Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Kittens in the house

The inn is full. We've had more overall cat numbers in the past than I do now, but unfortunately we have a lot of cats and young ones who must be kept separate from others for reasons of health and happiness, so let's hope no one dumps another cat at the door. There would be no place to put him!

It's time for new photos. The four remaining "kittens" are now young adults and need to be marketed as such for the holidays. We have some lovely adults. We have Timmick the One-eyed Terror, and Spot the Declawed Cat who Bites. We have one feral female recovering from spay who will be leaving for her home territory soon. All of these I need to get photos of to share here with you, dear blog readers.

We do have four small kittens, however they aren't adoptable yet. Tank and Tink are two of the Lumberyard kittens who have failed to thrive, and it's time for a full vet workup on them. They eat, but don't romp and play like other kittens. They are needy, skinny, and whiney. They start to fill out, then get thin again. Their littermates were big robust boys, and have been adopted, but of course kittens from the same litter can have different fathers.

The littlest one, Tink, can't meow clearly. They tend to want to suck on one another, so I'm going to start putting one in a cage with a heater and another bed on the outside, so they can be close together but not suck.



The other two small kittens are feral. Imagine that! I FINALLY got some feral kittens after a summer full of friendly ones! They were neutered today, and are warming up nicely with a little help from canned food.




Branden and Nikki, our caretakers when I travel, had a cat show up at their door. She went off to be spayed today but...she already was! So she was vaccinated and treated for ear mites, and then came back here. I've posted her on the lost pet Facebook pages. If we don't find the owner, Branden and Nikki think they would like to keep her, so she is fostering with them, thank goodness!


Spot is a declawed cat who was found in Owego, and I need to head out to where he was found and put up posters. He was a sweetheart in the cage, and I was sure (and still hope I am) that someone had to be looking for him.



I felt badly for him in the downstairs of the barn, but because he could be someone's pet, I didn't want to put him upstairs with the other cats, so I brought him into the house in my guest room. Then I discovered Spot's vice--not an uncommon one for a declawed cat, and easily one that could have gotten him tossed out the door. He bites. As in, rolls around purring by your head and then sinks his teeth into your scalp, bites. This is the reason we don't permit declawing. Declawed cats often compensate for the lack of claws by using their remaining "weapon"--a less tolerated one--their teeth.

He is very treat motivated so I'm going to try some clicker training on him. But here was another cat I expected that, if his owner couldn't be found, he could be adopted right away. Now he needs a special home. He does love playing with another cat I have in the facility, a beautiful Russian blue type. So I may bring that cat into the house as well, and see if they would get along in the two guest rooms upstairs. Pepper and Timea would have the other half of the upstairs. The Russian Blue will get a home quickly (no vices so far!) but in the short term, Spot would have a friend. He tends to bite more when he is bored and finally a human comes to play with him, so perhaps with another cat to wear him out, he would be less likely to use his teeth. The Blue is a big former tom cat, but very playful himself, and about the same age.

Hopefully we'll have a sunny day soon, so I can get improved photos of the clan!






Saturday, November 26, 2016

Things we can lend: urine collection box for diabetic cats or urinary issues

I've been going through things we own, disinfecting them, and bagging them up so they stay clean. I'm pitching things that have accumulated that I probably will never use. It's incredible how much "stuff" I have, given how sparse I keep my house. I have quite a bit of vacation racked up, so I may take a day each week and dedicate each day to a particular project.

This urinary collection box, however, I will keep, and if anyone should need to borrow it if you need a number of urine samples from your cat, keep us in mind.



The link for it online is here.

If I can remember how, I'll make a category for equipment we can lend.

Valentina learns to love

This will be the first time I've embedded a Facebook video. I'm not sure if a person can see if they aren't logged into Facebook or not.



Emily (her new cat-mom) says:

I sing Simon and Garfunkel and she just melts! She's beautiful inside and out (and goofier than I ever expected)
Valentina has finally accepted love... and I can't get her to stop purring and following me around! Thank you so much for bringing this joyful wondercat into my life

Beautiful Valentina was the queen of the cat room. While she would let me pet and comb her, she would only tolerate a few pets from other visitors before she would wack them. Clearly Emily has the magic touch, and Valentina is blossoming. I'm sure she is much happier in her new home than stuck in the boring cat room!

Have a wonderful life, Valentina!

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Finally got something with a keyboard larger than a pea

I was foolish to think I could actually blog using the iPad Mini I got for free with my upgrade earlier this year to an iPhone 6. It's just too darned small. So I was able to pick up an Acer Switch One 10 tablet with a keyboard for $120 on sale. It seems to have issues finding my router, but I can connect via my cell hotspot well enough until I work that out. I drooled a bit over the full sized laptops, but honestly, I just need something to type and print documents, and to blog. I don't even need to do much internet searching. I don't need a machine with any serious guts. The battery on this little warhorse lasts 10 hours, so I can use it in-flight when I travel. Yes, it took six hours to download Office 365, but hey, at least I have it.


I have three days "off" (although part of that will be spent catching up on paying-work planning) and one of my goals is to get cat photos updated and get thank-you letters out. I've just put a pot of lentil soup on to simmer so further cooking won't be required and I've opened an MS Word doc to make my list of things to get done. It seems if I don't have a list--things don't happen.

Since the electric heat is on the great room, I had to move large furniture away from the heat runs, so my desk is now in front of the bow window where the cat food bowls reside (to keep them out of the reach of Molly-the-dog). In order to eat, the cats all must parade past me. Jessie, who is quite shy, graced me with her presence so that I could get her photo--a minor miracle in itself.


I finally got two FERAL kittens in--the first of the summer. Every previous kitten has been ridiculously friendly, with perhaps the exception of shy Supercat. Honestly, I enjoy the feral kits more. I feel like a warehouse when I get friendly kittens who would get homes far faster at a shelter with daily public hours.

Photos of the wild guys coming soon!






Sunday, November 13, 2016

Mystery gift, and lots of plates! Lots! Did I say "lots?"

Jo sent a donation of paper plates and tuna fish (Pepper and Timea loooove their tuna snack!) and an error was made on the order. When Jo sorted it out, the store sent the accidental shipment free, along with the original. We ended up with 2000 paper plates! They will get used, so thank you, Jo!


However she says she is the not the person who sent the wonderful cage cover that arrived on the same day. This cover was on our Amazon Wish List, and is especially helpful now, as it can be used to help keep kittens or cats from sniffing noses too much with other cats, comforting shy cats until they are more relaxed, and keeping sneeze droplets from flying if we should get an upper respiratory in a kitten and we can't move the kitten into isolation for some reason.

There was no note in the box indicating who it came from. If you sent this to us...thank you!

Saturday, November 12, 2016

Even ferals play!

Turn off the volume for this, unless you want to hear my old microwave creaking away and beeping, and a kitten whining for breakfast!

Indoor cats will take a cat toy to the rungs of a chair and make it "difficult" to "catch" their prey.

Buster uses the pallets I have to stack wood on, and a leaf!



Victor gets a home

Four kittens are out the door, as Victor found a great new home (as long as his new sister-cat decides she likes him as a new housemate) and three of the lumber-yard kittens went to the SPCA of Tompkins County to be neutered, and they said they would keep them for adoption at the Annex in the Mall since they were friendly and ready to go.


As usual I forgot to take a photo of Victor in his new digs, so I have to post an older one. Hopefully they'll send something along soon--maybe of him playing with his new feline friend? We'll see!

I now have just two Lumber Yard kittens left (they will be neutered in about 8 days), and just five of the spring kittens, including Timmick.

Timmick needs a post of his own. He's a little terrorist. I've had to house him in the cat room with the bigger cats because he bullies the younger cats. He's going to need a very special home with lots of space and either no other cats, and some big dude or lady cat who will give him a good smack when needed!



Saturday, November 5, 2016

A Street Cat Named Bob

The movie is scheduled for limited release in the US. If you are lucky enough to be near a theatre, please go! If you can't go, I highly recommend the book.

Trailer:



Short documentary: