My job has come to an end...

Again, man kittens grow up to darn fast. These 2 have been here for 2 weeks (Lily) and 1 week (Flowers), so really they haven't been here long, that being said both are doing amazingly well and I have no doubt they will be adopted fairly quickly. Both are eating on their own, Lily is having to much fun being a big girl and Flowers, well she hated the bottle anyway.

Flowers will be heading to a pet patrol foster home this week and it is my hope that 1 will be found for Lily as well. The 2 girls have been together and for one to go and not the other will mean loneliness. They both need to be with other kittens for this vital developmental stage...no matter how much humans love them and snuggle with them we are just not cats.

Anyway here are a few pics of the girls.

Lily was hiding in a basket full of Jilly's dolls, it took me a min to find here but when I did, I had to get a pic.
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and Lily again, she is just to cute. She is still small but she is mighty and can do anything a big cat can do.


Lily again, doing her best to stay still for just one more pic, when you are an excited kitten staying still is pretty hard work.


Flowers is such a pretty little girl, I have had mostly tabby cats so she was a wonderful change.


Who in their right mind can resist such a sweet face?


At this point she decided it was best to just to lay down and let me get the pics I needed.

always expect the unexpected.

Lily who has been totally bottle fed for the past week or so, woke up this morning and decided that she was done. Started eating really well and now refuses the bottle. I wasn't expecting it, but given her age it's about time anyway. She started to refuse it yesterday but could be coaxed into taking something. She took about 10 mls this morning but refused for the rest of the day. So I guess he has decided that she is a big girl now.

Flowers is following suit and having no eating issues whatsoever. I decided tonight to give them kibble sogged up with hot water and both are busy filling their faces as I type. Both are content to be in their kennel, which is quite large for 2 small kittens but not big enough to allow freedom, so as I had been doing with each litter I have had is put them in the kitchen for playtime, and when they prove to me that they can use the litterbox even when not locked in with it, they graduate to the "yard" which is my living room.

Anyway, the night we brought Flower's home, I had her in my lap and was trying to get some food into her. She decided that she wasn't going to have any of it and just laid in my lap for a bit. Keep in mind that I usually have kittens very young who grew up with Ruby so they have no fear of her, Also remember that Ruby loves the kittens and treats them as her babies. So when she went walking up to the kitten I was unprepared for what would happen next, I knew it was going to happen but it happened to fast for my tried brain to process it. Ruby was walking up to sniff, I could see the kitten reach her neck out to investigate but at the same time she was very nervous....well did she not swat Ruby on her nose...poor Ruby had a bit of a bleed but I didn't notice until the next day when she woke up with a big lump on her nose. Didn't know what it was until I wiped it off. You would think that would have been enough to deter Ruby and consider the fact that this kitten was not interested in getting her love from a "lower life form", but no she got up yesterday morning still wanting to mother this kitten. As soon as Ruby would approach Flowers would start hissing and spitting and if I listened really quietly I could almost hear her claws coming out of their retraction lol....poor Ruby, as cute as she is she just sin't that bright lol.

Tonight I had them in they kitchen and Flowers I guess had a change of heart b/c there on the floor was Ruby with Flowers rubbing her head against Roo's neck. I swear Ruby was smiling and thinking "I knew I would win her over eventually" it didn't take long either.

Lily weighed in at 330G which isn't a huge gain but now that she has decided to be a big girl, her weight is expected to slow . They also might lose a little while weaning but as long as it isn't more than 5-10% its all good.

Flowers isn't as big as I had thought weighing in at only 1lb 2oz. But she is still a big girl and she isn't a dainty wee girl either. She is quite stocky and well built. I will have to work on getting some new Lily pics and some admission pics of Flowers. Both girls get along very well together which is an improvement from the first night when Flowers wanted to no part of Lily either. But they do play, eat and snuggle up together.

Lily I expect will be ready to go to her next foster home sometime next week, but not until later in the week probably. And Flowers will be ready about the same time.

no weeds in my house...just flowers!!

ok so I don't have a weight on Lily for the past 24hrs, but I'm not concerned since I know she is eating and gaining very well. Not to mention that she slept from just after noon until 4pm when I woke her up and we all know that expression "let sleeping babies lie"...well the same applies to kittens lol.

We recieved another kitten last night. This little girl was found in Holstein and taken in by another rescue person, however she doesn't do bottle feeders and was quite concerned that the kitten wasn't eating and hadn't been using the bathroom much at all and when she was it was only in tiny bits. So she is here and dong very well, I am thinking she is between 7-8 weeks, I am pretty certain that her molars are in and the usually come in sometime around 8 weeks. She doesn't take a bottle well but she will lick the end and the chew on it, so I think she was weaned and than dumped off in this small town. She will eat canned food that has been blended with the blender to smooth it out and I have been adding formula in it as well, not b/c she needs it but b/c thats how Lily has been eating and its just easier for me to make it the same way for both and KMR isn't going to hurt her. I don't think she will be here more than a week, nothing much to do with her except to make sure she is eating and outputting etc etc. She is a big girl I am guessing about 1.5lbs.

On our way home from picking her up from Mary's Jilly was going thru the names of flowers that she could think of...and in Jilly's world thinks like Dandelions, ragweed, moss, crabgrass etc etc are all flowers so she was ready to name her ragweed...umm no. trying to explain the difference between weeds and flowers is like trying to convince her that people can walk on their heads...impossible. I wasnted to name her tiger, than we would have a tiger and Lily (get it tiger lily? lol) the kid shot me down, didn't like Rose or Daisy either, so she decided that she would just be named flowers, don't forget the s or Jillin will be sure to remind you. lol. I still like Tiger, but Jilly thinks that its a boys name and if she grows up with a boys name she will turn into a boy and at 8 yrs old boys are gross lol.

I will tell you about her first night and the dramatics in tomorrows post....lol...so be ready

See you then.

visit to the vet

Little miss Lily went to see the vet today as planned. They couldn't really tell me whether or not she did in fact have a seizure but suggested that if it happens again to get a video of it...pretty sure finding my camera will not be first on my list of things to while this is going on. If it was a seizure there are many different causes, some of which are serious, some of which are treatable and some of which are fatal. The vet doesn't think it's to serious given that her neuro exam appeared to be normal. She was active and social and good kitten. We had a few options but we kinda decided to take a wait and see approach, if it happens again or at specific times like right after eating etc than they can make a better decision. I am hoping she has no more.

I did have her age pegged about right, about late weeks early 6, just runty. As far as solids go the vet said to thicken up her feeds so that its a bit heavier on her belly and she can last a bit longer, every hr today is just to much and its going to cause some tummy upset, so I am going to turn some canned food into a thick soup mix and hope she will take it. If that is successful, I will slowly take out the formula until she is eating just canned food.

We have a new little one coming at some point today or tomorrow. Don't know much about him so keep looking for updates on both Lily and new kitten who is yet to be named.

Weight today was 314G which is great I can't beleive that Friday she weighed only 227G and now 4 days later weighs as much as she does. She has a nce chubby full looking belly to now.

not much to report

Lily is doing very well, eating about every 2 hrs but starting to want every 90 mins or so, which means that it might be time to try and introduce solids to her once again. not sure if this is a great idea, but I am hoping the vet will be able to see her tomorrow and give me some guidance as to what to do with her as far as feeding, but if I know the vet she will say "you know more about bottle babies than I do" Gee thanks dr vet ...lol.

She is finally starting to play with toys and fingers (ouchie) but this is a skill she needs to learn, she doesn't have other kittens to play with and socialize with, just us humans and a couple of dogs. The good thing for her is that since foster homes for singletons are hard to find, she will most likely be placed with others her age or close to it as well as a few older ones that will show her the ways of a cats life.

Anyway without further ado Lily's weight is:


294G, She has been here for less than week and has gained about 100G...not to bad considering on Friday she was just 209G. Very impressive gain Lily.

good news and bad news

Not sure which to give first...so will give you the bad and hope the good makes the bad seem not too bad...

I was up at about 1am to feed Lily, I put her back to bed about 1:30. Sometime around 2:20am I heard some weird noises, so got up to see what it was. I opened Lily's baby box to find her in the middle of a seizure, or at least that's what I think it was...she was very stiff and her head was moving really fast and she had white foam coming from her mouth. I can't say how long it lasted. I'm sure it didn't last as long as it felt. I sat with her after for another determinable amount of time and was back in bed by 3:45. I can't explain why this would have happened, I am almost certain that she had a previous one the day she came, I thought it was from low blood sugar but now I'm not so sure. she will be off to the vet on Tuesday to see if we can get some answers.

The good news is that my gut was right last night. Taking her off solid food seems to have A) increased her appetite and B) caused some major weight gain. I am very impressed with her weight today which I will post at the end. She has a nice full belly and is starting to look the part of a kitten, baby belly and all. She is very active still but not confident enough to walk far away from wherever I am, she just kinda sits there looking and will play around my feet but that's about it. She loves belly rubs and gentle stroking. She has a great purr and it doesn't take much to get that motor started.

Anyway now for the huge gain in weight.....

Today she weighed 227G...a big jump from all the previous gains. I plan on keeping her on formula only for another week or so and than will slowly add in the canned food again, but for now it's working and I ain't messing with what works!

no more solids

I have decided that I am going to take Lily off solid food for a few days and rely strictly on formula. She just eating enough of either to gain any significant weight. So it was either the canned food or formula and given her size I think she will benefit more from formula. If she improves in the weight area than I will add it back but for now....

She has been really quiet today and not wanting to eat much, but just a few mins ago took about 1/2oz in one sitting, that brings her full day total up to just over 1 oz, so as you can see she isn't eating enough. Maybe b/c canned food is much heaver then formula she feels full for a longer time, I'm not sure but she really only eats less then 1 tsp of food per day, so she wasn't eating enough of that either.

Nothing else to report other than that she is still cute and snuggly.

Her weight today was 211G, a gain of only 2G.

Meet Lily

Tuesday I got a phone call from a woman telling me that they had a kitten in need of a bottle feeder, well you all know thats what I do. She drove just over 2 hrs to bring me this wee scrap of a thing. Lily is guesstimated to be somewhere between 4 and 5 weeks, I am thinking closer to 5 since she is :

1) able to eat on her own
2) use the litter box
3) has her canine teeth which start to erupt at 3-4 weeks, hers are fully in.

The story with Lily isn't unusual but its kinda sad really, well no matter how a bottle feeder comes to be it's always sad that they are not with their momma's who they need so badly. Anyway apparently a woman dropped her off at a shelter, her story was that this woman was giving away free kittens. Who doesn't like a free kitten, I mean they are snuggly and warm and OH MY GOODNESS so darn cute. She picked litter from a litter of however many there were and off they went. Lady comes to discover that Lily is much younger than the mother's owner claimed. She didn't know what to do so she took her to animal control to get her some help. Keep in mind that the woman DID do the right thing, she could have tossed Lily outside and left her to die or be eaten by a hungry animal, so turning her in was the right thing to do. They guessed Lily to be about 3 weeks old given her small stature. They put Lily in with another momma cat who had babes about 4 months old, and they thought that Lily was getting enough but it became apparent that she wasn't, so they contacted TCR who brought her to me. She was suffering from low blood sugar and I think she probably had a seizure when Heather picker her up. When she got here I filled out her info card and weighed her...offered her a bottle which at first she was not impressed with, gave her a small bit with a syringe and she perked up almost right away and managed to suck back 9 cc's right then and then finished the 1 ounce bottle by 12:30pm. heather wasn't sure she would live, than I remembered my faithful test, it's never been wrong as to whether a kitten is sick or healthy. Ruby (my miniature poodle) has always been right, if a kitten is sick she will give a quick sniff and walk away...she sniffed this kitten but she didn't walk away, Heather probably thought that I was nuts when I told her that "Ruby says she is and will be fine". She was still very curious and when I walked Heather out I came back to find Ruby laying beside my infant box and sure enough she is getting stronger and true to the past Ruby has adopted Lily and takes care of the cleaning, and mothering of Lily, except for the feeding. Ruby has always been right.

On Tuesday she weighed 197G, remember a newborn kitten usually weighs somewhere between 100 ad 130G at birth. So Lily is stunted, she was maybe just the runt of the litter, or she may just be small. However she is active and loves to snuggle and is eating on her own, granted not much from either a bottle or a can but she is at least eating.

She is a pretty easy wee girl, I never hear her cry for more than a few seconds and only small teeny wee meows. Despite her size she is doing really well.
she is adorable, snuggly, loveable, and really cute. So I will be updating my blog daily as usual until it gets to a point where her growth and development has steadied and when I can no longer get her to sit still long enough to be weighed.

Tuesday she weighed - 197G
Wednesday - 202G
Thursday (today)- 209G

her gains are not great but she is also quite active so that will not help in the gaining area, I am gonna give he anotherday to really start packing it on and if she doesn't then I am going to add some extra calories to her food and formula.

Tale care see you tomorrow