Todd here....
Longtime owner of cats. I had a russian bleu for 18 years when I was growing up. And several other cats have come into and out of my life for eons.
Then later I got some more....
This old guy is Boodgie or "The Boo Man" as he's known. He's 20 years old now and even though he's had renal issues seems to be holding his own pretty well.
Last August our other cat, Kiki died due to complications from lymphoma and diabetes. My wife was super attached to Kiki since she was my mom's cat and we took her in when my mom passed away.
We waited a while before thinking about other cats but in mid October our friends reported about a runt kitten that was kicked out of its litter on their farm.
When they said "runt" they meant it! Meet "Nano".
That was in mid October. She had earmites, parasites in her digestive system and was so small she couldn't be tested for felv or much of anything else.
She was affectionate and sweet but you could see she didn't have a lot of energy.
Everyones jaws dropped when they saw her at the vet. She was so small you could easily put her in the pocket of your shirt and carry her around.
It turns out that she was part of a litter of 3, one was killed by a dog, another was apparently eaten by a coyote and she was the last of her litter still around.
Another cat on the farm died so its larger slightly older kittens went to this cat's mother and the mother kicked poor Nano out. She was 3 weeks old when she was on her own and was fighting for scraps of dog food and whatever she could get. With winter weather approaching she had no body fat to survive and was so small she might have been stepped on or eaten.
My friends' sister had been feeding her milk from an eyedropper but they knew she would not be around very long if left to her own devices...
So we took her in naturally.
A closer look:
Now, in the past we've dealt with vaccinating diabetic cats, treating cats with renal problems with sub-q fluids and the like but we were a bit naive about what a cat like this health situation would be like.
So instead of being smart and waiting for her to be checked out we ended up looking for a buddy for her. To make a long story short we ended up with littermates:
These cats were adopted from our local humane society at an adoption event that was complete pandemonium: kids everywhere, parents, cats, etc.
Meet Ulysses and Socrates (or "Uli" and "Saki" for short). We adopted Ulysses on a sunday and I had the worst feeling about Saki, that even though he was a kitten he was shy and the insanity of the adoption event had him all nervous and skittish.
Sadly I could see a kitten like that being overlooked as a pet and I wouldn't want the poor nervous little guy put to sleep because people couldn't see what a cool cat he was.
I adopted Saki the following tuesday. When they were re-introduced you could see they were so happy to be back together again. At one point they actually hugged each other.
We call them the Hammock Buddies because:
They love their hammock in their cat condo. I can't recommend littermates enough - they keep each other entertained, they run around and chase each other and they're endless bundles of energy.
We went initially looking for a buddy for Nano but she still was so small that there's no way we could think of having these cats interact until she was bigger.
Our older 20 year old cat wanted no truck with this. Luckily, we have enough room so that our old guy, Nano, and the boys all have their own rooms with their own litter boxes and their own food.
Things took a turn for the scary though: We had Nano checked at the vet and the poor thing tested positive for Felv using the snap test. I'm told if the cats health is in question anyway (parasites, earmites) they can easily test false positive and since felv is common in cats on farms it's certainly possible but she was maybe 7-8 weeks old at that time.
So it was good the cats were separated from one another.
Since then Uli and Saki have had their Felv vaccinations and booster shots and seem to be
doing great.
We're going to have Nano tested again in February but here's what she looks like now:
She went from a pleasant but understated kitten to a high speed bullet of a cat who loves to play, play, play.
Before (video):
After:
So.... that being said that's me and my cats and will be dropping in now and again to check out the site.
I'll keep you all updated on how Nano is doing and how her test goes.
Longtime owner of cats. I had a russian bleu for 18 years when I was growing up. And several other cats have come into and out of my life for eons.
Then later I got some more....
This old guy is Boodgie or "The Boo Man" as he's known. He's 20 years old now and even though he's had renal issues seems to be holding his own pretty well.
Last August our other cat, Kiki died due to complications from lymphoma and diabetes. My wife was super attached to Kiki since she was my mom's cat and we took her in when my mom passed away.
We waited a while before thinking about other cats but in mid October our friends reported about a runt kitten that was kicked out of its litter on their farm.
When they said "runt" they meant it! Meet "Nano".
That was in mid October. She had earmites, parasites in her digestive system and was so small she couldn't be tested for felv or much of anything else.
She was affectionate and sweet but you could see she didn't have a lot of energy.
Everyones jaws dropped when they saw her at the vet. She was so small you could easily put her in the pocket of your shirt and carry her around.
It turns out that she was part of a litter of 3, one was killed by a dog, another was apparently eaten by a coyote and she was the last of her litter still around.
Another cat on the farm died so its larger slightly older kittens went to this cat's mother and the mother kicked poor Nano out. She was 3 weeks old when she was on her own and was fighting for scraps of dog food and whatever she could get. With winter weather approaching she had no body fat to survive and was so small she might have been stepped on or eaten.
My friends' sister had been feeding her milk from an eyedropper but they knew she would not be around very long if left to her own devices...
So we took her in naturally.
A closer look:
Now, in the past we've dealt with vaccinating diabetic cats, treating cats with renal problems with sub-q fluids and the like but we were a bit naive about what a cat like this health situation would be like.
So instead of being smart and waiting for her to be checked out we ended up looking for a buddy for her. To make a long story short we ended up with littermates:
These cats were adopted from our local humane society at an adoption event that was complete pandemonium: kids everywhere, parents, cats, etc.
Meet Ulysses and Socrates (or "Uli" and "Saki" for short). We adopted Ulysses on a sunday and I had the worst feeling about Saki, that even though he was a kitten he was shy and the insanity of the adoption event had him all nervous and skittish.
Sadly I could see a kitten like that being overlooked as a pet and I wouldn't want the poor nervous little guy put to sleep because people couldn't see what a cool cat he was.
I adopted Saki the following tuesday. When they were re-introduced you could see they were so happy to be back together again. At one point they actually hugged each other.
We call them the Hammock Buddies because:
They love their hammock in their cat condo. I can't recommend littermates enough - they keep each other entertained, they run around and chase each other and they're endless bundles of energy.
We went initially looking for a buddy for Nano but she still was so small that there's no way we could think of having these cats interact until she was bigger.
Our older 20 year old cat wanted no truck with this. Luckily, we have enough room so that our old guy, Nano, and the boys all have their own rooms with their own litter boxes and their own food.
Things took a turn for the scary though: We had Nano checked at the vet and the poor thing tested positive for Felv using the snap test. I'm told if the cats health is in question anyway (parasites, earmites) they can easily test false positive and since felv is common in cats on farms it's certainly possible but she was maybe 7-8 weeks old at that time.
So it was good the cats were separated from one another.
Since then Uli and Saki have had their Felv vaccinations and booster shots and seem to be
doing great.
We're going to have Nano tested again in February but here's what she looks like now:
She went from a pleasant but understated kitten to a high speed bullet of a cat who loves to play, play, play.
Before (video):
After:
So.... that being said that's me and my cats and will be dropping in now and again to check out the site.
I'll keep you all updated on how Nano is doing and how her test goes.
