First, a quick note: Cicero tested negative! Yay!
I think you should start a company that sends sympathy kittens. You would show up – holding a floofy kitten – at the door of the person receiving the sympathy, hand it to them and say “Here, hold this for a few minutes”. All better. Then you could take the kitten back and head to your next stop. How awesome would that be? That would definitely have made me happy this past week.
I’m pretty sure that would be the BEST job EVER.
What happened to your good camera; kitty related?
NOT kitty related, thank god, no one peed on it! (I learned my lesson last Fall; if I’m not using the camera, I put it in my desk drawer so none of the cats can get near it.) There was a black spot that kept showing up in my pictures. Changing the lens didn’t help, and reading online told me that it was dirt on my sensor. Now, I know I COULD have tried to clean the camera myself, but that thing was so expensive I didn’t want to take a chance, so I sent it off to Sony. It’s still under warranty, so I don’t know if they’ll charge me for cleaning it, but even if they do it’s worth it. I don’t trust my klutzy ways when it comes to stuff like that!
Seriously woman, what do you DO with all the food you are growing??? Can you freeze squash? At least Fred gets out there to pick it before they become baseball bats! Miss one day at the squash plants… and they’re arms and legs… that’s why we’re not growing any this year. I grew more goat food (we have 14) last summer than you can imagine… anyway…
I preserve a ton of squash to eat during Fall, Winter, and Spring, of course! My favorite way to save it is to oven-fry it (edited to add, I use this recipe and have for years), then flash freeze it and put it in a big bag. I also cook and mash it, then drain it. We eat the mashed squash with onions and sometimes a bit of cheese on top. I read recently about the idea of using mashed squash in place of broth as a soup base. We don’t eat much soup, but we may need to start!
I also shred zucchini and seal it up in Foodsaver bags, then toss shredded zucchini in spaghetti sauces and of course zucchini breads and cakes.
We eat a lot of fresh squash and zucchini this time of year – last night we had stuffed pattypan squash with a side of zucchini tots. The night before, stuffed pattypan squash with a side of roasted yellow squash.
The occasional zucchini that Fred misses and grows to be the size of a Buick, we split in half and give to the chickens. Chickens LOVE fresh produce from the garden – the only thing they love more than squash is tomatoes.
If you have a favorite squash/ zucchini recipe, I’d love to hear it!
Any word about the Noms?
No adoptions yet – Tuesday was a very slow night in the store. Adoptions take place again tonight and over the weekend, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. The shelter manager – who was doing adoptions Tuesday night – said that they didn’t want to come out of the cage and play, but they also weren’t acting scared. At least they weren’t hiding in the litter box! I hate it when they do that.
Regarding having to say goodbye to fosters, Connie and Kelly are absolutely right:
Connie said: Sometimes it is achingly hard, but what helps me is that with my house ‘full’ of cats now, I know adding new ones will not be good for them nor The Crew. I fought long and hard with myself before adopting Skippy (the youngest), even posting an apology to him on my blog about it. You remember why you own the number of cats that you do, and that by changing that the chances of you being able to foster change.
That and the next batch always helps ease the pain of losing the last batch.
(and generally by the time they are ready to go back for adoption they are very much like three year old humans at the end of a very long birthday party filled with too much candy and excitement.. you are often so ready for them to go so you can go back to the sedate and easier younger kittens)
And Kelly said: Granted, my first two fosters are still in residence here but as far as letting them go…. I think it’s different for me because I knew from the very first moment that I thought about bringing them into my house that they are NOT mine. I love my fosters to death and would spend all day snuggling and kissing them if they would allow it, but they occupy a different place in my heart than the permanent residents do. It’s kind of like being a teacher (which I was before my own kids were born). You love your students and would do anything in the world to help them succeed while they are in your care, but you know they are not yours forever. Our job is to help them to the next level… permanent loving homes in the cases of our fosters.
That being said, check back with me the first time that I have to let one go. It won’t be easy, but I’ll bet it’s easier knowing that they will make someone else so very happy. My son has already asked to keep Penny, but I’ve explained that we can’t help the “next Penny” if we keep the first.
I haz a question. Wouldn’t those Noms get adopted faster if they were younger? Do you stress out as they get older and look more like teenage kittens and worry that shallow people will choose littler kittens over them? Sincerely, Jane
Without a doubt, they’d get adopted faster if they were younger and smaller, but Challenger’s House (and most shelters around here, I think – I HOPE, anyway) won’t adopt out kittens until after they’ve been spayed and neutered, which happens at 2 months/ 2 lbs. The Noms could have gone to Petsmart earlier if I’d had them fixed at 2 months (and once they’d had all their shots), but I opted to wait ’til they could also get their rabies shots at the same time (3 months). They’re actually the only kittens at Petsmart right now – the rest of the cages have adults in them – so I’m hopeful that they go quickly.
The only kittens that I got seriously concerned about because they were getting so “big” were the Bookworms. They were, what, 6 or 7 months before they were ready? Of course, that ended up working out just fine, and I don’t actually have any fosters who weren’t adopted (I mean long-term), though I’ve often thought that was going to happen. Sooner or later the right people seem to come along.
And I should add that Fred usually thinks that kittens younger than 2 months are “boring” and “have no personality.” Which means we make a good team – I love and adore and kiss to death the little ones, and then when they get a little older he teaches them to fly through the air in pursuit of toys!
I’ve always said that if I won the lottery, the first thing I would do is buy an old horse farm (without horses because I’m deathly allergic and would spend my life in the emergency room if they lived within a mile of me). Anyway, after it had been sanitized, I would refurbish the stalls into living quarters for senior cats and dogs with furniture from the thrift store. They would each have their individual (or paired, if they’d like a roommate) apartment to retire to in the evenings and I would hire a vet to work out of the barn. So I guess that’s like having a cat farm. Excuse me while I go buy a lottery ticket… haven’t done that recently and I need to make this happen.
I absolutely LOVE this idea – I think a lot of us plan to do something similar if we win the lottery (and I’m remembering that UGH, I forgot to get my lottery tickets when I was in TN yesterday!!!)
I have mulled over getting into fostering once my two oldsters are gone, but I just don’t think I could let go.
Do you have any techniques for coping, Robyn? Is it just crying and swearing (I do those pretty well)? Do you focus on the remaining fosters and Permanent Residents? Are there many sleepless nights of misery?
I sure hope that the Noms get snatched up ASAP. And I hope Logie is the first to get adopted so I don’t have to think about her as just another black cat in a cage. She’s so much more than that.
I’ll go weep quietly in a hanky now.
Truly, it sucks to let them go, and it hurts – but it is so, so worth it. It helps to have new fosters to focus on, and knowing that I helped to give them a good start always helps, too.
Doodle Bean has a few questions – I don’t have a hyperthyroid kitty (I’m sure somewhere in the house a permanent resident just perked up and said “Oh, reallllllllly. Let me see what I can do about that!”), but I’m sure someone out there does!
Hi All, I need some advice.
My Sweetpea, the Bengal, has hyperthyroidism and is responding well to medication… but my vet told me yesterday that Hill’s Scientific now has a food out for hyperthyroid kittehs.
I have two sets of questions:
1.) Has anyone tried the food on hyperthyroid cats who also have the beginnings of CRF? What have been your experience? Do the cats like it? Any results yet?
2.) Has anyone successfully fed a food-aggressive cat a different diet to another cat in the house? I understand that Sweetpea can ONLY eat the hyperthyroid food. I mention that she is a Bengal so you know she is insanely bossy and is food aggressive. Right now, the only way I can make sure she lets Fuzz eat is to have 2 free-feeding stations. She has claimed both, but only defends one so Fuzz can eat at the other.
Anyone out there have any advice for me? I haven’t made up my mind yet because a.) I don’t know if it will be possible to keep her out of Fuzz’s food (which she sees as *her* food!) b.) I’m disabled and don’t know if I could handle the extra work (free feeding works well for me since I use automatic feeders. I only have to bend down once a week or so).
Thanks for any advice you can give me!
I swear I’m not a skimmer, I heart you and read you religiously, but – have you not done Lord of the Rings names yet??! As an uber-geeky cat lady I must say that the possibilities are endless – Aragorn for the handsome rogue kitteh of any color (mad crush on Viggo here), Frodo for the intrepid and adventurous runt of the litter, Sauron for the devilish one. Oh! And Galadriel if you have an imperious white female, and just picture Samwise as a fat and affable orange tabby – C’mon, folks, amirite?? Love you Robyn, keep up the great work! 8o)
I haven’t done Lord of the Rings yet – and a quick check of the names that have been used by Challenger’s House in the past show that there’s been a Frodo, but the other names haven’t been used. So I’m adding them to my list of potential future foster names!
Floofy kittens just kill me with the cute. Vladimir was about the same size Russet and Norland are when I got him last year (he was stuck up a tree in the park and so skinny you could feel all his ribs). He’s 9 months old now, about 11 pounds and still growing (!) and is hilariously and magnificently floofy. (All I have handy is a crappy instagram photo, but I feel compelled to show him off – he has even more crazy white belly floof now than in the picture.)
What a CUTIE!!
When I rescued Maufry from a freeway underpass, we got her home and got all the oil and gunk and blood (!) cleaned off of her, fed her some formula because I thought she was only about 3-4 weeks old, showed her where the litter box was, then shut the door to let her explore the room and calm down. I came back in an hour or two later, and she was sprawled (in a doesn’t-look-like-sleeping-at-all pose) next to the litter box.
I called, “Kitty kitty” a few times from the doorway, not wanting to scare her, and made the kissy-noises trying to get her attention. Then I called, at normal volume, for my son to come, because I thought if she was dead there was no way I was going to be able to pick her up. I made my way slowly to where she was lying, calling and stomping and making the “tch-tch-tch-tch” noises all the way. Nothing. There were actually tears in my eyes as I reached down to touch her, expecting to find her cold and stiff.
When I finally touched her, she flew two feet straight up in the air, floofed herself up to 18 times her normal size, and made noises that she must have learned from watching B-level horror movies. She dang near took my eyeballs out, and then I had to go change my pants. I felt sorry for scaring her at first, but then I felt MORE sorry for how badly SHE had scared ME!
I have read this three times so far, and every time I giggle like crazy!
Rupert is a cutie! Is that a dirty tail or a fur color?
We’re pretty sure that Rupert’s tail has just the very faintest tinge of beige to it. It never gets darker or lighter, so I’m assuming that it’s color rather than dirt.
This year, finally, success with tomatoes! I’ve got 2 hugely producing Sweet 100 cherry tomato plants that, even with the neighbor’s help, we can’t keep up with. Made a huge pot of roasted cherry tomato sauce for the freezer tonight but am looking for other recipes that use large quantities of small tomatoes. Any suggestions?
The only thing that comes to mind at the moment is roasting them with garlic and onions and then eating them over angel hair pasta. For some reason my mind is blank for other suggestions, but I’d love to hear suggestions from anyone out there. Our tomatoes have juuuuust started coming in, but we’ll be getting tons of them soon enough!
So, our little man was an absolute angel all the way to the clinic yesterday morning. He just sat in his carrier and occasionally looked up at me. I put his stuffed kitty in the carrier to keep him company, and he snuggled up to it. As I mentioned at the top of the post, he tested negative, and so yesterday we started introducing him to his new siblings.
I didn’t get any pictures – I was kind of scattered yesterday because after I got back from the clinic, I realized I was down to crumbs in the Babycat food he’s been eating, so I had to run to Petsmart to get some more. I’ll have pictures, and hopefully videos, on Monday, I promise.
Cicero acted like he’d known those kittens his entire life, and they acted like he was a pesky little brother. He especially liked jumping on Fianna, who so very much did NOT appreciate that. All the Taters are now living with Cicero in the guest bedroom. I let him out every so often to play, and then put him back in his cage when I decided he was getting too overexcited. I’m lucky that he doesn’t much mind going into his cage, thank goodness. The rest of the Taters get the rest of the room to hang out in, and they really like having a bed to jump up on, and a tall cat tree to climb.
These pics are from a few days ago – he’s not getting formula (which is all over his chin) any more.
Did I mention that he doubled his weight in a week? He was half a pound when we got him, and is now just under a pound.
I asked the shelter manager to tell me how old she thought he was, and she said five to six weeks, closer to six than five. That’s about what I thought, so I’m calling him 5 1/2 weeks, which gives him a birth date of…oh, let’s say May 5th. Cinco de Mayo!
He’s such a smug little monkey.
“LADY!”
“Come gimme a kiss!”
His little bitty paws just kill me dead. Well, really, everything about him just kills me dead!
“Now, THAT is a tasty meal!”
Ears of Annoyance.
Russet de Floofenheim loves to hang out on the bed.
Kennebec in a rare moment of silence.
“That little kitten annoys me.”
“What? We is doing our yoga!”
Always got something to say, this one.
“Hallo, I am beautiful.”
Tell us something we don’t know!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Previously
2011: Complaints? She haz them.
2010: Rough life, boys.
2009: No entry.
2008: No entry.
2007: Which reminds me, last time I had a sit-down with The Lord, The Lord informed me that doing what might lead to business on Sunday is FORBIDDEN, but abandoning as many of His Creatures to fend for themselves and be hit by cars and lay dying on the side of the road is A-OK with Him! It’s in the Bible!
2006: No entry.
2005: Poop Watch v. 2.0, currently in progress.
Cicero looks absolutely fantastic. Well done! (As if you would do anything that wasn’t “well done” with respect to these babes.) The first picture in which he’s reaching up to touch your face is just the absolute cutest. It makes me sad that I can’t have foster babies this summer, although there’s a good reason — I’m going to have my own in the fall, so we’ve decided no kitties beyond permanent residents right now. Anyway, I will be living vicariously through you even more than usual for the next 4-5 months!
In case it wasn’t clear, that’s a HUMAN baby I’ll be having. I will not be giving birth to felines.
I love that you put in that disclaimer! It was probably necessary for all the crazy cat people who read the comments! At any rate, it made me smile!
P.S. Congratulations and I hope everything goes smoothly!
Congrats and best wishes Alexandra! It was clear to me that you would be taking responsibility for an actual human baby but the disclaimer was funny. Could I ask if you have a name picked out? What theme are you going with? LOL!
LOL!!
Ha! Well, my husband has a slightly hard-to-pronounce last name, so we have to choose something that is relatively easy (and non-make-funnable) as a first. That’s the closest we’ve come to a “theme.” 🙂
Our cats tend to have food-related names or nicknames: “Snack,” “Gravy,” and Buddy is known as “Mr. Softee” in honor of his soft fur and the ice cream truck that drives by our apartment building every evening. I think we WON’T go with a food-related name for the human child… Coincidentally, my students (I teach Latin) suggested “Cicero” as a name. It does not, however, fit our criteria, though it is perfect for tiny little mouthy orange tabbies!
Thanks for the congrats, folks! And thanks, Robyn, as always, for this blog.
BWAH HA HA!! Crazy cat ladies love name themes 😉 Oddly coincidental, we discovered that we have a numbers theme with our kids. Each child has 5 letters in their first name, 9 in their middle name, and 6 in their last name (well, duh… the last name’s the same). We didn’t realize this until filling out the birth certificate paperwork for the third kid. I’m sure someone else will notice during their lifetime, think I planned it, and call me weird.
Your disclaimer makes the news all the better. Congratulations!
Alexandra, As a Latin teacher, the following anecdote is especially for you:
Years ago when living in Atlanta, neighbor’s cat name was “Brutus”. My sister named the black cat I found/brought home, “Caesar”. (Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your cats (um ears). I come to bury Caesar not to praise him…)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Toft
LOL, Alexandra, congratulations! I think human babies take up a lot more time than feline babies do! 🙂
Congratulations!! 🙂
(I’ve heard that pregnant women often dream of giving birth to kittens.. )
Because a litter of kittens would hurt less than one human baby. Lol
Congratulations Alexandra. Great news. Love the disclaimer. For just a second I wondered…
OMG. Cicero’s story is slaying me. I was seriously praying he would be negative and nearly cried with relief. How are you ever going to let the little guy go? I couldn’t do it. Something about him being all by himself when found, and he is such a good baby, and the stomping around. God. I don’t envy you and Fred the day of sending him to be adopted.
She’s not going to have to worry about letting him go, I’m sneaking down there in the middle of the night and STEALING HIM AWAY!!
Who wrote about Vladimir? I have the SAME EXACT kitten. Trinity could be Vlad’s twin sister! Weeeeeird.
Not weirdness, just probabilities! (click to enlarge)
My Fuzz looks similar, right down to the way-overly-extravagant whiskers! What gorgeous cats we all have!
🙂
I have that exact chart hanging on the foster room wall, Doodle Bean. And you’re right, we do all have beautiful kitties!
That was me! Is that Trinity on your blog? Vladi has those same front paws, too, with just the toes white and the rest black — the only difference I could see in their coloring is that the tip of his tail is white. Floof twins!
Daisy — Indeed that is her. Love those tuxies! So cute 😀
I want Russet. He must come to live with me in the wilds of Northern Virginia, even though he would put our apartment over the two-cat limit. And he might make our resident orange tabby boy jealous.
Corbs _is_ beautiful. There’s something about brown tabbies — I’m perpetually telling our brown tabby girl that she is gorgeous, with her luminous green eyes, luxuriously long whiskers, and perfectly dramatic eyeliner.
Courgettes (which your calling Zuccini)and tomatoes cooked togther with a few herbs,onion and some carrots or squash goes really well on Couscous.
Please can you post Cicero to Wales before he gets any bigger??
He’d fit nicely in a flat-rate box! 😉
Nooooooooooooooooooo!!!! Kindly refrain from shipping the poor wee little teeny tiny kitty to Wales or any other locale!!!
PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE!
I can imagine the lady at the post office. “Okay, so this is going to Wales…Um. Are you aware that this box is PURRING?” 😀
He’s gonna be shipped to Florida to MEEEE!
I called dibs on him a LONG time ago. Address the box to Michigan, please 😉
It’s been amazing to watch Cicero recover and grow so quickly! I’m insanely happy he tested negative and now has kitten companionship. Such great work you do, Robyn!
All the Taters look so happy and healthy… it must be all the yoga they’re doing!
I love this blog. It’s my ray of sunshine in the morning!
Awww, thank you! 🙂
P.S. Yes, da Corbs is da gorgeous!
Doodle Bean should contact Dorian from http://www.yourdailycute.com/ Her cat Pimp is on that special food and she has had some success with it.
Hope that helps!
Hyperthyroidism
Luckily, I have no one who has it right now. First time in 5 years. Unfortunately, that means they are gone. But, all my cats with it have lived 4-5 years (we caught it early) with medicine and food. As for keeping them separate, I ended up feeding my sic ones on the counter away from other cats and not free feeding. I know it isn’t ideal, but it was the only way could monitor food consumption. I ended up switching over to all special food for everyone at one point, and feeding the younger kittens “snacks”
For Doodle Bean:
Since scheduled feedings would not be easily possible for you, I would find a friend to build me two feeding station/boxes (screen top maybe to avoid closed in feeling). They now make cat doors that are programmable using your cat’s Microchip as the key. Have one feeding station keyed to cat one, and the second one to cat 2. No one could get into the others food, and except for the initial cost outlay, it should be fairly easy to keep up.
What a good suggestion! The irony here is that I’m a former research scientist and systems administrator and didn’t even think of an automated solution… Now granted, my area of expertise was polymers, but I have some electronics cred. Sadly, the realities of disability insurance means there is no money for extras such as sensors and activators.
I even had to do a ChipIn to get my cats their annual checkups a couple of weeks ago. Happily, I received several donations in a short period of time. Sadly, PayPal froze the funds for no good reason. Happily, one of my sisters funded the visit. Sadly, I fell and hit my head while taking the cats into the vet’s office. Happily the concussion was mild and it turned out that my babies are actually healthier than they were last year…
That week was pretty much all up and down!
At any rate, thanks for the suggestion. Maybe when I get some bandwidth, I could look into getting some free components on craigslist or from Evil Mad Scientist Labs… Hmmmmm… there’s also the electronics fairs at MIT…
YAY! to Cicero. Continue with the cute and don’t grow any older. I totally get the comparison of fosters to actual children. If I could have kept my two kids from growing up it would’ve been nice. They are 12 + 8 now. If I could’ve only been fostering them and then donating them to others -well some days that was/is considered.
YES! As the mother to 15, 13, and 11 year old children, I have often wondered about the possibility of at least “loaning them out” to another mother for a while. I’ve given them a strong foundation. Someone else can deal with the teenage angst, final exams, and driver’s ed. 😉
Oooh, my turn for a disclaimer. My sentence above reads weirdly to me. I’m sure it’s assumed that I do not have fifteen 13 and 11 year old children. The oldest is 15, the next is 13, and the youngest is 11. If I had 15 children, I would have researched the donating them to another mother YEARS ago!
LOL!
Cicero reminds me of a old man with his eyebrows and whiskers all wackadoodle. But he is one cute adorable blue eyed boy!
would it be totally wrong to totally require whomever adopts Cicero start a blog for him?
It would NOT be totally wrong – I’d love that! 🙂
So glad you aced your tests, Cicero! I don’t know who here follows Oliver Donovan on Facebook, but he’s got fluid in his lungs, and everyone’s worried over him, so it’s good to get some great kitty news!
Awww, poor baby. 🙁
He’s back home now! Much celebration ensued.
suggestions re: tomatoes
Have you considered making salsa?
I have a food dehydrator, and I slice my cherry tomatoes in half and dry them. I dry bigger tomatoes, too, but of course, those have to be sliced. Then I have dried tomatoes all winter long, for pasta, pizza, even on a sandwich!
I don’t make salsa with cherry tomatoes because SOMEone doesn’t like the way the skins are kind of toughish. And honestly, I don’t eat salsa very often. 🙂
I do a great southwestern salsa. Start with the same tomato base, but add black beans and corn. The tomatoes aren’t an overwhelming part of the dish and much more filling so you don’t need as many chips!
Love the Friday updates. And YEAH for Cicero…..we think waiting for test results is the worst thing ever….love that little orange face with the blue eyes (too bad they won’t stay that way)
I think that a third blog, wherein you share recipes for things like oven frying your massive amounts of squash and then freezing them, would be fantastic. What’s that? You don’t have the time? *le sigh*
How does one oven fry squash though? Is that Google-able?
Cat, this is the recipe I use. It’s actually a Richard Simmons recipe that I tore out of a magazine years and years ago. These days I tend to just use equal parts cornmeal, flour, and parmesan, and dip the sliced veggies in water instead of milk. 🙂
Love love love Little Boy Cicero!
I agree with Cat R. though. you need to create another page on here for food stuffs. I know you have http://www.dinosaurscanteatpizza.com/ but (a) you never mention it here, and (b) you only do actual recipes.
But I also DO appreciate how much work you already put in to update this one daily. I can’t even imagine the time it takes to go through the pictures and write stuff and do captions for every day. I have cute little anecdotes about my fosters, but nothing that I could do such entertaining entries for every day of the week! Thank you for sharing so much and your consistency!!
HOW DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS SITE??? I love it!! And I’m making the pork chop recipe ASAP, because I love anything I can fix in my mother’s Harvest Gold-colored 30+ year old crock pot. (I have two newer, larger crock pots and the old one still cooks the best.) And the guest shot of Miz Poo was an added bonus, even if that recipe was a bummer.
The pork chops were the hit of the hit parade at my house; coupled with the Blueberry Pudding Cake and my family was thrilled that night! Love the Harvest Gold!
I did not know about it either! When I said third blog, I meant hers + Freds. (I love his blog.) Thank you for the link!
And Robyn, thank you for the recipe! 🙂
I didn’t know about it either. The comments for the Baked Cheese Stick Disaster of 2012 are hilarious!
Heh, I’m glad you guys are enjoying it! I don’t know why I haven’t mentioned it here, I oughta I suppose!
Can we get another link to Fred’s blog, please? I did not bookmark it when I read it the first time and now don’t know where to find it. ((If you tell me it’s somewhere in the menu to the right, I’ll smack myself in my own forehead for you 😉 ))
HOORAY for Cicero!! As the mom of one orange cat and one orange-wanna-be, I have a soft spot for those orange boys. By the way, the orange-wanna-be is Norman. He has spent the past several minutes with a snack-sized Harvest Cheddar (orange) Sun Chips bag on his head. He got stuck in it and then wandered around the living room and kitchen, bumping into furniture and walls… not at all concerned that it was dark in there or that he was stuck. ((And yes, I took a photo of it to post on Teeny Tiny Tabbies later today)). Which leads me to my question… How on earth do you keep an overly-determined former stray cat out of your food?? If I’m at the table or working on the kitchen counter, it’s fine. But if I’m on the sofa, he’s all over me and if I walk away the food is his. I’ve tried everything I can think of and consistently as possible. He’s stronger than he looks and Persistence might as well be his middle name. He’s been home with us for nearly 5 months and he still acts as starving as the day he moved in.
Kelly, that reminds me of the video with Maru going around quite calmly and happily with the bag on his head. 🙂
Kelly, I’m afraid you’re just going to have to get used to it. Two of the three cats I have had over the years have been ex-strays, and so far as they’re concerned, each meal is their very last! My older cat now will eat anything: offering her an apple core with the proviso that she won’t like it, for instance, only proves one of us wrong. That’s right– me. But I figure that since she’s perfect in every other way, I can handle the fact that she’s a wee greedyguts! And luckily her brother hasn’t the slightest interest in what I’m eating, with the exception of turkey and salmon, of course.
Yeah, I’m with Kerry – something about starving at one point in their lives affects them on a fundamental level and they just never get over it. Our dear departed old boy Spot showed up on Fred’s patio as a tiny kitten (before I even knew Fred), and for his entire life if he could even glimpse the bottom of the food bowl, he freaked out.
That’s what I was afraid of. I know he’s not starving, but HE thinks he is. And it breaks my heart to think that he was ever in such a condition that he worries so. Oh well, like Kerry said… perfect in every other way. I guess I’ll just plan to fight him off for my snack food for the next ten years or so. That could be a great diet plan!
Cicero has stolen my heart. Maybe he should have been named Casanova (…although I don’t think that’s a type of potato.)
(But it should be.)
So glad to hear that Cicero’s doing so well and has gotten to meet his ‘siblings’!
Also, I <3 Pusheen, that link cracked me up, because I have spent way too long watching those endless animations. This is my favorite: http://pusheen.com/post/21466063041
re: Sweetpea and hyperthyroidism – I used to have a cat who developed this. I admit I didn’t give him any special food, but I have a GREAT story for you. Roughly the same time I went to the skin specialist as a sun spot on my chest was growing. It was still small but had to go. I thought “do the cat first” and I got radioactive iodine treatment for the cat. This was FAB! 1 tablet – non invasive, no side effects – nothing. Cat stayed in a special lead lined room for 1 week. When I went to collect him, vet said he was safe but it would be another week until the radioactivity had completely worn off. So we go home and my clingy cat proceeds to cling to my chest everyday. Suddenly my little growth started fading away! after 2 weeks it was completely gone. completely. can’t tell I even had it. I reckon my cat’s treatment cured both of us! with no surgery or side effects! I HIGHLY recommend this approach.
Wow!! If that isn’t the darndest thing!!!
That’s amazing!
(But did your kitty glow in the dark?)
My husband had that treatment for his hyperactive thyroid years ago. We’re not sure they still do it. We’ve heard a lot of negative things about it since. He has cancer now so we do wonder.
That is really kind of neat!
My Fox was 5 when he was diagnosed and he had the radioactive iodine treatment…he got overdosed! and my poor boy went form hyper to hypo and became a very rotund boy. I only had him another 6 years and i believe the treatment (and over-vaccinating) took him way too soon. (not to mention the mobile phone tower at the end of our street!) I don’t know that i’d do the iodine treatment again. i’ve heard good things about homeopathic and herbal treatments.
Thyroid… May I suggest you buy the book “Your Cat” by Elizabeth Hodgkins DVM. She discusses nutrition in relation to a number of health issues.
Y/D, the food in particular from hills has no meat in it. Corn Gluten Meal, Animal Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Whole Grain Corn, Soybean Mill Run, Dried Egg Product, L-Lysine, Chicken Liver Flavor, Potassium Citrate, Lactic Acid, Dicalcium Phosphate, vitamins (L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), Fish Oil, Choline Chloride, Calcium Carbonate, Calcium Sulfate, DL-Methionine, Taurine, Vitamin E Supplement, L-Tryptophan, Natural Flavor, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Sulfate), L-Carnitine, preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid, Phosphoric Acid, Beta-Carotene, Rosemary Extract.
It has liver flavor, and some dried egg product, but appears to be a vegetarian diet save for the fat.(and what on earth is soybean mill run??) It must work well short term because they got it out of trials, but I can’t imagine what this would do to the health of a cat long term.
as for feeding different diets, from all the reading I have done on feline nutrition I can tell you that I have found no instance where different foods need to be fed. I was feeding different diets to my ‘normal’ cats, my diabetic / poss thyroid issue cat and my two cats who had struvite crystals. I was so frustrated which is what prompted my research. Dr. Hodgkins and Dr. Pierson (of http://www.catinfo.org) and many others (see feline-nutrition.org) agree that feeding a diet high in animal based protein and fat and low in plant based ingredients are the cat’s natural diet and will help them get the most nutrients out with the least amount of additional unnecessary calories in food types that cats lack the digestive enzymes to get the nutrition out of.
http://feline-nutrition.org/health/feline-hyperthyroidism-what-you-need-to-know
I’m sorry Robyn if I went on a little long or stomped too hard on a soap box (I so tried not to).
Hi Connie,
I read the article at the link you posted and found that its footnotes are a mess. Links to sources are broken and cited sources actually state the opposite of the article’s claims. For just one example, the article stated that a researcher, Janet Dye, had found a link between hyperthyroidism and PBDE exposure. If you go to the footnote and read the abstract cited, you will see that Janet Dye et. al. actually concluded, “…no association was detected between HT cats and sigma PBDE levels” [emphasis mine].
I’m going to urge you to carefully evaluate the quality of the information you are reading. I am also going to urge you to be careful about how much protein you feed your cats because too much protein actually can cause kidney damage!
Now I’m going to try and shed some light on cat nutrition, because I’ve also read a lot about feline CRF and hyperthyroidism when my babies were diagnosed. And I’m a great big weenie nerd!
First of all, protein: Protein is made up of amino acids. Different proteins contain different amino acids or the same amino acids in different configurations. But amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. In general, mammals digest proteins by breaking them down into the constituent amino acids. Their bodies then reassemble those amino acids into the necessary proteins for them to survive and thrive. Some amino acids are actually synthesized by the animal.
A food has complete protein as long as its combined ingredients supply all the amino acids the mammal needs. The sources of those amino acids can be ingredients such as soybean mill run (hulls of soybeans with some soybean protein), corn gluten (gluten is a protein) or dried egg product (among other sources).
Any excess amino acids are processed into various biochemicals by the liver and/or excreted through the kidneys. For example, blood cholesterols are lipoproteins created by the liver from fats and proteins.
With special CRF foods, the ingredients are tailored to provide just enough of the essential amino acids for the animal to live while reducing excess amino acids which stress the kidneys. They also reduce kidney load by having reduced phosphorus levels and specific pH. All the CRF diets have been shown scientifically by researchers to help kidney function and increase the lifespan of CRF cats significantly.
The theory behind the hyperthyroid diet is that egg and vegetable proteins are totally free of iodine. Research has shown that the cat’s thyroid normalizes with time if not exposed to iodine. Again, the proteins and partial proteins combine to give the cat a full complement of amino acids. In this case, there is more combined protein in that food since reducing load on the kidneys isn’t its main purpose.
Going forward, I will urge you to consult research papers directly and check cited sources vigilantly since there are plenty of inaccurate claims and beliefs out there. There are veterinary and medical dictionaries online which can help you understand the terminology.
If no research sources are cited, definitely be suspicious of the claims made. Statements such as, “cat food contains too many carbohydrates” or “cats do better on a ‘natural’ diet” which have no citation should be mistrusted. If the cited sources disagree with the article’s claims, the article is wrong and its authors are NOT a good source of information. Refrain from consulting them again.
Also, check the cited sources for quality. Look at sample sizes in the study. The larger the sample size the better. See if there’s a control group. Evaluate whether or not the conclusions drawn are reasonable. If the results have a wide range of variability within each group studied and/or a large overlap of same results between groups, specific conclusions just should NOT be made.
It’s also important to distinguish between vets (DVM’s) and veterinary researchers. In general, vets have a lot of good observational experience, but researchers have the data and controls which prove concepts about pet nutrition.
Finally, don’t rule out research done by pet food companies themselves as long as the research is good. For example, this article is about Hill’s y/d research, which looks pretty good. They have followed 150 cats for up to 5 years (very large sample size + long term = good study) and have definitive results. The only flaw is that there is no control group cited. However, there are plenty of studies documenting the course of hyperthyroidism which isn’t treated with medication and all the cats in their study were untreated with medication. 100% of the cats in the study improved, so it’s safe to say the food works.
Good luck in your studies! Make sure you aren’t wasting your time on bad articles, though!
re: Maufry – I read this and immediately wondered if he’s deaf. He may have just been sleeping very deeply, but I thought I’d mention it.
Cicero is just adorable. We love floofy cats around here. I’m so glad he was negative and such a good traveler! He will have so much fun with the other kittens.
No, she’s definitely not deaf – I wondered about that for a moment at the time, too. She was just bone-deep exhausted from all the events of the day, I think. My best guess is that she fell from the overpass, then when I spotted her she ran (almost back up the onramp to the freeway), then the car trip inside my hastily-emptied purse, the waiting and tring to give her water at the Humane Society, the trip (after i had a change of heart about leaving her at the HS) to my mom’s house, the bath, the food, the trip home, the smell of other cats — she was just *exhausted.*
She is probably the sharpest-eared of all my cats, and can hear you *thinking* about making a sandwich from the other end of the house!
Oh my! I´m so happy about Cicero… I´m crazy for him! These photos with the milk mouth make me smile!!!!!!
Lovely blog EVER!
For Cherry Tomatoes I have great luck pureeing them and using them to make Butter Chicken Sauce. It’s a very mild Indian tomato sauce that is just AMAZING with chicken or even just mushrooms and veggies. Google is your friend for a recipe, but it’s a nice change from Italian tomato sauce and is best served over rice or with warm flat bread (pitta, naan etc).
Thanks for the tip, Samantha, I’m off to Google it now!!
Butter Chicken is awesome!
Awwww…….between the baking cat, and cicero, I am quite pleased for the day!
My mother used to bake chicken thighs on a bed of shredded squash. Soaks up the flavors wonderfully.
Seriously though Robyn, you really should try frying the squash blossoms. Stuffed with cream/ricotta/mascapone cheese and herbs and just lightly battered and fried.
Delicious gourmet summer dish and you end up with less vegetables.
And Cicero should model for Gund or Stieff. Ultra example of kitten-ness.
Every year I talk about doing that, and I never do – I think maybe THIS is the year I ought to. I like that it would cut down on the number of squash coming in from the garden! 🙂
OK, just had to say… you are so friggin’ funny with your ‘cat-tions’ (read: captions) for your kitten pictures. I’m relatively new to your blog and always check the previous years posts… Today’s from last year is Clove the Complainer! I LMFAO the entire post! Especially the one about your white legs! I specifically called my sister, fellow cat lover, and told her she had to go check that one out! OMG… such a hoot you are woman…
And Cicero ~ I think he is the sweetest looking thing ever! So happy he tested negative… and yes, you are absolutely right… Corbie is THE most handsome… todays pics make me think of a cat in the wild… picture #1 has a very serious… “I am KING of the Crooked Acres ~ anything else you’d like to discuss?”
Awww, thank you! I have to admit, I went back and read that post too, and it made me laugh. Oh, how I loved that little Clove!!
Cicero is such a doll; I love them at that age!
I have to brag…that’s my mom’s cat, Buster Brown, on Freekibblekat’s What Makes You Happy feature today! He is a serious love bug too!
I saw Buster there today! What a handsome boy!
I saw that, too – how neat!
By tested negative, you mean Cicero tested negative for FIV and feleuk, right? What would happen if he had tested positive? Would you just have to keep him separated from the rest of the Taters?
And, yes, thank you for the work you do putting this blog together and how consistent you are! I love that every weekday morning I know there will be a new post for me to enjoy.
Aww, thank you! 🙂
Yes, he tested negative for Feline Leukemia and FIV. If he’d been positive, we would have had to continue to keep him sequestered, and then retested him in the future. He would have been so lonely!
I cannot get enough of the Taters!!!!
Ok, I think that for every batch o’ kittens… but these Taters see extra special!! Except that I do miss the dear little Noms. Oh!
Er… make that “seem” extra special. Although hopefully their eye sight is excellent too 🙂
LOL, I knew what you meant! 😀
I love all the fosters you have and have had and it’s very rare for me to fall in love with one in particular, but, boy, oh boy, I’m just in luuuurrrve with that boy Cicero; consider me truly smitten!!
Cicero with his milk mouth looks like he’s going to grow up to be Puss in Boots, doesn’t he? 🙂
Yes, he does!
So glad Cicero is negative, his cuteness just staggers me! I’m also happy more people are finding out about the greatness that is dinosaurscanteatpizza.com, I love that site. Your avocado hummus sounds delish.
My favorite way to eat zucchini isn’t really a recipe, but I peel it with a potato peeler into strips, saute in olive oil, then add Prego and some fresh mozzarella. Delicious, and such a great alternative to regular pasta.
Ooh, that sounds good. I think I’m going to have to give that a try!
Is it just me or has Sir Stomps-a-lot nabbed some of Sir Floof-a-lot’s floofishness? Russet’s looking almost sleek today. I could look at him and his fellow Taters all day long, and I can’t wait to see them settle down for some good long naps with the Perms. Take heed, Miz Poo: their time is coming. Stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp!
He is a bit floofy, but kittens at that age tend toward floofiness; I think he’s going to end up a regular shorthair, but I’d be perfectly happy to be proven wrong by him. 🙂
It always brightens my day when I visit your website.
With the zucchini, just the other day I found a nice recipe for stuffed zucchini boats.
You’ve probably done something like this. I did some just veggie and some with crumbled italian sausage.
They were a hit.
http://www.thecomfortofcooking.com/2012/05/spicy-italian-stuffed-zucchini-boats.html
Would you believe I haven’t done a stuffed zucchini boat? I’m printing out the recipe, I need to give a try. Thanks for the suggestion! 🙂
We just adopted 2 girl kittens from the city shelter last weekend. I’m immune to Cicero’s cuteness. I’m immune…I’m…. What was I saying?
HE IS SO SMALL AND ADORABLE!
I KNOW! Especially when he’s sleepy and he just lays there on me and purrs. 😀
Yay for negative tests, good sibling introductions and weight gain! And yay for all good news. You are a winner, Cicero, and the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. I wish, I wish I wasn’t many states away….. I think I would have to have him. Of course, if I were closer, I would frequently camp out under the coop with George and Gracie and now have as many kittehs as you, because I want each and every one of them.
I’m so happy about Cicero — he tested negative and he’s getting to be such a big boy — almost a pound! 😉 He’s just adorable!
So glad to hear about little Cicero! 😀
Just wanted to share this with your readers.
http://projectpurr.chipin.com/help-mipsy
This precious baby was found with a rope tied around her leg, and now her foot is gone. They need help for her care.
Oh the little darling!!! I’m so glad someone brought her in for treatment… hopefully she’ll recover and have a good life after all despite this rough start.
On giving fosters back:
Giving up my first foster litter was like a hole had been ripped in my heart. There were only two of them, and one of them was tiny and sickly and I cared for him until he was big and strong and he felt like MY kitten. I very nearly turned the car around and went back to the shelter to demand that they let me adopt him. (This is why my shelter makes you sign a contract that you won’t adopt from your first litter!) I cried all the way home, and I still miss him sometimes. He was such a sweet little cuddlebug. Next time I’m looking to adopt, I’m going to look for a kitty like him.
But subsequent litters have been much easier to give back. After going through that first experience, it was a lot easier to not think of them as “mine.” I’ve still had my favorites and kittens I’ve bonded with, but I’m able to think of it now as “someone is really going to enjoy owning this kitten” rather than “I need to own this kitten.” It helps that my permanent kitty HATES the fosters and when they leave she’s so happy and extra-cuddly for a few days. And yes, getting the next litter really does help! You have a whole new set of kittens to squeal over.
Speaking of squealing, I made a very high-pitched noise when I saw those pictures of Cicero. He is the cutest!
I work at a vet clinic (but am not a vet, nor do I play one on the interwebz) but the Y/D thyroid food has went over VERY well for our hyperthyroid kitties. We have started dozens of kitties on it since January and only one of them wouldn’t eat it, the rest adapted right away. And their blood tests are all showing that the thyroid food is working to keep their levels at the appropriate numbers.
I wish I could feed my kitty that food, but unfortunately, it’s too high in protein for renal failure kitties. The renal failure foods are all low protein diets (under 29% protein) and the hyperthyroid food is something like 38% protein (even though the bag says 32%, their literature and website speak a higher number) It’s more important to look after the kidneys than the thyroid (kidney failure will lead to death much faster) so we are soldiering on with low protein food and potassium supplements for the kidney disease and transdermal (gel in the ar) medication for the thyroid condition.