I’m wondering about those ducks. Are they friendly to y’all at all? Like, can you pet them and give them snacks? And do they have names?
Those ducks are not friendly at all, with the exception of when they see Fred arrive home from work and they know that there’s going to be scratch thrown, so they come running (waddling) in from the pond, eat some scratch, and go waddling back out to the pond. If we ever needed to get hold of them, I’m not sure what on earth we’d do. The boys are named “Boy Duck” and the girls are named “Girl Duck.” We are amazingly creative, no?
I gave up my attempts at Liqui-Tinic for my 20 year old cat. He just wouldn’t eat anything that had the Liqui-Tinic in it. I tried “hiding” it in his canned food, but he still wouldn’t eat it. If he gets even a whiff of it, he won’t touch the food. I’m hesitant to give it to him directly from the dropper. He’s so frail that I’m afraid I might hurt him if he struggled. I might find a way to give it to him eventually, but for now it’s just sitting in the pantry. He’s recovering from an anal gland rupture that gave us a good scare and doing pretty well.
I’m sorry your old guy is rejecting the Liqui-Tinic. Have you tried foods that might mask the smell of the Liqui-Tinic? Chicken baby food, the juice from a can of tuna? Cats are so annoying when they have their own minds!
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OK, long story, but I really wanted to know – has anyone found [Liqui-Tinic] for sale in Canada? My vet has never heard of it, I’ve checked all my usual haunts for pet supplies (I live in Toronto), no dice. There’s a number of online sites, but they all charge minimum $30 delivery to Canada. I will eventually order it from one of them – I just think it’s worth trying anything to get her happier and give her back some energy – but thought I’d ask here first. Thank you!
Readers, anyone know of a source in Canada? Please share!
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Maxi is such a pretty girl. Doesn’t she like Loon-Master Jake?
Maxi does not care for any other cats. She’ll usually put up with Newt, but even that’s kind of iffy – she’s as likely to smack him as to bump heads with him. Part of her problem with Jake is that Jake is OBSESSED with her and he makes her feel threatened by sitting around and staring loonily at her. If he’d just back off, she wouldn’t hate him quite so much. But backing off is NOT Jake’s style.
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Remember when Kate was all pregnant and wouldn’t give birth and you were all like “Grrr! ::fist shake::”?
and
I still think that the post about Kate going into labor should have been called DING!
I remember that. Can you believe she finally gave up those babies? I was starting to think she was going to just keep ’em in there forever.
And I wish I’d thought of titling that post “DING!”, because that would have been PERFECT.
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This may be an odd question but it just hit me this morning, out of the blue, as I was oooo-ing and ahhhh-ing over George & Gracie. Do you scoop after them? I would imagine if you didn’t there would be an awful lot of stepping hazards out there but then again, you have an awful lot of land so maybe not… and, after a while, doesn’t it just dry out & crumble away? Sorry if this is too gross a topic for your other readers… but when my curiosity gets the better of me, IT WILL OUT!
No way on earth would I willingly scoop after those dogs. They’re pretty good about leaving their… leavings far away from the coop, and we just keep an eye out when we’re walking to the pond or any other part of the back forty. I can report that I have never accidentally stepped in dog poo. It does eventually go away, thankfully.
I wouldn’t suggest ever walking through the back forty in bare feet, that’s for sure!
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Is it just me or do the behbehs look significantly bigger in just their six days gracing us with their presence?
Well, they doubled their weight in about a week (which I think is normal for kittens; someone correct me if I’m wrong). I think that the first couple of weeks, their weight gain will be very obvious, but as they get bigger, a one-ounce gain won’t be as visible.
That said, my LORD are these porky little meatballs growing at a rapid pace!
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Do you pronounce Leia as “lee-ah” or “lay-uh”? I always say “lay-uh” but hear so many people using “lee-ah” that I wonder if I’m saying it wrong.
I pronounce it as “lay-uh”, that’s always how I heard it pronounced on Star Wars. At least… that’s how I think I remember hearing it. Perhaps some Star Wars experts can weigh in here?
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OK, so you know when you pick the little babies up to take pictures and weigh them? Firstly, does Kate still get nervous? And secondly, do you give them a little kiss on the head before putting them back to bed? And how are you able to stop yourself from giving them itty bitty raspberries on those little tummies? Do you think those little ears would grow back if you were to accidentally nibble one?
The first few days, Kate got nervous when I was handling the kittens, and more than once she came over, grabbed whichever kitten I was weighing, and took it back into the bed. But now, she’s a lot more relaxed about it. Yesterday I had them out of their bed while I shook out the bedding, and Kate came over, sniffed the pile of kittens, and went back to eat the snack I’d brought her.
I always give them a kiss on their little noggins before I put them back to bed, and perhaps they’ve gotten a raspberry or two, I can neither confirm nor deny (okay, I confirm. I can’t help myself. You’ve seen the bellies!)
The ears, do you know what I saw the ears doing yesterday? I SAW EARS WIGGLING. I could just nibble a little corner off one and see if it grows back, right?
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I’m sad to hear about Lilybet, but can you tell me what you were doing to work on her biting? I have a wonderful, laid back 6 mos. old kitten- who’s only real bad habit is biting. It is like a switch is flipped and he just grabs you and chomps down. Hard. This is my first cat and I want to give him every possible chance to be a well adjusted cat so any pointers you or your readers can share would be much appreciated! Thank you.
What I do is, the instant they bite, blow a puff of air in their face. They hate it, and they’ll stop biting. You have to be consistent and do it every time, because they WILL test you.
And on Facebook, Doodle Bean said this:
I had a biter, but it was fear aggression (he had been abused). Blowing at him wasn’t enough, so I would put my hand over his face and push gently while saying, “NO biting!”. I also put on oven mitts and played ‘rough’ with him a couple times a day – just pushing him over gently and letting him claw and bite for a little while. I ended each session with holding him on his back until he put his head back in surrender. That calmed him down a lot because I was asserting dominance in a way he could understand and he also had a chance to blow off some energy.
The key is to be consistent and not get mad. Everything firmly but gentle. In his case, it took about a year for him to stop biting completely… except for nips when I did things like cut his claws or give him medicine. He never broke the skin after that first year. Almost 18 years later, he still nips on occasion when provoked, but it’s only a few times a year and there’s always a reason.
So, if blowing at her doesn’t work, you might want to take it up a notch.
(Thanks, Doodle Bean!)
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So you get about half a dozen cats to sleep with. Do any of them sleep with Fred?
No, Fred sleeps with his bedroom door closed because he sleeps pretty lightly and if he’s woken up, he has a hard time going back to sleep. The first night he was in his “new” room, he didn’t shut the door all the way closed, and he woke up in the middle of the night with Kara on the bed with him, staring creepily at him. Heh.
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Poor Kate. All babies tend to wander around and root for milk but she looks like a jungle gym for those little guys. Looks like she’s got a bad infestation of body kittens.
I think the infestation of kittens is taking over! She certainly looks like they’re overwhelming her, doesn’t she? She doesn’t seem all that bothered by it, and at least at this stage she can get away from them if she needs to. She better enjoy THAT while she can.
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The toes and the faces! And the WEIGHTS!!! Is Madam Kate keeping herself well-fed? I mean, those babies are growing by leaps and bounds! 🙂
She is definitely keeping herself well-fed. I give her canned food four (sometimes five) times a day. Sometimes she eats every bite, sometimes she doesn’t. She also has kibble available to her at all times. She’s eating plenty (and clearly the babies are getting enough food), even though she looks thin to me. I keep having to remind myself that at this stage of the game, all mama kitties get skinny!
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Robyn — I know for the most part Mama Kate is black, but in the video she looks to have a lot of brown or red in her undercoat. Is that just the video or does she have some awesome tabby markings we can see in the photos?
She doesn’t have any tabby markings, but her undercoat is definitely a gorgeous red-brown. It’s hard to capture in pictures, but I’m going to keep trying!
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Can you tell if any of the babies are long or medium haired yet? I know with Tabitha’s litter I could see that Tippy was longer haired than her 3 sisters pretty early.
So far, they all appear to be short haired. Maybe they’re just late bloomers in the fur department! 🙂
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I was showing the baby pictures to a co-worker and we were remarking about how they’ve doubled in size since birth (10 days ago only!) and we were doing the oooohing and aaaaahing over their eyes open, and look how big they are! All five in the round cat bed! So big already! and then we went back to the picture of Jareth’s sweet sweet little face with his eyes open and I realized something. His head is only as big as 1/3 of your finger. (or Fred’s, whomever is holding him, I don’t study the hands, I study the baybees :))I held up my hand for perspective and we realized that we were talking about these HUGE baybees that would in reality fit in your hand easily. And then she said they’re only 1/2 to 3/4 of a pound – they weigh the same as two or three sticks of butter. that’s it. and we goggled some more….
Those are Fred’s big manly man hands that are holding the babies – he holds ’em, I take the pictures. 🙂 But yes – they really are tiny babies still, and I have GOT to get my butt in gear and take pictures of them that show just how tiny they really are.
(Well, they’re all tiny babies except for Charming, that porky little meatball, and excuse me while I run up to the foster room and shower him with kisses again.)
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Eyeball check!
Charming = two eyeballs.
Aslan = the hint of one eyeball peeking out.
Leia = two sad little eyeballs.
Leia again, clearly saying “Is we done counting eyeballs? Can I go back to my safe place?”
Jareth = two eyeballs. I imagine him saying “I HAZ TWO EYEBALLS!” in a high-pitched, squeaky voice.
Buttercup. “There is no eyeballs here, lady. You move along now.”
“I hate it when she counts my eyeballs. So RUDE.”
She is just so PRETTY.
“You babysit. I’ma snooze over here.”
Aslan, sound asleep. OR IS HE? Without his eyes being open, it’s kind of hard to tell.
“Wherever I GO, someone’s BUTT is in my FACE!”
“Dude. Your BREATH.”
And a video! They were in a bed on the floor (as opposed to the bed where they usually are) because I needed to shake the litter out of the bedding, and Kate got a little concerned. So she sat down in the big bed and waited for me to move the kittens over. The kittens were not thrilled about being picked up.
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Oh, Corbs. You are SO BEAUTIFULLLLLLLL.
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Previously
2012: Then she hits the ground and is like “Wait. I’m a CHICKEN. I can’t FLY. Hmph.”
2011: “There are no other cats. There is only Maggie.”
2010: “That’s right, I done it, copper. I done it, and I’d do it again. I was loopy on catnip, no judge in the world is going to convict me. They’ll send me to rehab, I’ll come out clean and UNREPENTANT. So get out those cuffs and slap ‘em on, I AIN’T SCARED.”
2009: (I like to think that maybe someone who lives down the road was sitting in front of their TV and was struck with the sudden urge to grab the camera and go upstairs, and that they said “But I don’t HAVE an upstairs!”)
2008: No entry.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.