April and May Adoptions

Grace O'Malley
Grace went to help a feral kitten learn how to be a house kitten and then headed on to her forever home with her new human, Bev.

Atticus and Scout Finch
Atticus and Scout headed to Leesburg to fill a cat shaped hole in the hearts of Denise and Angel. The pair had lost their cat of many years a few months ago and found themselves ready to open their hearts again, this time to a pair of kittens.

Irene Addler
Irene will be getting picked up by her new human, Chris, this upcoming Friday night. She's made a lot of progress in her months with me. She eats treats from my hand, sits next to me on the couch and even lets me sneak in the occasional petting. She also now loves to play and can amuse herself with a catnip mouse for hours.

Allen Quatermain 
This shy fellow finally found just the right home with Lisa and Daryle and their kitty Thor. Thor is also very shy and needed a kitty that wouldn't bully him. Things are working out nicely as you can see in the picture above. Thor and Allen have found that having a friend can be pretty great.

Grace O'Malley

Grace O'Malley is a tiny kitten that found herself dumped in a restaurant parking lot. Some nice staff folks took her and her two siblings into the offices for the day. Two were instantly adopted by folks who worked there, but little Grace needed a place to go. As one of my friends works at the restaurant, I was contacted and gave my usual answer: "Sure, why not?"


Grace was an instant sweetheart and it was easy to tell that she had been dumped and had never been feral. She was very clean, free of fleas and loved to be petted. I posted a few photos of her on my Facebook page, and a friend of mine fell in love with her and sent in an adoption request.

Grace went with Duchess Josiana for her "spa day" at Humane Society of Tampa Bay where she was spayed and vetted. She then headed to the home of another foster to see if she could help coax a feral kitten into being more social with people. She'll stay at this foster home until her new house is ready in a week or two and hopefully, she will be an excellent role model for the other kitten until then.

Duchess Josiana, the odd-eyed cat

Duchess Josiana was a stray living in a local park. She and her already weaned kittens were all rather friendly, so they were trapped and have been taken to foster homes. I knew with the first sight of her, Duchess Josiana would find a home very, very soon.

Duchess Josiana has a lot going on genetically and health wise so this will be a somewhat long post with a lot of topics.

Odd Eyes

Duchess Josiana is an odd-eyed cat. Her most outstanding feature are her mismatched eyes, one blue and one gold. This eye color difference is a genetic mutation referred to as Heterochromia iridis. This mutation is most often seen in cats that are entirely white but can also be found in cats with the gene for white spotting.

Odd Eyes and a Name

In the case of this kitty, her name was entirely inspired by her eyes. She is named for Duchess Josiana, a character from the Victor Hugo novel L'Homme qui rit or The Man Who Laughs. In the novel, the character of the Duchess is described as having one brown and one blue eye. To be honest, I could only think of just one female character from literature that is described as having heterochromia. So, that nicely helped to limit my literary naming pool.

White Coat

White cats have a particular set of genes that creates their spotless coat: namely the white masking gene. The W gene, when found in cats, prevents the production of pigment-producing cells during embryologic development. No matter what other color genes the cat may have, if they are W/W (white masking dominant / white masking dominant) or W/w (white masking dominant / white masking recessive), they will have a lack of melanin producing cells and thus have a white coat. Some cats with the W allele are also deaf. In odd eyed cats, they may be deaf in one or both ears.

FIV+

Duchess Josiana tested positive for FIV. Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) is found in about 2.5 to 4.4 percent of cats world wide. The virus is a retrovirus that causes immunodeficiency in cats, meaning that cats with the virus can be more susceptible to secondary infections, especially respiratory infections. Each infected cat is unique. Based on their overall health and the care they receive, they may live very long lives relatively free from trouble. If they are street cats exposed to more diseases and prone to more fighting/aggression they will be more likely to become ill due to their reduced immune system being less able to fight off various bacteria and infections.

FIV+ kitties are those who have tested positive for the FIV antibody. Cats who have had an FIV immunization will forever test as FIV+, so if your cat is immunized, make sure they have a microchip and that their chip file explains their immunization. Many shelters will immediately euthanize cats that test positive with FIV even though the disease has a fairly mild transmission rate. FIV is generally passed through one cat biting another and the FIV+ cat's saliva entering the wound of the other cat. Transmission is most common in unaltered male cats that are fighting for territory, resources and mating rights.

A Home for Her Grace

Because Duchess Josiana tested positive for FIV, we try to find her a home where she will be the only cat or where the family may have another cat with FIV. We found a winner! Leana and her family have one cat who is FIV+ and is 16. They know how to take care of FIV+ kitties and live in a nice rural place where Duchess Josiana can enjoy life and be well loved, especially by a little girl who is very anxiously waiting for her to arrived. The Duchess will be spayed tomorrow and goes to her new home on Friday

Learn more:

• Basics of Genetics (Wikipedia)
• Deafness is Cats
• Odd Eyed Cats
• Cats and FIV
• The Man Who Laughs by Victor Hugo (Project Gutenberg)

Mina and Dorian in their new home

Thanks to their new mom Angela, I have some pictures of Mina and Dorian all settled into their new home. These look like some seriously happy kitties. They are reported to be the most loving and sweet cats this couple has ever known.

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

Holiday Adoptions

Mina Harker and Dorian Grey

Mina and Dorian have been adopted together and will be picked up tomorrow by a lovely couple. I am so very happy this bonded pair of siblings will get to stay together.

Until then, Mina is busily spending as much time as possible on my face and overlapping my personal space. I'm fine with this right up until the time she puts her nose inside my nose. Currently, she is sitting on my shoulder like a terrible parrot while I type this.

This makes it pretty hard to type, you know. I put up with a lot.

Heathcliff

Heathcliff was adopted and picked up by his new moms today. He's settling into his new digs and even sent me the following 'letter' and selfie:

Hey foster mommie! I have had a full day...lots of new places n sounds. I am a lil skidish but am being a good boy. I just had dinner and played with a fishing pole toy n gettn used to my new digs. I will keep u posted. I hope u arent sad!

Well, this may be the first time I have received a letter from a cat, but I do hope it isn't the last. This little fella was such a sweetheart and I can't even begin to say how happy I am that he has such a loving new home.

Happy holidays!

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.

A Forever Home: Lenore & Annabel Lee

Well, Lenore and Annabel Lee had a date today with a potential adopter. The fantastic news is that as of next weekend, they will have a new home. Jon, their new adoptive dad enjoyed both the kittens and has already been out shopping since the visit ended. Jon's going to spend the next week getting ready and kitten proofing his home. Annabel Lee is going to be fixed on Tuesday and will have a few days to heal here with me. Next weekend, these best friend kittens are heading off into the sunset for a new life. Jon is one very lucky human. Lenore and Annabel are going to have a great life with him.