This morning when I woke up, I had fourteen kitties sleeping on me, around me, next to me. I was profiled in Kitties is how Mike put it. It reminded me of a time in summer camp long ago when I was a counselor for a YMCA camp in the San Bernadino Mountains. We taught our campers a song called There Were Ten in the Bed- Made me wish, I could just say as the song lyrics go “There were 10 in the bed and the little one said Roll over, roll over. So they all rolled over and one fell off and the little one said Roll over, roll over..” Well I couldn’t ask them to roll over so they all would fall off the bed. I had to instead extracate myself carefully from under the kitty fur and try not to squish anyone. I had no wiggle room! But I did it finally.

McKenzie is grumpy today- she hissed at me and tried to bite me. I wish I could get her in and get her spayed but she isn’t of good weight yet. I just let her be grumpy and fed her. I will let her be until tonight and see how it goes.

She is not friendly and I don’t expect her to be. Whatever horrors she has endured to be in the shape she is has molded her into the cat she now displays to me.

She is still hiding in her house, only her head is visible when I go upstairs. Seems to only want to eat canned food wants nothing to do with dry. Fancy Feast seems to be her preference. When I give her the meds, she does try to bite me, but her mouth due to malnutrition looks quite inflamed. Probably why she doesn’t want to eat the dry food. Unfortunately, in this neck of the woods, black cats quickly come to harm. She can’t tell me what she has endured, but her body is telling me it wasn’t good.

Her ears are peeling back she had the worst case of earmites I have ever seen- you couldn’t even see the interior of her ears they were that caked in blood.

She watches the three cats across the hall like a hawk and when Gretel who is now walking about freely in the room and hallway comes to her door, she shows no interest other than just to look.

I wish I had found homes for the three ragdolls but no one wanted to take three cats with PTSD and take up the challenge- I can’t blame them. Seems like in a society now where everything is instant gratification, people with patience to work with traumatized cats are disappearing in great numbers. My hope is to get all the cats downstairs and into general population before summer hits. The upstairs gets stifling hot and we can’t yet swing putting in air conditioning up there. To many other pressing issues.

It is nice to see Gretel coming out more and more- the three cats yeast infection in their ear is also finally under control.

As for McKenzie, she will soon realize she is a safe house and meals will continue to come on time and plenty of food for her. I put her on Transfer Factor and am also giving her cod liver oil to help her coat along. Right now, she looks like someone dipped her in a vat of salad oil. I will be curious what the bloodwork shows- it should be back by Monday.

Oh Happy Days! Scotty was on the bed this morning and he allowed me to touch him for the very first time without backwards skipping away from me and falling off the bed in his haste to get away! It has been just over five months since this little mackeral tabby boy arrived after someone tried to end his life by stuffing him into a letterbox in a near-abandoned steel yard.

He never tried to bite me, though he would swat at my hand if I tried to touch him. My hand has so many holes in them they look like pincushions.

But, since I didn’t pursue him and let him come to his own conclusion that this home is safe for him, he is now starting to trust me and petting is now on the schedule.

Look at this beautiful boy!

Today is going to be a difficult day. I have another person who wants Fog so I will be taking this beautiful boy to what might be his forever home later this afternoon. I will miss him so much- we have rituals in the morning where I get down on my knees and he jumps on my back, walks to my neck and then around to my front and hangs on me. I roll over carefully on my back and we snuggle together for a few minutes, then he jumps off my chest and rolls on his belly and he gets the longest belly rub. He is the neatest kitty. I am not sure I am going to leave him. It all depends on what I find when I get to the home.
I want to be sure that he will be loved and cared for the rest of his days-

Pudding, an older, orange kitty bouced from one shelter to another since 2003 gets his well-deserved fifteen minutes of fame in the Green Bay Press Gazette– good thing his new owner, Amy didn’t follow the norm and adopt just a cute kitten!

Story here:

Out at Safeway this morning and I noticed a black cat prowling the parking lot and crying. I called to her because there were so many cars and people and no one was paying any attention to her. She came limping over and scarfed up the cat food I offered. I had a cat carrier in my trunk, so I got it out and put her inside. She is pencil thin and was so flea-ridden. She is also pregnant, but the vet said the operation would be dangerous because of her condition. I am hoping I can get her to good weight before she pops the babies out so I can get her safely spayed but the vet says she is close to having the babies-sigh…

Doesn’t matter where I go, cats seem to find me.

Here she is, she has taken up refuge in the cat house by felinefurniture.com I brought one of the houses inside and the cats love to go in there.

Heard from Hook’s new owner all is now going well. There was some concern over Hook not using the litter pan right away (he was eating and drinking fine) but cats are desert critters and can hold their urine and feces a lot longer than most.

Hook is now sleeping with his new friend Jared and they are getting along just fine-

This morning when I was dishing out food for the Ragdolls upstairs, Gretel came out of hiding to eat with her buds! I was so surprised to see her out in the open that I just wanted to shout for joy! That would have scared her so I contained myself and just grinned and thanked God.

I’ve had a couple of people interested in adopting them- but no one wants all three of them together. I am not sure right now if splitting them up would be helpful so I will continue to work with them.

Blossom and Bailey are now coming down the stairs and sitting on the landing. But they show such aggression to the cats waiting outside the screened in door that I don’t dare open it and let them into general population. Slow and steady wins the race, rushing things usually ends up badly. But YAY for Gretel seeing the light of day!

Phone rings and I hear this lady say

“Are you who rescues kitties?”

I replied that I was and asked her what I could do for her?

“I have six day old kitties who are Pterodactyls” she replied

Cuse me? Did you see these kittens are Pterdactyls?”

“Yeah, you know lotsa toes?”

“oh you mean Polydactyls?”

“whatever, all of them are.”

Ok I am skeptical here- it is really rare for an entire litter to all have extra toes.

“Is the momcat in the picture?”

“She left and the kittens are in the barn. Steve McQueen brought them to me.”

“Steve McQueen the actor?” At this point I am looking around for the camera that says HA you have been punked!” Nope, no camera appeared in my living room.

“Can you come get em?” she asked, then she added “whoops gotta go!” Click…

I called back and it went to a full mailbox- I have no clue what that was about- but Steve McQueen has been dead since 1980 so I am not sure that I even want these kittens! LOL

This morning I dropped off Hook to his new forever home. I am thrilled that this home contains three guys and one girl as this cat is definitely a “man’s cat”. I told them all about this quirky cat and how he got his name because he hooks food off your plate when you aren’t looking and runs off with it to devour it.

They all seemed to be okay with it in fact they thought it downright hilarious. They are college students, but it is understood that Hook belongs to one of the guys and the others just get to share. I will miss this black devil, he was quite the character. But God is working and my black plague kitties are slowly finding wonderful homes!

One more black kitty has a new forever home and I couldn’t be more pleased. Now, all I have to figure out is how to dispel the popular myth that you can’t bond with older cats! I am unsure where that myth came from but it has been swallowed hook, line and sinker. I had a woman call me tonight about a kitten (I have four left) As we talked, she tells me she works 10 hours a day, four days a week. I am sorry but I am not going to put a kitten who has been previously abandoned into a home where he is going to feel like he is being abandoned almost every day of the week. I tried to talk her into taking ShyAnn because she is older and she likes to be alone- but the woman wanted a kitten so she would be able to bond with it quicker……..sigh…

So many of the older, beautiful cats get overlooked because of this preference.

We had a hospital bed arrive today for Mike. He is to stay off his foot for three weeks- he has a bad abscess that went to the bone. There is a fear of a bone infection so they are going to pack the wound three times a week and I am to change the bandage three times daily. If the infection doesn’t go away, then they will have to do surgery, something everyone wishes to avoid. It will not be a good surgery because it has been revealed that Mike has Charcot’s Disease which means that in his foot the soft tissue is dissolving and the bone is crumbling. So surgery will be risky to say the least-

The cats are a bit shy of the new bed because it moves but I am sure in a matter of an hour they will be on it keeping him company!

Yesterday, I drove over the mountain to deliver two black kitties to a new home. The new family was so thrilled with the kitties, they wanted to take all three, but they settled for Tansy and Tucker. It is rare for someone to contact me about wanting black kitties so I am very careful about who I approve for this type of adoption. I more than approve of this new home. They will be the only cats in the house with just two adults to love on them. Mike went with me and we hit snow coming over the pass- but thankfully not much of it. More is predicted today and tonight so I am glad I went right away on the mission of mercy. It seems strange not to have so many black kitties now- but it is a wonderful feeling knowing they will have a good life and be loved to the end of their days.

Took Fiona in and it is squamous cell- it has invaded her nose as well so it looks pretty bleak for her. I have to wait until the end of Feb unless she is really suffering and right now she is not- But I will keep an eye on her and also take her off the adoption list. I had a family interested in her too- which is unfortunate. They really wanted an older calico. I did tell them she was a cancer survivor so they were talking it over and will get back with me in a few days.