Great day with the duo

Josie and Toby are doing amazingly well, they have kind of restored my faith in my ability to do this job. It's been a year fill with losses but these 2 are so strong and gaining weight I KNOW they are going to be fine. Today they have the corners of their eyes open and they started purring today so they are right on target for my estimated age of now 6 days old. I expect that Josie will have her eyes fully opened by Saturday and Toby I suspect will be a day behind. I love their eyes opening, they are so hazy and still can't see so well but they look so crosseyed and goofy looking lol. Toby has a bit of an ear fetish, when I held him up to my shoulder to burp him, he latched right on my ear and started sucking away. Neither baby had pooped for me since they arrived on Monday, so today they went off to the vet and learned how to give little tiny enemas to kittens. The vet did it this time and the results for Josie were amazing, pretty good for Toby as well but Josie impressed me the most with results. You are probably thinking I am crazy getting excited over poop but it's very dangerous to not get rid of that excess waste so YES I get excited. As long as the clogs have been removed I shouldn't ever have to put into practice what I learned today, maybe part of my excitement is relief, I really wasn't relishing the thought of shoving something up their tiny bums. I was kinda worried that since they did finally go that their weight loss wouldn't be anything great and perhaps maybe a small loss but when I weighed them today I got a happy surprise. Josie weighed 209G yesterday and 24hrs later she weighs 218, not a big gain by any means but 9g isn't what I was expecting. Toby was 212 24hrs ago and now is 240 a 28G gain, now that's a HUGE gain. I do expect though that once his bowels are cleaned out, it won't be THAT much of a gain, but hopefully he won't lose ALL of those 28 so very important grams. Both babies have put themselves on their own schedules of feeding every 3 hours thru the day, I listen for them to wake me at night as does our parrot (who returns their hollers with one of his own) but they didn't get us up last night at all and were not overly starved when they did finally get me up at 6am, and their weight gains signals that they are doing fine and they do know when they want to eat. No pics tonight, maybe tomorrow.

2 new beautiful babies

I got a call yesterday asking if I would take in 3 babies, whose mother had moved the kittens than ran off and hadn't been seen for a few hours. There were 4 babes, 1 died almost instantly after being rescued. They were fed by the founders a proper diet with good timing in between feeds. Kittens were to be dropped off from Burlington to Kitchener and arrive at my home later that evening. Around 9 pm they arrived, one died en route leaving 2 really nice, plump looking babies. Josie is a grey female, she is so friggen cute and loves to snuggle and be held. her weight at admission as 194G Toby is black male He is a little bigger than his sister at 205G. They are about 4-5 days old, their cords have fallen off but they still have the stump right at the base, this will go away in a couple of days. Toby appears to have a umbilical hernia which shouldn't be to much of an issue. If he was a female they would fix this on the spay but since he is male.... I am beginning to hate blogger. It used to be so easy to find a post I started and saved but it took a good while this time. I may move to another site or even to facebook to make it easier, I am a facebook pro so no trouble there. Anyway here are some pics. This is Toby And Josie and the brother sister duo snoozing after a feed Their weights are pretty good, they have been here for about 15hrs when I weighed them and they are as follows Josie was 194 Last night and today is 209 Toby was 205 last night and is 212 today. Not a great gain for him but a gain.

This has been a crap year

This year has been so hard on my heart. Last year I had such great success with kittens I felt confident this year would be the same. Sadly that just isn't so. Last Monday Jack started to get sick so we went to the vet and got a/b for him, Lexi and Krissy. While there the vet mentioned that someone had called the day before asking about 3 kittens they found in their yard. The vet told them who to call and what to do but they did nothing. We got their info from the vet and phoned them, they brought the 3 babies to Mary's and I picked up about 4:15pm. 3 beautiful long haired kittens wailing at the top of their little lungs. Weighed them all, all were under 200G, gave them a bottle and settled them in the infant boxes. 2 hours later, Alex a little black girl was lying on my kitchen table dying. Alex died about 6:50 that night, just over 2 hrs of being on my care. Harper was a funny looking kitten she had a white body, but a calico head, she also was dying, though I did get her though the night and the next day, but she died early Wednesday morning. I went from 6 kittens to 4 in 2 days. Had the people who found them done something, even given them water, they might have survived, but they did nothing and left them paying in the hot sun for 2 days. Deyhrdation set in and organ failure started and I wasn't able to repair it, sometimes you can, sometimes you can't it depends on how far along failure is. Jerry another little black boy was just beside himself, he wasn't ready to go with the others and wouldn't stop screaming, I called another rescue who had a litter about his age so off he went. He is doing well according to an e-mail received today. yesterday morning, Lexi didn't want her bottle, she is weaning and they drop bottles so I wasn't concerned. Later that morning I noticed that she was having some breathing issues. So off to the vet we go....they took x-rays of her wee lungs and the vet explained that x-rayed lungs appear dark. Little Lexi's were white. She was diagnosed with FIP (feline infectious peritonitis) she was given less than a 20% chance of survival, she was working so hard to breathe she had no energy for anything not food, not purring, not anything. It was decided that my sweet Lexi should be put down as she was suffering. I am devastated. Just the night before I took a pic of them eating and playing all 3 of them, had I known that would be the last night I would kiss her head before going to bed, I would have held her a little longer. She was the sweetest little girl and I admit she had some anger issues, she was fiesty and demanding and expected to be treated like the little princess she was. She was snobby, prissy and loud, but OMG she was adorable. I couldn't go with her to put her down, I save kittens I don't help in their demise, So another rescuer Michelle was kind enough to take her for me, I bawled like a baby, never have I cried so much over the loss of a kitten, I still cry today thinking about it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not cold and heartless, the other losses bother me, but Lexi's was different and I don't really know why. I asked my 9 year old how she felt if I didn't do rescue anymore, she helps me sometimes and it affects her life as well. I expected her to say "ok" or something similar, but she didn't..she said "you can't quit, the babies need you" When I told her that the deaths were all so sad and heartbreaking she said "maybe for the rest of the year 100 million will live and only 1 more will die and that will make it better". The logic from her was pretty amazing, she is a special needs kid so coming from her that statement was huge. So again I wrestled with not doing it anymore, but as usual I will carry on, and maybe she's right, though I hope I don't have a 100 million kittens this year. very few kittens survive bottle feeding, so the fact that I have only lost 9 out of 44 in the last year isn't really bad. 36 kittens have lived, thrived and done well, so if I look at it that way it makes me feel more accomplished. I just honestly don't think I can handle one more death, but I know it happens, sometimes love just isn't enough, sometimes their bodies have been thru so much before I get them and sometimes they have diseases that don't show until kittens start to get active and busy. However I can honestly say that each and ever kitten that has died in my care, they knew human touch, they knew full bellies but most of all they knew what love was and they received so much of it.... Jack and Krissy are doing very well, krissy is fully weaned and Jack was having weaning issues, he didn't want to lol. He liked his bottles to much, but in the past few days he has come leaps and bounds. he refused all but his breakfast bottle today and I expect he will refuse that one tomorrow. Soon they will be on their way to bigger and better things. I am unable to weigh either of them, as they simply refuse to stay in the weigh buckets, but I can assure you that they are doing well, Krissy is a wee fatty, Jack is long and thinner with the biggest paws, his paws are about 2 sizes bigger then he is. Both ar close to a lbs now, but not quite, if Krissy keeps eating like she is she will be there by tomorrow or Monday and Jack is not far behind her. This will be my last entry for this litter as there really isn't anything to report now, both are pretty much weaned and met their "newborn milestones". So I guess you will hear from me next litter. Take care and to those who have followed me, thank you and to those who haven't well you are missing a ton.

1 step forward 2 steps back...

Seems ot be the way things go for this group of kittens. I ended up giving them some pumpkin today b/c they seem to have a bit of the runs and we all know pumpkin is a natural and healthy fix for that. I suspect it has something to do with the amount they are eating as they are not ill. They are active, hyper, normal kittens. We'll see how that goes. Nobody is to interested in eating as much solids as they did yesterday which is sometimes how it goes but they are still taking their bottles well. NOT 1 puddle of poop or pee on the floor today, dare I say that we are litter trained? Not yet they need a few more days of no "oopsies" before they can be considered trained. I had been putting them in the kitten box at night but leaving them in the small room during the day, last night i left them in the small room with the heating pad and they did well, they had me up at the butt crack of dawn but thats ok I was due to get up soon anyway. I won't be posting as often now as there really isn't many changes as now they have met their milestones and nobody really cares to read if they have eaten each day. I will however post big updates and a final post to let you know when its time for them to leave here and move on in their lives. Their weights are still not great but they ARE getting better Lexi weighed 281 yesterday and was 285 today, a small gain but with the runs its not surprising, not to mention their activity leval has increased 10 fold. Jack was 354G yesterday and today weighed 376G so he had a huge gain Krissy yesterday was 302, today she is 313, a minor gain but a gain none the less.

improvements

there have been improvements all around that excite me. Lexi the smallest of the 3 didn't gain any weight for 3 days, for a kitten that's a worrying sign. So I have been trying to really get some weight on her and it seemed no matter what I did, she just wasn't gaining. Today I weighed her and FINALLY she gained, not a huge gain mind you, but a gain none the less. Jack is really getting big and he seems to have a very high opinion of himself which can be a good thing I guess as long as that ego doesn't get bigger than him, which it seems t be getting bigger every day. Krissy is also doing quite well, she is so much more fluffier than the other 2, she is quite social and loves any kind of attention. All 3 are finally litter trained which is awesome and they have been spending days in a bigger play space which they seem to enjoy, but with our nights being cool still they must go back into the baby box during the night. They are all eating some now, this is great news as it means they are on their way to becomming big cats which is what we all hope for when we do rescue. Losing a life is tragic and heart breaking, but when we see good things it reminds us why we do this or at least why I do it. Their weights are as follows. Lexi - for the past few days has been 260G today she was 217 a gain of 17G Jack has slowed down in his gains and was 332G today and gain of just 5G Krissy is at 302 a gain of 17G as well.

been busy

I'm sorry its been a busy weekend here and by the time I am settled at night I have either forgotten or am to tired. I have been taking advantage of our beautiful weather as well. Jack and Lexi are one month old today and are doing pretty well. Its been fun watching them grow and change every day! Jack has started running and trying to jump a little bit, he is very snuggly and like all the attention for himself. lexi is cuddly as well though she is a bit more picky and it must be on her terms, and if she has had enough she will let out this god awful yell, that if you didn't know any better you might think she was being killed in the most painful way possible. I started them on solids yesterday and they don't like it much, its much more fun to walk in and thru it and than leave little kitten foot prints all over the floor, in their bed that I just cleaned etc etc. Both kittens are pooping machines today though so that might account for the lack of gain. Jack is using his litter box consistently while Lexi has just started to use the box, she is quite a bit smaller than jack so we had to make some modifications to encourage her to actually get in the box. She might be a bit prissy or snobbish b/c when you place her in the box, she lifts up her feet one by one and screams at you as if to say "wth are you doing to me now, this place stinks you silly human". She is catching on just not as quick as Jack. Jack has the most beautiful markings a circle on either side of stomach, a spotted tummy and striped legs he is stunning. Lexi is the same but she is a little more faded then Jack. Their weights concern me but I'm not going to freak out just yet. They have increased their feeds but you wouldn't know it by looking at the scale. Some things to remember are: Kittens who are weaning do tend to drop a little weight, now while they haven't lost they haven't gained tons. Their activity leval is increasing so they are burning calories Worms! most kittens have worms and one of the signs of worms is weight loss or lack of gain I de-wormed them today in hopes that they have some and this will fix the issue and they start packing on the grams soon again. Lexi's weight today was 260, the same the was on Friday. Jack's weight was 332 a gain of only 5G since Friday. If their weight doesn't improve by Wednesday I am afraid a vet visit will be in order for them. They do not seem sick in anyway so I'm not sure what the vet would do or say but for now I am just giving them another day to show me that they are in fact ok. Saturday we got a new addition. Krissy is about the same age as the other 2 fluffier and was starved for attention and affection. I will give you more details on Krissy tomorrow (I promise to not get to tired or forget) Now for some pics. This is Jack, how cute is he. The adorable face seen here is Lexi Jack loves the camera Little Lexi had to be held to let me take her pic she is a squirmy girl And Meet Krissy, a little fluffball Krissy again

wow!!

I was feeding lexi last night and had Jack in the baby box until his turn, I looked in on him because he wasn't doing his usual impatient hollering only to see that it was jack who has been leaving puddles in the litter box. What a good boy he is!! I squealed with excitement, he is not yet 4 weeks old and has been using it consistently for the past 24 hers or so. Lexi on the other hand has zero interest in the box and much prefers the opposite end of her bed ...sigh...I am hoping she picks up Jack's cleanliness sooner then later. She has finally pooped and things seem to be flowing normally again. I don't have much to say so am just gonna give weights. Jack yesterday was 289G today he was 302G a gain of 13G, not a big one but an acceptable one Lexi gained 20G and is now 251G, she is still dragging her butt on catching up to Jack but it will happen soon enough.