Happy 14th Gotcha Day to Tabby!!!

Tabby says:

It's my 14th Gotcha Day today! I made it! I'm fading every day, but still hanging in there. I spend my days screaming, hanging out with my purrents, and watching Shadow. He's the new kitten, a new family member, and only 2 1/2 months old so he zooms around a lot. I think he looks a lot like my brother, Carbon, but he definitely smells different, so he's a bit confusing. And, yes, that's me on the top of the scratching post in this pic, and that's Carbon looking up at me. This was just after we got home to Daddy's from the cage on the front porch of the feed store in Clatskanie, OR. I was 4 weeks old and Carbon was 5 weeks old.

Yes, I did say THE NEW KITTEN!!!  Can you tell I'm excited?  Mommy and Daddy were going to wait until after I passed to get another family member, but then they thought it might do me some good to have a job to do again, in whatever time I have left.  I love him!  They went down to Salem Friends of Felines, the same shelter that Freya and Heimdall came from, also the same one that JJ's Scamper came from, originally to look at another kitten but that one had already been adopted.  They thought that Shadow looked so much like Carbon!  He loves ball toys, and he keeps on pawing the jingle ball over to me to bat back to him.  He also likes following me around the house.  We all are learning to love him, and he's so much fun to watch exploring and figuring things out.  We're all a bit happier because he's here, although everyone still is spending a lot of time trying to help me feel better by snuggling with me.

He was born on April 26, 2019, and we adopted him on July 6, 2019.  His shelter name was "Shrek," but he's not green or an ogre, so his new name is "Shadow," which suits him better!  Yes, we've had a Shadow before, the main semi-socialized feral girl at the green house in Portland.  I think she'd like that we have another Shadow who will live as an inside-only cat.  I've taught him to ask for pets like I do, and like I've taught everyone else to do!  He's so smart.  Here's a few pictures, including one of me watching him play with the Crazy Circle, and a video.  More pics to come, as both Mommy and Daddy are shutterbugs!

When We Were Very Young....

Get ready for cute baby kitten pics, because this is what we looked like when we were very young!  (Yes, A.A. Milne is one of Mommy's favorite authors.)

Carbon and Tabby, Summer 2005

Tabby and Rori, Fall 2007

Tabby and Knut (Rori's brother), Fall 2007

Spooky 1, Fall 2007

Baby Chiba (Little Bit's sister), Spring 2008

Starla, Spring 2009

Smokey (Little Bit's sister), Winter 2008

Little Bit, Winter 2008

Little Bit with her boys (Squishy, Kai, Tiger, and Cloud), Spring 2009

Carbon with Little Bit's baby sisters (Boo and Michelle), Spring 2009

Baby-Tuxie, Summer 2009

Baby-Dot, Summer 2009

Spooky 2, Fall 2009

Freya and Heimdall, Summer 2010

Tigress, Summer 2011

Leopard (the feral kittens' mom), Hemming, Miss Marble, their brother, Summer 2011

Movie Monday: Miss Marble!

Miss Marble writes:

Oh, hi!  I'm visiting inside more and more!  I like it where it's warm by the heat vent, but I've been learning how to play spring and exploring around the open area.  I've been in the kitchen and down the hall a little, even!  Auntie Freya brought over her spring to show me, so she's been teaching me how to play with that.  Missy came over and greeted me, but didn't want to groom me when I asked her.  Mommy and Daddy pet me a lot, which I love, and I lean against their legs while purring.  Everyone loves me, and I love everyone!  I'm not ready to stay inside forever, though.  I like visiting inside for 20 minutes or so, then ask to be let out again.  I'm coming in at least three times a day, though!

I like this chair.  Mommy or Daddy sit in it while they pet me.  I've been put on the chair, but I don't like staying up there yet.

Freya likes to play with me when I'm under the chair!  I was wrestling with her for a while this morning.  She's become my "mommy-auntie":  my substitute mama kitty.

 I now am not concerned at all when I'm eating from the inside food bowl.  Auntie Rori can even sniff my tail tip, and all I did was flick it at her nose!

I found a new toy this morning!  It's a blue ball, and I can pick it up in my claws to shake it!  The blue is a crocheted covering for a ping-pong ball, but the ball itself got squashed.  It doesn't roll well now, but it's still a lot of fun to play with!

Happy 6-month Birthday to Hemming, Miss Marble, and Striped Girl!!!!

Hemming writes:

Foster Mommy just told me it's my 6-month birthday today!  Wow, I'm a half-year old already?  Right after she told me that, I ran into the bathroom and pawed the treat drawer!  It's my birthday, so do I get treaties?  Foster Mommy said I do!

I got a special half-birthday gift a few days ago.  Someone named Kayla wants to adopt me!  She's going to move close to where I live, so she'll be here on the 28th.  After she's unpacked the major things, my foster parents and I will go meet her.  I hope she's nice and has good hiding spots for me in her house!  My foster parents made sure that she knows I will hide at first, and she said she's willing to take the time that I need to get used to her and come out of my shell.  In fact, she was looking for a cat who would need extra love and attention, so she sounds like she'll be a really good mommy for me!  I hope so!

Miss Marble writes:

I'm 6 months old?  Wow, that seems old!  I'm still a kitten, though, right?  I can still play and have fun?  My daddy, Tux, says I can.  He even still plays, and he's a lot older than me!  I sleep in the rose bushes under the humans' bedroom window now, with my sister Striped Girl, so I hear when the humans wake up and know that it's going to be food time soon.  Then, I go over to the window-door and wait on the deck.  I meow when I see them, talk to them to tell them that I'm ready for food, and then they come out to refill the water dish.  They go back inside and get the food, then put two scoops of food on the deck.  That's the cue for my sister to come running from the rose bushes for her breakfast.  Sometimes our daddy joins us, but sometimes he's off hunting or doing other important things.

In the evening, we wait until it's time for the human daddy to leave in the car.  Then we wait on the deck, patiently, until they see us.  I go right up to the glass and meow again, but this time the human mommy comes over to the glass and talks to me.  She puts her finger on the glass, and I put my paw on it.  Then, she gives us food and water.

Striped Girl writes:

Are we really 6 months old today?  Really?  I love being outside with my sister Miss Marble and my daddy Tux, but I miss my mommy Leopard and my other littermate.  My other littermate would be 6 months old today, too.  I wonder where they are, and if they're still alive.  It doesn't bother me much anymore, but it's in the back of my mind sometimes.

My life is pretty good right now, but the air is getting colder and it's getting more rainy.  I don't like being wet!  I hide under the deck in the big rainstorms, but most of the time I like being in the rose bushes.  I used to hang out in the backyard or behind the fence, but it's too muddy back there.  I sink down in the marshy grass!  As long as I have my sister and my daddy, plus food, water, and someplace dry, I'll be ok.

Good news from Hemming and Miss Marble!

Miss Marble writes:

Hi!  I'm much happier back outside with my sister and my daddy.  Yes, my sister!  The striped kitten is a girl.  The lady says that those trap things will be back out in a couple weeks to try to catch my sister and my daddy.  I'm going to tell them to stay away from them!  Well, maybe not, because I do feel better now, so maybe those traps were good things after all.  I am glad I'm back outside, even though I see my brother enjoying being inside.  I also am much more interested in those cats on the other side of the window, now that I've had a chance to watch them more closely.  I love my outside life too much to be inside, though.  I'm much more comfortable hunting and sleeping under the deck.  Thanks for letting me be part of the outside family, lady and man!

Hemming writes:

Hi!  I miss my sisters and my daddy.  I go up to the window and watch them, calling to them, when they come eat twice or three times each day.  They say hi to me, but we all understand that I'm an inside kitty now.  I don't even try to escape when the lady puts food out.  Freya and Heimdall play chase, ball, tails, and a lot of other games with me, so I love that!  My favorite games are crazy circle, throwing a ball around, and chase.  I've been out with everyone for two days now, since my tests came back negative.  No diseases, yay!

And the big news...I've got two people who want to adopt me!  We're going to visit one of the homes on Wednesday, and meet the family and the puppy who may be my sister.  Wow!  If all goes well, I'll stay there.  If not, then I will meet with the other person later.  I'm hoping that everything goes well with this first family.  I'm so excited to meet them!  I love meeting new people.  I love people, sitting on laps, and being petted.  I just am not used to being picked up high, so I squirm around and want down.  Once I'm on a lap, I curl up and purr, after giving kisses!

The release part of tnr, and the socialization part

The PDX pride Mommy here:

We sent Miss Marble on her way outside again. :'( I always choke up when we release a feral back into the wild. It's such a bittersweet moment! It's where she belongs, though. She just was freaking out too much inside. She bounded off like a rabbit, straight to a hiding place she and the rest of the family use, under the cedar tree (surrounded by rosebushes). Then, when she saw us wave at her and realized we could still see her, she bounded off to another favorite place, through the back fence into the wilderness of the wetland behind us.

Hemming did very well with his testing today!  We are sooo proud of him!  There were a lot of dogs waiting in line, and one other cat who looked like him, only female and a little older.  This was his first experience being around dogs, and he aced it.  He meowed the whole time we were waiting, while the dogs barked.  I really wish more dog owners would put their dogs through obedience courses, or at least train them properly.  Two barked and lunged at a lady wearing a straw hat, another dog kept nipping at its neighbor in line, and a lady made her dog walk right down the line to the end rather than walking around a different way to get to the end.  Maybe the owners need obedience training, too?

When we got checked in, and were in line again waiting for the vet, a big dog who was behind us in line came over to the carrier and sniffed Hemming through the bars.  Hemming sniffed him back, and put one of his paws up to the mesh door like he was asking the dog to play with him!

The vet and vet tech who did the blood draw couldn't barely believe that Hemming was born feral and that we'd only had him a short time.  They both said he looked and acted like a tame kitten, and were quite impressed with him!  He was so calm for his blood draw, even came out of the carrier nicely after the vet tech scruffed him.  He flinched and tried to look at his leg when they poked him, but he didn't mew in surprise!  Afterward, he walked right back into his carrier on his own, after the vet tech redirected him from wanting to jump down off the table.  We get his test results back on Tuesday, but are fairly certain that he doesn't have any bad diseases.

He's now in our office at home with the door closed, but free to roam in here.  He absolutely loves having a room of his own!  He walked around for a bit after I showed him his dishes and put him in the box to show him what that was, then I put him on my lap and petted him for a bit.  The first lap he's been on!  He wanted to climb, so he climbed up the door to the carrier, onto the top of it.  Then, after getting down from there, he climbed up the back of the computer desk onto the CPU tower and is very happy in his newfound nest.  Snuggly, purry, smiling, the picture of contentment!

Both kittens came through surgery fine

The PDX pride Mommy here:

Both kittens are recovering.  The marbled kitten turned out to be a little female, so her new name is Miss Marble.  She scratched, bit, and took off running through the house when I was transferring her to a carrier from the trap.  Not a good idea for her!  I'm alright, she's recovered from her scare, and she's in the carrier with food and water.  The polydactyl tabby/white kitten is a male, but had only one testicle.  They thought the other one might not have dropped yet, so they did an exploratory surgery, and it simply wasn't there!  His new name is Hemming.  He let me pet his paw pads, stretched his foot through the mesh on the trap, and put his head in my hand with his tongue sticking out, wiggling the tip of his tongue in nursing fashion as I was petting his nose!  He's taking a bit longer to wake up completely, and still hasn't woken up completely even though it's been about 6 hours.  I'm kind of worried about that, although he's looking at me when I talk to him.  He'll sit against the side of the carrier, then slowly start to tip over the other way, then correct himself.  He likes sitting better than lying down right now, for some reason.  Both kittens have eaten and had some water.

Tomorrow morning they go in to the mobile clinic at Petco for their FeLV/FIV testing.  They got their rabies shots today and first boosters.

At this point, we are pretty sure that Miss Marble is going back outside after the weekend's over, given her run around the house this afternoon.  Hemming seems like he wants human contact, so he's a good candidate for socialization, depending on how his personality is when he wakes up fully.

 Sleepy little boy Hemming in the carrier

Miss Marble says, "Leave me alone, woman with the flashy box!"

Two trapped!

The PDX pride's Mommy here:

Two of the kittens are trapped and inside!  We made the decision not to try for more, because we can pay for the neuter fees and then next week get these two tested for diseases.  If we trapped any more at this time, we wouldn't be able to get them tested, and we'd much rather know if they are clean before trying to socialize them.

At around 4 pm, the polydactyl tabby/white boy made his way into the trap after the canned food, got trapped, and started screaming his little head off.  He couldn't understand why he wasn't allowed to go back out the way he came in.  He kept going to the door of the trap and batting at it, trying his best to make it open.  I brought him inside, where my husband and I gently talked to him and the inside cats all came to talk to him and investigate him.  Heimdall is turning out to be the best babysitter in the world, another reason why he reminds me so much of Skylar!  He lay down right next to the baby and started purring, which relaxed the baby considerably.

About an hour later, the marbled boy was trapped.  He made quite a ruckus in the trap, pulling the newspaper lining over his food, sticking his paws out the top, and turning around and around in the trap.  When I brought him inside and placed his trap alongside his brother's trap, they both calmed right down and started trying to play paws through the mesh with each other!  The inside cats went over to see the marbled boy, too, and were very interested in the rearranging he'd done with his trap paper.  He finally uncovered his food and ate, though it took him about two hours to do so because he was so stressed.

Little Bit cannot be around these new ones for a while, because she wanted to clean their behinds for them.  She was a mama cat, after all, with four boys of her own, so she knows how to treat young ones.  She just doesn't realize that you can't clean and groom someone through trap mesh.  Besides, a stranger cat trying to clean them was just scaring the little ones instead of helping.

They're sleeping now, curled up in their traps, with water bowls that they haven't touched yet.  We'll feed them some canned food in the morning, then take them to the feral cat clinic for their surgeries and eartipping.  We'll pick them up in the afternoon sometime and take them back home.  They will stay inside with us for the weekend to heal, and we will try to get them tested for diseases early next week.  They'll be inside until we figure out if they are disease-free, and then we will start to socialize them.  Once they are socialized, we will either make them our outside pets or adopt them out to a good home, depending on the level of socialization.

Here are some pictures from yesterday:

 Heimdall and Tabby greet the poly tabby/white boy.

 Heimdall being a good babysitter and purring to calm the baby down.

 Mr. Talkative!

 Carbon's not afraid of kittens anymore!  Checking each other out.

 Two brothers in traps:  marbled kitten on the left and poly tabby/white kitten on the right.

Tabby greeting the marbled kitten.

Heimdall greeting the marbled kitten.

It's Trapping Day!

It's trapping day at the PDX pride!  Mama Leopard's disappeared, along with the normal-toed tabby/white kitten.  We hadn't seen the striped kitten for a few days, either, but he came back last night!  The polydactyl tabby/white and the marbled kittens have been eating out of the open traps, as has "Daddy" Tuxie, so we're confident that we can trap at least the three little boys and maybe Tuxie as well.  We'll bring them in tonight and take them to the clinic for fixing/eartipping tomorrow.  Here's some pictures from the past couple days, where everyone was learning how to eat out of the traps.

 Tux keeping watch as the striped kitten eats in the left trap and the other two eat together in the right trap.

 Wait!  How come brother is eating in the box and I can't figure out how to get inside?

 Is this how we're supposed to do this?

 Freya:  Yep, I see them both eating in the same trap!

Hi!  Do you have any more of that yummy canned food?

Wordless Wednesday: Mama Leopard, "Daddy" Tuxie, and baby kittens

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