You Can Help.

Lately, I've been told by a lot of people that what I do is awesome and that I'm great for doing it. To be honest, I really like kittens and I have a soft spot for broken things and foundlings. My experience as a volunteer fostering these animals may be labor intensive, sometimes involves a lot of driving and may involve cleaning a lot of cat boxes... but I also get kittens. All the kittens I can stand. And then I get to watch them go to new homes where they will be loved. That in itself is pretty damned rewarding.

However, some of our animals arrive with problems and animal health care can be expensive. We have a great vet partner, but St Francis Society Animal rescue can still use more help. The care for Lenore, Linton and all of our other kitties includes shots, blood tests, spay/neuter and additional medical care as needed. These costs are taken care of by the St Francis Society Animal Rescue of Tampa, Florida. If you are moved by the stories of these rescue kitties and want to help out, there are several ways you can do so.

1. Donate money to St Francis Society. This cash is used to pay for medicines, vet expenses, surgeries and more for Lenore, Linton and countless other animals who come to us in all sorts of shapes. 
2. Check out the St Francis Society wishlist and send them items that they need. Their physical mailing address is on the page so you can busy stuff online and have it shipped to them, or you can drop it off at one of their Tampa locations
3. Adopt a pair of our fabulous rescue cats and kittens. Everything is better in pairs, especially cats! Each adoption opens up space for our volunteers to foster more animals.
4. Sponsor St Francis Society. If you happen to be high up in a company that makes charitable donations, please consider your company sponsoring St Francis Society.
5. Volunteer to foster some cats! It's rewarding, you meet great animals and get to watch them go to awesome homes. It's rewarding and at the end of the day you feel appreciated by the animals, the adoptive families and even the other volunteers. It's a pretty great group. If you have a spare bedroom or bathroom and are not deathly allergic to cats, you can do this too. It's an adventure, but it is an adventure with purring and that makes it pretty unique.
6. Volunteer at one of our adoption centers. Every weekend, volunteers can be found in a number of local pet stores manning adoption tables and events. You can hang out and play with kitties and help play matchmaker for families that need kitties. 
7. If you are one of my friends and want to help on a more personal level, you can come over and help me socialize kittens, drop off a bag of cat food or send a gift certificate for litter. I get mine shipped to me in 40lb bags from Amazon. Money shoved into my hand or in my bra also seems to work. 

Thanks to the following folks for their recent support. I cannot tell you how amazing you are enough times for me to feel like I have thanked you satisfactorily, so let me tell the world that you have helped:

• Jill S
• Jennifer K
• Brian W
• Lisa P
• Melissa T
• Jim T
• Janet S

Friday Night Vet Night!

It was a action packed adventure night for Madam Lenore and Mr Edgar Linton. Lenore was already scheduled to visit the fine folks at Westchase Veterinary for a post-op check and Linton got a unexpected trip right with her.

Here's the run down of my hot Friday night date night:

Lenore

Lenore is awesome. She's happy. She purrs like a motor and her wounds are healing just fine. She's also an escape artist who can untie a double bow and take off her own collar. Seriously, it's like she has thumbs. She gets to spend a few more days in the Bathroom of Chill before returning to Gen Pop.

Linton

Linton came from a litter of kittens that had a rough start. However, since intake his siblings are thriving, whereas he is not. All three kittens came in with diarrhea but after intake medications were applied, his siblings got better. Linton, not so much. He also was favoring a paw and limping, but it was thought that might be a slight sprain and I was told to let it heal for a few days and see what happened. Well, it didn't get better.

So, with bloated belly, diarrhea, a limp and and extremely inflamed anus (which, might someday make for a solid punk band name), Linton got the go-ahead to get a checkup. In short, he's a sick kitty. He's dehydrated, likely has an infection lurking in his digestive system, has a joint that might be permanently damaged, and for the time being he has a very ouchy backside. I'll be kind and not include a photo of that.

This has won Linton a private, all expenses paid, convalescent retreat in the middle of beautiful Tampa, Florida. His quarters include a snuggly afghan, a private bath and private dining quarters. He will also enjoy toys that shall not be stolen by his siblings and he shan't be pounced upon by a soul until he is feeling a bit better.

His luxurious quarters are the inside of a very large dog crate in my living room. Additionally, tonight I learned that disposable lasagna pans make decent insta-litterboxes.

Linton's treatment plan consists of:

• Sub-cutaneous fluids administered at the vet office. I got to watch a kitten leak extra fluid. That was... unique.
• Metronidazole (anti-diarrheal medication) and Albon (sulfadimethoxine, an antibiotic used to treat coccidia infections which are a common cause of severe diarrhea) mix, administered twice daily in .5 ml doses.
• Buprenex (pain medication) administered one every 12 hours in a .3 ml dose.
• Rest
• Snuggles

Blessedly, both medications are delivered by oral route, so I don't need to make him more miserable by shoving solid objects down his throat or... inserted by other means. 

Linton goes back in 7 days for a re-check where we'll also culture up a stool sample and see what's cooking in his insides. Hopefully, his inflamed wrist is also a result of infection and the swelling will be reduced by then so we can figure out what is going on in the joint. 

Annabel Lee

The last of the original Poe kittens, Annabel Lee is still with me and will soon be looking for a new forever home. She's best friends with foster kitten Lenore, so we're hoping to find them a placement where both kittens can go together.

Lady, why you wakes me? I was sleepings in the basket so happy.

I sleeps on faces too!

She's a sweet little puffball in black with long fur but a thinish coat that gives her the look of the Lykoi cat. It has been noted that this kitten looks like werewolf, wookie, cat, Scottish Terrier and Grover DNA all got mixed together and took cat form.

She's also one of the most sweet and loving kittens I have had the pleasure with which to work. Her current hobbies include chasing toys, exploring boxes, sitting on my shoulder like a terrible parrot and attempting to sleep on my face.

Currently, she is waiting by the door to the bathroom where Lenore is in her post surgery quarantine. They chirp back an forth to each other through the gap under the door. I've very much hoping that Lenore's checkup appointment tomorrow will allow me to put these kittens back together.

Sacked out after playing with an Amazon box and filler paper, plus some new toys.

It was many and many a year ago,

In a kingdom by the sea,

That a maiden there lived whom you may know

By the name of Annabel Lee;

And this maiden she lived with no other thought

Than to love and be loved by me.

Historic Cats: Pangur Bán

Lutrell Psalter, f°190r (detail)

In addition to fostering cats, I study the medieval period, especially the art form known as illumination. This art was used to decorate the books of the middle ages and comes in all sorts of forms from glorious to silly, breathtaking to irreverent. I also have an appreciation for poetry both modern and medieval. If you combine all of these things that I love into one place, you get Pangur Bán.

The poem Pangur Bán comes from the 9th century and was written by an Irish monk in a book known as the Reichenau Primer. The Primer itself is a collection of hymns and grammatical texts that was likely pen practice for a scribe. Preserved in the book is also the poem in which the author compares his work of study to the work of his cat hunting mice. 

The cat's name in the poem is Pangur Bán, which is not so much a name as it is a description of the cat. In Irish, the word Bán means fair or white. Pangur, however is not an Irish word. The Welsh word pannwr means fuller, which was a job in the middle ages. A fuller used a combination of washes, scouring and felting to remove oils, dirt and impurities from wool cloth. At the end of the process, the wool would be a bright clean white, as well as soft and strong. In short, Pangur Bán was likely an all white and beautiful cat. Today, we'd probably say the cat was dazzling white or sparkling white in color. He also seemed to be especially good at mousing, enough that he inspired a monk at study to write a poem about the similarities of their work.

So, here is the poem, translated from the Irish by Robin Flower.

Pangur Bán

Cat and mouse, Hours of Charlotte of Savoy, 

Paris, France, ca. 1420-1425, f° 165r (detail)

I and Pangur Ban my cat,
'Tis a like task we are at:
Hunting mice is his delight,
Hunting words I sit all night.

Better far than praise of men
'Tis to sit with book and pen;
Pangur bears me no ill-will,
He too plies his simple skill.

'Tis a merry task to see
At our tasks how glad are we,
When at home we sit and find
Entertainment to our mind.

Oftentimes a mouse will stray
In the hero Pangur's way;
Oftentimes my keen thought set
Takes a meaning in its net.

'Gainst the wall he sets his eye
Full and fierce and sharp and sly;
'Gainst the wall of knowledge I
All my little wisdom try.

When a mouse darts from its den,
O how glad is Pangur then!
O what gladness do I prove
When I solve the doubts I love!

So in peace our task we ply,
Pangur Ban, my cat, and I;
In our arts we find our bliss,
I have mine and he has his.

Practice every day has made
Pangur perfect in his trade;
I get wisdom day and night
Turning darkness into light.

Created by @LauraEAydelotte with images of materials from Ms. Codex 724 

at the Kislak Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

Patient Zero

He goes with the furniture!

For me, the 2015 Kitten Season was kicked off by Patient Zero. In a bid to not get attached, I figured I would just number the kittens as they arrived. The first catch of the season was seized from under some shrubbery near one of the pools in the condo complex with the help of my accomplices Jennie and Brian. The other litter mate slipped away and I was never able to spot it again, but Patient Zero stuck out like a sore thumb.

It isn't every day that you find what looks like a Tonkinese kitten hanging out in the shrubs. Tonkinese is a crossbreed of a Siamese cat with a Burmese cat. With the addition of the white paws which are not a Tonkinese trait, and the slight swirl of marble tabby that was faintly visible in the cream fur, I took a guess that this kitten was likely a Natural Point Tonkinese crossed with tabby. Mom was a white and black spotted cat, so I'm guessing she had a pretty sexy hookup with an exotic pal one night. They other kitten was a grey tabby, so I'm guessing mom got around a bit. Cat genetics are utterly fascinating.

A fine art companion.

This kitten was hissy as hell and would growl and take swipes at me. However, he was only about 5 weeks old, so it was mostly just cute. He settled down in a few days and found that life on the inside did not suck even a little bit. After the bathing and de-fleaing and then the forcible lovings and squishy food, Patient Zero got with the program pretty quickly. After one particular bath session, the little fellow totally passed out on my friend Lisa B's lap. I can her the hissy cat whisperer.

That is a happy kitten.

One thing that I knew for certain: a kitten this gorgeous was going to find a home very, very quickly. One sad truth of fostering strays and feral cats is that exotic looking kittens or ones with striking markings often get snapped up quickly, while tiger tabby cats and black cats languish in foster and sanctuary care.

This worked in favor for Patient Zero and he found an adoptive mom rather quickly. I am told that he is king of his domain and is regularly spoiled by his new mom. With his ice blue eyes, Patient Zero was renamed Sub Zero in his new home. Sub Zero was our first placement success of the 2015 season.

Here's a recent picture from his mom, Angel:

Being so handsome is exhausting!

Lenore at rest

Miss Lenore has the Bathroom of Comfort and Solitude all to herself. She has my favorite chenille blanket all to herself and spends most of the day napping. Apparently the pain meds make her sleepy.

Her nubbin is currently kind of naked, but will be quite adorable when the fur grows back. The stitches are so tiny.

Lenore also had her spay done and has lots of fur to grow back.

I mostly just feel bad about her having to eat and drink while wearing a cone. I help her by heaping her kibble to one side of the bowl.

She's recovering nicely and Annabel Lee has been hanging out by the bathroom door, calling to her buddy inside. In a few days I can get the girls back together but first Lenore needs some healing time.

Lenore's Tail, continued...

The darling Miss Lenore will have her tail amputated on Monday. Dr. Barr at Westchase Veterinary will be performing the procedure and I should be able to pick her up by 9pm on Monday night. By the end of the day, she should have a 2-3 inch stub left with which she may enchant potential adopters.

Until then, I expect she will continue sitting at my desk chair. She's quite the regal kitten and eschews cat lounging spots in favor of human lounging spots. For some reason, this amuses me.