Peeve: Installing new tech stuff Passion: The Cats, of course

A whole day installing my new HP printer.  It does print beautiful photos and uses the same ink cartridges as my old printer.  It was my Christmas present from Ron!   It should have been easy but was not.  I did get it done  with his help  however. 
 The slippers were also a gift from him.  Lands End booties that I wear everywhere except to the club and out and about in town. I  wore my old  ones until they had holes in both toes and now they go to the fosters as cuddle toys!
The Fosters are all out for adoptions now.  Three, Chewie, Leah and Homer are at Petsmart, and Dori and Hope are at Petco.  I am having a bit of kitty withdrawal as Marian calls it, but Winnie is doing her best to keep that at bay.  I printed the beautiful close up of her  shown below, once I got my new printer up and running. I framed it with a frame from  my raffle basket that I won at the Fiesta dinner this  last spring.

She is so lain back now.  No more IBS, and lots of kitten playfulness. She is thrilled to be allowed to mess with my feet at bedtime and then settle in beside by my tummy for sleep.

Passion: Adoptions like this. Merry Christmas Nick and RC

A wonderful Christmas present for these 2 handsome brothers! They were adopted tonight and will be delivered to their new family this week-end. Nick and RC came to us this last April because their ‘Mom’ could no longer keep them due to health issues. It was a Christmas wish come true for all involved! Also struggling with family health issues, Nick and RC’s new family are so excited to add these 2 wonderful boys to their family. It will be nurturing for both people and cats!
“Nick and RC: there is a Santa Claus!”

Passion:See below

Cat House Update

The 5 at the Cat House are doing well.  They have a heater that has kept them toasty through the nights of hard freeze.  I have pictures to  post but have been too lazy to download them from my camera. Dori is now fully tamed and comes to lie in my lap when I visit.  She is the largest of the crew and a beautiful sleek tuxedo   girl with  the shiniest coat   and cutest white bow on her lip and a white "blaze"  on her nose.  Hope, the smallest of the lot adores her.  Tomorrow I am taking her and Homer for their rabies shots so that they will be ready to go  to Petsmart for adoptions the day after Christmas. 
Homer is a crazy boy who plays with all the girls, and with  Chewy who doesn't mind Homer's rough housing as much as the girls do.  Even Dori gets a little upset with  Homer's rough neck behavior.  More later...

Passion: How Winnie lost her Pooh

I have promised Marian a "Happy Tail"   and am finally getting to it.  The hang up was getting a decent picture.  At last... with Ron's help...

 

Winnie and Lynn

 

Winnie came to me for observation and potential resolution of her gastrointestinal distress issues... ( Gas and recurrent diarrhea). Thus the addition of "Pooh" to her AFC name, Winnie. The problems narrowed down to IBS triggered by any kind of stress. Going to adoptions on Saturday was one stressor, overnight visitors at my house another.  She could easily clear a room with her gas, and had me yearning for beano for kitties. 

I  got her in October and was going to continue taking her to Petco on Saturdays through January when I told myself I would consider adopting her  so that she could remain unstressed.  When I lost my Old Scruffy right before New Years,  I couldn't bear to face another loss even to a "happy adoption".  I went to adoptions  to fill out papers and give the staff her consent letter, while Winnie napped happily at home.  She was 8 months old and weighed 9 lbs.  She is now a year and a half and weighs 12 lbs.  She seldom has gas attacks, (Winnie has lost her Pooh)  and never has diarrhea.  She is one big happy girl and very "busy".  She likes to start the day with a romp after a lazer light, and to go out to the patio in summer, with supervision and a leash and harness, so I can prevent wandering.  However, she is very cleaver and can go in and out the doggy door when it is open and available. Now she is an only cat because I lost my old girl Dinah last month.  She is content.  We have agreed she will just help me foster kittens for now.  She enjoys the new access to the bedroom at night and keeps me awake by pouncing on moving hands or feet under the covers until I speak to her sharply.  She is an awesome cat  and she is  my 21 days ++ of gratitude.   Mika, my lovable maltipoo rescue dog, won't play with Winnie but she loves washing Winnie's face before bedtime at night.  Winnie also  enjoys this added pampering while reclining on my lap at night. 

Hard freezes for ferals

It has been so  cold for  so long....going on  two    weeks    of  night time temperatures  in the 20 degree range and daytimes only creeping into the 40's.  I ordered a pet barn for my semi feral "Rauder"  short for Marauder which he was when I had a doggy door and let the critters come and go as they pleased.  He would come at night to sleep in the Lanai and sometimes took to wandering into the main  parts of the house and "spraying" here and there.  I could track his visits by the odor. 
Now he comes to sleep on my patio,  from time to  time and was coming regularly until Friday when I tried to bring his chair in with him in it.  He awakened and freaked and ran away.  He was back Saturday and I had the good sense not to mess with him.  Then yesterday his Pet Barn came and I put it out by his chair with bedding.  No sign of him this morning.  I have also  ordered him a heatable gel pad but by the time it arrives the cold  snap will probably be over since the shipment seems to be hung up in Wisconsin.
I worry  about him much of the time.  Hopefully he has another warm spot, when he skips my place. I do live in a caring neighborhood.  

This 1st picture is Rauder leaving after a visit in 2011.  The next picture is Rauder back in his prime when he was coming into the Lanai to eat and sleep. 

 My guess is that he was abandoned when his people moved away.  For a long time though he did not  come on to the property that I knew of and then one morning he was there sleeping in the Lanai next to the big mouse which he did enjoy playing with.  He was very handsome back then in 2010 and 2011.  Now he has a torn off left ear, and a wound that healed and then reopened.  I did get him some antibiotics to treat that last spring.  His upper respiratory condition sounds worse than mine when I am experiencing rhinitis. He allows me to brush or pet him while he eats but does not want to be fenced in, so being alone, I have been unsuccessful in trapping and neutering and releasing. I  simply pray that he makes it through this weather.

Grief and Good..

I lost my old girl Dinah shortly after my last post. She came to live with me about 15 years ago.  I  heard a load yowling  sort of like MEOWOWOW which was coming from across the street  from my house.  There she was, so tiny that she fit in the palm of my hand.  She was weaned however and ate voraciously when given some wet food. She joined the four others living at my house at that time. She survived Scruffy,  her next senior by about a year.    When  I grieve I don't write, thus the lapse since my last blog.

 I   got three new fosters however, Homer, Princess Leah and Chewy from the Star Wars  litter that were abandoned at Petco.  Homer fit right in at the Cat House.  He was quiet at first, but now can get crazy.  He races around and then does straight up in the air leaps. 
Princess growled and hissed constantly at first but after two time outs in the condo, has integrated well and tonight was doing the crazies with Homer.  Chewy seems to have hurt his little left paw so was subdued.  Hope is having  "morning sickness" even though  she can not be pregnant. 
With the hard freezes beginning this week I went to Home depot and got a space heater for the Cat House since it is on the end chain of the cottage heating system and was not   heating sufficiently even when the rest of the cottage was sweltering.  The little space heater does quite nicely and is safely positioned in the condo.  It oscillates and even  on "low", heats the room.

Winnie the Pooh continues to wander the house in search of Dinah, but she enjoys the house being more  open to her, and bedding down with Mika  and me at night. She and I have discussed letting her be an only cat for the time being and she is OK with that. She can  sometimes help with fostering. 
I  am ready to write her Happy Tail for AFC.  Ron took nice pictures of me with her, so I can choose one for attachment.  She hates being "held" for pictures, so  although I have good hair in a couple of the photos she has a sour puss in them. 
With all that has gone on (Thanksgiving came and went) I have not gotten pictures of the new kids at the Cat House but here are Winnie and I.

 

 

Winnie and I

 

 

 And in Memorial:  Dinah