A few things...
Whenever kittens are very young, sometimes it can be hard to tell if they are boys are girls. I can't say that I have ever guessed incorrectly....until now.
Inigo is actually a little girl! She was, at first, the biggest of the 3 by far. After checking the first time, I didn't give it another thought. Then, the last time we were at the vet, we made the surprising discovery that he was a she in truth.
Sadly, the only other girl in The Princess Bride is Miracle Max's wife, Valerie. In keeping with the theme, I think we'll just keep her named Inigo. I'm sure whomever adopts her will change her name anyway.
Our vet checkups have been a little frustrating. They have had some eye infections and a little upper respiratory infection. The first time we went back for the second round of booster shots, Buttercup was fine but Westley and Inigo were sick, so no shots for them.
The next visit, this last Monday, Westley and Inigo were great and Buttercup now had the creeping crud. At least we are all in the same place with vaccinations now.
I'm taking them again this coming Monday and hopefully everyone will be well and ready for spaying/neutering. Then, once they have recovered, it's time to go up for adoption.
I'm hoping for the best, but there are so many kittens out there now. The shelters are absolutely bursting with kittens needing homes.
As for Alice, she has her own bit of issues going on. They told me when they spayed her that she had a small infection in her mouth. They gave her some antibiotics and we hoped for the best.
As of late, she hasn't been eating as much, and I can tell her mouth is bothering her in some way. Of course, there's no way I can look at it. She doesn't have any interest in letting me get ahold of her head and poke around, so it's hard to know how bad it's gotten. I'm hoping that I can get some liquid antibiotics for her on Monday and see if there's a chance I can get her to take some.
I would really hate to lose her after all we've been through.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
Alice gets her belly shaved
Well, I finally caught Miss Alice and got her fixed - hallelujah!
I had tried to catch her before, but she was always too wise to the traps. I knew that I'd have to find another way, and when a medium size wire cage was advertised on Craigslist for cheap, I knew I had found my means to the end of the kitten factory.
I've been feeding in the morning lately, and not in my old manner of giving everyone a plate and waiting with them. Now I just slop out the food into the dry food bowls and they have a free-for-all.
I hate feeding them this way and I know it's not a fair deal for them either. The piggy boys gorge on the lions share of the food. However, I've really been too tired at night to do it the old way.
This started when I started getting pregnant, because by the end of the day I am spent. With a shift to an earlier start time for Brian's work hours, I may start feeding them in the old way, just early in the morning. We'll see how that works out.
But I digress...
I knew I'd have to snag Alice in the morning when I was feeding them. There were no other times she would let me pet her, let alone pick her up. She couldn't have food after midnight on the night before the surgery, so getting her on that morning was also out.
With this new cage, I felt ok with keeping her confined for the entire day. She had plenty of room to sleep and eat. I put a litter box in there but she had no idea what to do with it, the poor baby.
I had also gotten the "ok" from one of the vets I use to bring her in for this surgery. They knew beforehand that she was semi-feral and would probably be a handful.
Also, this surgery, while affordable, would not be free of charge like it would be if I were able to trap her and take her to the Richmond SPCA. However, this was going to be worth every penny to me just to ensure that I would have no more batches of kittens.
We did have our last batch to deal with, though. Alice had 3 little darlings, two boys and a girl. I named them Westley, Buttercup and Inigo.
After much thought, I decided to ask a friend of mine who I had previously helped with getting her cats fixed and re-homing some kittens. They are staying there for now and will go to the vet for a second round of boosters a week from today.
Hopefully, they will all be over the 2lb mark which makes them big enough to spay/neuter. After that, it's off to the adoption events and a forever home.
Then I'll get to do it all over again with another litter that my friend's cat has. We have to get that mama fixed, too, but she isn't feral, thankfully.
I had tried to catch her before, but she was always too wise to the traps. I knew that I'd have to find another way, and when a medium size wire cage was advertised on Craigslist for cheap, I knew I had found my means to the end of the kitten factory.
I've been feeding in the morning lately, and not in my old manner of giving everyone a plate and waiting with them. Now I just slop out the food into the dry food bowls and they have a free-for-all.
I hate feeding them this way and I know it's not a fair deal for them either. The piggy boys gorge on the lions share of the food. However, I've really been too tired at night to do it the old way.
This started when I started getting pregnant, because by the end of the day I am spent. With a shift to an earlier start time for Brian's work hours, I may start feeding them in the old way, just early in the morning. We'll see how that works out.
But I digress...
I knew I'd have to snag Alice in the morning when I was feeding them. There were no other times she would let me pet her, let alone pick her up. She couldn't have food after midnight on the night before the surgery, so getting her on that morning was also out.
With this new cage, I felt ok with keeping her confined for the entire day. She had plenty of room to sleep and eat. I put a litter box in there but she had no idea what to do with it, the poor baby.
I had also gotten the "ok" from one of the vets I use to bring her in for this surgery. They knew beforehand that she was semi-feral and would probably be a handful.
Also, this surgery, while affordable, would not be free of charge like it would be if I were able to trap her and take her to the Richmond SPCA. However, this was going to be worth every penny to me just to ensure that I would have no more batches of kittens.
We did have our last batch to deal with, though. Alice had 3 little darlings, two boys and a girl. I named them Westley, Buttercup and Inigo.
After much thought, I decided to ask a friend of mine who I had previously helped with getting her cats fixed and re-homing some kittens. They are staying there for now and will go to the vet for a second round of boosters a week from today.
Hopefully, they will all be over the 2lb mark which makes them big enough to spay/neuter. After that, it's off to the adoption events and a forever home.
Then I'll get to do it all over again with another litter that my friend's cat has. We have to get that mama fixed, too, but she isn't feral, thankfully.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)