Chris & Tia's Kittens!

Chris & Tia were kind enough to send over some more video and photos of the kittens they are fostering.  They're a treat!

If you happen to know anyone who's looking to adopt, we would love to hook them up with Tia & Chris.  They have been great foster parents and they're ready to foster the next litter that came up (currently living in my next-door neighbor's front foliage!)  Together we're trying to clean up our neighborhood and get all the cats spayed and neutered and vaccinated so they can stay healthy even if they don't have inside homes.

In case you forgot, there are three at Tia & Chris' house: a little black kitten, a little black with speckles kitten, and a little calico kitten (white, black, and orange!)

Their Mama is also a white, black, and orange calico.  She only has half a tail!  She's amazingly beautiful and friendly.

Chris feeding one of the babies.  A different neighbor (who wasn't very well educated when it comes to cats - but who was well-intentioned!) moved the kittens at first when she found them, and then their Mama couldn't find them, so Chris & Tia had to hand-feed them for a little while until they found the Mama and reunited the family.  Such a sweet story!

Little Calico.

Everyone with their sparkling blue eyes!

Like Mama, like baby!

This is a kitten on a mission!  (Perhaps she is a secret agent!)

Curious!

Please pass this link on to everyone you know. Everyone loves looking at cute kittens, and maybe together we can find these cute little guys wonderful homes!

Mastitis!

Oh no!  

This is Christie again.  Juvy gave me permission to post because she is sick!  She has a nasty case of mastitis (infection of the mammary gland), and she can't do anything.  She has barely moved all day.  I just noticed this morning that she was lethargic and not eating or drinking, even with the freshest food and water.  Then I picked her up to check her out, and she cried.  She is an almost silent cat who usually barely even meows.  When I put her down, she flopped down on her side and looked sad.  I felt around, and one of her teats was really extra super swollen (one of the ones that doesn't have a normal nipple), and she cried again.  It made me want to cry that she was in that much pain!

I called the vet and made an appointment and took her in at 2:30 PM.  She was very dehydrated, so they gave her subcutaneous (under the skin with a needle) fluids.  They gave her a big shot of antibiotics (that will continue working for two whole weeks) and some "Crisis" wet food that I'm supposed to feed her with a syringe until she starts eating it herself.  I'm supposed to hold warm compresses on her abdomen three times per day, and I take her back to the vet on Wednesday morning to check on improvement.  This is apparently a very serious illness.  The vet said that the kittens can't nurse AT ALL anymore, and that we should in fact keep them separate from Juvy not only to prevent Juvy from getting worse, but to prevent the kittens from drinking infected milk. 

Juvy has barely moved since we got home from the vet.  I installed her in the master bedroom on the bed on a soft fuzzy blankie and I've been giving her water (she'll drink that by herself if I take it over and pet and encourage her) and syringes of food every once in a while.  We're just going to let her stay right there as long as she wants to.  We love to sleep with a cat on our bed!  

We also found out recently that Juvy has FIV (feline immunodeficiency virus), which is a NON-LETHAL virus.  It means that she may have more difficulty recovering from infections.  The antibody to this virus will show up in the kittens' blood for a while (2-4 months), but the virus itself is not usually transmitted from mother to kitten in milk.  It is only transmitted through saliva-to-blood interactions (very deep puncture bites), which are rare in households with spayed and neutered cats (Greg & I have had spayed and neutered cats for 15 years, and even in a household which had five non-related cats at one point, there has NEVER been a bite wound.)  It does NOT travel from cat to cat via food or cleaning each other or sharing litter boxes.  The research shows that the virus does not shorten the life of a cat, and it is not transmittable to any other species (dogs, humans, or any other animal can NOT get it).  Here are some more links to tell you a little more if you want to know.  There has been a lot of misinformation spread about FIV, and even some vets are misinformed that it's more serious than it is.  The main take-home message is that if a cat has it, she may need a little extra time or medicine to recover from an infection if she gets one.

Here are some links about FIV:

Facts, not fiction!

FIV-positive and FIV-negative cats living together

Research

Transmission

Back to the kittens:  I have been providing dry food to the kittens (because that's what Juvy has been eating) for about a week, and all of them except the Bear have been eating it successfully.  He just didn't show much interest (silly boy!)  Today I spent more time with the kittens after Juvy was set up in the master bedroom, and they are doing very well.  I bought a bunch of wet kitten food in order to make sure that everyone had enough food even though there will be no more nursing at all.  They all love the wet food, but they went back and forth between the wet and dry.  

Most of them appear to be using the litter box, or at least mostly using the litter box.  Good news that I did not yet post in the midst of this medical crisis was that the Skunk has used the litter box independently twice while I was watching!  The Bear started to pee on the puppy pad next to the litter box, but I picked him up and put him in the litter, where he finished the job.  There have been a couple of accidents, but only on the puppy pads, which means the kittens get the idea at least that the area near the litter box is the place to go.  I am proud of them!

What all of this means is that the kittens are ready to go to their new homes!  They may be moving in with their forever families THIS WEEK!  

Today was very busy with the vet visit and getting Juvy set up in the master bedroom and making sure all the kittens are eating and drinking okay and making sure our other three cats have appropriate attention so that they aren't overly stressed by the changes.  I did not get my exercise in (boo!) . . .

Look at the Otter's little tongue sticking out!!!

I think this is the Otter again, but the angle makes it difficult to tell.  Two days ago, she got in the box and dug around and sniffed the litter, but didn't do anything.  When she came out, she had a piece of litter stuck to her nose!

This picture is a little blurry (the kittens are non-stop motion machines!), but it's adorable, so I had to post it.  The Skunk has a pixie-like, sweet little earnest face!

I love them all.  If God brings it to your mind, please pray that the antibiotics will take effect quickly (I think the swelling has already gone down), that Juvy will want to eat and drink soon, and that she'll be completely well extra super fast!  Thank you!

Here are some additional pictures.  Two kittens eating hard food, Bear watching, unsure he believes that hard stuff is really good for him.

Here's the wet food we picked up for the kittens to make sure everyone's eating enough now that there's no more nursing:

Here's Juvy's "Crisis" food and the little syringe:

And here is sweet Juvy with her warm compress on.  She's enjoying the comfy bed and the extra attention.

Her purr is getting louder and she's not crying as much.  Yay!  Keep healing, Juvy!

What You Need to Adopt a Kitten

Hi, this is Christie.  Juvy asked me to write a guest post about what you adoptive families should think about as you're getting ready to take your new family member home with you!

Food!  We have been feeding Juvy and her kittens Authority brand kitten food, real chicken flavor.  We're not saying other cat foods aren't just as good, but Juvy is a little finicky, and she refused to eat the other brand we tried.  Authority brand is made by PetSmart and it's their higher-quality for lower-price brand. It compares to the higher-quality foods in ingredients, and we definitely thought it was a great investment for little brains and bodies as they grew.  Our old (12-16 year old) cats like this food, too, and it is helping our cat in renal failure (Baltazar's kidneys aren't working very well) to have more of an appetite and more energy.  Usually kittens eat kitten food for one year.

Catnip!  Greg and I didn't give our cats catnip for about 10 years because we thought it was drugs for cats.  They do act like they're on drugs (and sometimes they get the munchies!), but it calms them and makes them do funny things, so what does it hurt?!  We now love it.  It also helps because we sprinkle it on their scratching posts where we WANT them to scratch, and they focus there rather than on furniture.

A nail trimmer.  This one is what the special cat nail trimmers look like.  I have already trimmed some of the kittens' nails, and the earlier you make this a habit, the less the cat will mind it when s/he is an adult.  However, it's important not to trim the quick of the cat's nails, and kittens' quicks are hard to tell apart from their normal nails, so it's better to wait until you can definitely tell the pink quick apart from the white nail.  It's not hard, just takes care and sometimes two people.  I will post a video later of how to trim a cat's claws.

Litter and a litter box!  We have a tiny litter box for the kittens right now because they can't climb over the edge of a big one.  We use Tidy Cats litter NON-CLUMPING.  It doesn't smell terrible and it's not too dusty.  Also, the bags are nice to take old litter out in because they are sturdy and don't rip.  The clumping stuff (it looks like gray sand)  is bad for cats.  When the cat licks her paws that have the clumping litter in between her toes, the litter goes down into her digestive system and does what it's created to do (clump!) and it can cause digestive blockages.  Not good! 

A scratching post!  This one was $24.99 at Marshall's.  Cats naturally love the sisal rope and the carpet, and they usually run right over and go to town scratching.  By the way, our cats all have all their claws and they do not scratch on furniture (even though one of our family cats was adopted as an adult - it's even easier with kittens).  We trained them by having a water squirter nearby and squirting them with that any time they looked as if they were going to scratch on something.  Also, we provide lots of appropriate places to scratch (cats NEED to scratch - it's biological - they can't help it) and remind them that it's more fun on those place by supplying lots of catnip in those spots.  There are $5 scratching pads made of cardboard available at Target (here is a link to an example), and they are WONDERFUL.  Our cats love them and we have four of them in the house in various places.  They even come with a bag of catnip!  If your kitten wakes up every morning and heads over to your couch for her morning stretch and scratch, put the scratching post/pad right there by the couch and sprinkle lots of catnip on it.  Pretty soon, she'll decide the scratching post/pad is waaaaaay more fun.

Here is some video of the cardboard cat scratcher + catnip and the hilarious fun that can ensue!!!

Baltazar having some fun:


Craziness!!!


Claude using the scratching pad appropriately:

Juvy, thanks for letting me make a guest post to share with our readers some of the equipment that they might need to have in place before they take their kitten home!  

Eating Real Food!

My kittens are very SMART!  They have started eating hard food out of the bowls!  And I don't know how it's possible, but they just keep getting cuter!  The Skunk, even though she's the smallest, was the first one to eat hard food.  She stuck her front feet into the bowl and buried her face in the food, licking everything a little before actually getting any into her mouth and chewing it.  Very funny!  Skunk looks like a cute little pixie right now because her face is delicate and sweet and her ears are folded down a bit at the tips.  CUTE!

Ermine eating:

The kittens are also getting in the baby litter box and digging, just like a grown-up cat.  They haven't actually used it for - um - you know, the appropriate purposes, but they are sniffing around in there and getting the idea of what it's for!

The kittens have taken to climbing on Christie & Greg's feet.  If Christie sits down on the floor with her legs outstretched, at least one kitten (usually the Ermine or the Orca) crawls up on her feet and bites and chews them.  Weird!

TWO kittens on the feet!

They're learning how to take a bath . . . but sometimes it involves falling over:

Christie bought us a new scratching post, and it's fun to hide in there and watch the kittens from my little haven.

Our new scratching post and climbing tower:


Me hiding:


Me hiding some more (my glowing eyes in the dark are like a dragon in a cave!)


Sometimes being a mommy is tough . . . the kittens love to pounce and wrestle (fight!), and sometimes they even attack me!  The Otter and the Ermine are especially feisty.


Here are a few photos of glorious fuzzy kittenness!

Bear is definitely a handful!  (Okay, not behaviorally!)

Look at Orca's little sweet face!

And Orca looks relaxed, but ALERT:

Ermine is so feisty when she's awake that she needs to sleep extra hard!

Orca's white whiskers are beautiful against her black face.

The Otter forgot to pull her tongue back in!

The Bear in the cave looking tasty!

With love,

-Juvy

A Basket Full of Kittens

Just a few cutesy videos for right now:

Here's the basket full of kittens!


And here are the Ermine and the Otter snuggling:


Orca gnawing on Mama (me!)


And some wrestling going on:

Night-night, everyone!


Thanks for loving my kittens!  They certainly are worth every moment!

-Juvy

A Few Photos of Goregousness!

Orca & Skunk posing for the camera (I have to congratulate Christie on how great she is capturing these kittens in photos - they are constantly moving when they're awake, and when they're sleeping, they are rolled into little black balls of fluff that are difficult to capture in photos!)

Skunk being calm in the midst of chaos:

Orca wondering if that hard stuff is really supposed to be food:

Not the clearest photo, but just look at all the white whiskers!

And you can imagine the ferocity of the meow!

 Here's a lovey little Bear:

And a curious Otter:

Skunk was lying upside down in Christie's lap, and she just posed perfectly like this!  I wonder what she is thinking about.

Again, not the clearest photo, but look at the earnest little face!  It's Orca:

Otter hiding inside the big box:

Ermine posing for the camera.  She's a natural!

Three babies in Christie's lap (Otter, Bear, and Skunk) and someone's butt:

Ermine being adorable (she can't help it!):

Christie is editing some more videos to post later.  Hope you are loving my kittens as much as I am!

-Juvy

on the CAT WALK!

The name is in honor of the fact that the kittens are more beautiful than any model on a fashion catwalk ever was!

Orca being like her Mama!

Small little tummies!

Christie said, "There's no milk in there!"

Orca is working on walking better!

When Christie comes into the room, all the kittens sit up and look at her and start mewing and walking towards her.  They are cute cute cute all in a pile looking in the same direction - like a bouquet of kittens!

Rawr!

Rolling around being delicious!

Sunny side up Ermine!

Walking around:

Walking, Part 2:


Hope you enjoyed these videos.  Which video made you laugh?  Which video made you say, "Aaawwwww!"  Which kitten wins the "Silliest Kitten of the Day" award today?