Good-bye Kitty

All the kitties have new homes. Thing 1 and Thing 2 are now with my work study student's family and her cousin's family. Thing 1 has been renamed to "Turbo". Good choice. Haven't heard Thing 2's new name yet. Blackie and Minnie-Mom are in a new home together, with new names Minnie and Maximillian. When we first weighed them, they weighed about 8 oz each. Thing 2 (the biggest of the 4) was 3 lbs last time at the vet.
Carol took a few pictures before they left for their new homes. See below.



Meanwhile, Bristol went to the vet for a makeover (aka spay). She's a new woman! We apparently were good enough to her that the vet suggested we not let her get any more belly fat. Remember she was so skinny when she first came to us, that we could see her pelvic bones and she had no width at all.
She came home to a spa retreat (C&Cs hall bathroom) to recover from surgery.
No new home was on the horizon, so at least for the time being, C&C are going to try to integrate her into their home. We'll see how that goes. She's such a people friendly kitty now, especially compared to when we first saw her, that we want to see her go to an inside home.

The Great Escape

It was bound to happen. Yes, the Kitty Caper.
All four kittens have now figured out how to escape the Kitty Corral. First to figure out how to bust out of the pokey - Mini Mom! She's been the first one to figure out just about everything - the smallest and the quickest. We have not actually witnessed this, but I can kind of imagine them standing one on top of the other until someone climbs over. I don't think pole (cat) vault is their preferred method.
Carol reports that today, all four were out when they got home. Results of kitty escapades were evident - little "things" knocked off shelves and generally not where they were supposed to be. A few tiny claw marks in a foam sleeping pad.

They're going to the vet Thursday for next shots and a check on their sneezing, which may be caused by just dust from the litter pan or possibly a little kitty cold.

A few possible homes are almost locked in. Bristol still needs a home and we're hoping that she can be an indoor or indoor/outdoor house kitty. She's getting so much more friendly and used to people that she'll make somebody a nice pet. SHE also goes to the vet - next week for her surgery. She's a good mommy, but won't need to do this again - 6 kittens (two from summer, four from fall) in less than a year is enough.

We're not sure about kitten weight anymore because we can't make them stay in the food scale pan long enough for the weight to register.

Growing....

Updated photos from the kitty corral!

King (and queen) of the mountain

Thinking about new homes

The kitties are growing and will soon be ready to leave their mom.

Mama Kitty (Bristol) is a good teacher and disciplinarian. Most of the time, she lets them solve their own sibling issues (pinning each other, ears back, little claws and teeth in action) but she does intervene when she hears a squeak that sounds like someone is in crisis. Ten weeks with their mom should make them well socialized cats and ready to go on to new homes.

The vet suggested that they stay with mama kitty for 10 weeks, which will be after Thanksgiving. The kitty corral (and the litter box!) is getting more crowded now that they're bigger and even more active.

They will be in excellent physical shape, all checked out, first vaccinations done (upper respiratory) and dewormed twice. They didn't have flea activity, the vet said, which is good because he's seen some wild kitties come in severely anemic from flea bites. They will need to be spayed/neutered at about 6 months and continue with vaccinations. The kittens have never been outside except their first few weeks and that was under our house, so they could adapt to an indoor only life.

Some people have expressed interest, but I'm not sure we have any FIRM commitments.

We want new "owners" to agree to continue with vaccinations and get their kitty spayed or neutered at 6 months. It would be great if someone wanted two, so they could continue to play together and keep each other company. The three polydactyls will also have to be watched for claw issues so their extra claws (2 extra on each front foot, we think) won't grow back into their pads. We will give the word to Bush Animal Hospital when new owners take over and the kittens' records can be released for new owners to either continue at Bush (on Coburg Rd) or take to their own vets.

It's time to start firming up adoption arrangements, so if you're interested or know someone who is and can provide a good home, let us know.

Toy for the Boy

 

Itty bitty kitty - Mini Mom? Mini Me? the female

 

Mama Kitty - Bristol - needs a home

 

lunch time

 

kitty

 

BTW - Organizations helping animals in Lane County

We're glad we can help this cat family that found us. Other critters need help and some people need help caring for their animals.
Here are some links to organizations that help cats and their owners in our area:
Green Hill
West Coast Dog and Cat Rescue
WAG
SARA

On to the vet --

Carol arranged for us to spend Veterans' Day morning at Bush Animal Hospital with the gang of five. We wanted to make sure all the kittens and Bristol were healthy and vaccinated before we started to find for sure homes for them. Several friends and colleagues had expressed interest, but we were a little concerned about Bristol's health because of her life on the streets.

Bush had helped C & C "rehome" a challenging cat of theirs and also do a lot of work in the community to help Green Hill and the cats at LCC. Various cat organizations in the community help stray, feral, lost kittens and cats, but with resources stretched, our family decided we could take care of these five as our contribution.

Bristol went in one carrier and traveled the short drive to Bush with her nose out the hole in the cardboard carrier. The kittens went in the plastic carrier with a few towels and they huddled toward the back.

At Bush, we learned Bristol weighs about 8 pounds. She has nice teeth and is about a year old. She had yucky ears, but those were cleaned up there. As a polydactyl with 7 toes on each front foot, she will take a little extra foot attention. The vet clipped her claws, including one of the extra claws that had started to grow backwards into her pad. She sat quietly and let them do what needed to be done. She got a dose of dewormer (we saw evidence of a little tape worm activity) and her rabies shot. The kittens are still nursing some, so we waited for other shots.

The kittens are all in good health and weigh from 1 lb 4 oz to 1 lb 10 oz. We started to count toes, but frankly with five adults and five cats in the room we kind of lost track. Mini Mom is definitely polydactyl. And at least one of the others isn't. I can't remember from there! We'll update this later. They all got their upper respiratory infection vaccination, but we'll wait on the rest. (That was $315 worth of kitty care.)

In two weeks, they'll all get another dose of wormer (squirted in the mouth.) Bristol will get spayed within the month, either with us or with a new owner. The vet recommended that the kittens stay with their mom until they are about 10 weeks for maximum socialization. He said the mother cat is the best teacher and disciplinarian when it comes to establishing acceptable behavior.

So, we're thinking that the time for new homes will be about right after Thanksgiving. We want to make sure that adopters of kittens or Bristol understand what is involved in $ and attention and will promise to spay/neuter when it's time.

As cute as these guys are and as fun as it is to play with them and watch them, there is such a glut of cats/kittens that anything we can do to slow the tide in the community is a good thing.

Four kittens in a bucket - now what?

We checked in with PetSmart and West Coast Dog and Cat Rescue volunteer on Sunday and bought some kitten formula and kitten crunchies to get us started.
Sara and Ben purchased some other tiny kitty goodies - squirt a little in and hopefully jumpstart their digestion.
We mixed up some kitty formula to a watery consistency and loaded up a syringe. In a 2-person operation, we took each kitten in turn and gave them about 2 tsp each. They did get the hang of sucking the goodies out of the syringe. To make sure Mama Kitty didn't get too upset, we removed 2 kitties at a time.
When the temperature stayed warm and the rain held off, the gang was fine in our shed. But by Thursday, we needed another answer.
Chuck and Carol volunteered their garage and fabricated the kitty corral. Mama Kitty, now at least temporily named Bristol after Sarah Palin's pregnant teen daughter, could jump in and out of the kitty corral, but the plastic container w/ kittens stayed inside and the kittens only got out when we took them out.
We were a little concerned about the littlest. She seemed a little more wobbly than the other three and was awkward sitting, standing and walking, but improved in steadiness each day.
With Carol and Chuck, kitten names emerged: Mini Mom, the black and white polydactyl, very close to Bristol in looks; Blackie, a small all black quiet kitty; then Thing 1 and Thing 2, the wildest and most energetic pair.
Carol and Chuck spend at least three sessions per day socializing and watching kittens at play. The rest of us stop by for evening and weekend play.
With the denim pillow in place, the kitty corral is also a good reading corner for Chuck, as the kittens climb the Chuck Mountain, balancing along his legs and leaping on unsuspecting siblings below.
Favorite toys: The Kitty Cave, The Kitty Cavern, a few wooden blocks covered with a towel and used for climbing and hiding, a cardboard box used as a hiding place and chew toy. Later we added an oatmeal box with the bottom cut out. When we're in the corral with them, they also like the fishing pole with some leather thongs to chase and Carol's zipper pulls seem to be very intriguing. Bristol's tail is also a big winner. She's very patient - to a point. If their sharp little teeth or claws get too much, she'll give them a bat with her paw and pin them with some assertive licking.
We weren't sure about how many were boys and how many girls and did some internet research to try to figure out the methods for identification. However, descriptions of various punctuation marks didn't really seem like anything we could see. Then, one day, it was pretty clear that three of them were male and Mini Mom was the lone female of the litter.

Sounds from the cold air return

One evening in October, as I stood in our hallway, I heard what I thought might be a squeaky furnace fan. I listened some more and ... heard the sound of tiny meows coming from the cold air return vent. The sounds were echoing through the vent relayed from their location under the house. I immediately suspected Mama Kitty might have produced a second batch.

I called Chris and he was able to come to Eugene from Corvallis to crawl under the house on a kitty safari. There he found four kittens - three all black and one that looked just like "Mama Kitty". We found a transparent Rubbermaid container and put it by the back door w/ a heating pad and towels inside. Each kitten weighed about 8 oz and they snuggled together in the corner of container.

However, Mama Kitty was not very interested in the four blobs of fur. She looked in and walked away. She ate some kitty crunchies, but hissed at a tiny wobbly kitty that got a little too close to the dish. We thought we were going to have to bottle feed the kittens - a daunting task.

The next morning, I sat on the back step w/ mewing kittens in the "bucket" and mama chomping down on crunchies and not very interested in her kittens. I petted her and she peeked in the container, while I petted her some more. The meowing seemed to attract her interest a little. I picked her up and put her in the container and she jumped out, but the kittens meowed louder. I put her in again and she jumped out again. third time was the charm. I convinced her to lay down while I scratched her neck and ears. One kitten latched on, then another and another. She gave one a lick and settled in. From that moment on, she has been a good mom.

As the weather got colder and the rain started, it was time to move from the garden shed to C&Cs garage.



We checked in at PetSmart and talked to West Coast Dog and Cat Rescue volunteer.

It all started last summer

At the end of July, we returned from vacation and noticed a new black & white cat using our patio to get from Point A to Point B. At that time, we weren't sure what Point A or Point B actually were, but we were to find out soon.

The cat was skinny, with hip bones visible and no width at all. Very skittish, she didn't want to be approached.

Then, we saw... the two striped kittens with white feet and white on their faces. They were just about as skittish as mom, but if we sat on the step or on the patio and stayed very quiet, they would approach - as long as we didn't make any sudden moves.

We still weren't sure where they all came from or where they were going, but after awhile, we noticed that "home" was under our furnace unit at the side of the house and under our garden shed. We didn't feed them, thinking they must belong somewhere else.

Soon we found that were just the second home. The neighbors two doors down said they were born under their shed and now were leaving on their front porch and in a box in their driveway. We offered to help with vet bills to get them fixed and vaccinated. They said they would take care of that once the kittens were a little older. Mama kitty stopped coming around as much as the kittens grew older and we thought everything was fine. Hmmm.