Jump to comments Jump to sidebar
2023 in review.
We started 2023 with 5 fosters in residence:
Kim Wexler (who was adoption pending) and her daughters Francesca and Nacho. Those three had the run of the upstairs during the day, and spent their nights in the foster room.
Downstairs, in a cage in the dining room at night, and in Fred’s bathroom during the day were…
Cinnaspin and Linzer.
On January 9th, which just so happens to be my birthday, Kim Wexler was adopted and went home!
She flew home to Massachusetts and joined a wonderful family. Best part is that we get to see her on Instagram at The Wexler Family. She is so absolutely loved and adored, and I love getting to see her sweet, happy face.
In the January 11th post, I announced that it had become clear to me that Nacho and Francesca were a bonded pair and as such had to be adopted together. I also announced that they were going to be going to Petsmart when there was room for them, since they’d been available for adoption for two months and there had been no interest.
In that same post, I announced that I’d let Francesca and Nacho meet Cinnaspin and Linzer, and they didn’t really interact, but it was fine. The next day, Francesca and Nacho went off to Petsmart.
With Nacho and Francesca headed off to Petsmart, Cinnaspin and Linzer moved into the foster room at night, and started having the run of the entire upstairs during the day.
In the January 18th post, I introduced y’all to the first faker of 2023, Brioche!
We thought she might be pregnant, but she went into heat, showing us that she was NOT. She was pretty quickly scheduled for her spay surgery as soon as we could get her in. She was believed to be about 18 months old, and we’re pretty sure she was Cinnaspin’s mother.
Cinnaspin and Linzer started getting the run of the house during the day, spending their nights in my office. (We moved my desk and computer and all my office paraphernalia from that room to my bedroom, so that Cinnaspin and Linzer would have room to run around and play. I said in that entry that once they were adopted I’d move my desk and everything else back into my office. Nearly a year later, do you think that’s happened? NOPE.)
Brioche, Cinnaspin and Linzer went off for their spays, and were back home the next morning, just fine.
Since Brioche had been with us for two weeks, I decided it was time to introduce her to Cinnaspin and Linzer. It didn’t go great – Brioche wanted NOTHING to do with them – but it could have been worse!
February, which started quiet foster-wise, picked up after a few days, and in the February 6th post, I announced that: (1) Brioche had headed off to Petsmart, (2) Francesca and Nacho were adoption pending (together!), AND (3) Cinnaspin and Linzer were adoption pending (together)! But WAIT, that wasn’t all! Since two sets of fosters at once makes Fred twitchy, why not bring in a third?
We said howdy to Lincoln and Lilly, who were so so so scared, poor sweet babies.
(Side note: Fred is a lot more flexible about bringing more fosters into the house when he knows that the ones we already have are adoption pending and there’s an actual date when they’ll be going.)
Nacho and Francesca, and Linzer and Cinnaspin got to meet each other, and things were hissy and growly.
On Valentine’s Day, I posted about several Forgotten Felines kitties who were being fostered by another foster and who were available for adoption. (That ultimately led to at least one adoption, so yay!)
After a few days, Nacho and Francesca became… well, not BEST FRIENDS with Cinnaspin and Linzer, but they at least could be around each other without too much drama.
At some point I moved Lincoln and Lilly into my office, and worked some more with them. They were both fans of the Churu.
Lincoln.
Lilly.
On February 20th, I announced that Nacho and Francesca had been adopted and went home!
They joined a family that included former foster Luc (now Reggie). How cool is that? (Very!)
YouTube link
I thought Cinnaspin might want to be friends with Lincoln and Lilly. I thought wrong.
On February 27th, I announced that Cinnaspin and Linzer had been adopted and went home (along with their beloved Mister Frog)!
They are now residents of Colorado and Arizona, and they are on Facebook here!
In the same post, I told y’all that we had split up Lincoln and Lilly in hopes that they might decide we weren’t so bad (it’s a trick that sometimes works with very scared cats.)
And then (in the next day’s post), I introduced you to…
Daisy the pregnant polydactyl! She came to us pre-named, so after some dithering (I didn’t want to use flowers as the litter theme because that’s been very done and I wanted something different), I decided on a Great Gatsby theme.
After a few days, we introduced Daisy to Lincoln and Lilly (briefly), and it was fine. Then we took them in for a longer visit, and Daisy and Lilly were fine, but Lincoln started to regress, so I decided we needed to slow way down. Then after a few more days of visits, Lilly started getting sassy and hissy with Daisy, so it became clear that she needed to be reunited with her brother, since she needed someone her own age to play with. I moved Daisy into my office, and Lincoln and Lilly into the foster room, and Lilly was happy to have her brother back with her.
Around March 8th, I started predicting we’d have kittens annnny day now. (I never learn, do I?)
Lincoln and Lilly enjoyed their time in the foster room (especially the morning sunshine.)
On March 13th, I told y’all that Lincoln and Lilly had headed off to Petsmart. They needed to get some more socialization, and with the twice a day visits from volunteers, I hoped that they’d learn to relax a bit around humans.
Also, Brioche (our faker from January) got herself adopted.
In that same post I announced that former foster Marsali had been returned, along with her sister Joanie (who was not a Forgotten Felines kitty; she was adopted elsewhere), and were in the foster room.
Still no dang kittens.
And then, on March 18th – kittens!
Daisy’s birth story is here. A quick summary is thus: I was out of the house for the better part of the day, driving to Nashville to meet Lincoln & Lilly’s adopter. When I got back, she was restless and around 8:00 started having kittens. She DID NOT want me to leave the room, so I stayed with her while she had 4 healthy, squirming kittens.
As mentioned above, Lincoln and Lilly were adopted and went home.
To Colorado! You can follow Lincoln and Lilly and their big brother Indiana here.
Marsali and Joanie continued to hang out in the foster room being adorable and sweet and friendly.
Marsali the goofball, Joanie disapproving.
I announced that the kittens had been named!
And they grew.
Zelda was the only kitten with extra toes, and I finally posted a picture of said toeses.
On March 27th, I announced the Marsali and Joanie had been adopted!
They were adopted locally and joined a family that included big (kitty) sister named Pyxis. Joanie became Joni, and Marsali became Marcy.
The kittens’ eyes started opening!
Then they turned 2 weeks old. (And notably, I finally finished repainting the foster room, so I was able to move them all from my office into the bigger room.)
THEN they turned 3 weeks old and Zelda was the first to escape the crate. (She was also the first to pee in the litter box a few days later!)
4 weeks old!
Daisy went for her spay surgery, and I was EVER SO RELIEVED to have that behind us, so I wouldn’t have to keep dreading her going into heat.
The kittens’ eyes started changing (which always happens way too soon.)
And then in the May 4th post, I confessed that I’d been living my life in 2-hour increments for the previous 3 weeks, and introduced you to the Nestlings.
It had been a rough few weeks: I took in a total of 7 kittens, and three of them passed, but the remaining four were doing well (and, spoiler: continued to do well.) (If you’d like to skip straight to the part of the post where I introduced the remaining kittens, click here.)
As May wound on, in the foster room the Catsbys got a castle, and they approved!
While downstairs the Nestlings got a little more room to roam, in a corner of the dining room.
The Catsbys turned 10 weeks old.
On June 2nd, I announced that Zelda and Myrtle were adoption pending (together)!
I got out a bubble shooter for the Crate Catsbys to see what they thought of catnip bubbles, and this picture of Zelda’s reaction will never not make me laugh.
The Catsbys turned 12 weeks old, and the next day they went for their spay/neuter surgeries (which went just fine.)
This video of Plover (aka Tater) chasing dust motes killed me DEAD.
In the June 19th post, I announced that:
Zelda and Myrtle had been adopted, together!
Zelda is now Ruby and Myrtle is now Opal; they are now residents of Illinois.
A few days later, Daisy, Nick and Jay went off to Petsmart.
In the June 23rd post, I wrote about Firefly’s kittens. It’s a sad one – basically we briefly had a foster who had 7 kittens. Her milk didn’t come in, and despite my efforts to feed them, they died one by one. (If I haven’t mentioned it was a rough year, I’m mentioning it now.)
The Nestlings met Uncle Charlie.
Daisy was adopted!
She’s the only kitty (only animal) in her new home, and has a little girl to love. I think it’s the perfect situation for that sweet mama.
I got the first lined-up picture of the Nestlings.
Jay and Nick (who had been at Petsmart for a little while) were adopted, together!
They joined a family that included three kitty siblings to play with, and I got to deliver them myself (since they were local.)
The Nestlings got the run of the house, and Uncle Khal was not appreciative.
I took a week off from blogging because I had a lot going on (I’d love to tell you what it was, but I can’t remember) and when I came back, I announced (because I couldn’t remember if I already had) that Wren and Rufous were adoption pending (together) and Starling and Plover/Tater were adoption pending (together)!
In the July 31st post, I introduced y’all to (drum roll please) – the newest fosters!
Uhura and her 6 kittens, who were 9 days old: Kirk, Riker, Spock, Janeway, Kes and Troi.
The Nestlings went off for their spay and neuter surgeries, and came through them just fine (though they were a bit hiiiigh when I got them home).
Then Wren and Rufous were adopted (together) and went home to Florida! Rufous became Tiger, and Wren became Dotty.
A few days later, Starling and Plover/Tater were adopted and went home to Nashville!
You can follow them on Facebook here, and on Instagram here. Tater/Plover is now Raven, and Starling is now Elaine. They’re the only pets in their new home, and they have an adorable (human) sister to grow up with.
Sadly, Uhura’s kitten Riker passed away unexpectedly. He was fine, then he very quickly went downhill and passed away. To say I was shocked and heartbroken would be an understatement.
Sweet Riker.
With the Nestlings adopted, I scrubbed down the foster room and moved the Trekklings in, and Uhura was amazed at all that space.
The Trekklings turned 3 weeks old.
Then they started leaving the crate.
They turned 6 weeks old and were all OVER the room, and started eating solid food (finally) and using Uhura’s big litter box (in addition to their own smaller litter boxes.)
Uhura went for her spay surgery on September 13th and came through surgery just fine. While she was gone…
The kittens met Uncle Charlie!
Someone sent us a spaceship scratcher, which the kittens REALLY liked.
In the post for September 25th, I was able to announce that FINALLY Uhura’s DNA results were back (someone was so interested to know what was in her genetic background that they purchased and sent us a Basepaws test.) You can see the results here, but summary: a little of this, a little of that, and oh hey: she’s likely to have a chocolate coat. Ya don’t say!
And then, all of a sudden, Uhura was adopted and went home to the Nashville area! They renamed her “Toast.”
A few days later I was able to announce that Troi and Kes (together) were adoption pending, Spock and Janeway (together) were adoption pending, and Kirk (going to a home with a playful kitty already in residence) was adoption pending. Sometimes it takes a little while for the applications to come in, but then they come in all at once!
We decided it was time to let the Trekklings have full access to the rest of the house (during the day), and so they made themselves at home.
The Trekkling kittens went off for their spays and neuters, and all went fine.
Then, just like that, Kirk was adopted and went home to Charleston, South Carolina. (He kept his name!)
I did manage to get a 12-week collage of the kittens posted before he left, though.
A few days later, Kes and Troi went home (together!) Troi is now Sarabi, and Kes is Nala (names are from The Lion King).
Janeway and Spock were supposed to go home the next day, but something came up, and their adoption was bumped to the next weekend. OR SO WE THOUGHT. Unfortunately, when I tried to touch base with the adopter a few days before the adoption was supposed to happen, she just… didn’t bother to respond. I was EXTREMELY IRATE, not because they had clearly changed their mind (life happens, people change their minds, it’s not a big deal and I certainly would have understood), but because they couldn’t be bothered to do me the simple courtesy of letting me know they had. JUST. SO. RUDE. (I was SO SO SO MAD even though I tried to shrug it off, I’m surprised the top of my head didn’t pop clear off my body and go bouncing away).
But you know what? That left room for an AWESOME adopter to step up and apply for them, and I think we can agree that they are 100% better off.
And then I introduced you all to the newest fosters, who were in my office until the foster room was empty for them.
Itty bitty teeny weeny Shelby and her far too skinny mama M’Lynn.
On Halloween I did a post an hour with cats in Halloween costumes, which you can see in the November 1st post.
On November 3rd, I announced that Spock and Janeway were adoption pending (together!) and would be going home in a few days. (I was very excited!)
Meanwhile, in my office, M’Lynn and Shelby were doing well. I was taking care of feeding Shelby, and M’Lynn was taking care of everything else.
Janeway and Spock were adopted (together)! They now live in the hollers of Kentucky, and their new names are Jethro and Elly May.
With Janeway (Elly Mae) and Spock (Jethro) out of the foster room, I scrubbed it down and moved M’Lynn and Shelby over. And THEN…
I brought home these three little messes to be her siblings.
M’Lynn was pretty hissy toward them at first, so I kept them in a cage in the room so she’d get used to them. It only took, like, a day for her to decide they were no threat. That could be because she was going into heat, though! (Luckily it was a quiet heat, there was a lot of writhing around and purring, but no howling.) A few days later, she went off for her spay surgery, which went just fine.
M’Lynn accepted Drum, Ouiser and Clairee as her own, and let them comfort nurse on her. Shelby was perfectly fine with sharing her mama.
Shelby continued to gain weight, started eating on her own, and began hanging out and playing with the other kittens.
In the November 30th post, I announced that M’Lynn was adoption pending! (LOVE it when the mamas get their forever homes and get to go straight from here!)
On December 13th, I announced that Shelby had hit the 2 pound mark (yay!) AND that she’d made her first climb to the top of the cat tree!
M’Lynn was adopted and went home! She joined a family that includes two cat-friendly dogs and another young kitty. She is now Sakana.
Uncle Charlie came for a visit, and there was lots of floofing, most notably Ouiser’s super-floofed tail and ridged back.
Christmas came, and I flooded everyone’s timeline with some of my favorite holiday pictures past, and holiday pictures present (and the kittens got some new toys, because they had ZERO TOYS, as you know).
Uncle Charlie came for another visit.
As 2023 ended, things are pretty quiet: 4 very healthy kittens in the foster room, about to have the run of the house during the day (as soon as all the Christmas decorations are down and put away). The quietude won’t last (it never does), but it’s nice for the moment.
2023 was a wonderful, terrible, hopeful, horrible, breathtaking, heartbreaking year. I hope to never have so many losses in one year ever again – and pray to have more of the absolutely wonderful moments.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We had a total of 42 fosters move through this year.
We have three former fosters who are at Michelle’s house, as of yet unadopted: Kristi and Katia, who we fostered in 2018, and Firefly (for whom I did not make a page, but will do as soon as I can), who we fostered very briefly this summer.
We have four fosters in the house at the moment: Shelby, Drum, Clairee… and Ouiser, for whom we now have an application! (The people who have applied to adopt her have a young kitty who very much needs a kitty friend to play and snuggle with, and I believe Ouiser will fit the bill.) All four kittens are going for their spays/neuter on January 24th. Shelby, Drum and Clairee are not spoken for… but I haven’t really started advertising them yet, either, so hopefully that will change in the next few weeks.
We have fostered a total of 521 since 2005.
Here are the sweet faces of the fosters we had in 2023.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The state of the permanent residents in 2023.
What a terrible, terrible year for the permanent residents. We started 2023 with 7 residents – Alice, Archie, Charlie, Dewey, Jake, Khal, and Newt.
We lost Archie unexpectedly on January 31st; the post about him is here.
We lost Jake to Lymphoma on May 12th; the post about him is here.
We lost Dewey to Congestive Heart Failure on November 28th; the post about him is here.
We’re ending the year with 4. We are still looking out for Trixie and Rocco, the neighbor’s cats who spend most of their time on our front porch; I don’t consider them ours, but we are feeding them, we’re making sure they’re up to date on their vaccinations, and they spend at least 80% of their time on our front porch. If Charlie and Khal did not LOATHE them with a passion, I’m sure they’d be coming into the house.
The remaining permanent residents are getting older, but are all in pretty good shape. Newt will be 18 this year (I said last year that he’d turn 18 in 2023, but for some reason I had two different dates of birth for him. We’ve settled on January 6, 2006 as his official date of birth, but who knows how accurate it is? I’m not sure it matters that much at this point). He’s a bit dodder-y, but he gets around great for an old guy. He’s officially the oldest cat we’ve had (Spanky was 17 when we said goodbye to him in 2013).
Charlie, (and Trixie and Rocco) will be 4 this year, Alice will be 14, and Khal will be 10. I hope very much that we end the year with the exact same cats we started it with (AND NO MORE.)
Here’s what they look like now.
(Calling Trixie and Rocco “The Freeloaders” makes me laugh because, well, aren’t they ALL freeloaders?)
Those we lost in 2023.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Former Foster Updates we received this year.
(Arranged, roughly, in the order in which we fostered them.)
Drum & Clairee, and Branwen (formerly Juniper): January 20th, July 18th, November 16th.
Flynn (formerly Kohle) and Hook (formerly Puff) – September 19th.
Amber (formerly Ambercup), Phoenix & Stardust: April 4th, May 26th, June 23rd, September 1st, November 20th.
Periwinkle (formerly Bert Macklin) & Patches (formerly Art Vandelay) – July 13th.
Marie (formerly Regina Phalange) – November 30th.
Piper (formerly Dynamo) – November 21st.
Dexter & Molly (formerly Millinocket) – November 2nd, December 19th.
Rhus (formerly Rochefort) and Oleander (formerly Constance) – June 16th, December 1st.
Kiki (formerly Calamity Jane) and Mr. Mustachio (formerly Davy Crockett) – July 7th.
Leo (formerly Athos) & Axel (formerly Clover) – August 1st.
Fizzbin – September 25th.
Sylvie (formerly Ruthy Ruthenium) and Minnie (Nikki Nickel): February 22nd.
Dolce (formerly Jocasta) – May 22nd.
Francesca, Nacho & Reggie (formerly Luc) – August 2nd.
Lincoln & Lilly – August 15th, September 26th.
Opal (formerly Myrtle) and Ruby (formerly Zelda) – June 22nd, July 5th, November 28th.
Tiger (formerly Rufous) & Dotty (formerly Wren): August 7th, August 14th.
Toast (formerly Uhura) – October 10th.
Kirk – October 16th, October 23rd, October 23rd, October 25th, October 31st, November 7th, November 15th, December 4th.
Nala (formerly Kes) & Sarabi (formerly Troi) – October 23rd, October 26th, December 4th.
Jethro (formerly Spock) & Elly Mae (formerly Janeway) – November 15th, December 14th.
Sakana (formerly M’Lynn) – December 18th, December 22nd, December 27th.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I’m just going to go ahead and cut and paste what I’ve said for the past several years in a row because it still holds true (and I am lazy).
As we begin this new year, I’d like to take a moment to thank you all for reading. I know that a lot of you say that you like to start (or end) your day at Love & Hisses, reading about the kittens and the permanent residents. You give me (and each other) advice, ask and answer questions, fall in love with the kittens we foster and our permanent residents, and grieve with us when we lose someone. I started this site because I can’t shut my face about cats and kittens, and to have y’all enjoy the pictures and stories I post means more than I could ever begin to express. I appreciate each and every one of you, whether you’re here every day or just come by every now and then. We’ve built an amazing community here, and I certainly could never have done it alone.
So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you all so very very much!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Previously
2022 in review.
2021 in review.
2020 in review.
2019 in review.
2018 in review.
2017 in review.
2016 in review.
2015 in review.
2014 in review.
2013 in review.
2012 in review.
2012: No entry.
2011: No entry.
2010: No entry.
2009: This is going to be hard – it always is – but I have to trust that they’ll end up in fantastic homes with people who spoil them as rotten as we do.
2008: No entry.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.