I thought my days of mixing formula were over...

but here I am taking care of two babies.  And it's hard to bottle feed two at once.  It's hard to clean two bums simultaneously.  It's hard to keep one from scratching the other's eyes out when they sleep next to each other. 

My husband brought home two babies on New Year's Eve.  Two baby kittens, that is!

They are roughly four weeks old, going on five.  My husband works for a company that manufactures wind towers.  These kittens were in an area where large steel plates (think tonnes) are stored.  Just as he was about to move some of this plate, a coworker heard a sound.  It was the sound of two tiny kittens mewling.  Since it was a holiday weekend, everything was going to be closed up tight and the mother, if she hadn't intentionally abandoned them, would have no way to get back to them.  The temperature was well below 0C and nights substantially below.  My husband couldn't leave them to freeze.

They were hungry and cold after a day in a box of rags in subzero temperatures.  We syringe fed them watered down wet cat food as they likely never had solid food before and they are quite wobbly still.  As soon as I could get to a pet supply store we purchased a nurser and formula.  Isn't this bottle just the cutest thing?

Cute, yes, but not quite so cute as Steven and Simon:

They're standing on top of the barrier I made to turn my living room into a kitten playpen. It's not safe for them to wander around the house.  I do cage the kittens during naps and at night, they are out of the cage during feedings and after for play time.  Obviously, the barricade isn't working so well. It only took two days for them to overcome it! As long as I'm in the living room, they will stay there.  I have become mom so far as these two guys are concerned.  They'll follow along as I walk, climb my pants' legs when I sit, and crawl up on my shoulder to sleep after they've finished their bottle:

(Try to ignore the folded clothes behind me on the couch.  It's amazing how much time these guys actually require in caring for them.  I truly feel like I have a baby or two in the house.  Though I don't mean to diminish the work of human childcare at all.  I'm only comparing the two. )
 
I (we) have fostered cats and kittens for the past five years for the Animal Assistance Society of Niagara.  We socialize them and get them ready for adoption into forever homes.  There are three fosters with us now in addition to Simon and Steven.  The baby brothers will also be available for adoption once they've been neutered. 

I'll tell you more about the other fosters in another post.

I suppose you might be wondering about their names.  My husband works in Stevensville.  The kittens were found next to steel plate from Seimon's Steel.  I couldn't call a kitty "Seimon" (which sounds just like "semen") so Simon it is!  How do I tell them apart?  Well, Simon has a redder face than Steven.  It just so happens that my husband has an Uncle Simon, who when he grows one, sports a red mustache!  I need all the help I can get when it comes to memory assists.

Read more...

Cats...We've Known a Few

Cats and kittens grace our home regularly. Since we foster them to get them ready for adoption (through the local Animal Assistance Society), we have had the pleasure of caring for nearly 30 different cats and kittens in the past few years.

I thought I'd share some with you.


Our first batch of kittens were the "steel kitties" (in reference to their colouring) who were, coincidentally, rescued from a steel mill. They were very sick when I got them. They had eye issues, upper respiratory infections, and funny poops. They had to be given lots of meds every day, eye ointment and cleaning twice daily, a couple nutritional supplements, and yes, I had to pay attention to their poops. That's right. I think I've seen every make & model of kitty poop in the past few years. As a foster, I got the trial by fire routine. No other kitties have been as needy since. I never minded, though.

We named two of them tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum, these two were constant companions. Due to the ongoing brain damage I suffer as a side-effect of long-term parenting, I cannot recall the other three kitty's names.



One day, Tweedle Dee broke one of her legs. I don't know how it happened. She was an awfully curious lil bugger (as you can see above) and I suspect she climbed into the drop ceiling downstairs and then fell from it. It was a nasty break and I thought they were going to euthanise her because the surgery would have been a couple thousand dollars. Instead, they put her in a high cage (so she wouldn't stand to look at her people) and kept her there for a month. She returned to me perfectly healthy but no longer attached to Tweedle Dum. She was adopted within weeks of her return as were all of her siblings.

Can you see Tweedle Dee? (This is post recovery, by the way.)



There she is!


I'll tell you about more of our kitties in future posts.

Read more...