Still Here - Part One

It has been quite a while since I posted, so I thought I would check in to let you know that I am still here and still fostering. It has been a rough couple of months here in the Animal House and I have been so busy just trying to take care of my fosters, and just did not have time left over to post and update here. So here is a summary of what has been going on since August.

In late August, for the first time we foster some puppies. Just overnight until they could be reunited with their mother, but they were awfully cute and a nice experience for Paige. And reaffirmed to me that I prefer cats - puppies are much more high maintenance.

Then, I had a litter of kittens that were initially known as the "skanky kittens" at the shelter because they were in such bad shape. They were suffering from a very bad case of an internal parasite called coccidia. Initially there were 4 of them and then I brought home two more from another litter that had similar issues. They immediately got along like they had been separated at birth. We named them Lily, Rose, Violet, Briar, Bramble, and Bumble. It was a long fight to get them over the coccidia and adopted into forever homes, but worth it. They were all loving, snuggly kittens who would come running the minute they saw me so they could climb in my lap to snuggle. My whole family was very attached to the entire litter, but I was especially attached to my little long haired orange boy, Bumble. I had the hardest time letting him go up for adoption and almost cried the day he went to his forever home. I might have kept him, but it just was not the right time to add another member to our permanent family and he really would do better in a quiet home.

Here he is shortly after he came to us when he was still "skanky" but cute.

In September I brought home a little kitten who came in with the name Ace and who we thought was semi-feral. After a very short time in my house he was trying to sleep with me and cuddle with me and purring up a storm but would flinch and hide the minute I reached toward him. I began to suspect that he was not feral. He knew humans, he was just afraid of them. Which probably means that someone treated him unkindly in his young life. I decided that my noisy house full of active people, a young child and other cats was not the place for him. I transferred him to a much quieter foster home where he, at my request, he was given a new name (they chose Huckleberry) and a fresh start at learning that some humans would treat him kindly. I am happy to report that he did wonderfully in his new foster home and ended up not only getting adopted, but going home with a nice couple who also adopted another kitten from the same foster home who Huckleberry had become really attached to while in foster.

Daisy, who I mention is my last post in August, recovered completely and was adopted into a home with three little boys who actually had enough energy to keep up with her. She and my baby Doyle became fast friends while she was with us and actually looked a lot alike.

September was also when we also participated in Paige's first fundraiser for the shelter, the Walk for Animals. She had a great time and I am proud to say that this amazing 5 year old managed (with a little help from us) to raise over $800 to help the homeless animals we both care so much about. Here she is walking with me. We were so proud of her that day, and the next day when she started kindergarten.

Beth goes home

On August 15th, the shelter I foster for had a kitten-adopt-a-thon event to try and adopt out some of the many kittens that were ready to come out of foster to find new homes. There were over 25 kittens ready to find new homes and I am happy to say that Beth was scheduled to be one of them. I was also supposed to bring 2 other foster kittens in with her, but that was not to be.

Daisy, I kitten I had for just a little while in order for her to gain weight, started showing signs of a bad form of upper respiratory infection that causes mouth ulcers. And Thin Mint, a kitten I was watching for our foster coordinator was having trouble with her lungs. Beth, however was doing well. Her eye was finally healed and she was over her upper respiratory infection. So to be safe, I sent Beth to the home of another of our foster homes who took wonderful care of her and brought her to the event for me. And I am glad to say that she found a wonderful home with a loving couple and is now happily settled into her forever home.

Here she is all grown up and ready to go!


Daisy is still with me. She is recovering and will hopefully be able to go up for adoption on Friday. Thin Mint, I am sad to say, has found her forever home at the Rainbow Bridge. A vet exam confirmed what we feared. She had a birth defect that would make it harder and harder for her to breathe as she got older and so we had to make the hard decision to euthanize her. We all wished for a different outcome for her, but at least we were able to give her five months of loving care and happiness.

The medical care that these three foster alone have recieved in the short time they have been in the shelter's care is amazing. The shelter does not give up on animals without a fight even though all their funding comes from private donations. It is because of this attitude and how much they truly care for animals that I am participating in their annual Walk for Animals.

And this year, I am making it a family event. My five year old niece Paige is our team captain and she is thrilled to be learning how to raise money for a cause she cares about. And my niece Katy who is 13 has also joined our team, along with some staff and foster people.

We are walking in honor of all the little fighters that come through our lives, both the success stories like Beth, and the sad outcomes like Thin Mint. Please consider making a donation to our team to help this wonderful shelter continue the essential work it does every day. You can make a donation to our team, or to individual team members. Thanks in advance for your generosity. Michelle.

http://support.mspca.org/site/TR/WalkforAnimals/General?team_id=11471&pg=team&fr_id=1300

Cones and Strep Throat

Beth is still recovering well. She is doing well enough and the pain has settled down enough that the incision is getting itchy. Which means that she is trying to scratch at it. That meant an after hours trip to the shelter for a surgical cone. She was NOT happy about it. It was wat too big (because she is so small) and heavier than her.

Just overnight she got her foot caught in it about six times and then managed to pull it off, scraping it along her eye in the process. After that I just left it off and watched her for the rest of the night to try and stop her from messing with her eye. But since we were up all night with Paige (who is 5) because she has a mouth full of strep blisters, it was not that bad to be up with Beth too.

I went back to the shelter in the AM when the surgical team was in and they were able to make the cone small enough to fit her. It required cutting new holes in it and shortening it a lot because she was already wearing the smallest size. She still hates it, but at least it is safe now. Here is Beth a few days after surgery.

Bailey is also doing well recovering from his pneumonia. He is active and playing and being a typical 12 weeks old kitten. I am really hoping he will be well enough by his vet check next week to go back up for adoption.

Beth is Awake!

Beth is awake! Well, actually she is asleep right now, but the important thing is that she woke up from her eye removal surgery. The very skilled vet and surgery team at the shelter were able to successfully remove her damaged eye.

There was concern that she might not wake up from the surgery because she was so little, but the damaged eye was bad enough that the surgery just could not wait and we had to take the chance.

It was a stressful day for me, especially since 5 of my other fosters were having routine spay / neuter surgeries the same day, but thankfully everyone came through surgery just fine. Buffy, Batty, Bubbles, Eric and Quinn stayed at the shelter and went up for adoption and Beth return home with me to recover. As of today, Batty, Eric and Quinn were already adopted!

Comings and Goings

So it has been a bit since I posted. Things have just been a little crazy. But here is what has been going on. Bubbles and Quinn became well enough to come back home with us, but on that same day their brother Eric had to go to stay at the shelter because he was sick with a bad upper respiratory infection. Thankfully he only had to stay a few days.

However, all the kittens were exhibiting slightly odd symptoms. As a result I had Batty and Buffy (who seemed healthy) in my bedroom, Bailey and Eric (who had URI signs) in the spare bathroom and Bubbles and Quinn (dehydration) in the foster room. It was a little crazy.

Eventually, all the kittens but Bailey started having the same odd symptoms: lack of eating and dehydration for now known reason. So we decided to have Bailey go back to the shelter (they are all old enough) and go up for adoption so that he would not get sick being with the other kittens.

A few days later I was volunteering at the shelter manning an informational table on fostering when one of the volunteers came out of the cat adoption area to tell me that she thought Bailey was wheezing. So I went in to check him out. He was visiting with potential adopters and was active and playing so I was not initially too concerned. The potential adopters had some questions about him and decided that they wanted to adopt him so they gave him back to me to go fill out the adoption paperwork and talk with staff.

Unfortunately when I actually got my hands on Bailey I could tell that he was really struggling to breathe and that it was more than the mild URI symptoms that he had shown in my home. I immediately took him back to a staff member to be evaluated and more than one agreed that his breathing was not right and there was no way he could be adopted that day. I felt bad disappointing his potential adopters but we could not send them home with a sick kitten.

I took Bailey home hoping that he was breathing heavy because he had been visited with a lot that day and it was very hot in the shelter since the air system was being repaired and he spent his whole life in my air conditioned home. But after 24 hours back in my home his breathing had not improved so he went in to see the vet that Monday. The vet said that he either had pneumonia or a partially collapsed lung and he would need to stay in foster with me for a least a month to receive treatment. She also looked at his brother Quinn who I brought in for some fluids since he was still dehydrated. When she learned that the whole litter was having problems and that their mother had had mastitis, she put them all on medication for two weeks.

I am happy to report that the medications were just "what the doctor ordered" and everyone is doing well. Two weeks after being put on medications all the kittens except for Bailey are healthy enough to go up for adoption and will be leaving tomorrow. Bailey is improving well, but to be safe we are going to keep him on the medication for the full month since lung problems like this one can be really hard to beat.

So as of tomorrow morning I will be going from having 6 foster kittens to having just one. Although if fate is on my side and a special new little kitten named Beth manages to survive her life saving surgery I will have two. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Where are we now

I am happy to report that Nemo has completely recovered and been adopted into a loving forever home. His name is now Darwin and he is being loved and spoiled as he deserves. We miss him, but are happy to see him doing so well.

April has also returned to the shelter to hopefully find her forever home real soon. She has developed mastitis which happens sometimes when a mom cat stops nursing her kittens. I am hopeful she will recover soon since this is a relatively common thing for a mom cat that was producing as much milk as she was to feed all six kittens.

As for her kittens, we have had our ups and downs. Unfortunately we are in a down swing right now. They are 8 weeks now and should be able to go up for adoption, but are not healthy enough. At first they were just showing mild signs of an upper respiratory infection which will just take time to pass. But on Monday night one of the kittens, Bubbles was very suddenly lethargic and very dehydrated. I quickly gave her some subcutaneous fluids to help her hydration. Subcutaneous fluids (or SubQ fluids) are give by using a needle placed under the skin at the scruff of the neck. The fluid is then quickly absorbed by the kitten.

Bubbles was dehydrated again in the morning when I brought her into the shelter for evaluation. She got more fluids to try to help her out since there did not seem to be any obvious reason for her to be feeling badly. By the time I got her home, she had started having liquid diarrhea almost non-stop and did not want to eat anymore. I force fed her through out the night and cuddled her to make her feel more comfortable. This continued the next day.

Right before bed, I gave Bubbles her SubQ fluids and then went downstairs to the foster room to feed her siblings and was dismayed to see that her brother Quinn was showing all the same signs that Bubbles had shown two days ago. I got him fluids as well and since I was going to be away from the house all day today, I brought the whole litter to the shelter to be observed by the staff because I was very concerned that Bubbles was no better and Quinn was now starting to be sick.

Bubbles and Quinn are now staying at the shelter because they need fluids twice a day and they are not easy to give fluids to. It is also the beginning of Summer Vacation for the 5 year old in my home, which makes it hard to find the time to give the kittens the fluids without her seeing it and potentially scaring her by how they meow and fight when it is being given. So we decided it was best for them to stay at the shelter for a few days.

The rest of the litter, Buffy, Batty, Bailey and Eric came back home with me. I will be watching them closely and crossing my finger that they do not start to feel sick as well. Wish us luck. I will post an update on all of them when I have one.

Nemo - a fighter

Nemo is another foster that we took in right before I ended up with a Kidney stone. He was a failure to thrive kitten from another litter and he just needed more care than he could get in his current foster home. His wonderful foster mother was doing everything that she could for him, but he was still going down hill. He reached the point that he needed Sub-Q (IV) fluids multiple times a day, along with force feeding and multiple medications. She had already been driving him to the shelter once a day for fluids and had his mom and siblings to care for at home.

Since I can do the fluids at home, I offered to take him home and see if I could get him stabilized. We were all very worried that he was not going to make it for even 24 hours after I took him home because he was having massive diarrhea and pooping neon green bile. He was a fighter though and so we were not giving up.

I carried him around with me for days, wrapped up in various blankets that we changed constantly because he as always covered in poop. He got fluids 2 or 3 times a day and a high calorie food mixed with pedialyte to replace the electrolytes he was losing due to the diarrhea, that I was syringe feeding him. After about a week, he was doing a little better and had actually gained some weight, going from 15 oz to 1 lb. 5 oz.

By the time I was in the midst of my medical issues, he was much better, but I was concerned that he might go down hill without me being able to be so one on one with him. Since I was doing everything I could just to feed him, I decided that he needed to go back to the shelter for a while. Thankfully, the wonderful shelter staff and foster coordinators took him back and took wonderful care of him while I could not. And all my friends and other volunteers checked in with him and kept him company. In fact, he went home over a weekend with one volunteer and a friend fell in love with him and plans to adopt him!

I took him back at the beginning of last week and he is now healthy and happy and just about two pounds. He will be heading to a forever home, probably sometime next week!

Nemo day one (a very sick baby)



Kidney stones and force feedings

So Tiny


Cuddling with Sadie and Doyle




Feeling better


Nurse Nemo (right after my surgery)



Ready for a Forever Home