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.

 

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!!

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.

Wordless Wednesday - Relax and take it easy!

Foster Kittens Update

The foster kittens have grown like crazy in the past week! Little Krissy who was so emaciated that she couldn't even stand up on her own when I got her now looks like Jabba the Hut. My vet told me that feral and stray cats who don't know when or where their next meal will come from will gorge themselves when they find food. Apparently Krissy fits this profile. Poor little baby. I'm just happy that she has put weight on and is playing with the other kittens. They are still a bit jumpy around people but are warming up to us and getting better every day.

Here is Kenny, lounging on his favorite fleece blankie.

And Barbie lounging on her favorite blankie (doesn't she look like she's smiling?!)

And Krissy has crawled up to the highest spot she could find and is lounging on her favorite sherpa fleece bed (see the Buddha belly on this girl?!)

And last but certainly not least is little Jellybean who is now completely off the bottle and on solid foods with the rest of the kittens (whew!) And her hair has grown back, too.

She runs to us and climbs right up our legs and all the way up to our shoulder where she sits like a little parrot.

Foster Kittens Update

It has been touch and go, up and down this week with the foster kittens. Barbie and Kenny are doing great. Barbie is very sociable, affectionate and purrs like crazy when I cuddle her. Kenny is still a bit frightened but will let me cuddle him without laying his ears back now. Krissy, the third kitten in the litter, has turned the corner I believe. She weighed a mere 13.4 ounces when I picked her up on Monday. Barbie and Kenny were 1 pound 2 ounces and 1 pound 3 ounces so they weighed almost half again as much as Krissy did. Krissy went up to 13.8 ounces, then back down to 13 ounces (she wanted to sleep instead of eat she was so weak) and this morning when I weighed her she weighs 14.4 ounces so she's gained a full ounce in 3 days, which is good.

Here are the three kittens: Barbie is in front, Kenny is back left and Krissy is back right.

Krissy is a blue-cream dilute tortoiseshell. Her main color is that blue/gray and she has patches of peachy/cream all over, which you can't see in this photo but I'll get better pics when she's gotten stronger and is looking a bit better. She's still a bit scraggly looking.

And then there is little Jellybean. She is at least 5 weeks old and she should be starting to eat solid foods. The canned KMR she has been drinking is fairly expensive and each little can only lasts two days so it is costing about $2/day to feed her! I found an all species powdered milk replacer at the feed store and decided to switch her over to it. I mixed 25% of the new formula with the KMR for a few days and then had to go to 50/50 because the KMR was almost gone and she refused to eat. She got diarrhea with a tinge of blood which means she wasn't absorbing the food anyway so we went and bought more cans of the KMR for her and she's still upset. I think she's hungry and the formula isn't filling her up so she's getting very frustrated. She's lost a couple of ounces but is still alert and active so I'm hoping she'll start eating the rice baby cereal, milk replacer, meat baby food gruel I've been making for the other kittens. Thank goodness we have these other kittens here now to help her learn how to eat and play and be a normal kitten! 

Barbie, Kenny & Jellybean Update

Last Friday I decided to introduce little Jellybean, the bottle fed foster kitten, to the newest foster kittens, Barbie and Kenny. They hit it off right away and played then slept together off and on throughout the entire day. I put Jellybean back into her crate that night and then back into the bathroom with Barbie and Kenny on Saturday where they played and played and played. Barbie and Kenny even showed Jellybean how to eat out of a bowl, although she still prefers her bottle, but she's eating some beef or chicken baby food along with her formula now.

Jellybean can hold her own against these other kittens - they only outweigh her by a couple of ounces. Here, Jellybean is going in for the kill on Kenny.

The kittens blend right in with the little throw rug in the bathroom. Camo kitties!

And when they're done playing, here's how they like to sleep.

I think it is so sweet how Barbie and Kenny have let little Jellybean into their family. 

Jellybean is finally growing back some hair now so she doesn't look like a Chinese Crested dog or a Sphynx cat.

And last night the people who found Barbie and Kenny called me to let me know they had caught the third kitten of the litter. I picked her up this morning and she is in sad condition. She was so weak and lethargic it was scary but she immediately started eating some of the chicken baby food and lapped up some warm formula and then crawled on top of the cube to sleep with her brother and sister. She is a gorgeous blue-cream dilute tortoiseshell that I named Krissy. She's a beautiful blue/gray with peachy slotches all over her. I'll get pics of her after she's feeling a bit better.

All four of these kittens will need new furever homes in several weeks after they've been socialized, acclimated to the other cats and dogs and spayed/neutered. So if you're in the area and looking for a beautiful kitten companion, please keep these kittens in mind.

I am Kitten Sitting a Bottle Fed Baby!

Sunday morning we picked up this little orphaned bottle fed kitten to kittensit for a few weeks while her regular foster family is on vacation. I think Jellybean is about 4 weeks old. Her foster family has been wrapping her in a blanket when they feed her and the blanket rubbed most of her hair off so she has that "Yoda" look to her - don't you just love that little mohawk thing she's got going?! And my what big eyes you have!

My two formerly bottle fed boys, Munchkin and Moose, are lavishing Jellybean with attention. 

And yesterday the shelter called and asked if I could take in three more orphaned kittens. I initially said no because I cannot imagine having to bottle feed four kittens every day! I did five in Moose and Munchies litter and that was a real challenge! I told them I would have to talk it over and get back to them. After I hung up I decided that if I cleaned the fibers out of the bathroom I could put the three new kittens in there rather than in a crate and figured if they were big enough to be running around outside this guy's house they were old enough to either eat dry kibble or lap KMR out of a bowl. So, I called the shelter back and told them I would take the kittens. I have to wait for the guy to catch them and call me and then I'll go pick them up and bring them home. I'm hoping he doesn't call today though because we have a board meeting tonight and my time is going to be really tight today as it is.