Dear Diary: the girls will get adopted

I was telling you that we've just met new people that are experienced in helping the outdoor cats. They are mostly pushing and helping with TNR, but they've put as in contact with Org N. that is not in the city, so their Covid restriction are not so restrictive, and they still take cats for adoption. They work similarly with Org T. from the city, they ask for a $25 donation from us, and they'll spay/neuter and give any other medical attention they need, vaccines and microchip, before putting them up for adoption.

We have planned to take Bobby, the newest one in the house, super friendly guy, as we felt he didn't get a chance to get used with us, so he won't miss us.  Or maybe I was thinking I won't miss him so badly as the ones I fostered longer... Then Mowgli, as he is still a kitten so he'll get adopted in a second. And Pumpkin, that is the youngest in the house, so I feel they she'll be adopted in days..

The shelter called to ask medical questions and if they all three get along as they'll be foster together. Well, no... Pumpkin is very shy because Mowgli and few other boys think she is cute, even if she is so small, and they where after her. I've put her in another room, that usually stayed open for all my cats to find options to sleep and play but what to do. Then I picked to go in that room, the ones that are older so they won't bother her. And.. I've also put in the sisters Daisy and Lilah, as they were never interested in Pumpkin.

So, the morning of the appointment, I was forced with the decision to send Pumpkin, Daisy and Lilah. It's hard for to let go of anyone without preparing myself  for few days, part of each is spoiling them... But it had to be done. The appointment was at noon, an hour away from the city, my husband was gonna take them. I've spent the whole two hours left with them, then I've felt so bad as I tricked them into the carriers. And off they went.

My husband called me to say to have no worry  because he met their new foster mom and she and the kitties were already getting along. So, I'm trying not to worry, but I still miss them. We were promised updates and I'll share when I'll have them.

Dear Diary - more kitties on the way

Greta and her babies are doing great. That's a relive, because my husband just brought me another pregnant one. She is barely a kitten herself. I told you about her in this post in February 20. She is the grown kitten that I was almost able to put into a carrier but she got agitated and broke free from my arms, breaking my good winter coat too...  We had one trap with us and we prioritized to catch the small kitten Oscar, that got adopted immediately trough Org T. Then we stopped trapping as the animal help organizations adoption centers closed. They weren't and aren't even doing TNR. And my house was full of cats, I didn't want to bring in more.

But, I should have better taken her in, because now she is pregnant, and because she is like a teenager, it its a riskier birth. She also may not know how to care for the babies. So, I've left Grata and her babies out of the closet and I put Kiki in the closet.

I don't have to worry much about Greta kittens eating or not making it. But I check on them often as they  can move out of their bedding and I don't want them to get stuck somewhere and get cold. Greta looks after them, and I caught her moving them in her mouth, but she cannot handle six at a time. I cannot tell you cute they are! 

And Kiki, she is shy, but she doesn't look unhappy. I think  outdoor she was chassed by the boys, and they can be aggressive. She is resting and eating for two or more... I think she may have few more weeks to go before she's due, she is not that big.

The rest of the indoor cats are doing fine, and getting along, thanks God! 

The outdoor ones are also fine, my husbands feeds them regularly. The weather is nice, they are happy about that. 

And I'm happy too that we are out of the winter without significant losses.

Dear Diary - taking care of the kittens

As I told you, Greta had six kittens. Just four of them seamed to fit to eat at once. Of course those that were the smallest were always pushed away by their siblings So I found myself having to choose between feeding them myself, from a bottle with kitten milk formula, or going once every hour and moving all the kittens around so all of them had a chance to eat.

Newborn kittens are soo small and soo limp, and their umbilical cord is still raw. So I wanted to avoid having to touch and handle them too much. Feeding from a bottle has the danger of not feeding enough or overfeeding, plus you have to burp them, but the biggest danger is for them to inhale the milk (if too much is coming from the bottle) and damage their lungs.

So I chose to try to rotate all the kittens at the mom nipples. I had to stay on my knees and hold the little ones while they were eating. And they would eat for few minutes and fall asleep, and their brothers would push them away and take their places, and then they would fall asleep. So then I would put back at the nipples the little ones. I was both worried and physically hurting. Theoretically I knew I would have to weight them all every day to see if they indeed gain weight. But after the first two days they seemed to gain similar weight (the starting weight was very different) and I just didn't have the energy to weight them every day, so I developed the "squeeze test", I should patent it, it worked great... I would gently squeeze the kittens belly to be sure they are plump, so full...

An interesting thing I found on the internet, is that each kitten puts its own pheromones on the mom nipple, and each of them goes and eat from that specific nipple all the time. So after the first days, I tried to be aware of which kittens eats on what nipple. They seemed to be only four easily accessible nipples. But, as I kept moving them around, one of the biggest kittens gave up on its nipple and went  underneath its siblings. The place that s/he gave up was just under the back leg of mom, protected.  So one of the little kittens found its safe place to eat. I've tried to put the other little kitten on the nipple near the moms front leg, but it wasn't such a success, s/he was moved as the others were moving. So I had to go to them for the whole week, really once every hour, to be sure everybody is eating and to help the one that was always pushed away.

So it was hard work, but they are all doing fine and getting cuter and cuter!

Dear Diary - the kittens were born

Read the Introduction, to get the general picture of my interaction with the alley cats, and the Summary, to put the stories on a timeline.

Sooo, Greta gave birth.

At first I put her in the closet in the spare bedroom. Moms with kittens seem to enjoy living in a small space, they feel safer. But Greta wasn't a mom yet so she didn't really enjoy to stay in the closet, especially as my other cats went to that room and to the closet door. So I left Greta roam in that whole room, but by herself. She was very happy and very cuddly. I visited her every hour or two.

And at some point in the afternoon I caught her giving birth... in the litter box. Two kittens were born already, one looked fluffy, the other, probably just born, was wet and FULL of litter. I firstly cleaned the baby a little so mom wouldn't lick him with all the litter on... Then I moved them in the closet. The last born still had the amniotic sac attached so I was extra careful to not pull the baby umbilical cord and get him hernia. Usually the mom eats the amniotic sac and cuts the umbilical cord. But with the litter situation going on, I disinfected a scissor and cut it myself. They already were staring to eat, and while I was there she popped out another one! The first two were black and white, the last one white and black. I closed the closet door and let them be so I would rest my back and knees a little...

I checked on her probably every 15 minutes. In less then an hour she had another one, white and black. The bedding was quite soiled at this point, so after she cut the umbilical cord I changed it, I thought she was done... Nope, here came a back one! I waited for mom to clean him and changed the bedding again. I thought that surely she was done. Nope, here came another black one. This one was very tiny, and all the others were already eating so I went to check on him repeatedly, obsessively. I had to see him eating. I actually had to place him myself on her nipples and hold him so the others won't get him on the side.

Greta ate very well before giving birth, now, during birth she hasn't eaten much. A cat that I helped with giving birth a year before, was eating and drinking water continuously. At some point I changed the bedding and put the dirty ones in the washing machine.  I put two types of canned food and some dry food, and I went to sleep! It was almost midnight.

Dear Diary - hanging in there with a pregnant fairy

Read the Introduction, to get the general picture of my interaction with the alley cats, and the Summary, to put the stories on a timeline.

We continue the feeding with no problems during this stay at home time.

We also have no problem in finding food to buy. There were maybe few times that we didn't find specific items, but no biggie. I'm still careful to have a week supply of all the cat food I need in the house, just in case.

And the news... My husband brought home a pregnant cat, He was so regretful he couldn't get the other one that I mentioned in my previous post, and now she has the babies outdoor, I couldn't say no. He said she is friendly but he didn't sound that convincing...You know from my previous post about Lizzy not getting to be friendly enough for adoption, after a whole year, so she lives with us.  She seems happy, just not interacting with us much. The new one is black and white so we named her Greta (after the black and white movie star Greta Garbo). She is soo big, I think she'll explode....  any second now. And I'm relieved that she is actually very friendly!

And that's all we do for now, all we can do for now.

Dear Diary - spay and neuter

Read the Introduction, to get the general picture of my interaction with the alley cats, and the Summary, to put the stories on a timeline.

I'm so terribly worried. As all animal help organizations are closed, we will have absolutely no support. We were having a good rhythm in getting the friendly strays into Org T for adoption. And we were in contact with few organizations to get help with TNR (trap neuter return). Now everything stopped.

What makes is even harder is that the mating season is ongoing. We already saw some pregnant cats. We also saw the males being more aggressive and the young females more scared.

Last week we took to be spayed Lizzy, Petra and one from outdoors. Lizzy, we took in when she was very very pregnant, she is the mom of Anthracite, Brave Heart, Bennie, Peaches and Little Lizzy. It's a long story. I'll tell you now shortly, that she wasn't friendly enough to enjoy to be touched, but she also wasn't making any trouble in the house and she seemed very happy in the house. We haven't taken her earlier to be spayed because there is no unfixed male around the house to get her pregnant and we didn't want to stress her with the surgery. But then she got in heat, and she was very vocal and we were afraid that the neighbors will eventual complain. The good think about that in heat period was that she was friendlier, so I was able to pet her and hold her. 

Petra is the sister of my first baby kitten saved, Maya. And there is one more sister, Mimi, that we got in with her baby Tzompi, during the winter. We always wanted to adopt the whole Mayas family, but it finally happened because Mimi had the baby, after having another litter that hasn't make it. 

One from outdoor was Cookie, she is a beautiful black brown with a little white long hair one. We suspected she was a little pregnant. All the animal care organization spay the pregnant cats, even the very pregnant ones. We are against spaying the very pregnant ones, but we agree with spaying the ones that don't really show much belly. Cookie was friendly outdoor but we couldn't put her in a carrier. We had to trap her. 

I don't know how to handle the recovery from spay/ neuter surgery for unfriendly cats in an apartment. I mean I don't have the space. The truly feral ones should be kept in the trap as they recover and they eat and pee and poo there. I understand people use their garages, but we don't have one.

Cookie, I was sure I can handle in the house for few days, I put her in the empty room. The plan was to see if she is friendly enough for adoption. And I was prepared to put her back if she was not...  Lizzy, took more then a year to get friendlish, I don't even think they are ready now for adoption. Mimi seams to be the same, she was very protective of her daughter Tzompi. Petra meanwhile had no worries but to allow us to spoil her. Anyway  I cannot keep more cats  for months in the house to maybe...  acclimatize. I want to have that room (and closet) to help others. But, Cookie is friendly, so she is in, please don't count how many I have in... now I really need the shelters to open to take some off my hands.

My husband wanted to bring one of the pregnant ones that was very friendly, home, I said OK, I still have a closet empty. But he couldn't get her. It seems that as they get closer of the due date they get more cautious. And then, she wasn't pregnant anymore. And...we had some usually cold days for this time of the year to "help" the kittens.

Dear Diary - the coronavirus lockdown

Read the Introduction, to get the general picture of my interaction with the alley cats, and the Summary, to put the stories on a timeline.

This are very very strange times. This week, slowly, everything closed. The law was that gatherings over 500 people are illegal, but many institutions closed voluntarily to play it safe and they closed even if they weren't serving 500 people. Then the law changed and made illegal the gathering over 250 people. The restaurants were asked to close with the exception of serving take out and deliveries. The fashion stores closed. There is a recommendation for social distancing.

The food stores are open and will stay open of course, but there were rumors of people buying all they could find. It is not clear if pet stores could eventually close. So I made a shopping trip on Tuesday to buy basics for 2 weeks: flour, rice, pasta, pasta and tomato sauce, oil, all kind of beans and... cat food of course, lots of it, because we feed lots of outdoor cats. I forgot the litter and I sent my husband to buy it later. I found everything I wanted, but truthfully, not in my regular store and not the brands that I usually use.

We confirmed on Wednesday that Org A. was still doing the spay/neuter for 3 cats the next day. Later we received an e-mail that they are closing. We called again and they said they are closing from Friday, so they can still help us. In fact they said to also bring the cats scheduled for the next week. We decided it's over our head to nurse 6 cats from surgery. We also have just 3 carriers. We got that done, but as per now, they'll be close for one whole month.

Today it was announced a complete lockdown, or shelter in place. All non essential businesses are closed. My heart was shivering at the idea that we will not be able to feed the strays. But it is allowed, at least for now. My husband business, is also considered essential, for now, so he is able to move around. He says that there is absolutely no traffic, and the stores are relatively empty. On some stores the security lets in a certain number of people, as people get out, others get in. Everybody is keeping 6 feet distance. I keep asking my husband to get everything he needs from a store for few days so he won't keep going into them.

And me, I'm stuck in the house for a week now, with at least two more weeks to go, as my activities are in the artsy side and considered non essential.