catscapades

Christmas Is For Cats

This blog site has become a Lily site. Lily is our torbie kitten who has experienced a few calamities in her short 8-months on earth. I’ve written about some of them here and I plan to add her stories to my ebook, Catscapades; Tales of Ordinary and Extraordinary Cats. In fact, I’m considering bringing that book out in print form after the first of the year.

We have been printing it out and comb-binding it for those who like to have a book to hold in their hands. But I’d really like to offer this delightful book in a less cumbersome, more attractive form. And we might even feature Lily on the cover, this time.

Suggestions and comments for a reprint are welcome. Either leave a comment here or email me at PLFry620@yahoo.com.

I sincerely hope that all of you cat people out there have enjoyed your cats and kittens this holiday season as they react to the new scents, sounds and sights of the season. Our kitties are having the time of their lives. They believe that we set up the tree and covered it with dangling pretties just for their pleasure. They view the time I spend writing Christmas cards and wrapping gifts as an invitation to play. I’m sure that every handmade item and holiday card has left this house with at least a few strands of Lily, Sophie and/or Max fur tucked in.

I made kickers this year for all of my favorite cats and these toys have been a huge hit! A kicker is a fabric tube tightly filled with stuffing, heavy plastic crinkle paper and, of course, catnip. None of the cats I delivered or mailed these to waited until Christmas to open them. They began immediately warming up to the tissue paper-wrapped gifts. While Sally, in Ohio, simply tried to hatch hers under the tree by sitting on it for hours at a time, most of the cats tore right into the packages.

The two Maine coon cats across the street expressed just the sort of enthusiasm that warms a gift-giver’s heart. While the Smurf aggressively attacked, rolled, chewed and kicked her kicker, Isadora carried hers up onto the sofa and lay there with her “arm” around it for a while.

Smokey, my mom’s 11-year-old Maine coon cat is way too cool to be seen playing, so he feigned total disinterest in the gift UNTIL we left the room. When I peered in, I caught him leaping, rolling, kicking, frolicking and otherwise being very un-cool and oh so cute. Of course, when he spotted me watching, he dropped the toy, raised his plumed tail and sauntered out of the room.

My sister’s American Bobtail cat, Scooter Bob, was not concerned about losing his cool. He went absolutely crazy with the kicker. First he licked it until it was sopping wet and then he hugged it while kicking it and rolling all over the room.

If you enjoy—in fact, crave—a reaction from those on your Christmas gift list, consider giving all of the cats you know something filled with catnip. They will love it and they will demonstrate their appreciation. And they won’t return it, re-gift it or toss it out with the trash.

Lily Kitty at 8 Months

Some of you have been wondering how Lily is doing. In June, I wrote about her horrific accident with an ordinary, seemingly safe, carpeted cat tree. We believe what happened is that Lily and 4 year old Sophie were playing, as usual. And Sophie spun off of the cat tree and tipped it. Lily, 12 weeks old, must have been clinging to the opposite side of the cat tree or climbing it. We were home, but in another room, so didn’t see exactly what happened. But we found blood under the cat tree, so we know it fell on Lily.

It must have been moments after it happened, that we began to hear faint kitten cries. We went in search of Lily and found her tangled in a decorative plant stand a few feet away from the downed cat tree, barely conscious, her face covered in blood and her mouth hanging open.

I don’t even want to live through the horror again by writing it. You can read more about the accident and her veterinary and home care in my blog entry for June 30, 2009.

One thing I didn’t report in that blog post was how after 3 or 4 days, we thought Lily was somewhat improved until about noon, when she started to fade. It was as if she was giving up. We rushed her to the vet again and he said, “Well, she looks a lot better than she did when you first brought her in, but I will give her something for swelling.” I’m now told that there could have been swelling in her brain. It is possible that without that shot, she may not have made it. We still don’t have a diagnosis as to where the blood was coming from—exactly where the injury was. But we’re pretty sure that she had a concussion. The vet originally thought her jaw was broken; thankfully extensive exrays showed that was not the case.

By the way, the cat tree now lies on its side—we no longer stand it upright. Lily still plays on it every day. She never seemed to fear it or Sophie even after the accident.

Sophie was traumatized after the accident. We had to leave Lily at the vet for several hours and Sophie walked around and around the house meowing and searching. Once we brought Lily home and secured her in the large enclosure, Sophie stayed close. She knew that something was wrong with her little buddy and it seemed to upset her terribly.

Today, Lily is 8 months old and she is a delight. Looking back, I can see that it took her a while to completely recover from her accident. To me, the kitty mommy who kept vigil over her day and night for literally weeks, she seemed to have some issues for a while with balance, depth perception, confidence and maybe even headaches. But she was much improved.

And then she had another setback with one of her vaccinations. She had a scary reaction to something in the vaccination—we’re thinking it was the leukemia vaccine. Late that afternoon, after the veterinarian’s office closed, Lily seemed lethargic. We could tell that she just wasn’t feeling well. And she was in pain. I found that out when I attempted to pick her up. I did some research on the Internet and learned what to look for indicating that this was a very serious reaction. I watched her closely. She eventually chose a spot in the hallway to crouch and that is where I slept all night—waking up many times to check on her—the vet’s phone number close at hand. It was a long night, but she made it through. She will not have that vaccine again without the antidote—which I think is like Benedril.

As I said, Lily is an absolute delight. She is a total people cat—loves us, loves it when we have guests and adores little children. We have two formerly feral cats and yearned to have one that wasn’t such a challenge. I found out later that Lily was far from a domesticated cat. I ran into the woman my daughter got Lily from (she had 15 kittens from 3 mother cats in late March and early April that year). She asked me how Lily was doing. I told her how much we enjoy her and she said, “You mean, she lets you pet her?” I responded, “Yes, she’s a real snuggle bug.” This woman said, “Well that’s surprising because her mother is absolutely wild and the kittens were never handled.”

No one told Lily she is supposed to be wild. She is one of the most social kitties I’ve ever had. And we wonder if she may have passed some of our other kitties on her way to us—those who have crossed over the Rainbow Bridge. You see, she brought with her Winfield’s obsession with water. She even occasionally drinks by using her paw like he did. And just this morning I caught her moving one of her water dishes around. Winfield was never satisfied with where I put his water bowls. Winfield was our “greeter” cat. While the two formerly feral cats ran away when they heard the doorbell, Winfield ran toward the door to see who was there.

Lily puts me to bed at night like Katy (my beloved Himalayan) used to do. And she has Katy’s sweet, completely trusting, gentle demeanor. There’s no rough and tumble play for this demure kitten. Oh she plays, but like a girl.

We had her spayed in late September. Gosh, we hated to leave her overnight. And when we brought her home the next day, Lily was so happy to see us that she kept trotting from one of us to the other expressing pure joy in her kitten-like gestures. She repeatedly hugged our hands to her chest and purred, and she buried her face in us and snuggled. It was like watching a happy puppy, she expressed such glee.

As you can tell, we couldn’t be more pleased that we finally opened our home to another rescue kitty. There’s nothing like a kitten to warm one’s heart and bring a smile to your face.

Be sure to order your copy of Catscapades, Tales of Ordinary and Extraordinary Cats for Christmas giving. You can order the E-book or the comb-bound print copy–fully illustrated with charming cat photos. http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades.html

All for Animals Founder Helps Shelter

Karen Lee Stevens Videoing a Shelter Dog

Karen Stevens of Santa Barbara, California does a lot for animals. First of all, she has been involved for many years in cat rescue. She founded an International organization called All For Animals http://www.allforanimals.com. She had a spot on local TV for quite a while where she featured a pet from local shelters each week. And she launched the Adoptable Pet Photo Gallery, in hopes of helping shelter animals get adopted.

Recently, Karen began video-taping cats, dogs and other shelter animals that need homes and posts these at her website. They also play the videos at the shelter so that visitors can experience the personality of a dog or cat that happens to be sleeping at the time of their visit, for example.

All for Animals is not a new pup, er, kid on the block. Since 1997, when Karen Lee Stevens founded the organization as a resource for animal lovers in Santa Barbara, the group has been dedicated to raising awareness about cruelty-free living and the importance of compassion to ALL animals.

But that’s not all. When Karen first viewed a video of an adoptable dog at a local animal shelter a few months ago, she said she had one of those “aha” moments. “I actually got goose bumps looking at this dog’s video and listening to the background music (Rio by James Taylor),” Stevens remembers. “The dog happened to be named Rio and the James Taylor song happens to be one of my favorites. Do you ever have a flash of insight where you just know when something is right? For me, I knew in that moment that I wanted to shoot videos of adoptable pets and post them on the Internet.”

Karen calls herself a “video virgin” as she’d never even held a video camera until last month. That’s when she signed up for an introductory camera class at Santa Barbara Channels, a non-profit organization that helps other non-profits produce and air their own high-quality shows on local public access television. Since then, Karen obtained enough funding to purchase a Sony Handicam camcorder and a Macintosh computer (di riguor for any type of graphics or video work) and got to work. Every two weeks, she spends a couple of hours at local animal shelters, shooting video of adoptable cats and dogs and then coming back to her home office, where she edits the videos and adds narration about each pet.

She has always posted photographs of adoptable pets on the All for Animal’s Web site and she felt that videos would be a natural extension of the Pet Photo Gallery. Karen says, “Video enables potential adopters to get a better feel for an animal’s personality, whether it’s watching a dog catch a Frisbee or listening to a cat purr. We want to make it fun and easy for people to meet and ultimately adopt a new best friend.”

All for Animals gratefully accepted donations to help them continue their important and life-saving work of helping shelter pets get adopted. You can send a tax-deductible donation to: All for Animals, PO Box 3534, Santa Barbara, CA 93130. The 501(c) non-profit organization is also registered with Cars for Causes, and accepts old cars, trucks, motorcycles and RVs (this is a perfect time of year to dispose of your old clunker and get a nice tax break). To learn more about All for Animals, visit the organization’s Web site at www.allforanimals.com.

Lily Is In Show Business

Lily has been awarded a place in Terzo’s Mewsical Society. She’ll be 5 months old September 1 and she is a pure delight. We are so pleased to see her doing so well after her horrible accident in June. As far as we or the vet can tell, Lily is at 100 percent again. Of course, she’s facing a little operation late next month—that’s when she gets spayed.

About her acceptance in the Mewsical Society—I got an email from Terzo’s mom, Bobbi Florio Graham saying that they had lost a few kitties from the line up and I thought she was asking for auditions. I responded that Lily would like to audition. Bobbi said that Terzo wanted to keep the number to 33 total and there was no room, but to send her photo along and that she would mention Lily in an upcoming blog. Welllll, I sent a photo of Lily playing the piano and another one of her lounging in a newspaper tunnel. Terzo saw the photos and immediately instructed Bobbi to write back and invite her into the fold.

It seems that they needed another composer (and because she knows piano…) And they thought that since she can read the newspaper, she could help with publicity. In Bobbi’s letter to me after I sent Lily’s photos, she said, “Ooh, I am so smitten.”

Lily is such a dear creature. She is probably the most trusting and social kitty I’ve had in a long time. After we’d had her for about two months, I ran into Nona, the gal who owns the property where these 15 kittens were born (to 3 different moms). She asked if Lily was friendly. I said, “Oh yes. She loves people and even little kids.” Nona said that she was surprised because all of the kitty moms are feral—so wild you can’t touch them—and the kittens were handled very little. Boy did we luck out. Nona also said that the mother cat is not pretty at all. Wow, the daddy must have been a gorgeous, loveable ragdoll cat.

Visit Lily, Max and all of the other adorable and clever kitties in Terzo’s virtual Mewsical Society at http://www.simonteakettle.com/musical.society.htm. Lily is toward the bottom and she’s the only one who has THREE photos.

Kitten Dangers

I can’t tell you how happy we are to have Lily functioning to her full kitten capacity again. She is one of the dearest kittens I have ever had the joy of knowing—she’s an absolute angel. And since her accident, we have become even more protective of this sweet kitty. (Read the June 30, 2009 post to find out what happened to Lily.)

Once you’ve had a kitten injured in your home or poisoned, for example, you begin to look at everything as a possible kitten hazard.

• We used bleach to clean the shower this week and took extra precautions to keep Lily out of the area until we were sure it was safe.
• I don’t leave plastic or paper bags with handles lying around anywhere. (We once had a curious kitten get the handles of a gift bag around his neck. This spooked him and he began tearing around the house with the rattling, crackling bag chasing after him.)
• We are teaching the small grandchildren to pick up their foil wrappers, food items and such so the kitten won’t ingest a foreign object or food that’s unhealthy for her.
• Lily has never shown an interest in the trash, but I am careful to dispose of her canned kitten food lids, sardine can lids, etc. in the outside trash containers. These things are sharp and could cut into a kitten’s or a cat’s tongue if they were to lick them.
• I’ve removed heavy vases and other knick knacks from table tops where Lily could jump up, catch a claw in the doily and pull the item over on herself.
• We only use safe fans—where a kitten cannot poke her paw into the blades.
• I store my knitting projects in a plastic container with a lid. A rambunctious kitten could conceivably fall or jump on a ball of yard with the pointy end of a knitting needle poking through.
• We made sure that our screen doors close securely and abruptly enough to keep a curious kitten from slipping out or an outside cat from dashing in when someone is going in or out.
• When I leave my office, I move my chair into the middle of the room so Lily can’t use it to hop up on my desk or keyboard. She isn’t big enough to jump from the floor to the computer desk, yet.
• We still keep the toilet lids down. We’re expecting guests this week and I’ll post signs to remind them to close the lids after using the facilities.
• I turn lights on when I get up at night because in the dim light, Lily looks like a shadow on the carpeting.
• We’ll give our guests little flashlights to use at night and we’ll instruct them to expect a kitten underfoot anytime they are getting a cup of coffee, a bottle of water, making a sandwich, combing their hair, etc.
There are lots of things to think about when you bring a kitten into the house. And training others to use caution where she is concerned is part of our program. It is our responsibility to keep her safe, after all and one that we happily accept.

Have you ordered your copy of Catscapades, Tales of Ordinary and Extraordinary Cats? It is available in print and ebook form and it is illustrated with numerous photographs. These are true stories about some of the cats I’ve loved over the years and those of others. http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades

Kitten Trauma

I’ve had my share of kittens in my home—probably around 3 dozen altogether over time. And I know how important it is to kitten-proof your home. I typically tie up window blind cords; secure window screens; safely store cleaners and other chemical compounds; keep string, yarn, pins and needles out of reach; put signs up reminding guests to close the toilet lids; move out any questionable plant life; avoid using tinsel and angel hair during the holidays; dispose properly of sardine and other cans with sharp edges; keep bags with handles out of reach and so forth. I know how to kitten-proof my home. In fact, I’ve written articles about it, for heaven sakes. But then we adopted Lily.

It has been 10 years since we’ve had a very young and daring kitten in the house. Little did we know that a carefully chosen item designed specifically for cats and kittens would ultimately seriously threaten sweet 12-week-old Lily’s life.

It was the morning of my birthday. I was under-the-weather and had cancelled my family celebration. I heard Lily crying her soft bird-like chirps and went looking for her. What we found was horrendous. Sophie (our 4-year-old tortie) had “peeled off” of the 2 ½ foot high, carpeted cat tree and knocked it over on precious Lily. Although, I had it sitting where there was carpet on three sides, Lily and the cat tree landed on a section of hard flooring. There was blood everywhere. Lily was bleeding profusely from the nose and mouth. She was in serious distress and so were we.

We rushed her to the vet and they took us in immediately. He kept her for a few hours for observation and gave her fluids, a pain reliever, something for swelling and a sedative. Believing that she had a broken jaw, Dr. Bailey did ex-rays. Thankfully, he could find no broken bones.

Later that day, we brought our precious kitten home. We borrowed a large wire enclosure from a neighbor and set it up in the living room. Lily was comfortable on a soft blue blanket inside the cat carrier, so we put it inside the enclosure along with a litter box and a bowl of water. This is where Lily lived practically day and night for most of the next week. Our instructions were to keep her as comfortable as possible and wait and watch. We added to that prescription some hands-on healing sessions, drops of Bach’s Rescue Remedy on her head and a solicitation of prayers and well wishes from many other cat people. I’m told that one tiny kitten, who just recently healed from a serious infection from a tick, even put his little paws together in prayer for Lily.

Thankfully, she was eating and drinking a lot of water. Although, there were a few days when she was so sleepy that we thought she might drown in the water—so we filled it as needed only to the quarter-inch level. She was using the litter box normally. But she looked awful.

I couldn’t figure out why her face looked so different. There was something strange about her eyes. Even the shape of her face seemed to have changed. She didn’t look swollen—it was more of a gaunt appearance. It wasn’t until she started getting out of her bed and walking around a little that I realized what I had been seeing was probably pain. It was wonderful to see that adorable little face soften and become kitten-like again.

Once she started walking around and playing, we noticed that her balance and depth perception were off. She must have known it, too, because, for several days, even after we began letting her out of her enclosure (under supervision only), Lily would not climb up on anything. She stayed at ground level. Rather than sit on my lap as I read or knitted, she curled up at my feet. The veterinarian agreed with us that she had probably suffered a concussion.

It has been 10 days since Lily’s accident. After the initial few days when Lily was practically comatose, we have witnessed miraculous improvement—in baby steps, but improvements, nonetheless.

We feel that she is 100 percent now. A few nights ago, we decided to leave her outside of the enclosure for the whole night. She came to bed with me for a while; but when I woke up to discover she was gone, I went looking for her. I found her curled up on her blue blanky inside the cat carrier which was still in the enclosure. Ever hear of a kitten that is crate trained?

I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to have our sweet Lily kitten back. She will be 3 months old tomorrow (July 1). And I am so thankful that she has recovered. We hope to succeed for the rest of her life in keeping her safe. She is an inside kitty, as are our other two (Max and Sophie). We now keep the carpeted cat tree on its side. Both Sophie and Lily love playing on it in this position and it will not tip again.

This week, we installed carpeting and padding around the very large and heavy wooden cat tree we have in another area of the house so that if our little dare devil, flying kitten gets too courageous on the top level of the tree, which she has been known to do, and falls, hopefully, she will bounce and not splat.

This is definitely another kitty story that could be added to my book of true cat stories, Catscapades, Tales of Ordinary and Extraordinary Cats. Order your e-copy or print copy today at http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades.html

Cats, and Even Kittens, as Teachers

All is well with the kitties in the Fry household. Max’s health scare is resolved (for the moment), little Lily is thriving—it is so much fun having a kitten around again—and Sophie, our 4-year-old formerly feral tortie, loves having her to play with. Max can’t stand the kitten. Grumpy old (11 years) man that he is, this formerly feral cat has no tolerance for the likes of a kitten who loves to cuddle with his mom (me), and who regularly disturbs his sleep in all of his favorite hiding places.

Lily has more friends than I do at this point. We yearn for a sociable cat, having had hidey cats for so long, so we invite all of the “cat people” we know to come play with her anytime they want. You can see, by the photo I chose for this blog, how well-loved she is by friends of all ages. This is 2-year-old Alyzay with her. Despite the look of concern on Lily’s face in this picture, these two have a marvelous time playing together.

Yesterday, a friend brought Lily and her housemates catnip and treats. Even Sophie came out of hiding to get in on the goodies and she even allowed a little petting.

When we rescued Sophie, she was 10 weeks old and had been living in a cat colony in a nearby town. At the time, we had a purrfectly sociable cat (we called Winfield the greeter) and Max, also formerly feral and afraid of all shadows and sounds. We hoped that Sophie would learn from Winfield, but she ended up following Max into the hidey holes when guests came.

Now, however, it seems that Lily is teaching Sophie a few of her tricks—show yourself, be cute and you will get lots of attention and even treats. Sophie is actually getting better. This week, she came out in plain sight to observe the play habits of a 4-year-old visitor. I think she’s learning that little people often drop food and, having come from the streets, she is a real scavenger. She particularly loves Cheez Its and string cheese.

If you enjoy true stories, reminiscences and commentary about cats and kittens, you will love my latest book, Catscapades, Tales of Ordinary and Extraordinary Cats. Order your copy here only: It’s in print or ebook form. www.matilijapress.com/catscapades.html.

A Cat With a Big Heart

It has been a bit of a feline circus around here these past two weeks. Eight-week old Lily is a pure delight. We have so enjoyed having a kitten around again. That is, all of us except Max. We don’t know if she is the cause or not, but our 11-year old formerly feral kitty has been sick. And, from all that I read, it could be stress-related.

Lily came to us two weeks ago—she was supposed to be 8-weeks old. But the vet tells us that she was only 6-weeks and, before she would administer her inoculations, she wanted the kitten to grow and age a little more. Well, I thought she was awfully small, but it has been a while since I’ve been around a very young kitten. Why didn’t the owner know how old her kittens were? I guess because she had so many. She thought she had 13 kittens (from 3 mother cats), but actually found 2 more this week. She thought they were all born around mid March. But Lily’s litter, it seems didn’t arrive until around April 1.

Okay, so a few days after we brought Lily home, Max started vomiting and gagging. He went off his food and he began to drool and hang his tongue out. Of course, we took him to the vet. He spent a week getting examined, observed, poked, ex rayed and force-fed. Initially, the vet (and I) thought he had a hairball lodged somewhere. Ex rays proved us wrong. What the vet did find, however, was that Max had a very red throat and that he has an enlarged heart and some sort of kink in his esophagus. She wasn’t too concerned about his heart because she could not hear anything irregular through the stethoscope.

When Max didn’t seem to perk up, however, and when he still wasn’t eating on his own after almost a week, I went online. I discovered that stress can cause a cat with an enlarged heart to have symptoms such as Max had—even the red throat, from stomach acids coming up into the throat. And I found this tidbit—“sometimes it can be uncomfortable for a cat with an enlarged heart to lean down to eat, so they go off their food.”

That’s when we got the idea to elevate his food and water. We set his bowls up on a little stool, kept Max isolated (that meant he got to sleep on my bed all day and night) and the very next evening, he started eating and he has been eating his usual amount every day since—about 7 days.

He’s still not crazy about the kitten, but, as you can see in the photo, they have established their pecking order. She’s a bit of a tease and he’s a grumpy old man without much tolerance—they’re similar to Dennis the Menace and Mr. Wilson.

There is another cat in the household—the middle child. Sophie, 4, still has a lot of kitten in her and she and Lily romp and play like crazy around here. It is so much fun to watch them.

Is there anyone out there who has a cat with an enlarged heart? I guess it is rare that you would discover this unless there is an irregular heartbeat or an ex ray is called for. I’d like to hear your stories and your remedies. I’m a little concerned this morning as Max, who has been doing beautifully, lost his breakfast all over the carpet. I hope we aren’t back to square one with him.

Crystal is a hard working therapy cat. She had to pass a temperament test and do ten hours of visits to qualify. Her good looks, of course, come naturally.

She visits the mental health unit at Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City, California for Love on a Leash. The poor therapy dogs are intimidated by Crystal in her stroller, so they visit another day. Just as well, more attention for Crystal.

Crystal earns advanced degrees for every fifty hours she works. After seven years, she has enough hours for five degrees! Currently her official title is Crystal, ThC, e:sv. That stands for Therapy Cat, specializing in elderly people, social visits. The hospital posts her picture and copies of her degrees in the activity room so everyone can see them.

Crystal lives with Janice and Florence (Janice’s Mom). When Janice’s Dad was in the nursing home, Crystal was a constant visitor and comfort. Dad would get agitated as the evening went by, knowing Crystal had to leave. He could hardly wait for morning so she could sit on his bed all day.

The doctors and nurses look forward to Crystal’s arrival just like the patients do. Sometimes when Crystal’s special friends know they are dying, they ask to see her one more time. She always obliges.

The nurses got Crystal a special gift once and presented it during the annual volunteer awards ceremony. It is a couch, just her size. The three pillows across the back are made from photos the nurses took of Crystal during visits.

Crystal doesn’t limit herself to visiting—she also models. One photographer uses her pictures (16×20 size) in coffee shops in San Mateo. Crystal made time to be in the 4th of July parade where the judges were wowed by her flag costume—her picture made the front page of the newspaper.

Cats just don’t get the recognition they need and deserve—but Crystal’s working on it.

For more information on therapy pets, go to http://www.loveonaleash.org .

Contributed by Sandra Murphy, a writer and the editor of SPAWNews.

Meet Lily

It’s kitten season. Kittens are showing up everywhere—most of all in animal shelters. It’s always a good time to adopt/rescue a cat. And right now, you will likely have a wide choice of colors and styles in kittens of all sizes and temperaments.

We adopted Lily last week. Isn’t she a dear? My daughter has a friend whose 3 female barn cats gave birth to 13 kittens this spring. She brought me 2 of them for Mother’s Day. And we were prepared to keep them both, despite the fact that we have two adult cats. But before we could name the kittens, my daughter called to say that all of the other kittens had found homes and there was a woman still wanting one of the kittens. We decided to relinquish one of them—but which one?

We chose the pastel tabby and my daughter took the little calico to the woman. I’d never seen a litter of kittens disappear so quickly—let alone 3 litters. I can only hope that they are all in good situations.

I kept remarking how tiny these kittens are. But figured that I’d just forgotten what an 8-week old kitty looks like. Well, we took Lily to the vet yesterday for the first in her series of vaccines and, guess what? She isn’t 8 weeks old. She is probably only 6 weeks, according to Linda, the veterinarian. Yikes, we’re cradle robbers.

Lily is eating well and using the litter box. I remember with kittens past all sorts of digestive problems as they adjusted to solid food. But now, they have food engineered specifically for kittens and this one—even though she’s awfully young—is doing fabulously on Fancy Feast kitten food.

We were hoping for a friendly, greeter-type kitty this time after living with formerly feral, hidey cats for so many years. And, so far, she is proving to be a real social butterfly. She hears voices and she’s there in the midst of people—any people.

We hope to have many enjoyable years with this little darling. If you have given any thought to adopting a furry friend, this is a great time to give yourself the gift of kitten joy.

My sister-in-law thinks that it is my Catscapades book of cat stories that prompted both her and I to get kittens this year. Read Catscapades, Tales of Ordinary and Extraordinary Cats and see if it has the same effect on you. http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades.html