Meet and Greet - Junior

Mom thought she would take time this week to talk about each of us for those who are new to the blog.

Junior was a rescue as mom started doing TNR in our neighborhood with another lady. Junior was about 3 months old when he was trapped.

He is now pretty much our house feral - he is good with the other cats (mostly - he does like to stalk Ivy a little bit) but not so people friendly.

Meet and Greet - Allie

Mom thought she would take time this week to talk about each of us for those who are new to the blog.

Allie is our feral cat. She had kittens in a neighbor's patio and mom finally caught the kittens and Allie. She was spayed then spent a few weeks crated with her kittens in our house until the kittens were able to care for themselves.

Mom released Allie and she now has food and shelter in our garage and hangs out nearby most of the time. 

Meet and Greet - Ivy

Mom thought she would take time this week to talk about each of us for those who are new to the blog.

Mom was actually a volunteer with a different group when she fostered Ivy, her 4 sisters and her mom.

And now she is all grown up and the princess of the family.

Random Fridays

That Mother Nature needs a drink (or to lay off the alcohol...take your pick). It got very cold here again and was snowing. Nothing like the east coast though (thank cod).

We hope you have a nice relaxing weekend. We are sure going to try. 

flirty

Chanel keeps mom laughing. Chanel sprawls out and will relax in some seemingly strange positions....but she sure seems comfortable. 

Wordless Wednesday (mostly)

is she STILL in there??

excuse me sir

Junior just recently rediscovered the hammock we have. Not really sure why it falls out of favor sometimes....maybe it needs a relocation plan.

Anyhow, he spent some time in it on Saturday and of course someone else found this to be fascinating. Though to be honest, the most fascinating part was his tail hanging over the side and twitching around.

almost got it

excuse me kid - are you touching ME?

yep - just a little closer

Fortunately for Junior, Chanel tends to have a short attention span. Daiquiri walked by and stepped on a toy in passing. The bell rang and Chanel was off to check it out. 

bird tv

We live in a condo with 4 units - 2 townhouses back to back, a ranch at one end and then us in the "carriage house" over all four garages.  This means that we have windows across the one side of the house and the rain soffets run across our roof line. Despite having complained, we have birds that like to nest in the one corner. And it drives everyone here NUTS!! We can sometimes here them against the one wall....and they fly back and forth all the time.

 

Yes, her back feet are on a rung on the cat ladder

and her front feet are on the windowsill

If Junior sees them or hears them, he goes nuts. Well Saturday morning they were in full flight and Chanel caught sight of them. Up the ladder she ran and proceeded to climb through the ladder to perch half on the window and chatter at the birds.

See this happens and you no longer wonder why mom is going grey.... hahaha

Spud

9/12/08 to 2/26/18

For those unfamiliar with his back story, we got a call from one a neighbor of mom's parents that she had found a kitten in a box and was unable to care for it. Mom had Ivy and her sister and mom cat at the time for the local humane society, so she took the kitten right away to be tested (negative - YAY) and when they asked for a name, she looked at the tiny ball of long brown fuzz and said Spud - which stuck. He was raised with Ivy and her sisters and the original plan was for him to go back to the humane society with them, but that didn't end up happening and he stayed.

He was sort of friendly as a kitten, but still fearful. His fear level only increased when Junior was added to the family. And it got worse over the last years to the point where mom was unable to catch him to do anything.

Over the last several months, his health has declined. He was losing weight and having other issues. Since he can't be caught to be medicated, mom knew something had to be done but put it off know that things probably weren't good medically and she would have to make some tough decisions.

He got gradually worse over the last 2 weeks and it became apparent to mom that she needed to "adult" up and make some decisions. She gave him some meds to help calm him (and help her catch him) and then dropped him off at the vet. While the vet couldn't give her any definitive answers, she did say that while they could treats symptoms, it may not be a fix. Mom has struggled with this for a while and knew that bringing him home and trying to treat him would just be more stressful for him.

With many tears and a broken heart and wishes that things could have somehow been different, she decided to let him go peacefully.

Love you Spud - may you find peace

Chanel's ride

After letting the stroller sit in the living room for a while, mom took it and Chanel out for a ride on Sunday. She wants to make the outings short and fun for now. You can read the article about the purchase on Cats Going Places too. (there is video over there as well)

Mom moved her from the carrier in the car to the stroller and then zipped it shut. Since Chanel had never been actually shut in there before, she was a little surprised by the screen coming down. MOL

Once inside though, mom unzipped the top and moved it back so Chanel could see out better. There are two straps attached to the bottom of the stroller but mom left Chanel's leash on just in case. She acted like she was going to try to get out once, but mom settled her back inside and she was fine. They took a walk around a local pet store and Chanel did very well.

The only time Chanel really look startled was on the way back to the car. Mom stopped to get her out of the stroller and into her carrier and a breeze picked up. Chanel looked around and her ears flattened back but nothing beyond that.

Mom is learning though - when they got back in the car, she gave Chanel a couple of treats in her carrier. That may start to backfire though as some kitten had a few demands when the treats were gone. 

spy cat

Spy cat likes the tree - good for relaxing and spying on the neighbors.

WHAT??

She does love sitting on that thing. We have had people ask and while we got it from Wayfair, mom hasn't seen it since. It really is like a ladder with feet on the bottom and it is uses tension rods at the ceiling.

The main problem is that some certain tuxedo kitten likes to dash up and down it....and doesn't always stick the landings. Mom looked up the other day and Chanel was sitting on the very top platform (which is probably just over 6 feet from the floor), with her head completely sideways, watching the ceiling fan go around.  

weekend report

Pretty quiet weekend here....well except mom got a new cat mobile. :)

 We kept it clean.

The scratcher is a hit. Daiquiri loves it too, but Chanel has decided that it is a nice space to snooze as well.

Random Fridays

Remember when we posted about the Art of Paws heated bed we got??

Well, now you can get one at a discount for yourself. They are offering 15% your TOTAL order (not just the mat) using code: randomfelines  This is good for the first 20 customers for their US site and their UK site (40 people total). Mom is considering getting another one for the foster room. We don't think Ivy is giving up this one any time soon.
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Nothing too much exciting going on here this weekend that we know of. Mom said something about cleaning out her car and doing stuff around here. 

chick-hen canned foodibles

 we received this product at no cost in return for our honest review. receiving the product does not influence our opinions. all opinions expressed are our own.

This month from Chewy.com we are reviewing I and Love and You canned food in chicken, turkey and cod (12 pack - 4 cans per flavor). Mom broke out a chicken flavor for us to try. The foods are all grain free and made in the USA. All three do have cranberries, spinach and carrots though, so keep that in mind.

samples all laid out

it attracts the crowd

It gets 4 paws up. For whatever reason Ivy rarely shows up for canned food trials. Maybe due to the way mom puts it out or whatever. She will eat canned though so we suspect it might be the company she would have to keep in the living room. MOL

Mom does say that next time she will break it up a little more with a fork. She split the can into four segments to fit the tray and it stayed in pretty big chunks. Both Spud and Chanel seemed to put some work into the nomming, so it must be pretty dense in texture.

All in all, those who agreed to participate liked the offering and were asking for seconds!!

stroller wars

Wait? I thought that was MY stroller. 

What is Daiquiri doing in it?

A little help here mom?

OK fine....I'm going in.

Daiquiri thought she could make it her own private fort. Chanel had other ideas. When Chanel decides she wants something that someone else already has, she plays very passive about it - just get up and get close and wait for the other cat to change their mind. In this case it didn't quite work - Daiquiri whapped Chanel in the head a couple of time and Chanel decided she had better places to be. But hey - at least we know 2 cats will fit in there. 

Love Your Pet Day

Are you celebrating??

Ivy

Daiquiri

Allie

Spud

Junior

Chanel

(OK - we know that isn't a current picture, but we couldn't resist)

weekend report

Well it snowed on Saturday, so mom ran errands and then stayed home. She did take Chanel out on Sunday and some kitten had a temper tantrum when it was time to leave and she wasn't done playing on the cat trees. She is so goofy.
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Mom wanted to put the lid back on the Sleepypod but wasn't sure how that would go over. She spent a few minutes looking for a way to keep the top open but there are no loops or anything so she just left it unzipped.

It took a couple of days (as is becoming our new normal). However, as mom was working on the computer she looked over to see a black and white kitten climbing in (and of course mom couldn't get her hands on the camera). Yes....that white spot is a back foot.  MOL

Yep - she is comfy in there. Mom has also seen Daiquiri in there, so for now the top is staying on to get everyone used to it being that way.
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Some great news: Fish was adopted on Friday (she was one of Panache's kittens). Mom actually thought she had been adopted but as the new database was updated, she realized Fish was still around. Due to her age she was out in the open adoption area and mom hadn't seen her. Her new family has 2 other house panthers as well, so she is in good company. Mom sent some baby pictures and Fish's new mom emailed back that she was fitting right in and relaxed. No news on a name change or not.

Random Fridays

Still too early for kitten season here. However, if you need a fix, visit some of our friends on facebook: Fellmeth's Fosters who have a tortie mom with 2 orange kitten boys and Cathy's Foster Kitties who is currently raising a tiny bottle baby.
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No really hot plans for the weekend. It is supposed to be nice on Sunday....so maybe open windows? If not then, the computer said it could get up to 60 degrees on Monday so hopefully mom will open one a little before she leaves for work.
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It was nice here on Thursday too and as mom was leaving for work, she saw Allie pouncing on this bush. No idea what was in there, but it does make mom smile to see Allie out and about. 

well, we did it

Well, it happened. If you follow Cats Going Places (and you should), you would have seen the article mom wrote about to get a stroller or not.

After much thinking and crowd sourcing, she decided to go ahead and do it. The biggest factor for her was safety - she wants some way to continue to take Chanel out in public but keep her safe.

After much deliberation, mom sucked it up and ordered one. It arrived and mom put the wheels on and it was ready to go.

For now it is sitting up in the living room where some weird tuxedo kitten can get used to it. As you can see, she has been checking it out at her own pace.

No - not THIS cat. Daiquiri wouldn't go out in that thing for all the cat treats in the world. However, she does like to jump up there and snooze. She was the first to check it out.

Finally a certain kitten managed to get up there on her own. Mom put her in it a couple of times but she would immediately jump back out. The first time she found a box and climbed in, the second time she actually jumped up into it herself.

Mom is still doing mental gymnastics about using it, but is hoping to get it out for a test run this weekend. It does fold down, but not as flat as mom was hoping for. It has a basket underneath for Chanel's "stuff" and the top zips closed as well. You can see at Chanel's feet that there are straps that will clip to her harness too.

Mom will say the only thing funnier than HER hang up about this is the reaction she got from her friend Miss Kelly. She was all "you DID NOT!!" and mom laughed since Miss Kelly used to take her dog Bailey to daycare on a regular basis. Mom said once the weather gets nice she is going to force Miss Kelly to meet her and Chanel for coffee.   MOL

wordless Wednesday