Cat Update

  

Chip



I'd just like to say that it wasn't my fault.  I'm not the one who rescued these two kittens. I was just trying to be nice, and since I had to take one of my fosters to the vet, I offered to take these two kittens in for another foster mom.

It's not her fault either.  She took these kittens in the day before, from someone who found them living outside and begging for food.  She just accepted my offer, and planned to take them right back as soon as they got checked out by the vet. 



Dale



It's not the kittens' fault either.  They're just typical, adorable, sweet, purring kittens.  I can resist kittens.  Even when they purr.  I'll tell you whose fault it is.  It's the vet's fault.  They were running late, and kept me waiting for half an hour.  I have a lot of self-control, but being stuck in a small room with two purring kittens for half an hour is more than even I could resist.  Thirty minutes after arriving in the office, I called the original foster mom and offered to take the kittens back home with me.  That is how I ended up fostering Chip and Dale.  Not my fault at all. 



In addition to Chip and Dale, I am also fostering the following cats:



Belle, the FIV positive cat with very soft fur.  She likes me, and she likes other people, and she puts up with other cats, but she doesn't much care for the dogs. Every night she waits for me at the door to her room and meows until I give her treats.  She's very good at begging.

Lovey - the FIV positive cat who pretends she's not a tortie.  She is one of the sweetest cats I've ever met.  We've been struggling to get some health issues cleared up, so she's been on various medicines and different foods, and in spite of it all she still acts..well....lovey. I am starting to understand why she was named this.  She does great with other cats, isn't crazy about the dogs but does okay with them, and does great with all people. 

Lily - Originally named Lightning (as part of the Tornado litter), Lily was adopted out to a family along with her brother Thunder.  The resident cat in that home didn't particularly care for Lily, and Lily likewise showed her displeasure by refusing to use the litter box.  After confirming that there was no medical cause, Lily came back to us and immediately returned to having perfect litter box habits.  So Lily is now looking for a home where she will be a better fit.  In addition to being beautiful she's also very sweet and loving.  Lily is staying up at PetSmart for a few weeks and hopefully she'll find a new home quickly! 

Many of our cats have the opportunity to stay up at PetSmart for a few weeks at a time.  This gives shoppers a chance to visit them and often causes them to be adopted much more quickly than when they're living in a foster home.  Volunteers come in each day and take care of all the cats, scooping litter boxes and providing love and affection and playtime.  If you're in the St.Charles, MO area and are interested in volunteering your time one morning or evening a week, please contact me!  Or if you're in another area, consider contacting your local PetSmart or PetCo store to see if they have adoptable cats and need assistance.

Chip, Capri, Mercury and Solara were adopted!

I am still smiling - four of my foster pets found their very own homes on Saturday! I'm very happy for them. Chip, my foster puppy, was pre-arranged and his new mom had anxiously been waiting for him to be old enough to be neutered and get vaccinated in order to take him home with her. His new name is Elvis and now he has his very own family and a new dog to play with and love.

The three cats were not pre-arranged, and since I had a wedding to go to, I dropped off six cat fosters at PetSmart with the hopes that at least one would be adopted. I was shocked to come back and find out that three of them found homes! I'd like to say thank you to all the cat volunteers who handled all the adoptions for me while I was gone. Capri of course was snatched up quickly - my sweet adorable Siamese mix has a new home now. Also Mercury was a surprise adoption - I have to admit that my husband won't miss him, but I do. He is a very social cat. If we couldn't watch him and needed to put him in the foster cat room (extra bedroom) while we were gone, he'd cry and throw himself against the door! It was so sad! But now he has a home with a family and two dogs (he likes dogs) so hopefully he'll get the attention he needs to stay happy. Solara surprised me most of all - in spite of the many adorable kittens up there, a family who had adopted from Heartland before picked Solara to adopt. She's a beautiful dilute calico cat and she's got a great personality besides, so I think they made an excellent choice, but so many times people pick the cute kitten and the older cats who sometimes have much more to offer still get overlooked. So hooray for Solara who also has her own home! And thank you to the family who picked her for giving her such a great home!

Raven was adopted!

My foster puppy Raven was adopted on Saturday. Chip doesn't even seem to realize she's gone. When I foster puppies that young I like to expose them to as many new things as possible. Puppies who meet a lot of different people and a lot of different animals, and experience a lot of different places and things will generally do better in new situations as they get older. There's a trade-off because puppies that young can be at a higher risk of disease since their immune system isn't fully developed, so I can't just take them to the park or the store to meet people. I have one friend, another Heartland volunteer, who has been great about coming over everytime I have puppies to help me socialize them. She came over on Friday so both Raven and Chip got to meet another new person. We also took Remi and Noelle for a walk around the neighborhood. I've been working on teaching Noelle to use a Gentle Leader collar instead of a regular collar, since she pulls so hard on the leash. She's still getting used to it though, and Friday she tried several times to get it off, and in the process she scraped her nose on the concrete. I kept teasing her that she was just trying to be a red-nosed pit bull (some pit bulls have red noses instead of black noses, and some people prefer this for looks). Fortunately her nose is looking much better today! We tried to take Kai on a walk also - she's getting better, and she'll actually walk farther now on a leash than she ever has, but we still could only get her to go about two houses down from mine before she got overwhelmed and stopped walking. Every time she goes a little bit farther though, and its rewarding to watch her improve.

Another volunteer stopped by yesterday to drop off a leash attachment she made for Noelle (hooray - another new person for Chip to meet!). And after that a third Heartland volunteer came over to help me with my kitten fosters. We rearranged the locations of a bunch of them, and she spent hours helping me clean and move everybody. My Sea Litter (Cilla, Capri, Caboose and Chessie) are now staying in the living room, and they're having a blast running around and exploring the new location. Kai and Noelle are really enjoying them too! Chip doesn't seem to mind them either way - he'll play with them but then he gets distracted by a toy or a piece of string or a noise and he forgets all about them. It's not that he's not smart - but he has a shorter attention span than a kitten - and that's saying something! He's the first to stick his nose into every open door or cabinet or drawer and check things out, but he doesn't get himself into too much trouble because by the time I get to him, he's already moved onto something else!

Introducing Chip

This is my newest foster puppy - Chip. He's a Beagle/Brittany Spaniel mix, and he's only about 8 weeks old. He weighs 7 pounds, and he's only half the size of my foster puppy Raven. They've become best friends though. They share everything - food, toys, a dog bed. They love to wrestle and play together. Raven will probably be ready for adoption this weekend, so then Chip is going to miss her! He likes to play with Kai too though. Kai is so good with puppies - she lets them hang on her and pull her ears and bite her tail, and she never gets upset with them.

I've gotten spoiled with having Raven around. She's the easiest puppy I've ever fostered. She always uses puppy pads when I'm at work and can't let her outside, so I never had to bother with newspaper or cleaning up any big messes. She is very neat and never messed up her kennel or tore up anything when left alone - this is very atypical for puppies! Of course now that Chip is here, he's happily tearing up newspaper and puppy pads and making a huge mess of their exercise pen. So I have to get used to typical puppies all over again! Maybe Raven will teach him some good habits before she's adopted. :-)