My little furballs are off to be spayed today. I won't see them again until tomorrow afternoon. I miss them already!

:::Crossing fingers::: Hope they do well!

Due to the generosity and compassion of so many people from all over the world, Winkles will be having her surgery today! I just shot this photo of her while she was getting ready to head to the Specialist for her procedure. Winkles is a real beauty and I just know that once her eye is removed, she'll feel so much more comfortable!

Years ago, I rescued a stray who had a severe eye injury and her eye needed to be removed. I cried when I got the news, thinking of the miserable future for my new foster. My Vet reminded me that cats adjust and don't mourn over such things and that I shouldn't worry. He was right. Sasha did well. I ended up adopting her as she was a geriatric kitty with lots of health problems, but we think she lived to be 21!

I also have more exciting news! We ended up getting more in donations than we needed for Winkles surgery. Normally, these funds would remain in our Angel Fund for the next kitten in need. Just about the same time we rescued Winkles, another kitten was rescued by another group, also needing emergency eye surgery. Sadly, this group could not afford the surgery, so the cat was facing a dire future.

It was decided that we would offer the funds to cover this kitten's eye surgery, as well, even though the kitten was with another rescue group. We feel that we're all in this together and since we were blessed with good fortune, thanks to all of you, we wanted to pay it forward.

So in a sense, with your donations we had a "BOGO" (Buy One, Get One) on cat rescues or rather a RORA? (Rescue One, Rescue Another?).

Regardless of what you call it-THANK YOU!

I'm very proud of Tweetie. In less than two weeks, he's come out of his angry shell. The once ferocious feline is now a cuddly bug. He's getting along well with his little friends, Sprinkles, Twinkles and Pixie and even spent all night with them last night and never once had to be sequestered to "his room" to give him a "time out" from the others.

Today we enjoyed some play time, which I also video taped! I hope to post some movies of the kittens as soon as I can work out some of the technical details. You'll laugh when you see Tweetie's reaction when he looks up and sees my big cat, Spencer looking down at him from the balcony railing!

The other kittens, too, are doing well. They're all growing, finally eating their food and truly have a wonderful time with each other. It makes me a bit sad to know that this is their last night together. Tomorrow, very early, the kittens go off to be spayed, while Tweetie and I go on a road trip. By Friday, all the kittens will have gone to their forever homes.

And where are Tweetie and I headed? It was one thing that Tweetie had an audience with Food Lady, Sockington's Mom, but now we've been invited to travel to Boston to visit The Socks Army HQ!

Tweetie and Sockington are going to MEET!

With any luck, tomorrow, from the road, I'll be updating our status on Twitter, as well as posting photos via TwitPic. If you keep any eye on my Twitter feed, you should see how we're doing.

The next question, I'm sure you're asking yourself is: Will TWEETIE BE COMING BACK WITH ME? Or will Tweetie be made a high ranking official of Socks Army OR, as rumors suggest, will Tweetie be asked to carry out orders as Sock's body double, thereby keeping Socks safe?

I can't answer that just now, but what I do know is, who knew? Who knew posting a photo and tweeting about a kitten would take us on this crazy journey?!

Fellow Tweetie Fans-

There've been quite a few exciting things going on behind the scenes here at Covered in Cat Hair HQ. Foremost, is the surprising offer we've received to have a High Ranking Official of The Socks Army come to Connecticut to visit Tweetie!

Rumors abound on whether or not this Official was determined to take a DNA sample, to finally put to rest the fears that Sockington had sired a kitten out of wedlock! What would Penny say? Or would she simply growl at Socks for his catty behavior?

Yesterday afternoon, our fears dissolved into joy as we welcomed our special guest, who was none other than Food Lady, herself! Once she entered our humble HQ, we were happy we'd spent all day Saturday cleaning the litter pans and scouring the food bowls. This was no ordinary visitor, no! This was one who's presence brought all the resident cats to full attention. After all, with can opener in hand, was Food Lady going to feed them, too?

Food Lady, was gracious and compassionate to her subjects. She quietly sipped a refreshment and asked politely about Tweetie. After a few minutes, it was clear, Food Lady need be delayed no longer so she was escorted to Tweetie's lodgings for their first meeting.

Tweetie was the perfect gentleman and ran out from his cat carrier hangout to greet Food Lady properly. She extended a hand to him, which he carefully sniffed. After a few moments, and NO biting, Food Lady began to pet Tweetie, to which he responded by deeply purring.

Food Lady also brought Tweetie his very own cherry red shakeymouse, which not only complemented the color of his coat, but was the perfect size for hours of enjoyment.

Tweetie's audience with Food Lady included a tour of the foster suite and meeting of the other foster kittens, Sprinkles, Twinkles & Pixie; along with a jolly play session and, of course, a one course meal, Friskies Pate, Turkey flavor with Chicken baby food blended with it.

All in all the day passed brilliantly and no one was harmed, though possibly a few fingers were nipped at, but only lightly. Tweetie was sad to see Food Lady go, but she assured him that she would keep in touch and hoped to see him again, soon.

Tweetie was overjoyed at the prospect, but being a kitten, was so tired from all the excitement, all he could do was fall asleep and dream of seeing Food Lady again.

More Sunday Sillies.

Tweetie loves to FLY (and it shows)!

Friday, late afternoon, I received an email from our Director about Winkle's urgent need for eye surgery. Within an hour, I had the information out to my Tweeps, my FB friends and my dear friends here on CiCH.

Many of you were kind enough to help me get the word out. Some were doubly kind and offered donations, from a few dollars, to much more. That you would take the time out of your day, the money out of your wallet, to help a kitten you don't know and a rescue group you may not be familiar with-well that just humbles me to the core.

I want you ALL to know that The Animal Center is a registered non-profit, 501 (3)c. Your donations go 100 percent to helping kittens. We're all volunteer. No one gets a salary and I design any fundraising materials for gratis. I welcome you to check us out or ask any questions. We don't have a shelter, though we dream of having one some day. We do in-home fostering, so the kittens we can help are based on the number of foster families we have and the financial resources we have.

As you may know, our donations, like most rescue groups, are down from the past years, so having to raise funds for Winkle, was a bit daunting. I'm very GLAD to let you know that in barely a day, we've gotten close to reaching our goal. If we should get any extra monies, those are earmarked for The Angel Fund, so it will ALWAYS go to cats in dire need of medical help. Every year we have kittens in crisis.

I'd like to catch you up on Winkle. Right now he's comfortable and happy in foster care. In a few days he's being taken to a specialist to have his eye removed. Though the Vet feels his condition is due to a "blunt force trauma" to his head, there is a SMALL chance that Winkles has juvenile cancer. Winke's eye will be biopsied to determine if he has cancer. We'll still get him a great home-but his new family needs to know that Winkle's life may not be as long as other kitten's.

With any luck, Winkle will just be a one-eyed kitty and the rest of his life will be long, healthy and filled with love.

I'll get some photos of Winkle posted and more updates as soon as they're available.

Again, my deepest thanks to all of you.

This JUST IN from our group The Animal Center:

Unexpected twists and turns in life happen to everyone. Winkle the kitten is only ten weeks old, but has already had some big ups and downs in his life. First, something happened to seriously damage his left eye, leaving him partially blind and in significant pain. But then his life started to change for the better when someone spotted him in a busy parking lot and brought him to the neighborhood "cat lady," who then contacted The Animal Center for help.

Shortly after Winkle came to us in late July, we brought him to an eye specialist who diagnosed his left eye with severe glaucoma. Winkle is completely blind in that eye and the pressure behind it is causing him considerable pain.

Photo credit: The Animal Center

But despite his pain, Winkle is always in good spirits, greeting visitors with purrs and affection, and he loves to play. Like so many animals who are abandoned and rescued, Winkle has demonstrated a strong will to live and trusting, positive spirit from the very first day we met him.

We don't know how Winkle was injured, but his veterinarian suspects a blunt force trauma to his head.

Photo credit: The Animal Center

What we do know is we can make life a whole lot better for Winkle. By removing his left eye, his doctor will relieve the pressure behind it, eliminating Winkle's pain. His surgery is scheduled for August 5th, 2009.

Today, we're asking for donations to our Angel Fund to help us pay for Winkle's eye surgery and follow-up care so that this kitten has a chance to live a full and healthy life free of pain. And if you know anyone who's interested in giving the sweetest one-eyed kitten in the world a home, let us know!

Note from Robin:

Every dollar helps, so don't feel like you can't donate enough. We appreciate even a $1 donation. Please help Winkle! I'll be sure to update his progress as soon as we have more info available!

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

I'm going to try to write while sipping iced tea and nibbling at a chocolate muffin. I know I shouldn't eat it, but heck, some times a girl's gotta eat what a girl's gotta eat. Plus, my pants feel loose. Okay, maybe my stomach popped over the top of my pants so they feel looser, but who can see me right now?

I'm trying to keep muffin bits off the keyboard. Good thing it's one of those uber flat ones from Apple. Less crap can sneak under the keys. Have you ever looked or dusted or CLEANED your keyboard? I got rid of my last keyboard because I swear I heard growling coming from under the "T" key.

For all those concerned, and there were a few, thankyouverymuch!, my finger is not infected and I didn't have to visit the ER. There's one spot near my knuckle that's quite sore, but nothing disgusting is oozing out of it. It should heal in time. I even found a bandage. Good old Sponge Bob Square Pants! I thought I had ones that looked like bacon strips, but I couldn't find them.

Oh! Tweetie. Yes, Tweetie.

Tweetie is insane, but to be fair so are Sprinkles and Pixie. Twinkles, is too mellow to be crazy.

There's an energy that forms when kittens hit about seven weeks old. It grows to explosive proportions that radiates from their tiny little bodies from eight to ten weeks and beyond. They can climb well, run endlessly, jump high, mixed with an insatiable curiousity for everything around them. These changes indicate the time is coming for the kittens to leave!

They start to GET ON MY NERVES!!!!

All these kittens do is RUN RUN RUN, fight, climb up the side of the dog crate...which gives them access to the top of the cable box (nearby), a shelf full of books, and a ton of crap I put high up to keep it away from their destructive paws. Then they...OOPS...knock stuff to the floor, hurt themselves, run so hard they start panting and Tweetie even started foaming at the mouth-which scared the shit out of me.

I ended up putting Tweetie back in his room, alone, to force him to just REST. He was fine in a few minutes, but I was shaken. I tried to just hang out with the Sprinkles and her gang, but they too were too busy poking around, ripping at things, treating me like a scratching post and fighting with each other. They would not sit still even after a good hour of hard playtime-an hour that I witnessed. Who knows how long they were running around BEFORE I was in the room!

It was getting late. Their crazy antics made me feel stressed out. It's weird. Their energy flows so strongly, you can't help but be effected by it. It was like coffeeless surge of caffeine. I had to leave the room and just stare at a TV show for an hour before I felt my pulse slow down. I was ready for bed.

I finally got a decent night sleep thanks to the new pillow I got at Bed, Bath & Banal. I have a "thing" about pillows. I constantly have a problem finding one that supports my gigantically fat head. They're either way too hard, then my neck aches, or they're so mooshy I have to shove my arm under my pillow to give me the support I need. I even blew $150!!!!! on a Tempurpedic pillow. I used it a few nights and it was ok, but then one night I woke up in the middle of the night. I literally could not sit up. All the muscles in my neck were LOCKED. I started screaming and hyperventilating. Poor Sam woke up, did not pee in his pants or the bed, thankfully, and after a few fuzzy minutes of me screaming and writhing, he got the idea to pull me up, then started to dig his iron fingers into my neck to loosen up the muscles, while I began to cry, of course.

Yeah, so I have a thing about good pillows.

So, I'm rested and somewhat refreshed. Ready to face a new day full of insane kitten behavior. Next Wednesday all but Tweetie are getting spayed and their final shots and tests ('cause Tweetie was already vetted). Then Thursday/Friday they'll be going to their new homes and I'll get the house back to myself and my seven bratty cats.

There's a new found appreciation for my own cats, I must admit. Yesterday I jiggled a few toys at them and they just laid there and looked at me. Not one of the cats would actually get up off their big ass to even bat at the toy! I whipped the feather toy past their heads, taunted them, was provocative in my every move and nothing. They just looked at me. Their expressions asking; "Are you quite through now? I'd like to go back to bed OR You could pet me OR you certainly could FEED ME. Other than that, would you mind going away?"

I love kittens. Really, I do, but there's nothing like an old, slow moving, bored cat that really makes my day.

And, by the way, that was a pretty good muffin, too.

I love you, BOB! (He looks like Puss in Boots from Shrek!)

Bob had a re-check after his dental procedure, tooth extraction and adventure with Metacam (see back a few posts). Looks like the old fella is doing well. His toothie holes have closed up and healed nicely. Considering Bob is FIV+ this is pretty darn good news!

Bob's had this weird head-shaking thing for a few years and I thought the dental would stop the problem. Bob shakes his head and his tongue comes out and sort of licks sort of doesn't lick his mouth. Hard to describe. I thought one of his teeth was the culprit. Now that the dental is over, he does it less, but still does it. Dr. Larry gave me some drops to put in his ears. He assures me they are 20 times more poisonous than Metacam is, so we should be in good shape.

That was a joke.

Ever since I "yelled" at Dr. Larry about prescribing Metacam, every chance he gets Dr. Larry tells me how he's sure I'll be using it again and that it's just fine for short term and then..tease...tease...Metacam.

Well Poop on your Metacam, Dr. Larry! Hmpf! Glad my Bob survived your prescription!