This video ROCKS!

No More Littering!

Axle was lethargic when I went into the room this morning to feed. I took his temp 99.9 (not good) should be ranging up around 102.2 I looked him over and didn’t see anything distressing. So I gave him about 1.5 cc’s of Karo Syrup and put him down on the heating pad. That is when I discovered that sometime in the night, the heater had kicked off. He had gotten cold and sluggish- probably because he doesn’t cuddle with the other kittens, he stays off by himself- a typical alpha male response. At last check he was eating and moving around so I hope the danger has been averted. I am going to have Mike install a switch on the heater that will prevent it from going off when have a power hit. We had one last night. I put the heating pad under one of the cat beds and Axle was lying on it when I left the room.

I hate subnormal temps in kittens- it can be an indication of something going really amiss.

I am pleased to report that this morning when I went into the bedroom ALL the kittens were out and about. Of course the minute Tandem and Axle saw me in the room, they scooted under the bed.

I put the food trays down and climbed up on the bed out of the way. About five minutes later, they both came out and joined with the others at the feed trays.

I stayed in the bedroom for about a half of an hour and climbed off the bed after the meal and sat on the floor. Tandem actually came out and sniffed me to say hello. Pretty soon her brother joined her. It was pretty cool. All the kittens are getting along- I didn’t expect anything less as kittens are far more adaptable than older cats. So now we have the kitten clan consisting of; Tilt, Stash, Foster, Franklin, Tandem and Axle. I looked at all of them running amuck and asked myself “Why do I do this? Why do I turn my life and my house inside out for these cats?” I found, I have no clear answer.

Our air conditioner upstairs quit and I had to move the two kittens in with the group in the main bedroom. It was just way to hot upstairs for the two van kitties.

Of course, they scooted under the bed to hide, but the other kittens didn’t even bother with them. When I went back in a few minutes later, Tandem was out with the others on the cat condo, but Axle was still hiding.

It will just take time, and for now I am pushing the food plate under the bed for the new kitties. i don’t know who is eating the food though- that is the problem with merging kittens together.

I am so tired today. It has taken me five days of solid work to remove all the debris caused by the tree limb that fell on our house last Saturday. Mike can’t help me, so it fell on me (no pun intended) to make arrangements to get the firewood hauled off (donated to a local logger who gives firewood away to needy families) and then move all the limbs and wood left behind. I am so tired I can hardly move, but as I worked, I thanked God that we were saved further damage. Were it not for the arc in our roof, we would have lost our fence, well house, and part of the cat enclosure. As the roofer said when he came to remove the tree: “It couldn’t have come down more gently then if God had laid it down with His hands.”

But I am so sad because it appears the tree is now problematic and will need to be removed. Not only is the cost prohibitively expensive, but it is a centuries old Fir tree home to a lot of wild critters. It is about 90 feet high. 🙁

They are starting to relax just a bit. This morning, I let them out of their closet and I was cleaning the space. Instead of hiding from me, they stayed out in the open- I had turned off the lights and was working only by the glow of the nightlight. The timid one is still spitting and hissing and striking out at me if I get to close, but it was encouraging to see that they didn’t want to hide from the two-legged can opener.

Today for the first time since their arrival here, one of the van kitties came out from hiding in the cardboard box and laid on the towel nearby. The kitten didn’t budge when I appeared on my scheduled time and dished out food, changed the water and tended to the litter pan. I didn’t do anything other than reaching down and petting the kitten slightly. It started purring immediately, so I backed away. Purring doesn’t always mean they are happy- I have had cats purr who were highly stressed and even dying. As this was the first contact, I made it brief and then just went about my business of cleaning up their space.

The cold weather is finally over (yeah!) so Mike and I fashioned a new door to the closet where the kitties are housed out of pvc pipe and woven wire. It fits quite nicely in the doorway and will help with circulating air and not letting the kittens get to warm.

They are black kitties (of course) medium hair and still oh so scared. The schedule I set up seems to help though as they get no surprises other than the scheduled visits.

The CH kittens went on Petfinders and Facebook today- I didn’t pull any punches when I told what type of challenges any new caregiver would face if they adopted one of these cuties. So, we will see if I get any takers on these Special Needs Kitties.

I am surprised that these little ones are still alive. They are around five weeks old and were found inside an abandoned van (by the tow truck driver) The van had been abandoned at least 5 days! According to Terralyn, the woman who scooped them out of the van, there was no food or water in sight. I know that I am glad that this June has been unseasonably cold- they could survive the cold by snuggling with each other, but they wouldn’t have survived the heat.

They are so tiny, so skinny and so hungry. It is hard to resist the urge of giving them a huge plate of food- instead, I feed them every four hours small amounts. I have treated them for fleas and worms and they are hissy and spitty with me- but not ferals- just scared and unsocialized.

There are also three new kittens in the bedroom, they are Craigslist kitties. I read the ad and sensed that they needed another place to grow until they are old enough for adoption. There is a black girl, a tuxedo boy and a gray female.

Of course the resident kitties are in a state right now. I swear, Charlie gave me a look a minute ago that said; ” Six new kittens! Mom…Really!” If all goes well under the initial 72 hour watch, most of them will be going to Dee’s home where she will be able to love and nurture them as they need to be. Mike just smiles and says he knows, I can’t stop rescuing. It’s not in my blood to do so!

Tilt, Franklin and Stash now top out at over 2 pounds. They are happy kitties with litter pan issues, and the older three kitties are in with them. They are all snuggled into a pile right now getting along just fine. The van kitties are upstairs as they have some health issues right now and I want to be sure they are healthy before putting them in with the group.

Guess I better quit trying to stop rescuing huh? LOL

This morning when I went into the room to feed, I found on the rug a dead wolf spider. I quickly checked all kittens, their mouths look fine, there are no open wounds on any of them, yet there is a dead wolf spider on the rug!

I’ve seen these spiders terrorize my adult cats. They will actually charge the cats when the cats start messing around with them, yet these three kittens in limited light managed to kill a very formidable foe!

Yesterday we had quite a scare. I was catching a nap on the couch and had several of my crew with me. Mike was zonked in his chair. I didn’t hear the initial crash, but when all the cats immediately took flight, that woke me up because their claws were fully extended. I am so raked with scratches right now. But I heard this mighty crash then a thud-all cats vanished from the house- every one of them flying down the tunnels to the enclosure! Puzzled, I prowled the house looking for the source of the crash. I didn’t even go outside because it was beautiful, sunny, windless no problems there. I never found anything amiss inside the house.

Later, on my way back from the barn, I glanced up at the roof of the house and noticed this tree lying in a queer angle. I thought- “Hmmm- that tree shouldn’t be there. Then it hit me what had happened and I raced around to the front of the house to find a huge tree limb just inches off our roof! What stopped it from taking out the roof was our chimney that it now totally ruined. But it saved the limb from this centuries old cedar tree from continuing its course where it would have crashed through our living room and taken out any cats or humans in the way!

I woke Mike and he went out to look at the damage while I called the power company to report the tree was also hanging on the electrical wires. They were here literally minutes later and sawed off some of the limbs to lessen the load.

The insurance company, the tree man and the roof doctor will be here on Monday to start fixing the problem. And it wasn’t even raining! I have no idea what caused the split to occur, I don’t see decay in the limb where the split happened, but then I am not a tree expert.

Today, I get down on my knees and thank God for his Saving Grace. This limb is heavy, it could have really done so much more than it did.

I have been privately rescuing stray cats for over 30 years. I specialize in abused and abandoned cats and kittens and bottle babies. I have worked with cats torched, beaten, shot with either; buckshot, bb?s or arrows and also had some that were near-drowning victims. I have known of a cat crucified right before Halloween who mercifully passed away hours later, and one senior cat who lived with us for four years, who was intentionally run over by her owner and left to die. She couldn?t walk correctly and would crab crawl and hop staying on our bedroom floor until we lost her to a sudden heart attack.

I recently watched a movie entitled The Book Of Eli with Denzel Washington. In the beginning of this movie a beautiful Sphynx cat appears in the darkness looking for food. Seconds later, an arrow whizzes through center screen and this cat is dead, becoming dinner for the ?star? of the show. Later he shares a bit of the cat meat with a mouse that comes to his camp to visit?nice touch…uh huh..

Every time I see the disclaimer at the end of a movie, ?No animals were hurt in the making of this film.? I always have to wonder why animals have to be portrayed as being hurt in the first place? To what end did it serve for him to shoot this cat and knock still another beauty (a Maine Coon mix) off of a bar in a later scene? Why not use sewer rats- but then again, that is what most people who don?t know any better consider cats to be.

Ironically, this movie carries a ?Biblical? theme, emphasizing the point of living a clean, wholesome life intermixed of course with the typical Hollywood gore and violence.

I can just imagine some lowlife seeing this film and deciding the next stray cat he sees out his window is worthy enough for an arrow in the heart.