The lost ones

The latter part of this year has been a bit hard for us.  We originally had nine cats, ten if you count the stray that comes to our back door for food.  We still have ten, but twice this year we very briefly had eleven.  The following two kittens are the ones that got called home.  I didn't get a chance to post blogs about either one.

NIMBUS

In late June Mama and I got called to the south side of Malden because a friend of hers had this little guy running around outside her place.  She couldn't take him due to her children's allergies, so we volunteered.  This is what we got.

He reminded me of rain clouds, so I christened the new arrival Nimbus.  He had a cold and fleas, thus the crud on his face.  I was terrified that his eyes would get infected like Pebbles' did, but mercifully, they didn't.  Nimbus settled in, was fed, vetted, and de-fleaed.  He ate like a horse and cleaned up well.

Nimbus had a big mouth and a big purr, and he was affectionate and mischievous.  Then one Saturday in late July I got up to feed him and found him limp, minimally responsive, and cold to the touch.  His heart rate was low.  We rushed him to the vet, but even after a battery of tests Dr. Kyle had no idea what was wrong with him.  Nimbus survived Saturday and Sunday, but died early Monday morning.  Dr. Kyle STILL has no clue what caused his illness.

PUNKIN

We scalded Nimbus's cage and litter box, and we washed his blanket in anticipation of a new arrival.  Sure enough, yesterday another friend of ours came up with this.

I think I should point out right now that I've wanted a tortoiseshell cat ever since I was a little girl.  This little fur baby was quite obviously a tortoiseshell cat, and she even had extra toes!  She lived in someone's back yard and had a ton of fleas.  Miss Cindy is an animal rescuer herself, and she took this kitten in for three days to nurse her.  She had trouble getting her to eat, but she had a superb little personality.  After the three days had passed, Mama gave in to my begging and we went to fetch our new little bundle of joy.

I named her Punkin, and I cuddled with her all last night.  Like Nimbus, she had a big meow and a big purr, and she loved to be cuddled.  Her favorite spot was up on my shoulder.  I had a terrible time getting her to eat her own food, but she had no trouble getting into my ice cream!  I know that kittens are not supposed to have milk products, but she begged so strongly that I figured a little swallow of ice cream couldn't hurt.

I'm glad I did give her that ice cream now, because Punkin died today.  We were going to take her to the vet anyway to get her shots, but when I went to the cage it was Nimbus's story all over again.  Punkin was more active than Nimbus was at the end, but she couldn't walk, and she flatly refused to eat.  Dr. Kyle is away on vacation, so a gentleman named Dr. McCoy saw Punkin instead.  As soon as he saw her, he said "I know what this is, it's flea anemia."  He explained that Punkin would not survive without a blood transfusion, and due to complexities involved in cat blood transfusions, a procedure was not possible unless we saw a specialist.  Dr. McCoy then gently told me that the most humane option would be to put Punkin to sleep, so that's what I chose.  My perfect little tortoiseshell cat with extra toes crossed the Rainbow Bridge at eleven this morning.

It saddens me to lose pets, and it's particularly hard when they're so young like Nimbus and Punkin were.  However, I take solace in the fact that Jesus has two furry little playmates, and in our surviving cats, all of whom are perfectly healthy.  Plus, the shelters are full of pretty little tortoiseshells, fuzzy little grays, and whimsy little polydactl cats, so if I so choose, I can pick out a lookalike!

Bird Watch 2015

Or maybe it's squirrels they're after.  Either way, they're after something.

From left, Edgar, Mittens, Vladimir, and Bianca.

Dead to the world

Pablo has no idea that two of his housemates are sleeping on top of him.

ZZZZzzzz...ZZZZzzzz...LOL.

Yours truly,
RagingMoon1987

A rare occurance

I consider myself lucky if I can get a decent picture of two of the cats together.  Tonight I happened to get four of them in one shot.

The solid white cat is Bianca, one of two cats who has come to the household since my last post.  Mittens is on the far left, with his nose buried in the blanket.  The black cat in the center is Vladimir, the other newbie.  Annabelle is on the far right. 

 

This picture was a tricky one to take, because Annabelle is skittish and Bianca is downright feral.  Bianca just happened to crawl up on the back of the chair as I was readying the shot.  I said "kitty, kitty," and got him to look at me that way.  He ran away after that.

 

Yeah, Bianca is a "he."  We thought he was a girl until we took him to get fixed.  Since Bianca hates people it was hard for us to get a peek under the hood.  The discovery ended up saving us forty bucks at the vet's office, so I'm not complaining.  He's a beautiful cat and while not tame, he is also not vicious.  I am hoping and praying that I can get him tame enough to be held, if just for a few minutes.

 

Vladimir is Bianca's polar opposite.  He is easy-going and affectionate, and he loves to be rubbed.  He has an extremely loud purr, but never meows (Bianca is a bigmouth).  Of the nine cats, Vladimir is the only one who still likes to sit on my lap.  Those days may be coming to an end, because he's putting on a growth spurt.

 

Like our other cats, Vladimir and Bianca are rescues.  Bianca came from one of my friends who can't take more pets on herself.  Vladimir's story is a little more interesting.  He came traipsing into our back yard last August.  I assume he thought that Chewbacca was his mother, because he was following her closely (Chewy didn't like that at all, LOL).  Vladimir was not tame at first; I ended up chasing him around the house.  After dark.  In my pajamas.  Yeah.  The things I'll do for an animal in need!  Anyway, he climbed up inside the car, and after a couple of attempts I managed to reach in and grab him.  He settled in right away, purring and falling asleep in my lap.

 

Bianca and Vladimir bring our clowder's population to nine.  Add five dogs and one gecko to the mix, and that leaves us with a grand total of fifteen animals.  Sheesh, we haven't had this many on the place since heck was a pup! 

So cute!

 

Love always,

RagingMoon1987



Battle of the 'Belle

Annabelle was supposed to have her yearly shots today.  Here's the results of my attempts to catch her:

Six bite wounds on my right hand, and two more on my left.  Annabelle is not on my nice list right now.

What I did last Saturday

For the past few days we'd had a scrawny yellow and white pussycat hanging around our house.  She is tame, but when we brought her in the house she wasn't too keen about staying.  So we'd let her out and not see her again for a couple of days, then feed her when she turned up again.  Since she was female and unaltered I assumed that she was already pregnant, and we began preparing a place for her.

Wrong answer.  Last Saturday the cat (whom we call "Buttercup") showed up again...and this time she had kittens.  We live on a busy street, so after some hemming and hawing we rounded Mama and babies up and put her in a cage.

As you can see, the family was not happy about this turn of events; note that they've spilled their water and scattered litter chunks everywhere.  They weren't happy about our dogs either; one of the kittens even bit me when I was putting her in the cage.  THAT was fun.

In all, there are four kittens.  There is this beautiful calico (which I desperately wanted to keep):

Her sister is another little calico.  Her colors are more dilute.  This one was the one that bit me.

The third is yet another little calico.  Notice her unusual markings.

The last one is yellow, and I assume that he's a he.  He is the tamest of the bunch and loves to be rubbed.  Mama Buttercup decided to photobomb her child in this case.

Our intention was to keep these kittens in a safe place so that they would not be run over, and then find a good place for them all to live.  However, it turns out that these strays aren't all the way stray; our next-door neighbor has been feeding and sheltering Buttercup and the babies, as well as handling the babies so they will be tame.  I ended up having to give the cats back to her, and the last time I saw them they were romping around in her yard.  But I have the cage cleaned out and ready, just in case they come back!

Pebbles's adoptaversary

Okay, so that's not a real word (LOL).  Two years ago today, my sister found Pebbles crawling around on the side of a local road.  He was sickly, flea-bitten, and had very sick eyes.

We took him in, cleaned him up, fed him, and got him properly vetted.  There were a lot of sleepless nights and a lot of vet visits that first year, but Pebbles pulled through.  He is blind because of the infection, but has no problems otherwise.  Here he is now.  Two years old and two years with us.

He wasn't terribly excited to have his picture taken, though.

"Yawn..."

It's been a great two years!