Not-the-Mama Monday

For those of you that missed the news on Facebook over the weekend.... Our girl Penny was adopted on Saturday!!!!  For some reason, all of our Penelope stories are required to have a twist and her adoption tale is no different.   In fact, there are three final twists to the Penny saga.

Twist #1: Our girl with the forever home is still living here with us in Teeny Tiny Tabby Town.  No, she is NOT becoming a permanent resident.  Her family lives out of town and cannot come to claim their calico princess until next weekend.  So Penny's status has changed from "Foster Available for Adoption" to "Houseguest with a Home", but I'm pretty sure she neither realizes nor cares about the distinction at the moment.

Twist #2: Penny's forever family has known about her from the moment she left the shelter up north at the end of May.  When Paula (the wonderful lady who runs our rescue) drove three hours north to claim the not-pregnant Penny from the shelter, she took her mother along for company... and her mother fell hard for Penelope during the ride.   Paula's mother has frequently asked after Penny and often remarked about what a special little lady I had here.  But she is not Penny's forever family, either... or maybe she is.... (kind of)

Paula's sister has an exceptionally elderly calico cat, one who is sick and unfortunately not-long for our world.  She has been talking about how terribly she will miss her cat and about how much she adores calicos.  One thing led to another and... Penny has landed herself a spot in a cat-crazy, calico-loving home.  She'll be staying in the extended family so I'll be able to get an occasional update.

Twist #3: Our northern Michigan calico girl will again be a northern Michigan calico girl.  She's moving back up north this weekend.  :-)

"Are they here yet?"

"Yeah... Are they here yet?  It's getting crowded around here."

Simba will be glad to learn that our cat population should be decreasing quite a bit over the next couple of weeks.  Penny will be leaving over the weekend.  Tommy's family returns from the year-long New Zealand adventure next Monday and will be reclaiming him as soon as possible.  And... in a development that I'm not quite ready for... our kittens may be leaving the nest sooner than later.

Kitten adoptions are beginning to pick up and there is room at Petco.  My babies cannot go for at least a week because they have to be medically cleared by the vet... something which cannot happen until they finish their course of antibiotics at the end of the week.  But their ringworm is next-to-gone (I refuse to claim that it's eradicated for fear that it will come back with a vengeance) and they will probably be declared ready early next week.  

Ben and Henry will most likely be the first to go.  They are my confident conquistadors.... ready to make friends and break hearts.  Porter and Eloise will probably stick around here for a bit longer, even if there is room for them at the store.  Porter is a bit skittish.  He's a big love bug, but on his terms.  If I'm sitting on the floor, he's all over me.  But he's come to associate hands and being picked up with medication and bathing.  We need time to help him realize hands are for love.  Teeny-tiny Eloise is the perfect companion for him... she has time before she appears to be an older, bigger kitten and (being a bit more reserved) we have a chance to bring her back out of her shell with the bigger, more dominant kittens off conquering the world.  

But I'm not ready yet, so for the time being.... it's business as usual here at Teeny Tiny Tabby Town.

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Field Trip!

The kittens make a jail break every time I walk through the foster room door, so we decided it was time to give them a bit more room to explore.  On the off-chance they are still contagious, we still have to keep them quarantined.  So for now, the kittens are making daily field trips to the family room... where they can hang out with us, explore a whole new world, and engage in many of the various types of mayhem they will be exposed to in their new homes.  To say they were pleased with the arrangement is a definite understatement.

Henry checked out what was on television.

Ben staked out a new clubhouse inside the recliner.

And put his teethmarks all over the joint so the other kittens knew for sure WHO this space belonged to :-)

Porter checked out our paper supplies for the office printer.

"Hey guys!!!  She's got colored stationery and envelopes in here!!!!"

"Pink???  Eloise needs pink paper for coloring!"  

Did I mention there are pencils with kitten teeth marks and paper clips strewn everywhere?

Eloise is a frustrated artist on a mission.

She also loves Words With Friends.

"What do you mean aaaaannnnnjjjjiiif is not a word???"I

Porter supervised my son's online activity.  

"Hey, Boy... Are you sure you want to make that move?"

While Benny spread the love...

... all around.

"Field trips are exhausting!"

"Porter thinks we need this comfy furniture in our room!"

Going...

Going...

Gone.

Shhhh..... The babies are sleeping!