New experiment.....

If you are living in the path of that hurry-cane, we hope you are all staying dry and safe!!!

Mom has been worried about Allie (the feral mom to the alcohol kittens). We have been leaving food out for her, but mom worries about her when it rains and it is about to get colder up here. But....  we live in a condo association with weird rules. And mom worried about putting a container house out for her to sleep in.  (FYI - we have been doing TNR in the neighborhood and the condo association reluctantly agreed. Mom thinks if we had a bush or somewhere to "hide" a container house for her it might be ok, but everything around our condo is pretty exposed. We have an automatic garage door opener, so mom can leave the door open about 6 inches. Oh....and remember to leave the windows closed in the car - MOL)

 Allie about a week ago

Then mom got to thinking....she puts Allie's food under the a/c unit which is right by the garage. So, would Allie come in the garage to eat and sleep??? So Friday night mom put Allie's food dish in the garage by the door and left the door up about 6 inches.

Saturday am - the food was gone....

And mom realized that she had left the car window open - and Allie must have inspected the car. :)  Since then, mom has actually seen Allie run out when mom has gone into the garage. She will bang on the hood of the car if she doesn't see Allie run out. So, we know that Allie has a safe place to stay a night and during the day when the weather is bad. Yeah!!!  Mom now has a crate turned inside out with towels in it and her food dish on the opposite wall so Allie will be protected from wind and everything between the inside wall of the gargage and the car.

Moonshine came back to the house on Saturday night. He was getting seriously ornery at the Petco. He was growling at mom and she knew if he was acting that way, he wasn't getting adopted. Apparently coming back to the house caused a personality transplant - he has been sweet and outgoing in the past couple of days. Moonshine and Cleo (the momma cat) have been doing some name calling, but Cleo has been name calling with a lot of us, so that is nothing new.

Caturday!!!

First, some business. The rescue that mom works with has a cat named Hugo that needs surgery. If you can help in any way, please check it out here
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And we have a feeling a lot of our weekend is gonna look like this:

Moonshine is acting like a "dork" at Petco. So mom moved an adult into one set of cages and moved a kitten named Mystic in with Gin while Moonshine comes back here for some rearrangment of his kitten-tude.

Random Fridays....

Leo that mom did the home visit for (HV report) was adopted and went home last weekend. :)
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Mom got an update on Sallie Mae. Her name is now Molly and she is doing very well in her new home. Her new house has lots of windows and her dad (a single retired guy) says she loves to run around trying to get the chipmunks.
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What? It's blockin' my sun

Apparently Junior did not approve of how open mom made the curtains.
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When mom brought the new kitts here from Miss Chrystal's, you will remember she stopped to pick up a couple of bloodhounds.  Mom read last weekend on OBR's facebook page that Bonnie crossed the Bridge. They found a mast cell tumor on her leg and she had to be helped over. They were hoping to give her a little more time and get her into a foster home, but the vet said she was suffering. We are sending purrs to her buddy Clyde who is missing her very much. (if you hover over the picture, you can read the note from the rescue)

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We loves reading comments. Several people Wednesday wanted to know if we whap over the top level of the cat tree. Depends on who is up there first: Tim is usually up for company. Tommy holds his ground and smacks down introoders. Mo will get up and leave. Ivy can't get up there. Junior generally gets up and leaves too. Maestro and Spud just don't go up there. And the kittens? Every man/woman for themselves!!!

Priscilla wanted to know if "Junior Power Bourbon" was a drink. Not right now, but something to consider (mom says especially if she has to talk to one more crazy person at work this week - of course then it won't be a Junior).
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Mom put up the baby gate in front of the bathroom door while the other gate was being used for baby jail. It is warm enough here  (and no windows in the bathroom) that mom wanted to do some air circulation. The gemstone kitts thought the new gate was AWESOME!!

Oh, and Emma has figured it out - mom found her in the hallway...TWICE!!! Time to go to the other gate.

Thankful Thursday......

Mom dropped River, Shawnee and Jerome off at the shelter this morning for their surgeries. The caregiver said there is a space, so they will be staying. Happy trails kitts - we are glad you got a few days here with us.

Beyond that, she says, she is just thankful that it IS Thursday.......

There was a minor adventure here yesterday. Mom had to leave for work with no idea where Junior was in the house. She checked all the windows and there was no way he could have gotten out. But he didn't show up for breakfast and was no where she looked. She said it was hard to be across town all day at work and worry about him.


Anyhow, she got home and went on another search. This time she laid on the floor to look under the bed, and there was a lump in the boxspring. Someone a while ago tore the liner under the box spring so mom attached a cloth cover to keep us out. However, someone else managed to get it partly loose. And Junior was up in there. Mom poked him several times until he came out and then made him leave the bedroom. Silly boy.....

wordless wednesday

Junior

Power

Bourbon

about that revolving door.....

We are undecided.....  we are either gonna get mom that revolving door for Christmas or a book of ways to say NO in various languages.

Look what she came home with last night:

Shawnee

Jerome

River

They are all about 9 weeks old. Mom was expecting the first two and River was a surprise. :)  We just have them until Thursday until they can go in for surgery. The idea is to keep them healthy. Mom set up baby jail in the kitchen and River managed to get out (and stay out) within about 20 minutes.

Plus there is this chick (no, Bourbon does not have a body double)

Power was moved to Petco and was a little snotty. Not enough for drugs or that mom is concerned about her giving anything to anyone, but she needed to move from the store short term. Bourbon wasn't too sure what to think of her at first (she came here Saturday morning) but has since decided she is a LOT of fun.

What is in a name????

Miss Chrystal has picked out the names from "the hat" and has named the puppies (go check them out on her blog) and now the crew here has names as well:

Lana was the winner and the kittens are after gemstones.

 

Cleo (short for Cleopatra)

baby jail....we spent some time in here Sunday

 

Emma (short for Emerald)

Opal

Kyan (for kyanite)

Cory (for corundum)

Mom couldn't get the boys to cooperate for their beauty shots, and now that she looks at them again, she thinks she took 2 pics of Cory. Kyan doesn't have the stripe of white down his face (he is the guy standing up in the baby jail picture).

easy Sunday

YEAH!!! We gots some sunpuddles to nap in today!

no, don't chew on that

Mom got an email earlier in the week asking if she would do a "HV". Of course, she didn't have enough caffiene and was all..."HV"? Come to find out the bloodhound rescue wanted her to do a home visit here in town for a potential adopter.

Mom met with her last night and came home to scan the report back in (first time - now if we could just get that machine to print).  Mom got it scanned in and went to put her dinner in the oven before emailing it. She came back and....

someone:

Had done this:

Random Fridays...

Our Spartans play the evil Wolverines on Saturday. Grandma and Grandpa are back from their vacation, so mom will be over there Saturday afternoon to watch the football game.

GO GREEN!!
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So far, feeding the kitts in the shower seems to be working. Mom finally remembered to get some kitten pate type canned food rather than the chunky stuff she had in the house.

Mom still says that chip and dip try was the best $1 she has ever spent. :)
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Luke and Duke seemed OK last night. Luke more so than Duke.....we will keep you posted on them.
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Speaking of dinner, mom got a shot of us after she put out dinner for us:

Top to bottom: Junior, Spud, Maestro, Tommy, Ivy and Tim (behind Ivy). Mo isn't very food motivated so he doesn't run into the room when mom goes to feed us. And mom thought Bourbon was in the picture, but apparently not. MOL

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Tommy says "have a good weekend"

new feeding plan.....

So, it seems that canned food doesn't necessarily agree with the momma cat. But....the kitts have decided they VERY much like it (see the video yesterday). Mom came up with a new plan - using the chip/dip platter, she put out some canned food and put the plate and the kitts in the shower and then did some other stuff to get ready. Mom cat gets a little bit of whatever is left over by the kitts. Oh - and both girls were growling at everyone this morning. Too funny.....
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In other news, a cage opened up at the shelter, so Luke and Duke will be heading back there tonight. We wish them quick adoptions and hope that they adjust to the new environment OK. Heaven knows they were learning to relax here:

wordless Wednesday

(ignore the fingers - mom was trying to decide whether to hold the camera or put it on the floor - the growling is pretty funny - just ignore mom's allergy breathing.....MOL)

National Feral Cat Day.....

Alley Cat Allies is celebrating National Feral Cat Day....  TODAY!!!

Most of you know that we are BIG fans of TNR. And we are lucky enough to live in a city that has a very good local low cost clinic (SOS) that will take feral cats - the same day you trap them (ok, provided the clinic is open, but still.....)

TNR is how this guy came to live with us:

(who knew this would grow into the 16 pound orange menace)

And there are the cats we have trapped in the neighborhood over the last two years - and the kittens that we caught and have been adopted. Bug's mom was TNR'd, so was Doc and Sally's mom and the memorial day kittens.

Most recently there was Allie and the alcohol kittens......

 

Not only have the kittens found home (or are looking), the adults are no longer able to reproduce and are being cared for the best we can (shelter and food).

There are lots of ways you can help:
   1. see if there are events in your area
   2. TNR in your neighborhood - or contact a local group that is doing TNR in your area
       we have two around here that mom supports: Colony Cats and Black and Orange Cat Foundation
   3. Like Alley Cat Allies on Facebook

And there are so many other ways to help. And every little step takes us one more step closer to a day when ferals are not killed for being feral.

we has a tough....

Mom put up baby jail and put the tiny kitts in there for a little bit while she cleaned the bathroom (by the way - Miss Chrystal has left up the chip-in for a few days if you want to throw names in the hat for this crew).

Bourbon came around as well as Duke and then Tim and then Ivy...... as you can see, the kittens acted all tough. Mom was impressed cause while their mom managed to escape from baby jail, she never went very far. And she was pretty good with us. She hissed a couple of times (once cause Tommy hissed at her first) but never went beyond that. Which is good news.

After all the excitement, everyone had a snack and then took a nap.

*If you turn up the volume, you can hear mom say "Tommy" in the background. Mom cat was laying in the hall to mom's left and Tommy walked by and hissed at her.

da Bourb....

Mom swore he was just TRYING to get in trouble this morning. He went after Ivy's tail. Then he was chewing on mom's shoelaces - and when mom picked him up to put him back on the floor (he was on the hassock) he hung onto the shoe for dear life. Then he bonked Tommy in the face. And when mom leaned over to tell him to knock it off.....he bonked HER on the nose.

This face is NOT as innocent as he would like you to believe......

Random Fridays.....

Evar have one of those mornings? Happened to mom yesterday. We were all snuggled in bed. She mumbled something about when the alarm was going to go off. She turned on the light on the clock and said a bad werd. She was 30 minutes late. She jumped out of bed, ran out and then opened the bathroom door. And momma cat decided to make a run for it. Down the hall.....into the living room.....under an end table. Really??? Mom grabbed her, got everyone fed and managed to get out of the house. We all ducked to make sure our tails didn't get stepped on.

who me??

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Breaking new: the babies are (sorta) using the litter box!!! Mom has caught them a couple of times. However, she thinks it is funny that kittens are kinda like teenage girls - they all seem to have to go to the bathroom together. There were two in there at the same time this morning.

(that shadow is mom's thumb - haha)

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Luke and Duke came back home with mom last night. They have Duke on an antibiotic though they don't seem to know what is going on with them. Duke was acting normal and ate dinner with everyone last night and this morning. Luke was acting lethargic last night but was out this morning though moving slowly. So, whatever it is, Duke seems better and Luke seems to have it now.

Duke was a little crabby when mom got to the shelter last night, but was MUCH better when she went back to pack them up to bring them home. And he has been chatty with her here at the house. Hopefully his attitude at the shelter was related to him not feeling good.

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We have NO PLANS for the weekend. Mom said something about taking it easy. We hope you have a good weekend as well......

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Squashies and her family could use some support right now.....

Thankful Thursday.....

Mom just read an article online about a ruling that will allow low cost spay/neuter clinics in Alabama to stay open. If any of you read the blog love-and-hisses you will know she fosters down there and has been a HUGE advocate for keeping these clinics open. So, 28 residential paws up for a ruling that finally makes some sense......

We are lucky that we live close enough to a large city that we have access to great vets and great clinics. Mom's favorite is SOS of Ohio. The prices are right and she can take ferals in a live trap same day.

So, please support your local clinics.....pet population control is so very important.
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Gratuitous Bourbon pic:

Update, then Wordless Wednesday

So, mom got a call last night from the shelter about Luke and Duke. Luke is still acting fine. Duke has shown no syptoms and seems to be ok - except he is hissing and being angry with staff. They want to keep them through Thursday to keep an eye on them. Mom has made sure there is no icky poisonous stuff in our house so we know he didn't eat anything (unless a bug got in that we didn't sees). Mom spoke to one of the shelter staff later yesterday. They aren't sure about what is going on but then had some concerns about Duke's attitude - seems he was hissing and growling at staff. Mom checked on them both last night and left a note - he acted fine with her but was still pretty wobbly.

Mom left a message for Grace's family earlier yesterday and heard back from them last night. Grace's temp (she is now named Maddy) is coming down and she is eating well. Mom said to call her no matter what.

Best we can do is keep our paws crossed......
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On on a cuter (and healthier) front:

the boys

what??

love that girl's wild hair