Events: go big or go home
Yesterday was quite the day.
Went over to Animal Services for the foster orientation. It’s kitten season and after dropping off seven a couple weeks ago, I felt I should still put that spare room to some use.
The website said it was at 10:30, but there was a group already in session. It wasn’t until a couple came in after me that the lady leading the presentation asked which one we were there for. Turns out, the website was wrong and it was supposed to start at 11.
Got to wander around for thirty minutes and met an awesome older cat named Harry who I would take in in a heartbeat if I didn’t already have two toms. This dude was both huge and in mad need of pets. He was great.
So, the orientation starts and the woman leading it is used to speaking in much larger rooms. We talk about kitten quarantine (everything will need to be bleached afterwards) and how everyone gets ringworm and how fragile kittens are (they die at an alarming rate). “So, who’s ready to take someone home today?”
Several people were not.
I said I couldn’t do bottle babies and they were going to hand me a couple of 8-week-olds. I asked if they had any nursing moms and she said they only have one, but the mother’s feral.
“Oh, I’ve done that before.”
No, the city won’t let me. But they do have sick kittens that need extra care, mainly meds.
The very insecure girl got three kittens who are just going from formula to blended food. She only works part-time, so she can handle that.
The not so insecure girl got two who are going from blended to solid.
The older woman got one who’s only off formula now.
The woman with three kids got two that are on formula.
I got eight kittens who can take solid food but have upper respiratory infections.
Because mine required a medical pass, we started that and processed everyone else to give it time to run through the system. We also got to name the kittens, which was fun.
Pluto: dark tabby white mix, female, flighty
Neptune: darkest brown tabby, male
Saturn: palest brown tabby, female (eye infection)
Jupiter: brown tabby, male, round face (sneezes a lot)
Mars: gray tabby white mix, male (eye infection) but super active
Gaia: gray tabby, female, also flighty
Venus: tuxedo female who's very outgoing and loves to purr
Mercury: pale tabby mix, female (eye infection)
NO, I AM NOT NAMING A KITTEN URANUS.
When I got them into the room, they didn’t want to leave the carrier at first (Well, yeah. Scary new place!) but eventually came out and then just started running around.
They’re all litter-trained and they all have diarrhea, because they are kittens and taking antibiotics (Hell, I get it when I'm taking antibiotics). Saturn gave me a little scare (wouldn’t respond--I thought I had a fading kitten) but once the kid shook too, she was running around with the others. Gaia didn’t eat with the others at first, but she is all about that dry food now.
They all have great purrs. I think they appreciate the space more than anything. They really do love running around, so I think maybe the URI was a result of all of them being cramped in a tight space.
Went over to Animal Services for the foster orientation. It’s kitten season and after dropping off seven a couple weeks ago, I felt I should still put that spare room to some use.
The website said it was at 10:30, but there was a group already in session. It wasn’t until a couple came in after me that the lady leading the presentation asked which one we were there for. Turns out, the website was wrong and it was supposed to start at 11.
Got to wander around for thirty minutes and met an awesome older cat named Harry who I would take in in a heartbeat if I didn’t already have two toms. This dude was both huge and in mad need of pets. He was great.
So, the orientation starts and the woman leading it is used to speaking in much larger rooms. We talk about kitten quarantine (everything will need to be bleached afterwards) and how everyone gets ringworm and how fragile kittens are (they die at an alarming rate). “So, who’s ready to take someone home today?”
Several people were not.
I said I couldn’t do bottle babies and they were going to hand me a couple of 8-week-olds. I asked if they had any nursing moms and she said they only have one, but the mother’s feral.
“Oh, I’ve done that before.”
No, the city won’t let me. But they do have sick kittens that need extra care, mainly meds.
The very insecure girl got three kittens who are just going from formula to blended food. She only works part-time, so she can handle that.
The not so insecure girl got two who are going from blended to solid.
The older woman got one who’s only off formula now.
The woman with three kids got two that are on formula.
I got eight kittens who can take solid food but have upper respiratory infections.
Because mine required a medical pass, we started that and processed everyone else to give it time to run through the system. We also got to name the kittens, which was fun.
Pluto: dark tabby white mix, female, flighty
Neptune: darkest brown tabby, male
Saturn: palest brown tabby, female (eye infection)
Jupiter: brown tabby, male, round face (sneezes a lot)
Mars: gray tabby white mix, male (eye infection) but super active
Gaia: gray tabby, female, also flighty
Venus: tuxedo female who's very outgoing and loves to purr
Mercury: pale tabby mix, female (eye infection)
NO, I AM NOT NAMING A KITTEN URANUS.
When I got them into the room, they didn’t want to leave the carrier at first (Well, yeah. Scary new place!) but eventually came out and then just started running around.
They’re all litter-trained and they all have diarrhea, because they are kittens and taking antibiotics (Hell, I get it when I'm taking antibiotics). Saturn gave me a little scare (wouldn’t respond--I thought I had a fading kitten) but once the kid shook too, she was running around with the others. Gaia didn’t eat with the others at first, but she is all about that dry food now.
They all have great purrs. I think they appreciate the space more than anything. They really do love running around, so I think maybe the URI was a result of all of them being cramped in a tight space.