Updates on Tigress and Tabby

Tabby writes:

Mommy's making sure I eat something, but I don't want to!  She's force-feeding me canned food, but she can only get 1/2 teaspoon into me at a time before I absolutely refuse and spit the glob out.  I'm keeping the food down (except for once yesterday morning), but it's not tasting or smelling good to me.  We're hoping for the results of my blood test back on Monday.  The vet's office was supposed to tell us on Friday, but they didn't call, so my purrents will call on Monday to see what's going on with the results.  Thanks for all your purrs, prayers, and well-wishes!

Tigress writes:

I had a very scary couple of days!  I was inside in that trap thing for a few hours, then the humans picked me up and put me into a car.  I've never been in a car, and I was taught to stay well away from roads when I was still a very young kitten.  Being this close to humans is new to me, too, even though I'd seen them on the other side of the glass before.  The humans took me to a vet place, called the Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon, where they left me!  There were other cats in traps, and they were as scared and confused as I was.  We all were so quiet, except for a couple screaming cats, because we were so scared.  Since we'd all lived outside, we knew that silence was the key to being invisible.

It didn't work this time.  I was picked up again in the trap and carried somewhere, then given a shot.  I suddenly felt very sleepy!  When I woke up, I had been poked a couple more times (vaccinations), had part of my right ear gone (to mark me as a fixed, cared-for feral), and had been cut open then glued shut!  I had also been shaved on my belly.

While I was under anesthesia, the vet discovered that I was pregnant.  Mommy and Daddy had thought I might be, probably two or three weeks along, but made the decision to go ahead with my spay anyway.  They said that I would be much healthier that way, and not have to have all the stress of young motherhood.  It was a heart-wrenching decision for them, especially for Mommy, but they feel that it was for the best.  With the kittens, I was 9.1 pounds before my spay.

The humans came and took me back home.  I'm a very good car cat, actually, and they were really proud of me.  I didn't sing in the car, just watched everything going by.  Seatbelts are the most interesting part of the car!  I had gotten one of my claws caught in the trap wire, so I was bleeding a little from that, but it stopped right away.  I've got two extra toes on my right front paw and three extra on my left front paw, so it's no wonder I got one caught.

Yesterday, I was recovered more from the anesthesia, and wanting out of that trap!  I tried and tried to find a way out, especially after I peed on the newspaper.  My sister came inside to check on me and was trying to help me get out, but neither of us could find the way to open the trap.  Finally, Mommy took the trap outside and let me go.  I slithered out and zoomed under the deck, while my sister mewed happily.  I was back in a few hours for dinner, though!

Tigress back outside after recovering from her spay.  Notice her eartip.

Tigress is trapped, and that's a good thing!

Tigress writes:

Hi, Striped Girl here, although I've got a real name now.  I'm named Tigress!  The daddy chose my name.  A couple days ago, this strange wire box reappeared on top of our eating place on the deck.  My sister wasn't afraid of it, so she went right in to eat and I followed her.  There was yummy soft food in the wire box, so that wasn't too bad.  I was nervous about it, but my sister wasn't, and I trust her judgement.

Turns out it was a trap!  Literally!  This morning, when I went to eat, my sister was already inside the house visiting with everyone.  The mommy put the yummy soft food in the wire box and called me, so I went in to eat.  At first, it was fine, because the plate was close and I could reach the food easily.  I stepped forward two paws to get a chunk of food that had fallen in back of the paper plate, and SNAP went the trap door!  I freaked out, tried to get out, called for my sister in my loudest voice, but nothing worked.

The mommy came outside, put a towel over the trap, and picked it up with me inside!  I was so scared, more scared than I've ever been in my life!  Then, all of a sudden, I realized there were other cats around me, cats that I had seen and smelled before.  Rori came and lay down beside the trap once the mommy put it down, reassuring me by her presence that this is a house where cats are welcome.  She told me that it is safe in here and that everyone loves me.  I calmed right down.  Then, another cat came over.  His name is Heimdall, and he kind of scared me at first, because he jumped on top of the trap!  I wasn't sure what was going on, so I held very still, but then I realized that he was just sniffing me.

Heimdall and Rori investigating me and reassuring me.

Ack!  Heimdall's on top of the trap!

My sister was startled to see me in the trap, because it reminded her of when she was trapped.  She wanted outside again, so the mommy let her out.  Two minutes later, she wanted back in.  She then came over to me and showed me one of her favorite toys, called a Crazy Circle.  It's a ball that goes around each time you bat at it.  I've never had any toys that didn't smell of the outdoors, so I watched this new thing closely.  My sister tried to give it to me by pushing it against the trap wall, but I couldn't get to it through the wire.  She lay down against the wall and batted the ball around so I could see how it worked.

The mommy says I'm going to go to the vet place later on today to get spayed.  I'll be trapped in this wire box for the weekend while I heal, then I'll get to go back outside to my home.

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?

Squishy squished :(

Squishy writes:

I'm stuck in the litter box room! Foster Mommy and Foster Daddy won't let me out, no matter how much I tell them I want out! Mama and brother aren't doing a thing about it, either; they're playing like nothing is the matter! They came in to check on me once, but now they are acting normal!

Foster Daddy first noticed me squishing (what they call diarrhea) on Sunday afternoon. He didn't think anything of it then, except to clean it up. By the time Foster Mommy got up from her nap, her comforter had to be washed because I was up there. She put me in confinement!

A couple hours later, Foster Daddy gave me a bath. It felt so good to be clean, and I was very well behaved during my bath. But then it started up again. :( I can't help it, and can't feel when it starts, so I don't use the box for it except sometimes.

Foster Mommy gave me a roundworm dewormer and will get tapeworm tabs today. She took me to the vet and I got to meet all the nice people there. I also got to meet the cat I am named after! He's so big and fluffy! He only has one eye, but he's so nice; he sniffed me and I sniffed him, then he sniffed me some more. The receptionist got a few pictures of us together and will e-mail them to Foster Mommy when she gets a chance. They all were so happy to meet me: Squishy Jr., and to know that their Squishy has someone named for him! Dr. Bob had my fecal sample (which I gave while waiting for my appointment) sent for testing, and will have the results sometime today.

Foster Mommy writes:

We learned something with this! Do not put a cat (especially a kitten) with diarrhea in a room with a clay-litter-filled box. They will get it stuck in their fur, paw pads, everywhere, and it will take a good bath and stiff brushing to get it out! We stopped on the way back from the vet to get World's Best litter and switched the box immediately upon arriving back home. Now the others have the clay litter in their box and the bathroom box has the corn.

Little Bit had a big adventure!

Wow! I am NEVER doing THAT again! There were people working on a house down the street, putting new siding on it, and I thought I'd go over and say hi, maybe get a few of them to pet me and pay attention to me. They had the door to a big building open, so I followed them in. THEY LOCKED ME INSIDE and left! I guess they didn't see little me walk in behind them. I was in there for two days BY MYSELF! I screamed and screamed, but no one came and got me. I was very scared, and I climbed all over and got into things trying to find a way out. I had thought it was a house, but no house would be that dark or not have people in it!

Then, finally, I heard a voice that I recognized. It was the man from the green house, the one where my sister now lives as a foster kitten. I got excited and screamed very loudly. He and another man opened the door and called to me. I yelled back. The man that I knew meowed back to me, so we talked for a few minutes. I finally stepped out where he could see me. He called me by name, so I came over to him, and he scooped me up and carried me into his yard and house. I purred and purred! They had been hearing me scream, but the person who owned the "shop" (huge shed/garage) where I was trapped hadn't heard me. So the man had gone over to see if he could open the door and find whoever it was who was trapped. And they found ME and got me OUT OF THERE!

I went into the green house and told my sister Smokey about my adventure, then spent a long time eating. I was STARVED! I screamed for a bit, but the lady and the man petted me and talked to me, telling me that I was ok now. Then they let me back out into the yard. I was last seen running back home, probably to tell my momma all about my adventure too.