The Star Wars Saga - May 13 - Aug 24, 2011

A long time ago (...over 14 weeks)
... in a shelter far, far away (ok, not so far) ...

Creamy, a beautiful lynx-point Siamese, arrived without ceremony.  With her stunning blue eyes, she was quickly adopted and carried off for that 'special' surgery required before she was allowed to be taken away to her fur-ever home.

Moments before the first cut, kindly clinic staff discovered that Creamy was smuggling several bundles of joy insider her.  She was quickly spirited away to foster care, where she waited patiently for several weeks before there appeared five tiny new lives for whom she must care.

While Creamy cared for these new lives, a huge white stormtrooper growled menacingly outside her cave, and dark forces loomed nearby.  As she struggled to care for her tiny rebel band, the evil URI threatened their allies away in the valley below and not all of their little friends survived the war.

After 6 weeks of feeding & cleaning, Creamy had taught her little padawans all she knew.  She returned to the Jedi Temple of Adoption and was soon rewarded with her happily-ever-after fur-ever home.

Now our little heroes are ready for their own adventures.  Today, Luke, Leia, Anakin, Han Solo, and Obi-wan (Ben) face the lightsabers of surgery and will soon be off to their own galaxies far, far away.

Top (L to R) - Ben, Leia, Anakin
Bottom (L to R) - Luke, Han

Kitten updates - August 17, 2011

Well, it's been a tough couple of weeks here.  Sailor and her little polydactyl kittens all had to go into 'intensive care' for the terrible case of upper respiratory infections that struck our little brood.  Unfortunately, three of the littles didn't make it.  We lost Bentley, Hoover, and tiny Pickles.  Sailor has bounced back strong, although she doesn't have milk anymore to feed her babies, so the remaining three are now bottle babies.  Mom is still around to clean & comfort.  The kittens are about a month old now but due to their set backs, the appear more like 10 days to 2 weeks.  These are some tough little boys.  Drake, Driscoll, and little Brodie are back on their way.  Looks like they will be around here for several more weeks while they try to gain weight & catch up to their age group.

Sailor with Drake & Driscoll



L to R, Driscoll, Drake, Brodie


The big kittens, on the other hand, are mighty terrors right now.  Everything is something new to climb & explore.  Everything is a toy.  They are eating me out of house & home - 4 cans of food a day between the 5 of them!  Growing up is hungry work.  I did a little random weigh-in on Sunday (their 8-week mark) and thought the whole bunch was nearly at the magic 2lbs, but during the 'real' weigh-in I found that most of them are just in the 1lb 12oz range.  (Maybe depends whether their bellies are full.)  A few ounces to go before they bound out of here to their new homes.

A rare quiet moment for Luke & Ben

The Behinder I get, the Behinder I get ... August 2, 2011

I've tried, really.  There's just so much going on that I can't seem to catch up.

Where to start?  Let's see, 10 days ago I picked up a new mom & 6 tiny kittens (sorry, still no good pictures).  I thought all I'd have to deal with were a couple of fleas, but no-o-o-o...  Mom (Sailor) came down with major Upper Respiratory Infection, first in her throat - causing massive drooling.  She wasn't able to clean or care for her infant kittens very well and barely able to eat anything.  She lost her magnificent motor-boat purr.  Poor baby.  She's such a skinny little thing anyway.  After a couple of trips to the shelter clinic, we came home with a laundry list of meds - ValTorb for the sore throat, Vitamin C & Lysine to boost her immune system, and Colostrum to help with her milk production.  That seemed to help for a couple of days, but (of course) the URI expanded to her eyes & nose.  She stopped eating again.  Back to clinic for more meds, now MetaCam & Amoxicillin.  We'll beat those germs out of her yet!

Sailor loves her scratching post

She's taking better care of the babies now.  So far, they are still gaining weight, slowly, but still gaining.  It's some relief that at least I don't have to bottle feed them (keep your fingers crossed).  Sailor is such a sweetie-pie.  All she wants is to cuddle up and be held.  She takes her meds like a trooper.  When she can eat, she loves A/D mixed with a little KMR 'gravy'.

Camera shy?

The kittens (a little over 2 weeks old now) all have their eyes open (no goo, yea!).  There are a few sneezes, but so far, nothing like what Mom's got.  There will be pictures as soon as they are all cleaned up - and that promised toe-count!  We've got 5 boys and 1 girl - Driscoll, Drake, Hoover, Bentley, Brodie, and Pickles.  All gray-ish, tabby-ish polydactyl kittens.  From what I can tell right now, they WILL be a handful!

A rare quiet moment

Meanwhile, upstairs .... Creamy's kittens have been through Week 5 - one of my favorite weeks of kittenhood.  Running, jumping, bouncing, climbing, eating - all of life's important lessons crammed into one week of action-packed learning.  Did I mention climbing?  Where's the 'OFF' switch?  And who keeps missing the litterbox?  You guys know better than this!  Anyone who has raised little kittens knows, that first week of litterbox use, no matter how many times you scoop, the whole room reeks of kitten-poop.  Ew-ew-ew.

A Handsome Prince

Oh, and then there's the extra shelter kitty here on 'vacation' while the indoor/outdoor kennels get resurfaced?  Princey-Boy (or just Prince).  He's a beautiful Maine Coon, but slightly tempramental.  Would probably like to be an only cat.  He's 10 years old - turned in by his owners who claimed the reason as 'they have a 2 year old daughter'.  Not sure if their intention was to protect the cat or the kid.  He has taken up residence in the upstairs bathroom so that he can have 'a room of his own'.  I go in several times a day to say 'hi' and give him some love.  In the evenings, he gets to come out into the den with me for a little TV time.  He's still kind of nervous about the big change in his life.  He'll be here for a couple of weeks or so.

Lorenza (barely visible in cubby), Colleen (up top), Cotton

For those of you keeping track, when you add in my own 3 cats, thats 17, yep - seventeen cats in the house.  I think that's just one shy of official 'crazy cat lady' status.  Thank goodness for the two moms, even though they've both been sick, I couldn't have done it without them.

So now you know why there've been no posts, no pics, no videos.  I'm exhausted.

Purr-sonalities! - July 20 2011

At 4 weeks, while they are still not 100% steady on their feet, the kittens are spending more time awake now and their new little purr-sonalities are starting to show.

Luke is definitely the Jedi Master of the team.  He's very gregarious & adventurous; always the first kitten to bound out to greet you & typically first to try new things.  Recently, he was the first kitten to step up to Mom's dinner plate & dig in to fill his belly with real food.  He was also the first smart kitten to figure out what the litter box was for!  Kittens learn a lot from watching each other so he'll be the leader of the pack, for sure.  May the Force be with you, Luke.


Luke eats his first meal


Leia is bright & bouncy.  She spends her time practicing her pouncing and teasing poor Han.  Being the only girl, she is tough & strong-willed.  Surely destined to be a princess in someone's galaxy.

Princess Leia Organa Solo

Han is the explorer.  A rogue and a bit of a scoundrel, he plays with Luke & Ben, but also has his solo time, checking things out around the kitten den.  A tough guy with a heart of gold; he's quick on his feet - he'll be making the Kessel Run in no time.

Han Solo explores

Ben is a bit of a hermit; spends a lot of time alone in the 'Jundland Wastes' of the kitten cage (that's peeking out from behind Mom's litter box) & from the back of the kennel 'cave'.  He is gentle & sweet & has that look of being wise beyond his years (or weeks, in his case).  Great friends with Luke and puts up with Leia's bossiness.

Obi-wan Kenobi (Ben to the rest of us)

Anakin.  The quiet one.  He's a mama's boy.  Spends most of his time alone (brooding?)  There's good in him, I know it.  Let's hope he doesn't turn to the Dark Side.

Anakin, with Luke

Tough week - July 11-17, 2011

The kittens are growing fast.  The period between 3 and 4 weeks is tough.  Little wobbly legs make for clumbsy motoring (but funny!).

We had a little worry earlier this week.  Mom Creamy seemed to be losing her milk.  She was not eating very well (she's really picky anyway), so she was not consuming enough calories to make enough milk for 5 hungry kittens.  The babies didn't gain much weight up to week 3, so after a trip to the vet for mom to make sure she was OK otherwise, we tried supplementing mom's milk with a little KMR (kitten milk replacement formula).  The kids didn't take too well to the bottles, but we discovered that Creamy REALLY liked the taste of KMR ... and Voila! ... by mixing a little KMR 'gravy' into her food, Creamy started eating enough to make milk again.

Meanwhile, our favorite kitten fairy godmother (Mary E) helped wiht bottle- and syringe-feeding for a couple of days and now the kittens are just about ready to eat on their own!

Anakin, Luke (foreground), Ben & Leia (background)

Luke gets a bath

Shake a Leg ... or is that Shaky Legs? - July 8, 2011

The kittens are toddling around ... trying out their shaky little legs.  They're pretty good at it, too.  Growing up so fast.



Hey, what's out there?



Leia:  Come on boys, let's go!




Ben:  I dunno ... are you sure about this?







Whoa, wait for me!





 



Luke expores beyond the pen



Son, you have no teeth.  This is not your lunch.



Yea, lunch!



Purr, purr, purr, purrrr, purrrrrr

Nom ...nom... nom...nom  - thanks, Mom!

Han:  Mom, I'm getting sleepy ...

Band of brothers



And ... we're out













Kittens beat the heat - July 4, 2011

Creamy's kittens beat the heat this weekend by sleeping it off.  That's pretty much how they spent the whole week.  They had their 2 week check ups and everyone is doing great, weighing in between 11-12 oz.  For those keeping track, that's about triple their original birth weight in just 2 weeks.  I'd be sleeping too if I was growing that fast - it's hard work.

Hope everyone had a happy 4th of July weekend!

Peek-a-boo - June 27, 2011

Well, we're a week old now ... it's time to see the world.  Little baby eyes are starting to open up!  Meanwhile, everyone is growing big & strong; they have all just about doubled their birth weight.  Here's the latest pics:

Anakin, up from 3.7 oz

Ben, born at 3.0oz - way to go!

Han, the biggest at birth, 4.2oz

Leia, with a little wink, started at 4.1oz

And Luke, from the littlest 2.9oz, he's my hero!

Creamy and her band of rebels

Ssh-sh-sh.... We're sleeping - June 22, 2011

When you've got a good mom-cat, this is pretty much what you see for the first week to 10 days.  Mom does all the work and the kids just sleep in a big kitten pile.

But aren't they cute?

Day two

Day three

Kittens first day - June 20, 2011

Kittens born in foster care have a big outing in their first day of life.  Everyone gets their first car ride to the shelter to have their first vet checkup!

My little gang from a galaxy far, far away have all checked out fine - even gaining weight overnight (mom's got LOTS of milk for them!)

Other than that, it's mostly sleeping that occupies their time for now.
Better pictures will follow :)

L to R - Anakin, Luke, Leia, Ben, Han

Welcome to the world .... June 19, 2011

About six weeks ago, a new foster mom came to stay with us.  The shelter folk found out she was pregnant when they had her belly shaved for spaying.  "We love kittens here", they said, "off to foster care for you."

"Creamy is her name and she should be due very soon", they said.  Ha!  Cats are only pregnant for about 9 weeks (roughly 65 days), so she was maybe half done (not really 'very soon'). 

So we waited...and waited.

And, she got bigger & bigger.  Thought maybe she was fielding a baseball team.

Sunday, I had been out all day.  When I got home, Creamy was very anxious.  She tried to scruff my other foster kittens & drag them into the birthing crate we had set up.  Since they are about 8-9 weeks old, they weren't too co-operative!

At 5pm I sat down with her in the crate (she wouldn't let me leave!) and by 5:25, we had the first kitten born.  Followed quickly by #2, 3, 4 and 5.  By 7:30, she was done and we have 5 new little souls in the world.

Since 'Star Wars' was playing on the TV in the background while all this was going on, the kittens all got names from a galaxy far, far away.  Good thing they were mostly boys (there aren't many girls in the Star Wars universe).  So here's the stats:

#1 - all black male (with amazingly long nails!) born 5:25pm, 3.7oz, named Anakin
#2 - brown & white tabby male, born 5:59pm, 3.0oz, named Ben (because Obi-Wan is just too Jedi)
#3 - black & white tuxedo male, born 6:11pm, 4.2oz, named Han
#4 - a dark Tortie, the only girl, born 7:00pm, 4.1oz, named Leia (of course)
#5 - last, but not least, a grey & white tabby male, born 7:25pm, just 2.9oz, named Luke

A couple of the more icky pictures ...


Luke coming into the world








Creamy & kids

Mom & kids all doing fine.