Ariel & Aladdin were Adopted; Frazier

Two of my kittens were adopted this week - Ariel and Aladdin from the Disney litter found homes. I've been busy taking care of my fosters, so another volunteer has agreed to write something to keep you all entertained. :-) Here is a post about one of my favorite Heartland foster dogs - Frazier!

Frazier is a one year old Plott Hound / Beagle mix. He was found as a stray and had a broken leg. It turns out it was not a simple break – but a break at the head of his femur, requiring surgery to allow Frazier to keep his leg.

He has recovered from the surgery well, but he had lost a lot of muscle in the leg before he was rescued. Now he must go through a period of rehab to re-build the muscle and gain strength in his leg. A very kind friend of his foster mom told her about Healing Paws Rehab. She had taken her own dogs there and was very impressed with their program. She donated the first three visits to help get Frazier’s treatment underway.

As you can see he walks on the underwater treadmill to exercise the muscle as he walks against the resistance of the water. They also taught walk on the treadmill and he does it in his foster home every day as well.

Frazier will need about 6 weeks of rehab therapy. If possible, please consider donating to his care.

Frazier is a very friendly, happy little guy. He loves everyone and gives the best kisses ever. He is so cute when he picks up the morning paper to carry it into the house. He is cratetrained and housetrained. He will be available for adoption as soon as he builds a little more muscle in the leg.

Pictures of fosters

Finally took some quick photos of my fosters. Here are the four Disney kittens. Aurora, the tortoiseshell, is the biggest cuddler of the group. Ariel, the gray tabby with a white face, is the most outgoing, and possibly the fastest of the group. Anastasia is the loudest. She always cries out like she's being killed when I pick her up. But she's really very sweet most of the time - she cuddles up with me for naps. Aladdin, the only boy, is the best climber of the bunch - he can climb up on anything. This morning one of the kittens (I forget which one) climbed onto Emma's face. Fortunately she didn't mind... but that might be where the cut under her eye came from (and here I've been blaming Noelle or Remi).

Here are some new pictures of Emma. She's been shaved so she looks kind of silly, but her hair is starting to grow out, so she doesn't look as silly as she did at first. Or maybe I'm just getting used to the way she looks.

Here are Emma and Noelle playing. They love to wrestle and chase each other. In the second picture, Noelle is rolling over after Emma knocked her down and ran away. They really love each other. :-)

I met some semi-feral kittens last night. They're the opposite of my kittens, who've been bottle fed and are used to humans. These guys were not happy about being touched, and even though they weigh less than a pound, they were still scary! It makes me appreciate my super-affectionate kittens even more. It also makes me appreciate those cat foster homes who take on scary semi-feral kittens and turn them into loving affectionate kittens. Give me a fear-aggressive dog over a feral cat any day! You may laugh at the thought of being scared of a 1-pound kitten, but they can be pretty ferocious! Here's an example from Anastasia, who doesn't like being photographed...

Shiro and Una were adopted!!

I'm excited to report that two of my foster cats were adopted. Shiro and Una are brother and sister - Pixie Bob/Desert Lynx mix. They went home last night with a great new family - a mom and two children who are so excited to have two new family members.

I'm also cautiously hopeful that Whisper will be going home tomorrow. I am planning to meet her new mom at PetSmart to do the adoption tomorrow afternoon, and I hate to announce it before it actually happens, but I've talked with her new mom several times and she is very excited to come get her and take her home. Whisper has been waiting such a long time in foster care (well over a year) and I really hope this works out for her!

Updates on my other fosters:
Scribbles is my tortie cat who has an attitude and doesn't like other cats, or dogs, or being at PetSmart, which is where she is currently living. If anyone knows of a single adult who has no other pets, Scribbles will be a wonderful pet - she is loving and affectionate and a purring lap kitty who is very sweet when she's not unhappy. The problem is she doesn't show well at PetSmart because she is unhappy, and yet she is also very unhappy living in foster care with other dogs and cats. I try not to take in animals who are going to be unhappy in foster care, but the person who gave me Scribbles said she was good with other cats and okay with dogs. Oh well - at least she has somewhere safe to live until the right home comes along. And if anyone who doesn't have dogs is interested in fostering Scribbles, please let me know. You get a free cat with free food and medical care - not a bad deal. ;-)

Marco and Polo are my two long-haired all white beautiful cats. They shed EVERYWHERE but they're so friendly and affectionate that its a small price to pay for their company. Marco has been getting Clavamox (an antibiotic) since he had a dental and he's finally done with that - good thing since he hated it! At least he's deaf so he couldn't hear me coming with the medicine. ;-)

My four Disney kittens are almost ready for adoption. They were supposed to be ready last Saturday but had coccidia, so they're getting daily medication for that. Hopefully they'll be ready in another week. I want them to have a chance to get adopted while they're so small - but I have to admit, I love having them around. They are so cute! And everytime I go anywhere near them, they immediately start purring.

Noelle is doing good - with her typical happy-go-lucky attitude. She gets into everything, and nothing ever bothers her. If I take away the sock she's chewing on, she just walks over and gets a book to chew. I take that away, and she walks over to find a pillow to chew on. Each time I give her a dog toy to chew on instead, but she just looks at me like "why would I want that?" and finds something else that's forbidden to chew on. She's impossible, and yet so funny that you can't help but laugh at her. Her funniest thing, which I keep meaning to videotape, is when I put down a bowl of food, she'll run from the food dish back to me, wagging her tail and licking me, then turn and run back to the food, take a few bites, then back to me. I've never had another dog do that, and I can't figure out why she does it. She does it with Dave too whenever he feeds her. Maybe she just wants us to know how grateful she is for the food!

Emma is improving every day. She's doing very well with housetraining. I am always leery of saying any dog is house-trained, at least until they've gone a couple of months without an accident, but so far she hasn't had any accidents in the past couple weeks, so she seems to be getting the idea. She's also stopped jumping up on me as much, although I think Noelle taught her how to put her paws up on countertops and find good things that way, so we still have some work to do. She's going to PetSmart this weekend and several people are supposed to come meet her so I am hopeful that she'll be adopted soon!

Artemis was adopted!; Introducing Ariel, Anastasia, Aurora & Aladdin

I didn't post it earlier, but my foster cat Artie was adopted a couple weeks ago. I visited him in his new home a few days ago, and he is doing great! He has a wonderful family, and another cat named Louie to play with. He has been renamed Luckee, and I think it fits him, since he was lucky to find such a great family.

With the help of some other Heartland volunteers, I've named my new kittens after Disney princesses and princes. Here are some pictures of my newest fosters:

Aurora is a tortoiseshell. I joke about how I am not a fan of tortie's, due to some of them being known for a "tortie attitude", but so far I have to admit that Aurora is my favorite of the bunch!

Ariel is a gray tabby with a white face. She is usually the first one to find the food dish. All of the kittens are eating very well now - they are incredibly messy, but oh so cute!

This is Anastasia - she is the only one that dives headfirst into the food dish and lays in it while she eats. Yuck!

The only boy in the group - this is Aladdin. He is the climber of the bunch - he is the first to climb up to the top of the cat playpen, and often the only one to go up there and sleep on the top shelf while his sisters stay safely on the bottom floor.

Once the kittens are done making such a huge mess while they eat, Lucy, one of my foster dogs, is happy to step in and help with the cleanup. She'll lick the kittens faces through the bars, and they'll push their faces against her tongue to make sure they get all clean. Then everyone is happy!

Boo was adopted!

I miss her a lot, but I'm really glad that Boo found a home with a wonderful family and another dog to play with. They were originally hoping to adopt Noelle, so I took her to meet them on Friday. However, Noelle decided she wasn't crazy about their current dog, so we decided that perhaps Boo would be a better fit. We were all sad that Noelle didn't work out, but it is a great home for any dog so I'm glad that they decided to give Boo a chance instead. And Boo did great with their other dog, so hopefully it will be a perfect fit.

While I was at PetSmart, a family came by and asked if we could help with some kittens they were caring for. The kittens' mother had been killed, so they had been bottle feeding the kittens, and they were finally old enough to begin eating on their own. It's been a long time since I fostered kittens, so of course I had to take them! I will post pictures of them tomorrow!