It's Caturday!

I'm back from vacation and less than 24 hours later, there's a call for kitten fosters. A man was going to work and found a litter of kittens in his garage, with no mother to be seen! The kittens are about 3 weeks old and were so flea-infested they would have died in a matter of days :( So they bathed them and now we're taking care of them!

There are 5 of them, the three you see in the photo are the boys, and there's a tabby and tortie girl. They're still little enough that they need to be fed with a bottle, but they're learning how to eat and use the litter box. They're really friendly and sweet!

Happy 4th & belated Caturday!

My dad and baby Panini

Happy Independence Day to my American readers! Caturday is late because I'm on vacation, but I figured today was as good as any day to post, because it's also Panini's 1st birthday!

I don't know exactly when she was born because her birth is oddly cloaked in mystery - like where she came from, what happened to her mother, etc. We took her and Truffles at the last minute, when their current foster family was going away, and no one at the shelter seemed to know where they came from. We got them in the first week of August around my birthday (best birthday present ever!), and they were about 4 weeks old. So that makes her born some time this week, and I chose the 4th as her birthday to make it easy to remember.

She's a year old now, and she's just as sweet as ever. Her only problem is she still thinks she's teeny, and wants to sit on shoulders like she always has, except everyone's shoulders have gotten smaller!

My brother and the now fully-grown Panini

Have a safe and happy long weekend!

It's Caturday!

Wow, it's been a busy week! I have backlogs of ideas for posts but I haven't gotten around to writing them! So here's a late Caturday. We got this Rebecca Bonbon dog sling at the mall for Panini - it's the Panini Pocket! She always wants to be held, and sometimes it's annoying when you need your hands for something. So the Panini Pocket makes carrying Panini hands-free! She still prefers being perched on your shoulder, but she loves hanging out in the bag too, silly kitty. How many cats do you know who would do this??

It's Caturday!

And it's the last weekend of spring! It felt like summer today already. The kitties are all enjoying the warm weather and catnip plants out on the deck!

It's Caturday!

It's been an insanely busy week - hence the lack of posting. All I want to do is curl up like my tabby duo here and sleep all day! Have a good weekend!

It's Caturday!

I'm totally unprepared for Caturday! It's been a little hectic around here lately. The kittens reached 8 weeks old, so they went to the shelter on Wednesday :( I'll miss the little guys. But I heard the two boys got adopted the very next day! I haven't heard about the other two, but I'm sure they won't stay long, if they haven't been snatched up already.

I feel bad for poor mommy Willow, who has to stay caged until her milk dries up and she can be spayed - which might take a while. Apparently she was very sad without her kittens and was meowing all day :( Too bad we couldn't keep her here in the meantime!

It's Caturday!

Posting late in the day because Blogger was giving me some error message earlier today. Hmm. Enjoy your long weekend!

It's Caturday!

And after a long week of nothing but rain, I'm excited for a sunny (or at least partly sunny) weekend! The kittens are now 7 weeks old and are so playful and active. Panini's even getting in on the fun and wrestling with them!

It's Caturday!

And all is well in kitty land! Have a nice weekend!

It's Caturday!

And it's been a rough week for kitties :( Cordelia was scheduled for surgery on Monday morning. Thankfully, it looked like the medicine had kicked in, and the abscess wasn't bad enough to warrant surgery anymore. She still needed to be brought in for daily checkups to have the area checked and cleaned. At the last visit, the vet was on the fence - she might need surgery after all. I'm going to bring her back next Monday to see if it's gotten better over the weekend - if not, surgery is in order, so keep your fingers crossed that she's improved!

Over the weekend we noticed Panini acting strange - panicking, hiding, crying out when she was touched. We brought her in to the vet when we went to get Cordelia on Monday. It turns out that due to a fight with Willow, she had a very swollen bite wound on the base of her tail! She needed to have the area shaved and cleaned, got a shot of antibiotics and another rabies shot (although she is up-to-date on her shots, they want to give a booster whenever something like that happens). She was sent home with painkillers that made her into a cracked-out junkie! She's feeling better now.

But the next day, baby Giles wasn't feeling good. I came home from work to find him face down on the floor and panting, so I scooped him up and brought him to the vet with Cordelia. I didn't realize how serious it was until they swept him into the back room and about 30 minutes had passed until I heard anything. He had severe pneumonia, which is untreatable in kittens with a low chance of survival. He was suffering, even in an oxygen tank, and the vet said the disease would probably kill him even if he struggled to hang on a few more days :(

So the humane option was putting him to sleep. I was heartbroken - poor little guy, he was so strong and healthy up until then! Kittens are so fragile, their health can take a drastic turn in such a short time. I miss his little striped face every day :(

Here's to hoping next week is a better one!

It's Caturday!

The kittens are now 4 weeks old and are getting so big! This little guy is the most advanced of the group, and has moved on to eating solid foods. Here he's eating kitten milk replacement out of a spoon, but he's also been getting into his mother's food bowl!

Unfortunately though, one of the little kittens, Cordelia, has developed an infected abscess on her backside. We took her to get it checked on on Thursday, and the doctor opened it up (eww!) and gave her some meds, but we took her again today to get her checked, and it's gotten worse. She needs to get it surgically removed on Monday. No idea why the poor little thing has it to begin with, but I hope she can recover with no serious problems ;(

It's Caturday!

The kittens are three weeks old now! Their ears are up, they can stand and walk around, and they are suuuuper cute!

Have a great weekend, and a happy Easter if you celebrate!

It's Caturday!

This past Thursday was The Fluff's birthday, she's now 2 years old! I rarely know my cats' birthdays because they're rescues, but Fluffy's birthday was listed on her adoption papers so I make a point of remembering it!

And Willow's babies are now 2 weeks old! They're growing at an alarming rate - all their eyes are open, they can stand and stumble around, and some are even purring! According to kitten growth and development sites, they already passed 3 week old milestones before they turned 2 weeks!

This week is spring break for me so I get lots of kitty love! Have a great weekend (and week if you're off too!)

It's Caturday!

It's Caturday and the babies are now one week old! They're getting bigger by the day and some started to open their eyes yesterday! Super cute!

Have a great weekend!

It's Caturday!

And we have KITTENS! Willow gave birth yesterday while everyone was at work, what a surprise when we came home! As you can see, there are 3 little gray ones like her (although I'm not sure if they're all gray tabbies, one might be solid!), a patched dilute calico, and the little black-on-white baby!

They are so cute and Willow's such a good mommy! Kitty love! <3

It's Caturday!

Meet Willow, our new foster kitty! See her giant belly? It's full of kittens! Everyone thought she was going to pop immediately, but it's been a week since we got her and no kittens yet! She's a real sweetheart and loves to be petted, brushed and have her belly rubbed. The Feral Care guys who caught her said she was a stray who roamed the neighborhood - I think she's too happy being in her first real home to want to share the attention with her kittens!

It's Caturday!

It's a very exciting Caturday today! I just got word from the shelter I volunteer at that there are a few litters in need of fosters. We're getting a rescued pregnant momma cat who's going give birth in the next few days!

Last year in February during the Winter Olympics, we took on a momma cat with 4 newborn babies. We named the mom Yuki (Japanese for snow, since she arrived during a snowstorm) and the babies after Olympians competing - Bode, Shaun, Apolo, and Lindsay. They were only 3 days old when we got them, so we got to witness kitten development and raise them with love. They were adopted almost immediately after they were old enough to go to the shelter, Bode (the one with the nose stripe above) was adopted by my best friend and is a big healthy boy who just turned 1 year old!

Then in August of last year, we got 4-week old Truffles and Panini. They were mommy-less, their brother had died a few weeks prior, and they required a lot of special care. Panini was a sickly kitten and for a while we thought we'd lose her. We ended up adopting little Panini after returning them to the shelter because we loved her so much! Now she's strong and healthy (albeit a little tiny for her age) and Truffles, also adopted by a shelter volunteer, we hear is doing great too.

It's so exciting to have kittens again! As of now, I don't know what the mother cat looks like (we're getting her tonight around 6) or how many babies there will be, so it's going to be fun! We get to name them too, so I have to start thinking of good baby names! My family is particularly notorious for having crappy cat names.. like Ace (from "First Kitty") and Deuce ("Second Kitty", naturally) or Fluffy (most stereotypical boring cat name ever?) or Little Dude... just because we can't all decide on one name!

It's Caturday!

This lovely little girl is one of the older kittens at PAWS, the animal shelter I volunteer at. She's such a sweetie and sat in my lap and purrrred while I brushed her long silky fur. Her littermates have all been adopted - I can't imagine why she hasn't been yet!

It's Caturday!

I'm a big fan of the Cheezburger Network, especially I Can Has Cheezburger and all their many lolcats. I submit photos of my cats to the Lolcat Builder once in a while, and a few years ago, one of my photos was captioned and made it to the main page. It's since been featured in their "How to Take Over Teh Wurld" book, and most recently, made into greeting cards! I received samples of the greeting cards in the mail this week - they are, of course, a "congrats on your wedding"-type card. They're great quality and so cute! I'm flattered and overjoyed that a silly little photo of mine has made it so far!

The cat in the picture is Little Dude, my grandma's old cat who we took care of for a while. He's unfortunately no longer with us, but now he lives on in Cheezburger merchandise!

It's Caturday!

 

My grandma was sick so she spent the last week at our house, along with her kitty Mei Ling. She's an adorable little tuxedo who was nervous when faced with a house full of cats, but she quickly made herself at home and was playing with all the others. She's such a cutie!

Have a great weekend!