Penguin and Puffin were adopted!

Two of my three tuxedo kittens have now been adopted!  There were some other happy endings at PetSmart today as well.  Fancy, a cute hound mix dog, went home with this very nice lady. 

And remember Champ?  He went with me to the JDRF walk this year.  He's now been adopted!   Obviously his bandana worked for him.  I think the adorable look on his face might have had something to do with it too. 

I also spoke with some nice people who had found a puppy that someone dumped on the side of the road.  They took the puppy home and have been caring for him, and now they're going to foster him through All Paws Rescue until he finds a permanent home.  They stopped by today and I took these adorable pictures of Joker and his girl.  He should be ready for adoption in a few weeks, so if you're interested in adopting him, you can fill out an online application here. 

 

Scaredy-dogs and brave kittens

Recently I had the chance to dog-sit Murphy, my favorite dog in the world.  Please don't tell my dogs - Remi and Noelle don't know they aren't my favorites. Although they might have figured it out after Murphy got here and I proceeded to ignore them in favor of Murphy for most of the weekend. I know, I'm a bad dog owner - but it's Murphy!  Did I mention he's my favorite dog in the world? His family is kind enough to keep me updated on him and let him stay with me occasionally when they go out of town (and they keep paying me, even though I would pay THEM for the privilege of watching Murphy!).

Murphy is kind of camera shy, so when I got out my camera to take a picture of him laying on the couch with Remi, he got up and ran to his crate where he feels safe.  There's just no privacy in my house though - Merlin and the kittens thought that would be an excellent time to get a drink of water from Murphy's water bowl. 

Murphy is VERY camera shy.  He normally enjoys a fun game of chase-the-cat, but in this case, there's no way he was going to come out of his crate with the camera pointed in his direction.  In fact, Penguin the kitten felt so safe there that he decided to settle down and take a nap.

Update on my fosters - Part 2

As promised, here is the update on the cats currently living in my house. 

Merlin - My orange tabby cat - I still think he's the best cat in the world. Sometimes he comes in my room at night and sleeps on my pillow, and sometimes he doesn't, and I really miss him on the nights that he finds better things to do. I found out he's afraid of children. So he has something in common with Lizzy. The only difference is when he sees children, he runs away and hides, whereas Lizzy, well, Lizzy doesn't.

Gandalf - Another orange tabby cat. He looks like Merlin, but he's not Merlin. He's very affectionate though, and he likes to stand on my keyboard and nudge my face so I can't breathe, until I pet him. If you ever get an e-mail with something like this in the text: ae;oq12a f, that was most likely Gandalf's fault.

Artemis - A gorgeous black cat. Artie is doing very well - he's finally used to all the dogs, and comes upstairs to hang out all the time. He still likes to sleep in his "cat area" downstairs though. He is the only cat I've had that my husband actually likes. I caught my husband Dave petting Artie the other day, and Dave said "Why couldn't you adopt this one instead of that other one." And it was obvious from the tone of his voice what he thought of "that other one" (Merlin).

Scribbles - My crabby cat has been getting braver lately. I feel so sorry for her in solitary confinement that I've started leaving her door open recently. So she comes out and hisses at the puppies, and then runs back to the safety of her room. The puppies are safe from her in their ex-pen - lucky for them. I never heard from the people who inquired about her, so I guess she's still waiting for someone to want her.

Orca, Penguin and Puffin - The little tuxedo kittens just don't want to grow. They have to be two pounds before they can get spayed/neutered at the vet, and last night I weighed Puffin and she was 1.91 pounds. She's so close! I've been giving them canned food every day, and they always have dry food out, so I don't know what else I can do. Well, someone suggested tying little fishing weights to their collars - but I thought that might be cheating.

 
So that's the story on my animals.  For now.  I have plenty of cats, a few too many dogs, and no space for emergency returns.  But Artemis and Dodger should be moving on to other foster homes soon, and hopefully the puppies will be ready for adoption by next week, so that will help.  I will be taking Lizzy, Dodger, Gandalf and Artemis to adoptions this weekend.  I don't have high hopes for any of them getting adopted, but stranger things have happened, and it's worth a try to find them their very own homes.

Trey and Keisha were adopted!!

Trey and Keisha each found wonderful new homes yesterday.  They of course got a lot of attention at PetSmart, but I was holding them for two people who had seen them on the All Paws website and each put in an application online.   The families were both able to come meet them at PetSmart yesterday and decided to adopt them.  Not a surprise considering how sweet they both are! 

Kitten Update
My foster kittens went to the vet on Friday but they're still too little to be spayed/neutered, so they have to wait another couple of weeks before they're ready for adoption.  I'm going to have to start giving them treats to fatten them up!  Even though they're nine weeks old, the girls only weigh 1.5 pounds and the boy only weighs 1.8 pounds - these guys are tiny!  They're doing well though.  Orca is the demanding one - she reminds me of Anastasia (previous foster kitten) because she likes to make her desires known by meowing loudly until I do what she wants.  She has me well trained.  Puffin is the quiet one - she kind of hangs back and watches the others before she tries anything new.  Penguin is the explorer of the group.  He's always the first to climb the highest or jump the farthest or explore strange new worlds (like the living room). 

Introducing Orca, Penguin and Puffin

I know, the names are silly.  But I like having a kitten named Penguin.  And this way all three kittens have names of sea creatures that are black and white, just like them.  At least until they're adopted, when their new families will no doubt rename them!

This is Penguin.  He's the only boy of the group.  I can tell him apart from the others because he has a little black "mustache" right under his nose.  I got these kittens from a nice lady who saved them after they were born to a feral momma cat.  Now hopefully she can get the momma cat trapped and spayed so she won't have any more babies in the future. 

This is Orca.  She has more black on her face than the other two, so it's easy to tell her apart.  Her and her littermates are very sweet and affectionate.  They're only about 7 weeks old, so I'll have to wait another week or so until they're old enough to be spayed/neutered. Right now they're very tiny!

This is Puffin.  She's my favorite of the litter (don't tell the other two!)    A friend of mine made some wonderful cat and dog bed covers for me.  They are great especially for kittens and puppies, because I can cover a dog or cat bed to give them somewhere comfortable to sleep, and then easily remove the cover for washing without having to wash the entire bed every time.  Puppies and kittens can find danger in the most innocuous things though.  Puffin somehow managed to get under the elastic edge of the cover and got stuck between the cat bed and the cover.  Poor kitten - I think she was stuck there for quite awhile before I found and untangled her. 

These three black/white kittens fit right in with most of the rest of my animals.  Do you notice a theme?

Remi - my Great Dane

Delta - my foster Lab/Boxer puppy

Noelle - my pit bull mix

Lizzy - my foster Border Collie mix

Artemis - my foster cat

 It's hard to tell from the pictures, but Noelle has some black spots on her, and even Artemis has a small patch of white on his chest.  Okay, it's probably too small to be called a patch of white.  Maybe a few stray white hairs would be more accurate.  Nonetheless, all of the above pets at my house are black and white! 

Okay fine, I admit I have a few that aren't black and white.  Non-black and white pets need love too.  So Merlin (my cat) and Gandalf and Scribbles (foster cats) are very much loved even though they aren't pictured above.  And tonight I'm picking up two more dogs that I agreed to take sight unseen, so I'm pretty sure they're going to ruin my black and white theme as well.  That's okay - I'll love them anyway.