So much has happened... so much to update!

Well, where to start?

I muct have been so busy with the kitties and everything else and have just neglected this blog!

The kittens were lovely. I wish now that I'd blogged their antics!



Anyway, The kittens weaned onto raw meat at around 5 weeks old.

Oh, I'm running ahead of myself...

Kitten number 1 was Buddha, a boy tabby.
Kitten number 2 was named Cheshire Cat, a girl tabby & white.
Kitten number 3 was originally named Dude Ranch, but changed to Misty when it was discovered she was infact a she.
Kitten number 4 was called Enema of the State (or E for short), but then changed to a much more kitty-friendly "Spot". And this one was a boy.

So 2 girls and 2 boys.

At the end of November they went back to the rescue to be neutered and spayed, microchipped and rehomed.
5 days later I went back and collected Buddha and Cheshire. I adopted them. They are my lovely cats.

In October & November I fostered another mum cat and her 2 kittens. When they went back I fostered 2 orphaned kittens, who were about the same age as Buddha and Cheshire and their littermates. It was great fun having 6 kittens for 5 weeks!

Over Christmas it was very quiet and I just had my two newly-adopted kittens.

Then in January I fostered a lovely pregnant tortie shell cat called Missy.
Unfortunately, 3 weeks later Missy gave birth to one single tortie kitten, who I named Mouse.

We took them both to the vets to check there were no more kittens in Missy. There werent.

We came home and Missy and Mouse stayed in their cat carrier next to the radiator, and I kept bringing Missy food and water.
Mouse seemed to be doing OK that evening so I moved her back into the cage in the living room, covered over with blankets (the birthing den).
The next day Mouse was vocal and loud. Little strong mews happened regularly.
Unfortunately though the next morning I woke up to find Mouse had died during the night.

Mouse was buried in my parent's back garden, by their bird table.

Missy stayed with me for another two weeks after that.

Then she returned to the rescue, and has since been spayed and rehomed.
I discovered that about a week or two after Missy gave birth, the other pregnant cat she came in with (from the same home but had been fostered with another Fosterer), had given birth to just two kittens.
Both kittens were born with deformed front legs and one also had a cleft palate. That ktten also dies a few days post birth.

I love fostering cats and young kittens, but it's cases like these which prove why people really should spay and neuter their cats.

On the day that Missy returned (17th Feb 2013), I collected a new cat. She's black and white and looks just like the cat on the Felix tins (I know, I know! Felix *spit* lol).
She came with her 3 newborn kittens. She'd given birth that morning in somebody's garden. There were 4 kittens but unfortunately one had already died before they were discovered.

The mother has been named Cinders, and she loves raw meat.
Her three kittens I named Badger (black and white girl), Maggie (short for Magpie - she's white & black), and Panda / Panda-Bear (a white and black boy).

They are now 7 weeks old and adorable little fluff balls. They also weaned onto raw. All three are already reserved and have homes to go to.

Cinders was so antisocial when I first got her. She hissed, spat and scratched. I had to use feliway just to be able to put food down and remove the empty dish.
I also had to watch how much I gave her as she would eat the whole lot, even if she was full, and then she'd throw it back up.
So now I try not to put too much down at a time. Though I thing she is getting better and learning that I will always feed her. She was a stray so I think she must have spent some time not knowing when (or if) she'd get fed again.. so every meal she'd eat the lot, just in case it was her last. Poor cat.

She has turned out to be the most affectionate cat ever (other than Buddha and Cheshire of course). She regularly comes to sit on my lap, or next to me, or nuzzles my hand, and follows me around the room if I get up.
I'm debating adopting her... if I can get her to stop attacking the dogs.
She is better with them, but still doesn't fully trust them. Unless they can all live happily together I can't keep her, as it is unfair (and impractical) to have to shut either her or the dogs away whilst the other gets free reign of the room.

AND... almost forgot....

Two days before I collected Cinders, I collected RUPERT!

Rupert (or Roo) is my Ginger Ninja. My little terrorist. My daughter's early birthday present.

He was fostered with his mum and 5 siblings by another fosterer, who named him Rupert. I shortened it to Roo. One of the litter died at around 3 weeks old. The surviving 5 were then often fed cimicat cat formula *shudder*, and their mum was fed rubbish commercial cat food.

I had reserved him from when he was two weeks old, and given all this (his formula feeding and being weaned on commercial crap) I almost cancelled on him. But later pictures from his fosterer showed him to still be nursing from his mother, so I went ahead and adopted him. And I'm glad I did.

The first full day he was with me I gave him a chicken wing, and the champ stripped it like it was his favourite meal, purring the whole time he was!
And from then we've not looked back.

He can be a terror, a rascal. He was a nightmare with the dogs at first having never seen one before and being over 10 weeks old (so quite fiesty and quick to scratch), but he's calmed down now and settled in, and we love him.
He is 4 months old now.

So that is my news!

Lots of pictures to follow shortly!