Cat-O-Lympics

In honor of the Winter Olympics, one of my blogger friends is hosting her own Cat-O-Lympics - and even better, she's allowing dogs to compete!  So of course we had to enter a few of the events.  Since some of the pets pictured here have since been adopted, we do not expect these to be official entries, but thought it would be fun to share these pictures anyway. 

For the Bare Paw Fighting event, hosted by Milo and Alfie, we have Sedna attacking Venus:

Sadly, Venus was blinded by the flash of the camera and was unable to retaliate. 

For the Competitive Napping event hosted by Huffle Mawson, we have two entries. 
First is Reese, sleeping on the couch.

She's a most serious competitor, and enjoys sleeping in odd positions just about anywhere.

Second is Bear, the Puppy Bowl star, sleeping with his foot in the water bowl, on the floor of the car.

It's not that he wasn't supposed to be there.  It's just that there was a very comfortable dog bed on the back seat above him, and a human willing to cuddle him in the front passenger seat, and yet he choose to sleep on the floor in the back.  While the car was in motion.  Perhaps my mom's driving scared him. 

Our next event is the Synchronized Snoozing event hosted by The Island Cats. 

Our first entry is submitted by three previous foster cats - I think it was Astro, GiGi and Blaze.  They awoke right before I took this photo - just in time to glare at me for disturbing their rest. 

The second entry is Pepsi and Ginger, two previous foster puppies who often performed synchronized snoozing in various locations around the house.

The following entries would more appropriately belong in an event called Synchronized Sitting.  Since as of now this is not an officially sanctioned event in the Cat-O-Lympics, and I'm too lazy busy to set it up myself, I'll just post these pictures as an idea for future organizers to consider. 

Cute puppies - who can resist?  And who can get them to all look at the camera at the same time... with no assistant... and without breaking their lineup?

I'll give you a clue how I did it...it involved a hot tub and a laundry basket.

Another example of Synchronized Sitting is exhibited by George and Taffy. 

And the final event we'd like to enter is the High Jump Event hosted by Cats in Maryland.  I'm about 5' 6", so I estimate here that Remi jumped to over 6 foot.  Of course, his back feet were only a few inches off the ground - but he did the best he could. 

Lot of cat adoptions!

Many of my cat fosters were adopted this week! Blaze and Astro were adopted on Friday night, and Jester and Cheeto were adopted on Saturday. That just leaves me with Nacho (last orange kitten), Linguini (black cat hopefully being adopted by someone tomorrow!) and Doobie - a cat that I haven't even introduced yet. :-) I talked about Doobie before - he was taken by another volunteer when he was out of time at an area shelter, and now that I have room for him, he came to live with me until he can be adopted. I just got him a few days ago so I will get his picture and tell you more about him soon.

All of my foster dogs went to PetSmart on Saturday, but none of them were chosen to be adopted. We did have a couple other very exciting adoptions - Poppy, an older dog, was adopted! It's always good when one of our older dogs finds a home. Also Taz, another long-timer, was adopted. Taz has been waiting for his own home for a very long time - although he was spoiled to death in his foster home while he waited. :-) He had some problems with his ears so it took him a little longer to find a home. So our recent pattern of special needs and harder-to-place pets being adopted continues! I hope this happens for Kermit as well. Kermie, as I call him, is a special needs dog that has been in foster care for a very long time. He has a neurological disorder that makes it hard for him to keep his balance. I took him to my house late last week to see how he'd do in a new environment, with new dogs and cats, and to see if he could handle the stairs in our house. I'm happy to report he is doing wonderful. He gets along great with all the other dogs and cats, and he can even go up and down the stairs without a problem! He's had no accidents in the house at all - have I mentioned how nice it is to bring home a dog that's already house-trained? And he is so happy and friendly and easygoing. He hasn't fallen down and even though he walks a little bit funny, he is basically just a normal dog. So that's very exciting to know how well he can do when going into a new home - even one that has stairs - and I hope that he can find his own forever home soon. I will post a new picture of Kermit soon too.

Nice Day!

It was beautiful weather out today, and that may have been part of the reason that it was quiet at PetSmart - hopefully people were out enjoying the great weather before it ends. However it did mean that we didn't have a lot of luck at PetSmart, at least with dog adoptions. Penny, one of my favorite Heartland dogs, was adopted. She is a border collie mix, and very sweet. Also, Luke, a chocolate lab, and Hannah, a dachshund mix puppy were adopted. So all in all, it wasn't a bad day - although it would have been better (in my opinion) if Lacy or one of the lab/border collie puppies were adopted. Derby also is finally going to his new home tomorrow morning - hooray! I am hoping by next week to have Pepsi and Ginger ready for their first trip to PetSmart. Tomorrow I am determined to get pictures of them so I can get them on the website. And now I must end this, because Hunter is harassing Remi, Derby and Noelle are harassing Blaze, and I have no idea where Lacy is or what she's up to!

New Pictures

I came home tonight and found all three kittens sleeping on different levels of the cat tree, so I just had to take a picture and wake them up! :-) That's Astro on top, Buttercup in the middle, and Blaze in the hammock on the bottom.

This next picture is from about a week ago. I apologize for the poor photography, but once I get the camera out, the dogs always seem to think that means they should come stand directly on my feet to make sure I don't get a decent picture of them. So I had to take this quick, before Bailey moved. This is her and Astro curled up together in the crate. Both Astro and Blaze like to take naps in the dogs crates on a regular basis, so I think Astro was probably there first and Bailey decided to go join him for a nap. They were so cute together!

It's those cute moments, which happen several times a day, that make me put up with the not so cute moments. In this next picture, this is what I found when I got home from work one day last week. There was nothing else to do about it, so I just had to laugh!

My husband had left the animals upstairs while he went down to work in the basement, and the animals kept themselves busy deconstructing a dog bed! At first I thought it was probably Reese's doing - but then I realized the truth...

It was BLAZE!*

My friend Julie says that Blaze gets a bad rap, and that he's actually a wonderful cat. But now that you've seen the proof for yourself, can you really believe that?!

.

.

*Of course, I joke about this, but with my luck someone will visit my blog who was thinking about adopting Blaze, and decide not to because of my idea of humor! :-O

Remi, Bailey and Smitty

A lot has happened in the past week! But the story with Remi actually goes back several months. My stepdaughter was visiting for the summer, and she had these three magnetic bouncy balls, slightly smaller than a raquetball. They were fun to play with, and Remi thought so too. He grabbed one in his mouth and ran off with it. I ran after him into the living room, and asked him to "drop it". He likes to play a game where he refuses to drop something once he gets it. But this time, he immediately opened his mouth, and had nothing in it! I was right behind him, and didn't see the ball anywhere, but it was too big for him to swallow (wasn't it?) so I figured it must have rolled away. I checked under all the furniture, and everywhere it might have disappeared but couldn't find it! I was slightly worried, and told my husband what happened. He agreed with me that it was too big for Remi to swallow and I must just be overlooking it somewhere. I was still a little worried, but I kept an eye on him and he was fine. Well, it should be no surprise what they found in his stomach when they did the surgery - the missing ball! It took a few months to make him sick, but it appears that was the cause of his being ill. So they removed it, and he went home to recover. He's had a tough recovery - he had to go back to the vet on Friday because he had an infection and still wasn't moving or eating. But I'm happy to say that he's doing much better now. He is eating and walking around and appears on his way to a full recovery.

I only went to PetSmart for a short time on Saturday since Remi wasn't feeling well, but it was long enough for Bailey to find a home. I knew she would be adopted right away - we had several applications on her as soon as she was put on the website. She's just an adorable puppy! She went home with a family that has two other dogs and some very cute kids for her to play with.

I'd also like to introduce my newest foster, who's already been adopted. Weird, isn't it? I brought him home on Wednesday night, and he was adopted on Saturday afternoon. His name is Smitty, and he's an orange and white tabby cat. He's been on our website for awhile, and I just loved him from the moment I met him. He is one of those ultra-friendly cats that likes people, other cats, dogs, and pretty much everything. I thought he'd fit in perfectly at my house, so I asked his foster mom to let me take him home for awhile. It turned out to be a very short while, since we received a phone call on Saturday asking if someone could meet him. The lady who wanted him has several dogs and another cat, and also thought Smitty would be a perfect fit. She met him on Saturday afternoon, and just like me she fell in love and adopted him right then! So I only had Smitty a few days, but I want to add him to my blog so I never forget him. This is Smitty...

He did great at my house for the short time he was there. He got along great with the other kittens and with all the dogs. And I think my husband even liked him a little bit! Or at least he didn't dislike him as much as he dislikes the kittens. :-)

Speaking of kittens, I still have Blaze, Astro and Buttercup. Blaze is always the problem kitten - although I love him anyway! Now he's into his hair pulling stage. The more experienced cat foster moms advise me that he will outgrow this - I can't wait! But still he's ultra friendly and so laid back - I love that nothing ever phases him. Astro is my perfect kitten. He has the best expressions, and is just so cute! He likes to sleep in the dog crate on the fleece pad. He also has been known to curl up with Bailey on the dog bed. He's turned into a cuddly little guy, and I adore him. Buttercup is still very shy, but she's improved so much. She'll roam the house now and not worry too much about the dogs, but she is the first to run if a noise or something else startles her. She also loves to be petted but is still insecure about being picked up. I have to let her come to me on her terms in order for her to stick around and be petted. All in all, I have three pretty great foster kittens at the moment.

Pictures!

My husband took these pictures one day last week while I was at work. The dogs seem to be comfortable...

Bailey sleeping.


Remi sleeping - good thing he gets the loveseat to himself - no one else would fit!


Reese sleeping?!

I'm starting to wonder if he drugs them when I'm not there! :-)

Here is a picture of my newest foster - Lacy!


And here is another picture of Bailey - she's just so cute, I can't help but love her! We think she's a boxer mix, and almost 11 weeks old now.


This is a picture of my new toy. I bought it for the cats, but I have more fun watching them play on it than they probably do actually playing! :-) It's the coolest cat tree, with hammocks and ladders and hidey-holes and dangling mice, and its almost 7 feet tall!. All the kittens seem to enjoy it too!


Here is a new picture of Astro, my flood kitten. I love his expression in this picture!


Here is Blaze, being "king of the world".


Here is my newest kitten - GiGi! She is actually from another foster home, but they haven't had as much luck as I have getting their kittens adopted recently, and since I was down to just two, I offered to keep this one at my house until she finds a home. Isn't she pretty? She's the same age as Astro, and she's sooo friendly. She's brave enough to come out around all the dogs and cats, and just wants to lay in my lap and purr.

New Pictures

I took a few pictures at PetSmart last Sunday and thought I'd share them here....

This is Elvis - usually Sundays are just for cat adoptions, but he came up to be our "donation dog" since none of the cats can wear the donation vest. :-) I'm reading a very interesting book that talks about how to recognize your dog's emotions. It is called "For the Love of a Dog" by Patricia McConnell. It's amazing how much more I can understand about Elvis just from reading this book. For example, one of the signs of anxiety in dogs is if they keep their mouth closed and do "tongue licks" a lot. Elvis does this all the time - and now that I realize it, I have noticed he mostly does it when something is changing in his environment (my husband comes home from work, for example). I'm anxious to learn to "read" him better in order to help him be happier. I know some things to do for dogs who are anxious, but it doesn't do me any good if I don't know at the time that they ARE anxious! So this book is awesome. I'm definitely not a natural at reading body language and will need to work at it, and I'm glad to have a book to help me!

Here's a picture of Monkee. She is staying up at PetSmart while I'm on vacation, and I hope she finds a home while I'm gone. I'm wondering if she's going to turn out like Spock, my old cat. Spock would let my neice, or anyone else, pick him up and carry him around upside down or however they wanted, and he'd purr the entire time. Monkee has been picked up in an "uncomfortable way" by children a few times at PetSmart, and she just purrs and seems to enjoy it just like Spock!

This is Blaze - he used to be such a tiny kitten! Now he's getting to be bigger than my own cat George (and he looks a lot like him too). I keep saying one of these days I'm going to accidentally take George to PetSmart for adoption instead of Blaze. Blaze is awesome - he's stopped climbing up on people like they are trees, and is usually happy to just lay around now. Maybe he's starting to outgrow his kitten playful period? He has the most personality of all my cats - he just is this giant laid-back kitten, and nothing phases him. He doesn't seem to mind dogs, other cats, vaccum cleaners, or anything! He purrs whenever I pick him up and pet him, and likes to be held and cuddled for awhile, but then is happy just sitting back and watching the rest of the action. And not from the sidelines either - he'll lay down right in the middle of the living room floor and watch the action go on all around him! He's great. :-)

This is Tommy, another foster cat (not mine) waiting to be adopted. He's very soft and such a pretty cat. I like orange cats a lot - maybe because they remind me of Garfield (my favorite cartoon cat of all time). :-) If I ever foster an orange cat I'm going to have to name him Garfield. Hmmm... next time I foster a yellow (?!) dog I will have to name it Odie! :-)

And that's it for now! I leave tonight for the sunny shores of Florida, and maybe by the time I get back, one of my fosters will have a new home! I told them all good-bye before I left just in case.

Kitten Adoptions

Three of my kittens have found new homes! Ace, Apollo and Taffy were all adopted on Saturday. I now just have two left from each litter. Blaze and Monkee are the slightly older kittens, and then Astro and Avalanche are the two remaining flood kittens. I'm hoping to teach Monkee and Astro to be more friendly this week, and to teach Blaze to be less friendly. Avalanche is already perfect. Monkee and Astro just aren't that interested in cuddling, so I'm trying to teach them how nice it is to be held and petted. Blaze just needs to be taught that people are not supposed to be climbed like trees - he digs his claws in and climbs from the floor to the top of my head, and then digs his claws into my head. He does this to everyone he meets unfortunately. I know a little bit about dog training and dog behavior, but nothing about cats, so it is time for me to consult one of the cat foster moms and learn some new things!

None of the dogs were adopted this week, but they did do very well at Petsmart. It's always hard to guess how a dog will do if they've never been there. Some of them are quiet and shy, some are friendly and outgoing, and some of them are loud and upset. I was afraid that Jade would be one of the loud and upset dogs - barking at every person and every dog that walked by. But she actually did very well - she turned out to be one of the friendly, outgoing dogs! We put a donation vest on her to try to get some donations, and she happily greeted all the people and dogs, and had no problems. I was very relieved about that. The puppies of course also did great, and enjoyed playing with another puppy that was there to be adopted (Yosemite Sam, the last of Molly's puppies still waiting to be adopted). We didn't get any new puppies adopted this week though - the only dog adoptions were pre-arranged ones. Now I'm hoping that someone sees one of my puppies on the website this week and decides to adopt them, so they don't have to wait until next weekend to get another chance at a new home.

Kitten Pictures

I took more pictures of all my kittens to get them added to the website, so I'll share them here also. Here are my cat-napped kittens...

This is Monkee - she has such a cute little face, and her fur is soooo soft!

This is Taffy - she's my favorite - she always wants to jump up on my shoulders, and just stays there while I walk around the house doing chores.


This is Blaze. He's the only boy of this litter, and he is very friendly. I found him yesterday walking on Remi's back. Remi is my 150 lb Great Dane. Remi just looked at him like "Huh?! What's going on?!".


This is Ella - she's the mom of the first three kittens I fostered a couple months ago. She is still up at Petsmart and hasn't been adopted yet. :-(


Here is a picture of Ace - he's one of my flood kittens. He loves to play with feather toys, and will growl and play tug with it!


This is Apollo. He came back from the vet with this cute little bandana, and I can't bear to take it off of him! It has little mice and cheese on it.


This is Astro - he is my attack kitten. He loves to sneak up on and attack a small stuffed dog in the kitten's playroom. (Yes, my kittens have their own playroom -- they're a little bit spoiled.)

This is Avalanche. He's the tough guy kitten - he growls at the other kittens if they try to eat while he's eating canned food. Its a good thing he's so cute - its very hard to take him seriously with his little kitten growl!




Okay, back to dog news. We went to the Rascal's baseball game last night - it was one of their "Take your Dog to the Ballpark" nights. It was a lot of fun. My husband went with me, and we took Samantha and Vala. Then he decided to go back home and bring Remi up also. All the dogs had fun. Noah wanted to go, but we thought he might change his mind once he got there. He doesn't like all the people and noise, so he stayed home and watched over the kittens while we were gone. Vala and Sam got lots of attention. We had set up a table on the concourse, where we were able to talk to many people about Heartland, and met several people who had adopted their pets from Heartland in the past! Samantha collected donations in her "Donation Dog Vest" and we made around $40 in donations. All the dogs did great at meeting the people and even the other dogs. The only difficult part was that Samantha doesn't like the mascots. She would go crazy every time one came by -- and they have several mascots at that ballpark! But in spite of that, it was overall a very nice night. Their next game where you can bring your dog to the ballpark will be on Sunday, July 13th.

Introducing Noah, and new kittens

Here is a picture of Noah, the foster dog I brought home two nights ago.

He's such a sweet dog - he gets this really happy grin on his face sometimes that I just love to see. Last night I took him and Vala up to a "Party in the Park" event at Civic Park in O'Fallon. Noah wore an "Adopt Me" vest, and both dogs seemed to enjoy the park and meeting many new people. Noah is still very shy at times, especially with men. He loves to be outside, and I have to use really good dog treats to get him to come inside! He plays really well with Vala and Remi both. Last night they all three slept on the bed with me, along with my cat George. It was a little bit crowded, but I didn't mind. It's nice to foster such sweet loving dogs who are already house-trained! :-)

Here are some more pictures of Vala. She's such a loving dog - she has so much enthusiasm and just wants to be next to me all the time.

Next is one of my favorite pictures - my husband was trying to help me get a good picture of Vala, but she kept running up to me, so I asked him to hold her still. That worked, except she kept her ears back and I wanted her to put them up for the picture. So my husband tried to help me out by holding her ears up in the air. I almost couldn't stop laughing long enough to snap a picture. Vala puts up with so much from us sometimes! :-)

And finally, here are some pictures of my newest foster kittens, and my own cat George. First is Monkee, a female kitten with very unique markings.

Next is Blaze - a male kitten who looks like a smaller version of my own cat George.

And last is my cat George on the chair, and my last foster kitten Taffy (female) under the chair. Taffy looks a lot like her brother Blaze, but she has peach markings on the tips of her ears, her legs and the tip of her tail.