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!