Kittens were Adopted!

It was a good weekend for my foster kittens, as they were all adopted and went home to new families. I will miss them, but I'm glad they have new families and can get the love and attention they deserve. Now I just have Ella, the mother cat left. She'll be ready for adoption in two or three weeks.

The dogs didn't have so much luck this week in finding new homes. We took seven dogs up to Petsmart, and none of them were adopted. My two foster dogs, Sam and Vala, are at the vet today being spayed and getting their rabies and tests to get ready for adoption. I will be taking them to PetSmart next weekend for adoptions.

Foster Cat Update

The kittens went to the vet yesterday to get ready for adoption on Saturday. They were neutered and microchipped and given shots. They also all received clean bills of health, including testing negative for FIV and FeLV. I was very relieved! Now the hard part - I have to keep them separated from the mother cat. I feel so cruel doing that! But I know its in their best interests. First, the mother cat needs it so they stop nursing, because she can't be spayed and get ready to get adopted for a few weeks after that. Also, since the new kittens could be going to a new home as soon as this weekend, they need to get used to being without their mom. I still let them "visit" when I can watch them, but I think this will be a more gradual way for them to get used to being on their own. My little boys are growing up! :-) I am glad they will be adopted soon though because they need more human contact than I can give them. Since I have to keep them quarantined from my animals, and since I don't want Remi to eat them, they stay in an extra bedroom. The cats are all glad to see me when I come in, but especially the mother cat. I like to think its because they like me - not just because I sometimes bring them canned food when I come in.

Here is their latest picture, which will be added to the Heartland website soon:

And here's one of Ella. I have put in several different cat beds, in addition to the regular bed in the room, but she prefers to lay in the middle of the floor on the carpet. :-)
Here are the kittens right after they woke up one morning.
And here they are during one of their "play sessions" that they have whenever they aren't sleeping!

Dog and Cat Update

First, an update on the cats. Since I'm new to fostering cats, I am turning into an overprotective mom who always thinks they're about to "kick the bucket". :-) I've heard a lot about the dangers facing kittens, and naturally assume that my kittens are facing all of those dangers! So this morning I took the kittens and Ella (mother cat) up to the vet to get them checked out. They didn't have an appointment for another week, but I was concerned about them having something called "coccidia" which can potentially be fatal for kittens. The vets office fit me in right away and did some tests to make sure my cats were healthy. They didn't have any deadly parasites, although they did find ear mites and are now on medicine for that. So I'm glad I took them in, and relieved they're going to survive. :-) The kittens are glad to be back home, and although they aren't crazy about the medicine they're getting, I am sure they'll feel much better once those icky ear mites are gone. Yet another reason to get your cat from a rescue group instead of a "free to good home" ad -- the rescue volunteers already take care of all the icky and dangerous problems that many kittens start out with!

On to the dogs - well, dog, in this case. I didn't bring home another foster last week - I decided it would be nice to have a week off. It has nothing to do with the cats I'm fostering, but I've been planning to get back down to only one dog foster at a time for awhile. My own dog Remi has had some behavioral issues lately and I want to focus more on working with him. Also, Selena is such a high energy dog, she requires more exercise and attention, which is harder to provide with another foster in the house. So since I promised her a long walk last night, and was feeling lazy, I decided to compromise with a trip to the dog park instead. I was surprised there were not more people there, but it was probably a good thing since Selena decided she wanted to be "dominant dog" at the dog park. Maybe she is starting to gain confidence from being at our house - I'm not sure why - but when another dog tried to dominate her, she refused to put up with it. So, to prevent any fights from breaking out, we left the park and went for a hike instead. She still got the long walk I promised her, and I got an opportunity to enjoy the beautiful weather and work a lot on her "sit-stay" commands during the walk.

When I left my house this morning to go to work, I saw a dog trotting along the sidewalk. I expected a person to be following close behind, but there was no one there! I walked out to the sidewalk and called the dog, but he didn't seem to hear me and just kept right on going. He was a beautiful dog - probably a Chow Chow mix - and looked a little like a bear. He also looked in bad shape - his tail looked mangled and he looked as though he may have been in a fight or been abused. I tried to circle around in front of him to see if he just couldn't hear and didn't know I was there. He looked at me then but didn't slow down or come over to me. So, since I couldn't just let him go, I tried to circle around widely in front of him to see if he'd come to me. He just headed off in another direction, so I gave up. I briefly considered trying to catch him - he seemed hurt and I hated to let him go - but even though he didn't appear aggressive, I knew that could turn out to be a very bad idea, so I didn't try. I went in and called the police Animal Control unit, then grabbed some treats and went back out in my car to try to find him. I didn't have any luck finding him though, and I doubt Animal Control did either. I finally gave up and headed to work, after leaving out a water dish and some treats in case he happened to come back. I have been worried about him all day. I checked for lost pet ads online and looked for posted signs on my way to work but haven't found anyone who is looking for him. I hope someone is able to find him and help him.

Kitten Names, Update on Ernie

I named the kittens last night. My niece Darby came up with the name for the mother cat - her name is Ella. The dark-brown kitten looks a little like a fuzzy bear. I named him Ewok, after the little brown bear-like creatures from Star Wars. The gray kitten doesn't look anything like a donkey, but he is the same color as Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh, so he is named Eeyore. And the jet black kitten is named Eclipse. They'll probably not learn these names, and get new names when they get adopted - but I wanted to give them names other than Cat1, Cat2, and Cat3 , which is what my husband was voting for.

I'll get a better family photo later, but here's a picture that at least has all four cats in it. That's Eeyore and Eclipse in the front, with Ella behind them and Ewok way back in the corner. They are sooo soft and fuzzy!

And since this is a DOG foster blog, I have to add something about my dogs. :-) We're hating all this rain, since it turns the yard into a big mud puddle, and the dogs stay cooped up inside most of the time. But Selena and Ernie are both handling it well - patiently waiting for the weather to get better. Selena loves the outdoors, and can happily spend hours outside on her own. Even the rain doesn't bother her much. Ernie doesn't like the rain, and when he gets wet, his hair all gets spiked up - he looks like he has a full body Mohawk. Last night Ernie spent the night sleeping in our bed. Usually he stays in his crate at night because we're still working on housebreaking, but I wanted some company last night, and he is like having a giant teddy bear to sleep with. He curled up next to me to keep me warm, and stayed there all night. He is such a sweet dog - he's definitely a foster dog I selfishly don't want to get adopted.

A trip to the dark side...

Yesterday, one of the Heartland volunteers took me on a tour of many of the area animal shelters. It was very interesting to see the difference between a good shelter and a not-so-good shelter, and the different ways that animal shelters and rescues work. Some of them take great care of their animals, and work hard to get them good homes with adopters or rescues. Others are simply warehouses, holding the animals for the required number of days before they can be euthanized. You may think that “A trip to the dark side” refers to visiting these animal shelters – but it actually refers to the cat and three kittens I brought home with me at the end of the day. I’m a dog foster mom, not a cat foster mom! But who could resist such fluffy cute little kittens?! The animal shelter wanted us to take them – apparently kittens often don’t do as well in a shelter, where they have a greater possibility of getting diseases from other animals. The other volunteer agreed to take them, but wasn’t sure who would be able to foster them. Well, I have an empty room in my house – and the cats are really not much work. So I brought them home with me. They’re living in my daughter’s bedroom now – quarantined from my own cat and the dogs. They’ll stay there for a few weeks until they’re ready to be adopted.

So now I’m the proud foster mom of a beautiful tortoiseshell mama cat and her three kittens. The kittens are all boys, and none of them look like their mom. One is all grey, very fluffy and soft. The second one is a dark brown, almost black color. He’s just as fluffy and soft as his brother, and he loves to play the most. He’ll play with a feather toy, or other toys, and if no toys can be found, he’ll pounce on his mom’s tail! The third one is all black, and not quite as fluffy as the others. He is the least likely to play, and is happy just laying next to his mom and watching his brothers. He is adorable – when he gets scared, he’ll bare his teeth like he’s hissing at me – but he never tried to claw or bite me. And he doesn’t make any sound – just this funny face that is supposed to be mean but looks silly on such a cute little kitten. The mama cat is so sweet – even when she was hiding under the bed and I pulled her out, she growled a little but didn’t scratch me or try to bite me. My cat would’ve been fighting to get away, but she didn’t fight at all. She is very friendly and purrs a lot. Now that she knows me, she’ll come up to me and wrap around my legs to get attention. I need to come up with names for them soon!

As for the dogs, they know there are a few more cats in the house, but they’re blocked by doors and baby gates, so they can’t get close enough to meet each other. The kittens will probably be adopted before they ever meet the dogs, but if the mama cat is not adopted right away, once her kittens are gone and she’s been tested and processed, I may introduce her to my cat and the dogs. In the meantime, the dogs just hear the cats now and then, and watch me disappear into the hallway occasionally. As much as I love playing with the kittens, I don’t want to take time away from the dogs – they need me the most. Selena and Ernie are both doing great. They love to play together, and will do almost anything for a treat-filled Kong toy. They’ve become good friends, and I know they’ll really miss each other when one of them is adopted.

PICTURES OF THE CATS:

The gray kitten...

The dark brown kitten...

The black kitten...

Mamma cat


Play time...