Lately

Currently we have a cute set of foster kittens named Lilith and Frasier. He is a cute little black kitten and she is a beautiful tortie. And she whips his butt on the regular. They were 3 weeks and 11 oz when they came to me from a feral mom that was done with them.  Now they are 2 pounds and will be adopted out as soon as they are altered. 

This is Llamacorn. She came to me at about 4 weeks and was a screamer. She screamed all the time and went through 2 fosters before me. She turned into the loveliest little cuddler though and was adopted out to some old high school friends and their teen boys a couple of weeks ago. 



As you can see, she was terribly uncomfortable with her new boy from the very beginning. 



And her mom. 



Lilith and Frasier decided to give me a heart attack and disappear behind the gas logs. See that flame? They stayed just enough away from it to not get burned but had their own little campfire to huddle behind. I had to disassemble the logs to find them. And yes the flame is off now. 



Milo (and Mobey, not pictured) has their annual vet visits. Both are in good shape at 7 years old. Milo is the nervous type. I like to call him suspicious. He has never offered to bite anyone and is not aggressive at all, but I wouldn’t put it past him to fear bite if he was pushed.  He did so good with his blood draw, vaccinations, and physical exam though. 


We had an overnight visitor, Miss Monday, as she was all alone at the shelter and traveling to an adoption kennel at a store the next day. She was super sweet and cuddly. 

Kat Spade has turned a corner and I believe she will make a good pet now, as opposed to a barn cat, which is where she was headed a couple of weeks ago. Now she purrs and asks for attention. It’s a complete switch. 

Lately

Lately, around here I have:  

picked up a humane society dog from her spay and transported her back to the shelter.  (She's a sweetie and traveled so well in the car), 

had a bowl of yum--brown rice, broccoli, carrots, sprouted teriyaki tofu, and tamari, 

finished bottle feeding our last kittens for a while.  These three are still here but they are around 9 weeks and 2 pounds so they can be spayed/neutered whenever our next appointment is, 

been swimming a couple of times with this guy, who loves to jump in the pool and make a big splash, 

transported this cutie pie, Smudge, (a former foster), to Petsmart where she got herself adopted a few days later.  

made a couple batches of massaged kale salad with strawberries and coconut for Mr. GV, 

packed up this little one, Shirley, 

and her sister, Laverne, and wished them a happy life as they went off to one of our adoption partners, 

went with my mom, sister, and this guy to a local consignment sale, 

where I bought two things:  a stack of people magazines for $2 and a tuxedo T-shirt for my nephew.  Tacky as hell but he loved it and so do I, 

managed to accomplish some reading, of course with some help, 

took some more picture of Simon (the tiny trio is named Alvin, Simon, and Theodora) because of some interest in this sweet Siamese boy, 

made Happy Herbivore's Taco Soup (good but IMO needs more liquid to be more soup-like), 

and found that our local chain grocery store now carries vegan cookie dough.  Most of the time I make mine from scratch but I wanted to support their vegan choices so bought a container.  My nephew got to enjoy the first half here after an especially good day at school and the other half was taken to a board meeting for the humane society.  

In addition, we cancelled Hulu!  That's $7.99/month we won't be paying.  We can still see all the shows on Hulu that we want, they just won't be available until 8 days after the broadcast showing instead of the day after.  We are watching less and less TV so that suits us just fine.  

Kittens!

On August 18, Mr. GV heard Cosette cry out around 3:30 a.m.  And then an hour later we heard the first kitten crying.  Naturally I rushed into the spare room and stayed with her until they were all born.  I wasn't going to miss out on seeing these babies come into this world, not to mention there was always the chance she would have trouble. I had read up on kitty midwifery, just in case.  It was amazing to watch Cosette become a mama, and see all her natural instincts kicking in.  

The second kitten came at 4:55, and the third at 5:58.  The third one was a tougher birth for her.  While it is normal for kittens to be born feet first, his little feet would come peeking out, then disappear, over and over.  I was worried about her ability to push him out but she managed.  He was the biggest and I'm guessing that was the issue.  At 6:45 the fourth was born, and we were done.

Nope.....not done!  Although we had only seen four on ultrasound, at 7:20 Cosette began bearing down again and out popped number five!  

Happy birthday! 

4 days old

Growing

Panther discovers himself in the mirror

We have had so much fun with these kittens.  They are all healthy and loving.  It makes me so sad to think of all the kittens that are born into situations where the mother has to struggle to take care of them, or the babies have to fend for themselves with no mama around.

Grey Bear is the oddball, in terms of coloring.  The rest are all brown/black striped tabby, and he is a grey striped tabby.  He is an absolute beauty.  I assumed he would be the first to be adopted, and he was.  A friend from high school saw him on Facebook and she and her family fell in love with him.  I have received a few pictures and it sounds like all is going well with their new addition.  

The other four?  Well, they are still with us.  Our local no-kill shelter does not have much luck with adopting out cats, so there is a long waiting list.  I have spread the word that these kittens are up for adoption but so far no one is interested in any of the rest.  For the time being, they are find here with us.  I just hate to see them get out of the kitten stage, because I am afraid they will be even harder to adopt out and I don't want them to spend their lives in a shelter.  

For now, I am just enjoying them.  Five cats, four of them 13 weeks old, can be quite a handful, but oh it is so worth it!  

Chubby the Foster

We decided to jump into the world of fostering dogs!  At the open house for the humane society's recently acquired facility, I mentioned I would be glad to foster older dogs or ones that just need some extra TLC.  And about a week later I got a message from the organization that they had our first foster!  Chubby is a 6 year old chihuahua.  She's lived her whole life with her mom and sister and the 3 came in as owner surrenders together, but now they had been adopted out.  Chubby was having to spend her days in a crate in the break room of the humane society's current facility because it is so cold in the kennels.  

We had a huge ice/sleet/snow storm which stayed on the road for days and kept school cancelled for an entire week, so that kept me us from getting to Chubby right away.  But on March 7th we finally brought her home.  

We introduced ourselves with some dog cookies I brought along, and soon Chubby was comfortable with us.  That evening my mom, sister, and nephew came to visit.  I was worried she might be a snappy dog when she was scared, but she is great with new people!  She was cuddled up with J within just a little while of meeting him.  J brought a toy to welcome Chubby to the household.  

Chubby has settled in wonderfully!  The first night she slept in her open crate, but after that every night she has been in the bed with us.  She prefers to burrow down under the covers and lay up against one of us.  

She's very playful and full of energy, and she loves to run after her toys and retrieve them.

She did escape one time from our fenced backyard due to her tiny physique.  She just went out to the neighbors' driveway to meet their Yorkie though, and thankfully came right to me when I called.  Mr. GV has hopefully "Chubbified" the yard as of yesterday.  She loves to lay out in the sun and here she was enjoying the smells and wind in the backyard.  

Yesterday I received a message that Chubby has someone interested in her.  The lady has a teacup chi and I'm sure growing up with dogs her own size she would love a tiny friend to hang out with.  She is somewhat scared of Milo, which is understandable given his size and his energy.  She growls and bares her teeth at him if he gets too near or makes eye contact but she is now sniffing him and doesn't seem to mind laying near him, so there has been improvement after just one week.  

We have fallen in love with Chubby, but as of right now we are not planning on adopting her.  If this interested party falls through and she's here for a long while, we might not be able to give her up though! 

We want to keep fostering and we are afraid if we keep the first one we'll never be able to let any of them go, which will defeat the whole purpose.  Chubby is a healthy, young, active dog who has "prospects."  Right now there is a 12 year old feist who needs a foster.  Sadly at her age I'm not sure anyone (unless they are an oldie but goodie dog lover like me) will want to adopt her at her age.  So if she comes to stay with us she will most likely be here for life.  

Our first foray into fostering has been a great experience, and I highly recommend it!  For those of you with a love for dogs and cats who are unable to adopt due to financial reasons, fostering is generally a much cheaper way to get some doggy cuddles and kitty snuggles.  Many groups only ask that you pay for food and they take care of other expenses.  Check it out!