Josie Remains

We took Josie back to CCHS for her checkup. Usually after a 7-10 days a URI cat will be healthy and stay to be put up for adoption. As we expected, Josie is an exception and wasn't quite ready. Her lungs were still sounding off to the examiner, and that combined with her still sounding flemmy off and on while here meant the society decided to leave her in foster for another week to be sure she was healthy. This is both for her sake--she will recover faster the lower stress situation of a foster home--and for the sake of keeping the rest of the cats at the shelter from catching the cold!

While there, she had her ears cleaned. One of them especially had waxy buildup, the other wasn't so bad. She was not impressed with the procedure, but her ears look much better now!

She's gained a little weight--from just under to just over 12lbs. It was decided to leave her at the same amount of food anyway since she's still sick and it's more important to let her fight that off than slim her down right now. The extra weight on her joints (one of the reasons for concern of overweight pets) is lower priority than the cold. We'll continue trying to get her to exercise, but she is a very sweet lap cat, not a playing cat.

So, long story short--there will be more Josie pictures and reports for the next week!

Josie video

Here's Josie. It isn't the most action-packed video, but it's a sweet cat being herself--a lap cat. The mic on my camera isn't good enough to pick up her quiet purring but she was for most of the video.

She's starting to run away when I come in with the medicine--usually a sign of improvement! (and intelligence, since she doesn't run away when I'm not carrying it).

The antibiotic is still being hard on her system. Because she's had the runs so bad from the meds we've started checking her frequently for dehydration--basically picking up a bit of skin and seeing if it returns to normal quickly. I am pleased to report she's fine, but we will continue to monitor her.

She's still fighting congestion on and off, which surprises me. We'll see on Wed, but I think there is a chance she'll come back home with us for a few more days.

Josie's Favorite Spot

Being home during the day we've discovered where she hides all day.

We have a scratching post that sits atop a hollow column. The bottom has a single entrance hole. Josie curls herself up inside and naps during the day. It's adorable.

If we throw the toy mouse she'll chase it and play with it for a bit. No interest in any other toy we've tried, so I guess she's a one-toy cat. She's eating more. She's still eating less than her allowance but since she's getting healthier and more active we need to start watching to make sure we don't feed her too much. She's as talkative as ever and still loves to sit in laps.

Josie's eventful day

Thursday was an eventful day on the foster front.

Partway through the day Josie had diarrhea so we had to grab a sample and take it over to the society for analysis. It is probably just because of the antibiotics--not a common side effect in our experience, but not unheard of either. Worth checking, not worth being too worried about. She seems otherwise fine. Still has episodes of being snotty, but definately fewer of them.

We then had a group of folks over in the evening and Josie got lots of attention. She was oh so happy to have so many people willing to pet her. She wasn't sure what to do when people were sitting far apart from each other--she'd stay by one person then wander off and meow at another.

We even had her chase a toy mouse. Not very long but it's the first interest she's shown in any toy.

The end of the evening was my discovering I'd left the antibiotics on the counter after her morning dose. It is supposed to be refrigerated. So Jon went by this morning to pick up some replacement. Unfortunate, but at least there wasn't too much in the bottle. He can go say 'hi' to Tinkerbell while he's there--the only foster of ours still at the shelter.

Josie update

Josie is very friendly. She's also skittish, especially about loud noises. If she's in my lap (which, if I am sitting she probably is) and I sneeze, she runs.

We were hoping to get her to play some, to help with the being overweight. We haven't found a toy yet which interests here--string, laser pointer, toy mouse, balls with bells--the most reaction has been a single paw bat at the mouse. She does run away after I give her her medicine, but not very far and she's easy to tempt back.

All is not lost, though. She's the most active lap cat I've seen. She wants to be in your lap. Except she rarely sits still when she's there. She waves her head around and arches and walks in a circle and so forth. So apparently the way to make the cat move is to sit down and pet her. Strange, but works!

Her cold is getting better. She's still congested, but is starting to sound clearer.

She purrs very easily. I'll try to grab a video over the next couple days of her lap antics and her purr. Tomorrow we have guests so she'll be introduced to quite a few people.Until then, here's a couple cute cat pictures.

Josie Arrives

Josie is a sweet black and white short haired cat with a cold. She should be a small cat, and in build she is--she's significantly smaller framed than Sealy Booth and she has tiny little paws. She's also heavier than he was giving her a roundish shape. So in addition to giving her the URI meds we also have to measure her food so she doesn't eat too much.

They caught the URI early so she is only mildly congested, so she shouldn't need wet food. Given one goal is to help her lose weight this is good. We picked her up right after they realized she was sick so Josie will be here for the full round of medicine--the next 10-14 days.

She's a little cautious. She does throw caution to the wind if there is a lap available. She's also a talker--we can hear her meowing down the hallway if we aren't in the cat room paying attention to her.

Sealy goes home, Josie arrives!

We took Sealy Booth back to the shelter today. He passed his exam with flying colors and we found out some good news--he's already been adopted. Apparently him becoming healthy was all that was between him and his forever home.

While there, we found out they had just had another cat diagnosed with a URI and wanted to send her into foster. So we picked Josie up and brought her home. We had to leave her in the crate long enough to vacuum and she had no bowls for a little bit while we cleaned them, but she's now settled into the cat room. More info and pictures tomorrow--Sealy gets the picture today.

Face pets, please..

This is a picture I had given up every getting. We've had that pipe-cleaning-looking-device for over a year and a half now and the entirety of the interaction cats have had with it is: ignore, bite, or (in the case of one kitten somehow) stand on top of.

Sealy knew what it was for immediately. If we aren't petting his face or running the laser pointer he's often rubbing his face on it. Hooray! It's nice to see something finally work.

We've had a lot of guests the last few days and Sealy has gotten attention from a variety of different adults. I am pleased to report he likes all of them. This is a very sweet cat.

No more wet food

Sealy marked another step in being healthy yesterday. We stopped giving him wet food.

When a cat is congested it doesn't smell as well. Being unable to smell food can result in a cat not eating, so for the very congested cats we give them some wet food to make sure they eat.

In Sealy's case, it turned out to be an unfounded fear. Even when he sounded like he was breathing underwater his appetite for dry food was just fine. Not that he didn't appreciate the wet food--especially since I gave it to him right after the nasty tasting medicine--but he probably didn't need it.

We finished off the opened can, but since he was both getting better and having no issues eating, we stopped the wet food. There is no reason to give him all the extra calories or spend the extra money on wet food when the cat does not need it.

Sealy goes back to the shelter on Sunday for a checkup. I expect him to stay since he seems to be healthy again. Look for one more post (and I will have a picture for it) then.

Sometimes, improvement is clear

Most cats we foster with URIs are about the same through the entire time in behavior. Most are also mild URIs.

Others are more dramatic as medicine and time do their magic. Sealy had a nasty cold when he came, and it's quite clear he's feeling better. He's stopped sounding like he's breathing water when he purrs. He's found his energy. He runs about. He wants to play. It's a lot harder to tire him out with the laser pointer. He's ready to go again much sooner.

He's still very friendly and will sit and cuddle, but play time has had to be added into the mix as well. He's also started vocalizing more. His meows are still quiet, but they are more frequent.

It's nice to have clear feedback that he's feeling better.

Laser pointer fun

Sealy has adjusted well to his surroundings. He lurks near the door perking up if we come by--we might come in and pay attention to him!

He's not so happy about being put in his carrying box once a day to sit on the counter while we shower. The steam helps clear his congestion and he does sound better at the end--his mournful meows go from stuffed up to clear by the end of the shower.

We discovered he is a cat who likes laser pointers. He wasn't very interested in string, but the laser pointer dot--that's worth chasing!

Sealy Booth arrives

Yesterday afternoon we picked up a large black cat named Sealy Booth. He has what the vet calls an Upper Respiratory Infection (or URI) and what the rest of us call a cold. A pretty bad one, too; he sneezes and is very flemmy. URIs involve two types of medicine twice a day for at least a week--one of them cats universally agree tastes horrible!

This is an incredibly friendly cat. Most cats when we open the crate on arrival wander about. Some come out quickly, some cautiously. Some explore rapidly, some carefully, some hide under the futon for a while. Sealy looked around perfunctorily....then started head butting our hands until we pet him.

Welcome!

Welcome to our foster blog! We foster adult cats and kittens from the Champaign County Humane Society. We've had just shy of 40 felines (1-8 at a time) sharing our house for anywhere from a week to seven. We tend to have adults with URIs (aka, colds), moms with kittens, or kittens old enough to be away from mom.

We started this blog for several reasons. pupsispups.blogspot.com, run by another CCHS foster, has proven to be very popular and there was a desire for a one from the cat side of things. We also wanted to give people a window into what's involved with fostering and introduce some of the wonderful animals at CCHS to a wider world. We also hope it will help our fosters go to their forever homes as fast as possible!

Please enjoy! If there is anything you want to see or know, drop us a comment or email. The email is the name of the blog (no spaces) @gmail.com.