Before:
After:
King Midas of Whiskerton started off as a 14oz, hissy spitty, semi feral kitten.....and became a 16+ lb Maine Coon mix. He is very much a mama's boy and typical of anyone's first foster, I kept him.
He's the best.
:)
Saturday, February 27, 2010
All Grown Up
Here is my first foster.
Before:
After:
King Midas of Whiskerton started off as a 14oz, hissy spitty, semi feral kitten.....and became a 16+ lb Maine Coon mix. He is very much a mama's boy and typical of anyone's first foster, I kept him.
He's the best.
:)
Before:
After:
King Midas of Whiskerton started off as a 14oz, hissy spitty, semi feral kitten.....and became a 16+ lb Maine Coon mix. He is very much a mama's boy and typical of anyone's first foster, I kept him.
He's the best.
:)
Friday, February 19, 2010
Love of My Life -- Another Ellie Update!!
We've got fur!!
After one month in foster and five weeks of treatment, we have new fur growing in!! Hooray!
The best part? Ellie is now starting to act like the puppy she never got to be. She gallops around, saying hi to everyone: people, dogs, cats, the wet floor sign--doesn't matter! She loves you!
The other good sign is that her entropion no longer appears as severe as we thought. She's able to open her eyes and doesn't seem to have much drainage.
We have her set up for a spay and possible eye surgery next week, so we have our fingers crossed. If she keeps improving at this rate, she should be done with treatment within another month!
(Don't you love this one? Looks like a mugshot! Too funny.)
After one month in foster and five weeks of treatment, we have new fur growing in!! Hooray!
The best part? Ellie is now starting to act like the puppy she never got to be. She gallops around, saying hi to everyone: people, dogs, cats, the wet floor sign--doesn't matter! She loves you!
The other good sign is that her entropion no longer appears as severe as we thought. She's able to open her eyes and doesn't seem to have much drainage.
We have her set up for a spay and possible eye surgery next week, so we have our fingers crossed. If she keeps improving at this rate, she should be done with treatment within another month!
(Don't you love this one? Looks like a mugshot! Too funny.)
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Alice
I always love when friends or family members adopt one of my foster animals. One of the hardest parts of fostering is letting that animal go, not knowing where or who they’ll end up with—so this nips that problem right in the bud. Although sometimes you might take on the ‘protective former mother’ mode or get upset if they don’t remember you (“I nursed you back to health! Let me hold you!” ), it is always nice to see them happy and content with their new family.
Alice was a kitten in a litter of five that I fostered almost two years ago. It started off like your normal litter, just fatten ‘em and love ‘em. I kept thinking, “Woo hoo! I got an easy batch!” I named them after the Twilight vampire clan: Alice, Jasper, Emmett, Rosalie, and Mouse. Well, Mouse wasn’t really a vampire character, but she was just so cute and tiny that she looked like a mouse.
My friend came by to visit and just fell in love with Mouse. It was hard not to, since was the runt and had this cute alien-esque quality to her. She said she wanted her immediately, once she was big enough to be adopted.
Shortly thereafter, the whole litter came down with an Upper Respiratory Infections, which is basically the kitty version of the colds that you and I occasionally get. However, since these kittens were so young, they got hit really hard. They stopped eating, had gunky noses and had difficult time breathing. I would come home from work and play doctor: force feeding, fluids, medication, STAT! One morning I woke up and went to check on everyone. I found Mouse lying off to the side. I had lost her during the night — her frail little body just couldn’t overcome the severe URI that it was battling. I was sad for her, for me and for my friend that had picked her out as the kitten that she wanted.
After we talked for a bit, my friend asked me to pick out another kitten for her from the litter: the one with the best personality. I had always liked Alice; she was a little spunky and had very pretty muted calico markings.
The day finally came when all the kittens recovered and Alice was ready for her new home. She made the long, long car ride down to Santa Barbara (with a few ‘accidents’ due to confusion). She grew up to be a lovely and good looking cat and has moved back here to Sacramento. She doesn’t remember me of course, but I make it a point to remind her.
Here are some pictures of Alice today, with her new sister Dinah—also a foster care graduate!!
Alice was a kitten in a litter of five that I fostered almost two years ago. It started off like your normal litter, just fatten ‘em and love ‘em. I kept thinking, “Woo hoo! I got an easy batch!” I named them after the Twilight vampire clan: Alice, Jasper, Emmett, Rosalie, and Mouse. Well, Mouse wasn’t really a vampire character, but she was just so cute and tiny that she looked like a mouse.
My friend came by to visit and just fell in love with Mouse. It was hard not to, since was the runt and had this cute alien-esque quality to her. She said she wanted her immediately, once she was big enough to be adopted.
Shortly thereafter, the whole litter came down with an Upper Respiratory Infections, which is basically the kitty version of the colds that you and I occasionally get. However, since these kittens were so young, they got hit really hard. They stopped eating, had gunky noses and had difficult time breathing. I would come home from work and play doctor: force feeding, fluids, medication, STAT! One morning I woke up and went to check on everyone. I found Mouse lying off to the side. I had lost her during the night — her frail little body just couldn’t overcome the severe URI that it was battling. I was sad for her, for me and for my friend that had picked her out as the kitten that she wanted.
After we talked for a bit, my friend asked me to pick out another kitten for her from the litter: the one with the best personality. I had always liked Alice; she was a little spunky and had very pretty muted calico markings.
The day finally came when all the kittens recovered and Alice was ready for her new home. She made the long, long car ride down to Santa Barbara (with a few ‘accidents’ due to confusion). She grew up to be a lovely and good looking cat and has moved back here to Sacramento. She doesn’t remember me of course, but I make it a point to remind her.
Here are some pictures of Alice today, with her new sister Dinah—also a foster care graduate!!
Friday, February 5, 2010
Love of my Life -- An Ellie Update!!
Well Ellie came in for her check up today...
AND SHE LOOKS AMAZING!!
She has made a vast improvement after only three weeks of treatment! She has gained 10 pounds and is running around like a puppy. I can't believe how great she looks. Her foster mom is doing a fabulous job.
We'll see her again in another two weeks and I'm sure she'll look even better!
This made my day today.
AND SHE LOOKS AMAZING!!
She has made a vast improvement after only three weeks of treatment! She has gained 10 pounds and is running around like a puppy. I can't believe how great she looks. Her foster mom is doing a fabulous job.
We'll see her again in another two weeks and I'm sure she'll look even better!
This made my day today.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Pic of the Day
Frankie.
Frankie is one of our success stories! He went to foster about 3 months ago with moderate Demodex (not even half as bad as Ellie and Babar, but still unpleasant to look at and smell!). He recently came back from foster and was adopted within a day!
P.S. I will have updated pictures of Ellie tomorrow. I can't wait to share them. It's only been a month and she looks AMAZING!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Love of My Life
We have an ongoing joke at work when a new animal comes in that it's the new "love of my (your, her) life." There is usually about one per week and it's almost always some pathetic animal that needs a lot of work before they are cute and/or adoptable.
Which leads me to Ellie--the love of my life for January/February!
Ellie came in as a stray with severe demodex, similar to Babar. She is an Old English Bulldogge (kind of a mix between your typical English Bulldog and the larger American Bulldog). In addition to the demodex, she also has severe pyoderma and entropion. Pyoderma is a bacterial infection in the skin causing that lovely yeasty smell, swollen skin and bloody/oozy discharge. Entropion is a typical problem in wrinkly faced dogs, where the eyelids curve in and cause the eyelashes to lay and rub against the eyeball. Yes, that is as painful as it sounds!!
Ellie needs a lot of work. She's on a slew of medications, baths, sprays--pretty much anything you can think of, she's on it. Our veterinarians will also need to perform surgery on her eyes. However, we can't even tackle the entropion until her skin improves.
You would think after all she's been through and her multitude of problems, Ellie might have a little attitude. I mean, who would blame her? Well, you couldn't be more wrong. She is the sweetest thing! She wants nothing more than to cuddle with you, which she doesn't quite understand is something that you may not want given her condition! :)
We sent Ellie to foster last week for the duration of her treatment. Her foster mom reports that she is amazing and looks to be improving every day. She even said that her own cat likes to cuddle with Ellie and sleep curled up next to her! Precious!!
I will be sure to post new photos of Ellie as she transforms from an ugly duckling into a (still wrinkly, no longer stinky) swan! I can't wait to see her.
Which leads me to Ellie--the love of my life for January/February!
Ellie came in as a stray with severe demodex, similar to Babar. She is an Old English Bulldogge (kind of a mix between your typical English Bulldog and the larger American Bulldog). In addition to the demodex, she also has severe pyoderma and entropion. Pyoderma is a bacterial infection in the skin causing that lovely yeasty smell, swollen skin and bloody/oozy discharge. Entropion is a typical problem in wrinkly faced dogs, where the eyelids curve in and cause the eyelashes to lay and rub against the eyeball. Yes, that is as painful as it sounds!!
Ellie needs a lot of work. She's on a slew of medications, baths, sprays--pretty much anything you can think of, she's on it. Our veterinarians will also need to perform surgery on her eyes. However, we can't even tackle the entropion until her skin improves.
You would think after all she's been through and her multitude of problems, Ellie might have a little attitude. I mean, who would blame her? Well, you couldn't be more wrong. She is the sweetest thing! She wants nothing more than to cuddle with you, which she doesn't quite understand is something that you may not want given her condition! :)
We sent Ellie to foster last week for the duration of her treatment. Her foster mom reports that she is amazing and looks to be improving every day. She even said that her own cat likes to cuddle with Ellie and sleep curled up next to her! Precious!!
I will be sure to post new photos of Ellie as she transforms from an ugly duckling into a (still wrinkly, no longer stinky) swan! I can't wait to see her.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
