Richard Arrives

It was starting to look like we'd be cat-free for Thanksgiving, but nope! Richard came to visit us for the next week and a half.

He's a big cat at 12 lbs, and he's simply large, not round. He's 5 years old, has a cold, and has conjunctivitis in both eyes. This means he has crusting around his eyes and gets goop in his eyes along with the dual meds for the URI.

We also may have some behavioral work to do with him. He came out of his crate straight under the bed and stayed there for a couple hours until we pulled him out. He calmed down as he held him, but if either of us stood up or moved he was back under the bed.

It's now been about 10 hours since we brought him home. He is out from under the bed and in fact sits at the door and howls if we aren't in the cat room. When we come to the door he still skitters backwards and is very nervous as long as we are standing up. The sofa seems to be a "safe place", though, and he happily takes petting there and will head-bump you very solidly. If someone appears at the door or walks in he still hunkers down and debates fleeing. He is calmer if we are sitting, either on the sofa or the floor.

We'll see if he just needs time to adjust to a new place, to new people, or if we need to actively work with him about his being a scaredy cat. We'll have guests over Thanksgiving, so we'll get to see how he does with new people and how long it takes him to warm up to new people.

The first picture I took when he was hiding behind the sofa. The second he was out and about. I think he used to be fed off a saucer, though--I carry the medicine into the cat room on a saucer and he charged over and jumped up trying to see what was on it. Very unexpected given his other behavior, but hopeful.

I think the medicine was a letdown from what he wanted, but he took his meds in a very civilized manner.

The morning routine

I wanted to share with you the "routine" in the mornings for Fauna & Tiffany. Evenings are similar. These two are more involved than most, because of the steam treatment and hot water bottle.

Get up. Open the door to the cat room, pat the kittens on the head.

Put Fauna in her crate, Jon takes her into the bathroom and sets her on the counter while he showers. The steam helps her to breath better.

Meanwhile, Kat gets out the laser pointer and runs Tiffany around until she's looking tired. Kittens are fun to play with--they haven't yet figured out the idea of watching and waiting, they just chase. We are worried about running Fauna too hard while she's having trouble breathing so we give Tiffany a good workout while Fauna's not there, and keep play a bit calmer the rest of the day.

After Tiffany is tired, Kat gets a hot water bottle into the bathroom. She takes Fauna out of her crate and holds her with the hot water bottle against her spay surgery incision.

Ten minutes later Kat puts Fauna back in her crate and leaves her in the still steamy bathroom for a bit more steam treatment. She preps the medicine for the two kittens--who get different dosages. (I'm guessing because they have different weights, but I don't know for sure).

Tiffany gets her meds. She runs off in a corner and sulks.

Fauna is brought back to the cat room, gets her meds. She also runs off and sulks.

As a reward for putting up with the meds (if only because they aren't given a choice) the two get wet food. (Ok, actually it's because they are sick kittens, and Fauna at least probably can't smell the dry food. It does get them out of their sulking.) Dry food and water are also refilled/refreshed.

Tiffany eats. We're a bit concerned about Fauna who seems to have problems lowering her head. We're going to try setting the food up on a box closer to head height this evening.

Jon cleans the litter box, and the kittens morning routine is finished.

Tiny Tiffany and Fauna Arrive

We had expected to take a couple weeks off from fostering. I had been planning some general foster information posts, but those will have to wait. The shelter had quite a few felines all come up with URIs at once and not enough foster space, so we agreed to take this pair for the week.

They are 6 month old kittens. At that age they are still behaving like kittens but are starting to grow into looking like adult cats.

Tiny Tiffany, who is almost all black but for a few stray white hairs on her chest, is basically healthy. She's being treated and watched because her littermate/cage mate has a bad URI so chances are she does too, just not showing symptoms yet. She is very exploratory, heading out of the crate quickly, onto the futon and soon after up to the top bunk to peer down at us.

Fauna, also basically black but with some tan mottling on the lower chin, is having a rough time. She has a very bad URI, bad enough she's often breathing through her mouth and sounds like she's snoring when she tries to use her nose. On top of that her spay site is swollen and her eyes have discharge. She is a sad little kitten. She came out of the crate, looked around, the curled up in a little ball on the futon. She climbed on Kat's lap when she sat nearby, but in general is just looking pathetically out at us.

We will be monitoring Fauna closely. If she doesn't show clear improvement in the next two days she'll have to go back to the society for more treatment.

Barring that, these kittens will be with us until Sunday.

(While we were at the shelter we said "hi" to Josie. She was glad to see us, but would love it if someone would come take her out of her crate and cuddle her.)

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 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.

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.