4-1-11

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She is almost certainly pregnant (the few conditions that would look like this, that come on this quickly would probably cause her pain and you would know something is wrong. Most kitties get enormous before giving birth and as I said a day or so ago Maggie is just now starting to look “ready,” which can still mean as much as a week before full term. The good news is she isn’t wanting to be touched much (probably tender) which is a GOOD sign when it comes to a birthing Momma.

I hate to tell you this but cats can look “ready” up to three weeks before they really are, but in Maggie’s case I don’t think you have to wait that long lol.

Hopefully April 1st, surprise babies, that would be fun..

You know, if this cat goes another three weeks I’m probably going to go nuts with the waiting. IS ALL I’M SAYING, MAGGIE.

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As for Corbie, he’s clearly King of the Compost! Any word on how his equally regal brothers are doing? And what do you do with those dozens of eggs?

I haven’t heard anything about Buster or Rhyme (though I am certain that they are just fine in their new homes), but I know that after 7 weeks, Reacher has FINALLY acclimated to his new home (and his new brother), which you can read about over at Kathy’s site. I have to be honest, I really thought at times that Reacher was going to end up having to come back here to live, because it didn’t seem that he was ever going to get over being a scaredy cat. He’s VERY lucky that Kathy was willing to be patient and work with him, and THANK GOD he finally came around!

As far as the eggs, when Fred brings them in, I go through and separate out the smaller eggs. The bigger ones go into egg cartons, and we sell them for $2 a dozen (we have a “fresh eggs $2/ dozen” sign that Fred puts up at the end of the driveway in the evenings and on weekends). The smaller ones go into the refrigerator, and we eat them. If we run out of the larger eggs, we’ll (when I say “we”, you should know that it’s Fred who handles most of the egg-selling) offer the smaller eggs at $2 for 1 & 1/2 dozen. Sometimes we’ll build up a supply of 10 or 12 dozen and think we’re never going to sell another egg, and then someone stops by and buys every egg we have on hand. People love the farm fresh eggs, and I think they like knowing that they can actually look at the chickens running around the back forty and know that they aren’t caged hens.

Egg sales help pay for chicken feed.

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Maggie’s babies are sure to be the most photographed kittens ever!! Is the camera getting re-charged every day?

Both the big camera and the little one AND the Flip Video AND my cell phone are constantly charging. I don’t want to miss out on snapping a million pictures of the little darlings WHENEVER MAGGIE HANDS THEM OVER THAT IS, DO YOU HEAR ME MAGGIE?!

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Maggie’s got the girth, and she’s looking a touch crabby. But still a fine looker! How long is a kitten’s gestation period?

61 – 69 days, according to their breed, is what I’ve read. And she’s been with us for 21 days. ANY DAY NOW, MAGGIE.

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Robyn, do any of your fosters have blogs their folks set up when they took them home? Just wonderin’.

As far as I know, no. Unfortunately. Because I think a blog written by Buster would be AWESOME.

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Hey Robyn, are any of the kitties in need of additional spoiling? 😀 Saw this article and immediately thought of you.

I’ll take one of each, please! 😀

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I have to laugh at that photo of you holding up Maggie so you can see her belly. When I saw Maggie, she reminded me so much of the foster mom I had that took 30 days to give birth at my house, that I knew it was going to be a while. Because here is my shot of her.

And I thought you might like this one too.

If I have to wait 30 days for Maggie to give birth, my head will pop off. I LOVE those pictures! 🙂

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You can always cut the permanent resident total by two by having you and Fred live in a tent in the back yard.

Why live in a tent when we could live in the chicken coop with the chickens? There’s plenty of room in there!

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And yay for Corbie staying! Such a pretty kitty. How’s the skinny back legs issue going, the supplements helping any?

It’s kind of hard to tell – I’ve thought once or twice that his back half was getting bigger, but then I looked at him from another angle and thought he looked smaller. It’s been a month – actually more like five weeks, I think – since we started giving him his supplements. I need to get him back to the vet and have her look him over so we can determine how he’s doing.

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So is there a limit imposed by your town ordinances or by the shelter?

There are no limits on animals imposed by town ordinances, because we live in the country and no one cares what we’re doing out here. 🙂 As far as the shelter, I’m sure Susan would put her foot down if we got to the point where we were overwhelmed or just had more cats than we could comfortably take care of. I would like to say here that 14 is our limit, permanent-residents-wise, but of course if I were foolish enough to declare that, we’d immediately have to add 3 more cats to the house.

Like I reminded Fred yesterday, at one point last Fall I honestly thought we were going to end up keeping all four Bookworms because they’d had no luck at Petsmart. But by keeping just the one Bookworm, we’re really DOWN in numbers from where I thought we’d be!

(Fred calls that “Robyn math”)

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People are fickle sometimes. I found a dog on the side of the road. She was 1 or 2 yrs old. Abused. Chow or chow-mix. Sweeeetest thing ever! She had heartworms and tick paralysis when I found her and she was super skinny. Who ever owned her had cut her hair really really short with sissors. Her fur was sunburned and in poor condition. We took her to the vet and had her treated for her ailments. I posted and asked around if anyone wanted to adopt her and stated that you need to have vision and see in your mind’s eye what she will become. NO responses. My sister-in-law, at the the time, was keeping her at her house. Her fur grew out quickly and she put on weight. She was a completely gorgeous dog! I sent around an email titles “If you were curious….” and showed her before pics and after pics. I wanted to educate people and a bit of it was a “fungule to you”…I admit! 🙂 Soooo many people wanted to take her home then. I told them “Nope!”…as my sister-in-law fell so in love with her that she was keeping her. She ended up being their very best dog…and much much sweeter than any of her golden retrievers.

I wish for everyone out there….”vision”.

By the way…chatty and social cats are the best companions. You won’t ever be lonely…and they are great company!

Two thumbs up; may more people develop the vision to see what a cat or dog can turn into, given time and love.

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Hmm… maybe you should have done a “how round can Maggie possibly get” pool! Have you ever thought to measure her belleh and see how much she is growing day to day?

I wish I’d measured her midsection when we brought her home, but I didn’t even think of it.

I can tell you, though, that she was 9.9 pounds when I got her from the vet, and yesterday she weighed in at 12 pounds 10 ounces!

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So, is Newman staying with you now? The other cats are gonna be all “Newman!” everytime they find him in one of their napping spots or eating out of the bowl when they’re looking for a snack, hee hee.

No, Newman went to the shelter Tuesday, where he’s being treated for all the parasites he has, poor boy.

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The Kitten Crew has a live cam of a mother with 5 kittens. I’ve been using it to treat Impatience-with-Maggie Syndrome. Plus, the little cow kitty has a panda face! And one of the white-with-tabbies opened his/her eyes this morning! Squeeeeeeeeeeee!

Live kitten cam here.

I’ve been watching that live kitten cam for the past few days, and it’s just making me more and more impatient for Maggie to get the show on the road! LOVE wee baby kittens and their squirming around. Squeeeeeee is right!

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I LOVE that last shot of Maggie (“A shot from above so you can see the spread”); it reminds me of a LOLcat that had me laughing all day.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

Love it!

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Is it trouble with anal glands that causes cats to scoot? Only one of ours does it, just curious.

I think scooting can be caused by anal gland issues, yes. Cats with worms often scoot, too, and I can tell you from personal experience that cats who are too large to reach their own behinds will often scoot, thus using your carpet as toilet paper, which is THE NASTIEST THING EVER and should be a hanging offense.

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Ohmygod, SO RUDE, taking pictures of the pregnant lady from behind.

And from the side. (That’s the new scratcher I bought specifically for Her Majesty, because the one that was in there was too light and would flip up whenever she put her weight on it. And girlfriend LOVES her some claw-sharpening.)

Pregnant cat is pregnant. (And grumpy.)

She’s got that pregnant glow, no?

As a reminder, check in on the spreadsheet and/ or the Love & Hisses Facebook page. If she goes into labor, that’s where I’ll be posting it first, though of course I don’t think it’ll take me long to post it here, either. That’s what netbooks are for!

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Rufus, asleep atop the cat tree in the front room, covering his eyes from the flash.

He is SUCH a sweet boy. He loves to follow Alice around and watch her do naughty things like nose around in the sink to see if there are any scraps of food, or hover under my feet in case I’m struck with the urge to hand out treats. Wherever Alice is, Rufus is sure to follow. He’s also been spotted picking play-fights with Corbie and Jake. I know I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating – he’s certainly come a long way!

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Spanky: Pretty on Pink.

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Previously
2010: “I! HAZ! A! COMPLAINT!”
2009: Fred thinks Beulah is ugly.
2008: No entry.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.

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