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

:)