Our new puppy - River!

You might remember that I did a post back in April regarding the passing of our little toy poodle, Gigi. I was totally devastated by her passing and have been grieving for months. We wrestled with the idea of getting another puppy but wanted to put some time behind us before doing so. We considered getting a mini Schnauzer puppy and I even found a puppy here in Colorado that I fell in love with - look at the heart on his side!

But, hubby was hesitant to get another small dog for several reasons. We have heard that Schnauzers can be big barkers. Strike one. We have heard that Schnauzers can be snippy with other dogs. Strike two. I don't want to get a little dog with "small dog syndrome". Strike three. So, as much as I adore this little puppy, we decided that he just wouldn't fit our current lifestyle.

Then we went to a llama show over Labor Day weekend and some friends of ours had brought their black standard poodle with them. He is a gem. It really made both of us miss our little Gigi. So, we thought perhaps a standard poodle might be the best choice for us. We really missed the poodle personality - they are so smart and so easy to train. After we got back home from the llama show I started doing an internet search for standard poodle puppies in Colorado and found a breeder who lives less than two hours away from us. She had two dogs listed in her ad - one of them was a black male standard poodle named River, which was exactly what we were looking for. I emailed her and asked if River was still available. He was. Long story short, after being told that River might be sold on Friday, I woke up Saturday morning to an email saying that the breeder refused to sell River to the person who looked at him Friday evening and if we were still interested we were welcome to come visit. We went and saw River and both of his parents, along with his parent's pedigrees and fell in love with him. River is calm, sweet, laid back, fun loving, obedient and a stunning dog with excellent conformation. I haven't been able to get good photos of him since we brought him home because he rarely sits still for more than two seconds when I'm trying to photograph him. So, for now I'm sharing his photos from the breeder.

Here is River's paternal grandsire, JC Pioneer's Kaiser. Kaiser was the #1 standard poodle for 2003/2004 - he was the first silver standard poodle to achieve this!

Saturday morning while we were getting ready to leave to go meet River we got a call from the shelter saying that it was time for our foster kittens to go to the vet for their neuter surgeries on Monday. So, it was good timing because now I don't have to keep track of a puppy and two small kittens!

New Foster Kittens!

We have two new foster kittens. A little gray and white male named Squeakers and a solid black male named Stormy. Both are long haired kitties. They aren't related but they came into the shelter a couple of days apart so they were fostered out together and they have become best buddies. Poor little Squeakers was found in someone's crawlspace all by himself. He had a litter mate but a dog killed it. ;o( So, needless to say, Squeakers came to us terrified of dogs. However, he is getting braver and braver around our two dogs so we think he'll eventually be fine to place in a home with dogs.

Here is Squeakers, lounging on his little bed on hubby's desk in his home office.

 

And here is Stormy with Uncle Munchkin. They are snoopervising.

Chillin' on a Sunday Evening

Elton has the right idea for how to spend a Sunday evening!

Lalo and Kitten

This morning I came out of my office and found Lalo, our former foster kitten, a Tonkinese mix male, "hugging" one of the foster kittens. I ran back into my office and grabbed the camera and managed to get a couple of good shots of them. snuggling. I just love how my cats get along so well with the foster kittens!

New Foster Kittens!

We have new fosters kittens! Last Wednesday we picked up three little eight week old kittens - all dilute orange tabby males. Eli, Elmo and Elton are their names.

Here are the three of them - for some reason they insisted on sleeping on the toilet seat - go figure.

It is Elton in the back, Elmo in the middle and Eli in the front. Its hard to tell them apart just looking at them so the shelter put different colored collars on them with their names written on them. We're learning to tell them apart by personality though. They are probably the sweetest, friendliest litter of kittens we've ever fostered.

Eli is quiet and reserved, a bit shy, but he loves people and is perfectly content to sit in one of our laps and purr. Or he's happy laying on the sheepskin rug in Jim's office. Elton, on the other hand, has earned the nickname "Mountain Goat" or "MG" because he climbs everything. He can't sit still; he has to be on the move and exploring everywhere. He's learned that the dogs are fun to play with but I think he's getting tired of getting a bath when playing with them. Annie, my Aussie, loves to lay down with Elton between her paws, licking and licking and licking on him. And little Elmo is in between. Sometimes he's content to lay in one place and nap and other times he's off with Elton playing.

Today I was taking photos of some new fleeces and I got some really good pics of Elmo playing on the back of the chair.

But soon it was nap time for little Elmo.

Life on the Ranch

 The Three Amigos

Smokey, Buff Ruff & Boots

Sorry I have been AWOL for awhile. One of our older cats, Smokey,  developed symptoms a few months ago when one of our foster kittens, Blackberry, was diagnosed with calici virus. Because it is a virus, pretty much all you can do is manage the symptoms. Blackberry recovered very quickly but Smokey developed anorexia, which is a common side effect because one of the symptoms of calici virus is mouth sores. By the time Smokey finally decided to start eating again he had lost quite a bit of weight and muscle tone. For weeks I was enticing him with every soft food I could think of: meat baby food, canned cat food, yogurt, cottage cheese, scrambled eggs, canned salmon, canned chicken, canned white albacore tuna (less mercury than most), etc. I put fresh food out for him every couple of hours all day long and he was finally eagerly eating every time I put food out for him. I had to stand there to be sure he ate it and not the other cats and the dogs. But I believe Smokey's liver was already damaged and starting to fail. He seemed to be gaining weight. He is a former feral cat that doesn't allow you to pick him up or put two hands on him so I wasn't able to get him onto the scale to weigh him but just looking at him and putting hands on him when I could, I felt that he was gaining weight, albeit slowly.

We debated euthanizing Smokey but he had such a strong will to live that I couldn't bring myself to do it. I figured if the time came where he told us he was no longer willing to fight, we would help him cross over. 

Last Thursday Smokey did not meet me in the kitchen eagerly awaiting his breakfast. I found him curled up in a patch of sunlight near the wood stove. He showed no interest in food all day long. He seemed to be a bit constipated and had what we call "poodle butt" - where they get poop crusted on their bum. He would not allow me to gently wipe him clean. When I tried to help him by pressing paper towels soaked in warm water on his bum, he hissed, yowled, bit and scratched me. Finally Thursday evening we put him in the kitchen sink and hubby held him with leather gloves on while I gently sprayed his bum with warm water until he was completely clean. I put Smokey in the bathroom on a kennel heater with a soft fluffy towel, fresh litter box, fresh water and a small plate of canned cat food. He licked at the cat food and curled up on the kennel heater. When I went in Friday morning to check on him, he had just passed away. His body could no longer keep up with his incredibly strong spirit.

We buried him Friday afternoon on a south facing slope in the adult male llamas' pasture, facing south towards the lake. RIP Smokey.

Because Smokey was a feral cat, I know that the 10.5 years he spent with us as an indoor cat were far better than he would have had as a feral cat, especially as an outdoor cat. And I know he lived much longer than most ferals ever do. I'm just glad we were able to provide him with a loving, supportive home as long as we did.

Here is Smokey snuggling with Blackberry and Blueberry last September

Foster Kittens Update - Mickey was Adopted!!

Good news! Mickey, one of our last foster kittens, got adopted yesterday! I don't know who adopted him but I'm hoping it was a family with a couple of kids who will play and play and play with him. Way to go Mickey! I really wanted to adopt Mickey but DH said we didn't "need" another cat. Then when the time came to take Mickey back to the shelter, DH had also fallen in love with him so he said if Mick wasn't adopted in two weeks we'd go get him and adopt him. The two weeks was up today. Just in the nick of time...

Catching Up

I haven't done much blogging lately, mainly because I have been so busy with so many other things I just haven't had time!

Update on our latest foster kittens - Mack and Mickey - Mack went to the vet for his neuter surgery last Thursday and was adopted on Friday! GO Mack! Mickey was schedule to go to the vet for his surgery on the same day but a few days before the surgery was scheduled he started vomiting at night, had loose stools, was sneezing and his left eye was watering. We made the decision to hold off on his surgery to allow him to get better first. On Monday the shelter called and asked if he was good to go and wanted a current weight on him. I weighed him and discovered he had lost 1.5 ounces in a week! I know that doesn't seem like much but when we're talking about a kitten under 3 pounds, that's a lot of weight - it worked out to over 3% of his body weight. I thought back to any changes we had made recently and remembered that I had started to add the kitten food that they feed at the shelter and thought that perhaps he was allergic to it. So, we removed that food from his diet and he hasn't vomited since then, his stool has firmed up and he is no longer sneezing. His eye is still runny but we're treating it now with eye drops. He also gained back all the weight he had lost and is far more active than he was when he wasn't feeling well.

I have been very busy crocheting new creations. I revised my Mermaid extreme fringe scarf and added additional tailspun yarn fringe on the ends to "beef" it up a bit. It then sold right away.

I also sold the Wild Flowers scarf that I recently created - this scarf was a variation of the basic extreme fringe scarf that I've been making. I was able to get two skeins of the tailspun yarn and was able to make a long (over 6 feet) scarf and put the fringe on all of both sides, creating a very full and very vibrant look! This scarf sold immediately.

I had yarn left over after making the Wild Flowers extreme fringe scarf so I decided to make a cowl out of these same yarns. Here is Wild Flowers Cowl - available in my ArtFire store.

And, I also finished a work in progress - Cottage Rose - a hand knitted triangle shawl/scarf made from hand painted wool yarns. Cottage Rose is also available in the ArtFire store.

So, you can see that I really haven't been slacking off, I truly have been extremely busy lately! Now it is time to take a break from creating and start working on getting all my paperwork organized to prepare our taxes. I always dread this time of year because I am usually so disorganized but this past year I did a much better job of sorting, logging and filing my paperwork so it shouldn't take me nearly as long to get it all done this year. I might even actually have our taxes prepared before April 15th for a change!

Happy New Year - Reflecting on 2010 - Foster Kittens

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 Where has 2010 gone to? It seems we just celebrated Christmas 2009 not that long ago.

Looking back on 2010:

We fostered 15 kittens from the Teller County Regional Animal Shelter - that is a record for us! We were blessed with some adorable kittens this year. First (in February) were Thelma & Louise (rescued from the helipad in Victor) who had new homes even before we took them back to the shelter in late April, followed shortly thereafter by the nekked as a jay bird bottle fed kitten, Jellybean (found in a trash can at a gas station). Then came Barbie and Kenny and a week later their sister Krissy (all rescued from a trailer park in Woodland Park - Krissy was found almost dead in a trash can). Immediately after Jellybean, Barbie, Ken & Krissy went back to the shelter in July we got Magpie & Raven (found outside at the Children's ARK in Ute Pass - Magpie was a "special needs" kitten). In August we got Black Jack, Blackberry, Inky (who we called Blueberry or "Boo") and Soot (who we called Ace of Spaced or "Ace") all slender little short haired black Oriental kittens. When I picked Ace and Boo up from the vet's office, it turns out Ace had been switched with Espresso (another black kitten who had been at the vet's for neutering that same day - also from the shelter). We kept Espresso because he needed some socialization work. He went back to the shelter in mid December and I was bereft without kittens in the house! Two days later the shelter called and asked if I could take in two more kittens - of course I could!! So we picked up Mickey and Mack and they are still here. I am in love with Mickey but hubby says we already have enough cats and don't "need" another one. Sigh...it is so hard sometimes to foster these little love bugs and then take them back to the shelter when the time comes!

Tomorrow I'll reflect more on what we did in 2010.

 

Wordless Wednesday - Smitten With Kittens

Wordless Wednesday

Kittens and Pups - What a lazy crew!

Over the weekend, I caught little Blackberry, under Munchkin's tutelage, harassing poor Rosie, our Cockatiel. Fortunately the bird bites hard enough that once is enough to teach the cats and kittens that she does not make a good play toy. She is, however, good for some cheap entertainment value.

And this morning while I was spinning in the great room, the motley crew is lounging around - apparently they all did a little too much bird watching this weekend!

Foster Kittens Snoopervising

I posted this on Facebook yesterday. It is my foster kittens snoopervising loading of the dishwasher. My friend Barb put this comment under the photo, which I think is absolutely perfect!   
Ah the Itty Bitty Kitteh 
Dish Washing Committee

Wordless Wednesday - Relax and take it easy!

Barbie, Kenny, Krissy & Jellybean Update

As of last night all of the kittens from the last batch of fosters have been adopted! Kenny was the first to be adopted, followed by Barbie. Kenny was so incredibly gorgeous, that really doesn't surprise me. Krissy and Jellybean got very sick while they were at the shelter so they were in quarantine and weren't available for viewing by potential adopters so that is part of why they took so long to be adopted. They were taken to a PetCo in Colorado Springs a week ago in the hopes that someone would fall in love with them and adopt them together. Yesterday afternoon Krissy was adopted, which left Jellybean all alone. If we had voted on Cat Most Likely To Be Adopted First, Jellybean would have taken that award, paws down. I was chatting online with my daughter when I got the email telling me that Krissy had been adopted. She couldn't believe that Jellybean was still there...alone. Her BF had just come home so she went and told him and he told her to just please go get Jellybean and bring her home! He had already said "I wouldn't be upset if I came home from work and found Jellybean here." (there's a huge hint if I ever heard one!) So, Jellybean is now in her loving furever home. And the best part of it is I get to visit her whenever I want to!! Woo hoo! Way to go Barbie, Kenny, Krissy and Jellybean!

And now Krissy and Jellybean are doing the happy dance!!

Happy Caturday!

We're just hanging out today cuz our foster Mom and Dad are at a llama show this weekend.

Hope everybody has a safe and relaxing holiday weekend!

The Trash Can Kids

Remember Jellybean and Krissy from the last batch of foster kittens we had earlier this summer? They are the only two kittens left for adoption now and they are being "marketed" as "The Trash Can Kids". Here's the flyer one of the Team Cat members made up for them. Sara, another foster home and Team Cat member taught both Jellybean and Krissy to "sit pretty" and then used that photo for the flyer. Aren't they adorable?!

Remember how much like Yoda little Jellybean looked when we first got her?

Well, take a look at her now!

Isn't she gorgeous?!

I just hope that these girls go to a really good, loving furever home. They deserve a better life than how theirs started.