Holy Adoptions Catman!

When I last updated you on Friday morning, my weekend plan included taking Willie Rae and the Quincy-Adams quints to adoption hours on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.  By the time my kids got on the bus that morning, we already had a wrench thrown into the plans.

"Willie Rae wouldn't really call it a wrench, Lady.  More like a bump in the road... a big BIG bump (on the floor)."

Remember my open banister spindles with the staircase that forms the fourth wall of my living room?  Remember the "Stooges" (Eloise and Porter) taking the wrong side of the stairs and ending up coming down the hard way?  Well, another kitten has applied for the position of stuntwoman... and her application has been rejected.

The scene of the crime

On Friday morning, Willie Rae and Abby were racing up and down the stairs, back and forth and back and forth and back and forth, when Willie Rae got it into the marshmallow fluff between her ears that she could avoid Abby on the course if she only took the outside of the stairs instead.  I didn't see it happen, so I'm not sure if she didn't make the turn quickly enough or if she was too fast and took a misstep but I heard the end result... a crashing thud of a three pound kitten onto the living room floor.  ((Now picture Abby, wide-eyed and peeking through the spindles from the landing at the top of the stairs... if her face didn't say "uh-oh Spaghettios" I don't know what would))

"I didn't do a thing.  One second she was there at the top of the stairs, the next second she was SPLAT on the floor downstairs!"

After nearly an hour of a baby kitten hopping around the house on three feet, I called the vet.  We spent the morning waiting on x-rays and pain meds.  Nothing broken, but she certainly was sprained and in need of a little bit of TLC (she got it).  Her limp improved throughout the weekend, but we decided to make sure she was okay before bringing her back to adoption hours... so she stayed home.

"Hey Lady... Willie Rae will just stay home and help you learn how to use your new clicky-box thing-a-ma-bob.  Deal?"

You don't think she planned it that way, do you?

"Ppbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbth!  Raspberries at you, Lady!  Raspberries!"

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On Saturday, I packed up the five Quincy-Adams boys and headed to Petco.  We already knew that Woodward would be going home with his new family.  Before he left, he had a very special visitor...

"Hmmmm.... This guy smells funny."

"He tastes funny too"

"Can I have a new home for Christmas, Santa?  A good one where I can stay and be loved for ever and ever and ever and ever?"

"I CAN???  Shake on it, Dude."

Woodward has a fabulous new home with a new mom, a new dad, and a new kitten sister who is about 12 weeks old.  Happy life, my sweet bear.  Happy life.

Saturday adoption hours were slower than slow.  I arrived with five boys, one who was already adopted.  I went home with four boys in tow.

Sunday adoption hours are traditionally pretty dead.  I think we've done one adoption total on a Sunday in the past two months (or more).  So imagine my surprise when at the end of the day, we had found new homes for...

Rocky!

Rocky was quite the popular young man on Sunday.  He spent the first couple hours of the day being passed from potential adopter to potential adopter.  He went home with a wonderful young couple.  He has a new mom, a new dad, and a dog in his new home.... and lots and lots of toys.  He went home with an overflowing cart of Petco goodies.  Our boy is very spoiled and very loved (and very missed already).

Not far behind Rocky was....

Malibu!

Malibu went to a fabulous home with a new mom and dad and a calico sister named Callie.  She caught her new mom's eye right away, but she had competition... her brother Lincoln.  Mally's mom went back and forth, spending quite a bit of time holding each one before making her final decision.  Our sweet girl (and last sister of the litter) hit the jackpot.  

It was all well and good that Malibu won because the next one to be spoken for was...

Lincoln!

Our Lincoln went home to a wonderful family who needed him very much.  They recently lost their much beloved cat to cancer and had started the day by just looking to see if a new kitten might make them feel a bit less broken-hearted.  While Malibu's family was making their decision, they met Lincoln and Peeps and Cooper (but fell head over heels for Lincoln).  Once Mally's adoption was finalized, it opened the way for Linc to make the next move.

Lincoln's new family includes a mom, dad, sister, and two dogs.  Their work schedules vary enough that he will rarely be alone, which means our cuddle bug will always have a lap at his command.  Lucky boy.

And we still weren't done yet, because just as adoption hours were ending a very special proposition came in for...

Peeps!

Peeps's new mom came looking at adoption hours last week with the idea of finding a kitten to give to her daughter at Christmas.  She fell for Peeps and brought her daughter in on Sunday to meet the crew and think about "maybe adopting a kitten after the holidays" (wink, wink).  The one that her daughter fell for?  Peeps :)

But, SHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!  The conversation was held with a lot of winks and nods and secrets because our Peeps will be a very special Christmas surprise for a very special and lucky little girl.  Mom came back later in the afternoon to fill out the paperwork and make things official.  Peeps will be staying here at Teeny Tiny Tabby Town until Christmas Eve.  I am so excited to be part of this Christmas surprise that I can hardly stand it.  

It was whispered that our Peepers's new little girl has a very special name picked out for her future kitten... Marshmallow.  How perfect is that?  He will be a Marshmallow Peeps!

Hee Hee Hee :)

Peeps will be sneaking into his little girl's bed on Christmas morning with a jingle bell and bow around his neck.  He will have a little boy to love too.   Hooray!

Peeps and Cooper are currently the sole residents of the front foster room.  No worries about Cooper, though.  We heard from a former adopter that she was ready to adopt another kitten from us.  After checking the Petfinder listings, she picked one that she wants to meet very soon.  His name?  Cooper :)

Willie Rae will be returning to adoption hours next weekend, barring any more freak accidents that is.  In the meantime, we're planning a very special adoption evening for our Petco residents... stay tuned for details.

"Adoption?? That's what the Lady thinks. Willie Rae already adopted herself a good family.  They just don't know it yet. "

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Futures 4 Felines has a new blog post and new pet of the week.  You might recognize her.  Please consider sharing both her and Henry's stories.  My Christmas (and theirs) will be much happier if we can get them home for the holidays.

Five for Friday (plus a couple extra...)

We packed up the troop and headed to the vet on Thursday for 6 check-ups plus vaccinations and one upper respiratory re-check.  All seven fosters, four carriers, one foster mom... surprisingly, we all survived the loading, the drive, the check-ups, the nail trims, the shots, the re-loading, and the drive home (although Peeps was not at ALL sure he would survive the wait in the Starbucks drive-thru lane on the way home).

The girls spent the rest of the day looking like this:

And this:

And this:

The boys were just a bit more willing to pose for you.

Woodward

Woodward just oozes sophistication, doesn't he?

Cooper

Cooper prefers to model blankets and stare at the inside of his eyelids,

but he really does love you... promise.

Rocky

Rocky looks a bit dusty, but his undercoat is actually gray (look at the tail for his remarkable shading!)  He's kind of a mix of brothers Bentley and Hudson.

Peeps

He's sexy and he knows it.

And Lincoln

(Who made the most of his moment in the spotlight)

Work it, Lincoln.

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Health Update

First the weights:

Willie Rae          3 lbs, 5 oz

Peeps                5 lbs, 2 oz

Rocky               5 lbs, 10 oz

Cooper              5 lbs, 14 oz

Lincoln              5 lbs, 14 oz

Woodward         6 lbs, 1 oz

Abby                 6 lbs, 1 oz

(Yes, 4-month-old Woodward is the same size as 7-month-old Abby)

Now the eyes:

A few of the boys have had a bit of a goopy eye since before their move to Teeny Tiny Tabby Town.  Peeps, Cooper, and Lincoln are on eye drops for the next week or so while it clears up.  In the meantime, Peeps is perfecting the pirate look as seen above ;-)

Abby's eyes present a bit more of a problem.  You know that we've ridden the upper respiratory roller coaster with our Abby in the past few months.  Her symptoms have always included a leaky, watery, matted right eye... which we always attributed to the respiratory infection.  The vet decided to take a swab from her eye and nose yesterday and, upon closer examination of the eye, made a discovery.  Abby has an adhesion of the inner two eyelids... meaning they are fused together.  Her tears cannot drain normally to the ducts, so they weep down the nose instead.  So...

Our sweet girl will need surgery to separate the eyelids and a recuperation period here with us before she is available for adoption again.  We don't have a date set yet.  She's back on Baytril for the sneezing for the next ten days.  We will probably let her finish the course before sending her back to the vet.  Our rescue director Paula will take care of the actual scheduling and I'll keep you posted.

Apparently, Abby's eyes work plenty well enough to do this:

Yep, she's skinning the toy mice pretty regularly.

I sure hope she's passing down the skill to Willie Rae in their cuddle puddle sessions.

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The Weekend

Woodward will be leaving us tomorrow.  We met his new mom and dad Thursday night.  They are lovely people who just adopted another (slightly younger) kitten and decided that their new baby needed a big brother.  I'll get lots more pictures of him before he goes.

I'll be starting a round of Tree-Defender on Sunday.  The boys are safely tucked into the foster room and shouldn't be a problem.  We shall see what trouble Abby and Willie Rae can create.

"Tree? Did you say Tree?  Funny you should fail to mention being worried about the trouble that Norman could cause.  Because the Lady has no clue what Norman would do to a tree either."

The rest of my weekend will be spent learning how to use my new fancy camera (my birthday-slash-Christmas gift this year).  Hopefully I will learn enough to bring you in focus photos on Monday.

Have a great weekend everyone!

PS--- There were questions about our new blog for the rescue yesterday.  The link is permanently over in my Blog List on the right as "Futures 4 Felines".  Or you could just click here.  For the time being, it will only be updated on Mondays with our featured pet listings and event updates but (hopefully) we will get more posts in the works soon.

Why I Do This

How can I let them go?  How can I raise them and give them away?  

How can I watch them practically from birth...

and opening their eyes for the first time...

and watch them master their world in wide-eyed wonder...

and then kiss them goodbye and send them on their way??

This would be the reason why.

I received this photo from Clay's new mama Amy on Saturday.  Look at the smiles (on both of them!)  Our boy goes by the name Casper now.  Here is the update that came alone with the picture:

"He's made himself at home here, especially in everyone's laps!  I'm so happy that he has joined our family, there's never a dull moment in the house!  He truly has been a perfect fit for my silly family.  I can't tell you how nice it is to hear giggles from all 5 of my kids whenever they are playing with him.  My 21 and 18 yr olds actually sit on the couch with me now (if Casper's around)! lol"

How could I give him up?  How could I not???  Casper (or Cats purr, as he's known at home) is clearly where he belongs.  

My eyes?  A bit leaky right now, but it's a happy leak.

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The Weekend Report

Abby remains behind for another week.  Our girl's wheezing and sneezing kicked in again on Friday (I know...), so we're hanging onto her and heading to the vet to find out what is wrong.

But...

Mother Jefferson has left the building.  She moved out of the house and into the cat condos at Petco to await her forever home.  I'll miss her sweet snuggly self, but I am a bit relieved to not have to mediate between her and my boys.  Mama was accepting of Abby, but never did adjust to those boy kitties looking at her babies.  They had a part to play in this... after the first butt-kicking that each received from this fierce mama, they hissed, growled, and yowled at her every time they saw her.  So tiny little 7 1/2 pound Mama needed to show them who was boss.

My favorite Mama the Marauder story (sorry, no pictures)... Imagine Simba sitting at the bottom of the stairs when Mother Jefferson saunters by.  He hisses.  She chases.  He ends up on the top bunk in my son's room cowering while Mama swings through the air on the comforter like Tarzan and howling at him.  I plucked her off and, before we even left the room, she started up her purr motor like nothing had ever happened.

Look out Petco kitties.  Your boss has just arrived.

Willie Rae attended adoption hours on Saturday, but was most definitely NOT happy to be there.  She hissed at the other kittens.  She growled at the barking dogs.  She pitched a fit when we put her in a Santa costume.  She glared when we put a holiday collar on her.  She hid out under the blankets for the remainder of the afternoon.  Good thing nobody (and I mean nobody) was visiting Petco with the idea of adopting a kitten.  I brought her home, where she climbed in my lap and purred herself to sleep... brat.

Apparently our teeny tiny torbie has a bit of a 'tude (and might think she is already home and I should just leave her there).

And..... The boys have arrived.

You'll remember that our Adams kittens were merely five of a litter of thirteen kittens.  Most of the remaining kittens have lived with Paula since they were one week old.  At four months old, they are (mostly) still with her and with their mama, getting WAY too attached and still nursing(!).  Mama needs a break and needs to be spayed (and have time to recover).  So five brothers came to live with us on Sunday.  Introducing....

Cooper

Peeps McQueen

IROC (who we will be calling Rocky)

Lincoln

and Woodward

The boys will be living in the front room while Abby and Willie Rae take over the main house.  And now we try to figure out where to put the Christmas tree next weekend ;-)

We're stepping slightly out of presidential order for our boys' last name.  They are related to our Adams kittens but far enough removed from them, having neither been raised with them not in residence in the same season of the year.  As a result, I decided not to make them part of our "Adams family".  It was suggested to me by the wonderful Catherine on Facebook that there were TWO Adams presidents.  So, we've jumped over Madison and Monroe for the time being and named this particular branch of the Adams family tree the Quincy-Adams family (hyphen intentionally inserted where it does not exist in history).

Our next little family will be the Madisons.

And I was starting to worry about having enough kittens to photograph during the holidays...