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.