Hiatus

I hope someone has noticed this ceased being updated. I'm afraid that's likely to stay the situation for a while.

Jon & Kat now have a new baby. The end of pregnancy was a bit rough (not horrible, but Kat wasn't comfortable sitting at the keyboard, which is why this wasn't posted then) and now we're trying to learn this entire parenting thing. It would be easier if a full night's sleep was an option.

We do expect to go back to fostering, but we aren't sure how quickly. It will probably be at least a couple months and then on a limited basis--preferences for adult cats with URIs rather than large litters of tiny kittens!

Thank you to everyone who has been reading our attempt at blogging, and when we do start taking cats in again I will post again. Until then we'll stop by the humane society and socialize cats from time to time--I encourage you to do the same.

I leave you with a picture from a little bit ago. Kittens thought it was great that Kat was pregnant--they fit on her belly and it was nice and warm!

Bieber & Binx

Two little kittens moved into the cat room. The black & white one is Bieber, the all black is Binx. I'm not sure where their names came from, but they are funny and seem to match the kittens.

They like people and in the morning acted as if they'd NEVER had any attention, falling over themselves to get to us. Which isn't really a figure of speech--they aren't the most graceful kittens we've seen, especially for being 3 months. They seem to realize this, and haven't tried any acrobatic stunts or fancy climbing (yet).

Thy were up for adoption for a little while, but Binx was barely picking at his food and lost enough weight they decided to send him into foster care. Bieber came along for the ride--it does make our lives much easier if the young kitten has another young kitten to play with. The shelter is so full of kittens right now that it was probably easier to send the entire cage worth anyway. (If you want to see a kitten in a hammock you should stop by the shelter. One of the cages in the hallway has a hammock and often ferrets, but right now there are kittens and one was hanging out in the hammock when we picked these two up).

Their appetite has dramatically improved--at least "picking" is not how I'd describe what they do to wet food, especially when they then howl at me for more. We've seen them eating dry food as well. So hopefully they'll be fat and happy kittens again soon.

Mountains for adoptions

Everest and Kea are back at the society. They, and the rest of their litter, are up for adoption now. We wondered if they were part of a larger litter and after spotting the rest of the mountain-based names on the society's adoption page, the question was answered. Kea's picture was hard to snap since she isn't fond of being held. She likes people and is fine being near them on the futon, but doesn't like being picked up. Jon had to sit down instead of holding her up, and then she finally looked at the camera...before jumping off to go play. Kittens!

We did have some good news--all the last litter of kittens have been adopted. Yay! So the only foster of ours left (other than these two who just went up) is Josie. A sweet cat, but she does nip, unfortunately.

If you are thinking about adopting a cat or kitten, the society currently has LOTS to pick from. Stop by!

Personalities

Kittens are doing well. Everest is over 1000 grams and Kea is over 900. I expect they'll be fine for going back on Sunday, though I'm hoping she has some good gains to put her well over 2lbs by then.

Their personalities are very distinct. Everest is well described as a bold kitten. He explores, he runs up and howls for attention, he checks out any new item on the floor to see if it can be used as a toy and shows no fear.

Kea never quite seems to know exactly what is going on and is therefore usually hesitant. She touches new items from as far away as possible and gingerly. She watches new people coming in and considers. She is as likely to run away as towards you.

They do both enjoy play fighting with each other. It's their most common activity. Kea isn't hesitant about attacking her brother, but fortunately neither of them show any inclination to bite us.

Kea & Everest arrive!

Two new kittens have come to visit! Everest is the tabby and Kea is the half tabby, half white. Her coloration is fascinating.

They have a ways to go to grow into their names. They are supposedly 3 months old but are a bit under 2 lbs, so we are trying to fatten them up so they can be spayed and neutered.

They love to play with each other and are quite friendly after settling into the kitten room. We did notice a sore on the side of Kea's mouth and have mailed the humane society to ask about it. It doesn't seem to slow her down in eating or bother her at all.

They also both eat dry food. Hooray! We are giving them wet as well to encourage weight gain, but if they are eating dry on their own I don't have to mix the dry in with the wet.

That's about it for now. So far, they've just been cute, adorable, slightly small kittens.

Twilight of the Twilights

All kittens are back at CCHS and up for adoption. Looking at their available pages they apparently had several litters come back at once.


Jacob the exploratory and noisy.


Esme needs a lot of attention. She won't ask for it, but she was much calmer and a better kitten when she was getting lots of attention both with a toy and from people.

Edward the kitten who loves to sniff toes and people.

Bella who is simply adorably fluffy. Not the brightest of the kittens, but has excellent balance and usually near the middle of what's going on.

Alice who is very sweet, but I'd avoid putting her in a high stress house. She has more problems with stress than the other kittens do.

Busy weekend

It's been a tiring weekend for the kittens. A friend of ours was visiting and elected to sleep in the cat room. They thought it was great--both overnight and the futon being down with a pillow on it during the day! He also ran them a lot, so they spent a lot of the time sleeping when they had the chance!

He's much more up for being kitten furniture than we are. He couldn't quite get a third one on his back without starting a scuffle, though--which since we hadn't clipped their claws in a while got them summarily back on the floor!

We did clip their claws again. They put up with it, but it is definitely a two person job. Their climbing our jeans was much more comfortable afterwards. It doesn't seem to slow them down at all for running or jumping, but it does cut back a little bit on the scratching and is much more comfortable for the humans.

Today we picked peas before the rain, and set the empty pea pods in the kitten room. Jon's parent's cat loves to chew on pea pods. The kittens didn't do that, but Edward did pull them one by one out, and Alice managed to dump a bunch at once--then they all had new toys to bat around.

They're all well over 2lbs at this point. They'll be heading back tomorrow morning to the shelter and we expect them to stay. An adorable litter!

Kitten adventure!

The kittens had an adventure. We put the kitten-sized harness on them and hooked up a leash, then took them for a walk around our living room. Since they'd been trying to escape down there anyway we thought we'd let them explore in a more controlled manner.

There was much fun and the kittens took to the harness fairly well. With kittens we do have to keep the leash behind their head or they think it's a string to attack! Jacob was a bit unsure of the entire thing, but the harness is a little small for him--he's a lanky cat which not all harnesses take into account.

We didn't take them outside for multiple reasons. We didn't carefully fit the harness to each cat so were not confident they couldn't get out of it. We (and CCHS) firmly believe cats are indoor pets and should not be roaming around outside unsupervised. Since we don't know if their new homes will want to take the cat out on a leash, we don't introduce them to the outdoors other than through a window.

If you do want your cat outside at times, it IS possible to train most cats to a leash. Then they can go outside safely and without bothering the rest of the neighborhood. Most of the dangers to a cat outside are eliminated when you are around--you aren't going to let them eat a dead bird or run in front of that car. They also won't eat the songbirds your neighbor has worked hard to attract to their yard. A friend also just moved into a house where there was a large cage in the back with climbing trees and sunning space for their cats, and a cat-door from inside to get to it. I've never seen one before, but the cats probably loved it!

Anyway, look, kitten on a leash!

Out! Out! Out! say the kittens...

Kittens are doing well. They are running amok, but did take a few minutes out to snuggle with Jon. A couple of them are over 2 lbs and the rest are very close. They have consistently been gaining weight for the last few days. They are still basically refusing to eat dry food out of the bowl, but they eat what I mix in with the wet--at this point I'm mixing in about the same amount of dry as there is wet. I have started a second water bowl also because they are drinking it so fast.

They decided the kitten room is old hat and they want something new. Trying to bring food in yesterday I had to chase 6 kittens down the hall (yes, we only have 5.) So far this morning there have been 2 escapees. I put the baby gate up, which usually slows them down enough we can get in and out....one only got partway away after that. The next few days are going to be interesting!

Unfortunately, their litter box problems haven't cleared up. We're running 3 little boxes--which might be low for 5 cats but for 5 kittens it's at least one over. Since they all have to be cleaned every day this is taking a lot more time than normal. Until they get their problems worked out, though, they make such a mess of the box they need all 3 to be comfortable going overnight. Poor Esme is really having a rough time of it.

Sometimes kittens just have diarrhea for no apparent reason. It eventually goes away. For everyone involved's sake, we hope that happens soon.

Twilight litter

Well, I've mentioned them and talked about them, but here they are one by one. They are doing better--they have started an upward trend in weight gain even if it's not as consistent as I'd like. They are still making an utter mess of the litter box, unfortunately. We have an antibiotic to give them. The lab says sometimes the biology of the gut gets out of whack, but otherwise they're running out of ideas other than time to fix it. Since they seem to be overall going up in weight it isn't as large a concern as it was. We still need to get them actually healthy, but they are growing again.


Bella: Long haired gray. Very much a fluffball.


Jacob: Shorted haired black. Very active, very vocal.



Esme: Short haired tabby. Has been lethargic recently. Likes to lay atop things.




Alice: Long haired tabby. She was one of the hissers when we first got them but has turned into a very sweet kitten.

Edward: Long haired black. Loves people.

Twilight saga

It's been an exciting weekend for the kittens. We took them in on Saturday afternoon for treatment for the most common cause of diarrhea. Their weight loss had slowed by Sunday but not stopped and the litter box was getting worse. The fecal sample also came back negative, but we made an appointment for Tuesday morning since the problem was clearly still going on.

Monday just confirmed they still had something wrong. The diarrhea started showing blood as well (kittens are cute...a lot of caring for them isn't!). I fed them extra food in the afternoon, which is why some of them didn't lose a lot of weight that evening since they were still trying to digest it. That night we did spot something moving in the litter box--ah-ha, worms of some type.

Some types of worms they'd already had the first treatment for, since it's done automatically. The second half of the treatment isn't due until tomorrow. We were supposed to take them in on Thursday, but since we were in this morning we have the doses sitting on the counter and will give them ourselves. They hadn't been treated for tapeworms because they'd shown no sign of fleas. However, tapeworms are notorious for not showing up in fecal samples, and fit the symptoms. So, they got shots for those today.

The CCHS's lab's opinion is they've been treated for about all the parasites that would be causing the problem, so hopefully the next couple days the kittens will recover. They'll be happier and so will we--healthy kittens cause less of a icky mess of the room, though they do tend to knock stuff around more.

On the bright side, all the kittens like people and run over to say "hi" to anyone who comes in their room. They didn't mind the nearly 1 year old that hung out for a while either. They all like climbing on people, most don't mind being picked up. We're still working on Alice and Esme to be calmer about being held; they put up with it but we'd like them to be more relaxed and calm. They are making good progress!

Kittens of the Twilight

We took a break from helping set up the CCHS garage sale (Going on today! Bag sale at 3:00. So much stuff!) a couple days ago to go pick up kittens. Posting about them had to wait until the setup was done!

Here are Edward, Jacob, Bella, Alice, and Esme. We have them because they were under 2lbs and were hissy at the society.

They were very skittish when we got them and stayed that way most of the first day. I think the spots on the carpet were scaring Esme at one point. While it took until the next day, they did finally relax in the kitten room and are now running about like mad kitties chasing balls.

I think the hissiness was merely because the humane society was a very new location with lots of strange things and beings and they were in a cage. Since they've relaxed and taken ownership of the room they've mobbed every person that has come in to visit and are purring easier and easier.

We'll probably be back at the society shortly, though--they are losing weight and have diarrhea. The latter causes the former and isn't uncommon among kittens, but we'll pick up some meds to fix it so they can go back to getting bigger!

(Bella is demonstrating what kittens think the self-petter is for. That and chewing on... I picked that up at the Garage Sale a year or so ago. This year's new toy is a bag of mice and another tree-like scratcher that I'll show a kitten atop soon. There are still plenty of cat toys left, both big and small, if you need one!)

CCHS Giant Garage sale - Donations now, sale next weekend

No fosters right now--it's been a slow spring. I'm hoping this means more people are spaying & neutering their animals. As much as I enjoy fostering kittens, this would be a good thing!

However, today I wanted to talk about the upcoming Champaign County Humane Society Giant Garage Sale next weekend. It's held at Kessler Hall in the fairgrounds north of Carle in Urbana.

Donations are accepted this weekend (Saturday, May 22: 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Sunday, May 23: noon – 3 p.m. No drop-offs will be accepted after 3 p.m. Sunday, May 23. Please see: http://www.cuhumane.org/events/gs/index.html for what is and is not wanted.)

The sale is Memorial Day weekend (Friday, May 28 - 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., $2 donation until 3pm. Saturday, May 29- 8 a.m. to 6 p.m, $3 bag sale starts at 3pm).

This sale really deserves the title Giant. It FILLS Kessler Hall and spills out into the surrounding grassy area. The days between drop offs and the sale are needed to get everything organized and priced. If you want it, there's a good chance you can find it!

Volunteers are welcome. Help unload cars this weekend, sort books by genres, price housewares (put out priced housewares), sort donations into the proper areas, cleaning check people out, etc. This is the largest single need for volunteers the shelter has during the year. It's also just a lot of fun.

Take a look at the pictures from last year to get a feel for the variety of items available then come on out!

Pictures from last year: http://www.cuhumane.org/events/gs/GS2009/index.html
More info on the sale (including maps & volunteering): http://www.cuhumane.org/events/gs/index.html

Kittens Available

The four kittens are back at the society and up for adoption. They are easily large enough for spaying/neutering which will happen shortly then they just need their forever home.

I leave you with a picture of Lily, who found a nice warm place to curl up while Jon was sitting at the computer. She was purring away until she dozed off.

Busy days with many people

After having half a dozen people or so come in on Saturday to play with them, the kittens were quite tired. So was one of our friends who usually works night shift, but got up early (for him) to come see a guest from out of town. He laid down to take a nap and three of the kittens joined him.

The kittens have behaved basically the same with all of the guests--Chester climbs all over said guest (including trying to go up the inside of a pants leg at one point), Jamal purrs very loudly, Lily wanders over to say 'hi' by squeaking, and Jackson watches from a little ways away.

We even had a slightly under a year baby come see the kittens. The kittens were not quite sure what to do with the baby, staying a couple feet away and watching this new introduction intently. Chester eventually sniffed the baby's feet and the others decided the baby wasn't that interesting and went back to chasing balls around the room. The baby does have a happy noise that resembles a hiss, and Jackson was not pleased when she happied at him (he hissed while backing up--we picked him up and pet him for a bit and put him back down and there were no more problems). The other kittens just cocked their head at the strange noise. If you have a young child, Chester is probably the best choice. If you have a baby/toddler, I'd strongly suggest a CAT instead of a kitten. For children, the oranges should be fine, and Jackson would be fine with a quieter child.

Om-nom-nom

Kittens are gaining weight nicely. They are all over 2lbs. Our usual goal is over 1000 grams (2.2lbs) since they often loose a little when they go back to the society and we don't want them dropping below 2lbs. 1000 is also a nice round number to aim for, since we actually measure their weight in grams and not pounds.

Three of this litter are there handily, and Lily probably is since now--she was 996 last night before we put out wet food.

They are not picky eaters. They eat any of the wet food I put out and I'm having to watch the dry food bowl carefully since they keep eating it empty. Lily especially seems to eat a lot of dry--which is probably why she's gaining faster than the rest, she just started smaller.

They share the wet food nicely with each other; to argue about it would require stopping eating!

Recovery = energy

The kittens are recovering nicely. They have adjusted to the room and the meds are working as they have a lot of spunk and energy (when they aren't sleeping). They're also eating better--the first night they didn't eat much wet food when I put it out but now they are demolishing the plate and also eating quite a bit of dry food. Their weights have started going up rapidly; barring any unexpected issues, they will be back at the society this weekend ready for spay/neuter and adoption.

They got a lot of outside air this weekend. We didn't take them out, and in fact had the window in the kitten room closed most the time to help keep it warm. However, for most of the weekend we had no front door. We made sure the kitten area was well secure--one getting loose in the house is bad enough, we had visions of them loose in the yard! Fortunately, no escapees and we have a new door installed.

	Lily: The only female. She mews sadly until you sit where she can climb on you. She just finished drinking when we picked her up for the picture. She's the smallest by a little bit.
	Jackson: The easy to tell apart kitten. He's the only kitten who isn't thrilled by people. He isn't afraid of us, but he doesn't seem interested in interacting either. We're working on convincing him people are good things and he should come say hi when they come in the room. He does like to chase his own tail and caught a spider the other day.
	Chester is the lightest (by a little bit) coloring of the kittens. He's also the most rambunctious and hasn't seen a tail he didn't want to chase. He's getting a lot of lessons from his littermates in bite inhibition when they howl after he grabs their tail. He just loves to play.
	Jamal is a cuddler. His eyes are looking better after a few days on medication and he joins the rest of the litter in racing about crazily. He likes people, and his purr is impressively loud.

KITTENS!

I didn't realize it had been over a month since we posted. That's because it's been over a month since we had a foster. While it makes the blog a bit slow, it's a good thing overall since it means CCHS hasn't had too many sick cats.

However, it's kitten season, and so it was just a matter of time.It's been a long time since we've had little kittens so we were pleased to get the mail. They came into the society very recently at 8 weeks old--old enough to be adoptable, but a couple were a bit under the 2lbs needed for spay/neutering so they are in foster for a week or so to bulk them up.

That's what we knew yesterday afternoon--we thought we were just getting four kittens with the normal dietary supplement med who just needed some time. Their full exam this morning turned up other problems--one kitten has an eye infection, they all have congestion and diarrhea. So we're home with 3 bottles of liquid and one cream. I'm not surprised they are congested--picking them up they don't feel like they've been cleaning themselves, which we see a lot with stuffy cats.

Jackson is the black and white kitten with Jamal who has the eye problem. The pair of oranges are Lily (the only female) and Chester. We took the collar off Jackson since we can easily ID him and he was scratching at it a lot. The orange kittens will keep their collars until (if) we can spot coloring differences that are easy to spot.

While they've spent most of the day asleep we do know somethings about them already. Lily is adventuresome and has no fear. She was first out of the crate and went exploring and is already studying the door. The others seem a bit more reserved, but they all like people--at least I had them all trying to sleep on me at one point and when they were meowing at Jon for attention whenever they woke up.

Chili!

So even for me this has been remiss in posting. Chili went back to the shelter on Saturday, and stayed. I didn't get a farewell picture, partially because we expected him to come back with us for another couple days.

His cold cleared up quickly. His eye got better then plateaued. Wed morning we discovered he'd eaten the extra-long tail off a toy mouse. Well, the tail was half the length it was, and we never did find the string, so we assume he ate it. Between the two, we figured he'd stick around.

However, since he was showing no signs of distress in the litter box from the string, and his URI was cleared up, they decided to keep him at the shelter. They were going to change treatments for his eye to try and clear the last bit up. Since that's a lot less contagious across cages than a URI they decided to keep him at the shelter. I notice he's up for adoption today. Hooray!

Chili is a lap cat. He loves people, but may be a bit shy at first in a new area. After he adjusts to his surroundings he loves all people whether he's met them before or not. We had a network technician out (another reason my posts have been limited--we *think* it's fixed now, but we'll see) and several friends over and he was thrilled.

If you sit down, he's likely to crawl in your lap. Yes, he's a 9 month kitten. He's still a lap cat who PURRs. If he isn't purring give him any attention and he will be. He purrs and purrs and purrs and purrs. It's rather impressive. He does enjoy playing and does tear around the room from time to time, but mainly--he's the boneless cat from Charlie Brown. Lays on the floor hoping you'll pick him up so he doesn't have to actually get up to get in your lap!

Adorably sweet and cuddly kitten--now available!

Meet Chili!

Meet Chili! He's a 9 month old kitten with a cold. His sneezes are most impressive! He also has some goop in his eyes--the solution to which is medical goop in his eyes.

Surprisingly, he's still quite soft. Usually cats with colds end up with dirty fur, but he's really nice to pet.

He came out of the crate shortly after we came home yesterday evening, walked around the room once, then went back in his crate for the next few hours, just staring at us from in it. We ate dinner then coaxed him out. He promptly started purring and was very friendly and affectionate.

He's a self-started, in that he's been playing with toys on his own. He doesn't seem to have the energy to do so very long and is sleeping most of the time. We'll see how he changes a he gets healthy!

Bethany available

Bethany went back to the shelter yesterday. She's up above her 2 lb weight so she can be safely spayed soon. She's available for adoption and is one of the few small kittens right now (though I'm sure more will be coming--spring approaches).

She is not a very cuddly kitten; she prefers to play. She will, however, curl up and sleep with you when she's tired. She dearly loves toys on the end of strings, but do not let her have them without supervision. She also likes balls. Oh, and she is absolutely fascinated watching video games. She can track the human figures running around on screen.

A very sweet kitten, looking for her forever home! Stop by and say hello!

Bethany's toys

Bethany loves toys. She especially loves them if there is a human on the other end. She's learning to enjoy being pet, but she'd really rather play. Her favorite toy is a small stuffed bird with a bell on the end of a bungee string attached to a stick. She'll play with balls and boxes and boxes with stuff in them and Mr. Dot, but she loves that bird.

The bird is also an excellent example of a toy that is good for supervised play only . When we get tired of swinging it around we set it up to hang off a table so she can keep playing with it. Yesterday Jon heard her noise change to a repetitive mewling he hadn't heard from her before. Turning around he discovered she had somehow wrapped the string around her belly, then around her neck....then the stretchy string retracted and she was suspended mostly off the ground. Fortunately the loop around her belly was taking the weight.

He quickly unwound her and she's fine, but if he hadn't been around that could have been unpleasant. It's an excellent toy--I highly suggest whoever adopts her get a toy with a bell on a string--but it's a toy to be played with with humans around only. Leave her the balls for solo play.

Bethany arrives!

It's been a while since we had any little kittens. Usually they come in groups, but Bethany is all by herself. She is 2 months and was 2 lbs (the magic age/weight at which kittens can be spayed and go up for adoption) but she started loosing weight when she was separated from her mother. So we have her to plump her back up again.

She was treated for fleas before we got her and it seems to have worked, as we've seen no fleas. We also found ringworms in her fecal sample, but since incoming cats are treated for them as a matter of course and the ones we found were dead, she didn't have to go back for treatment. Which we were glad of because the snow is quite deep!

We were told she was "lonely" and that's a good description. She howls if we're not in the room and it's very pathetic. She doesn't demand all our attention if we're with her--she will play on her own and go exploring--but she gets quite upset about being alone. She has a huge range of vocalizations as well. Every time we come in she seems to have a new one. She isn't the most intelligent kitten we've had, but she's lots of fun.

She'll be with us probably until Sunday, assuming she regains her weight.

The first evening she was here I was tired and took a nap on the sofa. She'd had a hard day and curled up and napped with me. It wasn't til the next day we were both awake enough for me to get an alert picture.

Dr. Stone farewell, Josie wants to say hello

We went out to the shelter on Friday evening for a farewell party for the shelter's vet. She will be missed. The shelter is taking applications for her replacement, so if you know someone looking for a vet position please send them to cuhumane.org. While there we walked around and played with the cats.

Josie is still there, to our surprise. She's just as sweet and funny as ever. We took her into the Getting Acquainted room to play with her and all she wanted to do was sit on my lap. Well, "sit" is maybe not the right term--she can't sit still when you pet her but shifts and walks in circles and rubs her face on your hand. She does look a little funny--she's a small cat with a small head but the rest of her is round. She's on a restricted diet because she's round, but she's a very cheerful sphere if someone is petting her.

This week (Feb 8th - 14th) the Society has tagged some animals with red hearts or red bandanna and those animals are half the normal adoption fee. I believe Josie has a heart on her cage, so go say hi!

Roscoe - Follow up, adopted!

It was pointed out to me I forgot to blog Roscoe! He actually went in a day early because of gunk in his ear, and since the URI was clear they kept him. The ear infection was easily treated there. So, we don't have the traditional final picture, but here are some others.

I see today on the web site he's been adopted. Hooray! Darth Vader was also adopted. Sweet Josie is still looking for her forever home, though.

Roscoe Arrives!

Meet Roscoe! He arrived late on Thursday. He does have brilliant blue eyes, but the Illini orange is due to the camera flash. He's 11lbs, very solidly built, but has hints of Siamese coloring. He's a nice cream color with the ears a little darker. Adorable face.

As most of our fosters, he has a cold. A nasty one. Thus, he was choking from time to time, very cuddly, and very energetic. I thought he was an older cat from his behavior, but he's actually only a year--the lethargy is almost certainly due to being sick. Much like humans when they aren't feeling well.

He likes being under things--he lays under the edge of the couch and under the desk. He's not hiding and he was happy coming out to see a variety of guests on Thursday not long after he came, but he seems to prefer something above his head.