The Cat Ladder

Our foster mom, Angie, who is moving to Boston, was cleaning out her garage and thought I might be able to use this cat tree that her girl scout troop had made from an old wooden ladder. Isn't it awesome? It didn't take long for my guys to use and enjoy it. We've even had "words" about who gets to be on the top. Size does matter.

The one on top is Tony, now Speedbump, who was adopted out a few weeks ago, but I'm catsitting for him while his dad is on vacation. Tony was only gone for two weeks before he came back, so it's like he never left. I have another week to enjoy him. His new dad, Mike, is so in love with him, and calls me weekly to give me reports about how wonderful he is and what funny things he does. He says Bump follows him around like a little puppy. I love it!

The next one down is Trevor. Toby is jumping to the floor. What you can't see is two more cats on the bottom platform.

Thanks, Angie. It's a hit.

It's Kitten Season!

How quickly things can happen in fostering.  I took 3 cats up to Petsmart Saturday morning for adoptions and brought 7 home.  A lady brought these 3 kittens in to us that she had been bottle feeding for 2 weeks, ever since their mother got hit by a car and died.  The kittens were so adorable (is there a kitten that isn't?) and, since they weren't black or gray, I quickly volunteered to take them.  They're bigger than the 4-week-old kittens, so are probably about 5 to 5 1/2 weeks old.  No names yet, just Light, Medium, and Dark.

Then, a couple hours later, a construction worker brought in a male kitten about 2 weeks old that he found on a site.  He heard a noise and discovered one kitten under some debris.  Nobody had seen any adult cat, so he brought it to us.  Since I had two nursing moms at home, I got the baby in hopes he'd be accepted by one of them.  I took him in Kylie's room and held him so she could sniff him.  She didn't seem to want any part of him and started a low growl.  I took him into Amy's room and she accepted him immediately.  He was very hungry, too.  He's second from the left with his white foot highest on mama.  Amy's babies are 10 days old and their eyes are starting to open.  The new baby is bigger with eyes wide open, so I estimate he's 2 to 3 weeks old.  He's pretty adorable, too.
 

Kylie / Millie's Rescuers

A wonderful thing happened today.  I got to meet two of the ladies, Angela and Anne, from Millipore, the company whose building Kylie found.  Employees started feeding a stray cat that wandered to the back of their building.  They started calling her Millie. One couple, Donna and her husband, even came on the weekends so she wouldn't go hungry.  One of our foster mom's brother, Kyle, worked there and called her.  I was contacted and picked her up that afternoon.  Tests and an xray at the vet's on the way home showed she was negative for FIV and feline leukemia and had six babies.  They were born 3 days later.  Not knowing she sort of had a name, I named her Kylie after Kyle.

Angela and Anne came by today to see Millie and her babies and bring presents - like a kitten shower!  They brought her food, towels, blankets, rubber gloves (the gloves aren't really for her, as they're a little too big, but the cleaners at our kennel can sure use them), and a check to Heartland for $185 collected from the employees.  Millipore will match that amount and sent another check.  Thank you to all who donated and organized.  Your generosity is very much appreciated.  Thank you to Donna and her husband for feeding Millie, too.  Donna has her eye on the only little girl, and Angela has staked her claim on the male gray tabby she's holding in the photo.  Kylie/Millie will also be up for adoption in another month when the kittens are older and she has been spayed, microchipped, and vaccinated.

The Rest of the Fosters

The black cat is my wonderful foster, Seamus. He's about 1 1/2 years old. He was adopted out for a year until his mom got a divorce and dumped him at the Humane Society in Maryland Heights. Don't these people know all of our animals are microchipped! She made me go all the way there to get him. Even after all that time, he's still the same quiet, sweet boy I raised. Seamus was pretty sick as a kitten and was pooping his little heart out, but we got it under control and he's been growing ever since. He still loves to chase the other cats through the house and wrestle. He wrestles hard, too, but the others don't seem to mind.
Daisy is the gorgeous torbie in front.  Her coloring is a cross between a tortie and a tabby. She's about 7 months old and is very shy. She's getting better, but will need a very patient person to love and adopt her, preferably with no young children. I also have her brother, Toby, and even more gorgeous sister, Lilly.

Lilly is getting an early start on her tan this season and enjoying the great spring weather.

I adopted a brother and sister pair of kittens from Heartland 3 years ago and kept stopping by Petsmart on Saturdays when the group is there for adoptions and telling their foster mom how great they were doing. She eventually asked if I'd ever thought of being a foster mom. I was hooked. I've had over 60 fosters in the last 2.5 years, but never adopted any - came close, but never did. Until Lilly. She is the sweetest, cuddliest and most loving cat ever. She talks to me and answers me when I talk to her. The possibility of someone else raising her is not an option. I'm adopting Lilly myself. If I knew I'd still have a home when John found out, I'd adopt her brother, Toby, too. What a charmer, and just as sweet as Lilly. They both lay on my chest and neck every night while we're watching TV and take a nap.

All the flower pots on the deck were being used by the other cats, so Toby rested inside.  He's just the perfect cat.  Friendly, lovable, and cuddly.  Mr. Personality.

Daisy is Lilly and Toby's sister, the shy one.

This is Trevor. He's about 10 months old with very soft medium-length hair. Trevor's another sweetie.  His best friend is Seamus, and they wrestle constantly.  If anyone is in the market for a pair of cats, they couldn't do better than Trevor and Seamus.

Here Trevor's grooming himself while laying on the deck in the sun.  Ah, the life of a cat.

Seamus is Trevor's best friend, but Seamus also loves everybody.  He plays with all the cats and kittens and is very laid back and easy going.  He does like to play kind of rough when he wrestles, but there's no growling or sounds of any kind and the other cats don't complain.

Seamus and Trevor doing their favorite thing - playing together on the deck in the sun.

Daisy, Seamus, and Trevor on the deck.  I've noticed lately that Daisy is spending a lot of time with Seamus.  She even jumped up on the recliner footrest tonight to lay next to Seamus, who was laying between my feet.  I hope this means she's loosing some of her shyness.


Not that I'm biased or anything, but I have some wonderful fosters who are waiting for the perfect family to adopt them.

My First Blog!

Kylie when I asked if I could hold one of her kittens.

Please bear with me in my first attempt at blogging. My life revolves around husband, cats and quilts. I'm a cat foster mom with Heartland Humane Society based in O'Fallon, Missouri. For 2 1/2 years I've had the most wonderful experiences with my foster cats. I've bottle fed many orphaned kittens for weeks and enjoyed every minute. A month ago I took in my first pregnant cat. Kylie delivered six kittens three days later. This picture is post-delivery. She is very friendly (more than the photo shows) and allows visitors to hold her kittens. My dog and other foster cats, however, are another story. I have to use a window screen as a shield when entering and leaving the bedroom or she will charge them hissing and clawing. Hope it's just a maternal thing and she'll be fine once the kittens are older and adopted. The kittens will be 4 weeks old Friday and are so much fun to watch. The first one climbed out of the birthing box today.

Here's Kyilie nursing her babies. This is the first time I've had a mom for the kittens and have to say it's VERY nice. There are five black and one gray. When I have litters of identical, or even similar, kittens, I use colored velcro for collars to tell them apart. All are males except one black is a female.

The kittens in their birthing box. This being my first birth, I didn't realize how important it was to have an actual box with a hole cut 7" above the floor until the kittens started moving around. A heating pad under the towel keeps them nice and warm. A towel covers the top to help keep the heat in, too.

The little gray boy looks like he's wearing a tophat, but it's another kitten or two behind him.














One of the kittens. Isn't he just adorable!

















Sadly, one of our most experienced foster moms is moving to Boston soon and is not taking in new cats. Since I've now been through a birth, I was asked to take another pregnant cat last week. I picked her up Wednesday at the vets. According to an xray, it was estimated she was about 45 days. Full term is around 63 days, so I had time to find another box. Imagine my surprise when I went in two days later on Friday morning to check on her and found three black kittens in her bed! She had two more in the next hour. Five more babies! Four more black and one gray. They're four days old today and I think they've doubled in size. I only got to weigh one before mom took it out of the bowl and back to the bed. I got a box that night and when I took it in the room, a baby had crawled out of the bed about 8" away. Amy, named after my hairdresser who's also pregnant, is much more protective of her babies than Kylie, but she was okay today when I held a couple.

I will be posting my other foster cats very soon.