4-day old kittens

sarthur2 said:

Oh my goodness, you have your house full. You are so kind to take them back.

Keep an eye on Merry's diarrhea, and hopefully you can get Willow and Grace eating lots of wet food. Sounds like the daughters are rather hungry too

.

Click to expand...

We have noticed that all of the cats are just gaga over the home food. It's a lot of work but Brian doesn't mind because of the benefits that the kitties receive. He discovered home food recipes by Lisa Pierson and decided to give it a whirl. It has helped Grace with her diarrhea issue. Now we are trying to slowly wean her off of it and on to store bought so she can be adopted.

I'm sure you already know about this but here is a link just in case: http://www.google.com/url?q=http://...sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNE53x6u_rvN9TuYMAEk4-mjMl1zIQ

So here is an update on the Hobbitses...

All are doing well with the exception of Merry, the runt of the litter. We ran her to the vet yesterday because her straining with the diarrhea caused her colon to prolapse. The doc got it back in, showed us what to do if it happened again and tested her feces. So, we are now treating for our familiar villain, coccidia, in all 5 kittens and in Momma Willow. Merry is also being treated with anti-inflammatory. This morning was another call to the vet. Merry prolapsed again and we have been unable to get it to retreat. As we all feared, the doc is going to have to do surgery. He didn't want to do this initially because of Merry's age but it seems that this is going to be the only answer in fixing her bum. Paws crossed people!

Brandi

Oh, poor Merry! She's been through so much.

When is the surgery occurring?

We just left the vets office a little bit ago. He push her colon back in and did a purse string stitch around her anus. He believes that this is going to stop the protruding and with the drugs, she will soon be right as rain. Really like this vet; he saw us yesterday for the first time and gave us his number to call should anything go wrong. When we called today, he said he would meet us at the clinic in an hour. True to his word, he was waiting on us when we arrived.

I am very impressed with your vet - such dedication! Many vets refuse to see kittens this young, and if they do, they are not entirely sure how to treat them!

I really hope Merry will be "right as rain" very soon. She deserves it!

Merry has recovered and has been running around with her sisters since last night. This little booger! Being the runt, she is much smaller than all of the others. This little Houdini can fit through the spaces in the crate she, her sisters and her momma are all in. Last night and this morning; after changing the bedding in the crate, I put her back in with everyone else. Less than five minutes later, I would hear her meow, look up and she would be in the middle of the den floor!  

She is keeping us on our toes! 

Hope to post some pics soon.

Take care!

Brandi

That is a cute story! I'm glad she is better and playing. Hopefully, she will gain weight and grow soon and no longer fit through the bars. And I hope she doesn't get stuck in them and injured, so please keep an eye out. We've had kittens strangle in such situations when they get their heads caught.

My how they have grown!


Little Miss Meridoc - She is all better now! Her stitches have been removed and she is a feisty one. This sweet baby is about 1/2 the size of her sisters (foster and blood) but you can't tell her that!


Miss Pippen - What a doll! She is such a love bug too. All she wants to do is curl up on your chest so that you may pet her and pet her and pet her. She has a mighty purr as well!


Miss Sam(antha)wise - This one is a rocket! Sam is always bouncing off the walls or climbing to the top of the dog kennel. She is fearless!

All of the girls, including their adopted mom and sisters, are gearing up to be spayed and then we are off to finding homes for all of them. I am going to miss this lot so very much. I've been trying to tell Brian that Sam & Meri need to stay with us (Pippen is already spoken for) because they don't know anyone else. Plus, the mere fact that at one point I had my finger up Meri's butt should be enough to keep her!  LOL

They look fantastic!

I hope you get to keep those two dolls! [emoji]128149[/emoji]

Let us know .

Not sure if this will work or not.....

Here is Merry in action:

 

Meriadoc


Sam(antha)wise


The Twins (we had to get the collars right away because we couldn't tell them apart for the first week they were with us!)

 

Pippin

I don't have any pictures of Willow (yet); she is camera shy and always turns away just as I snap. She is just a beauty so I will persevere!

Oh, how cute! Pretty soon she will be too big to get through there!

They are all precious! It sure sounds like everything is going well.

Last update

All have been adopted! Merri, due to her health, was the last to go and of course I cried. She and Sam found their forever homes about a week apart from each other.

The saddest part of this whole adoption story was Momma Willow. Each time one of her babies were adopted, she would wander around the house, mewling for them; it broke my heart. About three weeks after Merri was adopted, Willow finally calmed down. She was adopted to her forever home on New Year's Eve......by us!

New Year's Eve day, I got a call from the shelter director. She said that she understood we still had Willow. I explained that we continued to foster her but had not been able to find her a home as of yet. Every time The Boyfriend would take her to the shelter for adoption, he was told that they were full and didn't have the space to house her. Eventually we just gave up on the back and forth to the shelter and decided to just get her adopted on our own. Roughly five months later, the shelter was closing out 2015 paper work and realized we still had her. The director asked if we wanted to adopted Willow and she would be more than happy to waive the fees for the adoption. I have to say that it took every ounce of tact that I have not to sarcastically express my gratitude with the waving of the fees since we were already out of pocket around $3K from our fostering experiences with the shelter. Between the illnesses we treated with the cats and kittens from the shelter and the illnesses that we treated that our own cats contracted from the shelter felines, I was just a little peeved at her gracious offer. I drew in a deep breath and thanked her for her generosity and for her work with the shelter animals and said that we were so in love with Willow that of course we had already discussed making her a permanent member of our family. She thanked us for all of our work with the animals we fostered and asked if we were going to continue to foster. Of course, we are!

Even with the frustrations we experienced and the out-of-pocket expenses, The Boyfriend and I gained so much from helping these animals! There is no way we are going to stop. Personally, the frustrations I felt have to be just a drop in the bucket that the shelter employees go through on a daily basis. I just remind myself that in the end, these people are trying to help hundreds of animals and that they have more limitations and red tape to navigate through than I could ever imagine. The Boyfriend, who is the one who pointed this out to me (sometimes I just want to hit him upside the head because of his rational thinking), asked me to keep that in mind whenever I would feel the frustration welling up. He also pointed out that this website helped me out a great deal by being able to ask for advice, grumble about issues with the shelter and that in the end, we helped 11 cats move out of the shelter and into happy homes. Can y'all see why I keep him around?  We frequently catch her sleeping with her tongue handing out.

 She is such a loving baby.

 Her favorite spot is on the counter over the dishwasher; she loves the warmth!

Thank you again to everyone who offered advice and encouragement. Expect to hear more from me as kitten season ramps up!

Brandi

Thank you for continuing to foster in spite of the inherent frustrations. Definitely keep your boyfriend around! Willow looks very content! We'll look forward to hearing from you soon! [emoji]128522[/emoji]