Robin Olson's blog

Spencer had some special visitors today and apparently all the attention he got wore him out. I've NEVER seen him fall asleep, belly up and paws out, ever. It was SO tempting to rub his belly but we all resisted. This is one happy cat!

I'm so behind in posting! Lots of things are going on in Catland.

Firstly, my latest fosters have been challenging, to say the least! I forgot to mention, in my previous post, that the day I got them, was the same day a dear anipal of mine on Twitter passed away. In honor of this kitty, OscartheCat, our new foster is named: Oscar the Kitten! His sister is Chloe. I just hope our Oscar lives up to his namesake's good reputation as being a very fine feline.

The kittens were really getting fractious-worse, instead of better. I pulled their food and only fed them if they came to me and sat near me to eat. I locked them back up into their huge dog crate, with litter pan and water and cat bed and a cover over the whole thing. Our Director told me it would "calm their minds" being in a smaller space, instead of being loose in the room. She was right on. Once they were locked up, they calmed down.

While I got both of them to eat and play, Oscar seemed shyer, but of the two, he would let me give him a few pets and not be too bothered by it. It was so frustrating to not be able to handle the kittens, but I had to let them come to me.

Thursday I brought the kittens to be spayed/neutered. I found out they both weigh 2.25 lbs-which would put them at about 8-9 weeks old. I correctly sexed them, so at least I don't have to change their names. Their tests came back negative, but Chloe did have a weak positive for Feline Leukemia. We ran a more sensitive test and it came back negative-thank goodness!

I was surprised to find out that Oscar couldn't have his surgery because his lil' boy beans didn't descend yet, so we gotta wait another week. Chloe had her spay surgery and was kept over night.

One night was all it took. Oscar blossomed last night. Not only did he let me pet him, he seemed to like it! I was also able to coax him to sit on my lap, where he stayed for over an hour, purring LOUDLY the whole time. I wanted to CRY, but I didn't dare scare Oscar, so I held it back. I was so glad to see this improvement and his sweet nature was simply effervescent.

This was taken at about 1:30AM, a few minutes after Oscar hit my lap. He looks nervous, but you'll see he looks more relaxed in later photos.

I didn't want to leave him. Last night felt like going on a date with someone you really like and finding out they like you, too!

This morning, Oscar was even more friendly and relaxed. yay!

He's such a cutie!

It was remarkable to see how quickly Oscar's behavior changed. Was it because he was alone? Probably, but he was showing signs of coming around with his sister here. I guess I'll see what happens when she returns from her surgery. Hmmm...

All I wanted was a big litter of lovely furballs who I could spend hours with playing and petting. Instead, I get two fractious feral kittens who hate my guts.

Oscar and Chloe first arrived on Saturday. It was a last minute rescue. A very nice man and his wife found a large number of random stray kittens. Seems their neighborhood is rife with ferals. Even though he lives outside of our normal area of rescue we decided we could help out. Between a small group of fosters, we took in 13 kittens.

Three kittens were "spoken for" by some of the neighbors, who offered to help out and the rest were divided up between the foster folks. I was supposed to get five kittens, but the three that were spoken for were part of my group, so I only took two.

They're both beautiful tabbies with a strong "M" on their forehead. One of them, who I believe is a male, has a mackerel pattern in his coat. Their eyes have turned to green, so they must be over 6 weeks old. I think they're more like 8 weeks-the tipping point of where socializing becomes difficult.

We'll it's difficult. The first night I thought the kittens were going to be ok. They were nervous, but I was able to play with them as long as they stayed together inside a covered cat bed. They let me hold them and pet them, but no purring and they didn't relax much.

The next day was bad. It was like there were new kittens in the dog crate. They were hissing and ran off. It was clear they were in worse shape than I first thought. My second thought was that they were screwed because I don't have a lot of time to socialize them and if I don't get them to turn fast, they will go back outdoors-which I cannot bear. They won't make it because we don't know where they came from and they can't live on their own if we don't have a feeder for them. They just can't.

What's worse is that Oscar sits on the window sill and CRIES his heart out for his Mother. He doesn't know where she went to and he doesn't know she'll never hear his calls again. I hate this.

I feel a lot of pressure to turn them around, but I don't have the time to be patient. I pulled their food and only feed them when I'm in the room and they come to me to be fed. It's going badly. Oscar barely eats. Chloe will eat, but tonight, neither of them would take a bite. I can't do this for too long, but I have to try to get them to trust me, but the problem with time limits is I have to push them, then they revert, IF they made any progress at all.

I already know they're doomed. Either that or the Director will pull one of the kittens to force them into isolation to see if that will do the trick. I'm for it. Thing is, if it doesn't work, they will just get booted out once they are sterilized and get their shots.

Yeah, this is fun.

:-(

This...er...THESE just in!

More soon. Oooooo...kittens...yay!

After Nicky's poop-a-thon in the bathroom, I decided it was a good idea to check in with the Vet, to make sure something wasn't wrong. It's so unlike Nicky to misbehave, that it set off an alarm bell for me. It also made sense to visit our Vet because Nicky had been sneezing a lot lately and we needed to rule out a problematic Upper Respiratory Infection.

Poor Nicky. At least he doesn't have a fever or a URI, but Dr. Larry, discovered Nicky was "uncomfortable" in his abdomen so he decided to shoot a few X-rays. It became clear that Nicky had food compacted in his intestines!

This painful situation is easily treated with some Laxatone and observation (for now). The thing that really kills me is that Nicky often goes into that same poop-a-thon-bathroom, jumps on the counter, paces back and forth and CRIES! We could never figure out what was bothering him. If I had only paid attention, we could have caught this even sooner. Nicky has been crying for months, but hasn't shown any signs of feeling badly in any way.

Nicky has been crying a lot since he got home. I believe it's just due to being stressed about being in the car, this time.

I promise to LISTEN better to my cats. They ARE telling me they need help. It's up to me to pay closer attention to that.

Just look at Spencer's face and tell me you didn't quit worrying about money for a minute!

OMG. He's so CUTE! I am so in love with my bratty cat!

Welcome to my World!

Yesterday, I smelled something awful. I got off my ass and walked around the house, searching for the offensive stool. Nope, not in the litter pans. So where was it?

I discovered, to my dismay, a fetid faggot of fecal matter left on the bathroom floor. Not sure who did it, but must have meant "someone" preferred the litter pan to be cleaner, sooner?

This morning, I heard a scratching sound, followed by Sam yelling; "Nicky, NO!"

We now know it's Nicky-the-pan-avoiding-pooper, but we don't know WHY he's doing this. The litter pans weren't "that bad." So what's bothering our boy? Apparently he reached for the toilet paper, this morning in an attempt to wipe! Yikes!

Guess who's going to the Vet tomorrow? Go on, guess!

P.S. How insane am I for taking photos of my cat's turds?

...see above.

I'm not gonna spill any beans, but maybe, just maybe Orange Cat might be adopted!

I can't say anything more than that right now because it's not for sure, but with any luck
this fine fellow will be able to rest in the comfort of having a forever home.

I'd like to address a few concerns that have been posted that OC's (formerly known as Scotch) owner would prefer to have the kitty with him/her, but can't afford it. If you read the note (see below a few posts), you cam see it says "I can't fix him this time." This may be referring to the two bloody patches on OC's back, near his tail. He has chewed his fur off, as well as the SKIN. He has some sort of allergic issue to this one area and if his E-collar is removed, he will continue to bite himself raw.

If this owner is disabled he or she may not be able to deal with this cat's medical problem. Perhaps they tried to care for him, but the treatments didn't work and they gave up. If it DID have something to do with costs, paying a Vet bill wouldn't get this owner to keep their cat. OC will need ongoing, special care for a long time, perhaps the rest of his life. Someone would have to sponsor OC to go back to his owner-who STILL might not be able to care for him since he'll need medication and to be watched carefully until he heals.

This does, however, bring up a question: Can a cat be happy with more than one family? What constitutes happiness for a cat? My Mother's cat, Bob Dole seemed perfectly content living with my Mother. He got NO Vet care, his teeth were ROTTEN, his diet, awful and he contracted FIV+ from living outdoors and not being neutered.

Bob lives with me now. His teeth have been removed/cleaned, he's neutered and has regular vet visits, his diet upgraded, he lives indoors with 6 other cats he seems to adore. He gets play time and lots of attention. Bob purrs a lot and enjoys playing, but Bob doesn't seem to be any happier here, even though his health is MUCH improved, than he did when he lived with my Mother.

I think cats are happy if they get the basics and if they get more than that they're truly blessed.

I realize I haven't talked about the pain the Owner felt in abandoning OC and suggesting that he be euthanized if the Vet didn't want to deal with him, but I think that's pretty cowardly and callous. If I loved my cat and was up against a wall and couldn't care for that cat, I'd ask people for help. I'd ask until I found someone who gave me the answer I could live with. I wouldn't sneak over to a Vet I don't know, dump my cat there with a note and not even the courtesy of providing ANY medical history on the animal, and just say "Well kill it if you can't deal..because I can't deal, so I'm just going to leave it here."

The more I think about it, the less sympathy I have for the owner. They should have asked for help, instead of hoping their crap shoot paid off by making their cat someone else's problem. OC won the abandonment lottery-of all the places he could have been dropped off, it was the one place that may just change his life for the better.