Let the altering begin

The first of Lacey and Da Vinci's puppies was neutered today. They seem so little but they are six weeks old now. Just one, Miles, went from that litter. The last one from Bessie and Bear's went with him and was also neutered.

Speaking of Bessie and Bear's litter, that was kind of a wash-out. Out of eight puppies: the four girls were born dead, two of the boys are funny looking and shed, one I traded/gave away, one I am able to sell. That is a $5976.00 litter, not including food, toys, what I pay Liuda, and all the other expenses. That is what I paid for Bessie and Bear, minus what I'm getting for Bear (he is going to a new home), and what I'm paying for the neutering and microchips. I'm getting $1500 for the one puppy. We win some we lose some. Now that I am on my own I can't afford to lose like this. Have I said lately how much I hate it when people look at me like I crawled out from under a rock when they find out how much my puppies are? I'd like to ask them how much they make and tell them they are insane for that.

A cat day

It was so odd going to the vet with a pride of cats instead of a pack of dogs. The four babies were in the litter puppy stroller. Cloud and Axle (the two big boys) were in a crate balanced on top of the stroller; and Zac the cat was in a smaller crate that I carried. Here is the results:

Zac The Cat: Feline Leukemia negative, physical exam normal, healthy boy, received his annual immunizations including Leukemia since he goes outside.

Cloud and Axle are not littermates. The shelter guy had just guessed they were.

Axle: Feline Leukemia negative, teeth in bad shape and two need to be removed. He is approximately nine years old. He weighs 19 pounds and has likely been fed a junky diet. Between his mouth hurting and him being so overweight, he is not doing a good job grooming himself. He needs to be brushed everyday. He also needs to be fed a high quality diet (of course). He received his annual vaccinations. He needs a follow in six month, after having stability in my house and eating a good diet, so he can have a geriatic blood profile drawn. The vet thinks Axle is healthy, the follow bloodwork is at my request.

Cloud: Feline Leukemia test was negative. Cloud is approximately seven years old and weighs 19 1/2 pounds (I had weighed them at home. I don't like my dogs/cats to use a community scale at the vet). His teeth are in good shape but his body is not in as good a shape. He has fatty-type masses under his arms and in his abdomen. He also has a thin haircoat. He received annual vaccinations. The vet is somewhat concerned about Clouds health status and wants him in for follow up blood work after stabilizing at my house and eating good food in a few months.

Baby Kittens:
Calli is the biggest and healthiest and weighs 13.5 ounces.
Midnight is also big and healthy weighing 12.1 ounces.
Pumkin Face is active like the other two, but is small and starting to
lose weight, 9.5 ounces. He needs help and there is a chance he might
not make it.
Kitty JR is the littlest, scrawniest one. He is not very active at all 7.8
ounces. He need a bunch of help and still might not make it.
The vet said the formula I'm making is good and said to add some of the canned high cal diet tube feeding food I have left from Ellie the Cleft Palate Puppy. I need to continue syringe feeding Kitty JR and Pumkin Face, and give them injections of normal saline with vitamins twice a day. They all are to get a squirt of liquid vitamins twice a day. These kitties are 4 or 5 weeks old. That means they were taken away from their mom and put in the shelter when they were 3 or 4 weeks old. She said kittens should not be weaned until they are at least 6 weeks. She cautioned me that sometimes once a kitten starts to fail, no matter what we do or how hard we try, they will die. She said not to feel guilty. She was holding Kitty JR and I think she was very gently telling me that kitty was probably not going to make it.

Today started and ended much like yesterday. Nobody came to see puppies, but I did spend much time on the phone after work talking to 6 different people about puppies.

I am sooo frustrated with my website host people. I can't get in to the administration area to update because of issues they are having...again. This is happening more often than not.

Bear is moving out of the country in a few weeks. He is excited because he will have lots of girlfriends.

The big cat-boys are doing very well. They are huge, each weighs 19 pounds. The kittens are not doing as well. One has lost over one ounce. I finally started force feeding him some formula I made yesterday.

Ahhh, somebody just now came up behind me and started licking my neck! It was Bear.

What a long day

This morning I got up bright and early and:
-let Velvet and Bear out
-cleaned the baby kitty area
-weighed and fed baby kitties
-brought Velvet and Bear back in
-let out both litters of puppies
-unloaded the dishwasher
-did a load of puppy laundry
-got ready for work
-checked my email
-made it to work by 9:00 a.m. (my sister come over several times today to sit with the kitties and doodles, let everybody in and out, and play with everybody).
-got home from work at 6pm
-Mother called as soon as I got home and told me to go check on my sister (lives 3 houses down).
-did a load of puppy laundry
-checked on, weighed, and fed baby kitties. One is losing weight.
-checked on all the puppies
-One of pup's (Corky, a Lacey/DaVinci girl) new mom came for a visit.
-Another family came to get BB (Bessie/Bear). We went over all the usual stuff that takes awhile. The phone kept ringing.
-When that family left, Corky's mom helped me get pictures. Then she left.
-That was 9:00 pm
-Called the first person who called when the families were here. I had said I would call her when they left. We talked for 45 minutes. They are getting one of Lacey/DaVinci's chocolate boys. Their neighbor/friends has a Bridegroom (Noodles)/Leather (Zion) puppy.
-It was 9:45pm by this time and too late to call the other people back who had called when the families were here. I had promised them I would call them back. I emailed them in the hopes they were online.
-uploaded the pictures and sent to the family who I couldn't call because it was too late.
-ate some supper (fresh cherries, raw broccoli califlower (Jill calls them chicken flowers) carrots, and a banana)
-tried to update the website but had to live chat with tech support instead. I have been having lots of problems with the website host. More often than not I can't get in to the administration area of the website.
-It is 11:50 p.m. and although I still have lots to do, I'm going to bed now.

Oopsie, I forgot

All the kitties, including my sister's Zac the cat (whom I also rescued from the shelter three years ago. He was also too tiny and sickly and wasn't doing well. I fixed him up and he has been happily living with my sister ever since), had appointments with the vet today. At 10:30 I double checked my date book to see if the appointment was for 11 or 11:30. Oops, it was for 10:00. I called and rescheduled for Monday. I really hate that. The babies are so tiny and one is losing weight.
Zac the cat right before moving to my sister's house three years ago. Velvet is such a good girl.

On a happier note, BB went to his new family today. We are using the bartering system. Somebody called about a puppy, submitted an application, and we emailed back and forth several times. I happened to notice on her email tag line is the name of the company she works for. I am in the market for the product that company deals with. We are trading.

Oh My Gosh What did I do?

Sorry, can you stand one more cat sob story from me?

So, yesterday when I got those two big 7 yr old cats from the local kill shelter I noticed these tiny baby kittens that looked like they weren't even 3 weeks old. I was so upset because they don't look old enough to be away from their mom and because they might not be able to keep the kennel crud at bay. However, they did have teeth, and just kept telling myself they would be adopted since they were so cute and tiny.

Last night I tossed and turned and lost sleep over worry about those babies. This afternoon I went to the pet supply store and got some baby cat food to take to them. I thought if nothing else I could go in each morning and feed them proper kitten food. I went but couldn't leave them there. They seemed a bit thinner and one had eye crud. They were flea infested too. They guy working there said they would not survive there and said I could just take them if I promise not to bring them back. What could I do?

They are so incredibly tiny ranging from 9 to 11 ounces. The vet says the general rule of thumb is kittens are 1 pound per month old. Smaller than a $$ bill

Velvet just can't resist a baby bum

She says "Ewww, that doesn't smell like any baby of mine"


Anybody want a cat?

Kitties

Fabuke still hasn't returned, so I went to the humane society and the kill shelter looking for him today. He wasn't at either. The cats at the humane society were in rooms with cat trees and toys and windows and they all looked healthy and happy. I went to the kill shelter second and those cats were in little steel cages and were not all nice and happy and cozy. I told the guy that I wouldn't mind taking the oldest one he has. He took me over to these two cats that were beside each other in separate cages. These two guys are 7 years old, littermates, have lived together all their lives, and their owner died. Now they are in the kill shelter, in separate cages, and will likely be put to sleep because nobody will adopt them over all the cute little kittens. Of course I took them.They are both neutered boys. They have their claws. They are huge, used to children, and not fazed by Velvet.
Cloud
Axle

Peek-a-boo I see you
Somebody catch me
Phil

Bessie's puppies are out having fun too
You can't get meTeeheeeheeeThat Souprize tells the funniest jokes.
Get that stuffed bunny
No, I'd rather get this bad 'ole weed

Another family came today to see the puppies. Ah, now this is more like it. They stayed for 2 1/2 hours and seemed to love the puppies. It was fun. Their daughter is allergic to dogs, so they needed to stay a long time to make sure she would be o.k. She was fine. They will be back in a couple of weeks to get their puppy.

Buki is not back yet. I'm getting worried.

I'm late I'm late for a very important date

A family was scheduled to come over this evening at 7pm. I was planning on getting off work at 4:30 pm. That was going to give me plenty of time to get Jill, get home, get supper, and get ready. One thing after another kept happening at work and I just couldn't get out of there. Finally at 7pm I put my hands up to shield my eyes, told the others "I'm not here. I have to go. Don't even talk to me." Then I left.

The family arrived right after I got home. The mom and kids seemed to like the puppies. The dad appeared so totally bored and unimpressed. I'm sure I'll never hear from those people again.

Mera didn't do it this time

Lacey is always acting like she is just going to starve to death. I find myself caving in and giving her my leftovers (in her bowl, never out of my hands or on my plate). Well, yesterday I put a roast in the crockpot before I went to work. I totally forgot about it and on my way home from work I stopped at Wendy's and picked up supper. I ended up giving Lacey the roast. Boy did I ever pay for it. The only carpet she was able to get to was my bedroom. She went out of her way to go in my room and had diarrhea on my carpet. Peeeyouuuuuueeee. That was nasty. I opened the window and put a fan in front of it to try to blow the stink out. Oops, Fabuki the cat jumped out the window. Oh well, he has escaped a couple of times before and was always back within a day or two.

So what does Mera have to do with this? I used to write about every little thing she did. It seemed like she got blamed for everything. She is spending the week with us but she didn't do this.

Weaning

Lacey is getting serious about weaning her puppies. She doesn't lay down for them. If they are able to grab a snack, it is on the run.
That is how mama dogs do it.
Her puppies are enjoying some fresh air.

No laughs today

Souprize and Squirt are not laughing today. They are getting neutered

Guess who is the litter clown (like a class clown)

Hey youCome hereI wanna tell ya somefinSOUPRIZE!!
HAHAHAHA I'm so funny.