Update on the baby kits and our other foster cats

Simon and Stephen graduated from bottles to soft food several weeks ago and from soft food to hard within a few days of that.  Small kittens cannot chew standard kitten kibbles so they started out on this stuff:

 

 Which is the cutest, tiniest kibble I've ever seen:

 

Normal cat food is on the right, and the babycat(TM) kibble is on the left.  

Now that you think I'm completely daft for getting all silly over kitten kibble, I'll show you adorable pictures to make you forget how daft I may or may not be.  

 

This is Simon at about 7 weeks.  Simon is a little love.  He likes to climb up on me, nuzzle my chin, sleep under my chin or just nuzzle on me while getting his noggin scratched.  I have never come across so affectionate a kitten as Simon.  

Simon likes to hug, too:

Simon will make someone a very good companion. 

Steven is also an affectionate one, as evidenced by his nap with my son.  

Both Simon and Steven are happy, playful kittens full of love and exuberance.  They have no health concerns or negative behaviours and will be wonderful additions to any home.  

I am so going to miss them!  

 

They burrowed into this blanket themselves and had a nap! 

As for my other foster cats....

 

Allow me to introduce 11-07 ("eleven-oh-seven").  

Odd name, you think?  Can you see why?  

 

Yes, she has very clear 1107 markings on both her sides!  11-07 is a bit skittish, but I think she will relax in a quiet home.  She is used to children as she's been with us since infancy.  While she does spend time with my 10 year old, she could not be bothered with my five year old.  Younger kids tend to be unpredictably loud at times and she does not enjoy loud noises.  

This is Blondie.  We named her Blondie for her blonde-coloured eyes, pale colouring and the fact that she seems a bit dense at times. (In this photo she is stalking and swatting the black shoes.  You can make of that what you will.)  I think she's actually just very skittish and her nervousness pre-empts her intelligence.  She's a funny one, that's for sure.  Blondie is still not fully socialized, despite the fact that I've been working with her for a very long time and she came to me as a kitten.  Blondie will be staying with me a bit longer as I give socializing her one more go before she goes to another home for more intensive socializing.

 

This is Princess.  She is completely black -- not a spot of white on her anywhere!  Princess came to me as a one year old extremely skittish cat.  She hid for the first week in the rafters of our basement.  I decided to cage her when I realized that she would live in those rafters until eternity if I didn't force her hand.  While caged I would daily remove her, hold her, stroke her, scratch her head and talk to her.  At night she would cry and cry to be let out of the cage.  Finally I gave in and let her out of the cage, but barred her access to the basement.  It took seven long months of coaxing before Princess ever let me touch her after uncaging her.  She simply came to me one day, lay down at me feet and meowed at me.  She wanted scratched!  Now she comes to us all the time for back scratching.  She does not like to be held, but will sit next to you (never on! she's not that kind of cat!) on a sofa and allow you to pet and scratch her.  She's a very well behaved, but quite skittish cat.  She needs a quiet home and will most likely have a period of adjustment when she gets to that home.  She will hide and come out only when she is comfortable.  Coaxing will not work with this girl.  If you are a local reader, I would like you to consider whether you or someone you may know would be interested in adopting Princess.  She will make a wonderful pet.  After all the work we've done with her to socialize her to humans, children, and other cats, I would hate to see her sit in an adoption center's cages before being adopted.  I think that would cause her to regress.  I know she will have an adjustment period regardless, but I think it would be FAR FAR less traumatic for her to transition directly into her forever home.  If you or someone you know is interested and serious about adopting Princess, please contact me via the comments section.  I would be happy to facilitate her transition to a forever home.  

Simon, Steven, and 11-07 will be available for adoption this weekend, February 13th at the PetSmart on Vansickle Ave. in St. Catharines. 

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Movin' to the Beach

Soon to be our new home town. (Love the boat full of snow by the sign, don't you?)

We're moving. Thought I'd post a couple pictures of our recent packing escapades.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes it's far simpler to NOT ask the resident teenager to lend a hand with anything at all than it is to actually extract a bit of work from said teenager?

This is Marissa helping to pack:
It took two of us to pull her butt out of the box. Seriously...it was her butt that was the problem. It's a big ol' butt and gravity was working against us. Once we got her out of the box, she disappeared. That's okay, I have a revenge in mind (keep reading).

You see, we really have our work cut out for us. This is just one stack of boxes yet to fill:



After hours of moving heavy furniture, carrying, lifting, dragging, packing everything he could, hubby took a break for a few. Soxxy immediately decided to crush his arm and pin him to the couch. Roy called me to see what was causing the tingling sensation in his arm. Really. He deserves the moniker Fatty McFatCat:



Had some things to do regarding the house and we popped down to Crystal Beach for a quick visit while we were there. Here's how Lake Erie looks today:
Sure, it looks cold in this picture, but it really doesn't come close to describing how cold it really was. We were out of the car all of five minutes before we just could not take it any longer! I'd say there's a 20 degree drop in temp right on the water, and there was a -18c windchill off the water. Just chilled us to the bone in short order and the bitingly cold wind took our breath away!

How windy was it, you ask?

Does that answer your question?

Now, the thing with having very textured hair is that hair really holds whatever style you put to it and very well. Let's see what this blow job did for Miss Marissa once she got out of the wind....

HOLY!

I probably won't post again till we're all settled into our new digs ... so check back in about a month. Right now, I need to go change my daughter's facebook profile picture.... (yes, I am that evil.)

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One Giant Suck

Oh, that's a Canadian term, by the way. I think the American equivalent would be "Big Pathetic Baby." I was taken aback when first I heard it. Now I use it all the time.

This, gentle readers, is the perfect example of a GIANT SUCK:

Soxxy strikes this pose whenever he smells meat being carved, served, cut up, cooked, dined upon, etc. Tonight it was beef. If it were chicken, Soxxy would have rolled completely onto his back, splayed his legs and given us the biggest mooniest eyes one could ever see. Fish will have him pawing the table. The table TOP! He really is big.

Soxxy is our 20-pound cat. He wasn't always 20 pounds. When I went back to the states for a 3-week visit in '07, he gained a LOT of weight. A LOT. Hubby works 12-hour shifts and he'd fill Soxxy's bowl in the morning, then fill it again in the evening. Soxxy had a very big bowl. Soxxy cleaned his bowl every time it was filled. Soxxy didn't go outside and play much during those 13 hours hubby was away. Soxxy lazed about most days. For three whole weeks. I've had him on a diet since and he's gone from 24 pounds to 18 pounds and then he bounces around a bit in between. When I have foster cats, it's hard to keep Soxxy underfed as he cleans their bowls. When Soxxy leaves the house he visits all the homes of people who have soft spots for strays and he eats the food they leave on their porches for the strays. (I tell them not to feed Soxxy, but they love him so they do. Food is not love!) Soxxy checks the neighbour's cats' bowls every day, a few times a day, just in case those cats might have forgotten something. Soxxy catches birds. He doesn't just play with them. He eats them. Soxxy sits at my 9-year-old's feet in the morning hoping he'll get to lick the last drops of milk from said 9-year-old's cereal bowl. (Of course he gets to. My 9-year-old's a softie!) Soxxy lays in the pose pictured above in the hopes of getting a treat. Soxxy doesn't get treats anymore. Poor Soxxy. Or as I have come to call him, Fatty McFatCat. Hubby calls him Fat Lazy Oaf. My 9 year old is concerned that we might be hurting Soxxy's feelings. My 9-year-old calls him Soxxy. And he sits with him and talks to him in the gentlest of voices, telling Mr. McFatCat that we don't really think he's fat. (Yes we do.) That he's not really fat at all, he's just a big cat. (He's a big, fat cat.)

Now you learned something new and you don't have to be flabbergasted when you hear someone or something called a 'suck' in Canada.

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