Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Lazy Day

With the temperature in Michigan being a balmy 96, the kittens and I slowed down and embraced a lazy Monday.

Eloise was lazy (but beautiful in the sunbeams)

And then she moved to the floor to be lazy some more

She found the perfect lap for lounging

"Oh, WHEN will the Lady be done making that clicking sound so I can go back to sleep already?"

Porter was lazy (yet also disturbed by the camera clicking in his sleep)

So he stretched, and...

Found a friend to be lazy with instead.

Henry was lazy (amazing, but true)

Until something caught his attention....



And he decided to teach that clicking camera a lesson for disturbing his sleep :-)

Our laziness was so fantastically wonderful that I actually spent an entire day reading a book!!!!!  (this one)  The history nerd inside me was quite satisfied :-)

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Health Update


While I can see dramatic improvement in the past week, for every welt that heals another small one takes its place.  The good news is that finding them early seems to delay and minimize the problem.  We're winning the war, but it's not over yet.  I may finally be seeing light at the end of the tunnel (and I know how much better it feels to be able to see Porter's face behind the scabs, I can only imagine how much better he must feel!)

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Questions


For those who missed yesterday, I had 3 questions for the experts...

1) How much do you feed your kittens?  (Because mine are starving all the time!!)

2) How do you deal with a finicky feline eater?  (Because Penny is driving me crazy)

3) Do you have any kitten bath time strategies to share? (Because, yeah... I'm still bathing the ringworm kittens)

If you have any answers, I'd love to hear them.  Also, I'm adding a 4th question...

4) How do you deal with a dirty kitten without giving them a bath?  Porter is a bit lazy in the washing department... not sure whether it's because it hurts to wash around his sores or if the medication tastes bad or a combination of both, but he's a tad greasy and I'd like to clean him up a bit without the trauma of a sink for a change.















9 comments:

  1. I didn't miss yesterday, but I was reading on my iPod Touch, and it takes forever to type anything on that. I meant to come and comment when I was at my desktop, but forgot - so it's good you asked again. :)

    Usually my fosters get canned food twice a day, first thing when I get up, and again around 4 or 5. They have kibble available 24 hours a day. If I'm worried about them, weight-wise, or they act like they're starving, I'll add a third and sometimes even fourth feeding, spacing them out through the day. With three kittens, I'd probably split a (small) can between the three, and if they polished that off, I'd go up to a can and a half or even in extreme cases (if they'll eat it all), two cans. Generally, if they eat every crumb, that's an indication I'm not giving them enough. If there's a lot left over, I'm giving them way too much (I know, obvious, right?). To me, I've hit the sweet spot when they eat almost everything but leave a bit behind.

    As for the finicky feline, I think all you can do is keep offering her different kinds of food (pate, shredded stuff in gravy) and see what she'll eat. Spanky loves to keep me guessing - one day he eats every bite of one kind of food, the next day he won't touch it. I have to keep a lot of different cans on hand. Drives me craaaazy.

    I don't have any bathing strategies, but as for keeping Porter fairly clean, I'd recommend either baby wipes (I buy the unscented ones from Sam's by the case) or a warm, wet washcloth. He doesn't have to be spotless every day, if you can just keep the worst of it under control between bath times, I'd consider that good enough. :)

    I thought I was going to have a lazy Monday, but mine started off with stepping in cold vomit (can't decide whether warm vomit is worse than cold; I think they're their own special kind of awful) and didn't improve much from there. Thank god for kitten snuggles! :)

    I'm surprised that there isn't a cat toy out there made out of a pretend plastic camera with a strap around it. That'd probably be the most popular cat toy ever!

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    1. (Holy cow. Sorry for writing an entire novel!)

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    2. Not a book... excellent and necessary information. My kids are getting three cans a day on top of the 24/7 kibble station (which makes Norman so jealous he could scream!). Eloise, especially, seems to be hollering for more so I might bump it up to an extra serving for a while. At some point shes' got to grow into those big bat ears of hers (and hopefully her legs have got some growing to do too!)

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  2. Love those cuties....

    Feeding: we leave dry out all the time for the kittens. Because this crew is kinda little, they get 2 small cans in the am, one when I get home from work and 2 before bed.

    Finicky eater: I had a mom cat once that nearly drove me out of my mind. I finally bought one of almost every flavor until I hit one she liked (and boy did the permanent crew love that experiment).

    Washing: they make pet wipes, but regular ones should work just as well.

    Bathing kittens: yikes. Honestly, with past crews that were just beyond help, I ended up taking them in the shower. I have a door that I can close that traps them and the shower head is on a hose so I can move it around.

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    1. Yeah, Norman loves the food experiments with Penny. Since he'll eat anything, he gets whatever she refuses. I think he's hoping that it's a good long time before we find something she likes ;-) (Actually, we're at the point where she will eat wet food as long as it's shreds... other than that, it's a toss-up)

      Good idea with the shower head. We have one shower with such a hose, but it's in the smallest shower stall in the house. Maybe I can get it moved into the kids' bathroom and trap the kittens inside there :-)

      Porter has made so much progress in coming out of his shell... now only associating the bad stuff with gloves. Hoping I can get him to relax in the baby wipe situation.

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  3. Replies
    1. I agree wholeheartedly. The one with decidedly less fur on her face is MY baby... the same one in the profile pic but three years older now ((sigh))

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  4. I don't use wipe$, I have a stack of old face cloths and just use some warm water (or room temp water if that's what I have on hand) and wipe them clean. often (and in the case of Schuster from the last bunch I had) they end up acting like I'm their mom and just relax into it.

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    1. That's what I'm going to end up doing. These guys are older, so I don't think they'll ever adjust to the idea of baths but it's getting better (and almost over)

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