8-3-18 Friday

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Attention, those of you in the NYC area! From reader Alex:

In 2011 I met two women, Hillary and Amelia, who helped me do TNR on some cats in my Brooklyn neighborhood as well as foster and adopt out those young and friendly enough to live with people. Amelia became our regular cat-sitter, and a few years ago we adopted a cat from Hillary, so I have kept in contact with both of them.

In June Hillary was diagnosed with stage 4 non-smoking-related lung cancer. It had already metastasized to her brain, and she was receiving treatment when she developed pneumonia and passed away at the end of last week.

Amelia, her best friend, is working hard to find fosters and/or adopters for Hillary’s beloved pets. She had several cats who are all older and who range from timid but friendly to semi-feral. Most of them need to be in homes that have other cats (or if not, they need to go with another one of Hillary’s), and I thought maybe your NYC-area readers would consider helping out by fostering or spreading the word.

Amelia has set up a GoFundMe page for their vet bills and fostering expenses to get them ready for their new homes, and for the most part she has raised the funds she needs. I wanted, however, to include a link to the page (you can find it here) since in the “Updates” section she has posted a little bit about each animal so that any potential fosters/adopters can read about them (we may be fostering Button ourselves). If anyone is interested, they can contact Amelia at fourpawsbedbreakfast@yahoo.com.

Amelia is getting concerned that people aren’t coming forward as she had hoped to take in these animals — and of course she is grieving for her best friend at the same time — so I offered to do what I can.

If any of y’all are in the NYC area and able to help, I know it would be very much appreciated. Everyone, please help spread the word!

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So those two pics of KennyBorkBorkMoopleton, Esquire, do they show him in his dry-but-pre-floof state? Or is that what he looks like when he’s wet? Can you do a close-up of his dry-pre-floof state so that we can see his adorable clumped up curls? Also, I zoomed in on that first photo, and he’s adorable. Can you re-post a zoomed-in version of that photo on Friday so that everyone can see? Thank you!

Yes, those pictures were when he was completely dry but hadn’t yet been floofed. Here’s that picture, cropped and lightened:

He’s due for another bath tomorrow – I’ll see if I can’t get some better pictures of him when he’s dry but not yet floofed!

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I should be only looking at the kittens but you have really pretty blue and green and yellow towels.

Those are microfiber cleaning cloths that I bought at Sam’s Club. I have them in three colors (green, yellow and blue), and it was my initial plan to use different colors for different areas of the house – blue ones downstairs, green ones for cleaning upstairs, and yellow in the kitten room. It’s like I have never met myself and had no idea what would happen – which is, of course, that the towels got all mixed together and they go wherever I happen to leave them. (I use most of the towels in the kitten room and in giving kitten baths, so I tend to just pile them in that bathroom, and when I need one for downstairs, I go grab a handful and carry them down.)

But yes, I agree they’re pretty and the colors go well with wet kittens!

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Do you know who is the baybee of the group yet?

It’s a toss-up between Moop and Buxton; I think Buxton may end up winning this one, but Moop is putting up a good fight!

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Chicken and gravy human baby food is my miracle worker. I was just singing its praises to a friend with a 24 year old tabby last night. But it is heroin to cats, just saying. I have one addict who is relentless in the morning until he gets his fix. I wonder if the Gerber people know about this off label use.

and

I actually have a cat-lady friend who works for NestleGerber and we have talked about that. Since the conglomerate also includes RalstonPurina I think they could package and market some of the baby food as cat food! They’re missing a marketing opportunity…

Alice Mo can hear a baby food jar opening from three counties away and will come in and howl at me ’til I give her the (mostly empty) jar to lick clean.

And I would argue that NestleGerber knows what they’re doing – they’ve got a bunch of cat lovers buying jars for nearly $1 a jar. If they marketed it toward pet owners, there’d probably be a lot of complaining about the cost of those tiny jars. (Says the woman who bought up every jar she could find in the grocery store and Target yesterday!)

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My new baby, Lenny, definitely prefers canned food over dry. He is 10 weeks old. I was wondering how often you feed your fosters canned cat food. I have been feeding Lenny 2x a day. I’m wondering if I need to add another feeding?

At 10 weeks old, Lenny is still a growing boy. I’d probably add another feeding to his schedule if you can swing it. I feed my current fosters canned food (with a dab of Gerber Chicken and Gravy baby food on top) four times a day – roughly at 8 am, noon, 4 pm and 8 pm. The 9 of them are going through 13 3-ounce cans of Fancy Feast food per day – 3 cans at the first three feedings and then 4 at the last one. They also have kibble available at all times.

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I’m sorry if you mentioned it before, but are any of these cats siblings, or are they all from different litters?

Arundel, Bethel and Calais are not related to each other or any of the others.

Otis, Eliot and Buxton are siblings.

And Kennebunk(BorkBorkMoopMcGeeTheThird), Millie and Dexter are siblings.

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How’s Stefan doing?

Stefan is having good days and not so good days. Fred is still syringe feeding him many times a day, and Stefan is tolerating it well. In fact, Wednesday afternoon after Fred had given Stefan some food, he looked over, and Stefan was sitting there looking at him. We discussed it, I suggested Stefan wanted more food, Fred fed him some more, and then Stefan went back to his chair to snooze. But he’s barely eating on his own – if we put canned food or baby food in front of him, he won’t eat it. He’ll occasionally eat some kibble, and he’ll eat a few treats, but the majority of his food intake is what Fred is hand-feeding him. Wednesday he seemed more alert and moved around the house (and out into the back yard) more than he had been, and then yesterday all he did was sleep.

We do have an appetite stimulant that we got from the vet that we’ll start him on over the weekend, and maybe that’ll be enough to get him to eat on his own. (I suggested to Fred that the appetite stimulant might make Stefan hungry, and Stefan might then spend all his time staring at Fred waiting to be hand-fed. That would be REALLY funny to me, to be honest.)

The waiting to see if he gets better is a killer for two people who have no patience, if you were wondering.

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I know that you’re really busy still taking excellent care of those ( ugh ) wormy kittens but feeling the need to count tails and see how all the permies are doing.

How are the rest of the occupants? Everybody ok? Dealing with the heat? Staking out and claiming their territory?

Everyone is A-OK, acting fine, eating, hanging out in the yard, bringing the occasional rodent inside (KARA), the usual.

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These kittens are at that “perfect kitten” stage! I want to snuggle them all! How much longer do they need to get baths?

It’s hard to say – maybe another couple of weeks. I hope not much longer than that!

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At the shelter where I volunteer, we clean the spring toys (and all non-fabric toys) by either putting them in a bucket of diluted Rescue or by washing them in the dishwasher. Neither method has melted the springs.

After I melted the spring by running it through the washer/dryer (and honestly, I’m going to guess it’s the dryer that melted it), I started soaking them in diluted Rescue and letting them dry, and it’s worked just fine. The fabric toys still go through the washer and dryer, and they are seriously holding up well to that.

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Dexter, Moop, and Buxton just love that bed. Honestly, everyone does – it’s a good thing we have two of them so I can switch ’em out every couple of days!

Dexter always looks so sleeeeepy.

Eliot is SUCH a little flirt.

Bethel would like to know what in tarnation I’m DOING.

Dexter has a think.

Eliot comes down from on high.

Oh, that boy.

Try to make yourself comfy, Eliot.

Have I mentioned that Millie is just the sweetest little snugglebug?

Otis takes a bit outta Arundel.

And Bethel takes a bite outta Dexter.

Otis and the serious little pouty face.

Millie’s all “ALWAYS SOMEBODY’S BUTT IN MY FACE!”

Eliot again, this time with tiny tongue.

Doesn’t Calais have THE prettiest eyes?

I don’t know what I was doing to get Moop to look my way, but it cracks me up that Eliot and Arundel were watching to see what was going on, too.

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Newt in the back yard, tired of my nonsense.

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Previously
2017: Chip’s all “I’VE GOT IT!!!”
2016: Spruce is all “I sees what you’re doin’ there, lady.”
2015: This is what I did during the 2 1/2 weeks while I was gone:
2014: No entry.
2013: Brandon is NOT sharing his toy and you better BACK OFF (you can hear him growling)
2012: “YOU ARE A STRANGER TO ME. I AM CONSIDERING PUTTING ON MY STRANGER DANGER FLOOF.”
2011: But she IS working on her anger management…
2010: Poor long-suffering Moxie.
2009: No entry.
2008: No entry.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.

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