Our new foster kitten

This year things were going very well at the animal shelter, there were almost no unwanted kittens coming in. Too bad for me though, no pitter-patter of little kittenfeet at our house.

This morning we finally got the first kitten of the year, he's probably about seven weeks old and all by himself because he was found alone and the shelter suspected him of cat flu.
He was found in an industrial park because people went to see why there were all these seagulls circling a certain spot.
He got taken to the animal shelter, they dewormed him but he still has a huge belly. Two days later the vet checked him and put him on antibiotics and she also found loads of mites so he got Stronghold (also good against worms).
I think I can also feel a really small umbilical hernia, but I'm not 100% sure.

We have the spare bedroom set up as kittenroom so we can keep the kitten seperate from our own cats for now. Flynn loves kittens (and kitten food ) so he is not amused and had been pounding on the door.
I've not heard the kitten sneeze or anything and he doesn't really seem to have any discharge from his eyes anymore so maybe he can get some of our own kitties over for a visit soon.

Because he's alone I've given him a penguin that can be heated in the microwave to snuggle with and he has lots of toys to keep him occupied, he's been using them quite enthousiastically already.
And fortunaly he seems to like human company well.

He has already been drinking from the cat fountain, he has eaten, excuse me that should be inhaled some kibble. I've put him in the litter tray several times but he hasn;t done anything there yet.
I'll keep track of his weight in a chart over here:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?...CJyuh-cH#gid=0

I've not been able to get a good picture yet but do have a movie:

OMG! He is just adorable!!!! Full of energy!!! This needs a cuteness warning!

Black BEBE! Soooo cute! How about CoalBall? I'm just kidding. Inky. He's so full of energy. I can't wait to see more of him!

Wow, you'd never tell from that video that he was ever sick! He's SOOOO CUTE! So full of life and energy. Thanks for taking him and helping him, I'm sure he will have no trouble finding a home when he's ready!

What a cutie pie! Love the sound track.

The little guy has a name now, after a lot of thinking. I have a very long list of names I like on the computer but none of them fit him. The first evening D (my husband) and I had agreed on a name we have both liked for a long time but it still did not feel right so I called home from work the next day to request a name change

We finally called him Tony, after a song by the Pixies which has the same energy he has

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Lm-S...layer_embedded

We feed out cats (and our previous fosters) a raw diet and are very satisfied with the results, so Tony will get that too. We started with some ground chicken from Carnibest (dutch brand of premade raw food), he did not want to try it off a saucer so I fed him some of my finger, boy did he like that
After that he still wouldn't eat off the saucer, apparently I needed to throw it in with his kibble, fine by me.



At the end of the day he had been drinking a lot of water and eaten loads of Carnibest but had not used the litter tray yet. I kept putting him on the kitten tray but he wouldn't do his business. Finally as I was about to go to bed he went into the big covered litterbox.
Kitten trays are for babies according to Tony


Tony and his snugglepenguin;



The poor stuffed animal doesn't have it easy:



While Tony was at the shelter he spent a couple of days in a cage in the office because all the kittenrooms were full and they thought he might be contagious. I talked to a volunteer from the shelter yesterday and she said she was sorry he was gone because he was so sweet to everyone.
I can imagine, he is a friendly little cuddlebug with a very loud purr.

It seems like he needs to get the time he was confined to the cage out of his system because he is bouncing through the room like crazy. It is indeed hard to imagine he was so sick.
And it's nice to have a kitten who appreciates every single toy you put before him, my cats and other fosters were always more picky.





Sometimes even Tony settles down for a break;

Awww Tony is so incredibly sweet

He is ADORABLE!!

I love the energy he has. That first video had him playing with every single toy available

Another cute baby!! You'd never know he was sick with all that energy he has! Your house is going to be a bundle of fun for the next couple of months!!

Originally Posted by stephanietx

Another cute baby!! You'd never know he was sick with all that energy he has! Your house is going to be a bundle of fun for the next couple of months!!

Click to expand...

He might not stay that long, he's about two months old already. The shelter places kittens from when they are at least 9 weeks old and have had their first vaccination.
Normally the shelter is getting emptier at the end of summer when all the kittens get adopted out but this year it seems the peak in kitten season is yet to come here. If we've managed to find Tony his forever home we can foster another litter since the shelter was totally full last week. They have had a big adoption event on saturday which probably gave them some breathing room though.

Tony is still doing fine, I did call the vet earlier because he gained 100 grams yesterday and I wanted to make sure it had nothing to do with his umbilical hernia. I was worried maybe his bowel got trapped in the hernia and subsequent trouble defecating might cause his weight gain. They told me he should appear uncomfortable in that case, and he surely isn't.
Tony is just playing, eating and drinking like he should so I guess I should try not to worry too much.
He did a number two yesterday but nothing tonight so I'll just keep an eye on that.

To prevent him from escaping our kitten room we put a board in the doorway. Our own cats are already wise to the fact that we keep a kitten in there, Mimosa and Flynn are most interested and I'll let them sneak a peek every now and then.
We really have to watch Flynn though because he'll jump down if he gets the chance. He even wakes us up in the morning so we can show him "his" kitten and he makes these cute prrrr prrrr sounds to Tony.
Tony thinks Flynn is pretty interesting too.



Mimosa is a bit different, she will look into the kittenroom and hiss, even when Tony is hidden from her sight. It's like a Monty Python paraphrase; "I hiss in your general direction !"
Here I found her sitting expectantly in front of the closed door early in the morning, ready for some hissing



When she's not hissing she watches the little creature scuttling across the floor whilst wearing a mournful expression on her face ;



Yesterday I gave Tony a ball to play with (I rotate toys otherwise the whole floor would be covered with them) and of course he has been chasing it enthousiastically. Even Ernesto came to watch, he isn;t very interested in kittens but he does want to watch when they are playing football.

Tony seems to think he's hidden in some shrubbery when he sits like this, it's one of his favorite positions to jump out from onto other toys.



My adult cats deem this "flower power" toy the most stupid thing I've ever bought them, but Tony loves it. He can crawl into it, fight it and chew on the flower en leaves on the end of it.



Still eating very well;



It wasn't very comfortable to have him on my lap because he still has a strong urge to suckle and was constantly looking for something to put in his mouth, my fingers, my nose, my clothes, none of them satisfactory.
Yesterday he finally just sat down and relaxed



And eventually even went to sleep:





In profile:




He has a pet fountain to drink from but I also gave him this, you put water in the reservoir at the top and it will drip down into the water dish drop by drop. Utterly fascinating to Tony and of course he couldn't resist touching it:

Great pictures!

Tony is a-dorable!

Last friday we gave Tony the last of his medication, he has always seemed fine since he got here so we felt secure enough to let our own cats visit with him. That went very well.
These "brave" cats were a little nervous at first, so I distracted Flynn with some kittenfood. dEUS can't be bribed but he was distracted from Tony by the need to inspect the litterboxes (the big litterbox is behind the door)
Tony is sitting in his bed like a good kitty because Flynn cuffed him round the head just before, Tony had been a little too enthousiastic about other cats in his room so Flynn had to make him settle down



After he was done inspecting the litterboxes dEUS turned his attention to Tony:



I can trust on Flynn to help me care for a kitten; I weigh, he grooms. Tony would never hold still on the scales but this time he actually sat down.



Tony keeps trying to get dEUS and Flynn to play with him by making playful "attacks, often walking sideways (like a crab) with arched back, or by throwing himself on his back on the floor with every limb flailing around, or by hiding in objects and angling for the other cats woth his little paws. When they don't pay attention to him he makes cute little noises at them.
It worries me a little to see such a small kitty playing with a much bigger cat like Flynn, it looks pretty rough sometimes but Tony must be enjoying it as he always comes back for more. I've also heard him protest when he did not want to be washed so I know what that sounds like
Tony did not play with the "cheese" before because it's no fun all by yourself, but it is an ideal object from which to tag Flynn, as you can see in this clip:




Tony is eating his chicks very well and on saturday he got his first mouse which he polished off in no time , he seems to like prey animals better than any other foods, though he eats everything. When I came home from work on saturday my husband had left me a very proud note "Tony has eaten a whole chick this morning and he can climb onto the wardrobe !".
Our foster kittens from last year took much longer to figure out how to get onto the wardrobe.
Picture of Tony eating a chick under the link, do not click if you do not want to see a cat eating a recognizable prey animal.

http://i463.photobucket.com/albums/q...y/S8306520.jpg

When I suddenly can't find D I check the kitten room and will often find him hanging out with his tiny two-toned friend there. Here I just woke them up, Tony was sleeping draped over his face moments before:

Oh my! Tony is just too adorable for words. I love the vid of him and Flynn pawing at each other through the cheese.

He's such a sweetie and it's obvious he enjoys the company of the other cats.

The shelter sent someone round who was interested in him, she was very enthousiastic but I still haven't heard from the shelter she's been there to pay the adoption fee. I've emailed her and hope she's still interested.

Because I'm spending so much time with him I am kinda behind on posting Tony's stories and pics, what I posted yesterday was not entirely up to date and this isn't either.

He is still growing well, not as much as he used to but that's OK because if he had kept up his initial growthrate he would've exploded.

This is his graph, seems OK right ?

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?...thkey=CJyuh-cH

This is his data plus the data from our previous foster kittens. Now you can see how fast he was really growing

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?...thkey=CNra-_8P

Our little big guy:



Together is better than alone:



You get one guess as to what is in the bag





Flynn likes to groom, and he won't skip Tony's belly or patootie:



Flynn has 6 adult size litterboxes available but of course he has to pee in the baby box Tony hád to take a very close look.



Flynn's tail remains fascinating:



Tony keeps himself entertained:



Tony is almost always fidgeting on my lap but he will sit still on my husbands lap. How does he do it ? (he has that effect on cats)



But not always;





And as a special treat something not everybody gets to see; Tony's other white spots. He is not just showing his white to everybody, you know
He has white "armpits", white "bikini pants" (not very clear in the pic because the hair on his belly is still sparse and his leg is blocking the view) and little tufts of white hair between the paw pads of all four paws.

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Oh my gosh, Tony will have a home in no time! Too cute!

Oh, my heart. Tony is just so adorable. I have to say, the picture of Flynn using the baby litter box cracked me up.

That's a big patch of white on Tony's chest! Makes him look very distinguished. It's a good thing you live across the ocean from me because that boy has stolen my heart.

He is a very cute little man, full of energy too .

Look, he seems to have stolen my husband's heart too !! These two together are cuteness squared


Some clips of Tony


It's nice to have Flynn care from him a little bit, but sometimes...

I gave all the cats some wet food in Tony's room en when Tony had finished eating he started to walk away, but Flynn stopped eating too and began too "clean him up". Way to go Flynn, now Tony was smelling like wet food from head to toe

Even though Tony had a buffet with two kinds of raw food and a canned food, he still prefers a mouse.
Do not click these links if you do not want to see a kitten with a recognizable prey animal

http://i463.photobucket.com/albums/q...y/S8306710.jpg

http://i463.photobucket.com/albums/q...y/S8306720.jpg

If Flynn wants to wash Tony it will happen for sure. Even when Tony went up on the cat condo, Flynn just went up too to get him. He grabbed Tony by the scruff of his neck and started to climb down, no easy feat with Tony weighing close to 1200 grams. When Flynn got to the lowest level on the cat condo he did not know how to go on anymore while holding on to his kitten. He stood there thinking while holding Tony suspended by his scruff. It didn't look very comfortable but Tony stayed limp and unprotesting. By that time my husband went to intervene, when he called Flynn's name he startled him and he dropped Tony to the floor. Fortunately Tony was not hurt and they started playing immediately.
I wonder why Flynn thinks it is a good idea to carry such a big kitten ? He tried it last year too. Last year he also got very nervous when we allowed the kittens out of the kittenroom because it made it harder for him to keep tabs on their whereabouts. He even bit off their whiskers, I presume to make them stay closer to the "nest" as mother cats sometimes do with very young kittens. I gues his sense of timing is a bit off

Tony got his first vaccination on tuesday, along with his microchip.



Unfortunately this morning I saw he had a wet eye and when I came home this afternoon it looked a bit infected. It's probably a bad reaction to the vaccination, the vet told me to start putting ointment in his eyes again.
There is someone interested in adopting Tony, she is coming over tonight, I was going to tell her he could move this weekend but the vet told me she will have to wait until at least after the weekend.

Yesterday Tony had a special visitor, my niece Iris. She is 2 years old and loves kitties. Unfortunately Tony didn't like her at all. Iris didn't seem to care, she had already been playing with my own cats and when we went to Tony's room she seemed more interested in his toys.