Introducing...The Spring Muffins!

So I promised an update on my foster babies, and here it is! You are never going to believe how much they've grown.

Here they are at three weeks:

Kitten Parade

They almost completely skipped the "belly crawl" that usually precedes walking and went straight to becoming full on trouble makers. They were definitely not content to spend any more time than necessary hanging out in that carrier.

Skip forward a week and a half:

Everyone sleeps in that little bed together, regardless of size (they still do).

And, without further ado, the names!

Daffodil

Ladybug

Hawthorn is the tux

Sunflower

Not pictured: The shy one, who's name I can't remember anyway. I'll update once I remember!

These guys are already fully weaned and that's good, because Mom seems like she really doesn't want to be there anymore. I can't really blame her, since most of them are nearly her size already.

Now that they are six weeks old, they've been vaccinated with their first shot and have been weighed (the heaviest is almost 2lbs.!). They will be at the Tualatin Petsmart next weekend, March 5th and 6th, from 12-4pm if you would like to see them in person! I have to warn you though, they're evil little pants-climbers.

Happy Tails!

Kitten Talk

Out of all the things I've learned since I started working at CAT, one of the lessons that never ceases to amaze me is how a tiny kitten can turn the most sane, logical, intelligent, manly men and women of adults into coddling, baby-talk spewing piles of mush. No one comes through Kitten Headquarters without cooing at the babies, or expressing their extreme disappointment when there are no babies to coo at.

Try not to call me an itty bitty cutie wootie puddin pie. Just try.

With that in mind, I thought I would introduce those who don't know it already to the world of Kitten talk. Someone who can speak normally to a room of infants will still fall into high pitched gibberish upon seeing a litter of 4 week old kittens. Always.

Some of these are generally known throughout the kitten/foster world, and some are words I just made up, but here is the unabridged Kitten Dictionary for KHQ.

Hidey Bed:

Basically, a bed with sides and sometimes fully enclosed. I don't think I made this word up myself but I can't remember where I first heard it either. It's for shy kitties and baby kittens who need some warmth.

Stuffy:

 
This word isn't specific to Kittens, but that's what we call them. It can be any animal and is used for those small babies that need extra mom-like comfort. I even have two weirdly cat shaped ones that came with a warming pad and a heart-shaped dealie that beats like mom's heart. Kinda creepy.

Boingy-Boingy:

This one is all me. It's pretty much any toy on a spring that boings back and forth and usually comically boinks the kitten on the head.

Slurry:

Anyone in the foster world should know this word if they've had any experience with kittens who won't eat. It's a slushy mixture of (human) baby food, any soft, smelly kitten food (usually a/d) and kitten formula. It's great because if the kittens won't eat it on their own, though most will, you can also syringe feed it to them and it's not quite as annoying as formula to feed, though still very messy.

Muffins:

My Yuffie as a baby.

Yuffie's brother.

Basically any kitten, although I usually only call them muffins when referring to them while talking to their mommy.

Queen:

 Mom, aka momma, mommy, mother, life-giver, food-maker, mess cleaner-upper, tolerater of tail-biting, head-jumping and foot-chomping, knower-of-all and unconditional lover.

Not a word I made up. Moms in foster care are called Queens fur real. (hahahahaha pun!)

This has been Jos as your guide to the world of kitten facts. Happy Tails!

Props to Google for the toy pics, Dawn Rossiter for the slurry pic (plz don't sue me), Nancy Puro for the pics of my Yuffie, his bro, and Noodle, and foster parents for the other kitten pictures.

Kitten Season

For most people, spring means this:

Or this:

Or this:

But for me, spring means this:

Disgusting.

Before I started working here I was like most people who come in looking for a kitten during the winter and are told "we're out". I go "que?" and they say "what?" and I go "what?" and after some comical Abbott and Costello type confusion they explain that it's not "kitten season."

Well, what the heck is kitten season? Perhaps you've heard of springtime as being the time of birth and new life. That's true for cats too. Depending on the winter weather and how warm the spring is, kitten season can generally start from March to May and generally goes until September to October. This year, however, it starts now.

I can't see and I can't walk, but I'm coming!

That's right. Because of the mild winter here and spring starting basically last week, kittens, newborns and pregnant moms are coming out the wazoo right now. Having the benefit of already working through one kitten season makes me tons better prepared for this year, but it's still daunting to think that March is already early for kittens and they're coming a month earlier than that! On the upside- I love what I do and every kitten the foster program saves warms my heart. On the downside, this means we have less room for kittens on the whole, as already during the summer months we have to take only from county shelters and only as I have room in my foster homes.

But we'll keep plugging along and taking in all we can just like last year. In fact, now that I'm not as much of an incompetent fool, hopefully things will go much smoother this season.

If you want to become a foster parent or know someone who does, please go to the CAT website and fill out a volunteer application. And just in case you're wavering on volunteering, here's this:

Resistance is futile.

Spring Pictures found on Google.
Kitten pictures taken by foster parents and me.
Seal Point Himalayan picture taken by Madeleine Barker.

A Mom Named Natalie

Look what I made!

It's been quite some time since I (or I should say my parents) have fostered a group of kittens. By quite some time, I mean about a month or so really, but that's a long time if you ask any foster parent. When I moved out of my parent's house I immediately took over my old room as a foster room, much to my mom's dismay (she wanted her sewing room back, but who can turn down kittens?). So when a skinny, runty little momma came in with five of the fattest babies I'd ever seen, I knew I had to jump on the chance to care for them.

Seriously, these kittens are FAT.

Since this is the first group I've taken since I started this blog, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to show everyone the steps of kitten hood. These pictures were actually taken over a week ago, and the kittens are now open-eyed and wobble crawling all around the carrier. In these pictures they are, in fact, five days old, which even one of our most experienced fosters couldn't believe. They weighed half a pound and had fat little heads. For comparison, most kittens come out with a birth weight of 2-4 oz. These guys were 8oz. five days in and are only getting bigger. I only wish I could bottle some of Natalie's milk because she must have some magic going on in there!

Smooch.

Natalie is a fantastic mom too. Many people don't realize that being a mother isn't always the most natural thing, especially the younger a cat is. Natalie is a young momma- just around a year if not under, and I've seen so many teenage moms ignore, smother, or downright attack their own babies. They don't know what to do, have no interest in being a mom, and are often careless with their babies. Natalie, however, feeds them diligently and one day when our big cat jumped in the room by mistake she ran out of that carrier so fast she scared the heck out of him. She went right into defense mode. It helped that Bacardi is a huge coward anyway though.

Mine!

Over the next eight weeks I will keep everyone posted on how the group is progressing, and hopefully have some wonderful adoption stories to share by the end!

Happy Tails!


Update on Aubie: Remember Aubie, the little orange tiger named for Auburn after they won the BCS championship? Well, the Huntsville newspaper in Alabama ran a story on our humble shelter and the woman who adopted him, who is not only from Alabama but is a major Ducks fan!! She's named him Oliver, thank goodness. Happy dance!

Once again, thank you Nancy for the awesome pictures of Natalie and her muffins.

OMG Kittens!

News From Kitten Headquarters presents a very special post today: A compilation of both adoption success stories and cute, cute pictures of babies who are in foster! Are you ready for the adorabless-ness? I think not!

Meet Sugarplum.

Now called Holly Noel.

Holly N. came to us from Multnomah County Animal Services. Because she had lost some weight between when I got the notice and when she was actually transported, she had to spend some time in foster care. Fortunately she went to one of our best and most constant fosters, who immediately fattened her up and got her preadopted!

Mommy is the best bed.

Apparently Holly's new momma is the mother of a woman who adopted two fosters from the same parent several months earlier and decided it was time for a little sugar of her own! She spent exactly two days in the shelter- the day she came in and the day she got surgery. This is the ideal we go for for all of our kittens. And she was our last foster of 2010!

Looks like she's made herself right at home.

This is Aubie.

Wait, wait, get my good side.

Most of us know Monday as that fateful day when Auburn cheated and won the BCS championship. While good sportsmanship was not on the table, it did help one little feline earn himself a home, and fast!

There's a place out east of here where animal control is "go round up cats and shoot them". Fortunately there are kind people out there also who are fighting this form of control, and we often take in the result of that fight. Aubie was a kitten from just those people, and he sprang from his carrier and into my arms in a flurry of purrs and cuddles.

Love me!

Someone decided it would be a good idea to bet with a shelter out Auburn way that if Auburn won, we would name a kitten Aubie. On the flip side, if Oregon had won, they'd have a kitten named Oregon right now. While I protested this bet (I didn't even want to think about the game after we lost), I made good on it and named this little tiger-like darling after them.

He lasted 5 hours on the floor. That very evening a very nice young woman came in and fell in love with his lovey-dovey self. She didn't even mind that he was named after Auburn. ;)

Way to turn up the charm buddy!

You Are Not Prepared

If you aren't sitting down, please do so.

 

 

All together now: "D'AWWWWWW"

We had two groups of kittens come in from out east that needed to go into foster homes. That cutie above came in with two siblings and momma, below:

I'm a great momma!

Hang in there, baby!

RAWR!

 

 

Okay, okay, I could inundate you all day with adorable pictures of these guys, but I won't. Needless to say, they are now in a wonderful foster home where the sneezles and goopy eyes are being well taken care of.

It's actually kinda hard to clean tiny kitten eyes.

Here is our second group of young-ins, a little older but no less cute:

Yes?

We's sleepin here.

I know I'm cute, gosh.

Okay, one more:

Please, no more pictures!

Big shout out to Nancy, who puts up with my constant requests to take pictures of my darlings.

Success!

Because I don't Adoption Counsel as much as others, I don't always get to hear back about the wonderful homes my kittens have found (yes, they are all mine!). But every so often a staff member or volunteer will pass along a heart-warming story like this one and it will filter back to me, which always makes me happy!

Audrey was a lovely black and white momma who came in with her four big babies from someone who rescued them but was unable to keep them. She was understandably scared her first days here, but fortunately her babies were all bundles of joy and seemed well socialized. They went out on the floor the day they came in and two were adopted to a wonderful loving family right before Christmas!

Wolfman aka "Gucci" and Husky aka "Louis"

Here is the story from the adopter in her own words:

Our kittens are bonding with us and a complete joy! Wolfman (black, tuxedo white bib and toes) has been renamed "Gucci".  Huskey (tabby with white face and feet) is now named "Louis" (like the fashion icons Louis Vuitton and ). The kittens sleep together and play together. They are developing distinctive personalities.

Gucci with his daddy.

Gucci purrs a lot and likes to cuddle on laps if anyone is sitting still. He loves to be stroked from head to tail and enjoys being carried around the house. He is very loving and sweet. He is also very smart and aggessively plays with toys... he'll pick up a fake mouse and run with it in his mouth to keep it away from his brother. He shows good kitty hunting techniques and will try to outsmart the laser pointer...hiding and springing out at it. Gucci usually instigates the wrestling and tag sessions with Louis. He appears to be the more dominate kitten.

Louis with his daddy.

Louis loves to be closer to your face if you are on the couch he wants to be on your chest or under your chin... purring. He loves the petting from head to tail and will put his head under your hand and push up, encouraging you to keep petting if you stop. Louis is more of the follower of Gucci... whatever Gucci does Louis will go along with it. If Gucci takes off exploring in the house, Louis will meow and call out to him and then sprint to where he is at. If he can't find Gucci he is content to be with one of us. Louis is not as sharp or quick when it comes to playing with toys. He'll watch Gucci and half-heartedly join in. If they start wrestling or playing tag.... then Louis and Gucci are more equals. 

Naps for all!

My twins are doing a good job of loving and caring for their kittens. Both of the kittens got "kitty-colds" so we brought them in last week and they got meds. My twins are both taking the responsibility seriously and the each administer the meds to their own kittens (eye-drops, syringe of liquid stuff and then the powder in the canned food). The boys have taken to what they call "kitty-time".... one on one play time or cuddle time with their kittens. I refer to them as "kitty daddys" because they brag about what newest trick or funny/cute thing their kittens have done with their friends. Everyone is shocked to hear that the only thing my boys wanted for Christmas were these kittens. Especially because they are 6'-3" and 6'-5", 17 year olds, who are big and tough, athletic type of boys who play high school Varsity football and basketball.

Sleeping on daddy's legs.

We are enjoying our new members of our family and we love them very much. I have attached a few photos for you to see and share with the Cat Adoption Team. I especially love the one that my twins insisted we take Christmas morning in front of the tree with their kittens!

Gucci and Louis' other two brothers are still here, but they are on a medical hold and are waiting to go home once they get healthy.

And now for the best part: Momma Audrey was adopted yesterday!

Happy Tails!