I think it can sometimes be a good thing to take a break for a while - we all need to from time to time. I'm glad you decided to join the posting feast again
Welcome back Tania! I'm sure you've noticed, but we've got lots of newbies around here! Hope all is well with you and happy to see you back on the boards!
Well! Thankyou all so much for your kind words. It is, indeed great to be back.
Kitten season has finished for this year - I ended up having 20 little ones throughout the season and 8 at once towards the end! It was a wonderful experience, even though 4 didn't make it as they were already very ill when they came to me. I will certainly be fostering for many kitten seasons to come!
Predictably, one furbaby is staying, a little girl I picked up from a University Vet Hospital near me. She was one day old, still with her little umbilical stump attached and was born with Pectus Excavatum and a heart mumour. You wouldn't know it though, she's 12 weeks old now and hoons around with the others playing feral games and chasing the bigger cats tails. On the pretense that of course, no-one would want a cat with those medical problems, I decided she would be staying with me. She's a calico and white, now called...wait for it...VEGEMITE!!!!! How could I not stay with the food theme?!?!
She's almost the spitting image of Popcorn except she's a short-hair and Poppy is a medium-hair. They look like mother and daughter.
Dad is doing very well, his lung cancer was caught so early, they got to it and were able to treat it agressively and he is completely cancer free. As I said at the time, thankyou to all those who were thinking of and praying for him - I sometimes think that our board magic is better than any medication!
Many, many congratulations to those who's little girls have had kittens - it looks like kitten season is well and truly underway in the Northern Hemisphere!
As I said, I've been 'lurking' every day and the pictures just make me grin from ear to ear.
Speaking of pics, I'm on a friends computer at the moment but when I get a chance, at home, I'll post some pics of some of the babies I cared for and also of Vegemite. I've drawn myself up some plans of a 3-storey kitty-jail I'm going to build for the kittens (really a kitten pen but I call it kitty-jail because they all cry to come out as soon as they see you)
, that I'll scan and post so you guys can give me some feedback and suggestions. I usually keep the kits in a box until they're about 2-1/2 to 3 weeks old and then move them into kitty jail. I'm a handywoman wannabe but I think I'll be able to make this one. I used a babies playpen this year but when I had the 8, I had to let them use the whole room as it just would've been too squashy for them. It was like a bomb had hit Perth - they pulled things down from the shelves, read (shredded) magazines, tipped things over, spread their dry food and kitty litter everywhere! It was so funny though - I thought I'd kittenproofed the room. Nope, silly kitty mummy didn't know kittens can levitate and can use scissors and can bomb rooms!
Well, I'll leave it there for now. Thankyou to everyone for the warm welcome back.
Tania! I've really missed you! I'm so glad we'll be able to enjoy your humor again. I should have known there'd be no end to Vegemite! Here we go again! If you have any left over, our roof needs to be tarred...
Vegemite is NOT repeat NOT to be used as roofing tar!!
I am horrified at the thought - it is too yummy and valuable to be used for anything but being spread thickly on toast, dipped into with a cracker or for trapping rampaging Polar Bears!!
Tania, I know you're an animal lover. Wouldn't you be in trouble for endangering all those Australian Polar Bears? I thought you caught them with fresh baby peas? Just asking......
I don't want the Humane Society getting after you----no vegemite insult intended, of course. We all know what a a um (I'm trying!) a really ummmm delicious (gulp) treat it is! Whew, I did it!!