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MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Hoo-rah and Woo Hoo!

Chloe (left) and Oscar (right) are adopted! They were adopted last night by a newlywed couple! The kittens will enjoy their forever home together!

Congratulations! Have a wonderful life, babies! I'm very happy for you both!

Ah ha! Mama-Gabby IS taking good care of her babies. I'm not really surprised, but it's nice to see her nursing. I set up my handy pet cam to record a photo every 5 minutes. Here, you can see Gabby relaxed, instead of hunched up in fear (which is how I usually see her)

Now I must give a shout-out to a few people who've kindly suggested a few things I can do to help Gabby relax and how I should continue on with fostering her. As you can see in the photos, her cat carrier is back in the big dog crate. I removed it because she just hid behind it and it took up a lot of space. Now I find out, it's a MUST for feral fostering.

Trapper Jeanne sent me a link to an article on Neighborhood Cats about how to properly set up a foster situation for Ferals. This article doesn't add any info. for feral MAMAs, but even with this, it's going to help. The one key thing I learned was to keep her confined for two to three weeks, until she settles down. I've been driving our Director nuts, asking her question after question about if I should keep her locked up or not. I want her to be able to stretch her legs, sharpen her claws, but she's been SO destructive from inside the crate, I wonder what she'll do outside of it.

This morning she'd managed to reach out from the crate and pull about 10 books off the nearby bookshelf! Maybe she just wanted to read?

Even as I write this, I can hear her banging around on the crate. What IS she doing? Yeah, trying to escape. She is really banging on that crate. Holy mackerel!

I'll take a deep breath and try to ignore her for a bit. I may put the camera back up to try to get another photo. Until then, THNAK YOU to Monica, Jeanne and Julie for putting up with me and for your helpful suggestions!

After what seemed as an endless trial lasting many weeks, today the Town of Newtown's Board of Selectmen came to the decision to re-instate Carolee Mason into her job as Animal Control Officer. Considering their options were to re-instate or leave the termination, as is and face, and most likely lose, a wrongful termination lawsuit, they chose the wisest route. This way everyone wins-except for one group, who I can't say much about. All I can say is the good people stood tall and the folks with ulterior motives were "put down," so to speak. Carolee isn't off the hook. She'll have to work hard to impress her superiors and keep her job, but with the support of the animal activists in town and her friends and family, she'll be off to a good start!

The reality sinks in...the trial is over and Carolee has her job back!

Congratulations Carolee!

If you'd like to read more about Carolee's trial, visit The Newtown Bee

I set up the pet cam to aim into the dog crate so I could see what Gabby was doing. She's been destroying the inside of the crate, knocking over the water, making an enormous mess. I took her water away and only put it out for about an hour-then everything gets wrecked. I've got wet food out so she won't dehydrate, but she's driving me nuts!

Must try again to see if I can capture her in the act!

Gabby peeks around the cat carrier to see what sort of monster
is shining a bright light into her face.

Ahhh...ferals. To know them is to fear for your life, I mean, love them. It's been, how long, a few days or so since Mama (I'm told she's called, Gabby, by her caretaker, Larry) and her three offspring came to live in the big dog crate in my spare room.

So far, I've had no contact with any of them, other than to feed Gabby-she's been eating like a pig. Three-5.5 oz cans of food a day for the first few days, plus dry food! She must have been VERY hungry. Now she's slowed down a bit, I think because she knows she's going to get more. I think she's even become a bit picky-the nerve!

To give Gabby more room and to put myself at more risk of being bitten (idiot that I am!), I removed the cat carrier from the dog crate. Gabby was constantly closing the door to the cat carrier, then hiding behind it, so what good was it really doing? Once I removed it she started shredding up the newspaper and trying to break out of the dog crate. What a MESS this one makes! I know she wants out, but I don't dare let her loose in the bedroom. I'm already afraid she's going to let me have it every time I have to open the dog crate door! Imagine my fear of walking into the room each day, wondering where she's hiding. No thank you!

I'm going to rig up a cardboard box for her so maybe she'll relax a bit, if she has somewhere to hide. She's a pretty kitty, but has made it clear by her hisses, that she wants nothing to do with me. I won't stop trying to be her friend, though, but for now, I'll be cautious. My main concern is how I'm ever going to get a hand on her offspring? They're two weeks old, today. I have a little bit of time, but if I haven't started handling them by next week, I'm going to have more trouble socializing them. I hope she'll let me touch them! I still don't know if they're males or females or if they need any medical support. They seem to be fine, but...we'll see, I HOPE!

Although I realize, I'm doing more for my group by fostering the ferals, since we have fewer families that can deal with them, I have to admit that I hope for some sweet kittens some time, too! The theme for this Kitten Season, so far, has been "Fractious Foster Felines Forever!"

My good friends just informed me that their dear kitty, Reggie, passed away last night. I will certainly miss this sweet tempered girl and I'm so very sad that her life with her family only lasted for a few years.

Reggie was adopted from a shelter when she was already middle aged. It was a case of a few mistaken assumptions-at first everyone at the shelter thought that Reggie was a boy! Surprise to find out that wasn't the case and that she was a girl, but had already been given a boy's name, so it stuck. Reggie wasn't a young kitty, either, but one ready for a quieter life. Fortunately for her, regardless of her name or age, her family loved her dearly and gave her everything she needed be a happy kitty.

Reggie, you will be missed, but certainly in good company of the many kitties who are ready to welcome you the Rainbow Bridge.

So I volunteered to run another load of rescued Brittany Spaniels up to Hartford. This time it was going to be in MY little car and this time no puppies, but adults-so no crates, just loose dogs. No problem. I can do this.

Last night I prepped the car, put sheets all over the seats, packed up cleaning supplies, treats, water and a bowl. I knew where the pickup and drop off points were located, so I was ready! Now I just needed the doggies.

I reached the pickup location early and Debra was already waiting for me. I could tell the dogs wanted to BOUNCE OUT OF THE CAR. I grabbed Margo, who MUST be kept in the front seat, away from the other dogs or she gets pissed off. Debra grabbed Bailey and our new amputee, Kiley. The second they were out of the car it was complete chaos! Thank goodness we had a good hold of the leads. The dogs wanted to get moving! It was all we could do to get them to settle down enough so we could get them some water-which they inhaled, and get all their papers and other things transferred over to my car.

Then it was time to load my car. Debra was awesome and got two in the back while I held onto Margo. We loaded her last and it went fine, but the dogs didn't want to sit down. They all wanted the front seat!

Margo is giving me that look...too bad I don't know what "that look" means in dog-speak!

This is where I start wondering if I'm an idiot.

Look at them! Little Kiley and Bailey are so sweet...ha ha ha! For NOW!

I get the car moving, realizing that the dogs have moved the sheets off the seats and are sliding all over the LEATHER cushions with their dirty feet. Oops.

The dogs settled down fairly quickly for which I was very grateful. Margo wanted to put her head in my lap, but it was too dangerous, so I just kept my hand on her head as I navigated through the traffic. So far, so good.

After a few minutes, the dogs were bored and started to shuffle around the car. I opened the small windows in the back and the dogs got all excited and bounced all over each other. Nice. Ok. Close windows. Settle down...whew...

The next 30 minutes were relatively fine, until I heard puppy Bailey make a funny sound. I looked over my shoulder to see him vomit something huge over my back seat and onto the floor. Then the stench of pepperoni dog barf filled the cabin. Ack! I almost barfed, myself. Nice. This is going great.

A second after that, Kiley farted some sort of death fart. The blend of doggie smells was intoxicating, cough cough...

It certainly motivated me to DRIVE quickly to get to the drop off location. I was running early and I prayed that Rachel would be there to get these beasts out of my car! I pulled myself together, took a breath, then Kiley BARKED suddenly and loudly! It scared the shit out of me and I almost drove off the highway!!!! I need to get these dogs OUT OF MY CAR!!!!!

Ok. It's going to be OK...really..ha ha ha ha ha...oh boy.

There are no more photos. I got to the drop off place and had a hair raising time getting all the dogs into Rachel's big truck. Margo discovered FOOD and was doing everything she could to pull the paper wrapped sandwiches towards her drooling mouth. The other two dogs wanted the front seat, too, but Margo would flip out if she hadn't been so focused on the treats. I feared for Rachel, but she was calm. Ha ha ha..for now!

I waved farewell to Rachel and the goggies, then went to work cleaning the puke and mud out of my car. I am very happy to know I helped some goggies have a better life, but please, next time, no barfing in the car, OK? Cat barf is one thing, but dog barf...WOOF!

Oscar has moved on to our main foster home and was reunited with his sister. Oscar, you WILL be missed!

I had 15 minutes to quickly scrub down the big dog crate and get the foster room ready for my next wild babies. Our Director brought over a feral, calico mama-very pretty and her three kittens.

Mama had been living in a shed on a very nice man's property, but it wasn't a safe place for her. The kittens were born on June 1. Two of them already died, so the gentleman sought out our help and we were happy to jump in and lend him a hand. I'll be fostering Mama and her remaining babies for the next 6 weeks, until they're old enough to be weaned and spayed/neutered, themselves. During that time I'll be working on socializing them-IF their Mama lets me near them.

For now, she's settled in her new digs with lots of fresh food and water and peace and quiet for her and her babies.

Welcome new family!

I need names! Mama needs a name and so do her babies, but I don't know if I have boys or girls just yet! Got any ideas? Let me know!

Oscar has been alone in the foster room for a few days. Over the time his demeanor has changed dramatically. Oscar is now a sweet and loving kitten. No more hissing or hiding. A little tough love seemed to do the trick. Now, each time I enter his room he'll walk over to me, with his tail straight up in the air, showing me he's no longer so fearful and even happy to see me. It seems as though Oscar would rather be petted than eat or play. He is a dear, dear kitten. Whoever adopts him is going to be very lucky, indeed.

Oscar's only been here for about 10 days, but he's already gotten under my skin. I hate to see him go, but I'm told we're getting overloaded with pregnant feral moms and friendly moms with kittens that all need a foster home, so Oscar will go to our main foster location to be reunited with his sister, Chloe and a half a dozen other friendly kittens. He'll live there until his forever family finds him.

Later today I'll be getting my new fosters and the next story will begin. I'd love to get some friendly kittens, but looks like they'll be another batch of wild babies.

I'll update Oscar's progress on getting adopted as soon as I have some news and by the way, LuLu and Sammy were adopted together! I only had them here a few DAYS before they were gone, so I didn't even get a chance to update their progress, too!

Hey, it's KITTEN SEASON, what did you expect? I'm gettin' busy!