Uncle Bo

We've had a set of foster kitties for about a month now. When they first arrive, the rule is that they need to be kept separate from the house cats so that no diseases are spread. From day one, however, Bo was very curious as to who was on the other side of the door to the girls' bedroom. He's now allowed access to the room and he's loving it. Uncle Bo likes to help mama kitty clean her babies as well as snuggle with them while napping. He also likes to be around when the babies get canned food (which they're Just starting to eat). But he's a bit bummed when he finds himself removed from the room at that point.  Here are some pics of Bo and the kitties.

Bo, mama kitty, and four kittens

Bo napping with the kitties

The kittens try drinking kitty milk from a plate for the first time.
Two started to lick the milk off each other's faces.

The Avenger Kitties

We have a new foster family living with us! We haven't worked out everyone's name yet, but we have a mama kitty and four avengers, who I believe, in order of size are: the Hulk (AKA Bruce), Iron Man (AKA Tony), Thor (SKA Thor), and Captain America (AKA Steve).

Steve didn't gain any weight over the past week and a half, so we've started supplementing what he's getting from mama kitty. We're hoping that he'll grow up into a full Captain America size at some point. Mama kitty appears to only have two fully functional food dispensaries, two semi-functional, and two that are just for show. Bruce seems to be the king of getting to where the milk action is, so we're trying to pay more attention to where the other three end up so that we can get them growing properly. I'm also working on making sure mama kitty is getting enough to eat. She is a very loving mother and spends a lot of time with her babies, which makes me worry that she's much like many mom's today - not taking enough time out for themselves to recharge their own batteries... and eat.

Bovril has been very excited by the arrival of our new kitty family. He tried several times to play with the babies by bapping them on the heads. He got bapped on his bapper for his troubles (by me). He's finally learned that he can hang out with the family and he can even help with mother and baby grooming, but all horse play is strictly forbidden at this point.

The babies just opened their eyes a few days ago. They were three days old when they came to us and are closer to 2 weeks at this point.

And they're all boys (as you probably guessed from the names). According to the gal at the Larimer Humane society, orange tabbies are always dudes. I guess it's a trait that's only carried on the Y chromosome or something.

Meet Daisy, our foster dog

We took in Daisy about three weeks ago. She's a charming little girl, about 10 months old, who can run fast as lightning, catches and kills mice, loves to sleep at your feet, and is afraid of noises in the dark. 

Every morning I take the dogs out for an hour long walk. When I get a chance, I drop their leashes and let them run. Daisy loves to run in huge looping circles around us. Laika used to do the same when she was younger, but now she tries to take short cuts and cut Daisy off at the pass. They love to play together when they're out in a big field. Laika's not so interested in playing when she's at home, though. Daisy can be a bit too much spunk and spontaneity for Laika who is 12 years old.

Come on in! The water's fine.

I discovered yesterday that Daisy is a big fan of splashing about in the water. We went walking along the storage ponds behind the kids' school yesterday and Daisy was eyeing the water, but I pointed out that it was cold out and she'd freeze her little tuckus off. She agreed in the beginning, but then the pull of the water was just too great. She had a wonderful time splashing about in the waves. The third time she went into the water she finally convinced Laika to join her. Laika only went in up to her chest. As you can imagine, both dogs slept well after our little excursion. 

Our first set of foster animals

This is a video of the almost two months that we spent with our first set of foster kittens: Ewok (who didn't last past the first four days), Sunshine and Marshmallow.

Looking back, if we had known what to look for, we would have realized that the fact Ewok needed a bath to clean the poop out of his fur was a sign that he wasn't doing well. But we were completely naive. You'll see Anna giving the poor little guy a bath in the video. I doubt he had an infection, though, as the other two kitties were, and remained, healthy. Both of the girls got choked up as they watched the clips with Ewok in them.

You'll also see Marshmallow attacking a cheese puff. I just want to say, for the record, that I do not condone the feeding of cheese puffs to kitties. One of the girls videotaped the event and I didn't know about it till later. However, despite not supporting such a diet for kitties, it didn't harm her and it really was rather cute, so I included that bit of footage.

The wet kitty is Marshmallow, as mentioned in my post entitled A Fishy Sound.

Sunshine has a teeny bit of white on her chest, but it's hard to see that as she careens past the camera. Trust me, she's well represented in the video even though she doesn't have a cute moment with a cheese puff or a scary moment with a bathtub.

The kitties will go in to the Larimer Humane Society tomorrow morning at 9:30. We're gonna miss them, but we have high hopes that they'll find warm, loving homes quickly.

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Music: There are two tracks on the video. Both are by Anna Kashfi. The first is "Buttons and Bows" and the second is "A Safe Place". I downloaded the songs from eMusic. (If you'd like to join eMusic, let me know. I can get free songs for inviting you. I've been with them for a few years now and found some really great music through them.)