I Am Forgiven

I hate speuter day. To me it feels like the first act of betrayal to some otherwise joyful kittens. All this time while they have been happily living a carefree life, "Trust me" I tell them. "I am your friend". Then I put them into a box and take them to the vet for a difficult and scary day. Yes, I know it's in their best interest. But it still makes for a scary day and harms the trust I worked so hard to build with them.

Happily everyone has been spayed or neutered and I am forgiven. Two of the girl kittens like to be pet! One of the boys is beginning to like pets. Two of the boys I can pet when they are eating canned food. And one, I can pet while eating canned food, but he's on auto-hiss. And their mom... if I plan it right I was able to pet her a bit while she was eating canned food before the spay. Now she is once again letting me be near her without her being nervous.



I am forgiven ..... as long as I keep the can food comin'

She Plays!

It was only for a moment or two but I was thrilled to watch Honei play. Last year I brought Honei home from the local Animal Services/Control. When I first saw her she was working the window trying to get any one's attention. Being a senior cat I didn't think anyone else would rescue her from there.

She seemed to feel okay but she did drool a bit so I took her to see the vet. She looked to be in good health except for one abscessed tooth. So I made an appointment to have it extracted. A bit after that Honei has an urgent problem with a heart murmur and congested heart failure. Later she had ringworm, then some diarrhea. When that balanced out, she was clearly uncomfortable eating. Two teeth that were hitting the gum of the tooth she had removed were causing her a lot of discomfort so out they came. More diarrhea... Then she had an urinary tract infection. then more diarrhea. The latest problem is Pancreatitis. After a few months of Honei feeling good the diarrhea returned, her pancreatitis flared up. So now after investing $4,000+ towards Honei's health, it does my heart good to see her playing.

Honei likes to keep me on my toes, although I wish she would stop coming up with various health issues. The vet bills are cutting into the kitty food fund doncha know. I'm just glad she is feeling well and hope she does for a long time.

Oh My gosh, Go Figure!

So I moved one of the hissy kittens into a large cage which is in a room of three cats that like me. Because two of those cats are on a diet I don't free feed them. Because I caught one of those two poking her paws through the cage to get to hissy kitty's food, I decided to start feeding him only when I am in the room too. They say that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.... well it can work for kittens too. Only a few feedings into my new program and he is starting to purr when he sees me. This afternoon he starting purring, jumped onto the shelf where he gets his can food, and even offered me a soft meow. All without any hissing! Yay! But would the magic continue during another feeding? Well... yes, this evening he purred, jumped up to his bowl, and paused to sniff my hand. Again, no hissing! Unfortunately the spell was broken when I cleaned his litterbox. But we ended the day on a good note.

Feeling giddy, I went into the next room where his brother is. Also in a large cage but across the room from two of his siblings (in a 3rd large cage) and his mom who is loose in the room. This boy has some back up. Earlier when I came into the room I noticed that this kitten, Rudie, had spilled his dry food onto the floor so I decided to try my new "think of food when you see me" program. Rudie isn't as much of a fan of can food as his siblings. I tried a couple of rounds of using can food but he wasn't as impressed as his brother. So I decided to try just feeding him dry food while I am in the room. What Rudie does like is the feathered wand that I have gone back to using to pet him. I try to stay focused on using it only to pet him. He tries to stay focused on watching the bird as it moves about him. But..... but he has purred a couple of times while I am petting him with the feathers. It does settle down his hissing, and his fear a bit. Yay! Progress! I just might have to kick out some money for their neuters rather then using the free clip & snip feral neuters. I can live with that.

Movin' along

Well the socializing continues. One kitten purrs when she sees me, when she is being pet - she loves having her chin rubbed by the way - and she purrs when she sees the can food. She plops down and starts to knead. What a love!

Her brother that's with her is doing well too. He hides at first but then he comes out to say hello. He purrs after I pet him for a bit. Has to get over the first impulse of being timid. They both love to play with the bird on a string. What fun!

The remaining four siblings.... well.... two are beginning to trust me... a little. Two of them have stopped hissing for the most part. The rule with them is they get pet if they hiss. Also I pet them while they are eating can food. I can pick them up and hold them for a short time and I can pet them. They aren't sure about it, but I can do it. Soon I will move them in the same room as the kittens above. Hopefully they will follow their siblings and be better about trusting me. If not, I can move them back into the large cage they are currently in, or there is a cage in the room I plan to move them into.

Now the last two boys.... I get rejected by them on a daily basis. Hiss, hiss, hiss! I separated them and moved one into another room. He's in a large cage and his room-mates that are outside of the cage all like me. They hear him hiss and give him a look of "What's your problem? What are you hissing about?" He is getting better. Another brother is in a large cage that I moved to the opposite side of the original room they were in. He can see his two siblings and their mother is still in the room. But times will be a changin' because the person that will be taking care of mom is now ready for her to return to her yard. Just have to catch mom early on spay day. And soon the two kittens will go upstairs and this poor boy will have no support in his hissing. I haven't given up on these two boys although I have threatened to have them clipped and snipped and throw them back into the wilds.

Interesting enough, the two boys are better when I am wearing gardening gloves. I guess they disassociate me from my hands when gloved.

The plan was to get the first two ready for adoption. Then work more with the next two, then as they are ready work with the last remaining kittens. Problem is that adoptions are so slow that it looks like they will be almost full grown by the time they get adopted. Plenty of time for me to bond with them I guess!

What Was I Thinking?

Two weeks ago I took in a feral/stray mom and her six kittens. I didn't really have room for them, you understand, but they had no where else to go. And they needed to be trapped before the babies became labeled "unadoptable" and more kittens came along.

The kittens are about ten weeks old. Two of them are in my bathroom. Mom is downstairs in a good sized room. In the same room are two good sized cages with two kittens in each, side by side. I needed to be able to work with socializing the kittens. I'm still getting a rejecting hiss most every day, but they are hissing less and less. Plus it's only a few that are still hissing. A few are actually starting to purr a bit. And yes, I know purring doesn't mean they are happy... it's more of a comforting thing. But a purr is nicer then a hiss.

Since they are at the magical weight of 2 lbs. I am feeling some pressure with socializing them. I have socialized a number of kittens before but the way I do it takes more time then I feel these babies can afford. Adoptions have slowed down and many people want kittens to be so tiny.

I never realized that a kitten could smirk before this month. I offer you proof although the smirk doesn't show as well in a photo as it does in person.



I think mom is actually a stray that went feral. She was growling at me when I had her and three of her babies in the small bathroom. Protecting her babies, of course. But otherwise she just watches me. I feel bad however because the only places she can hide in the room aren't much cover for her. I'll have to work on that.

Poor babies, it's just so hard to take all that hissing seriously when they are such cute balls of fur.

What to do about Lucie

Lucie has a wonderful personality. She's friendly to people, out going, and fiesty. She feels she is the self appointed boss of all other cats. While she gets along with easy-going confident cats, being around the shy, tense, and quiet cats have been her undoing. It was her unrelentless pursuit of another foster cat that has a heart murmur that prompted me into asking a friend for help in getting her adopted. Susan, the director of the Feline Rescue of Northern Nevada allowed me to have Lucie in her adoption clinic at the local Petsmart. Lucie got adopted a bit later, but as luck would have it she bothered the older cat in her new home too much. As an added extra I was told she had urinated on the bed. I was hoping that was a misunderstanding because Lucie seemed to be good about using the litter box when she was here. Although since I had one foster cat that freely painted the walls with the only fluid he had available to him at that time, some of the cats assumed that the litter box was just a suggested place to go. Fortunately, that busy Mr. Peebody is now happily behaving himself in his new home. And I could do a whole blog on what it took to get him there. But alas, shortly after Lucie's return I did some a few spots that she was the main suspect. However it was seeing her in action on an unmentionable place that caused her to be banned from the main area of the house. I have a basement, which the back side is above ground level and has nice windows. Lucie will be spending the remainder of her time with me there. Besides she, along with a cat that's boarding, need their weight managed anyway and it's easier to have them separated. But alas, poor Lucie is bored and frustrated. She wants, needs, and deserves more attention than I can give her while she's separated.

So the question is, what to do about Lucie. Find her a loving home, of course. But what kind of home? One with other cats? She can get along with other cats but that's dependant on their personality, so maybe not. An indoor home? Since I have a fence that keeps the cats in, Lucie has been able to go outside. And she loves it. But she also likes being inside. Could she behave herself by using the litter box if she was in a totally indoor home? So maybe not a totally indoor home. Or would she behave herself if she were the only cat? What about a barn for a home? That would solve the litter box avoidance problem, but Lucie does love affection. Then there's the problem of figuring out if Lucie would continue her inconsistent improper elimination behavior if she were the only cat in a home where she was safe to be outside but mostly lived inside. I can give her, her own room but she'd still know there were other cats around, plus she would be frustrated by not getting enough attention.

So Lucie.... could ya, would ya be a good girl? (good as in my definition of good, not yours silly girl)

Just Call Me A Sanctuary And Be Done With It

I am truly blessed. I rent a good sized house from my parents that has a yard that I fenced in to keep the cats in. While my dad isn't excited about my fostering and rescuing cats my mother has been encouraging. That is until the cats started to go outside in the yard a bit more and my dad realized I have more then just a few. Then he must grumble to my mom about it. Fortunately I live in the county where I can have more then seven critters as long as I can take care of them. I practically direct deposit my check to my veterinarian and the two stores where I get the cats and dogs food know me by name. So hopefully I have that requirement covered.

Six months ago I made the mistake of volunteering at the local Animal Services. A mistake because I just could not walk down the hallway where the cats are without letting a few cats catch my eye as I walked by. Pleading me to bail them out of kitty jail. The local Animal Services is in a shared building with the local Humane society. Although the Humane Society is very good at rescuing the animals from Animal Services for adoption, I noticed three cats that I thought they might not pick up. One was about two and a half months old. A brownish tabby boy that was on the feral side. By the way he was acting in his cubicle I didn't think he was feral. Another was approximately thirteen years old, a calico female. And the third was approximately ten months old, another brown tabby. This girl was friendly, but since she was about ten months old and not ten weeks old I wasn't sure of her fate. You see, the year before I rescued thirteen cats/kittens at the urging of Animal Services. Most of them came straight out of the euthanasia room. So I wanted the benefit of the doubt to tip towards saving this kitten too.

As with the prior group of thirteen cats, it's on the way home that I think.. "okay, now how am I going to house them all?" But in this case I did have a room ready and I thought, "No problem, the two kittens will be adopted lickity split." shortly after they arrived I took photos and then videos. I made posters and put them on my Petfinder account. Then I waited.... and waited... Almost three months later the youngest kitten was adopted. The older kitten has had some interest in her, but she's been here long enough that she doesn't present herself well when someone comes over. She's a lap junkie with me, but I don't tend to have much company come over. And the thirteen year old is in cahoots with the vet to help him lessen my bank account. Wow, this was a real eye opener. Remember I mentioned the local Humane Society is good about taking in the animals at the local Animal Services.... they are also very good about getting them adopted out into loving homes. So good that adopters for the small rescues are getting to be far and few in between. Explain that to my dad. A friend of mine once told me that if you want to have more then one animal be it cat or dog, be sure they are the same coloring so the neighbors think they are looking at the same cat. Works with fathers too until both cats are standing next to each other.

I have three cats that are boarding with me and three cats that I'd like to get adopted. Two more that I'd love to find a foster for. And other then that, I'm good. Just call my happy home a sanctuary.