Rat Pack kittens

YAY!!! Romero got his stitches out and the cone off yesterday!!

Harlow

Bogart is going to charm the socks right off of some family. He went with mom to an event on Sunday and did hang toward the back of the cage for part of it, but like his siblings is all lovey when you hold him.

There was a plan for Wednesday. Mom was going to drop Bacall off at the adoption center to go to a mobile vet to be spayed. Harlow was looking much better (her one eye is scarred from the infection but not as bad as the boys), so mom asked if there was a spot for her to go as well. That was all set in place so mom planned to drop the girls off on her way to work.

The second part of Wednesday morning was to take Romero along with Flynn and Bogart to the low cost clinic. Romero needs his eye checked and the stitches removed and Flynn and Bogart were scheduled to be neutered.

Unfortunately, Rooney's eye got worse Tuesday night, so after a couple of texts back and forth, mom took him instead of Flynn and Bogart. And of course, to keep it complicated, mom got a text from the rescue in the afternoon that the mobile vet refused to spay the girls stated they are "snotty". Mom says they looked fine to her when she was packing them up. argh....

Rooney

the new conehead in town

Mom put Rooney and Romero in the crate together. She's hoping having some company will be good for both of them. Romero could go back in the foster room but a few days without playing too rough won't be a bad thing.

need to learn to wait

Mom says she needs to learn to wait on making those adoption announcements.....

Millie was returned Monday night. (and if we see nasty comments about the adopter, they will be deleted). The family was first time cat owners and took Millie and another adult male. Well, Millie started out hiding, came out hissing and eventually took to stalking Calvin (the other cat). Mom gave them introduction advice and even got them to a local vet (where she knows one of the techs) but it wasn't working out. Rather than stress the family and both cats, mom met them at the partner store and set Millie back up. She may just have to be one of those cats that need a home of her own. We do know that she will need an experienced owner willing to give her time and put up with her tortie-tude. While we are sorry it didn't work out, we have a little more insight into her personality.

little kittens

Where does the time go? They were 5 weeks old last Friday. They are all active and have figured out the litter box (YAY). Mom hasn't seen them eating yet, but we suspect they may be. Panache doesn't care for dry but mom has started putting some out in a dish for the kittens to give them options. She has caught Panache nursing so that is still going on, though she has also gone into the bathroom and found Panache sleeping on the vanity to get away from the kittens. Mom also needs to weigh them but suspects this group will be a little older by the time they are ready for surgery. Panache isn't very big and heaven knows they came from a miserable place (OK - they hadn't been born yet, but their momma didn't get good care).

Foxy sure does seem judgy

Fish is the chicken of the family 

mom has found her hiding a few times

Mallard....is a girl

Yep - mom screwed up  MOL (though it explains the color on her face)

Mom isn't sure if or when they will move into the foster room. Right now the plan is for neuter surgery to be done tomorrow on some of the rat pack kittens, but Harlow and Rooney still have eye issues and Bacall decided to start sneezing again (argh). These ladies can't be in with the bigger kittens so it becomes an issue of who goes where. Right now this crew is small enough that they really are fine in the bathroom. Though Mallard has attempted to make a run for the door a few times.

weekend report

ADOPTED!!!

Yep. Miss Millie was adopted on Sunday afternoon. She will be living with a mom and her two daughters. They bought trees and toys and dishes and brushes and a nice carrier for her.

And....they adopted another cat from the rescue who was also at the store. So she will get a new home and a new older brother named Calvin all at the same time. Best wishes to our girl and Calvin.

Mom did talk to the adopter this morning. They are new cat owners and both cats are a little growly as they figure out their new environment and another cat. Mom did tell her that if something bad was going to happen it would have and they are just trying to figure things out. Keep your paws crossed.
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As we mentioned, Romero gets his stitches out on Wednesday. His brothers Flynn and Bogart will go along and be neutered that day as well. Romero went with mom to an adoption event on Sunday and got to spend some time on her lap with the cone off. He got a good ear scratching and gave himself a nice long bath.

Flynn

Bogart

Random Fridays

There have been requests for a Romero update: he is doing well and while he is VERY bored in the crate, he is behaving for the most part. His eye was leaking a little bit last weekend and was swollen but that has cleared up as well. He has to wear the cone and be restricted for his own protection - even if he wouldn't actively try to mess with his eye, he could accidentally scratch it and pull out stitches and then we are right back where we started. He is managing to play some with the toys in his crate, though between figuring out his new vision limitations and wearing the cone, his accuracy leaves something to be desired (though he is fun to watch).

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Mallard is being hilarious. He loves to wander over when mom is in the bathroom with them and just stare at her. Mom says she is beginning to get a complex. They are 5 weeks old today and have started showing some interest in the food Panache is eating. Mallard walked over the other day to her dish, sniffed it, back up, came up and sniffed again, put on his stranger danger suit and walked away. Of course mom didn't have her camera, but she laughed at him. Their teeth are starting to come in so Panache will more than likely start encouraging them to eat on their own more.
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Chanel really is headed up to the adoption center today. Hopefully she will find her forever family over the weekend.

Romero gets his stitches out next Wednesday and there will be 2 boys going with him to the clinic to be neutered.

Panache update

Holy moly can that girl eat!!! She is putting away between 3-4 5 ounces cans per day. Mom tells her at this rate, once those kittens start eating on their own, Panache is going to have to get a job. MOL

Foxy (with her foot on her sister), Fish and Mallard

Panache still one one runny eye, but is doing VERY well. She is also very curious about life outside the bathroom but seems respectful of any cat she happens to see when the door opens. The kittens are also growing like mad. Weight wise they are about a week behind based on their age (estimates that kittens gain about a pound a month and they will be 5 weeks tomorrow).

Foxy and her momma - judging you

Ignore the cat litter all over. If there was a gold medal for kicking cat litter ALL OVER THE PLACE, Panache would win, paws down.

Mom noticed the other day when she was holding Mallard that his has a white stripe around his middle - almost like a belt. 

almost wordless Wednesday

Back in May when mom went to Blog Paws, she drove and discovered that North Carolina plants wildflowers in the medians of the freeways. They were so pretty too look at and mom said she could even smell them as she drove by. (yes, we know you shouldn't take video and drive, but mom was very careful, doesn't do it except on weird occasions and there wasn't much traffic).

tuxedos

Chanel ended up not going to the adoption center this weekend. She has a mild runny eye and mom was afraid she would just end up back at the house so mom is going to give her a couple more days.

Harlow's eyes are looking a little better but she has now given her cooties to Rooney, so mom is dealing with keeping him cleaned up and medicated too. This crews seems determined to give mom a run for her money.

Mom did manage to get the new collars on the kittens this weekend. They are still a little big, but they are break away collars and don't slip over their heads, so mom is leaving them on for now. She was SURE there were safety pins somewhere in the house but can't find them to use to shorten the collars a little more. No doubt the ones we have will turn up about the time mom finally manages to remember to buy some (along with that light bulb she has been meaning to buy for the last week).

5 of 6

Bogart is off somewhere

showing off their new collars: Rooney with the dots, Chanel in the background (no collar),

Flynn in green, Bacall with the red hearts and Harlow in front (she was last to get hers)

Bogart

track ball - still the best toy ever

Rooney

Miss Harlow - we think you might be doing it wrong

This crew is super lovey. If we can get them healthy, they will be ready to go. Flynn though is a shoulder rider - the minute mom sits down he RUNS across the room and LAUCHES himself at her like a missile. (he may need a warning label)

lampshade

Romero is doing well. Mom feels bad as he keeps trying to take a bath and obviously has no success. She is going to try to give him some supervised time with the cone off. No swelling or anything else so it looks like he is healing up really well. Another 10 days to get the stitches out. With his coloring, mom suspects no one will notice the eye until they get close.

Tommy and Daiquiri are fascinated by the crate. Spud has slept on it as well. Daiquiri was more interested before mom moved the food dish further back into the crate where she can't reach it.

Random Fridays

Sunshine melts kittens.

But you knew that, right??

Mom got the new collars in the mail but hasn't had a chance to get them on everyone yet. Hopefully over the weekend. They did come with bells and mom was going to leave them on to see what would happen but it turns out the bell is kind of big and mom doesn't want to deal with it.

Mom set up Romero in the crate and covered it in the event that would keep him calm (it didn't but whatever). Daiquiri was immediately fascinated by this new thing in the living room.

Mom has started leaving the sheet up on the front of the crate. And thank you COD...Romero slept through the night last night. Still going to be a long couple of weeks, but this is good progress.
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Panache and the little kittens are doing well. The kittens are 4 weeks old today and starting to get more active. They were bouncing around the other morning as mom was getting ready. She did take the top off of the carrier so it is in there as a bed but is open and Panache seems OK with it. Bless her though - she got her appetite back with a vengeance...she is eating at least 3 of the 5 ounce cans per day. Probably one more if mom could fit it in to her schedule. She isn't interested in dry - more than likely due to teeth issues.
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Chanel's cold seems to have completely cleared up so she will be heading up to the adoption center. Probably tonight so she is there for the weekend. She has become a very sweet and lovey girl who actually comes looking for attention so hopefully she won't freak out up there and will get adopted quickly.

We hope you have a safe and comfortable weekend. 

Misery loves company

Unfortunately when kittens come in without a mom, there can be immunity issues. The rat pack kittens were about 5 weeks old when they were brought to the rescue and vaccinated upon intake. However, they started getting snotty before their second round and then moved on to runny eyes. Harlow seemed to take the runny eyeballs to an extreme and hers swelled up and she was put on medication. Since she chose not to go it alone, she promptly gave her cooties to Romero.

Bless, the boy, he took them and ran with it......

Romero prior to his eye issues

His one eye got worse and worse and mom took him to the rescue to have it checked out. We will spare you any pictures...cause you know it is bad when even mom says "ewww".

There was an opening at the clinic yesterday, so mom dropped him off on the way to work and the head of the rescue took him down. They neutered him and removed his right eye. It won't look nice for a while, but kittens adapt pretty quickly and we are sure he was very uncomfortable.

Mom picked him up after work and set him up in the large crate (that mom still hasn't returned to her friend Kelly). He was NOT happy. Mom worried at first that he wasn't comfortable or the cone was bothering him, but after a while she began to suspect he is lonely. He has never been without his siblings and now he is locked up by himself.

He does need to be crated and wear the cone until the stitches come out in 2 weeks just to avoid anything happened accidentally (cause we are sure he is going to want to scratch at it). Mom may give him some VERY supervised time out and is thinking maybe of seeing how he does with one of his sisters in there with him (his brothers are WAY to nutty to be allowed near him at this point). But he HOWLED all last night and no one got much sleep, so something has to give.

Wish us luck....it could be a very long 2 weeks. Oh - and we don't mention this very often, but if you have ever thought about helping out the rescue, we would certainly appreciate it. His surgery was $157 (including his neuter) and unexpected. Panache will have to have a dental when she is spayed. It all adds up.... if you want to help out even a little, you can go to Colony Cats and click on the donate button.

little kittens video

OK - so they don't DO much yet...but they are cute

cat guys

Mom had an interesting conversation at an adoption event on Saturday. She had taken Chanel, Bogart and Rooney to the event along with other kittens from the adoption center. A guy in his 20s came up and they were talking about cats and he mentioned that he rescued a kitten that had wandered into his back yard. Mom said that the world needed more cat guys like him. He kind of blushed and said he didn't want to be called a cat guy.

But why not? While mom gets annoyed with the "crazy" part of cat lady, it seems that being called a cat guy is a cool thing. There are famous cat guys: think Jackson Galaxy. There are some cat guys that some people wouldn't think are cat guys: Chris Barron the lead singer of the Spin Doctors is on Twitter and takes time on Saturdays to like and retweet cat pictures. Mr. Blasko on Instagram plays bass guitar for Ozzy Osbourne and is a cat guy.

There are are cat guys that blog: Brian's Home is run by his dad Terry; Animal Shelter Volunteer Life is written by our friend meowmeowman (aka Kevin); I Have Three Cats is written by John. (and those are just the ones mom can think of off the top of her head...we bet there are lots more out there - be sure to share and let everyone know).

And then there are the lady bloggers with cat guy husbands that are too numerous to list here....but there are LOTS of them.

Of course there is Cupcake's new dad as well:

(c)Julie M from Sometimes Cats Herd You

Do you have a favorite cat guy? 

Panache and kitten update

Panache and the kittens are doing very well. The kittens are gaining weight like they should. Panache is eating more and getting more and more comfortable. In fact, the other morning she rolled close to being on her back to feed the kittens out of the carrier. Then she put her head on mom's foot and laid there nursing her kittens. It was pretty sweet.

The kittens are getting more mobile and coming out of the carrier. Panache seems ok with it though they seem to toddle back in there to sleep.

 Fish and Foxy

 Panache

her eyes are a little watery still but she is feeling much better

 Foxy

Fish

not sure what Foxy did, but Mallard is amazed

Random Fridays

Well...the velcro collars are officially a bust. Flynn is the only one who hasn't managed to get his off at one point or another. Mom tried making them shorter thinking that would help, but no such luck. If anyone has suggestions, we are all for it. Standard kittens collars just don't get small enough for kittens this size. Someone suggested they may be using the curtains to get them off - which is a possibility. Who really knows other than the dumb things won't stay on.
     **Collar report: everyone has their collar off except Flynn. Miss Connie sent mom a link for a company that makes collars that get to 4" so let's hope those work. Report next week.

Flynn and his goatee

That said, mom weighed them the other day and except for Harlow, everyone is over 2 pounds. However, they can't have surgery until their colds are cleared up so it could be another week or two. And Harlow and Romero has NASTY eye issues at the moment so that really has to clear up. We will spare you pictures...it is the inner eyelid that is swollen and they are on meds, but blech.

Chanel has come out of her shell as well. Not sure if it has to do with her siblings being gone or being the "big sister" to the rat pack or what, but she regularly comes up and asks for attention and love (or she is begging to be rescued from the torment of living with 6 smaller kittens). It is pretty adorable. She seems to be at the tail end of her cold, so when that clears up she will go back up to the adoption center.

Romero gave mom a scare Tuesday night. He let out this HOWL. She looked through the door and he was standing by the food dish and looked ok but then let out another HOWL. She rushed in and picked him up to check him over and he freaked out. Mom was scratched several times as she tried to get a look at him (she says thank heaven she trimmed nails earlier in the day or it really would have been ugly). He fought her and she put him down to avoid stressing him out more. He climbed into the bottom shelf of the cabinet and howled or smacked any sibling that came near him. Of course, it was 8pm on a holiday, so mom scrambled to try to figure it out. Nothing obvious and no blood. He is one of the kittens with eye issues but he was acting like it was the opposite side of his head. Mom finally broke down and sent a text to the rescue and also dosed him with a tiny bit of pain killer that she has in her stock of supplies. Obviously short of running him to the emergency vet (and rack up a huge bill), there wasn't much to be done. They agreed mom would keep a close eye on him and if it got worse would run him to the ER vet. And as of Wednesday morning....he was acting fine. She may never know exactly what happened, but she wonders if he maybe bit down on a piece of food and it hurt or got stuck or something. She did try a couple more times to get a look at him, but after he bit her thumb, she decided to give him some space (those dang baby fangs are sharp).

the biter (before his eye got infected)

We hope you all have a peaceful weekend with NO fireworks this time. Mom has an adoption event on Saturday with one of the rescue's partner stores and then a D-O-G transport on Sunday.

Panache and her kittens

Panache wasn't feeling all that well last week so mom broke down and took her to the v-e-t. Of course, then that morning she started sneezing, but mom figured she already had the appointment so whatever. Panache was very good though nervous. Tiny fever, got some fluids into her, and mom bought some a/d to feed her for a couple of days. She weighs: 6.2 pounds. She liked the a/d and is on meds for her cold. She must be feeling better as she is eating other things as well. The v-e-t did say that her teeth are TERRIBLE. Didn't even want to guess at an age for her. So, when she is spayed she will get a dental as well.

Panache wasn't comfortable in the box mom set up for her and kept moving around and sleeping in weird places. Finally on Saturday mom had a revelation and put the carrier in there for her. Moved the kittens in and Panache followed right behind them. Since then most times mom has checked on them, Panache has been in the carrier with the kittens. Mom did move her from the carrier you see here to one of ours so that she can just take the top off to check on the kittens.

As for names, Miss Connie from Tails from the Foster Kittens suggested: Foxy, Mallard and Fish (out of water) from the Chicken Little movie (which mom hasn't seen). Of course Foxy from the original text as well and that is what struck the inspiration. So the black one is Fish (and mom has taken to calling her Fishstick and making herself laugh) - she is the biggest kitten. The brown tabby is the other girl and she is Foxy. And our tiny boy who looks like his momma as a brown/white tabby (and may be long haired like her too - too soon to tell) is Mallard.

They all weigh over half a pound and will be 3 weeks old tomorrow. They are also getting more mobile....Fish and Foxy were both wandering toward the edge of the carrier this morning while mom was getting ready for work. We aren't entirely sure what Panache is going to do when the kittens realize they can escape.

mostly wordless Wednesday

Bogart

Those kittens love that camper. But it does have a major rollover problem. MOL

July 4th

weekend report

The rat pack kittens are mostly doing better. A couple of them have some eye issues that are being treated and will hopefully clear up quickly. Mom is going to weigh them all tomorrow and see how close we are to surgery dates. There is an adoption event at a partner store next Saturday (they are reopening after renovations) and some of them will attend that.

They are a super sweet bunch of kittens. Mom walks into the foster room and they run over for attention. When she sits down there are kittens in her lap looking for love and climbing all over her.

We hope you had a peaceful weekend. We know that there are going to be lots of fireworks in the coming days in the US....PLEASE be considerate of your neighbors and pets. Not everyone enjoys the loud noises.