Nefreet is not mellowing out much where the kittens are concerned. We do our best to give her plenty of attention and positive reinforcement, but we're a long way from a truce. She made like a Lump this morning and hid from them by burrowing under the bed blanket.

Pippin did the classic kitten thing of standing on the TV remote so that our eardrums were left bleeding from the sudden massive increase in the sound level. Then he and Opal got to romping behind the satellite receiver so that we periodically lost signal.

Meanwhile, Sapphire and Jetta found a new game called Bonk The Human With the Broom Handle. They wait until I'm sitting on my footstool cleaning the cat boxes, then knock over the broom. The first night, Saffy scored a direct hit. I was bonked on the head. The next night, Jetta tried but missed me by inches. Tonight, Saffy had another go, but I'm wise to the game so it missed me by a lot.

Saffy also loves to nap next to the keyboard, though at this moment she's trying to eat a cardboard box.

I've been noticing Kate's weight loss recently, and Knobby periodically throws up, so I went into my records to check on their ages. I was surprised to realize that they're 14 years old. They were born around mid-April 1991. It's no wonder they're looking old.

Ah, Jetta and Saffy have found a string and are playing tug of war with it.

Zoe spent the day at the vet's. Lolette doesn't get home until quite late, so I'll be going over there around 11 pm to pick up the little girl. She complained vociferously on the trip to Lolette's this morning, so I'm sure she'll have plenty to say tonight.

All the kittens are wildly healthy so far. Tomorrow, I'm sending Zoe off with Lolette to be tested for feline AIDS and feline leukemia. Zoe seems perfectly healthy to me, so I'm not too worried about those things, but I want to be sure. There's no easy or cheap test for PanLeuk, unfortunately.

Last weekend, I took Sapphire and Jetta to the Cause4Cats yard sale where they poor little darlings were on display in the hopes of getting them adopted. Unfortunately, people simply wanted them handed over and couldn't be bothered to fill out the adoption form to prove they're responsible adopters. That's why both kittens are back here tearing up my office with much abandon. The first thing Jetta does upon getting back is stick her head in the food. Saffy just wants to run around.

They both got onto my desk and plopped down next to the keyboard for naps, which was adorable. Of course, I also had to have numerous discussions with Saffy about Not Walking On The Keyboard.

However, today I received extremely disturbing news that has me quite worried. A week and a half ago, I allowed a woman up here to take Saffy and Jetta to an adoption weekend down in L.A. She has only just found out that other kittens that were there that weekend had PanLeuk and have since died from it.

For those who don't know, PanLeukopenia is a 99% fatal virus (in kittens) and highly, highly contagious. People who petted the sick kittens would very likely have passed it on to any other animal they touched, including my two girls. Other kittens taken down there by rescuers from my town have since died. What I have going in my favor is that Sapphire and Jetta were older and in good health, had received their first shots 3 weeks before, and received their second shots right after that event.

Usually, symptoms would have shown up by now, but they could still show symptoms any time in the next five days or so. It also puts ALL of my other cats at risk, and especially puts Zoe at risk because she's so young and small and has only had one of her vaccinations.

I am profoundly upset about this. So far, all three kittens seem healthy and full of energy. My adults seem fine, but none of them have had vaccinations for years and years. I simply couldn't afford it. This means they're aren't protected.

It means even Pippin and Opal could be at risk, if the other two kittens brought back the virus. Any kind of contact with me, my clothes, hair, shoes, whatever, would carry the virus to the house. Since I didn't know about the danger, I didn't take extra precautions. So I have to keep an eye on them as well.

Speaking of those two, they've decided they're no longer interested in kitten food, thankew. They only want adult food. In fact, they only want to eat Nefreet's dry food. We're mixing adult food with kitten food and that seems to be working.

The two of them went to sleep on Randy's lap, drifting off with happy purrs. Randy was in heaven.

Jetta and Sapphire spent the day at the Cause4Cats yard sale. They weren't happy about it, but it doesn't seem to have bothered them TOO much as they are bouncing around the office as usual. Lolette was disappointed at the lack of people with an interest in adopting. Maybe people in this area are over-saturated with animals.

Speaking of which, I got a call from the girl who kept Zoe's two sisters. I halfway expected this, as she doesn't have a place of her own and seems to be finding places however she can. I suspect she doesn't have a sufficiently stable lifestyle to keep these kittens, no matter how much she wants to. What she wants is for someone to conveniently take them in for a few months until she gets on her feet.

My take is simple -- you can either care for them or you can't. I don't believe someone has any business taking in a pet without being able to provide a stable home. We'll see what happens.

Here's a picture of Zoe on Randy's shoulder.

I spent the afternoon at Lolette's helping move furniture and rearrange the masses of donated Stuff for their yard sale this weekend. They get tons of donations and have raised some much-needed money for Cause4Cats by having these yard sales. But it's a lot of work getting everything sorted and put out.

At the end of the day, I was going to bring home the feral cat that was neutered. Lolette donned thick, long leather gloves and attempted to get him out of the cage and into a carrier. He was too wild. He fought and fought. He managed to get past her and vanished into an inaccessible corner of the room. He can't get out of there, so we're leaving him alone for now. He'll probably retreat to the cage for food and we can try again.

Sapphire and Jetta get to spend the weekend there at the yard sale on display, in the hope someone might adopt them. They both discovered the rubber tarantula today. I have it hanging by a shoelace and had forgotten it was even there until they ganged up on it.

Saffy also went swimming today. I have no idea what brought it about but I heard the loud PERSPLUNK! and turned to see Sapphire floundering out of the water bowl. She was a soggy moggy.

As we sat having breakfast and the kittens romped, Randy sneezed. And he sneezed some more. Thus it was that Pippin and Opal experienced their first rubdown with Nature's Miracle. They took it without a fuss and hardly seemed to notice. Good thing, since it's now to be a part of their weekly routine.

Zoe is dying to get out and play with the other kittens. I originally had her in that cage to keep her isolated for fear of health problems or contagion. That notion is shot to hell. It's impossible to keep the cage isolated enough. Sapphire and Jetta keep getting up there to investigate Zoe...and even as I typed this, I looked over in time to see Saffy steal Zoe's catnip mouse through the bars of the cage. Pardon me while I deal with that.

Back now. I tossed another kind of toy to Saffy and Jetta to play with, and Puck has stolen it. He's lying there munching on it. No, he's decided he made his point and it's not that interesting and now Ariel is batting it around.

I'd say the only thing restraining me at this point is that Zoe is so tiny. She has plenty of spirit, but in sheer size I'm afraid she'd get badly trounced.

Saffy and Jetta have discovered and used the big cat boxes, as well as the big bowl of water. Jetta is barely big enough to drink over the rim of the big water bowl and she looks like she's at the edge of a small lake.

Sapphire has discovered the joys of tail-chasing. She was in the canvas director's chair when she spotted The Snake Attached to her Butt and gave chase. Much hilarity was had (by me).

This seemed like the right time to make a serious effort to trap the big fluffy orange and white cat. I got up a bit earlier than usual. When I opened the front door, he was right there. He was startled, but didn't go far. I put the food all the way inside the trap. I wasn't inside the house more than three minutes when I heard KATHUNG. That's a new record for cat-trapping.

I think I can safely say he's feral. He fought that trap ferociously and did a lot of spitting and hissing at me when I transported him to Lolette's. She makes regular runs to her vet's down in L.A. on her way to and from work, and has a deal with him to neuter these stray and feral cats.

While I was there dropping off the cat, I also picked up the second set of shots that the four older kittens needed. Luckily, these are subcutaenous shots and easy to give, so I did it myself.

Things weren't quite as peaceful in kittenlandia today. Nefreet got vicious with the little ones and we had to lock her in the bedroom for a while. No damage done, but we don't trust her at all.

In my office, Ariel took a whack at Sapphire, and Puck gave Jetta several rapid whaps on the head. Again, no damage and the kittens mostly just bounce off and forget about it in a minute.

I've been waiting for the little tabby girl to tell me her name. I got out some of my "Uppity Women" books (it's actually a series) and read out a few names to her. I tried Vashti and Zenobia, and she clearly told me n
ot to pin one of those high-falutin' names on her.
For some reason, I thought of Zoe. This was mostly inspired by the Zoe character from Joss Whedon's FIREFLY series, but not entirely. Late this afternoon, Randy and I took our walk and I told him I was still searching for a name. Quite independently, HE brought up the name Zoe for entirely different reasons. We figured that was a good enough sign.

So she is Zoe for now, until she tells us otherwise.

Ah, Sapphire has just found her way onto my desk. Yes, Saffy, this is a keyboard. The other large furry object is Kate. Kate is curious and baffled, but at least she doesn't hiss. Meanwhile, Jetta is playing around the base of my chair, reminding me how much more careful I must be about every move while the tiny furballs are out and about.

Oh, good. Saff just managed to dump herself and a pile of my papers onto the floor. They needed to be filed anyway. {g}

When Randy and I are downstairs and the two kittens are upstairs, we can hear them thundering around like little elephants. Then...we heard nothing. We looked around. They weren't downstairs. No thunderpaws romping above us.

"It's too quiet."

Randy went up to check. Pippin and Opal had both climbed to the top of the wicker shelves and were stuck there. They can get up, but they haven't worked out the getting down part.

I've been letting Sapphire and Jetta out for large chunks of time in the office. They're having a delightful romp, going everywhere, getting into everything. I simply couldn't keep them cooped up in the Cave all day. It was like having a couple of neutron bombs going off every five minutes. This way they get to burn off several megatonnes of energy before I have to lock them up again.

The first thing Jetta did was head straight to all the regular moggy food bowls and chow down. Naturally, the big cats want to eat whatever is in the Cave for the kittens, so I have to put that away.

The Horde is rather discombobulated at the kitten spree, though none of them are anywhere near as bad as Nefreet is being in the house. But Ariel, Tribble, Sly and even Owl have hissed at them. I was surprised at Owl. He also managed to get himself all the way to the top of the highest set of shelves to escape them. Generally, it's going pretty well with a high degree of tolerance.

Time for cute kitten pictures: Opal, Pippin, Nefreet, little tabby girl.

The kittens aren't happy about being locked in the Cave. Sapphire figured out how to climb up the gate, push against the bungie cord and squeeze out the top. I had to rearrange the bungie cord to make this no longer possible. All she wants to do is get out and explore. Jetta's not quite so brave.

They all need attention. Lots of attention. And I don't have enough hours in the day.

When Saffy was out briefly, she met up with Owl. I swear, Owl had the most hysterical WTF expression on his face. I think she was the first kitten he's ever seen in his entire life. "What IS this thing?"

Pippin loves his practice golf ball. He's learned to carry it around in his mouth and he's so proud of it. He prances when he's carrying it. He runs up and down the stairs with it, and has learned that it's fun to knock it down the stairs so he can chase it. It's too cute for words.

Well, damn. The adoption event didn't go well, probably because everyone involved forgot to take into account that it's Father's Day weekend. People aren't generally out looking for a kitten for dad's present. Consequently, Sapphire and Jetta are back, but not in the house. I've set them up in the Cave. I now have a two-story cat house -- Saffy and Jetta on the ground floor and unnamed tabby-girl in the penthouse above them.

I'm not bringing them back into the house because we simply can't have that many inside. Randy's allergies are steadily getting worse. Pippin and Opal have been calmer and more controlled without the other two siblings around. They bop downstairs at will and love to help themselves to Nefreet's dry food. They definitely prefer it over their dry kitten food.

The rest of the Horde is coming around to check out the new additions. Saffy is doing a bit of defensive growling. I hate to keep them confined, but it's the best solution in a bad situation. I really shouldn't have all these kittens in the first place. Sigh...

Patrice is going to work on getting them adopted in the Bay area. Meanwhile, if anyone reading this blog is in the L.A. area and is interested in one of my darlings, let me know!

Lots happening in the land of the fluffies.

We went to Lolette's and got Little Orphan Annie, the tiny tabby girl, on Thurs. and brought here. I cleared off the top of the oddly-shaped desk that forms the structure of the Cave and I set up a large pet cage on top of it, so that it's a good distance off the ground. I barricaded it with flattened cardboard boxes and other objects to keep the cats from being able to come into direct contact with her and vice versa.

She's set up with a slanted scratching board, a bed, a ball, feather and catnip mouse. She plays with them, but that's not what she wants. She wants love and attention. Lots of love and attention. She is the sweetest, most affectionate little beastie I've ever seen. The minute Randy or I touch her, she purrs. She keeps purring when we hold her, she purrs while she perches on our shoulders, she purrs while she's chasing the toys. Basically, she's a non-stop purr engine.

She can easily see me at my desk. She will cry and cry, then climb to the top of the cage and cry some more. I try to give her cuddle time frequently, but I still need to get work done. It isn't easy.

I'm mixing her canned food with some formula, now that I know how young she is. She hasn't told me her name yet. At the moment, she's playing with her catnip mouse and wreaking havoc in the cage.

Pippin and Opal have become regular visitors to the downstairs floor. They race down the stairs and bound up to Nefreet, who greets them with her usual hiss and snarl. They arch up and dance sideways at her. She is not impressed. She usually retires to the bedroom in a state of High Annoyance.

This weekend, Sapphire and Jetta have gone off to an Adoption Fair in Sherman Oaks. Patrice, the feline rescue organizer, picked them up this morning. She's hauling a dozen or so kittens down for today and tomorrow. I was a little sad to see Saffy go, but I hope they're both adopted and find good homes. At least I know Patrice and her people have strict standards, including requiring adopters to put down money and sign agreements about treatment of the cats or kittens they adopt.

Kate has lost weight, I notice. She was always a blimp. Now I can see indentations in her flanks. She's at a healthy weight, so I hope it's due to being given a mix of regular and "lite" food rather than something being wrong.

But I may have to take Querida back to the vet. I watched her in the cat box and she was making grunting noises as she tried to settle in. Then she strained and strained and produced nothing. Hmmm...I should try some squash on her first, but I'm out of it. Blast!

I go out of my way to keep plastic bags out of Owl's reach, but somehow he found one. He threw up a nice chunk of plastic bag this morning. However, the vet said I can take him off the Horrible Meds for now. I'll have to watch him carefully to see whether he keeps on the weight or starts to lose it again.

The fluffy orange and white cat with the two-colored eyes has settled into a routine of showing up for food. Trapping time approacheth.

I've been too busy to keep up on the details, but in short, here's where things stand.

The fluffy orange and white cat has firmly moved into the yard, and sits right under the porch steps waiting for me. Then he pops his head up to let me know he would like some food and I feed him. I finally got a good look at his face today. He has one bright blue eye and one golden eye. Very striking! Tonight I'll set the trap and see if I can catch him. Then he goes in to be neutered and probably just released again, unless Lolette wants to take him in (which I doubt, given how overburdened she is already).

The upstairs kittens are getting bigger by the minute, full of life and energy and more adorable than ever, but I MUST find good homes for Jetta and Sapphire, and maybe Opal. We're vascillating about Opal.

The small kittens got their shots, though the whole process was fraught with problems and we were up until 1 am as a result. Today, the three that were spoken for were returned to those people.

The fourth is a very tiny tabby female, very sweet (seen in the earlier entry below). She went with Lolette last night who took her to the vet today to have her tested for infectious diseases. It turns out those kittens are actually much younger than I was told -- only about 5, maybe 6 weeks! I had wondered about that, since they were so small. It's a miracle they survived, being given the food they were before I came along.

The little girl was too tiny to be tested and now her situation is in limbo. I don't want to keep a poor, lone kitten out in that side room, but I won't put her with the other kittens in case she turns out to have something. That means it's equally questionable to bring her into my office. That leaves us with nowhere to put her.

Lolette and another rescuer are trying to find a foster home for her. Randy and I have debated it long and hard. If they can't find a place for her, I may bring her in the office anyway. The vet thought she looked fine and healthy. Still...it remains a risk.

And it's all taking way, way too much time that I can't afford given my deadlines (not to mention the extra expense). We'll have to be firm and not do any more kitten rescues for the forseeable future, I'm afraid.

My other person couldn't make it to do the deworming. I had to go to the local feed store to get more kitten food anyway, so I picked up the deworming medicine and am doing it myself. It's a gel, so I put a drop on my finger then put it along the top of their palates. The small kittens took it without a fuss. The upstairs kittens went "EWWWW! YUCKY!!!" I have to do that for another 2 days. They'll love that.

The young woman called about when I would return the kittens. I explained about waiting for the right vaccine. They're going to wait until Wed. It turns out she wants to adopt two of the tabbies. That means that there will be one poor lonely little tabby kitten here from Wed. to Thurs. when he'll be taken to Noah's Bark. Randy wants to bring the cage upstairs to his office for that one period of time, so the poor thing won't be out there alone. He's such a lovely, empathic person.

Here's what the little cuties look like.

I went to Lolette's and got the cage as planned. I also borrowed a trap. When I arrived at the house with the other kittens, I encountered a small horde of young twenty-somethings that I would have to describe as Goths with perhaps a touch of Heavy Metal thrown in. Or perhaps there's a metallic branch of Goth. At any rate, it was delightful to see a pack of non-conformists in this little town.

There turned out to be four kittens: one black, and three dark tabbies. One of the Goth couples has claimed the black one (of course), whom they've named Anakin. {g} The young woman has claimed one of the tabbies. They agreed to let me take all four because I've arranged to get them dewormed and vaccinated at no cost. Then I'll bring the two back that are claimed and the other two will go to Noah's Bark.

As I walked up, I heard myself designated as "the cat lady". Yes, I've fallen over the edge and into the abyss. I'm officially a Cat Lady.

Randy helped me clean out the space in the second laundry room and get the cage set up. He insisted that I give the kittens one of his old, moth-eaten, holey wool sweaters so they can cuddle in it at night. He's worried they'll get cold. Actually, the room is pretty well insulated and feels as though it will stay comfy. And it's shaded during the day, which helps keep it from getting too hot.

In the afternoon, Lolette came by and we vaccinated the upstairs kittens, but she was out of the right shots for the smaller kittens, so she will have to do that on Tues. when she gets more.

The deworming should, theoretically, happen tomorrow.

Meanwhile, all the neighbors' cats from across the street have taken up residence in our yard, including their orange tabby, Nugget, and another black cat, Gizmo, who were supposed to be indoor cats. I went over tonight to inquire and make sure they were their cats and not someone else's lost cats. I quickly discovered the reason for the shift in location. My young neighbors' have brought home two 7 week old Great Dane puppies. They're sweet and beautiful creatures, but I have to wonder what these kids are thinking.

They already have five cats. They've committed to adopting two kittens from Lolette. Now they have two GREAT DANE puppies. I've lost count of the times I've heard this couple screaming at one another about money problems. I can only shake my head and wonder.

We gave the upstairs kitten a new toy: a wire ball with a plastic cube inside. They love it. They're dying to get at the cube inside, but can't. Sapphire keeps picking it up and trying to make off with it.

And what of the rest of the Moggy Horde? They're doing well. Owl is in my lap interfering with my typing, as he loves to do. I've had to cut big chunks of concrete-hard, matted fur off Theseus. I have never seen such tough, dense fur. Sly seems to be feeling his age. Querida definitely does and she sleeps most of the time. I keep doing my best to lure Ariel to come and eat the Good Food near me, but it isn't easy. Tosca and Diva have gotten fat. Kate and Knobby remain skittish. Tribble remains loveable. Puck has become a hefty boy and is still dying to get outside.

And Nefreet remains bent out of shape over the Evil Kittens. She's sulking up a storm. Especially after Pippin charged down the stairs and went bounding after her. He's not terribly intimidated.

It looks like I'll be involved in an additional kitten rescue after all. The three little tabbies I took a look at last week have to be removed from the house they're in which is going to be renovated.

The young woman who has been taking care of them has fallen in love with one and is keeping it. She also, to my surprise and delight, did as I recommended and bought them canned kitten food.

Tomorrow morning, I'm going to Lolette's to borrow a cage, then will round up the two kittens that need to be adopted and set them up in our spare laundry room. This house actually has two laundry rooms, only one of which has machines in it. The other one we've been using for storage. That one at least has a window to let in some air and light. It's not an ideal space to keep kittens in, but it will have to do. I won't risk mixing these kittens with my other ones or exposing them to all the cats.

Next Friday, Patrice (the organizer of this madness) will take these 2 kittens, and a few other batches that she and other people have, to an adoption and rescue place in Long Beach called Noah's Bark.

I also need to borrow a trap. We have a long-haired orange and white stray that has attached itself to our yard. It's time for him/her to be neutered, at the very least.

There are times when Randy and I are sitting downstairs and the kittens are upstairs in their cage, and it sounds like they're TEARING DOWN THE HOUSE. It's amazing that such cute little furry things can sound like a demolition crew.

Owl tried his hiding-in-the-cat-box trick again this morning. And once again, it didn't work.

About that paper granule cat litter? It sucks. We gave up on it almost immediately. This brand was called PaPurr. The kittens tracked it everywhere and it's so lightweight it would cling to them by static electricity. It doesn't clump worth a damn. Worse yet, it was perfumed. Heavily perfumed. I can barely stand to be in the same room with it. I'm mixing what's left over with chicken feed in the big cat boxes in my office where the effect is at least diluted.

The kittens have a new toy -- a long piece of brown ribbon that is somewhat elastic. It's the Brown Snake. Sapphire spent at least five whole minutes whapping the snake non-stop. WHAPWHAPWHAP WHAPWHAPWHAPWHAPWHAP, etc. They'll have tug-of-war with it and because it stretches, when one lets go, it creates a satisfying snap-back.

Speaking of Saffy, she's being very good about taking her medicine and is improving already.

I got sucked into another potential kitten rescue yesterday. I was talking to Patrice about organizing the adoptions for this batch of kittens and she mentioned that a young woman had called her about some kittens that lost their mother and don't have anyone to keep them. Patrice lives about 15 miles or so outside of town, while I was barely half a mile from the location.

That's how I ended up at this old cabin checking out three tabby kittens, about 8 weeks old. Their mother disappeared about 2 weeks ago. he young woman is looking after them the best she can (without money), but the young heavy-metal slacker dude who lives in the cabin is being shipped off to Europe so his father can totally renovate the place, which means the kittens have to go somewhere and the girl can't take them.

The kittens were in better condition than I expected. Rather on the small side, but not malnourished. They generally look healthy and clean, and seemed to have plenty of energy. I took a can of kitten food with me, which they chowed down with gusto.

What they needed most was cat litter, which I also brought with me. They'd been given a box with a bit of yard dirt tossed in it and they didn't like it. We introduced them to the new kitty litter and one of them used it immediately.

They need to be relocated with several days. I have to check with Patrice on when or how she could take them in for adoption. I do NOT want to become known as a "kitten rescue" person. Not that I wouldn't like doing it, but I can't afford it in either money or time. If I brought them here, I'd be putting my own cats at risk, in the event they do have some kind of disease that isn't obvious.

Meanwhile, back with the current Wild Pack of Kittens, Pippin has taken to charging down the stairs and boldly exploring the first floor. Today, he came nose to nose with Nefreet. Randy had to describe it to me because when he's downstairs herding Pippin, I have to be upstairs herding the girls.

Nefreet sniffed Pippin, then did her usual growl & hiss routine. Pippin arched up, did the sideways gonna-get-you dance, then made a bluff charge at her. Nefreet fled to the bedroom. But Pippin isn't used to the slippery linoleum floor and Randy said his feet went out from under him like Bambi on ice.

Not that this has slowed him down one jot, of course.

The girls continue to climb like fiends. They're wreaking dreadful havoc on a couple of the plants we have on the wicker shelves on the upstairs landing. Unfortunately, one is a nephthitis plant which is toxic for them to eat, so we had to trim it back.

The wicker shelves are taking a beating, too, as kittens pry off bits and pieces of it with their wicked little teeth.

I took Sapphire to the vet and took Owl along for the sole purpose of having him weighed.

YES!!! Owl has gained a whole pound! He's up to 11.3 lbs. I would ideally like to see him stabilized around 14 lbs., I think. Which means he must endure the Horrible Meds for a while longer.

He's so damned smart, this boy. For the past three mornings when I went to give him the meds, he happened to be using the catbox. So of course I waited. This morning, he went to the catbox again. I set his meds aside and took care of the other cats. Then I realized -- he wasn't using the catbox. He had hunkered down and was hiding in it! He'd already figured out it was a way to avoid the meds.

Naturally, as soon as I figured this out, I went straight over and gave him the meds in the catbox. We'll see whether he tries that again tomorrow.

He's happily purring away in my lap right now.

Sapphire was an excellent girl, given that it was a day of stressful "firsts". Her first car trip, her first trip to the vet, the first time having a thermometer shoved up her behind, the first time having medicine put down her throat, etc. She took it all very well.

During the first 30 miles of the trip there, she meeped piteously, then she really let go and developed a full Voice. Yow! For the last 12 miles, she settled down more quietly, but she sure wasn't shy. She was right up there at the gate of the carrier, demanding an explanation.

Anyway, the vet commented on how healthy she is and what nice shape she's in. He figures it's a urinary tract infection, which I figured, too. She has to take that hot pink liquid Amoxicillin for the next two weeks.

I also went to Petsmart and bought cat food to last through the Apocalypse, and another type of cat litter to try on the kittens. This type is also made of recycled paper, but is in small granules and is supposed to clump. I once again lucked into a rep for the cat food company when I had my cart piled high with their products, and she gave me a $3.00 coupon to use. Every little bit helps.

We let the kittens out at least four times a day so they can romp and run around. The general routine is: get up, feed kittens, have breakfast, play with kittens, do email until lunchtime, feed kittens, have lunch, maybe get in a walk, play with kitten, get some work done in what's left of the afternoon, play with kittens, feed kittens, have dinner, get some more work or email done, play with kittens, give Nefreet some attention and/or watch a bit of tv, go to bed.

There's a real shortage of "getting work done" in there.

I've connected with a terrific lady up here who is the animal humane office for a new no-kill shelter that is being built. She does tons of kitten and cat rescue, TNR (trap, neuter, release), and adoption. She's meticulous about screening people to adopt kittens, so I'm going to have her adopt out our three. She confirmed that there really is a kitten shortage in the Bay area, so that's where they'll be going.

To help out, I've created webpages for the other three kittens for potentional adopters. Warning: massive cuteness found herein.

Sapphire
Opal
Jetta

If possible, we're taking Sapphire to the vet's tomorrow. She jumps into the catbox about every five minutes, sits and sits, but isn't able to produce anything. I don't know whether she's constipated (seems unlikely, given the squash in their food) or trying to pee. Either way, it needs to be taken care of. In every other respect, she's doing great -- racing around, playing vigorously, eating and drinking water, so it doesn't seem like it could be too serious.

I swear, the three girl kittens were born with monkey genes. I can't believe how they can climb! I was trying to clean their litter box which I do by opening a door on the far side of their cage. The girls, especially Jetta, kept climbing onto the top of the wire cage, seemingly obsessed with what I was doing. Once there, though, they don't have much to support them and their little feet keep falling through the spaces. It took me forever to get the box cleaned because I continually had to pluck off rampant kittens and deposit them on the floor.

And the wild chases down the stairs continue. Yesterday, Jetta made it all the way down the stairs and into the living room before we nabbed her! Luckily (for her), Nefreet was asleep in the bedroom at the time. I don't know for sure that Nefreet would do anything more than hiss, but she's an unpredictable cat, to say the least.

I'm having to keep a careful eye on Tosca. She's always been one of my healthiest cats. In fact, I don't remember ever taking her to the vet. But in the past week I've seen some blood on her stool and she's thrown up (once that I know of). Otherwise, she looks and behaves like a totally healthy, not to mention very fat, cat.

The kittens are getting so big and so active that it's become quite a challenge to keep them confined to the top floor. Pippin especially is determined to race down the stairs every chance he gets, and Jetta is right behind him. We spend a fair bit of energy chasing them down the stairs and hauling them back up.

They know the "food" call and go crazy when one of us comes up the stairs carrying the bowls of food. They swirl around our feet in a frenzy, forcing us to be careful about every step we place.

Every once in a while, Nefreet comes up the stairs, finds that the second floor is still INFESTED with ENEMY KITTENS, hisses a bit and finally gives up on coming any further. She used to spend a lot of time with Randy in his office, but now she hardly goes up there, even when the EVIL KITTENS are locked away.

I'm having trouble getting Ariel to come and eat by me these days. That's bad, as that was the one way I had to be close to her for a few brief moments. I'm afraid she may remain mostly feral and untouchable for the rest of her life, if this is any indication.

I picked up new liquid medicine for Owl yesterday and got it in a chicken flavor this time, hoping it would make it more palatable. Nope. He foamed just as much with this flavor as the other. Oh, well. It was worth a try.

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