Day 91 - Cat Naps

It might be the chilly and rainy weather we’ve been having lately, but I’ve been pretty darn tired this last week or so. I’ve had to force myself to get out of bed, force myself to shower, and force myself to get dressed. I’m doing the very minimal amount of things around the house because no matter how little I do I wear out fast. Not usually a napper, I find myself falling asleep in the recliner several times a day. I’d call what I’m doing cat naps, but others have dibs on the term.

Tomorrow we are supposed to have sunshine so hopefully no more cat napping for me. I’ll leave that job to the professionals, the true cat nappers.

Deb falls asleep and cats nap on her lap.

Want to help contribute to the work I do with foster kittens? I have an Amazon wish list right here. These are the things I use again and again, year after year. With daily laundry and frequent cleaning, items have to be replaced often. I’d love anything you’d be willing to send my way!

Day 86 - Foster Kitten Friday

On this Foster Friday we have some independent kitties. They are on their own schedules and are eating big, playing hard, and sleeping deep. Yep, they are basically running the show around here now.

Whether they are wrestling with the blanket,

claiming a cereal box as their own,

Thyme

stealing someone's shoes,

Parsley, Sage, and Rosemary

stealing the recliner,

Thyme, Sage, and Rosemary

or working on a blog,

Parsley and Rosemary at work with Sage sleeping on the job.

they work hard at wearing themselves out. 

Not a growl or hiss from Sage...just a yawn.

Want to help contribute to the work I do with foster kittens? I have an Amazon wish list right here. These are the things I use again and again, year after year. With daily laundry and frequent cleaning, items have to be replaced often. I’d love anything you’d be willing to send my way!

As they get tuckered out they find a myriad of places to sleep.

They love the lap

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary

and the couch

Rosemary

and the cat tree.

Sage

All four sweet babies

Eat/play/sleep and repeat days happening here in kitten land.

Day 79 - Foster Kitten Friday

TGIFF! (Thank goodness it's Foster Friday!)

My Simon & Garfunkel kitties (Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme) are now hitting five weeks old and things are changing. First up, they are no longer bottle babies. So exciting! They've also finished up with their gruel stage and are completely on canned food. They even are doing well with the newly introduced canned food/dry food combo. They are growing fast and are beginning to eat, pee, and poop me out of house and home. Four kitties eating like like crazy have required multiple replenishments of food and litter. (Another reason I like working with Simply Cats - they supply everything for free! Just a quick email to them asking for more supplies and I can pick up the food, litter, or whatever, the next day.)

This week the kitties have also found playing and running and jumping and climbing are fun activities. These little ones never stop. Couch to floor to windowsill to bookshelf to chair to scratching post and back again.

Sometimes I think they are playing
Follow the Leader.

Toys have become important, too. They have a favorite one they fight over and drag around the living room.

Sage has it now, but looks like Thyme is gunning for it.

Yep, Thyme got it all to himself for a short moment.

It's Rosemary's now.

But what about Parsley? When is it her turn? She does play with it sometimes, but not much. At least not yet. When she came here a couple weeks back she was the smallest by far at about 9 ounces. We've worked hard at putting weight on her and she finally hit the one pound mark early this week (yay!) but she's still smaller than the rest. She prefers watching the others play instead of playing herself. Her participation has been increasing and she will even take a swat at one of them and then try and run off. Like kitties when they first start to play, she is still running a bit sideways.

Parsley was also the last off the bottle, the last off the gruel, and the last one ready to eat canned food. Even now, while the others eat nice and neatly, Parsley is messy. With a capital M.

Want to help contribute to the work I do with foster kittens? I have an Amazon wish list right here. These are the things I use again and again, year after year. With daily laundry and frequent cleaning, items have to be replaced often. I’d love anything you’d be willing to send my way!

Looks like a regular kitty eating from a bowl, right?

Look closer to see what she does with her paws. IN THE BOWL.

Try and take her paws out of the bowl and here's what you get. Someone giving you a glaring look and sticking out her tongue.

What about if you take the bowl away instead? You get the pouty look.

Might as well let her finish her messy eating because then you'll get a happy camper ready to clean her own face. (Well, not exactly. She still requires additional face/paws/body-cleaning support from Foster Mama.)

Welcome to my adorable kitten world.

Day 78 - Hugs

Need a little love from a little kitty? As soon as Thyme wakes up I’m sure he’ll give out some hugs.

Yep, all ready!

Want to help contribute to the work I do with foster kittens? I have an Amazon wish list right here. These are the things I use again and again, year after year. With daily laundry and frequent cleaning, items have to be replaced often. I’d love anything you’d be willing to send my way!

Day 72 - Foster Kitten Friday

Welcome to another week of Foster Friday. This day is always the best of the week because I get to show off my little foster babies. (The kitten kind, of course.) 

Schools may be closed all around the world, but Kitty School is open at my house. Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme have been learning lots of great lessons as they move from three week old kitties to four week old kitties.

Please sit down, children.

Boys and girls, what did you learn in school today this week?

*Bottles are good. You get yummy food in your tummy and lots of one-on-one time with Foster Mama. She gives you plenty of loving and even helps clean your face. 

Getting tired.

*Recess is fun! Foster Mama lets us have supervised play on her couch.

*Couches are a great place to climb.

*Eating off a saucer is...well...interesting. We like stepping in it and licking it off our paws the best.

*We like eating food from a spoon, too. Yeah, it's messy but oh-so-good.

*We're getting to be big kids because Foster Mama is teaching us to eat out of a bowl.

*We found out bowls are messy, too.

*But we are learning to clean ourselves! Did you know only a tongue and paw are needed?

*Toys are fun. We'll get more toy lessons next week.

*Scratching posts are also fun. I still need lessons on this one, too.

*We learned the louder we talk, the faster Foster Mama listens.

*Naps are great when you're snuggled with ones you love.

Yep, a great week for us all. See you back next week for another Foster Friday!

Want to help contribute to the work I do with foster kittens? I have an Amazon wish list right here. These are the things I use again and again, year after year. With daily laundry and frequent cleaning, items have to be replaced often. I’d love anything you’d be willing to send my way!

If you need even more cuteness, along with reasons why you should be a foster parent, check out the video I made a couple years back.

Day 65 - Foster Kitten Friday

I am so excited for the return of Foster Friday. With the shelter being closed because of the pandemic I was certain I wouldn't get the chance to do any fostering this year. While having multiple cruises cancelled made me sad, having my foster season cancelled broke my heart.

But no more. We've got kitties!

Since they are baby babies - all weighing under a pound each - I got to pick their names. Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme. Sound familiar? Like Simon and Garfunkel's Scarborough Fair! It's taken them a couple days to settle in but they are doing great. As trying to corral four of them is a little hard, right now they're spending most of their time in their pop up pen. (It's like a playpen but for animals. It's this one here on Amazon.)

At first they just snuggled up in their little bed but then they started wanting to escape.

Potential prison escapees.

Alert the warden. We have Sage over the wall.

They took to the litter box well and are liking their gruel. Gruel is how we transition them from formula to real cat food. It's a canned cat food/jar baby food/kitten formula mixture put into a bottle. It's messy but it fills their bellies and helps them grow big and strong.

Thyme went after it so much he twisted off the lid
and dumped it all over me.

Parsley thinks it's pretty darn yummy.

I attempted to try and get them all into the same picture. It didn't work so well. 

Rosemary says hello.

What, one kitty is missing? Oh yeah, he stepped on my phone with my camera open as I was trying to get them lined up on the couch.

Who just took 18 pictures? Someone with a gray belly!

Want to help contribute to the work I do with foster kittens? I have an Amazon wish list right here. These are the things I use again and again, year after year. With daily laundry and frequent cleaning, items have to be replaced often. I’d love anything you’d be willing to send my way!

As hard as I tried to put them in order (Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme) I had to give up. Herding cats is like, well, herding cats.

Left to right: Sage, Rosemary, Parsley, Thyme.

 A very Happy Foster Friday!

Day 61 - Almost Like Christmas

I would cruise 365 days a year if I could. But there are two things holding me back:

1. Our daughter. She lives in the next town over and one of my favorite things in the world is hanging out with her.
2. Foster Cats. After we had to put our kitty down several years back I started taking in foster kitties. Whenever we’re home, I get baby kittens who aren't yet old enough to adopt and help them get big and strong and ready for adoption. 

As we all know there is now a third reason I’m not always cruising. The dang pandemic has shut down the cruise lines. It’s also shut down hanging with my daughter and shut down the local feline shelter I work with.

But today one of those things changed. Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus and yes Deb, kitties still need temporary mamas. While the Simply Cats shelter is closed to the public, they did have something for me. Well, somethings - as in more than one.

Here's a peek at just one of the little bottle babies I'm transitioning from formula to gruel. Messy, messy. But oh so cute.

All is right with the world when you have this
little one staring up at you on a rainy Monday.

Want to help contribute to the work I do with foster kittens? I have an Amazon wish list right here. These are the things I use again and again, year after year. With daily laundry and frequent cleaning, items have to be replaced often. I’d love anything you’d be willing to send my way!