Monday, July 26, 2010

"Love a Philly Cat"

Just wanted to share an OUTSTANDING new website dedicated to Philadelphia's homeless cats, launched by the PSPCA. It's a beautiful site and appears to be updated regularly. The PSPCA and ACCT have done really great things for the cats, most recently a $1 adoption special, where you can adopt a altered, vaccinated, microchipped, flea-free cat or kitten for just $1. This adoption special will run for just a few more days until July 31. I can't wait to hear how successful this event has been.



Click here to be directed to the site =^.^=

Everyone is doing great

We have reached a pretty reasonable level of peace... and as I predicted, just in time for me to head back to Philly. Well, I still have about 2 weeks but it feels like no time at all.

I've discovered that a big way to avoid evening/early morning roughhousing is to ensure that my cats (basically ET) receive a big enough dinner so that they just slip into a food coma and sleep most of the night. This seems to work. Baby cat also has adjusted nicely and now spends all of the evening out from under the bed, usually sleeping up by my head for some reason, and other times lying on the bedside table. She's very good at growling to alert/wake us up when ET is starting to get some bad ideas and tries to come bother her!

Despite these successes I know that my cats (especially ET) can't wait to get back to Philly. While I wish the time never had to come, I'm at least glad to know that SOMEONE will be happy about our return.

Another positive to my return is that I'm going to foster again :) I'm not sure what situation would be best... it was pretty tough to have those short-term litters as I wasn't able to keep up with the cleaning as well as I should've been, and it was difficult to keep meeting new personalities. Having short term kitten stints definitely is the best way to make a difference, as it keeps open a "revolving door" but I'm thinking about a different situation now. For several months I've wanted to have a momma cat with babies. Right now I'm thinking I may get a mom with just one kitten. The tough part about that is that takes me "out of commission" to take in more animals for several weeks... but it would enable me to help out an incredibly high-risk population. Another thought is to just take in 2 tiny, maybe 4-week old kittens. We'll see!

Despite the looming start of MS-2, I am looking forward to getting back to Philly and getting myself settled. I think I developed a formula for my own success by the end of last year and I'm anxious to get started, and get it over with!

Below are some pics of the critchers over the past few weeks :)

Lacey passed out across my waist


ET and Lacey "snuggled up" on the bed


Baby snuggling up with me while I'm passed out and Shawn is playing the Sims!!


Shawn likes to play with the cats and sometimes he will "force interactions" by sticking ET and Lacey together... it often results in a very entertaining battle, haha. My cats are so tolerant :)

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Diego Summer Update

It has been a while since I contacted Diego's new parents, so I sent them an email last night. I got an amazing reply, as I expected :)

"Diego is awesome and we love him more and more all the time. He's started fetching toys on our stairs! He's endlessly entertaining. He has so many little games he plays, like getting in a mood where he very gently wrestles with our hands, or playing with a penny or water bottle cap on the floor. He has a strip of paper he likes to carry from room to room for whatever reason. You know, logical cat games. It's so much fun!

He has a lot of nicknames. "Little Dickens," "Pajama Ninja," "Little Tiger," "Little Man," "Prowser," "Little Prince," "Jerk," things like that. He's got a mischievous streak with my boyfriend - he jumps up on his messy desk, makes eye contact with him, and then slowly bats small objects off one by one. It's hilarious. They are so cute together, my boyfriend is very fatherly with him and Diego seems to like confusing him. Diego definitely acts like I'm his mommy, follows me everywhere and always wants love and petting and he chirps and pyows at me much more, and he's more playful and silly and rammy with my boyfriend. And his parents consider themselves Diego's grandparents :) We take him to visit pretty often, and he loves it there, since their house is full of windows with birds and squirrels and chipmunks outside. We're about to go on a 3-week road trip, and he'll be staying with my boyfriend's parents then.

Everyone who meets Diego loves him. He's really such a great cat! So handsome and charming and fun :) And never any bad behavior habits besides teasing my boyfriend every once in a while. We can't even fathom how we got along without him anymore, he's such a vital part of our lives now. Thanks so much for introducing us!"

So, I'm thrilled. Diego sure won the jackpot. Below are some pictures of him that his parents included :)





(I love this one!)


I will update soon with new photos of my crew- we've gotten some great shots recently I just haven't remembered to upload them!

Monday, July 5, 2010

Summer is halfway over :(

I have been having such a wonderful time living in Boston and I can't believe the summer is nearly halfway over :(

I can tell you that both ET and Baby are ready for summer to be done. For the most part, tension has cooled in the apartment, but definitely is still there. Thankfully, Baby and Lacey are doing GREAT together, so Baby is getting a lot better in general with other cats. ET is doing a bit better with leaving her alone, but sometimes he does go after her. Lacey is just perfect, Shawn is trying to convince me to let her stay, but I told him that if I left her here that means I need to get another cat ;)

So, below are some photos from the recent weeks.

One of Shawn's and my projects is to build a cat tree. My mom works in retail and always tries to grab the old displays before they can be thrown out. A few months back she managed to grab 4 very nice, sturdy cubes. I haven't quite decided how I'm going to lay them out yet, but here is a photo of ET in one of the possible layouts.



We recently won several items from a local auction. Shawn really enjoys restoring furniture so he bought a very large lot of lots of miscellaneous hardware. We spent one morning photographing, bagging, and cataloging what he won for future use. Here is Lacey lending a helping hand.



Here is one of miss Baby sitting pretty! She's spending most of her time out from under the bed now. Here she is playing with a new catnip fish toy (thanks Mom!) in the "safe space" between the bed and the wall.



And even though ET is her arch enemy, Baby and I still make time for snuggles :)