"I Understand you Run a Rescue?", the Starving Pregnant Cat On my Doorstep Asked

    One day this very pregnant and starving cat walked up to our house, saying "I understand you run a rescue here". "Not anymore,really," I told her, "but come on in and we'll get you taken care of." And in she waltzed. She was so starved that she was a rack of bones with fur on it, and that fur was breaking off. But she was darling, a real nose-breaker if you know what I mean. Put your face near hers and she rubs your nose so hard it is a wonder that she doesn't break it. I managed to get her adopted out without the adopter ever seeing her. Once her new man met her, he was in love. Her new family is picking her up for a doctor's appointment in a week, and if all goes well, she goes home very soon. As you can see, Bonnie is a pretty girl now that her coat is coming in all shiny.   
     Now we have 4 beautiful kittens up for adoption. Each has a very unique temperament, and we call them the X-men litter. These pictures are their 7 week mug shots, but they are now 8 weeks of age.

Mystique

      Mystique is a blue point though her color is still changing and she might darken up, and is showing a tendency towards torti-point toes and will probably be medium length in hair. Very outgoing and personable, she is the biggest in the litter, as well as the sweetest. She loves to drift off to sleep on her back in your arms while watching you talk. You don't have to make sense, she just loves to watch your lips move, and if you stop talking, she will lightly touch your mouth. She never uses her claws, and when she chews on your thumb, she is so very careful to keep her touch light. She is sturdy, and because of her gentleness would be suitable for a gentle child. She does have one annoying habit. She is the world's hardest kitten to photograph. I've taken dozens of pictures that show empty floor where a kitten was sitting just as I depressed the shutter. She also has a tendency to turn just as you try to take her picture. The picture above was a rarity.

      Gambit is also a girl, a bright colored little calico with medium length hair. Also very outgoing, she's a character, hyper, smart and funny. She also loves to lie in your arms, but she had to be tired first. Until then, she'd rather wrestle with your hands, feet, or even a mote of dust. She is not a sleek, put-together type of kitten. Her hair sticks out in cowlicks in all kinds of directions, just like her personality, always off in all directions, living life to the fullest. She is sweet, but can be be a little rough for young children.

     Nightcrawler is a short haired black and white kitten. He isn't as out-going as the girls, but he loves to play with your feet and hands. One of his favorite things to do is to lie snugged up against your side as you sit on the couch and wrap his paws around your arm. He also likes to do sneak attacks on your feet as you walk by. Not as gentle as Mystique, he still is usually careful not to scratch. Not really a good match with  young children.

      Wolverine has a black tabby and brown tabby face with huge eyes. As you can see in this photo, his coat shows some agouti banding as well as the tabby stripe, which is very pretty. He's the smallest, and the shy one of the litter, but that doesn't mean he isn't a little love, he just needs warm-up time before he comes to play with you. He entertains himself well, but will happily play chase and pounce just like the others. He likes to sit on the back of the couch behind your head rather than down on your lap. Better for an older child with patience, or an adult. 

Ten cats, ten stories UPDATE

UPDATE: SEE BOTTOM of POST

This is Kiki (Kikki, KiKi) here with
Gabriella (Gabby, Gabs, Skunk) because their human family became homeless.


This is Jet, the baby He's a kitten now, but he's very well mannered and will be a fine cat.  He came from a feral colony, but you can see there's nothing wild about him.  (Well besides foolish kittenish behavior that is)

Well, that was him the day after we caught him.

And this is him now. I couldn't get a picture of him like I usually see him, I can't seem to use the camera when he is lying on my keyboard snuggled around my hands. Hard to work around, but oh so lovey.

Chi.  Her mom dropped her and her siblings in the dust in front of my door.  They were wet newborns and had to be bottle-fed.  Like all bottle fed babies, Chi is spoiled and doesn't think of herself as a cat.  She would be a lot happier living somewhere there weren't those pesky kitties around so she could sleep on someone's face in peace and not have to share the warm bodies at night.   She was born crippled, but therapy gave her strong legs, and she was a sick kitten who the vet dubbed a miracle.  She no longer is a special needs cat, but at 6 years of age, now she has prejudice working against her.






Dora is most definitely a special needs cat.  She has asthma and a condition called stomatitis.  Right now, her condition is controlled with supplements and special dental gels, but in her future there may have to be a special type of dental operation.  She loves to sit high on your chest so that you can't see around her, is a great alarm clock, loves to talk and makes a good secretary.  She reminds you when to feed the dogs, when to medicate anyone on meds, when to take the dogs outside and when to sit awhile with the kitties.  Especially her.  She watches the trains go by and has taught Ebonetta to enjoy doing the same.  But exploration is her first great love, since she could first toddle. 

Salem is considered special needs, she has a condition called herpes (don't worry, it's not the kind people can get), but she doesn't have many problems from it.  Once in awhile she gets a teary eye and loses the hair around her eyes and mouth.  Usually that is a sign of stress in her, like when we have an overload of cats waiting for adoption.  She was left here when her owner died.

Ebonetta wrote her story in an earlier post.  Sadly, neither she nor her brother Onyx have found their forever homes yet.















Gabby (written about earlier along with her housemate KiKi) is also still available.










Amber is another special kitty.  She has asthma and needs medication mostly in wet desert summers.  (I know, sounds like an oxymoron, but we live in Tucson.  Normally most of our rain falls in the summer monsoons.)  This year was very dry and she has had only mild attacks.  She recently had all but two teeth pulled, and she is only six, but she had a hard beginning to her life.  Her very feral mother brought her and her siblings into our garage and came to our door, crying until I followed her to the babies.  They were soaked in oil and covered in grease.  It took a long time to get those kittens healthy, and a longer time to get Amber so that she could keep food down.  Turns out she is allergic to beef, chicken, wheat and corn.  Her very favorite food in the world?  Doughnuts.  She will try to pry them out of your mouth if she knows you have them.




This is Onyx, another sweet rescue feral.  He loves to hug and be hugged, and when you try to leave, he wraps himself around your feet.  He loves to sit on you as much as his sister Ebonetta likes to sit near you.  But where she likes to pet you, he only likes to be petted.



Finally, there's Bubba, Dora's brother.  Take out a camera and he's there, posing.  If you want a picture of someone else, you have to be sneaky or his face or feet will appear magically in the frame.  He was my mom's cat and she kept telling him how pretty he is.  It must have sunk in.   He is as healthy as his sister is sickly.  He likes to bathe people and kittens and the young cats adore him, sleeping on top of him and trying to get him to play.  However, he doesn't much like Kiki, we aren't sure why, and he really would prefer fewer cats to bathe.

I'm sure you are wondering why we would allow any and all of these cats to be adopted, but as much as we love them, we are in rescue.   And right now, rescue is hard.  One organization I have fostered for in the past is having so many problems getting homes that they have not taken in any more for a year.  And that is a large group with a lot of foster parents.  Our local humane society, who normally shows my kittens for me,  is inundated with cats and kittens who's families are homeless and desperate, and doesn't have the room.  If we can place any of these cats, especially the kittens, we will be able to open up room to save others that are either special needs, need special handling or just need more time.

I have sad news. The economy has struck us hard. We are down to one income, which is limited to minimum wage and 19.5 hours while I am in school, and we are filing for bankruptcy. We do not want to risk that these wonderful cats are subjected to less than good care, so  we have struck a deal with the local Humane Society to take them. They took seven healthy, adoptable cats. You can see them at  http://www.hssaz.org/site/PageServer?pagename=adoption_adoptable_animals, HSSA-Humane Society of Southern Arizona,  3450 N. Kelvin Blvd, Tucson, AZ  327-6088 If you are looking for a loving companion, please take one of these wonderful kitties. Don't be put off by their photos, they are scared and their photos were taken before they were given a chance to understand why their worlds are turned upside down. To see what they really look like, see above.

Christmas Pretties Warning

I had to take one of our big dogs to the vet yesterday for his chronic ear infection.  While there, the vet was telling me about a client who wanted to surprise his wife with a Boston puppy. To be cute, he tied a pretty curly ribbon around the puppy's neck. The pup got the ribbon in his mouth and swallowed most of it. The ribbon caused a blockage and $4000 later, they saved the puppy. This may have been a puppy, but how many times have you seen the cute picture of the kitten with a ribbon around it's neck, or playing with a ribbon? I also want to remind you that besides ribbons, pretty, shiny tinsel is dangerous if swallowed. I love tinsel, but I haven't had it on my trees for many years.

Dental Nightmare

Today was a nerve wracking day for me.  I took a cat and a dog into the vet's to have dentals done on them.  Amber, the cat and Joey, the dog are six and five repectively, but both had hard starts to their lives and both have depressed immune systems.  I was mostly afraid Amber would not be accepted for surgery because she has asthma, but when we got there, miraculously she didn't have an attack and her lungs were clear enough.  The vet said we should take this window and jump for it.  With cats with asthma, you may never be able to find a chance you can have their teeth fixed because getting upset, like going to the vet can do, can cause an attack.  Amber's teeth were bad, I've known for a little over a year we needed to get them done, but her health would never allow it.  Today we jumped, and she had all but two of her teeth pulled.  At 6 years of age, her teeth looked so bad that the tech was shocked to find out how young Amber actually is.   The vet understood, writing on her paper in big letters,. BORN FERAL..
Cats that are ferals, or who are born feral often have medical issues that doom them to die young if they are left in the streets.  Amber's mother Bullseye delivered her litter in our garage, but immediately took them across the street to the wrecking yard.  Five weeks later, she showed up at our front door and started yelling.  At least I think she intended it to be a yell, but she, like Amber, had a soft spoken nature and it came out about as loud as a cat sounds when it is upstairs in the bathroom linen closet and you're in the basement doing laundry.  I only heard her because the door was open, and I was walking by the screen when she tried to yell at me through it.  I was puzzled because  one of the marks of a feral is their silence around a person.  It is the first test we use to see if we have trapped a feral or just a neighbor's cat.  Her odd behavior made me go to the door to see what was wrong with her.  She ran a few steps, turned and yelled at me again, so I stepped out.  Again she ran a few steps and yelled.  I had the strong feeling she needed help, so I followed her around the house to the garage.  In the garage was her litter, minus one kitten.  They looked horrible, covered in grease and with grease impacted under their eyelids.  At first they tried to run, but as soon as I scooped them up. they started purring.  I always wondered what their mom had told them, but they were the most cuddly kittens you could ever meet.
It took us two months and the loss of another kitten, but finally most were healthy.  Not Amber, though.  She was the sickest survivor, and she has had problems since.  She had the "dire rear" and throwing up for two years, long after we found out her allergies to chicken, beef, corn and wheat.  Have you ever tried to find cat food without any of those ingredients?  Throw in budget and it gets even harder.  We had to have litter boxes in every room, but even with them, sometimes she just couldn't make it.  You've never lived til you're cuddling a sweet little kitten on your lap and you suddenly see that look just before she starts spewing from both ends right on your new robe.  Finally, though, she could eat, and keep it down most of the time, and she got fat.  Like the vet said, wouldn't you if you starved the first two years of your life?  Of course this is the same vet that when asked why she walks so oddly, said that in his considered opinion, she'd built weird.  Then all of a sudden, about 6 weeks ago, she stopped eating.  I knew it was time to get her teeth done, but with the monsoon, as sparse as it was this year, she still was having minor asthma attacke.  No big ones, but she couldn't have surgery. 
But today, the stars aligned and the airways cleared.  She could have her teeth pulled.  All but two.
Joey I wasn't worried about.  Sure, he had it rough as a puppy.  I'm sorry, you don't have a pup lose 60% of his hair and have skin with black thick places without knowing something was wrong.  I was fostering dogs at the time, but had already let the group know I was too full and couldn't take anyone else in.  That didn't stop them from calling me and telling me to get to the animal control immediately, or "he" will be put to sleep in an hour.  I had to get him, they insisted.  They said to look for a springer spaniel.  When I got to the kennels, I couldn't find a spaniel of any kind, just some big dogs and this 15 pound half hairless mix.  That was "him", Joey.  He had the demon, demodex mange, and he had a life threatening case of it.  The vet the group wanted me to take him to was one I had worked with in the Humane society.  I told the lady exactly what that vet would say.  "Why are they wasting their money on this dog.  They should put him down."  Not believing me, she made the appointment, the vet looked, told me word for word what I said he would, and later called her and told her the same.  When she called me with an appointment at another vet, she couldn't help but laugh, but she also asked if I thought they should take their speutering (spaying/neutering) to another vet.  No way, for surgery he is one of the finest vets I've seen.   Six months of poisonous treatment later, Joey was finally well, and I couldn't part with him after all the work I'd put into him.
Joey's teeth were never good even as a puppy.  They had always been easily chipped and because of his lack of early socialization and the things he endured when sick, it was impossible to brush his teeth properly.  I knew his immune system wasn't up to snuff, if it had been, he's never have had such a bad case of mange, so I knew that we needed to get his teeth cleaned before he ended up with heart problems.  But I didn't think he'd have problems being accepted for surgery, after all, he'd just had a checkup in June.  He almost got bounced from surgery because his protein levels were too high.  We had more tests done, all negative, so the vet went ahead and did the surgery.  When the vet started, it was obvious Joey had far worse problems than either of us had imagined and HE had almost every tooth pulled instead of the two she predicted or the three I expected..
You just never know.   We went in today, fingers crossed Amber could have her teeth pulled, and no problem.  Joey, who was expected to sail right through almost didn't have his dental, and as bad as his teeth turned out to be, that could have ended up fatal.
They're both home now, happy with their pain meds and the first food they've had in 24 hours (a dangerously long time for a cat, by the way).  Amber will probably get fat again, and Joey, well he was still the same smart ass when he came out of the vet's office as when he went in. prancing along, barking at a man across the street and complaining that if he had thumbs he wouldn't have to wait for me to open the door.