the trick is to keep breathing

We continue to grow and mature :3 At 5-6 weeks, the kittens are less clumsy (please note I did not say "no longer clumsy" because, well, kittens) and very curious. This weekend we had our first outing, to my screened-in porch. it went reasonably well; the kittens were a little intimidated by things like SUN and NATURE!!!! but recovered quickly and had a good exploration. I need to start showing them to Porter and Rydia, so that they understand that cats other than themselves exist, to help them be potentials for a multi-cat home.

Mama also had some outings: she got to explore the 2nd floor, and went out on the porch, and exchanged some tentative interactions with Porter (they ate treats within 2 feet of each other with no signs of distress). The problem is, now she wants to go out the door, a lot. I can understand hating being trapped in one room with your 4 hyperactive little shits, but Mama's gotta bear it for now.

Fostering takes time. On a work day, I have 3-4 visits: once in the morning before I leave (food, water); once right after I get home (food, water, litterboxes); once mid-evening (playtime); and once before I go to bed (whatever needs doing). Ideally these visits should be at least 15 min, and the more time you can spend with your fosters, the better they'll do...

I'm in a new job (MORE ON THAT LATER, YO) with the 9/80 option, which I'm going to try initially. This makes my target work hours 7:30-8:00 -- 17:00-17:30 for most days. This means normally I need to be up and moving by 6:30 at the latest, and that includes no time for kits; it also means I won't be home until like 18:30-19:00 usually, as I have to hit the grocery, run errands, work out, etc after work. I have to get my ass in bed earlier to hit that earlier hour, like 23:00 latest. This gives me a little over 4 hr every night to relax, eat dinner, care for ALL cats (mine and the temps), do chores, and maybe do a hobby thing. I am not sure I like this schedule; however every other Friday off sounds nice.

My sleep goals are 23:00-06:00 for now. This means I need to be in bed ABOUT 22:30 because I take a ton of time to fall asleep. Even typing about sleep is gross right now. I am tired

I don't know what else to say, I'll try to post some more recent photos because these stupid assholes are 2cute

So with the help of drakonlily and crankyoldman and some other friends, we have collectively rescued a mama cat and five babies from the wilds of a porch in Columbus. One of the babies was adopted out; the other 4 came to live with me until they are old enough to leave mama.

Mama is 1-2 years and incredibly smol. The 4 babies are around 3-4 weeks old. I know it's gonna go quickly, so I'm gonna keep a record here of what we do each day that's cute and noteworthy. I've been up there maybe 6-7 times today, making sure mama has enough food, making sure everyone is adjusting. Here are today's benchmarks:

- all the kids run to greet me when I come in the room, with tiny squeaks
- I had four amazed and confused kittens breathlessly watching me scoop their poops
- mama realized she could get away from the kittens by jumping on the bed; she then proceeded to take a half-hour breather-nap while I babysat
- for the first time since they've been here, mama lay down by me and let them nurse. I've never been able to actually watch a mama and litter nursing from that close and for that long before. The purring as the kittens feed reaches incredible volumes, and mom alternated between dozing and giving me this worn-upon look that's the cat equivalent of rolling eyes. I was just surprised and impressed that in the short time she's been here she came to trust me enough to feed the kids less than a foot from me. <333333


Tomorrow we start clipping kitty claws, and introduce some new toys. As for tonight, I'm curled up on the couch (where I've been sleeping bc my bed is covered in stuff, but that's another story) with my cats on and near me, and we're off to bed. They aren't mad yet, just a bit needy and kind of resigned.


Obviously pics will be coming -- it's hard to get great shots in that room, but I'll manage. :3

The kittens are all doing well. I had to start calling them something, but I didn't want to spend too much time picking out names if they were going to be renamed by new owners, so I've named them all after the Weasleys from Harry Potter. The mamacat is Molly, the oldest grey one is Bill, the rambunctious black one is Charlie, the shy grey one is Percy, and the tiny little grey-and-white girl is Ginny. Yes, I have officially lost it.

But! I heard back -- I have someone who will take the remaining two kittens, together! So Molly is going to a good house, Bill and Ginny are going together with B+J that we work with, and Charlie and Percy are going to go live with a very nice lady who just lost a cat of 13 years and wants to bring some kittens into the life of her 5-year-old son. :) :) :)

I am so happy that all of the babies get to go in pairs, that makes me really really pleased with how this all worked out. :D

I legitimately do not know if I even have the spoons to type this story up correctly, but here goes.

I work with a girl, K, who does a lot of work fostering dogs, specifically pitbulls. For the past few weeks, L, a technician at work, has been talking to her / bothering her / asking her / whatevering her about some kittens in his neighborhood. He says his neighbors just left and left the mamacat there :( She had her babies under the porch; there were initially 6, but a neighborhood dog killed 2 of them. So the mamacat saw Larry and showed up on his porch with her 4 kittens in tow. Larry also has dogs, big ones, so he cannot keep the cats.

I do not know what kind of miscommunication happened between K and L and I really don't have the energy to speculate at all. Suffice to say: L showed up to work today with two (filthy) cat carriers in the back of his truck, with mamacat and 4 babies inside, expecting K to take care of the problem. K thought he had been joking. She also has big dogs, and can't foster kittens; she could take the mama, but not until she knows the mama doesn't have FIV/FLeuk, because K also has two cats of her own.

I'm kind of just going to spell the rest of this out in bullet points because I am pretty much a waste of space right now.

- the day starts off fine; we all ooh and aww over the adorable bitty kitties
- K attempts to foist kittens off on basically everyone at work. She has to leave at 4 for a dentist appointment, and she can't take the kittens home with her because of her dogs.
- I eyeball the kittens at around 6 weeks old, maybe less, which worries me because they seem too young to separate from mama. But no one can take all 5 cats, so there doesn't seem to be a choice.
- We find a potential taker for one grey kitty. Another grey-and-white kitty falls in love with (a different) K, and (original) K tries really hard to talk her into adopting.
- As the day goes on, I start to get more and more worried, because K legit cannot take these cats anywhere; what happens at 4:00 when she goes home?
- K tries to talk to L about maybe taking the cats back; I didn't hear the whole conversation but I definitely heard L say, "If I take that cat home I'm just going to take her out back and shoot her in the head." Basically, he has done his part, not his problem anymore, he is wiping his hands of these cats.
- K calls some of the shelters she fosters dogs for. No one has any room for cats.
- I start calling around. Shelters are all full. No one is taking 'submissions', and definitely not 'healthy strays' or 'owner surrenders'. I start to get really, really disheartened about the whole thing.
- I call a vet and ask how long it takes to get results from an FIV/FLeuk test. She says 2-3 days.
- In talking it over with Jeff, he suggests I could - on the short term - keep the mamacat and the kittens for a few days, and keep *my* kittens at his place (they are there right now bc it's easier for me to have them there when I'm packing to move), until we make sure they are healthy. I am willing to do it, but slow to volunteer it. Basically, I'm afraid that once these kittens are out of sight, no one will care about them anymore and I will be stuck with 5 cats.
- K finds one woman who might take the mamacat, but will ONLY consider it once we know she is 'clean'.
- I finally find a vet who is willing to take a stray that afternoon for the FIV/FLeuk test. They are open until 5:00.
- It is 3:45. K leaves at 4. Vet closes at 5. We are shit out of time AND luck.
- To make the best of a bad situation, it is decided that I will take the mamacat and any remaining kittens to the vet. They will test her, and I'll give mamacat and her family the spare room in my townhouse.
- the first grey kitten will go home with B+J, who seem to want it. G (another friend) takes the grey-and-white kitten for K2, saying that if K2 isn't serious about the kitten, G can take it home for the night and bring it to me the next day. K2's cat is really tiny, it's the runt, so I'm not entirely happy about this, but I allow myself to be overruled because we're out of time, and G makes the point that if they don't take the cats today we may never talk them into taking them.
- K leaves. I am left with mamacat and two kittens. I load them into my car (in L's filthy, gross carriers) and we're off to the vet.
- Mamacat does not like the carrier. She does not like my car. Her cries get more and more frantic, and at 2 minutes from the vets she seriously digs her claws into my arm (thank god I had a coat on, I probably would have crashed otherwise). At some point she just freaks out and pees all over her carrier. :(
- I get mamacat to the vet. She's already freaked and now standing/sitting/lying in her own pee. I start to just lose it. The nurse and doctor attempt to take a blood sample and she flips more shit and rips the nurse's arm open. The entire little room smells like piss and terrified cat. She's hiding behind my legs. I immediately lose every last one of my spoons and am about to crumple on the floor in a little ball and just fade into nothing.
- Three nurses and four pairs of serious gloves later, they have obtained a blood sample from mamacat. Mamacat is done, back in her carrier and hating everything in the world. I'm almost crying. $90. At some point in this mess I brought the kittens inside so that they didn't turn into kittenroasts in my car and the doctor informs me they are more like ~4 weeks old. This is not nearly old enough to be away from mama and I start kicking myself for not insisting the kitties stay with her, especially the runt.
- I get to my house, get mama and her babies into the spare room. Mama hides under the bed, and I cover the floor with as many towels as I can. I am absolutely exhausted, drained of energy, completely spoonless. I sit there for a little bit and watch the kitties get baths and try to remember why I thought this was even a remotely legitimate option.
- I head to Target, where I buy a shallow pan for a litterbox and wheat litter, some food, some cheapy dishes, Febreze for my now-piss-scented car, and some cheap shower curtain liners in a last-ditch attempt to protect my carpet in as many places as I can.
Please note: I'm texting Becky, almost in tears, and this is where I realize that I am having a hypoglycemic crash, the first I have had in probably 6 months, because I was so preoccupied with these cats that I forgot my afternoon high-protein yogurt and granola snack which keeps me from crashing. This explains all the almost-tears and the near-breakdowns. Awesome.
- Head back home, set up litterbox and plastic liners and food. Mamacat won't come out from under the bed, but I set the dishes up so that she can eat without emerging to keep her strength up. The little ones come out to roll in the towels and stomp in the litterbox (who knows if they will use it~!). I am too tired to even enjoy it.

So now I'm back home. I'm dead tired. I'm out $140 for cats I can't even keep - not that I mind paying to take care of cats, but it's like, surprise. My blood sugar is all kinds of fucked up right now. I can barely keep my eyes open.

Tomorrow I'll be really happy and excited about this.

Like, I know I am a crazy cat lady, but legitimately, I don't want these cats, I can't take these cats right now. Three is more than enough for me. I would seriously only permanently take one and I would only take one if it was a choice between "You take this cat or we throw it into the woods", but until I get there, I really don't want more cats. I really honestly don't.

My plan, now - and it's still in motion, because who knows what I'll find if I come into work tomorrow and K has found a place for them or something - is to keep mamacat and the kittens for at least 2 more weeks, so that the babies can grow stronger. If I can get the two that have already found homes back, with a guarantee that they'll take them again, I will do so, and I'll foster all 4 babies. In 2 weeks, K will take the mamacat into her house and help her adopt out. Hopefully by then I'll have a place for all 4 babies. If not... I may try to keep them, or pass them off to Lu, who can foster them further. We'll just see when we get there.

(Edit) Oh, and Mama is FIV/FLeuk negative - she's clean! The one good piece of news of the day and I was so exhausted that it really didn't register at all. But it doesn't fix things, because then I have to choose: Get Mama into somebody else's house as soon as I can, and separate 4-week-old babies from Mom? Or keep them together to make healthy kitty babies, but have up to 5 cats in my house longer? Because nobody other than me can take Mama and babies, even in the short-term.

So that was my day.

Look, I don't want to do this lab report either, but you are Clearly Not Helping, Maerzen Oliver.

So I have three cats. Let me get this out there first: I love cats. I have always loved cats; I love dogs too - I don't think you have to like one or the other; some people do but there are plenty of us who like both - but my lifestyle isn't really appropriate for a dog. I work 10-hour days and I'm already out of the house for 11.5 hours straight because of it; add in grad school, the gym, and the errands it takes to be a damn adult, and it's easy for me to be out of the house for 14 hours. That's only an average day. That isn't fair to do to any dog - dogs take a lot of commitment and responsibility (to get a good dog, anyway) and that just isn't feasible. So, I have three cats.

I love my cats.

I love cats in general. They are affectionate and friendly, but not clingy or needy - just like me. They want things when they want them and no one can really convince them otherwise, unless it's food - just like me. They actually need space and alone time and will be sure to get it whenever necessary - just like me. They are fuzzy and cute and make adorable noises, which I am not and don't, but hey, a girl can't do everything.

I love pets and I talk to mine all the time, like people. Because I come from crazystock, the cats talk back (yes, they all have 'voices'). They all have personalities, they all have habits, and they all have places in my heart.

( So these are my cats. Lots of photos, guys, made small for easy access! )

I know my photos are old -- I think they max out at 6 months, and they are so much bigger now; I want to take a video (HAPPY KITTY VIDEO, Y/Y?) and even if I can't I'll try to get some of the photos off of my phone so that you can at least see how freaking gigantic the kittens are now. WHY DO KITTENS GROW. :(

They're small and cute and so very adorably MINE, and I am so very glad that I can provide a good home to three cats who really needed it. "Cat dreams do some true" is what Jeff and I say to them, and it's so very true. They are the luckiest fuckers in the entire world.

And those are my cats!

EDIT: I came upstairs after reading this post, and Marzy had knocked every single bottle of vitamins off of my dresser and onto the ground (that's like 5 bottles) and Porter was sleeping in a laundry basket. That should tell you everything you need to know.

This is part of my 30 Days of Posting meme - feel free to check out the schedule of posting and contribute if there are any spaces! DW || LJ

This is the same video that's up on Facebook (if you're my Facebook friend) but for those of you who are not, I bring you: Kitten Pong.



Or watch here.

Porter (the dark, fluffy one) and Maerzen (aka Marzy) (the tan one) help hilldo and I play some Ping Pong.

Enjoy ♥