walk my cat.....

Quick Amaretto update: she isn't eating much, but still walking around some when mom lets her out. Mom has taken to syringe feeding her KMR and NutriCal in the hopes that it will help some. At least we know she is getting something into her. Mom did get more worried and just for her peace of mind took her to the v-e-t for a quick check (under the term better safe than sorry). It appears the Clavamox is working as the vet checked all the abscesses (even the liver ones - mom likes it when the vets are curious cause they check things but don't charge her) and all of them appear to be smaller. But, Amaretto is anemic and we aren't sure what to do about that. They did get a preliminary report from the lab - something is growing. Really - they typed up a report and faxed it for that??? Mom hopes they can be more definitive today. Oh- and someone asked if the abscesses were lanced - they were on Friday night at the vet and left open so mom can clean them. That being said, the vet last night said that it may required divine intervention in this case - Amaretto is just so tiny. We appreciate your prayers and purrs - please keep sending them!!
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In other news, we just heard that K and Alex both ran for the Bridge. We have been purring for them and their families for a while and we have some serious leaky eyes here. We are sending our purrs for them and know that both K and Alex are healthy and running free now.
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Mom put Doc on a leash.....

The kid had a lemonade stand on Friday and part of the proceeds went to buy supplies for the shelter. Mom went over and took Doc. Cause he wiggles, she put a harness and leash on him. He didn't seem to mind and actually had a great time outside.

the kid and Doc

And then Sunday, Mom took Doc, Whiskey and Gin to Petco. Doc got bored and LAUNCHED himself at baby gate....and got over (which he hasn't done since at home - goofy boy). Great - so much for that. Mom put him back in and yet once he figured it out, it was all over, so he got to wear the harness and leash at Petco as well.

Gin (front) and Whiskey

Another Day....

Two of the scaredy cats were adopted on Saturday: Speedy (the lighter grey - who turns out was a female) and Curious George (the largest kitten).  :)

Well, mom got to bring Amaretto home on Sunday night. The v-e-t called Sunday morning while Mom was at Petco to give her the full story. They drained the abcess and got her temp down Friday night. Then overnight she got hypothermic and they had to bring it back up. She was eating and seemed ok. But then the vet found another abcess on her side. They ran an ultrasound probe and think they see some on her liver as well. They lanced both abcesses and will reasess. They decided to leave her Saturday night. Mom brought her home Sunday night.....

She has to put a warm compress on two spots and flush them really well 3x per day (Miss DeLynn agreed to help with the one mid-day since Mom has this job thing). Amaretto is on clavamox for the moment. The v-e-t is running a fecal test to see if something is giving some of them the runs and restricting them from growing faster. And back to the v-e-t on Wednesday. They should have test results today or tomorrow and hopefully they will give everyone a better idea as to how to proceed. The v-e-t this morning gave mom three options: 1. stay in hospital and put her on iv antibiotics presuming they will help; 2. send her home and wait for test results (which is what we decided to do); or 3. euthanization. Everyone agreed that we aren't there right now.....

For now she is in this:

And will be there for at least a few days. The v-e-t said she wasn't acting very lively, but mom put her down in the living room when they got home and she did a couple of laps. She is eating well and everything else, so we wait....

If you are squeemish, you may want to stop here. Mom is gonna post a picture of Amaretto:
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update

Had to share - at the adoption event yesterday at the shelter, there were 21 cats/kittens and 11 dogs adopted. :) Lots of long term cats were in that number.
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Amaretto update: Mom spoke to the vet yesterday (who apologized for calling the rescue lady and not her..haha). They wanted to keep her again last night. Her temp dropped really bad Friday night and once they get hypothermic, it can easily happen again. Mom figured safer to leave her there where she can be monitored overnight (they are 24/7). Mom hopes to pick her up today. Keep up the purrs and prayers....  THANKS

update....

After a few weird phone calls this morning (the vet thought she was calling mom but she called the rescue lady who in turn called Miss Beckie for reasons we don't understand), mom was told Amaretto could go home this morning. She drove over and.....no, not quite. She was "sorta" eating but her temp had gone back up. Which isn't surprising with this kind of infection, but they wanted to get a better control over it.

Mom just called and the other vet wants to take a look at Amaretto this evening when she comes on for her shift (Dr Brys was the one who saw her last night) and then maybe send her home tonight. Mom is going to call this evening and see what is up.

We appreciate all the purrs and would like you to keep them up. Amaretto is just a baby and since we don't yet know what caused it, we are shooting blind on trying to cure it.

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!

We could use some purrs for Amaretto.....

Mom came home last night and went to feed the kitts. She looked over and Amaretto was sitting there - and there was  HUGE abcess on the side of her face. Like the size of a plum. Mom plunked down the food dish, grabbed Amaretto, slammed the door and ran for the car. She was at the vet about 20 minutes later.

Amaretto spent the night at the vet. She was running a pretty high temperature. And they pulled about 12cc of....green stuff.....out of her neck. When mom left she was eating and had an iv in. Mom will try to post an update after talking to the v-e-t.....they are going to send the "stuff" out to culture but we won't get that result until Monday.

Finally Friday....

About yesterday - yeah, mom almost had a heart attack. She ran around was freakin' out. Once the boys were safe inside she kinda bent over and took a moment. None of us can imagine what those boys were thinking....and we are glad they got caughted and are safe (and surgery went well too - they will be available for adoption this weekend).

Mom isn't getting a break this weekend. But, it isn't quite like last year when she drove all night to get some of Miss Chrystal's boy to O-hi-O so they could get to Calliforny (you can read about it here).  Oh - and she is doing a push for her book. If you haven't read it yet, it ROCKS!!! And if you know someone "famous" who can get the word out - let her know....the money all goes to the kitties (ok and the woofies) she is trying to save....
  you can buy it from the publisher here

     **We just realized mom wrote that previous paragraph badly! Mom didn't write a book - Miss Chrystal from Daily Dose of Dogs has. Mom bought it and read it and it was GREAT!!! Darned mom - can't leave her unsupervised for a second. :)
Let's see - Saturday is the Picnic With The Pups at the shelter where she volunteers. There is lots of fun stuff for everyone and all the adoptable animals are specially priced. Lots of adoptions happened last year and we have our paws crossed for lots this year too. If you live close by and want to bring your woofie, feel free. We stay home - too much commotion. But mom will be there....

And then Sunday mom is at Petco for their monthly adoption event. Not sure which foster monsters will be attending, but we are sure someone is going (though not staying - no one is spayed or neutered yet).

And then she is off to have brunch with some friends. See, Miss DeLynn's hubby took a job with Best Friends in Utah. He moved out in May to start working. Miss DeLynn is joining him at the end of July (and mom is helping her drive out and then volunteering a couple of days too). So this group of friends is getting together to wish Miss DeLynn safe journey.

Thankful Thursday.....

Let's see - the triple threat boys from the bathroom got dropped off this morning for their neuter surgery. Not sure if they are staying at the shelter or not. Normally kittens come back to recover for a few days, but there is a big adoption event on Saturday, so they may stay. They have come out of their shells a whole lot more, but mom is concerned that taking them back to the shelter is going to spook them again. Poor boys....

Breaking news: there was almost an escape!!!! Mom had the boys in their carrier and was about 3 feet from the door to the shelter when.....the carrier broke. She had the handle and the bottom part hit the ground. One kitten shot out the back, one out the front and mom dropped the lid on third. She grabbed him and ran inside for help. The big gray one (red ball in his mouth) was the one in the carrier. The smaller gray had shot around the side of the building and was under a bench. Mom baby talked him and he came to her so she could grab him. She headed back inside and Miss Kelsey from the shelter went the other direction for the brown tabby. Seems he shot under a bush and was yelling that he didn't like it outside. sigh... After this, neutering will be easy for them. :)

However, they are staying since there is an adoption event on Saturday so mom is a little thankful. She put the alcohol kittens back in the bathroom this morning so they can have access to food all day and Tim can stay out of time-out when they are eating. :) Which will make Tim pretty thankful as well. MOL

Mom got the idea for the tray from Robyn at love-and-hisses.
Works like a charm..... best investment of $1 ever....

There were a couple of questions about Doc from yesterday:
   1. What color are his eyes? He is actually bi-colored - one blue and one green.
   2. Aren't white cats normally deaf? Not always - but it is normally tied to blue eyes in white cats. So mom had presumed he might not be able to hear on that side. However, after some observation (that boy can sleep through anything), she is pretty convinced he is completely deaf and not just ignoring her. Miss Beckie though says she has some white cats with blue eyes that can hear and some with gold eyes that can't. So it may be more tied to the gene that makes cats white.
   3. LP - we already have a Maestro - and he isn't very interested in the blinds. :)

 (da old mancat - Maestro)

Mom says it is supposed to be a little cooler in the evenings and we might even get some much needed rain this weekend....maybe we will get some window whiffin in at night again!!

not-so-Wordless Wednesday

Doc was the keeper of the kittens on Sunday:

(mom loves this picture)

We guess if you can't figure out how to escape baby jail on your own, you end up being mobbed. MOL

Oh, and mom seriously suspects that Doc is completely deaf.  She got out the dyson monster on Saturday. We all did the smart thing and ran for cover. Doc not only didn't run, he tried to help!!! OMC!! He chased the hose and the machine and the cord. And mom has snuck up on him a few times (not with the dyson monster - just on her own) and he just seems to sleep through everything. It won't affect his adoption or anything, but it is good to know....

And she has a bone to pick with Katie Isabella - mom says Katie must have been giving Doc lessons long distance in playing the blinds. He was banging away the other night - and mom yelled at him (good job mom - yell at the deaf cat - MOL). She finally went to look (which is how she knows it was him) and he gave her the "what??" look before going back to his concert.

The babies got some names.....

Well, there is a winner in the auction to help Annie. Andrea, Leo and Star from celestial kitties won the right to name the kittens. She and mom emailed back and forth and it ended up being a joint effort since we have more boys than girls.

The boys: Bourbon (the lame kitten), Whiskey (the other complete brown tabby), Cognac and Moonshine (the gray boy)

The girls: Amaretto and Gin

Bourbon (left) and Whiskey

left to right: Cognac, Moonshine, Amaretto (back) & Gin *maybe*

Oh - and we guess you want the v-e-t report.....

When mom picked Bourbon up, the tech said the radiographs were being sent out. But, the rescue lady sent mom a text and said "bourbon good to go. no patellas. recheck in a month. can usually do ok as they grow." Mom paused....no patellas at all?? Yep - they can't see his kneecaps at all....of course he is tiny and that is what they are going to recheck. But, sounds like for the moment it is let him get bigger and see what happens. We may have to ask for help later, but we are good for now. We need to bulk everyone up a little so Tim gets locked in the back bedroom while they eat from now on.

triple threat...

After some bad werds....the flashy box seems to sorta be taking pictures but the movie part is dead. Lucky for her she has a separate flip video camera. She needs to call Sony, but isn't sure if it is worth trying to fix.....  we shall see.

Also, Mom dropped the tiny lame boy off at the vet this morning - more on that tomorrow.
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Well, mom spent some time with those scardey guys in the bathroom over the weekend.

Aren't they cuties?? The one in the back with the red toy is the friendliest. He comes right up and wants attention and love. The other two are still a work in progress, but they came out and sat looking at mom so she will take that as a good first step. Their names are Smokey, Speedy and Curious George, but mom didn't get enough info to be able to tell which one is which. :)

celebrate....

Mom thinks....

the flashy box may be DEADED!!!!  wahoooooo

(um guys - don't get too excited, mom is searching the web for info to fix it or replace it)

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If you get a second, could you check out this post over at krasota castle? They are looking for some help from someone near NYC.

more of the hots....

Wow - we HATE this weather..... it is supposed to be over 100 degrees every day this weekend. We hope those animals and people that don't have shelter can get some help. And if you have ferals, PLEASE put out water with ice.....

Mom noticed the other night that the a/c was working over time. She cleaned the filter (something she needs to do more often) and when that didn't help, she turned off the a/c part and left on the fan to avoid it REALLY breaking. And we all did this all night.....

The very nice heating/cooling guy came out yesterday morning and he added coolant and said the coiler had frozen (don't get that one - it is 95 degrees outside and 85 degrees inside but whatever). He said turning off the a/c helped but Mom should have turned off the fan as well. But - at least it wasn't a major repair. He did say the machine is about 12 years old, so it would seem that mom is gonna have to start saving the green papers for a new a/c machine.

who would have thunk???

Allie's kittens are getting bigger. Mom dewormed them on Sunday. One of the girls is a little skinny and mom is trying to make sure she eats. She is eating on her own, but her tiny baby brain has to be reminded - which we find very strange. Reminded to eat?? What's up with that???

Anyhow, they are back in baby jail in the living room. Mom got an email from the shelter if she could take a group of 3 slightly older kittens for about 10 days until they can be neutered and there is space on the adoption floor. Mom thought this would be fine - they are big enough to be out all the time and Junior would have someone to play with. (the shelter says they are 5 months, mom thinks maybe closer to 7 months, but whatever) However, what they neglected to mention is that the new guys are afraid - of EVERYTHING!! Mom can't get a picture cause they pile up on top of each other in the corner of the bathroom (though we think that might make a good picture). She has convinced one to sorta like her and she can touch the other 2, but they won't come out for scritches. So rather than lose them somewhere in the house, they are in the bathroom and Allie's kittens are back in baby jail. Mom is gonna be on a mission this weekend to work with them. :)

let us out!!!! we was framed!!

We know you love funny baby jail stories, so we have to share this. Mom has been letting Sally and Doc in to eat the gushy food with the little ones. Sally proved a long time ago that she can get out on her own. Doc has never figured it out. Fortunately he is also completely content to stay in baby jail with the kittens until mom takes pity and hauls him out to play with Sally.  But... one of the little ones has figured out how to get out. If she decides there isn't enough food, she climbs out, finds mom and runs back and forth and underfoot until they get fed. (mom is shutting us in the 2nd bedroom or has to stand guard to keep Tim from scarfing all the baby foods) Once they are fed, she stays in baby jail just fine. Weird....

 this is the boy with the leg issues - notice how he sleeps...

(note: he sees the vet on Monday)

how many kittens do YOU see??

still lovin' the cable cord

what???

And don't forget that you can still big to name this crew (mom is now pretty sure it is 4 boys and 2 girls) at the auction for Annie.

Thankful Thursday....

Today we are thankful for our great friends on the CB.

We was given this award from Esme at Critters in the Cottage.   Thanks lovely girl.

We think we are supposed to tell 7 things about us and then pass it on. We have to admit, we aren't sure who has it or not, so if not, feel free to pick this up from us.  :)  And, since there are 7 of us, we are all going to take one.

1. Maestro: I may be old, but I am still getting around and feeling pretty good.

2. Tommy: I don't care what anyone says, I AM the master of this domain.

3. Tim: Mom has said it before, but I really do like the foster kittens (even if mom thinks I like the kitten food more than the kittens).

4. Mozart: I LOVE our cat tree - my favorite spot is the top shelf where I can see what is going on.

5. Ivy: I know mom says that I am her crabby princess, but it isn't my fault!!!! (and yes, this position really is comfortable)

6. Spud: Mom is all impressed with me - I am coming up to her more and more and asking for attention.

7. Junior: Nope - still not talking to you weird lady. (not this is new - haha)

Happyp Independence Day!!!

picture from freefoto.com

Happy 4th of July to our US followers.

To everyone else....ummmm  Happy Wednesday??  MOL

Please please please..... with fireworks every where, keep your pets safe:
1. Make sure they have ID and it is current and up to date
2. Keep them at home and away from windows - trust us, we won't enjoy the parade or fireworks as much as you would like to think
3. Have vet records and a current picture on hand in case we get out
4. Locate an emergency vet in your area - just in case

Local shelters and animal control say that the day after the 4th is one of their busiest. Mom seems to remember that our local county dog shelter picked up over 250 lost dogs last year after the fireworks.

Toesday.....

So it seems we inspired Zim and Dave over at Army of Four with some of our Toesday posts.  So we thought we would post more toes for their admiration....

Tim shows off his fashionable toes....with pink and black he matches everything. Mom says she would like to kiss them, but she knows where they have been. MOL

Mom's Saturday Adventure....

We know you want to hear about the adventure, but first - a break for some kitten news: the fast food kittens were neutered on Thursday and mom got to see them at the shelter on Saturday.

They all looked great. And..... the Rally man was adopted on Sunday.

Happy Gotcha Day Rally - concats to your new family!!

And, now.....on to the adventure (oh, and the powers stayed on through the brief storm yesterday - yeah for a/c!!):

We know what you are thinking....that is NOT Penny the Beetle.

Nope.....this is the official June 30 Bloodhound Transport Vehicle.

See, mom got an email a couple of weeks ago from the bloodhound rescue that there was supposed to be a huge sale in Ohio on June 30th of puppy mill dogs (of all breeeds - total number to be sold was over 546). We HATE these things. But the rescue had a possible opportunity to get a pair of bloodhounds and mom assured the rescue that we were in and would do whatever to make sure they made it to the temporary foster near us.

The slobbery kids were picked up by mom and transferred into the rented transport vehicle. Neither knows anything about a leash or cars. They both had to be picked up to be put in the SUV.

This is the girl. The idiot (and that is all we are going to call him) said she had been only bred once, with puppies weaned in February (no, we have no idea what happened to the puppies - presumably sold in a pet store or online). Mom took one look and her and snorted - she told the rescue coordinator that if this girl had only been bred once, mom would eat her auction tag.

This is her handsome boyfriend. They weren't in bad body condition and their skin wasn't bad - though in need of a bath (or four). Put his nails were so overgrown....there was one that had to be an inch and a half long. Plus it appears both of them may have abcesses between their toes from the wire crates.

They will both go to the vet tomorrow and be checked out. They are approximately 6-7 years old. Hopefully they can adjust to a home life quick and find their forever homes.

Mom got to name them too - she decided to name them Marie and Edison. They are named after her maternal great-grandparents. Both started life out a little rough but once they met each other their lives got so much better and they lived a love story. Mom figured that was a good start for the slobbery kids.

As a side note: she rented a Chevy Equinox (pictured above). While she wasn't sure how she was going to like an SUV considering our regular car, she was surprised how much she liked it. She couldn't get 2 big dog crates in the back, but the one did fit and Marie traveled tethered next to the crate in the back.

the cold air is back!!!

OK - not outside. It is still stupid hot out there.....

But our power came back on Saturday afternoon. Before it did, the temp in the condo was 87 degrees. Nasty.....  But mom left the fridge closed after everything went down, so at least we didn't lose that.

And....more important, the power and cable came back before the new episode of My Cat From Hell came on.  Mom had an adventure Saturday but we will tell you about that tomorrow. Thanks for the well wishes. We were lucky it was just power.....lots of trees went down and there was some destruction.

what happened to the lights

ummmm - it is a little dark here. Mother Nature had a temper tantrum last night and the wind howled and trees blew and there was thunder and lightening. And then the lights and the air went off. And it is still off.....  darned mother nature.

Mom put the gate up in front of the bathroom last night so she could leave the door open since it was stuffy in the house. And this morning she was greeted by.....6 tiny tabby kittens. Seems someone (mom suspect Tim but we aren't telling) knocked the gate away from the wall and there was a great escape.

Hope everyone is safe. Mom had to be shipped off to grandma's house to use her lap top....