more invaders....

First - could we ask a favor? Our grandma is having surgery today on her wrist and could use some purrs. They are having to put in a pin and freeze a joint due to arthritis.  THANKS

Also, mom got a text yesterday that made her all leaky. You know our friend Miss Kelly?? She had to help her old mancat Murphy over the Bridge yesterday. He had been diagnosed with the evil cancer about 4 months ago but was taking a chemo pill at home and doing ok. He had a great day outside with her on Saturday while she planted flowers. And then was sick Saturday night and most of Sunday. Mom says she doesn't know exactly what happened Sunday night, but she knows Kelly would have done whatever she could for Murphy. He showed up at her house in college at about a year old as a beat up tomcat and turned out FIV+. He regularly beat up her dog and was the true man of the house. Safe journey Murphy - and we love you Miss Kelly!!!

OK - so the teaser on Sunday....

Mom got a call Friday night. Grandma the cat was moving the kittens. The kids caught two but two got away. They have moved the trap and are going to keep trying, but mom says for all their good intentions, the kids aren't very quiet, so we don't have much hope about catching them. But we got our paws crossed.

Anyhow, mom came home Friday night with 2 more kittens. This crew is officially known as the Outlaws. You have met Annie Oakley and Wild Bill. Here are the two new ones:

Doc Holiday (male)

Mustang Sally (female)

Wild Bill has been spending some time in "time out" since he keeps trying to nurse on Annie (and not in a good way). But, while the "new" ones are bigger (yep, bottle babies just tend to be smaller - those momma cats do come in handy), they are teaching Wild Bill and Annie to eat off plate. And Sally cleans him up some, so that helps too. Friday night they spent in a crate, but they moved to baby jail on Saturday and have been in there ever sense - they aren't big enough yet to escape on their own. Annie is now crated as of this morning. The bigger two smoosh Bill to keep him from nursing. And Annie hasn't pooped in a day or so and mom wants to keep track of her - she may end up at the v-e-t tonight.

You can only laugh.......

Mom says it is a good thing she has a sense of humor.....

Thanks for the words of encouragement. It means a lot to mom. She got a little choked up reading some of your comments. :)

Oh and to @Furries - Silver is pretty snotty. She has an upper respiratory thing. Silver has been very good about eating, but Friday afternoon she was acting a little more....blah. Mom thought she was a little dehydrated - which can happen when she is eating little bits at a time (of canned food)....so mom had the rescue lady give her fluids to give her system a boost. And it must have worked. :)

Annie and Wild Bill got baths on Sunday.....they were a mess. Mom is hoping since they are getting their teeth in, she can start to wean them. That is the plan.

Oh - and baby-jail has been resurrected:

Annie trying the food - first and only time so far

Silver trying to figure out what is going on

(and yes, she has gone INTO baby jail to check out their dinner)

aww - Annie on the left, Wild Bill on the right

Here's the laugh or cry part of this: yesterday during lunch at work, she got a text from Bug's mom. They have seen Grandma around the house. With.....4 white kittens. (mom says she is having problems typing this without laughing) We know, it shouldn't be funny, but......

For now, Bug's family is keeping on an eye on the kittens (the neighbor can see them from her screened porch). Depending on how the weaning goes, mom may get them next weekend. We just don't want Grandma getting ideas and moving those kittens. And we tell mom it could be worse - she could have 6 bottle babies (wow - she went pale when we brought that up).

so much for that....

Sorry about the double post yesterday - mom planned the one about the new kitts for today but hit the wrong button. Good help is so hard to find. :)  MOL

Anyhow, mom fed the kitts last night and was watching TV when the phone rang. It was Bug's mom - they caught the momma cat!!!! Wahoo.......  Mom got right in the car (ok, after finding some shoes and running around the house) and went over to pick her up. She came back and got everything set up.

Mom borrowed a big wire dog crate from our friend Miss Kelly. She put the blankets inside and then.....

Meet "Grandma" as she is called in the neighborhood. This is the cat they were sure they were seeing with the kittens. Mom got her in the crate and then put in the kittens and food/water/litter.

She checked on them later in the night (though didn't take any pictures - have we mentioned the thing about good help). Grandma was eating, but the kittens were nursing. She decided to give it to morning. And while the food was gone, it didn't appear the kittens were eating. Grandma was being nice to them, but either those aren't her kittens or too much stress from being trapped and moved.

So a decision had to be made - in order to bottle feed the kittens, mom had to get them out of the crate. She decided to "re"trap Grandma and grab the kittens. And since she was in the trap, she got dropped off at the clinic today. Mom says the kittens are doing ok as bottle babies and the routine isn't too bad, so she is just going to take Grandma back to the neighborhood and release her.

Didn't work out the way we wanted, but hey....one more girl cat spayed!!! Plus the 2 boys from the previous days. Not bad if we do say so ourselves. And the neighbors want to continue to borrow the traps to keep doing TNR. Mom says for that alone, and setting a good example for the kids, she can bottle feed a couple of kittens. (guess this means we should let her off the hook for the picture/button hitting thing, huh?)