Chanel and Goldfish

Mom was relaxing on Sunday and smelled something from the foster room. Turns out Chanel was in there and used the litter box - with no litter in it. Mom cleaned up and then shut the door to the foster room.

Chanel then parked herself in the Sleepypod and stayed there for a while. Mom was a little concerned and was contemplating a vet visit for the girl. Well mom was putting the Kindle back in the kitchen after reading and Chanel stretched and wandered by the door. So...it seems she may have just been pouting about the closed door (she is fine this morning too).

However, it got a little funnier. Mom wanted to check later that night. Of course the interior of the Sleepypod is black. Mom stuck her hand in and scared the daylights out of a different tuxedo:

We love updates...

Do those faces look familiar? Top picture is Jovie (formerly Gargoyle) and then Buddy (formerly Selkie).

Mom got a text from their mom asking if the rescue could use towels. It seems a certain cat dad turned all the good towels like green when he washed them with a beach towel. MOL

The kittens are doing well. Jovie is smart and curious. Buddy seems to be a few fries short but is super sweet. His favorite game is bopping his older sister Zeta to make her growl. She doesn't do anything else, so we are pretty sure he now just does it for fun.

Zeta did decide the kittens were hogging all,the lap space however, so she just sat on Benny when he wouldn't move. Good job girl!!

what the heck is that

Exciting news....

We had 2 cats still at the rescue that were our former fosters. Chester (formerly Kyan of the gemstone kittens) and Bissell (momma cat to the vacuum kittens).

Well....exciting news: Bissell was adopted and went home on Thursday and Chester went home on Saturday.

We are always excited when our momma cats get adopted. Concats Bissell.

But Chester came back to the rescue about 18 months ago when his family moved to Hawaii. They knew he would not do well in the required quarantine and decided to return him. He has waited a very long time. His new family is just a couple of adults and no kids. Mom sent them a text and he is already doing great. He hid for a couple of hours but is now out and snuggling and playing. Concats Chester.

This is our boy in his new home (Thanks for the picture L)

Weekend report

Mom took a sweet kitty to an adoption event on Saturday. Vulpix had been with the rescue since 5/19. No interest but Vulpix was charming the public.

Imagine mom's surprise when she got the list of cats adopted on Saturday and... Vulpix had been adopted!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No kittens here yet. But....

Tails from the Foster Kittens is taming a pair of adorable kittens.

As the World Purrs has a mom and kittens named in honor of the Kansas City Chiefs.

Love and Hisses has a mom with kittens just a week old.

While mom can't love on those kittens but she gets cute kitten pictures.

Stuff

Mom got an update from the family that adopted Sparta now Elliott. As a reminder, he was a birthday gift for their daughter. She is 9 years old now and Elliott is her buddy. They sleep together every night. He waits for her bus to get her home after school. And this past Saturday she was making a movie that required him to wear some business attire.

Mom also ran into Dragon's new mom last week. She is doing well....and discovered their piano. She isn't very good and won't be getting much practice since they are remembering to leave the top down now. She discovered it about 11:30pm one night and danced around on the keyboard.

No kittens yet. Could be a while....but stay tuned.

It takes a village

Last week mom got an email from the director of the rescue asking if mom could figure out how to get a cat back from TN. Mom ran with it, reaching out to her favorite bloodhound people for help and posting on social media. Within 4 days We had drivers lined up and a plan in place. Mom's sister-in-law along with her niece (aka the kid) would pick Roxy up and start the chain.

Well....best laid plans and all that. It started to snow on Saturday. Traffic sucked. But Abby and the kid were on the road. It was decided they would get Roxy and keep her overnight but call off the transport and try again on Sunday.

After several hours they got to the shelter...to a sign that were closed due to weather. After banging on the door they found a person, tracked down the cat and paperwork and everyone got back on the road.

Roxy spent the night with mom's family and everyone got on the road on Sunday.

She made it back to the rescue safe. Now we start the process to find her a new forever home.

Thank you to everyone who stepped up: Abby and Lanah, Jacquelyn (sorry Saturday didn't work out), Roberta, and Amanda. Chris for getting us organized and Karen with our local cocker rescue for reaching out to their KY adopters to help us fill the run.

In honor of a new start, the kid voted she keep the name she was given in TN. Welcome home Linley.

Kitten Bowl...local style

For the past few years a volunteer and her fiancee have done our own kitten bowl thing live on Facebook.

This year was no exception and mom went over to help out.

 The field was laid out and catnip and treats brought the players to the field.

 We tried to provide streamers but Matilda decided they all belonged to her.

We do this as a fundraiser and as mom was typing last night it raised over $1,000 dollars plus a $250 sponsorship donation from a local business the Grandfather Clock Company (who have an office cat).

Sombrero was supposed to sub in on the defensive line but got sidetracked:

We did get some promotional stuff at the rescue and mom has 2 packs of trading cards she is giving away. She will assign a number to every comment and let us pick the winners.

Pet Blogger Challenge

When did you begin your blog? And, for anyone stopping by for the first time, please give us a quick description of what your blog is about.

  August 2009. Holy Heck....over 10 years!! We talk about us, foster kittens, rescue, cat issues, and did we mention kittens.

Name one thing about your blog, or one blogging goal that you accomplished during 2019, that made you most proud.
  I always love teaching someone something or helping educate. I've posted more "teachable" moments this year.

Which of your 2019 blog posts was your favorite and why? (Please include a link.)
  I posted an interview with my pet sitter about how they handle emergencies.

What was the biggest blogging challenge you faced in 2019, and how did you tackle it?
  Time. I had to change jobs and lost a good deal of "free" time to post. I haven't solved the problem but I'm trying to be more consistent.

One goal that we all seem to share is we want to reach more people. What is your #1 tip for bringing more traffic to your blog?
  I have yet to figure this out.

Do you do sponsored posts/reviews? If so, what do you find works best and how do you determine what to charge for a blog post, social media shares, etc.? If not, is this something you’d like to do more of? What hurdle is getting in your way?
   I used to but don't anymore. It wasn't drawing any traffic and honestly I felt like it was distracting from other things.

Looking forward to 2020, if you accomplish only one thing through your blog, what do you hope it is?
   I'd like to increase followers. I'd also like to post a few more educational posts.

The blogging landscape is constantly changing. What changes in blogging do you see coming in 2020 and beyond? What plans do you have to evolve?
   Honestly, I'm not sure. I've seen a decrease in interest and I'm not sure how to turn that around.

If you could ask the pet blogging community for help with one challenge you’re having with your blog, what would it be?
   Traffic...

sleeping arrangements

Like a lot of cat homes, we have LOTS of bed and other options to sleep on around here. We are also allowed to sleep on the bed with mom at night.

The spot on the bed that gets the most attention is up next to mom's pillow. It tends to be occupied by the eldest cat of the family. It was Maestro's spot. When he passed away, Tim took over. When Tim passed away, Mozart took it over. Now that Mo has been gone, Ivy took over the spot.

Mom woke up one morning and Ivy had company. Daiquiri had wedged herself between Ivy and the headboard of the bed. It doesn't happen every night, but Daiq will squish herself in there every once in a while. Mom isn't sure if Ivy doesn't care or just refuses to move.

Mom did get to witness it in action one night - Daiquiri walked into the space between Ivy and the headboard. There was no where NEAR enough space for her to lay down. She slowly lowered herself to the bed and squished herself into the space. Ivy didn't move but there must have been just enough room. It didn't appear to be too comfortable, but the girls don't seem to mind it.

Quick trip

Recognize that cat??

What about this guy?

Or this?

Yep....mom took a vacation. She and Aunt Dee went to visit the Head Peep and the Cat Dad from Cats Herd You. They spent a day at Disney.

And they visited a cat cafe.

The weather was lovely and they even spent a couple of mornings at Starbucks with Cupcake and her crew. Mom said it was nice to get away but nice to come home...except it is VERY cold here.

Still here

They were spayed/neutered the beginning of the month. Mom went on a quick vacation, so the plan was they would go back this week. There was an adoption event on Saturday so mom kept them around for that. Dragon seems to have stopped sneezing (yay) but Wyvern has some....digestive issues. Since mom doesn't want him here alone, they will be here for a few more days. They are available and on the website though.

While mom was gone, Wyvern discovered the webcams. He grabbed one and pulled it down to face the wall. So helpful that boy.

2019 year in review part 2

Mom gave a review of how life is going with Goldfish.

There was a report on the single kittens and mom's weekend in Chicago at Meow Meetup. We still had the single kittens and mom got a new fountain....and it died.

We celebrated Ivy's 11th birthday. As the single kittens got older they starting getting into some trouble.

Mom wrote another post about FIV cats and the bug kittens came to join us.

Unfortunately, the single kittens went in for spay/neuter and Mopar was euthanized due to FIP (we hate that disease).

Lane and Fate were introduced to the bug kittens but weren't together for long as they were ready for adoption and moved to a partner store to find their forever homes. However, we also got a text that the couple that adopted Puzzle, renamed Anubis, was euthanized for FIP as well. The bug kittens sort of held still for a family picture.

We got a surprise additional kitten in September that we named Firefly when he joined the bug kittens.

Lane and Fate came back for an overnight. Unfortunately Firefly wasn't with us very long as mom found him one morning after he passed away overnight. It is the hardest part of rescue. We all had some treats. Mom had been leaving the foster room door open with the gate up to create a breeze in the house, but the kittens figured out how to get over the gate. We also posted about Remember Me Thursday. And Fate came back to us with a cold.

October brought us another jail break.

The rescue teamed up with another local non-profit that promotes lost pet posts and did a microchip clinic. There was a new kitten: Gargoyle

The bug kittens were spayed/neutered and headed up to our adoption center to find their forever homes. We brought home some new kitten friends for Gargoyle. The new kittens were named Gryphon and Dragon but unfortunately Gryphon wasn't well from the start and passed away. Goldfish wasn't happy with Fate being back here and mom posted about how she was doing.

November of course is that time of year when single kittens "mysteriously" appear at the rescue, so mom took another pair who were named Selkie and Wyvern. Mom bought one of those Christmas campers and set up a village of cat houses.

Mom wrote a post about having an emergency plan in place with your pet sitter. There was an update on the mythical kittens and mom wrote about our annual vet visits (for most of us anyhow). Mom got a new job, Cipher was adopted, and Gargoyle and Selkie were spayed/neutered.



Mom took Wyvern and Dragon with her over Thanksgiving and the kid got to spend some time with them. Roomba was adopted, Selkie went up to the rescue (and came back) and Gargoyle met her new family who was also interested in Selkie turns out. Gargoyle and Chanel met Santa.

All of our fosters from last year have been adopted except for Bissell, Wyvern and Dragon.

Year in review

We started out 2019 with 4 cats/kittens not adopted from 2018 but quickly got news that momma cat Delphi had been adopted. Mom also spent New Year's Eve doing a rescue.

Marzen was also adopted. Mom traveled a little west and visited a cat cafe in Dayton.

And to round out January, everyone was adopted as Kilkenny and then Carling with both (separately) adopted.

February brought us new floors in our living room and dining room (foster room). Goldfish continued to make progress and coming out of her shell.

Mom brought some snow into the house and the tuxedo girls decided to snoopervise the guy doing the transitions on the new flooring.

March brought us a new water fountain (that didn't last very long) and Chanel was fascinated.

That danged tuxedo cat discovered she could get into the foster room. That discovery will come back to haunt her later in the year. They helped with the recycling as well. Mom also took a trip and stayed at Chateau Cupcake and went to Global Pet Expo with Julie.  And....we got our first litter of kittens for the year- the vacuums - Bissel, Roomba, Dyson and Hoover.

The kittens continued to do well and grow - as kittens tend to do.

Remember our comment about Chanel and the foster room? Well she got in there with Bissell and the kittens and got her butt kicked. The kittens were 26 days old. Plus we added 3 more kittens - the decoder boys: Enigma, Puzzle and Cipher (also known as yellow, green and screamy).

The smaller kittens got their freedom, Chanel ended up in the cone of shame after an abscess on her foot opened up, and the vacuum kittens got cuter. 

April came with more updates on the vacuum kittens and the decoders. Goldfish celebrated her first birthday.

Bissell went back to the rescue to be spayed and get adopted. Mom took that opportunity to introduce the vacuum kittens and the decoder kittens. As always, mom tried to get family pictures and didn't have much luck. Kitten mischief ensued and mom got some weights.

Mom and Chanel traveled to St Louis for the Cat Writers' Association meeting. She bought a new crate for the car and to use with kittens. We picked up a new spare kitten named Fate, 4 kittens went to the adoption center and Puzzle got adopted.