Minx Is Two!

October 10^th will be her second adoptiversary, but we gave her August 30^th as a birthday.
She's my little tiny girl and if I giver her half a chance she'll try and climb up onto my decolletage for a snooze while I work on my laptop!
She loves sleeping on top of my hubby's chest at night.
She loves to be picked up and cuddled but she doesn't like to be squished.
She is very vocal when there's chicken around but she has the cutest, squeakiest little voice!
She's very brave and tolerant where the dogs are concerned but doesn't like to snuggle or play with them.

My Turk Didn't Make It...

Wednesday was day 6 of Turk's antibiotics, but there was no change for the better since Friday night's first vet visit and that really worried me. I called the vet on Tuesday and the nurse I spoke to said some infections are very tough and I should wait out the course of the antibiotics unless he got worse.
On Wednesday night he ate a teaspoon full of soft meat and I was ecstatic! Then on Thursday morning he wouldn't eat... and even though he kept going to his water bowl it seemed as though he simply couldn't bring himself to actually take a sip.
I followed him to the bathroom- where he was still peeing on the floor- and whilst I was glad he had a piddle I was very worried when I saw it was a dark yellow and only a very small puddle.
He then went back to one of the ottomans in the lounge and went to sleep.
Thats all he's done this week. Listlessness doesn't begin to describe it. He was still breathing fast and it exhausted him.
I called Fourways Veterinary Hospital again and told the vet I spoke to- though I could barely speak for crying- what was going on. She suggested I bring him in as soon as possible.
I put him in one of our travel crates and drove to the vet.
Once there she called us in immediately and listened to his heart and lungs, looked at his gums, checked his temperature... As on Saturday, apart from his laboured breathing nothing else seemed amiss. But there should have been an improvement on the antibiotics if it was due to an infection, and he had lost more than half a kilogram since Saturday morning.
She took him to do some xrays and when she came back she didn't have good news.
Aggravated by the FeLV, there was a lymphoma that caused his chest cavity to fill with fluid. So whilst his lungs were okay, they may as well have been in a vice. The pressure from this fluid was what was making it so hard for him to breathe. I could have asked them to drain the fluid and start chemo to treat the cancer, but its a painful and drawn out procedure and he would have had to stay in hospital. And because of the FeLV there was only about a 5% chance that he would react well to the treatment.
I couldn't put my sweet boy through that.
The vet brought him back to me wrapped in a woolly blanket, and left us alone. I cuddled him and talked to him and said goodbye, and he lay with his paws over my arm like he loved to do and never made a sound.
Then the vet came back and asked if I wanted to stay while she put him under and I said yes, I took his collar off and I held him as he fell asleep.
Then I picked him up and cuddled him one last time. He looked so beautiful and peaceful. Then the vet wrapped him in the blanket and cradled him as she took him away.
I am sad that I can't afford to have my Turk's ashes returned to me. But I have his name tag on my handbag now. His and Taxi's. They are both with me all the time.
I miss him so much.
My beautiful blue eyed boy.

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Minx In The Sunshine

This bookshelf at the top of the stairs gets lovely morning sunshine and Minx loves it!

Magic is 3 Years Old!

Today is the day we gave to our beautiful Magic as a birthday!

We found a teeny tiny Magic in a shopping centre parking lot in November 2008, and when the vet guesstimated him to be about 4 weeks old we decided October 3^rd was a good day for him to have a birthday!

Here is Lord Muck on one of his favourite sleeping spots!

Kitty Induced Stress!

Shoowee... Its been a rough week.

And just a warning, this serves as a bit of a TMI warning for this post.

This afternoon around 6PM it was a week since I suddenly lost my Taxi. I am still waiting for his ashes after we arranged to have him cremated. An expense I know, some might say a waste of money, but I can't imagine not having him with me.

And then, this morning after I woke up, Minx jumped up onto the bed to come and call me for breakfast and I noticed her face looked a little lopsided. I had a look and I could feel a slight swelling under her jaw but nothing really clear, it was just swollen.

I immediately made an appointment with our vet as I am not one to ignore anything strange with any of my furbabies. When the vet examined her she was surprised I'd seen anything as the swelling is very slight, but I know my furry masters very well. Especially the cats since they are inside with me all the time. I very quickly see a change in their litter boxes, appearance or behaviour. The vet shaved a small spot over the swelling and took a couple of samples from a swollen lymph node. And now we wait for the test results. Minx has some antibiotic tablets to take in the meantime.

I took pictures of Greebo and Minx being cute and doing their little mini-me skit last night and I looked at the photos now and you can see a slight bulge just under Minx's right jaw (on the left in the picture).

And then a little later in the day, I was working in my kitchen when I heard a cat throwing up. Anyone who has heard that sound will know it sounds too awful, and cats are not supposed to throw up at all. I quickly found the sound and was surprised to find Turk heaving! I thought I'd wait till he was finished so I could give him a once over and clean the mess when my son pointed out that there was something in his mouth. I realised there was about 3cm of a black organza ribbon hanging out of his mouth and he seemed to be working it in again! I was stunned, and perhaps I shouldn't have- but I grabbed the protruding ribbon and as Turk reversed away from me, the full length of the ribbon came out as he retched. Its a 1M length of ribbon, and its from a whole lot that I was cutting earlier this week for a customer order! Damien had found Turk and Magic playing with the cut, hanging 1M lengths and had taken a chewed ribbon from Turk and moved the remaining 200 odd ribbons into a closet. I assumed all was okay until I pulled the one out of Turk today. I counted the ribbons again and I think they're all now accounted for, but I am a little afraid he may have another one in his tummy, so he's being watched like a hawk. 

In case you're wondering why I'm worried, cats ingesting string or ribbon or such is dangerous as it can literally tangle their intestines!

I do hope this is the end of my kitty worries... And I do hope Minx's test results come back with nothing serious.

Minx's Favourite Places

     

Minx, who is about six months old now, has two spots in the house where we are guaranteed to be able to find her at some point during the day.

The one place is the corner of the one couch in the living room. Its just the one corner- the back end of the armrest where it meets the backrest.

And her other favourite spot is the top corner of a shelf of the desk in the study- whether there are books there or not!

A Tiny Furbaby

This morning early, I got a call from my son. They started back at work today after a lovely long December holiday, and the sudden and very loud activity on the site scared away what was discovered to be a mommy cat. The knucklehead found a tiny grey and white kitten in the grass and asked me if I would please help him help the baby. I went to fetch the kitten from my son's work, and he had stashed it in a box with some rags.

Anyone who looked into the box got shouted at by a very vocal and very tiny kitten.

I contacted the vets in our area, and Animals In Distress, and none of them could help with taking the kitten off my hands. My last stop was the SPCA. I filled in all the paperwork and I was very heart sore because they said they would have to put the furbaby down as they had no surrogate moms to feed it. I was about to leave and called my other half to tell him what I had ended up, and I burst into tears! There is absolutely no way we could have another cat in our house, but I was so sad to leave it there knowing how things would go! With my hubby's agreement, I then went back into the office, blubbing into a tissue, and asked the SPCA if I could please have the baby back.

Thankfully, they cleaned the ticks out of its ears, guesstimated it at about 3 weeks old and possibly a male.

I took the box with a shouting baby in it and drove to the vet supply store that I usually go to for pet food. I got a package of baby cat milk and a couple of bottles.

Then I took the little furbaby home.

When I got home, I mixed up a bottle of the baby cat formula and once it had cooled I fed it to the baby. I think it knew it wasn't mommy's teat 'coz it growled and mewed whilst it sucked and chewed on the teat, but half an hour or so later it had 20ml of baby formula in its tummy. I set up a makeshift litter box in the bath, where I put the baby's box but I think it may be too young to know what to do with it.

I then gave it some time to get over its hiccups and then I REALLY upset the little fuzzball when I gave it a bath. I have NEVER seen so many fleas on a kitten!!! Magic, Turk, Diva and Minx all got bathed when they arrived because until they came to live with us they had not been indoor cats and had to get rid of the fleas- but this little fuzzball had so many they were climbing up onto its head as I washed its body!

I then towelled it dry before using the hairdryer, which is quick because the baby mustn't get cold- but it did NOT like that!

I then gave it a couple of little blocks of soft meat for kittens to apologise for upsetting it so and left it to sleep.

I phoned my mommy darling to ask if she would put feelers out for a family, and I asked on Twitter if anyone was prepared to adopt this little mite.

Sadly, the one Twitter respondent was in Cape Town, but my mommy darling called me an hour later and said she had someone who desperately wanted to adopt the baby!

I was thrilled! Okay, I was a little disappointed because I couldn't keep the baby, but I was so happy I hadn't battled to find it a home a family!

And its new mommy has promised to keep me up to date with news and photos, and their baby girl already decided its name is "Tom"!

Thank you Mandie!

And here are a couple of pictures- after its bath! I didn't try and wash its face as it was upset enough with me over the bath! Its got a long fur coat, with dark grey and white markings, a white "collar" round its neck and white legs and tummy with a grey tail.

Now you see why I could not resist trying to help it out! And my son was very glad to know it had already found a home!

  

The Turk-inator

He is just so precious! He is almost a year old and still falls asleep with his tongue sticking out occasionally!

 

He also has an uncanny knack of folding himself up like a pretzel to have a bath- and then staying in that position when he's done!! He is such a dude!!

 

A Reeeeally Dangerous Printer!!

Minx has found a new snuggle spot for herself!!!

Stretched Minx

Little Minx seems to love sleeping stretched out!
And she's very very nearly snuggling with Taxi and Turk... I have caught her snuggling with Diva having a girly bonding moment.

Everybody say "Aaaaawwwww..."

 

Minx The Climber

Wow. You know, I think few things can lift a person's mood better, than watching a kitten play. Minx tries to climb everything, runs everywhere, swats everything as she passes it by, pounces on everything she can, and when I look at her and talk to her all cute she looks back at me and mews, so all I see is her little pink tongue and tiny baby teeth!

Watching her try to scrabble up onto the back of these wooden chairs is hysterical! There's no grip and she often dangles over both sides, I just wasn't quick enough with my camera to catch it!

  

Kitten Pee Inna Mawneen

Last week, our little Minx suddenly took to peeing on my husband's pillows!!

I know that a cat suddenly not using its litterbox is a very bad sign and usually a sign of illness, so I was worried. I caught her doing it once, and I kept a close eye on her after that. The second time I caught her doing it, my poor hubby was being very rudely awoken early one morning with Minx peeing on his pillow and his head!



I took her to the vet that same morning, and after a quick blood smear the vet found there were still traces of worms and infection in her blood! She had already been dewormed, but the vet dit again and Minx was put on an antibiotic. I am now also mixing a probiotic powder into the cats' water dish, which will benefit all the cats.

updating her Facebook page...?

Minx now weighs in at a whole kilogram, and she plays with Turk and Magic till they're all worn out!!

And then a couple of days ago I caught her red handed... erm, red pawed!? Look at this!!