Sunday Surprises!

Sherbet writes:

First of all, hi from my second-favorite spot in the whole house!  This shelf is the one I used to like when it was in my room, but now it's in the dining room.  I still love it, and will go out to it to sleep sometimes.

Mama Shawnee likes to take pictures of me.  She took the one of my shelf and also this one, of me spying on her.  She wasn't supposed to see me from her bed, but she did!

Just in the last few weeks, I've started hanging out on Mommy's desk while she's sleeping.  Once again, Mama Shawnee caught me in the act of being cute!  Mommy woke up to Mama Shawnee talking to me and the camera flash at 2 a.m.!

But, that's not the latest of the surprises.  We have two visitors from another kitty family!  We're kitten-sitting for a couple weeks.  Until now, I didn't know what kittens looked like or sounded like, since I haven't been around any since I was one.  I was quite confused when they appeared.  What were they?  Why did they move so fast?  Was it ok that they were wrestling?  Was it ok that they were eating my food, drinking my water, using my box, and climbing my kitty tree to check out my "house" cubby there?  Mooooooooommies!!!  Daaaaaaaddy!!!  They've been here three days now, and we're all getting used to them (and they to us).  I actually like them, and will go find them if I haven't seen them for a while!  They like me, too.

Bunny (on the left) is fun to watch zoom around.  Well, they're both fun to watch, but he runs with a lope!  He likes to play with Auntie Dare (on the right), who now thinks the kittens are fun to torment (in a good way).

Prince Eric is very fast, and he loves my kitty tree!  I'll even let him sniff me sometimes, if he doesn't try to jump past my house (on the next shelf down) to get to his favorite place.

Their people need to move from the apartment where they've been to a new one, because of poor management and very poor maintenance.  While the family's moving, they've asked that the kittens stay with us.  Once the humans get settled, the kittens will go back to them at their new home.  If you could help Prince Eric and Bunny's people with some green papers, their GoFundMe is here.  It's set up and monitored by them, not us.  Please, no rude comments.  Everyone's trying to help them and the others at those apartments.  Thank you.

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

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

Digital scrapbooking design personalized with Smilebox

Mama Leopard & kittens update

Mama Leopard writes:

Yesterday was a busy day for my kittens, Tuxie, and myself.  We spent nearly all of it lounging on the deck or in the freshly-mown and mulched grass in the yard.  I really like this yard.  It supplies many needed things for raising my kittens properly:  food, water, hunting training ground, shelter!  Tux likes it here, too, and that's a plus.  We all slept under the deck or on the deck.

Yesterday afternoon, Tuxie and I took the babies into the grass to teach them how to camouflage themselves.  My little ones were more interested in playing and roughhousing than the lesson, but they did well with reminders to stay down and watch for movement.  The humans didn't even see us until one of my babies popped its head up to look at the house, and then they saw us!

Last night, I was very brave and let the human lady look at my babies from just the other side of the window-door.  She was on one side, touching the glass, and my striped baby was eating on the other side.  I watched, stared at her long enough so that she knew she wasn't supposed to come out of that door, and then proceeded to take a bath!  Tux felt comfortable enough to turn his back on her with the baby there, too!

This morning, we stayed on the deck while she reached out her hand to put food on the deck for us.  She says that's an improvement, and we think so, too.  I was snuggled on the deck with two of my babies, and I got up but didn't disappear underneath.

I am polydactyl, and one of my tabby kids is, too.  I now have shown the lady that I have another kitten!  Previously, she knew about (and filmed) two tabbies and a white & tabby.  The white & tabby that she filmed is a little boy.  Well, when I was sleeping on the deck, I was snuggled with TWO white & tabby kittens!  So, I have four kittens total!

Mama Leopard's kitten presentation day!

Mama Leopard writes:

I'd been considering bringing my kittens to the food place for a few days, but there was a loud machine in their yard.  The machine cut the grass and stirred up the mice, so yesterday (when it was all quiet) I decided to bring my kittens.  I looked around to make sure it was safe, then hopped up on the deck.  My kittens followed, then scurried around on the new surface, testing it out and smelling all the smells.  As I went over to eat from the food pile the lady and man leave for us, my kittens saw the inside cats for the first time.  Were they ever surprised, on both sides of the funny window-door!

I saw one of the inside cats run off, then come back with the human lady.  She was very happy to see my little family and told me what a good mama I am!  Then she got a funny-looking thing and set it up on the floor where the inside kitties have their food bowls.  I knew she wouldn't come outside without letting me know first, so I kept eating and one of my little ones joined me, discovering what kibble was for the first time.  The lady put something on the food container inside, then lay down on the floor!  She said she was going to take a video of us.




Later on last night, Tuxie and I came back with my kittens.  Tuxie's a good dad to my kittens, washing them and playing with them a bit, even though he looks at them like they just landed out of the blue sometimes.

My kittens are now about 8 1/2 weeks old.  I have one who looks like me, one with a classic marbled tabby pattern, and one who is white with tabby patches and reminds me of the inside kitty named Starla.  The little ones are very interested in the inside kitties, and go up to the window-door to look in and play by tapping their little paws on the glass.  Heimdall plays back, and tries to bat at their little tails as they run past the window!

Thankful Thursday: Kittens!

Welcome to your forever home, Heimdall and Freya!!!

We are proud to announce the arrival of our two newest family members!  These two littermates are 2 1/2 weeks old, born on (approximately) March 24, 2010.  Heimdall is a little boykit, named after the Norse god who is the gatekeeper to the Rainbow Bridge.  Freya is a little girlkit, named after the Norse goddess of love, beauty, wisdom, and the leader of the Valkyries (warrior maidens who ferried the souls of the dead), whose sacred symbol is the cat.

Our family was looking for one, possibly two, kittens to adopt, before Skylar got so sick.  Then, we all got too busy taking care of him, and our purrents thought it would be too much strain on the household to have kittens during that time as well.  So, they asked Skylar if, when he crossed to the Bridge, he would pick out a kitten to send to our family.

On Sunday, Mommy was looking at Petfinder.com at kittens in our area.  She and Daddy already knew they wanted a tuxedo kitten, in memory of Skylar, and probably a boykit would fit best with our family.  She narrowed down the choices, then saw the picture below:

Doesn't he look sooooo much like Skylar???  She just knew this was the kitten that we were supposed to adopt!  She told Daddy to look at the picture, and he agreed.  He looked at the other kittens at the shelter, and saw the following one:

Guess what???  She is the other kitten's littermate sister!  Just like Skylar and Lydia were littermate brother and sister!  Mommy and Daddy went down to Salem, OR, on Monday (the next day) to meet them.  The shelter is named Salem Friends of Felines, and we highly recommend it to everyone.  The kittens were in one room, free to play and jump, and the adult cats were in another room, also free to go wherever they wanted in their room.  The only ones who had cages were the sick ones or others needing veterinary care (one was recovering from a leg amputation).

Our purrents gave them their new names on the way home, and Freya proceeded to lick Mommy's hands through the carrier door.  Heimdall wanted in on the attention, too, so he pressed up against the door to get petted.  This, of course, started a wrestling match in the carrier!

When they got home, we all came out to investigate the new beings who were going to live with us.  Even Carbon likes them, and he usually doesn't consider kittens to be cats until they pass a year old!

Of course, Carbon also though the carrier was interesting!

Heimdall on the left and Freya on the right

Little kittens, big hallway!