Inside their new “home” for now-

Here they are

I “thought” I bought about 20 jars of baby food last night, but this morning, looking everywhere, I couldn’t find them. I am completely out and Aurora’s kittens are on it now for the most part. So off I go to the store. When I get to the door- the store is set up with corner ledges right by the front door, I go to step inside and I hear this loud “MEOW!”

Backtracking a few steps, I see this large box sitting in the corner with tall sides and hear claws scrapping along the sides of the box. I open the flaps and see three kittens inside. Looking around, I see this woman sitting on the sidewalk just watching me. She says “Do you want a kitten?” I looked at these babies, they were full of fleas and needed a bath. I asked her: “Is the mom spayed?” She told me yes and the dad was going to be done on Monday as well. I told her, I would take them all and she about fell over. I handed her my card, suggested she consider a donation (she doesn’t get paid again till next week). I carried the box to my car and  thought to myself: Why doesn’t someone  just shoot me and stop the insanity?”

I get home and give Mike the box and told him to watch them while I prepare a room for them. They are now safe, they had a much needed bath and blow-dry and have been de-wormed and de-flead-

In a town prolific with pit bulls, a box of free kittens in front of the only major grocery store  is NOT a good idea.

Oh, and when I got home, I found the baby food I had bought the night before. They had slid under the back seat of my car.

I keep trying to get her away from nursing these babies. I have been supplementing them now for two weeks- but she keeps getting back with them.  Here are a few of her extended litter of kittens:

     Tweedle and Sky

   Turtle

  Tweedle

There are nine kittens but trying to photograph nine whirling dervishes wasn’t to successful!

Took Jetta and Sunny to the vet today to be tested and evaluated. I felt a bit foolish though, Sunny the long-haired orange kitty (found in the box with the other cat) turned out to be female! Female long-hair kitties are rare in these parts so she will be a quick adoption. She just needs a new name now.

Jetta let EVERYONE in the clinic know that she doesn’t like to be restrained. When they were drawing blood (before they even started) they scruffed her and she turned into a baby tiger. I heard her clear in the room I was in and it just cemented the thought in my head that she has Bengal in her (her coat is amazing)

We discussed Licorice and Hope. One kitty is recovering well, the other (Hope) isn’t doing so good. Licorice is gaining strength- I don’t know about weight because Mike accidentally ran over my scale with his wheelchair the other night and it is toast. 🙁 Although Hope is eating, she isn’t doing much of anything else. Dr. Steve wants to run another hemocrit next week and see what’s up. She has withdrawn to the very top of her cage, perched on top of the carrier and pretty much stays there all day. She had a small speck of black on her nose when she arrived here, and now that speck is the size of a small marble. We will just take it a day at a time and see how it goes.

Today, for the first time since her FUO she ate on her own! She didn’t eat a lot, but anything is an improvement over nothing. Right now, she favors organic chicken baby food by Mom’s Own. She has lost so much weight, it is alarming. They think that one of her litters didn’t make it and she didn’t reabsorb the kitten in a timely manner leading to an infection. That’s the general consensus anyway. I wish so badly sometimes that they could talk to us in a language easily understood.

Thank you for helping me cover this unexpected late night vet visit.

I stayed home today from taking Mike to Portland so I could attack this house and get it clean. I was out on the patio looking out into the yard and thanking God for such a nice day and I see Bentley in the field trotting toward the house. He had this long thin big object in his mouth. At first, I thought it was some sort of a rope- but then he stopped and flung it high into the air and caught it. He was closer to the house by this time- middle of our backyard and I see this snake in his mouth! Holy smokes! It wasn’t a tiny snake either.

I ran outside and grabbed a small shovel and a deep bucket  (I hate snakes) he threw the snake up again- and missed it- and it bit him! He squealed- and backed away and I could see by this body language he was going in for the kill. I got there and picked the snake up with the shovel and dropped it into a bucket.

He was bleeding pretty badly and limping, so snake in a bucket and kitty in a towel went off to the vet. I looked at the snake and the pattern looked like a rattlesnake, but thankfully no rattle on the end of the tail. Turns out it was a gopher snake. They are aggressive but not venomous.

He will be okay- he got a shot and they cleaned his wound and said to keep him quiet for a few days- which will be impossible to do but I will try.

My cats have caught snakes before, but they were garter snakes nothing else. I was afraid it was some sort of exotic snake that escaped. I don’t do snakes. I did go to a local river park and release the snake off the trail far away from where the public likes to hang-out. It started to come after me when I shook it out of the bucket, but I stamped my feet and it took off into the underbrush.

Silly kitty! Gave me quite the scare!

Last night, Licorice who was laying in my lap, started to tremble and shake. Her temperature shot up in the OMG range and I had no other alternative after three hours of trying to lower her temp (unsuccessfully) to take her to the emergency clinic. She has a “fever of unknown origin” and this beautiful cat who went from spirited to vibrant is now listless and withdrawn and barely eating.

I had to give them $300.00 up front before they would even see her and this left our kitty short by $75.00. I am scrambling on all fronts trying to come up with the money to cover this and falling short. Sometimes, when these cats go into crisis, my brain just doesn’t think about the repercussions of what I am doing until it is to late. If anyone has $5.00 lying around gathering dust and can send it my way- I would be grateful. I will say the staff there went above and beyond in how they treated this black kitten. They have all they need on hand to handle any type of emergency and a beautiful facility to boot.

This morning when I picked Licorice up, she trembled in my lap all the way home. She’s not even a year old, she has already had a litter of kittens and they think the fever is because of an infection (not related to the recent spay). She is in a cage in the living room and seems to have no energy. Her fever went so high there was a fear she might not make it. But she is a fighter.

Thank you for listening

This morning, the rancher who just took 5 of my cats for his ranch called me and asked if I could spare one more? Could I? In a heartbeat for this paradise spot. I decided to give him Chances, the newest torbie.

He and his daughter live way up on the mountain virtually in the middle of nowhere. I was coming back from the adoption and I rounded a curve and saw this beautiful white great dane trotting down the road. No homes for miles. I pulled over, opened the door and whistled and this beauty comes romping over and licks me in the face- then he jumps into the truck!

He was a sorry mess-he was covered with sores, he had hives all over him, his penis looked red and swollen but he was a friendly boy (not neutered). I ran him to the vet, no chip he is about 5 years old and very friendly without any manners or obedience training.

I brought him home where he tried to chase two of the cats and mounted poor Brandy, so I apologized to him and took him to animal control. I don’t have the time he needs to be trained, while we look for his owner and if he isn’t neutered, it doesn’t speak well of his owner at all. Plus he needed immediate vet care which I can’t do. But he was so beautiful and friendly, I couldn’t just leave him there at the side of the road.

If you scroll down you will see him at the bottom

Both kitties went through their spay without an issue and are now back home. I find it interesting that a “rescuer” on the coast who wanted both “pregnant” cats, when I called her to arrange for a pick-up and told her that the cats weren’t pregnant any longer, she said she doesn’t want them now!

I was stunned and asked her why and she said without having the kittens to “sell” she doesn’t make any money! Turns out she pays herself a salary to run her non-profit and she uses the money she charges for kittens “because no one wants the older ones.” I almost told her she should be ashamed of herself- borderline kitty mill but I held my tongue. I checked and she is doing nothing wrong according to the law.

So the girls are here, they are sore and groggy but even not being pregnant, they are still very much wanted here. In case you wonder, I don’t pay myself a salary or my volunteers- George has now decided to volunteer for the rescue! I’m in it for the cats and if there ever is any money left over, it is tucked away for the next emergency. The problem is lately there has been to many emergencies!

My friend entered a photo of her recent Bridge baby Star in a local photo contest. If you could- would you vote for her?

Star in Autumn