Wordless Wednesday.....

Ivy edition

you aren't gonna pick this up are you?

yep - she gets out the space heater just for me

yeah yeah - sometimes I like the foster kittens

So we mentioned about some Monday weirdness around here - don't panic - nothing bad. More on that tomorrow.  :)  Anyhow, the cat caregiver emailed mom about the space kittens. Sputnik, Hubble and Orbit are big enough and will have surgery on Thursday and then go to the adoption floor. YEAH!!!  Corona and Nasa don't weigh enough....we are sure they will go into foster care with someone until they are big enough.

Another Tuesday another vet check....

Mom has to confess something.....  by Friday night, she was pretty frustrated. The kittens are still messy and while things are better, Nasa is still pretty drippy at times (sorry - only thing we could come up with). The kittens were messy and the bathroom was a wreck. Mom came home and they were screaming and mom was just over it all.

She spent a couple of hours on Saturday scrubbing down the bathroom and the kittens. Friday night she was better after she got something to eat and an adult beverage. However, then about an hour after she cleaned on Saturday, Nasa got all excited and poop got over the floor and on mom. Ugh....

Fortunately by Sunday they were doing better. Mom suspects that Orbit, Hubble and Sputnik are over 2 pounds. Nasa is the one we still worry about - his belly is full after meals but his body isn't filled out. Corona is filled out and just needs to put on a little weight.

Corona and Nasa

Nasa has food on his nose - Corona does have a black spot on her nose

Hubble

He has more white on his face - and while mom can't 

get a picture, his eyes are an interesting shade of blue-green.

Nasa and Sputnik (who wishes the lady would put down the camera and serve dinner)

Orbit (this is the only way mom could get her to hold still for 2 seconds)

 and finally dinner was served

Things got a little weird around here Monday (more on that Thursday - be sure to check back). So when mom took the kittens to the shelter this morning, she spoke to the cat caregiver...better her than the shelter director. It sounds like there may be space on Thursday to spay/neuter the bigger ones. Mom explained about the weirdness and said the smaller two (Corona and Nasa) can't come back. So.....the space kittens are back at the shelter. We will let you know what goes on with them.  :)

What the heck mom????

We want to take a second to send purrs to the family of Church Cat Tom....he got suddenly sick over the holiday and crossed the Bridge yesterday.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We have said it before - we let her go to the rescue's adoption center, and she comes back with something. Really???

So Friday night she was dropping off Killian's paperwork and came home with a pink carrier.

Since the space kittens are in the bathroom, mom set up the play pen in the living room. 

Tim was ALL about it. 

 

"what mom? I am guarding the babies!"

There are 4 kittens total. 

These two are sisters: 

the siamese mix is Sierra, the tabby is Siobhan.

This is our boy Screech 

(he came with the name - apparently he was a screamer 

at the adoption center though he hasn't done it here)

Mom hadn't put the top on the play pen. Tim was in and out and mom didn't care much. And then she looked up and saw this. This is Sorcha.  She climbed the play pen and then the cat tree. And then mom put the top on the play pen.

Screech came with his name. Mom had Sorcha in her head and decided to look it up. It is Irish, so she picked two other Irish female names for the other girls and this will be the S crew. And yes, mom has screwed up and called him Scorch a few times (thanks to Robyn from Love and Hisses).

Siobhan and Sierra got to take a road trip on Saturday morning.

Siobhan has a weird thing happening on one ear. Rather than wait and see, mom decided to get it looked at. The vet took a sample to see if something grows. Mom made the comment that if it was December, she would say it was frostbite. Dr W actually sort of agreed. For now we aren't doing anything and we should have results by the end of the week....There are no lesions or anything - but a patch of fur and skin just kind of....peeled off. Odd.

But the girls had a good time running around.

Mom needs to ask a little more about their background - it was busy Friday night and mom just wanted to get them home. It sounded like a death match in the carrier on the way home (Siobhan and Sierra are sisters and the others are singles added to the group) and yet by Saturday afternoon, they were piled up sleeping together. awwwwwww

Siobhan weighed 1.5lbs at the vet and Sierra was 1.3 pounds. Screech and Sorcha are much bitter...mom has to get them weighed but suspects they can probably be spayed/neutered next week.

Random Fridays.....

Well, the space kittens went to the shelter on Tuesday for a vet check. They claim that that tests are "normal". Oh yeah???  Whatever. Anyhow, everyone came home Tuesday night in need of a bath. They are on a grain free diet for now and meds for the runs. Things seem to be about 75% better. There are still minor issues but it is no where near as bad. And they are HUNGRY all the time. Mom was hoping to give them some running around time yesterday, but she just doesn't trust them right now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Do you follow us on Facebook?   We got an update from Triscuit's new family and posted a picture of her and her sister Millie snoozing on the back of the sofa. (mom tried to post a link but keeps getting our "admin" page....there is a link on the left hand side of our blog)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Guess who got adopted?  Our Killian boy was adopted on Wednesday. And....his mom and dad live in Iowa!!  Yep - you read that right. They were in town to visit their daughter for the holiday, walked into Petco with their 7 month old French Bulldog (Killian will be so excited - he loves dogs) and fell in love with our goofy boy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Because Kilian went home and it is a long weekend, mom took everyone else up there. So Busch, Miller and Stella are all up there. We hope their families find them soon!!

Happy 4th.....

To all our American friends....

Happy Independence Day!!!

To the rest of you.....happy Thursday??  MOL

PLEASE stay safe and keep your animals indoors - with ID on if possible. More animals get lost this week....and it is sad how many can't get home.

US?  We'll be under the bed until the banging stops......

Wordless Wednesday...

Junior edition

*so mom noticed after posting these pictures that last Wednesday was Tim and this Wednesday is Junior - so she is going to run with it and try to feature one of us per Wednesday for a little bit

no, he really doesn't fit in that bed, but he seems to love it

synchronized grooming (with Tommy)

Treats for us????

So a few weeks ago (our lives have been nuts recently, what can we say), we got an email from a nice lady from Primal Pet Foods. She wanted to know if we would be interested in doing a review for them. So we went over and checked out their website and discovered they frozen and freeze-dried raw food and treats for cats and dogs. We emailed back and said thanks for the interest in our blog, but we don't eat raw here. She emailed back and asked if we would be interested in their treats. Well geez - we have never turned down treats before. And after talking to other bloggers, mom is interested in learning more about raw. So we emailed back and we got a box from them from the man in the brown shorts. There were treats and also a bag of freeze dried food.

The treats were a hit. Well, except for Junior - not sure what he thought about them, but he wouldn't eat them.

 mmmm - liver treats: high protein, no gluten, no preservatives

The treats come in BIG chunks - which can be a problem when you are being mugged by 7 adult cats and 2 foster kittens.....mom finally had to stand up to avoid certain mancats (*cough*Tommy*cough*).  Mom is thinking about banging something on the bag to break up the treats but doesn't want to turn them into dust either....gonna have to think about that one.

Miller and Stella LURVED these treats. Once the adults moved on, Miller found a big chunk. He picked it up and growled at ANYONE that walked near him while he ate it. Even mom!!  Goofy boy.

my precious

don't even think about it sister

So we give them 6 paws up and two very excited foster kittens.

And then there was the food. Mom wasn't too sure what she was going to do with that. And then the space kittens got sick. Mom decided to give the freeze dried food a try - eliminate everything else from their diet and go from there. We got the Chicken and Salmon variety. The kittens fell on the new food like they hadn't been fed in days!!  And we have to say, by Sunday morning (mom started with them on Friday night), they did seem to be doing a little better.

The bag is REALLY light, which would be great for shipping purposes (though you can buy it in stores as well). However, there is weird math on the bag to figure out how much to feed your cat. It is one of those word problems (two trains leave from opposite sides of the country, when do they meet in St Louis types - mom was never good with math anyhow....). And with 48 nuggets in a bag, mom still isn't sure how quickly she would go through a bag feeding us, but suspects it would be pretty quick. And, the freeze dried nuggets have to be reconsituted with water. It gives you how much water to add, but no instructions after that. Do you put in the water and let it sit? (that didn't seem to work very well) How long does it need to sit? With screaming kittens, mom finally gave up and smashed them up with a spoon to speed up the process. Which sorta works but mom learned to do it in the kitchen to avoid being climbed. 

So, while mom thinks it is probably helping the kittens, she doesn't think we will be switching any time soon.

Final tally: loved the treats.....not so sure about the food. However, that being said, if you had been feeding raw before in this form, it might be easier for you. Our mom - not so much. To the Primal people - thanks for thinking of us.

*we got the food and treats at not cost in turn for our review. we didn't get any other compensation and all opinions are our own

weekend update

First things first....the kittens seem to be holding their own.  Thank Cod!!  Mom had a couple of concerns and decided to reach out to our friends. Miss Connie gave us some great advice about feeding raw and the kitten were switched to that (more on that tomorrow). It will obviously be short term since they will need to go back to the shelter good at some point but for right now it is more important to get food to stick IN their systems instead of run through it. And seriously....could we figure this out soon??? The kitts want out and spend a lot of time yelling about it.

And....Nasa, Hubble and Corona (you know, it occurred to mom over the weekend that she could also have been a member of the beer kittens - MOL) got a bath shower on Sunday morning. It is about trying to keep their poor buns clean. Mom has been using bleach in the bathroom for the last few days and did remark that there seemed to be "less" of a mess on the floor this morning. So hopefully we are making progress.

 "so not funny foster-mom-lady"

Sputnik and Orbit - trying to get away from the wet

(they aren't messy so they managed to avoid the shower)

She also thought their symptoms were familiar...so she did some searching online and it may be Giardia. Which won't show up on a standard test. In the effort of - better safe than sorry - mom is giving the kitts a dose of panacur that will cover that as well.

And....another Saturday, another slobbery dog in the car. :)  Ruger had been adopted and was on his way home. What a super sweet boy. Once he got in the back seat, he kept doing the little kid "I'm not sleeping" thing. Mom thought at one point she would find a big fuzzy pile of goo sleeping in the back seat. His new family emailed the group when he got home last night and said he was running around the backyard playing with his new boy.

New friends on Sunday.....

Look who mom met at the rescue adoption center:

dad cat - think his name is Tut

check out those froot bats

and the wrinkles

mom cat and two of the boys

Yep - those are Sphynxes.... Yep - they came into the rescue. Mom and Dad came in together and a few days later....boy kittens. As far as we know, the kittens all have homes and they are still working on homes for mom and dad. One of the kittens has been adopted by a vet from the local university.
**as the story goes a lady was "breeding" but got out and gave mom and dad to an elderly neighbor. The neighbors grandson knew the cats needed to be somewhere else and called the rescue.

Saturday update.....

First THANK YOU for the comments....we so appreciate the love, tears, support and even outrage for mom. She is still hurting some, but knowing that you all are out there makes a difference.

Now, for the morning update: the roller coaster continues. Rocket and Sputnik were at the vet starting on Thursday. The operations director (a different lady from Thursday) called last night. Friday morning Rocket had a seizure and crossed the Bridge too, joining his sisters and mom. That is 3 kittens from this litter and NO ONE seems to have a clue what is going on.....  mom asked and the lady seemed not to have an answer.

The good news is that Sputnik is doing well and mom is leaving in about 30 minutes to go get him and bring him home. Of course, he has always been the largest of the kittens, so he probably had a better store of energy for whatever got him.

The four that are here: Orbit (now nicknamed the Marshmallow - she is kind of round, but seriously... who would eat a gray fuzzy marshmallow - mom is just weird) is doing great. Other than being down when the calici first hit, she has been great. Eating like a champ, never got the runs (knock on wood), playing like mad.

Nasa, Hubble and Corona still have the runs something terrible. Their poor butts are kinda raw. When the operations director called yesterday, she made it clear how important it is to keep them clean and the ointment on them (duh). But, all eating like mad and running around like crazy.

Here is what is baffling: they were treated for coccidia. They eat like they have never seen food and will never again..... and yet they have the runs (which may also explain why they seem constantly hungry). The shelter is running some tests (supposedly) not no one has any answers. If anyone out there has ANY ideas....we are open to suggestions. For now they are being fed often and confined to the bathroom only!! Mom is hopeful that maybe she will learn something when she picks up Sputnik (if she does, we will update later).

Random Fridays....

Random Friday this week is interrupted for some other news and mom is having a minor ranting moment....

As you all know, we lost Gemini this past Sunday.

Mom noticed on the shelter website on Tuesday morning that Rapunzel, their momma, was off the website - which normally means the cat has been adopted. So mom emailed the cat advocate asking if Rapunzel was adopted and when they next wanted to see the kittens.

Mom got an email back: Rapunzel wasn't adopted. Everything was fine Monday morning but when the advocate when back to check on everyone in the early afternoon, Rapunzel was curled up on a chair and had passed away. Not a mark on her and nothing around that would give any indication what happened. The shelter is running some tests, but as of right now, we have no idea what happened.

Run free beautiful girl

In the email, she said they wanted to see all the kittens back on Thursday when the vet was at the shelter to see what might be going on. Mom got a call from the shelter director Thursday afternoon. Aurora (one of the tabby girls) was pretty sick (the vet said pneumonia and a collapsed lung though heaven knows she was acting ok Thursday morning) and they euthanized her. Rocket (our black and white boy) and Sputnik (the black male) are being hospitalized overnight to get some supportive care. Rocket has been a hot mess and Sputnik was eating off and on and had the runs this morning.... The hope is to be able to get them back tomorrow. Please be thinking of all of them.

 Hubble, Orbit, Sputnik, Corona, Nasa, Rocket and Aurora

And mom - she has a case of the sads and the angries (see below).

~~~~~~~~~~
Mom here with a rant. I will admit up front, in an effort of full disclosure, that the shelter director is NOT my favorite person. She comes across a little false to me and I have had more than one run in with her where she "claims" someone has said things about me but can never back them up - but I am the one that gets the black mark.

In her conversation with me about the kittens (and at least she called me this time...as the story goes, she was supposed to contact me on Monday about Rapunzel and never did ), she mentioned that she only talks to me when it is bad news. This would partly be because I really don't have much to do with her and she isn't around during volunteer shifts anyhow. On top of the fact that I don't call for every stupid little thing with fosters as I know some families do. I can deal with the weird.

But then she said the following: "you seem to have some bad luck and maybe we can sit down sometime and go over some procedures and cleaning steps so this doesn't keep happening."

EXCUSE ME????  This is MY freakin' fault?????

She doesn't know about my fostering for the rescue....there is some animosity between the groups (don't get me started) and it just isn't worth the drama. But.....I don't have these problems with their kittens. Don't get me wrong, not every kitten that goes through here is a miracle healthy-no-issues kitten (though it does happen - the beer kittens were great). That is the nature of rescue - take in strays and ferals and everything else and you aren't going to get perfect litters of kittens.

But to make it sound like somehow I am doing something wrong.....oh hell no. I didn't say anything, but give me a break. No - the three messiest kittens didn't get a bath before going over this morning. Screw that though.....  I honestly think I am done fostering for this group - I don't know if forever, but certainly for now. Let her take it however she wants to - I really don't care. I know they are short foster families. I know they don't have many that will take momma cats with tiny kittens. And I know they don't have many that will take sick or snotty kittens. But to throw this back at me????  Unfair..... very unfair.

As for the logical questions: why would they give them back to me then? cause they are short handed and need the help. why would I take them back? because despite how I may feel about the people, I love those kittens and want to see them better and ready to head to their forever homes.

Thankful Thursday

We know some of you have seen this and even posted about it....but we wanted to add our two cents.

As we all know, FIP is an evil cat disease....with no cure. Now the Morris Animal Foundation and Cornell's Feline Health Center think they may be getting close to finding the genetics behind it that may lead to a test and treatment.

But here is what most of you don't know.....we had our own scary run in with FIP.

Ivy came to us as a foster with her mom and her sisters. Everyone was adopted and Ivy became a permanent member of our crew. At about 6 months old Ivy developed a hernia at her spay site and the humane society (where mom's was volunteering at the time and where Ivy had been adopted from) agreed to fix it. THAT is a whole other story....for giggles (and to embarass Ivy), we will tell it another time.

However, shortly after Ivy had her surgery, mom got an email from the family that adopted one of her sisters (Iris). It seems over Easter weekend of that year, Iris got very sick....and then she crossed the Bridge. Her family was very upset and concerned and asked their vet to run some tests to see what had happened. The vet came back and said he was fairly sure Iris died from FIP. 

Mom assured them that she was VERY upset and VERY concerned and so VERY sorry. She contact the humane society and the assistant manager and the vet both contacted the family to answer their questions. The mom emailed our mom later (the first email was from the dad) and expressed her thanks for the input and the help and that she hoped mom wasn't upset by her husband....that he was just sad about the kitten. And we certainly understand that.

As for Ivy, the good part about her hernia surgery was this....the vet got a good look at Ivy's insides (say it with us "ewwwww") and assured mom that Ivy had no symptoms of FIP.

So....we couldn't be happier that vets are headed in the right direction to end this.

To celebrate, an Ivy movie:

**we know there is a break in the action about half way - but hang on...there is an appearance by Miller and then check out the size of the tail on the princess  MOL!!!

wordless Wednesday...

ah yes....everybody love them some Tim

The blogosphere is going PINK today in remembrance of Skeezix

Tabby Tuesday.....

Well, Miller and Stella are still here. Stella should be big enough to be spayed....mom just has to remember to call. Then there needs to be a space at Petco. She also has to get them up on Petfinder (yep - slacking off, that's our mom).

Miller (sitting up) and Stella

you can see the difference in their stripes here

Miller is more ticked (his fur not his temperment)

Stella has bolder stripes

Stella toes

They are having a good time running around the house and being nutty. When mom leaves baby jail up and the door open, they will wander by and check out the space kittens but apparently don't find them too interesting.

10am update: Stella is being spayed today - she weighs in at about 2.5 pounds. And...mom managed to remember to send their info in to get them up on Petfinder. :)