2015: State of the Kitties

Patient Zero, budding artist

Patient Zero
Status: Adopted
Now named Subzero, this feisty little guy was my first catch of the year. He now owns a human named Angel and is appropriately worshiped.


Number One and Caramel
Status: Adopted
Under the new assumed names of Sable and Carmy, these two cuddled their way right into Sue's heart, her bed and pretty much everything in her house. It's actually their house now, but they let Sue stay because she gives good snuggles, has thumbs and is experienced at opening cans.


Cheeto and Dorito

Caramel, Isolde, Scully, Cheeto and Dorito

Status: Adopted
These ginger brothers were rather hard to tell apart, so it's good that they went to a new home together. They now live with a nice lady who found her house to be devoid of cats. The boys have fixed that.


Isolde
Status: Adopted 
This tabby darling is now the sweetheart of a boy named Tristan. But, it's not going to work out like in the story, because that would be weird.

Edgar Allen and Montressor

Status: Adopted

Edgar and Montressor came from the Halloween trio of black kittens who all won themselves Poe names. This pair of brothers was adopted by a pair of sisters and collectively, I imagine they are plotting some world domination or maybe eating tuna and finishing homework, respectively.

Annabel Lee and Lenore

Status: Adopted / Returned / Adopted Again

Both of these girls had a rough time before they were fostered. Annabel so underweight that we really concerned for her health and Lenore with a tail so broken that it had to be amputated. Their first home didn't work out because they helped their new dad rediscover his asthma. After a brief stint back at the Kittenasium, a home was found for them that was just right. Annabel can live on Jennifer's face and chest while Lenore can chill with Justin. It's working out nicely.

Catherine Earnshaw and Linton

Status: Adopted

Catherine and Linton were a sibling pair that just would not be parted. Thankfully, they found a family who was totally ok with that.

Heathcliff

Status: Adopted

Mina and Dorian

Now known as Jake, this little ginger fella is enjoying life with his new moms. He is being spoiled rotten with a ton of new toys and is working on winning his way into the heart of his older adopted sister kitty, who still isn't too sure of his intentions.

Mina Harker and Dorian Grey

Status: Adopted

The inseparable pair of siblings arrived and left together. Mina was aggressively friendly and like to hang out on faces. Dorian was cool just hanging out next to humans. Thankfully they found a new mom and dad who adopted them together so they continue their madcap adventures and hardcore naps together.

Allen Quatermain... waiting

Allen Quatermain

Status: Fostering

This grey and white little fella isn't too sure about people still, but he came from the mean streets behind a 24 hour Checkers. We're still trying to convince him that people are swell and have nice food for him. Right now, he really likes it under my bed.

Scully

Status: Foster Failure / Adopted 
After taking the professional name of Scully, the kitten formerly known as Rolo decided she liked Kristen the Cat Lady rather a bit and wanted to keep sleeping on her pillow. So, there she stayed. Seriously, she's still there, on my pillow. I think the whole bed may be hers now, but she lets me sleep there... for now.

Kitler

Status: Back from Meowschpringe

Hopefully for good this time. This cow kitty needs to stop falling out of first floor windows. He's still pretty sure everyone is going to murder him, but he now contemplates his paranoia in the same room as guests. People now can believe that Kitler really exists.

Neville

Status: King of his Castle

Neville is large, in charge, and as friendly as can be. I see none of this changing.

Overview: By the Numbers

• Housecats at beginning of 2015: 2
• Housecats at end of 2015: 3
• Fosterlings: 17
• Fosterlings adopted: 16
• Remaining fosters from 2015: 1
• Litterboxes: 5
• Toys on sticks that survived the year: 4
• Toys on sticks that did not survive the year: 3
• Happy Kristen hearts: 1

Caramel and the Caramelites

This past March I got back into the kitten saving business after a few years off. I started out with Caramel.

Caramel was living in the feral colony at my condo complex. She was always around, she was lovely and she was very, very pregnant. She looked like she had swallowed a whole cantaloupe. Luckily, Caramel was also pretty friendly. In my visits to the feral colony she would twine between my feet and once even brought me a dead squirrel. At that point I was pretty sure she was people friendly enough to be re-homed after her kittens were born.

Step one was to trap Caramel. This took one trap, twenty minutes and a can of wet food. In short, it wasn't very hard. Next, I installed her in the Kittenasium, which is also known as my screen porch. I made her comfortable, tricked out an old dog crate to be a nice spot for giving birth, and then we waited. Impossibly, she just kept getting bigger. By the time she finally had her kittens she was comically big. 

After almost 2 weeks of Kitten Watch 2015, I came home to find my pretty lady with four tiny floof balls. 

They four babies started out as Snickers, Rolo, Left Twix and Right Twix. (left to right below)

The names showed that each had a little bit of Caramel in them. Now, 10 months later all four have forever homes. Here's a few baby pictures:

Rolo was a grey marble tabby. I fell in love with her and had a total foster fail. Foster fail means that she never left my house. Her name is now Scully and she is my boon companion. She sleeps next to me, sits next to me and when I paint she sits on the back of my chair and watches over my shoulder.

Next was Snickers. Snickers was a grey tiger tabby girl. Her name is now Isolde and she is now the companion of a young man named Tristan. 

And then we had a pair of ginger tabby boys. We had a pretty hard time telling them apart because they looked so similar. So, we called them Left Twix and Right Twix. 

This pair is now named Cheeto and Dorito. They live with Mira and her son Zyan. Apparently they have a pretty great life.

Mama kitty Caramel now lives with Sue and her other rescue kitty, Sable. From feral colony to beloved pets, things works out pretty well for Caramel and the Caramelites.