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Bombs Away

Wednesday
7/1/2009

I took Pinky back to the shelter on Monday, then heard that she was spayed yesterday. No sign of her yet on the shelter website, but that may be because they’re already hip-deep in on-view kittens. I guess the floodgates opened a few weeks ago, just after we took Dice and Jeter back. We’re relieved they both got adopted before the flood hit. Pinky will have lots of competition, but she’s got the right personality to persevere until her new family finds her.

Meanwhile back in the 50K villa, old pal Harley is listening to NPR on the radio and doing a bit less hissing and hiding. The hissiness has subsided with time, and the hiding diminished when Martha taped newspaper around the base of the dresser, leaving no good hiding spots. Unfortunately, Harley seems to have realized this morning that newspaper is no match for claws. Still, we’ve been able to pick her up and get her purring without much trouble recently, and have spent lots of time playing fleecy string with her. When we sit down in the villa to read, she romps around and climbs the vertical mattresses as if we’re not there. So we’ve made enough progress that we think she should head back to the shelter on Monday. She’s looks more like a teenager than a kitten now, and if we can persuade the cat-room volunteers to describe her as a special, high-potential kitten (which we think she really is) that would benefit greatly from the presence of a confident male cat, maybe she’ll be able to close the deal. Unlike many kittens, she’ll let you hold her for a long time while she purrs.

When we took Pinky back, we told our shelter coordinator that we had room for another litter. And boom, a kitten bomb went off in the bunkhouse yesterday when we brought seven new kittens home.

The biggest by far is Suety (eh?), who probably will be ready for adoption after he gets a new name (ASAP) and puts on 12-15 ounces (2-3 weeks). He may or may not be a sibling of all-black male kitten Chowder (we like that name), who arrived at the shelter on the same day. All-black Cassie came to the shelter two days later, so we’re not sure if she’s related to the boys, but she’s also much bigger and stronger than the little guys.

The cute and colorful little puffballs are clearly siblings. Chander (new name needed) is the orange/white alpha male. Cesar (eh) is an outgoing little black-and-white guy. Patchy tabby Cosette is a little cutie, and dilute tortie Cerella (enough with the weird C names!) is even littler and cuter. The last two remind me of Jamie’s “Paintballs” litter at Elephants Upstairs.

No worries so far about the three big kittens, aside from the fact that they missed the box a few times overnight. Their poop looks dark and tubular (I think it’s theirs) and their targeting has improved today.

The little guys are all hitting the box too, but some or all of them are delivering yellowish diarrhea. They just arrived at the shelter two days ago, so they hadn’t received Panacur for deworming until today. They’re also just barely weaned, so we’re watching to make sure they all actually eat on their own.

Little Cerella has the least margin for error and squawked this morning as if she was hungry. I’ve seen her sniff the wet food but not eat much, so I gave her a few syringes of Nutrical this morning. We’ll have to keep a close eye on the smallest puffballs for vomiting or weight loss, since they’re still in that vulnerable sub-one-pound stage. And they’ll need to see a vet for Metronidazole if the diarrhea doesn’t go away in the next day or two.

OK. Any suggestions on a name for this litter?

filed by: TS

Breaking News:
the 50K Naming Commission has issued the following name changes for this motley pack of furballs – which itself awaits the Commission's judgement on a name, which the Commission has indicated will be chosen forthwith and begin with the letter "C". Ahem.

Suety => Gramps
Cesar => Moby
Cerella => Bibi
Chander => Rocco
Cosette => Trina

That is all.

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