Weekly Instagram/Facebook/Twitter/Tumblr Roundup.
“How YOU doin’?” Canasta inquires.
Would whoever sent us the crown bed please report to me so that I can thank you properly? It was a lovely surprise, but there was nothing in the box to indicate who had sent it! (Canasta approves.) (Note: Kathy, Mama to Daisy (formerly Arya) sent it to us!)
Good night innernets! (Canasta)
Truly, Canasta’s big ol’ belly is SO tempting and she knows it. As soon as I reach over to rub her belly, she grabs my hand and bites. She knows what she’s doing!
Charlie is keeping his eye on the teaser. Canasta’s keeping her eye on Charlie’s tail. She’s less hissy and growly around him now, but still isn’t sure she wants to be friends DESPITE the fact that he has given her copious slow-blinks-of-love.
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Canasta shows us the belly.
Good night innernets. (Canasta clearly cannot relax.)
These are not the greatest pics, but I think you can see the difference a week made – on the left is Canasta the day we got her (January 10th) and on the right a week later (January 17th.) Belly is bigger, nipples more prominent (and pinker), and in both pictures she is 100% over the humans and their nonsense. Also, she went from 7 pounds, 15 ounces to 8 pounds, 10 ounces in that week. (Still don’t know when she’s going to have her kittens; my prediction is by February 1st.)
I just love this picture of Canasta. She’s such a pretty girl!
I may have pointed this out before (I don’t remember), but pretend I haven’t: the very tip of Canasta’s tail is white, and I just love a kitty with a taillight.
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Canasta feelin’ playful. Please note, in the second section of the video, that Charlie – who adores that teaser – is keeping his distance because he’s a good boy who respects signals from other cats, and Canasta has made it clear that he needs not to get too close.
Good night innernets. 👑 (Canasta)
Got it! That belly isn’t holding Canasta back.
Canasta is such a goofball. How can this position be comfy?
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The other day I was tossing toys for Canasta and she caught one out of mid-air. NATURALLY I didn’t catch it on video, and I’m sure she’ll never do it again, but I’m trying!
Good night innernets. (Canasta)
For Throwback Thursday, here’s a collage of all the fake mamas I’ve had in the past (that is, female cats who came to me with the assurance that they were pregnant and they turned out not to be.)
It started way back in 2010 with Maura. I was told she was pregnant, she kept getting bigger (helped in no small part by the amount of food I was giving her), but at a vet visit the vet couldn’t feel kittens (and should have by that point), and a spay surgery showed that she wasn’t and had never been pregnant.
After Maura came Lilybet in 2013. She was pretty small, didn’t get bigger, and what do you know? No kittens!
In January 2016 came Kokomo who (again) was pretty small but got bigger over the next 3 weeks (go figure), but then she went into heat. Fun! No kittens for her.
In December 2016 came Willa. I was told (before I saw her) that she was “hugely pregnant and about to give birth.” Ha. She was tiny, but I held up hope that she might be pregnant. But nay – she went into heat, so no kittens were had.
In January 2020 Natalia came to us. I didn’t think she was pregnant, but again thought it was a possibility. After a couple of days I told Michelle I really just wanted to know one way or the other, so dropped her off at the vet for an exam. Not only was she not pregnant, she’d already been spayed.
Which brings us to Moira Rose, December 2020. I totally thought she was pregnant, waited three weeks to realize she really wasn’t getting any bigger, and look at that. No kittens for her!
It doesn’t escape my notice that of the 6 fakers I’ve had , three of them are torties and one is a calico. JUST SAYIN’.
Did you know that Canasta is the 14th pregnant cat we’ve fostered? Since I posted a collage of the fakers earlier, it’s only fair to share collages of the NON-fakers. Here they are in all their catermelon glory.
Our first was Kara in 2008 – we’d been fostering for 3 years by then and had some mamas and their kittens, but no pregnant cats. Kara ruined us for all the pregnant fosters to follow – she gave birth about 30 hours after we got her. She had 4 kittens.
Maggie (2011) made us wait 22 days and got impossibly big before she had 6 kittens.
Emmy (2012) was with us for 13 days before she had her 4 kittens.
Catherine (Kate) in 2013 made us wait 23 days before she had her 5 kittens.
Khaleesi in 2013 was with us during the very short period of time when we had 2 foster rooms (right before Fred started working from home and needed an office and stole my 2nd foster room away.) She was with us for 17 days before she had her 4 kittens, and took on the care of add-in orphan Norbie.
Lucille Ball (Lucy) in 2015 was with us for 13 days before she had her 7 (!) kittens.
The most recent 8 pregnant cats we’ve fostered (see the earlier post for the first 6.)
Nola in 2017 was with us for 12 days before she gave birth to her 4 kittens.
Mercury in 2017 was with us for only 2 days before she had her 6 kittens.
Katia (2018) only made us wait 6 days before she had her 4 kittens. She came to us along with her mother Kristi, who was also pregnant. Kristi looked like she’d swallowed a basketball, but somehow she waited 27 long, long days before she had her 6 kittens.
Caroline (2019) came to us very young (8 months old) and small (6 pounds), along with her (big, goofy) beau, Charles. I was worried about how things would go once the kittens were born (and my, weren’t people on the internet shockingly helpful with their dire predictions that he’d kill the kittens?), but he was a wonderful Pa. Caroline made us wait 27 days before she had the 5 Half Pints.
Margeaux (2019) came to us with three kittens we were told were hers (the vet said the next day, after I realized the kittens weren’t nursing, that she didn’t think those were her kittens and in fact she most likely hadn’t had ANY kittens any time recently.) A week or so later Margeaux was joined by Katriane and her three kittens. We were so distracted by the oddness of the whole situation (Katriane helped to mother the 3 kittens that Margeaux came with) that it was… a while before we realized Margeaux was pregnant. 43 days after she came to us, Margeaux had 6 kittens.
Isabella (2020) was with us for 13 days before she had her 5 kittens. It was relatively normal and drama-free after the previous several pregnant cats we’d fostered.
That brings us to Canasta (2021), who has been with us for 11 days. I predict two things: she won’t have them before the end of the month (but will have them before Valentine’s Day), and she’ll have more than zero and less than 10 kittens.
(Today I’m focusing on fakers and pregnant cats we’ve fostered, but we’ve also fostered 11 mothers who came to us with already-born litters. Which I guess makes Canasta pregnant cat #14 and mama cat #25!)
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BOOPing the belly. It’s there, it’s BOOPable, why not BOOP it?
Throwing it way way way wayyyyy back to 2005, I love this picture of Mister Boogers in the middle of giving Sugarbutt (who was then still a kitten) a bath. Not a bad picture for one taken back in the dark ages! (And I miss Mister Boogers and Sugarbutt. They were just the best.)
Good night innernets. (Canasta)
Banana for scale.
Canasta’s all “What? Is comfy!”
Good night innernets. (Canasta)
Canasta has a thlurrrp.
Perhaps I’ve mentioned that Canasta loves that track toy?
“Soon.” (Good night innernets, from Uncle Newt (back) and Uncle Archie (on the bed.))
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Previously
2020: Archie didn’t seem to mind.
2019: The Eyes of Lurve.
2018: “What? Newt’s butt is comfy!”
2017: Rickles.
2016: I guess he’s got me trained.
2015: No entry.
2014: “Hallo, shweetheart.”
2013: “I can’t believe I had to wear a stupid tie to work today. Stupid meetings. Stupid ties. Stupid bosses.”
2012: Someone asked in the comments yesterday if Lucy is still “cockeyed”, and the answer is that yes, she is still slightly cross-eyed.
2011: It was a slipper. No wonder it wouldn’t purr.
2010: No entry.
2009: No entry.
2008: The Annoying of the Poo.
2007: She follows him downstairs and hangs out, giving him the Eyes of Love and all the other cats the Eyes of You-Go-To-Hell.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
Oh man, that last photo of Newt giving Archie the James Bond villain glare is hilarious.
Canasta’s quite the Earth Mother, letting it all hang out like that, lol.