine. Thankfully she doesn't care when they do that.

The patriot girls are getting pretty social and are scheduled to be spayed on Wednesday as well.

Mom ended up taking Dandelion back to the v-e-t on Saturday. His lungs look better but he has some serious snot so they added another drug to his routine for a few days. The v-e-t also took an x-ray of his leg since he is still limping and in fact Thursday night was hopping around not putting any weight on it at all. Nothing broken or torn (thank heavens).....Dr B could see a bruise on the bone of his upper right back leg though - he must have hit pretty hard on something. Poor boy. He still isn't very active, but he should be on the mend soon. Mom couldn't resist the picture above. The back leg sticking straight out is the one he hurt. Notice the tongue sticking out....  MOL

Random Fridays

Yikes....the cold has moved in and it is chilly outside here!! Dang...no more open windows....

The brandy kittens are doing well. Mom needs to weigh them and then figure out the timing of the next step.

Freedom and Liberty are doing well with their socialization. Freedom still has some snot we need to figure out so they can be spayed. Mom thinks maybe just sneak them to the vet and hope she doesn't sneeze on anyone. MOL  Mom suspect this may just be an ongoing issue with Freedom rather than something that can be fixed with meds.

Dandelion is doing....OK. You can tell by looking at him that he doesn't feel great. He has been on the meds for a week now and mom is going to give it a few more days and then call the vet to see what she wants to do next. Mom tried putting him in the carrier and running the nebulizer and he FREAKED OUT so no more of that.

For those that know that mom is a MSU Spartan fan, mom says: YAY basketball starts tonight!!!

**on a sad note, our friend Miss Connie and her husband are helping their kitty Kit over the Bridge this afternoon.....she has cancer and while it may be the best thing, we all know that it is never easy and always heartbreaking. please send them some purrs

look what the kittens got

If you have a cat or know someone who does, then you have probably seen various versions of the gingerbread house, haunted house, fall house or whatever from Target. Well, this year they put out a snow house and.... A CASTLE!!!
(dang that Miss Connie for showing me that - you know I had to run out and get one for the kittens ~the mom)

Mom bought the castle and we aren't being paid for anything (but wouldn't that have been nice), but we had to share.....

The first house we bought didn't really survive the experience....the walls were all separate and mom ended up having to use tape on the inside to keep everything together. (which didn't happen)

Chambord serves as primary inspector

We don't know if Target is listening to people about the houses or just getting smarter or what, but this one was a vast improvement. The walls of the house are one piece and there is only one edge that has to be stuck together. There is sticky stuff on the cardboard and they provide extra clear tape to put on the outside to make sure it holds. YAY!! Putting it together was MUCH faster and it won't come apart.

Kirsch played turret inspector

The castle has a second layer and turrets - again, all one continuous piece that fits inside the top of the first floor. Ours already has bite marks on it, but what did you expect??

Calvados is reading the directions - 

they are attached to the bottom of the scratcher that makes up the second floor

Calvados - window inspector

perfectly kitten size windows for extra entries

says Chambord

Kirsch and Chambord on top, Calvados as the invading horde

Mom thought this was great. And then she tried to get the kittens to cooperate for pictures....

Good luck with that.

Wordless Wednesday - Daiquiri

the stripes on her tail are spectacular

*terrible to see how much stress she deals with on a daily basis - hahaha

Dandelion

He is such a sweet boy. He did have a v-e-t appointment on Friday. They took an x-ray of his lungs and one side is clear but there is congestion on the other side. So....he is on meds for a couple of weeks to hopefully clear everything up. In the meantime he seems kind of slow to get moving in the mornings, but by evening seems to be feeling better and is more alert. He isn't too active but he is eating and acting ok otherwise, so mom is going to give the meds a chance to work before worrying about other things.

weekend report

It was a nice weekend here....nice weather and ot too busy.

Mom did do a transport on Saturday for the bloodhound rescue. Jake and Duke are 18 month old brothers left a high kill shelter. They were not neutered, heartwork positive and had entropian (their eyelids curl in and their eye lashes rub on their corneas). They were good in the car but the cones were pretty big and kept whacking each other and mom.

Cookies? For me?

Marilyn was spayed on Friday and did well. Mom got called that she was done early and picked her up falong with 4 other cats from the rescue. Marilyn is now at one of our rescue partner stores and will hopefully be adopted quickly.

This little girl was one of the pick ups on Friday....Wheat is finally healthy and made weight and went home with her new family on Saturday.

Random Fridays

Dandelion has a v-e-t appointment this afternoon. That poor kitten...he was so sick when he was little, got better, got sick, got better, got ringworm, got better, got sick and ended up with us. While he no longer seems snotty, he has developed a pretty bad cough which worries mom. She isn't sure if it may just be damage from the pneumonia he had when he was little or if he has something new. So...off to visit the v-e-t.

~~~~~~~~~

Speaking of the v-e-t, Marilyn got a clear report. Her teeth look good and while she definitely snorts (which may just be her), there wasn't anything that jumped out at the vet. Mom is going to talk to the head of the rescue and then get Marilyn set up for spay. YAY!!! Then we hope there is an open spot at a store and she will be off to a forever home.
~~~~~~~~~~

Tuesday night mom was volunteering at the shelter and a nice couple came in looking to adopt. They had very suddenly lost their cat of 8 years a few weeks ago and their apartment was just empty and quiet without a cat. They looked around and wanted to meet Yuengling, a young gray and white female cat. This girl came in with her sister and they were both fairly shy. Her sister was adopted and Yuengling was adopted and then returned due to being shy (don't get mom started - she met the other lady and they talked and the woman swore she understood and would be patient....grrr). Anyhow, the 3 of them went into a get acquainted room and spent some time and the couple decided this was the girl for them. YAY!!!  Mom gave them full disclosure and some recommendations about how to help her come out of her shell. Fortunately, it is just the couple in a 2 bedroom apartment...which sounds ideal.
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Russell and Saldano are still at the adoption center. Hopefully this is their weekend.

outtakes

Thank heavens for digital cameras. Mom was taking pictures the other night - trying to get decent shots of Saldano and Russell to get on the website. However, the kittens were a little too curious about what mom was doing and kept sticking their noses in it....literally!!

Saldano up close

one of the brandy kittens

those may be Marilyn's whiskers 

Saldano in the background

great timing kitten

no idea who's nose that may be

wordless Wednesday

There was a bug on the ceiling.

Daiquiri wanted the bug, the patriot girls wanted Daiquiri.

weekend report

Mom took Russell, Saldano and Dandelion to a senior living event in our area on Friday. Everyone did very well and we did some sales of cat toys and got some donations.

Russell and Saldano are ready for adoption, so they went up to the adoption center on Saturday. No news, but we hope they get adopted quickly.

The brandy kittens and Marilyn are in the foster space and doing well. Marilyn sounds kind of stuffed up so she will get checked out this afternoon. Then she should be cleared for surgery and she will be ready for adoption. Mom will get her into the adoption system and then talk to another volunteer about getting Marilyn into a store space when one becomes available.

The brandy kittens continue to do well - active, hungry, and ready for action. Mom weighed them and everyone is STILL under 2 pounds...though Calvados is creeping up on it.

Freedom sure does love that hammock

Liberty - giving mom "the look"

We are fortunate that we have a friend who is going to help us socialize the girls some. We are hoping that having them exposed to different people will help build their confidence. They still need to be spayed - and the clinics here are just overbooked. But once that happens they will go up on the website (and hopefully to a store space as well).

Dandelion - too bad he can't relax

Dandelion is doing very well. He has made himself at home (NO - he is NOT staying). Daiquiri has decided he isn't so bad....unless he is stealing her toys, then it is a whole other thing (and by that we mean she walks over to mom and meeps a serious complaint about it).

before Saldano and Russell left

the little ones sure do love that scratcher