Wednesday, October 31, 2012

spooky night


May all the outdoor kitties, especially the black ones, be safe tonight.

Halloween night is one of the nights of the year when I really worry about Oliver and his family. It's not a good night to be a free roaming black cat. I've given Oliver special instruction to watch over his family this night and to do all he can to keep them safe.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Hershey

Thank you to Caren from Cat Chat for the perfect name suggestion for our foster tabby, who is hereby known as Hershey!

He's the color of chocolate.

He has chocolate fur around his mouth.

And he's as sweet as chocolate!

He's our smallest boy by far, less than 10 pounds. He's fairly timid yet curious. His teeth are pearly white and still sharp, so, I'm guessing he's about a year old. He briefly met Nahum, our ambassador, and they smelled noses. A good start.

Friday, October 26, 2012

warm fuzzies

Rose and Nahum were inseparable last winter. Rose frequently snuggled right into Nahum's warm furs. Over the summer, they didn't spend much time together, so recently we wondered if Rose would snuggle with Nahum again when it got cold.






Ok, maybe it was a dumb question.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

dreamy heated world

In my dream world, every homeless cat would have a warm, dry bed to sleep in. The temperature keeps getting colder and the rain keeps falling - Oliver and his family want to stay warm and dry.


Oliver now has two heated beds on the back porch, and both are in use! Each of his outdoor houses are also now heated, but I wish I had four heated spots on the back porch, Oliver and his family like to be all together.

Yesterday morning, I was about to leave for the morning when I noticed MK and Oliver snuggled up together in the loft bed. I couldn't go out the back door and scare MK away, I just couldn't do it. So, I went out the front door and walked around the block to the alley and then to the car. It was the long way in the rain, but it was worth it to allow MK and Oliver to enjoy the warm, dry snuggle!

I still worry about Brown Kitty, if he's still alive, I hope he has a warm, dry and safe spot to sleep the cold rain away. Still no sign of him. I know when he's been to the feeder, because he is the only cat who drinks the water! When he was visiting I had to refill the water daily, now that he's gone it rarely needs refilling.

If I won the lottery I would build them a big house with plush, heated rooms just for the feral cats. That would be lovely.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

first foster

Remember how I said this new brown tabby is just a guest, that he's not staying? I can honestly say that I'm not going to get attached.


Nope, I'm not gonna do it...


I can resist...


I might be able to resist...


resistance is futile!

Giving up this love bug will be difficult, but it's time for me to learn how to choose to give up a cat and grieve the loss. This seems like a critical thing to be able to do in cat rescue work. I had about made the decision to relocate Brown Kitty right before he disappeared. Part of me wonders if this new guy is related to Brown Kitty.

I'll work hard to see to it that he finds a good home. I'm still working on finding his owner, I put out ads today on craigslist and signs around the block. If his owner doesn't come forward soon, then he'll be adopted into a nice home where he will get all the cheek scratchies he ever wanted. He melts into a purring puddle when his cheeks and head are rubbed.

His purr is soft. He's very gentle. And the brown mustache around his mouth makes it looks like he got into some chocolate! He's way to sweet to be living on the street.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Brown Tabby Alert!

I might need some accountability here. I must disclose that at this moment, there is another tabby in the house. He is not staying longterm though. Just a guest cat. Well, make that a sweet, lovey, brown fluffy tabby guest cat.


He showed up on the back porch Saturday, so I trapped him and had him neutered on Sunday. Now, he's resting in the "recovery room" (office), where all the "new" kitties start off. Did I mention how sweet he is?!

I love his colorings!



I wired up a network camera in his recovery pen, so for a limited time you can see him recovering. If it's night time, it may be dark and you won't see much.

[camera image removed]

He wasn't microchipped and I don't recognize him from the 'hood. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with him, but for now, he's just hanging out, recovering from his surgery.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Feral Cat Day!


Oliver celebrates National Feral Cat Day with an extra roll in the dirt! Silly boy, he sure loves to roll in the dirt!

The resident feral colony (Oliver's family) has been celebrating all week with lots of nip and special wet foods. The celebration will continue through out the week with all sorts of special things for some special cats.

Now that his family has grown into adult cats, I can actually tell them apart now. So that means they all need names! I'll get to work on getting some current pictures of each of them so you can see them as mature adult cats and I'll write up a bit about their personalities. I've asked Oliver what their names are and of course he's not telling. There are two boys (one of which is MK) and one little girl. So, be thinking and stay tuned and soon I'll request your assistance with names! Meanwhile, enjoy some nip for this special day!

Sunday, October 14, 2012

blanket fort fun!

For the first time in a long long time, we actually had a Fall season and it was delightful! It was like having an extended summer, with four or five extra sunny weekends that allowed me to get lots of outside projects done before the winter rains set in. This was rough on the kitties though as there was much less time available for them. All along I promised them that the first rainy weekend I would give myself fully to them, to play and hang out all weekend together. Well guess what? It rained most of the day today!

So I made good on my promise and we built a fort and played and played!


The kitties love playing fort! And I just happen to love it too!



Inside, Willow and I play.



Until Nahum tries to come inside





Rose watches the fun from a safe distance.


But she can't resist and has to play!


Don't remind her that she's suppose to be scared of the humans!


Theo and Willow enjoy some nip in the fort!


A little while later, Willow turned traitor and tried to storm the fort.








After her initial siege failed, Willow tried another approach... 


she tried to capture my heart with her powerful cutes...


and she succeeded!

Friday, October 12, 2012

A loved Rose

All last winter Nahum was Rose's fluffy snuggle buddy. She would call out to him as he was walking by and he would go over and snuggle with her. Over the summer there wasn't much snuggling going on between them, so Laura wondered aloud if Nahum would still snuggle with Rose once it gets cold again or is she in for a lonely cold winter.

This afternoon I got the answer.


I don't think there's need for concern.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

sads over Cattuwumpus' Lucy's sudden passing

The online cat blog world sure seems like a family, even though I haven't met most of you and may never do so. Today, my heart is filled with sadness, I just read the news that Lucy over at Cattywumpus passed away so suddenly. We were just praying and then rejoicing over Skootch's recovery of a mystery illness when Lucy suddenly went down hill and now died in her human's arms.

courtesy of Cattywumpus
Enjoy the endless treats, boxes and nip nanners over on your side of the Bridge, sweet Lucy. You will be forever missed by your humans and all of us who only knew you through your human's beautiful drawings. Romp free and I look forward to meeting you in person when it's my time to cross the bridge.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Update on Kirkland Flea & Tick Control for Cats

Back on July 20, I posted about the danger of Kirkland Signature Flea and Tick Control for Cats. Back then there were 26 reviews on Amazon.com with 24 of them being negative. Today there are 66 reviews with 61 of them being negative. There are many comments detailing how people's cats were harmed or killed after using this product. Yesterday's comment was heartbreaking, someone's beloved 5 year old cat died a few days after using this product.



It's been almost two and a half months now since I posted that first post here. I was amazed to see how quickly the pageviews for that post grew. People are searching for information on KS Flea and Tick Control and they are finding my blog. In only a matter of weeks, the pageviews became the all time most visited page on my blog. Today, that post has racked up more than three times as many views as the second most viewed post.


The popularity of that post both makes me happy and sad. I hope more than anything that people are researching this product before they use it and thus gain knowledge to make an informed choice about whether or not to risk using Kirkland Signature Flea and Tick Control for Cats.

After seeing how quickly the pageviews were adding up, in late July I started an advocacy website, CostcoFelineVictims.org to further spread the word about the dangers of Kirkland Signature Flea and Tick Control for Cats. The idea of the site was to collect the horror stories from people who have used this product, so when people searched for online reviews they would find this information at the top of their search results. The second purpose was to be a clearinghouse of information for a possible future class action lawsuit against Costco.

Back in early September I called Costco to share my concerns. The customer service person was polite but naive. He insisted that Costco would never sell a product that would be dangerous to customer's cats. I suggested he read the online reviews of the product and he said they were not able to do that. He would not let me talk directly with the Kirkland Signature buyers, so I got the address for them so I could mail them printouts of the Amazon.com reviews. Sadly, other things got in the way before I could get that packet of papers in the mail.

If you recall, I bought this product back in late July, because I trusted the Costco brand and I thought it was a good deal. Thankfully, I read the reviews before subjecting my cats to this dangerous product. This past weekend, I finally got around to returning the KS Flea and Tick Control for Cats product to my local Costco store. I asked the clerk if they were still selling this product and he said they had pulled it several weeks ago. I asked if it was only this store or all the stores that had stopped selling it and he said he wasn't sure but he thought all the stores.

I just called Costco Corporate to find out if they have really stopped selling it company wide. The friendly associate told me he thought they had pulled the product for a time and reformulated it with something less potent because they had heard that some cats were sensitive to the product. He told me there were 480 units of the product available now at my local Costco store. Ugh.

Please keep spreading the word that people should read the reviews before they use this dangerous product. If you are a blogger, please consider doing a post on this topic to continue to spread the word. Innocent cats are dying and suffering by the hands of care givers who are just looking to save some money.

Monday, October 8, 2012

a night on the bed

Sharing the bed with four to five cats makes for an interesting experience. They generally have their spots they always settle into. Sometimes it's difficult to sleep because they're weighing down the covers and sometimes they surround me making it impossible to move!

11:16pm

11:17pm

11:18pm

11:18pm
 Maximum cutes!
11:19pm
And to think I could be sleeping and missing out on this!
11:19pm
  
11:30pm

2:25am