It’s a good thing Hope is heading home on Saturday, because after living upstairs for four days she’s starting to look like a keeper. Especially since Martha isn't here to veto that notion ;-)

Hope still exchanges occasional hisses with our staff cats, but otherwise they don’t interfere with her rambling explorations. I propped a baby gate across the top of the stairs, but sure enough she snuck past it, descended the stairs, squeezed through the railing (the stairway door was closed) and found her way to the canine baby gate. A few barks from Della sent her scrambling back the way she’d come.

In the villa the Potluckers are another bunch of swarming purr-meisters, just like the Angels. Fortunately, the peeing outside the box seems to have been a one-day affair. And Chili’s diarrhea disappeared after a single dose of Metronidazole.

On the minus side, the Angels must have telepathically informed the Potluckers that the water bowl makes a great splash pool. Since we use a big bowl (hard to tip over and the water stays cleaner), that means a few cups of water on the floor. At weigh-in this morning, Tabouli had a distinctly wet belly. Hmmm.

Speaking of weigh-in, weights have been erratic and consumption of canned food sub-optimal. And Chili has been a bit weepy and sneezy since she arrived. I’ve watched all of the kittens approach the canned food, sniff, and walk away. I’ve also seen them all taste it briefly. And ultimately about half gets eaten, with the leftovers going to the dogs.

As a test I’ve cranked up the dry food rations, and they seem to be responding to that. So maybe the Potluckers are primarily kibble grazers. Or maybe congestion is making the canned food hard to smell. Since I’m risk averse, I’m deploying the usual weapons – Viralys gel and Clavamox. These guys are big and strong, so they should be able to overcome a minor viral or bacterial infection.

So far, so good for our recently homeward Angels. The family who adopted Farrah (now Molly) and Ursula (Maggie) report:

And on last year’s alumni front, we got this message a few days ago from the woman who adopted Lucky 13ers Penny and Shamrock (now Lucky).

Penny and Lucky are going great! They're closing in on their two year birthday, which just sounds plain crazy to me. They have really developed such unique personalities in the last year.

Penny is very much the instigator of any trouble or playtime. Her new game is to try to get into the closets! She figured out that she could lay on her back and use her paws to pry open the doors. I solved the problem by putting plastic tubs in front of the door openings and that worked really well until a month ago. Now she can move the plastic tubs around.

Lucky is also very interested in getting in but prefers to let his little sister do all the heavy lifting. He'll just sit on the bed until the door swings open and then he slinks inside.

Lucky is an epic snuggler although he no longer likes getting picked up. Penny on the other hand is addicted to licking the sweat off my face and arms when I finish a hard workout. Sometimes when I'm cooling down on my stationary bike, she'll take the opportunity to hop up on the handlebars so she can get a head start on the sweat licking. Ridiculous!

filed by: TS