Lupé has kittens!

Lupé is a community cat living in Van Etten. Her caretakers had made arrangements to get her altered, and I lent them a trap to pre-bait and catch her. True to Murphy's Law, she failed to show the day before her surgery, and missed her appointment. A new appointment was made.

However, a few days later she presented her caretakers with these two little gems:

Too late! Once she can be away from her kittens for a day, we'll get her to a veterinarian for FeLV/FIV testing so we can promote these cuties and hopefully get them pre-adopted so they can go straight into homes once they are ready to go. Her caretakers have her shut in their greenhouse where she is snug and warm.

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Cricket stops looking for Ivan.

She also has stopped eating, sleeping with me, or taking any interest in anything. She just sits on the couch in the great room and stares at the upholstery.

When the weather got nice I let her out on the catio, as she has been begging for. She went outside and howled and howled like she had been when looking for him in the house. Then she came back in, and it was like she had given up. She just went to the couch and only budges to go to the cat box. She won't even lay on the soft blanket there. She just lies on the bare cushion.

I did cook her some chicken. She had a few bites of that last night. That's the last thing she ate on her own. Baby food...nope. A/D. Nope. So I've resorted to syringe-feeding her.

My poor old girl.

Spring is time for....stinkbugs!

Last night I was working upstairs on the computer (as I am now) and I hear a loud buzzing like a horsefly. I ducked away, and the cats all ran after it. Thinking it might be a wasp, I got up and headed over.

It was a good old stink bug, and the kittens were learning why you don't bite one. Yuck! They stared at it for a few moments and then stalked off.

I try to keep the furniture up here covered since it gets so little human use. Clearly I am failing.

Bo has it rough, right?

Bo helps blog

And he also still needs a home, along with his brother Davis. They are currently the "upstairs" cats.

Meet Lucy and her sister

Somehow my phone number ended up on the Internet. The phone rang and it was a local number and I picked it up. I ended up with three cats from a nearby trailer park who were originally rescued from the feral population there, but the man who rescued them was moving to another trailer in the park, and also could not afford to get vaccinations and spay/neuter for three cats. Given that it would have cost around $600, I can sympathize.

I had all three cats transferred to us, and had the male (a cute friendly tiger with white) altered and vaccinated, but then the temperature plunged and I had no space for him without heating additional space in the barn. I called the original owner and his sister, who had expressed interest in keeping him, agreed to take him back.

But the two little girls are here to stay. Here is Lucy, who is a little treat hound and is coming around nicely:

Here is her little sister, who doesn't have a name, primarily because she spent all of her time hiding. And she still does here, too:

I have to think of just the right name for her. She doesn't have a mean bone in her body. I can pick her up and she just shivers, but doesn't scramble, bite, or scratch. She has a cute little face, but a long way to go before she is adoptable:

So that's how it goes. Two get homes, and two come in.

Actually three, because little Hope is coming back. More on that tomorrow.

Arthur checks in, too!

And speaking of relaxed...I think it is clear that Arthur is really relaxed in his new place.

Now I get photos by text, too. It's kitty feedback, 24 hours a day. Gotta love it.

TinyCat checks in...with a real photo. On paper!

It has been so long since someone has sent me an actual photo in the mail I wasn't quite sure what to do with it! TinyCat clearly is relaxed in his new home. Remember everyone, I love photos. I'm not always so good about getting them all up, but I try! I'll try even harder, because I love having these permanently in the blog.

Rocket checks in

Actually, I stole her photo off Facebook. Here's her kitten shot.

Cricket looks for Ivan

It used to be every day. Now it's about every other day. Cricket is certain I've left Ivan on the porch or the catio, or he's somewhere she hasn't checked. I would have thought Nellie would have been the cat who missed him most, but Cricket is disturbed she can't find him, and hops around the house, from door to door, to cat-box room, to all the sleeping spots, just in case.



We all miss him.

Command central gets a makeover

I normally communicate about cat rescue using a economy laptop I purchased earlier this year. But all the "guts" of my rescue and paying-job communication lives upstairs on an old Dell tower CPU that I inherited when the company I work for was first sold to a larger corporation. They sent us new laptops at that time, and no one wanted to old stuff, so it became disenfranchised, and therefore our own. My
Dell therefore became my communication drone.

Every now and then I go up there to dust everything off. Modem, router, phone base, cell booster, monitor, etc. You'd think that would be enough right?

Oh, no. Because I have cats!

Every now and then...no wireless. Why? A cat has stepped on the "off" button on the battery backup.

Now and then, I hear a crash upstairs. A cat has knocked down one of my garage-sale speakers. I go back up and prop things up again. Wires get tangled.

A cat chews through the skinny cord on the router. No wireless. Buy new router. New router wire goes over old wires. Wires get more tangled.

Cat knocks down power surge protector. I pick it up and cram it back behind the CPU to make it more secure. Wires become more tangled.

You get the drift.

It got so I hated to even look at it. I had small panic attacks anytime I walked up the stairs.

If this looks not-so-bad to you, it's because I was too embarrassed to show you the worst.
I used to have a very nice monitor (expensive! flatscreen!) but after 6 years of hard use it slowly began to flicker to the point I could no longer tolerate it. A few months ago I dragged out my old huge warhorse of a monitor that weighs about half as much as I do, and I've tried to use that instead. However the cats like lying on it and looking out the window so, you guessed it, I experience even more cat-related outages.

I finally decided all these little stressful things had to go, one by one. So yesterday I went on an economy shopping trip looking for a cheap, thin, flat-screen monitor (Acer, $79, Staples, SCORE!) and some clearance items to help protect my equipment and wires. I'll let you know in 60 days whether I was successful or not.

As you can see, Davis is already looking for ways to seek and destroy even as I clean up (Yes, I still need to finish painting back there).

You know how they tell you to plug in first A, then B, then C, etc? The heck with it. I got so frustrated I just turned everything off, unplugged it all, swore at the wires as I attempted to get them in some sort of order, plugged them all back in, and turned everything back on.

And here I am. Still. Knock on wood.

Arthur gets a home!

Arthur in his new living room.
After being here five, yes five, long years, Arthur has finally scored a home of his own. People have been interested in him various times, but have always been distracted by another cat or kitten. Arthur is a big cat with a huge personality. He finally found a place that values him for exactly that!

He is living with his new mom and a corgi named Sausage, down in Athens PA. He did a week of "pre-adopt" to make sure he and Sausage would get along. Arthur never thought much of my Molly dog, but apparently he is less offended by bigger dogs who aren't as wiggly as Molly is, because he and Sausage seem to be doing OK. Arthur came back after his pre-adopt week for a dental (one extraction and some tarter), and back to his new home he went!

He has his own room, and even a little electric fireplace. Sausage isn't into getting up on furniture, so it looks like the upper cushy level of the home will be Arthur's exclusive domain.

He's a very lucky cat, and he deserves it after waiting so long! Thank you, Shelly, for adopting him!

Ivan...

...has gone. I put the post over on the Feral By Nature blog.

2014 Budweiser Super Bowl Commercial

I figured I'd better post this for my family, because it's just too cute for words.



(Hey, sorry if you got an error. Apparently I did not copy from the Budweiser YouTube version and copied an unauthorized version that was removed. I have replaced it with a link from the Bud YouTube channel).

And then of course, who can forget last year's:

The best presents are sometimes the most basic ones

I hadn't seen Gretchen, a past volunteer, then adopter, now friend (the best part of rescue work), since before Christmas, so when we met at our usual watering hole in Owego after a very long hiatus, she had presents for the cats:

Of the basics of cat rescue (above and beyond food, of course, which many rescues are picky about), cat litter and paper towels head the list. They are depressing to buy because--while for one cat they aren't that expensive--to manage the care of a bunch of cats, they take a bite out of the budget.

I am always so surprised and thrilled when a person comes to visit the cats for the first time, perhaps to adopt, and they come toting a great big package of paper towels. I have to admit, the fact that they realized we would need these and brought them before they even learned whether this was a nice place (versus a frightening dump) always impresses me. And those people almost always turn out to be some of the nicest people I have ever met.

Toys are always appreciated from those who know us (and from those who are mailing gifts--obviously paper towels would be a bit ungainly and pricey to ship!). New toys are great, not only for the cats, but for the experience of adopters. Shabby, fur-covered cat toys make potential adopters shake their heads quietly in concern. They may not say anything, but believe me, they are thinking it. So to have the option of throwing out old toys and replacing them with new keeps the cats interested, and the adopters more comfortable interacting with them. Also, should any cat fall ill, even with a sniffle, all the toys have to go in the trash and be replaced with new, so that virus doesn't hang out after the place is disinfected.

Yet paper towels are gold. They may seem to be a modest $10 donation to the person giving them (well, almost $11 or more now), but they are 1/3 to 1/2 of a bag of good-quality cat food for us! The cats can get by without premium toys if they need to, but a place like this can't function without cat litter and paper towels. And if the day came when there were only X dollars to spend and all three had to be purchased, it's the quality of the cat food which would have to go down to afford them all. You only save about $2 if you skimp on the quality of paper towels. You save $20, and can buy almost two more bags of economy food, if you go down to lower-quality food. And that's not a place we would want to be. Back when we only had younger cats, a few weeks of a cheaper food wasn't too much of a concern. I recall the days of ping-ponging between a lower-grade food and Purina One depending on my budget. But now that we have four senior sanctuaried (non-adoptable, except to the most understanding of homes) cats who are over 13, two senior adoptables, and three 3+ year old adults, skimping on food could result in huge veterinary bills (Decent kitten chow is actually fairly affordable compared to high-quality adult food).

Luckily, early last spring we received a HUGE donation of quality food, so the cats will stay on that gravy train until probably March.

So thank you, Gretchen and Brian, for the gift!


Here's little Zoe, their Owl House cat:

I still have past thank-you posts to make for other gifts the cats received this holiday season as well. And our 2013 wrap-up newsletter should be in the mail soon.

TinyCat gets a home.

Good deeds multiply! Over a year ago I helped catch a scared, shy cat in a trailer park, who had been abandoned by the family of a man who passed away. The woman who lived next door had looked for help for the cat, fed him, and kept an eye on my traps. I went into her home one day to meet her cats (so I know she has a lovely home and takes wonderful care of her cats). The day before yesterday she sent me an email: her beloved 16 year old cat had passed away this fall.

And she had fallen in love with TinyCat online.

So finally this handsome and hilarious guy gets a home. Although I don't know what Molly will do without her kitten to play with. I may need to bring the upstairs kittens down to keep her occupied!

Kitten Bowl!

A little competition for the Puppy Bowl. Hallmark Channel now has the Kitten Bowl!

Wrapping the goal posts in sisal rope was inspiration. And they are all shelter kittens, just as the Puppy Bowl are shelter puppies We used to joke that we had to have two TVs come Super Bowl Sunday. Yikes, now we either have to pick, or get three!

Personally, I'd have two and just watch the puppies and kittens. ;)

The Great Cinnamon Experiment

Ivan is still hanging in there. In fact, I now have the opposite issue with him. After months of his glucose being way too high (400-600 range) I'm now having to watch to make sure it's not too low! How's that for a kick in the gut?

(Above, Ivan sinking down to rest between lunch sessions).
As a person who works/lives on a computer, I could not help squirreling around on the Internet looking for info on insulin resistance in cats. First off, let me stress: The best option for a cat in this situation would be an extended (day or more) stay at a 24-hour clinic where he could be properly regulated, if possible, with an addition of short-acting insulin.

(I deleted paragraphs about why some people might not be able to pay additional thousands for this option depending on the cost of 24-hour care in their area--we've been there before and don't need to visit it again)

Let's proceed to why people resort to hair-brained Internet options.

Let's talk --- Cinnamon.

If you Google around on "cinnamon and diabetes" you'll discover there was an initial flurry of excitement over this common household spice possibly making people more sensitive to insulin. Then there was discussion over the dangers of too much cinnamon, which contains coumarin (toxic to the liver), and the unfortunate apparent fact that less-toxic cinnamon (ceylon) did not have the same benefits as the more-toxic common cinnamon (cassia). Then there was discussion that, after all, cinnamon of any sort really was not recommended for diabetics.

What the hell. Ivan is at end-of-life anyway, and increasing insulin dosages did not appear to be helping. Previously I made a decision of this sort with my dog, Sadie. Put her on pain-relief for her arthritis and risk kidney/liver damage and grant her a shorter but less painful life? Or leave her without pain relief and grant her a longer but more painful life? We went with the pain relief.

Would a week of cinnamon kill Ivan? I doubted it. I mixed 1/16th (approx) of cinnamon in Fancy Feast wet that was run through a blender, and gave it to him via syringe. (For the record--I did call my veterinarian about this issue on Day Two of the experiment to let her know I was doing it. Bless her--she actually researches these things for me. Seriously, she should get a hourly payment for the time she puts into my hair-brained schemes).

Ivan didn't think much of the taste. He didn't spit it out or froth at the mouth, but clearly he was giving me "what the hell?" looks. However, since it was just once a day and the rest of the time anything I put in his mouth was tasty, he grudgingly allowed me to continue. Grudgingly.

I didn't have much hope, but again, what could it hurt? I tested his glucose 4 hours later. 314. That was promising. However, his following levels blew me away:

230, 254, 238, 259, 248. This from a cat who was bouncing between 400s and 600s for weeks. Dinnertime: 186. Midnight: 207. Holy crap!

Next day: 254, 398, 356, 284, 229, 304.
Following day: 304, 292, 268

However, he once again began to "creep up," hitting over 400 one day, and I figured that if cinnamon had initially worked to make him more insulin sensitive, it appeared his system was still compensating against it. In addition, Ivan was becoming increasingly resistant to eating it. The "go to hell" looks were becoming "let me see how far I can fling this stuff out by flicking my tongue" actions. It's possible the increasing glucose numbers were because he was ingesting less cinnamon. He began eyeing me balefully when I approached. Ivan's happiness is more important to me than keeping him alive, unhappy. I figured if the cinnamon had had an initial impact, it was still losing ground. So I pushed the insulin up one more unit and stopped the cinnamon.

Right after this decision, I also had a couple things occur that lowered my personal stress quite a bit. Between having "accepted" that Ivan was soon going to pass, plus two other major stress-reducers, my level of calm increased exponentially.

I had stopped testing Ivan a day or so after upping his insulin and cutting the cinnamon. I figured I would judge his time to go by his actions rather than his glucose level, to give him some last days of relaxation without me looming over him with a lancet. I expected him to deteriorate, but he remained about the same.

About a week after stopping the cinnamon, he was acting just a bit odd, so I figured I'd test him.

63. Yikes!

I began testing him three times a day to make sure he didn't get too low. He was running just below to just over 100. He never got over 220. I began having to feed him more. Home glucose meters are not accurate, and 100 could be 50, or 150, so very low levels can be a bit scary. Yesterday I heard crunching, and he was at the dry food bowl, which he hadn't touched in a month.

So currently I have a diabetic cat who is running decent glucose numbers, who has almost zero muscle mass, serious neuropathy, but last night somehow managed to leap up 3 feet onto my bed, ignoring the ottoman I have for him as a step-up. He still walks away from wet food after eating only a tablespoon, and has to be syringe-fed.

Let's be clear. I am not saying his current low glucose level are due to the initial knock-down by cinnamon. Keep in mind:

A) I did kick his insulin up a whole unit. Maybe he finally reached the correct level. Maybe the big jump gave his system a kick in the ass. Don't you love my highly technical terminology? That doesn't explain the initial drop before I increased the insulin, but it could account for the current low levels.

B) I have been exhibiting considerably less stress around the house after emotionally deciding to put him down. I have been testing him less (fewer ear pricks) and have been acting more relaxed around him. I may have been stressing him out with my previous actions. Cats are far more sensitive than we are, and Ivan's whole world pretty much revolves around me. Me being stressed could equal Ivan being stressed. More stress could equal increased illness. Less stress might allow his body to react more normally to insulin.

C) He is nearing end-of-life. He could have systemic changes (increased organ/gland activity out of the body's alarm mode to keep alive, keep alive!) that have made him more insulin sensitive.

D) A combination of all of these.


I'm absolutely not convinced a week and a half of cinnamon, which was then discontinued, would have a continued long-lasting impact on a living creature's insulin sensitivity. However it did seem to have an initial impact on his glucose levels.

I am not a "magical thinker" but I do believe that animals--who cannot articulate their every concern in words--are so incredibly sensitive to body language and tone of voice, that their powers of observation would seem nearly magical to us if we could actually comprehend it.

When you think about all of the anecdotal evidence about pets who perk up immediately after an owner has finally let go and decided "it's time," you do have to wonder how much of our pets' well-being is influenced by the stress they pick up for us.

Digging out the Fast Food Ferals

Pictures speak for themselves.

I purchased straw from Agway for the sleeping shelters. I had a bunch left over and put it up for free on Craigslist but had no takers. I'll give a call to a few colony caretakers I know to see if they need any.

Downsizing (square feet) the cat facility in prep for the cold

Brrrrr.....it's 5 degrees F at the moment and headed downhill. It's going to be a cold night, and we're nowhere near as cold as the Midwest. The wind is howling outside. I'm not looking forward to heading outside for my pre-bedtime cat-check.

You can imagine heating the second story of a 100-year-old barn is a bit of a challenge. Luckily, with five of the fosters in the house with me, I don't need both 12x24 sides of the 24x24 cat facility area. I hate to shut the cats down to such a small space when they are on their turn for "liberty" however, so I decided to shut the door between the the entrance area (where cats are commonly kept in cages while recovering from spay/neuter) and cut a cat pass-through in the door to the run-area/cat room side.

I tacked a thick towel over the flap to reduce the amount of cold air that can come through to the heated side. Now if the cats want to go to the cold side (and they usually do--it doesn't seem to bother them at all to "visit" out there) they can, and aren't stuck on just the warm side.

I then moved the cage-room heater into the cat-run vestibule so there are three heaters and a heat lamp available. That side is now a toasty 67 degrees, which is a bit of a marvel when it is near zero just two plank-widths away, outdoors. The barn is plank walls with tongue-and-groove interior siding. That's it for insulation. The floor is insulated with fiberglass batting (or, rather, the ceiling of the floor below is insulated) which helps a bit. The windows are decent quality and were very well installed back whenever they were put in. In fact, the barn windows are less drafty that my house windows.

I sleep better at night knowing it's quite warm out there. If I were trying to heat the whole place it could be flirting with falling below 50, or even to the 40s if it falls to 10 or 20 below, and that's just too cold. Luckily the temps don't fall this low that often. Once they go back up into the 20s, it's not too hard to heat the entire space to 65. Expensive, yes (to the tune of $200 a month). But do-able.

Still, I'm very happy that I have few enough cats that that isn't even an issue. They are actually warmer out there than I am in the house.