Good news and bad news

The good news is we have adopted Hera.

The bad news is that with a self adoption ration of 2/3, we've decided to contribute to animal saving in a different way than fostering.

We are finding that we are getting too attached to them too quickly. Zeus is currently with another foster volunteer so we are now at 4 permanent cats.

Thanks everyone who enjoyed this blog. This will be the last post of the foreseeable future.

The Rufies worked

Hera has relaxed. They are now about 75% friends. One more day and she will think Zeus is apollo.

Slowly but surely

They are getting along better.
I just wish the stupid webcam wouldn't keep going down. I think the laptop I have running it might just be too old.

Off I go to reboot again.

Who knew?

Hera is quite the littke 4lb ball of wrath. Zeus keeps trying to play with her but she keeps growling/hissing at him. I felt bad enough for her to actually pull her out of the room.

Wore Zeus out with the laser pointer, going to put hera back in as soon as I find her again. Hopefully she'll lose that pair of sassypants she was wearing earlier.

New camera

Yay

Another picture

Missed this one, I think this is actually the best one I've taken of him.

Getting a new camera tonight!

Welcome Erwin (now Zeus)

So this baby boy was found wandering around a road and was rescued. He was obviously someones abandoned cat because he LOVES people. The minute he was let out of the carrier, he lept into Becca's lap and started nuzzling and purring.

After less than 12 hours he has already adjusted to his new home (tho the other cats have not yet adjusted to him). We can tell that he is just dying to play with some friends, but the others aren't ready yet. He has been hissed at quite a few times, but he has never hissed back.

Below are some pictures. Our camera is obviously dying and we need to get a new one before we post his face shot on the IAR website.

Another Kitten

Hopefully we will be getting another kitten shortly. We need a buddy for Hera. There is one up for grabs, but he needs to get Feline Leukemia / combo tested before we can take him.

I think we will name him Zeus, since he's going to be a companion for Hera.

Sorry for the lack of updates

We have been a bit busy lately. The reason the webcam is off is because the cats now have free reign of the house except while we are sleeping. Our plan was to get more kittens to foster now that we are down to 1, but we have not found any suitable groups.

-Nick

Kitten bed

Apparently word has gotten out that I am an excellent bed. I am in my "home office" right now. Dido is sleeping on my feet, and Hera is sleeping on my lap.




I



Can't



Move

I am the momma cat!

2.5 years later and 5 pounds heavier, dido has learned that she can still get scruff-swung by momma-cat (me)

Teaching cats from kitten age that human-momma-kitty is the boss is so important especially for when they get older and ornery.

Anyway, some nice people put in an adoption for two cats on the IAR site including Apollo. I feel kinda bad that we have adopted him, but thats ok. I hope they will consider Hera instead of Apollo. Either way we are on the prowl for more kittens to foster. Will post when I find some potentials.

So dido is better

Judging by the way she fought me this morning giving her her meds.

She is eating and definitely feeling better.

I think we are out of the woods at this point.

-----


Oh yes and its funny, someone put in an adoption application for Cicero and Apollo last night. It hasn't been reviewed yet so who knows if they will be accepted. We are filling out the paperwork and officially adopting apollo tonight. Phew! That was a close one.

Maybe they will take Hera and Cicero?

The food

It is eaten.

So she totally turned her nose up at the vet's special magical recovery food. Do I know my cat or do I know my cat. She did, however eat her normal wet food that we were able to pick up at the target. It is the only wet food she will eat.

Meow Mix Wholesome Goodness Tuna Grill

We are quite relieved.

Dido is sick

So dido has a nasty case of Tonsillitis / Laryngitis and we are treating with antibiotics and pain meds. Kitty morphine! We have an entire cat addition support group forming. Anyway, the story goes we noticed some (what we thought was) stomach acid throwup but it turns out that it was boogers. Thats right... boogers. Dido's upper respiratory infection (or another one that she found somewhere) came back from when she was a kitten. Last night at 10pm we had to take her to the Triangle Veterinary Emergency Clinic (TVEC) in Durham on 15-501 because she was having trouble breathing.

Now let me say something about this clinic.... they did a great job last night. If Dido didn't appear to be in that much distress, I would have gone to the 24 hour one in Cary, but last night they redeemed themselves. The vet was a very nice lady who seemed to genuinely care about Dido, and the assistant was very nice as well.

When Dido was a kitten (oh 3 years ago now) we had to take her in to the same place in the middle of the night due to her "I'm a shelter kitten we all have kitty colds" cold. Instead of reassuring us, the vet at the time was like "yeah shes not doing good, it might just be that she has a bad immune system, if thats the case shes going to die." Which is not what you say to a pair of exhausted people who are in tears (just becca, men never cry).

Not a great experience. The next day when we went to our normal vet which we love dearly and is the best vet I have ever been to : http://www.cathospitaldurhamch.com/
Dr. Kirch was like "She'll be fine, nothing to worry about. I don't know what they told you last night, but all kittens get colds so we're going to give her some antibiotics and a tiny bit of fever reducer and she'll be back on her feet in no time."

Our cat has a broken immune system? Some vet...
Anyway that guy is gone I'm sure, and the care/service was EXCELLENT at TVEC this time around. We went in the door reluctantly, but we left feeling confident and reassured.

So they gave us antibiotics and we got home at lik 1am and of course it took us a while to fall asleep.

My only complaint was that the vet woke me up at 7:30 AM for a follow up.
Vet: How is Dido, has she improved? We had a typo on your paperwork.
Me: UUUGHGHGHGHHHRRRRRAAAAHHHHRRRRR
Vet: Continuning to talk for some reason
Me: BRAAAAAIIINNNSSS..... (ya know cause I'm a total zombie)

Truth be told I don't remember the conversation that well...

Coco and the kittens are both healthy, but I think we are going to skip the adoption event this weekend just in case. Also going to delay our kitten procurement for additional fosters until Dido is 100% again.

-Nick

Athena and Apollo got adopted!

So Athena has a new home and a new big brother, Roger.
Lets wish her luck. I will do some followups as time goes by.

Apollo, also is getting adopted.... by us.

We can't bear to let him go to someone else we love him too much.

The only one left is Hera!



http://www.animalrescue.net/C-09-221

We will be getting 2 or 3 more kittens once we locate some that have been cleared from quarantine.

-Nick

The final kitten tree.

So our little baby athena is leaving us today for her forever home! I have to say that I will really miss her. She started out as a little fuzzy ball of monster and has turned into a little fuzzy love machine.




Good luck Athena!

Tabby Party!

It is my understanding that cats like windowsills

AMIRIGHT?

Media Update

Athena and Apollo cuddling on the downstairs tree.



More Cuddling



Hera and Coco



Kitteh love <3<3<3



Hera jumping at the string on the camera.



Apollo and Hera waking up after cuddling.

Update

The bath has ended! Media update tonight or tomorrow...

Awwww

COCO IS GIVING HERA A BATH RIGHT NOW

Bedcat

Hera has officially earned "betcat" status. Becca has been napping for about 90mins and Hera has been sleeping on her the whole time.

So Apollo and Hera are both total cuddlers. Athena has been VERY sweet the last few days as well. She tends to force-pet (throwing her body and face against your hand) more than cuddle. If shes in your lap you better be scritching her or she lets you know you're doing something wrong.

Hungry Kitty Time / Sleepy Hera

Pictures of cats doing what they do best. We tried a new kind of wet food (shrimp and oceanfish) which they absolutely love. When we first started fostering our case manager left us with a dozen or so cans of chicken flavored wet food. We thought they liked it.... well they love the seafood even more.





And here are a couple of hera in a post pain-reliever nap. If you look hard you can see the 7 tiny staples on her tummy. Watch out for terminator kitty!






-Nick

YAY

Its confirmed, Athena has an application! Now we just wait for the wheels of Bureaucracy to turn.

Fingers crossed.

-Nick

Back from the adoption event

Apollo and Athena met lots of new people at the event today, including some wonderful people who might want to give them forever homes. Hopefully we will get some adoption applications this time!

Hera is doing better and better. The swelling is down and she's EPSing (eating pooping sleeping) great now.

-Nick

Updates Updates Updates...

Sorry for the lack of updates over the last 4 days or so. Let me try to explain what has happened. We took Hera to the Affordable Animal Care clinic of Durham to get spayed. The place was very sketchy and you could hear the animals yowling and barking in the back room even before you opened the front door. It was crazy, very very crazy and did not give off a good vibe. The best way to describe it would be "organ removal factory."

Before I say anything else: Hera is OK.

Anyway, they botched the job. They did not properly seal the incision site and there was a little hole in her tum when we got her back. Not being vets we assumed that the "Surgical Glue" they used was holding it together properly and for the first few days it looked like it was healing up. Then on Tuesday night it popped open a little and on wed the wound exploded with pus and turned into a big hole (I'm guessing the internal dissolvable stiches must have dissolved). Anyway, we took her to a real vet and they fixed her up, but they had to re-open and cut out a bunch of infected tissue. They also stapled the (now larger) incision shut, and believe you me... that thing ain't opening up. She looks like a little kitty terminator!

Hera is on antibiotics and sweet sweet morphine (not morphine but it ends in phine so I assume its an opiate). She is high as a kite! Other than the kitty rehab facility we will need to check her into after this ordeal everything is getting much better.

She is eating and pooping, sleeping and purring now so hopefully she is on the mend for good!

Athena, who we also took at the same time healed up just fine.

As for Apollo, he is TERRIFIED of the basement stairs. He will not climb up or down the stairs to the basement. The upstairs stairs are just fine. We are thinking it has to do with him not being able to grip with his claws on the stairs. Neither toys nor lazer pointer can coax him up more than one stair. This may prove a problem if we take another pack of kittens and he gets free reign of the house.

Going to pickup some chicken flavored baby food to see if that will coax him up the steps.

Media Update

Everyone loves each other!

Best medicine takers ever....

I have not given that many oral antibiotics or pain meds to cats so far as we just started the fostering thing, and my experience has been limited to my own cats.

Athena and Hera are the two easiest kitten/cats I have ever given meds to.

I must have the momma vibes rolling on them cause they didn't struggle at all.

Safe and sound

So the girls are back safe and sound. They were pretty scared when they came home. Then again if you woke up in a strange place missing organs you would be scared too. Poor Hera did not make it to the litterbox in time and peed in the carrier. No biggie, they are both sleeping soundly now. Its so funny, I forget how deflated they look after the op. I think athena is going to end up with a little spayed-pooch. You can see her tummy sag a little already ^_^ the little cutie pie.

Spay time

Apollo, the reason you can't find your sister (and your cousin) is because they are at the doctor getting ready to be adopted. The doctor does what we call in the business a "cat forever happiness" procedure. Once this is done and everyone is recovered they will be able to go to their forever homes.

ixnay on the ess pee eh why

Despite the great adoption event, we did not get a single application for any of them. :(

The en-cuddlement shall continue.

No adoption event this weekend since the girls will be recovering from their 'fixin.

WHAR R ALL MAH SISTARZ

AH CAINT FINDZ DEM

HMMMM... MEH GETZ MOMMEH AL TU MAISELF

:)

Coco and Hera sitting in a tree ...

KAY EYE ESS ESS EYE ENN GEE





VIDZ!

And we're back!

The adoption event went very well. We got a few nibbles of interest. Hopefully someone found their forever home today!

Come visit us today @ Petsmart at Patterson Place

We will be there from 1pm-4pm!

Come say hi.

I enjoy tight spaces.

I cram my body between these two wicker baskets under the table.

OH NOES MAH BALLZ

I LAYD DOWN FER MAH NAP YESTARDAI AND WHEN IZ WOKE UP MAH BALLZ WERE GONE.

WHERE DIZ THEY GO?

CAN HAZ YOU HALP MEH FINED THEM?

Can I make the jump?

I love this picture. Athena is saying : "I can make the jump, I think I can!"

Coco is just staring at her like : "Do it wimp, the chair is the gateway to the windowsill, the windowsill is the gateway to sleeping."



And Apollo is showing you his butt....

The saga continues

First of all the eye infection that kept us from petsmart is gone. I'm continuing the treatments for the full 10 days and hopefully it will be gone forever. :)

So we have been letting the kittens run around the rest of the house for an hour or so each day and they seem to really enjoy it. Dido is not afraid anymore in fact she is even playing with them. When one runs directly at her she still gets a spooked look and runs away but if allowed to engage on her own terms she seems to really enjoy herself.

Anyway last night it took us 15 mins to wrangle Athena. That girl really likes her freedom. This morning she jumped over the gate once I opened the door to feed them their morning wet food. Little did she realize as she escaped that I was bringing wet food. Once she heard the *nom* *nom* *nom* from the wrong side of the baby gate she lept back in to join in on the dining experience.

We will not be at the adoption event tomorrow.

Sorry anyone who was planning to attend, but we have a little eye infection (currently treating with eye drops from the vet) and everyone thought it was best not to put stress of seeing new people until it clears up.

They should be at next week's meet and greet tho... I will keep you posted.

Fun on the windowsill

That coco sure is fun to play with. I'm already learning that windowsills are AWESOME!



-Lady Athena

INVESTAMIGATE TEH BEDROOM

MEH FINDZ TEH CLOZE DOOR



KITTEH INFILTRAITUN SQUAD NEXT MISHON

TEIM TO RALLEH TEH TROOPZ

HAI SISTAR DIDO

I SEES HER



YAAAAAY!!!

Big Update + Media

So things are going quite well with the kitties. Events are progressing positively. First of all, Dido, while being still a little scared and not quite ready to degenerate into kitten plaything is warming up to the kittens. She has been nose-sniffing them, and batting at them in a playful way. The greeks are understandably wary of her, but they don't let dido get in the way of their fun. Dido can't hate them too much seeing as she keeps jumping over the bottom baby gate when we have the middle one open to go see them.

Then we had a big step last night... we let them out into the rest of the house for an hour. Its funny, they are afraid of the stairs (especially with a human standing on them) and so they have sort of self confined to the kitten room and the master bedroom. We have a "cat pueblo" in our master which Coco loves to sleep in and the Greeks absolutely LOVE it. They are still too small to be left to their own devices but occasional forays are definitely good for them. The downside is they try twice as hard to escape, but when they do escape we are not as worried.

Pueblo:



As a side effect to our "hour on the town" Coco kept my wife up all night because she was in such a good mood. Being around the babies is turning on her kitten instincts again. We have a little fluffball of rabbit fur that she loves and last night she kept becca awake because she was playing with it, carting it around in her little mouthie, and trilling with pleasure so much.

Back to the Greeks! I clipped their claws not 30 minutes ago. It was a little bit of a struggle, but this being the second time I think I've finally convinced them that I am the momma cat of the house. This is important as a foster parent as declawing is inhumane and not allowed in the IAR adoption agreement. It is best if kittens learn that their claws are being clipped and there is nothing they can do about it. Hera I had to scruff between each of the first 6 front claws but then the last 4 I think she realized who was in charge! One or two more clippings I think ....

Today we are making a journey to the vet to get them all microchipped. Yay for microchips! I will let you guys know how it goes.

Without further delay: Here are some pictures I took during house explora-toring session.
Vids will be on another post.

Meet the Kittens

Come see us! We will be at Petsmart at Patterson Place in Durham this Sunday the 23rd.
3615 Witherspoon Blvd Suite #101, Durham, NC

From 1pm until 4pm.

I CAN HAZ GROWED

WHEN I GOED TO SHADY SPRING MEH WAIT WAZ 1LB 15OZ

MEH DADDEY WAIT MEH TUDAI I SO BIG 2LB 3OZ

MOMMY DADDY BOTH WER SO HAPPY

:)

Three baby gates does not equal one kitten gate.

So needing eventually to introduce the kittens to Dido (which you might have seen poking around and likely hissing) we decided that having the door closed all the time was prob not a great idea. So we bought three baby gates and have stacked them one above the other.

Now while we COULD create a toddler internment camp that would rival Alcatraz, you would think this would deter something smaller than my left foot from climbing all of them and jumping down the other side? Not Athena. So what we had to do is cut off a piece of screen and attach it to the top baby gate and use pushpins to secure it to the wall. Thats right, we now have an immobile baby gate covering one of the doors. On the bright side if we take out the middle one the door closes so we can thankfully close the door while we are sleeping.

Apollo and Hera will actually now sit laying against the bottom gate and sleep. Coco is there constantly also laying against the gate. Dido actually has started jumping into the room to investigate. She has been pretty brave and now that she is constantly seeing the kittens I think she will adjust just fine. Dido is never hostile only afraid-y-cat.

Nose in the tea

I was in the kitten room having my morning cup of tea. I turned my back to refill the water bowl and when I came back Hera's face was in my mug. Then she let out a big sneeze right into the tea. Yum! Maybe she's a Brit :)

-Becca

Oh so warm

I really like blogging. First of all I get to sit on the computer, which is very warm because its processor is usually at 75% or so from broadcasting the webcam. My foster daddy has been teaching me about things like the task manager which can close windows that are open on the computer already.


I'm also learning how to open new windows and order lots of expensive electronics. Daddy said if I did it Mommy wouldn't be so mad at him when the plam-sa screen arrives. I don't know what a plam-sa is but Daddy got really excited! He scritches me under my chin and on my back just right so I like to help him when I can!

Well that is it for now.

I'll post again next time Daddy forgets to close the laptop cover.

-Lady Athena

P.S. Mommy and Daddy tell me I'm big enough to go to a forever home soon, and that I'm the perfect size for adoption. I'm going to some place called Petsmart at Patterson place in Durham this sunday from 1pm-4pm. I'm kinda scared and I'm hoping lots of people will come to see me and make me feel happy.