Cloud

22/02/2024

Fly free, little Cloud
Mar. 16, 2014 - Feb. 22, 2024
A miracle kitten indeed

26/11/2023

Hello everyone! We are ok, for the most part, but have had some sick kitties for a while. Cloud is fine - five others got cat colds and had to be checked out at the vets, but four have recovered. Poor Punkin is having a tough time, and we have to do some more tests while keeping her on a calorie dense soft diet.

I know this is a tough time of year for most people, and there's a lot of turmoil in the world at large, so I really hate to ask, but could use some help. Extra vet bills for everyone have run over $2,000 for exams, meds and lab tests, and Punkin may need more. Poor girl is only 10, but lost a lot of weight. She and her sister Sweet Pea had the same build and weigh, but Punkin has lost nearly half her body weight over a couple of months.

But, the good news - initial exams ruled out a lot of bad possibilities, she is still active, sweet and engaged, and has a good appetite. Initially I was feeding her Royal Canin Recovery, but her vet okayed shifting her to the Royal Canin Kitten Instinctive paté, as it is also high protein, easy to digest and calorie dense. Punkin is slowly putting some weight back on.

If you can donate anything, we would all be grateful. Tangy and Skeeter are now fully integrated with the herd, but time has passed and the herd has grown, so now we have 8 senior kitties. Including miracle baby Cloud.

I added my Venmo link, and PayPal is [email protected] Anything at all will be appreciated! Punkin's diet is an extra $5.00 a day, and we already have a feeding and litter bill like the San Diego Zoo, with 60lbs of dry food, 180lbs of litter and canned food on special occasions or when members of the herd are not feeling well.

01/03/2023

A new record, 5 in one chairs. Clockwise from left : Sweet Pea, Marie, Cloud (curled up and sleeping), Rose and Punkin.

15/10/2022

FB / "Meta" (i.e. Messa) is getting more and more annoying. Take one simple task - post a cat video. Now, you get directed to the "Meta business suite" which we'll be forced to use on November 7 (I'm not a business, I'm a cat) and go through 40 hoops and nag screens to finally see that the video is "published" but perhaps on the Russian Ministry of Defense website, because I sure can't find it on my page? Speaking of which, actually getting to my page is now a pain, because of all the useless junk FB has added to "help" page admins spend money so that FB's share prices don't fall further.

So, maybe, he's a cat video while we can still make posts this way...

The whole herd together!
This was Christmas two years ago, when Hannah, Daisy, Brookie and Rose were still kittens. The only way you get everyone together is with cans.

From left on top: Anastasia (Stossy), Turkey, Daisy, Hannah and Sweet Pea. Middle: Cloud, Punkin and Marie Bottom: Brooke (Brookie) and Rose.

24/09/2022

This is a quick one, but sometimes the universe provides just what you need. The main catio is based on a nautical theme, with masts, rigging, sails (for shade/weather) and hammocks. One of the biggest material challenges was finding non-pressure treated (potentially toxic with a lot of clawing) 6" diameter wood rounds. I could special order them, or take a 6" x 6" beam and round it by hand, but either way, a lot of cost and labor. Lo and behold, one day out walking in my neighborhood, and some kind soul had decided to get rid of their rustic headboard and foot board for a queen size bed. One of the 6" uprights had a longitudinal crack, which could probably be an issue for 200+ pounds of sleeping people, but probably not so much for a 10-16 lb climbing cat or ten. The wood needs a little sanding and prepping, but very little compared to the possible alternatives, and the material was free!

I now have four 6" round mast sections, plus six 3" round pieces that will become part of a a new indoor scratching post / hammock tree.

24/09/2022

Today is a milestone day, if FB will let us post. We've had technical problems with FB in multiple browsers, but no other websites, and those problems ate several attempted posts and videos.

Cloud's miracle march continues. She is 8 and a half years old and still hanging int in and back to enjoying life. The recent heat spell we had was rough on her, and she had a few tough days with the combo of heat and humidity. Today is 8 years and 4 months since her adoption as a frail nine week old with a poor prognosis. Ha! She fools all of us.

Hopefully the FB issues are behind us, but just in case, and for other reasons too, we're also moving to a Wordpress website by the end of the year. It will make regular content easier to manage, and the main Catio (still in progress, with lots of added features) will have a cat cam.

27/11/2021

Hello! It's been a while. We're getting a catio for Christmas! It will be built off the living room, up high where we can look at the birdies. Mom and dad are both crazy about tall ships, and we all love to climb, so we're getting two masts with rigging, hammocks, and climby, perchy, nesty places.

Here are some photos of us:

16/08/2021

One of the most fun parts about moving is exploring the boxes that the two-legged members of the herd open up. When the two-legged ones are merging from two houses to one, the kitchen boxes are the most fun, because there's lots of "we've got ten of these, only one of these and none of these, so it takes them time to sort all that out and figure out where to put things. That gives us more time to help them and inspect things, of course. 😉🐈

Here, Marie and I had a couple of favorite boxes to inspect.

15/08/2021

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14/08/2021

09/08/2021

Daisy came home as Hannah's nursery mate and foster buddy, and Rose was rescued from a tree with her sister Brooke, but the kids all have a lot of cross-bonding with each other and sometimes with the older members of our herd.

The most common and recurring combination is Daisy and Rose, so they're known as 'the flower children.' ❤

05/08/2021

Wow, time flies! Almost a year since Hannah and Daisy came home, then another three weeks and it will be a year since Brooke and Rose came home - little feral sisters who were too young to realize it's a lot easier going up trees than climbing down them.

We're all moving, sort of - same place, but lots of additions and subtractions and rearranging. The herd is now 12 - still ten kitties, but another human has joined us, as our dad did something silly and fell in love, with someone who didn't run screaming when he mentioned he had ten cats. So we have a mom now, too - someone who loves kitties, but hadn't had any in a long time, so we're getting her trained. Twice the number of hand to pet us is an awesome thing!

We'll be rearranging things for another couple of weekends, then current photos and some videos.

Sweet Pea and Punkin are now 8 years old, I'm almost 7 and a half, Stossy (Anastasia) Turkey and Marie will be 6 in a few months - Turkey and Stossy at the end of September, Marie in late November. Hannah, Daisy, Brooke and Rose are all a year old now, and their first adoptiversaries are coming soon.

We hope you're all doing well!🍪 The picture is Brookie and Rose being lovey-dovey sisters.

21/08/2020

Return/adoption day and the first couple of days in their new home.

21/08/2020

We have some big updates and adoptiversaries to catch up on. Everyone is doing well as much as 2020 and doing well fit in the same sentence. The biggest news first, though: The herd has grown by two.

16/02/2020

This is a bit of an unusual post, and if any of you are in a position to help, a whole family and their dog Bella and cat Chloe will be very grateful. If not, I understand, as we all have many needs and limited resources.

I've sort of temporarily "adopted" a homeless family. Having worked and volunteered in shelters, as some of you have seen in the shelter and rescue world, there are far too many "owner surrenders" and some of us we keep our furry kids right up to the end.

This is one of those situtions - the mom, Bridget, is a former vet tech who can't work in the field any more due to knee and lower back injuries a couple of years ago. She has three daughters, ages 16, 13 and 4. Their dad is in the wind - no participation, no support, dropped off the planet. They've struggled to survive for a couple of years, but then a few weeks ago, ended up in their car. At work here, we have a delivery truck outside that needs major work and isn't going anywhere, so we let them use that for storing their personal items, because an adult, three kids, a dog and a cat in a 2002 Ford Explore is kind of a tight fit, to say the least.

Then their truck broke down. Bad in any event, worse when you live in it with three girls and constantly have to keep from getting it towed. So they have to push it from place to place.Las Yesterday after work, I went to their last location a mile or so up the road, and rope towed them to my office parking lot. I've been keeping them supplied with cat litter and cart food, taking them to the local YMCA every few days so they can shower, and took the mom to a nearby coin laundry (I finally got rid of my pile of quarters!), so they'll have clean clothes, and now the kids are watching a moving and relaxing with Bella and Chloe in our break/training room. We let them store perishables in the fridge at work, and use our kitchen.

So we're keeping them going, and we've all pitched in a little (it's a real tiny company, 12 people, two of whom are remote). They got approved for Section 8 housing, but now have to go find it. Then they have no furniture, but I have a bunch of stuff to get rid of.

The biggest problem is mobility - to find housing, to get the girls back in school, and for medical/job/everything. Wehe they are is ok for not getting chased off, but too far from usable transit, and not really safe to leave the girls without an adult for extended periods of time. It's a real chicken and egg situation - once someone has fallen far enough down in the cracks, for whatever reason, it's hard to climb back up, no matter how much you try, And through all this, they've kept Bella and Chloe safe and secure and happy. They are both friendly and they're relaxed around other people. Bella is your typical funky 20lb or so rescue dog - dachsundy face and colors, but more terrier proportions. Chloe is a grety tabby mix with white on her chest, face and feet.

I've checked the car out, and issue appears almost certain to be between fuel pump and fuel injection. I'm contributing what I can, but also reaching out to others if anyone can help get this human and animal family back on their feet. The kids are fantastic, very kind, polite, the older ones manure for their age, but they're going to have to readjust to life. Bella and Chloe are very friendly and sweet. If anyone can help, I would greatly appreciate it. We need to get a decent mobile mechanic here, because the car is home for now.

I have paypal and a paypal debit card, so I can get money to them, the mechanic, etc. quickly.

It's [email protected] I'm, going to try to set up a gofundme Monday after work, if people prefer that..

05/02/2020

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted. The kitties are fine, including Cloud, and we got through a winter with the electric blanket and shared body heat.

Zelda is gone. A few times I saw a black cat who I thought could be her, but seemed significantly larger. At first, when I saw the food I set out at night disappeared, I thought maybe it was her, but then I met daddy possum and later daughter possum, but they seem to have moved on too. Even with the rains and the cold weather, no sign of her. There's just not enough stuff to hunt in the neighborhood to keep a feral cat going. That's one reason the changing parade of strays comes by the door at feeding time. When she broke out and bolted, that was just a few house before I had to drive to Arizona for my mom's funeral, and I knew that was my one window to get her back. I don't believe there's any way she could have survived through the winter with what little there is here to hunt. I can just hope her end was quick and easy, and that she knows I still think of her.

I have a little stuffed black cat with huge eyes I got around the time I met Zelda, and my friend Anett made me a customer Kuro bubago kitty, so they have a place together by the other pillow on the bed.

The kitties have been great - Cloud will be six years old in sixe weeks, and shows only a little dementia and lethargy. Not so different from me.

I haven't done so well. After some really good progress with medical issues, I got hit by a car again - the first time almost two and a half years ago, splitting my sternum. The good news - this care was going much slower. The bad news - I was on foot, crossing the street due to having to park a few blocks away during road construction. Driver texting and turning through a stop sign without the actual "stop" part. So, dislocated shoulder, mild concussion, and some hip damage, one side from the car and the other from the pavement. I went from running (albeit slowly and with the grace of a pregnant duck) and power hikes with a 25lb pack at 3+ miles an hour to barely walking after a couple of weeks. Months later, I still walk slower than before, with a weird hitch if I've been sitting for a while, and I'm maybe 50% of where I was, with a lot more chronic pain.

Then to top it off, in the late fall, my eyesight started to deteriorate rapidly, and right after the New Year, I was diagnosed with macular edema in both eyes, which will require having the Death Star (ok, it's a little bitty laser, bu in my field of view, it will be the size of the Death Star) blast a hole in my retina to drain and deflate it, then zap it a bunch more times to glue it back to the eyeball. The joys of insurance, then no insurance, then new insurance, and all the approval hoops for something I still can't afford, but can't afford not to. I'm not quite at the legally blind stage, but not far from it. I can type and read, but only on very big screens at high magnification with my nose almost touching the screen.

This weekend I'll take some photos of the kids and post them. My phone camera can be as bad as I am, but I can't tell if anything is in focus anyway!

29/07/2019

Sorry we've been gone so long. A lot has happened, but most of the herd is fine, including Cloud. Zelda is gone.

I'll have a real post with photos this coming weekend. A while after Kuro passed, my mom, who had vascular dementia, passed in her sleep in the memory care place my dad had transfer her too, so I was off to Arizona to deal with the rest of the estate and funeral. One sad but sweet note, after my dad died early last year, we found the little boxes of remains of the seven dogs my parents had from 1969 until the last one passed in 2017. They'd never figured out what to do with the dogs' ashes, but since my parents were going to be buried together in the Veterans Memorial Cemetery north of Phoenix, we placed the little boxes of remains in my mom's casket, so my parents and their dogs are now together again.

There's an abandoned outdoor cat who comes around sometimes for food, and the afternoon before I drove out for my mom's funeral, Zellda saw "outdoor cat" and somehow popped the bedroom window screen completely out - it's one of those fancy new windows, and the screens are in there tight - no idea how she got the whole thing out, but she was gone. Driving out for the funeral and back, I was gone for three days, and no opportunity to look for Zelda. There has been no sign of her since.

Everyone else is ok, and nobody else wanted to go out - ever, but the herd is down to six.

22/02/2019

I wish it was 8, not 7, but here is the first ever pic of the whole herd at once.

20/02/2019

I just saw this, and it really got to me.

https://youtu.be/AZS5cgybKcI

Kitbull, directed by Rosana Sullivan and produced by Kathryn Hendrickson, reveals an unlikely connection that sparks between two creatures: a fiercely indepe...

02/02/2019

These are pics of Kuro from when he was abandoned a little before Christmas 2017, to when he came home with me, to his sickness in August 2018, then his better and worse days, finally to a few days before he died at home on January 25, 2019.

26/01/2019

I cannot say goodbye, my sweetest friend. A part of me passed with you, and a part of you stays with me.

Kuro
~2011 - 1/25/2019

18/01/2019

And the little dork apparently hasn't used up all nine of his lives.

I really thought last night would be his last dinner, so I had a can of people tuna in water. I squeezed the "tuna juice" out of it and blended that into his recovery canned food, since he's nuts for fish. He ate a decent amount, (for him - a little over an ounce) then returned to his hiding place in the linen closet. I got him out of there onto a cat bed, then moved that to my bed.

He spent the whole night curled in a ball right in my face, purring softly. Every time I opened my eyes, my field of view was a round cat head and two big cat ears. I got up this morning to do some stuff around the house before getting the cat carrier. Next thing I know, I hear that Louis Armstrong voice at my feet, Mrow! Mrow! MROWWWW!!! nagging me for breakfast. He still ate only a tiny amount, (not quite two ounces) but more in one meal than he has on some complete days, so I canceled his appointment.

He's eaten three times so far today, and is now sleeping in a cat bed on one of the living room sofas, near Zelda and Marie. So no hiding from the world, at least right now. He's still very weak and frail, but engaged more, and if he keeps eating like this, he will gain back some weight. I don't know if we just have another day or two, or another weak, but as long as he tries and has the will to live, I will do everything I can to make him feel loved and comfortable in whatever time we have left.

I know a lot of people would have euthanized him by now - he's not in great shape at all, precariously thin, weak, and there is no ultimate treatment or cure. But, he's still hanging on and still trying. As long as they have that little spark - that look that "I'm not quite ready to go yet," then I won't make that decision.

He's getting salmon for dinner tonight (real salmon, mixed with his healthy recovery food), and we'll just go one more day, then hopefully one more day, and hopefully another, for whatever time we have...

A little over a year ago, someone dumped him and left him to his fate. I feel like I owe it to him to go the last inch and beyond to give him the most time and love he can have.

17/01/2019

Kuro has fought his sickness as much as he could. Tonight is our last night together. Tomorrow will be the last day of his life. And I'm just broken inside.

Edit - the little guy just won't give up. So I won't give up on him either.

06/01/2019

Kuro is a very contrary boy. I called the vet's office to make that dreaded appointment for Monday at 5pm. Kuro got sick in the middle of the night, which I'm used to - that's why I have a washer, dryer and carpet cleaners. He was very withdrawn and barely ate with a lot of coaxing this morning. I had to go into work for a little while, then get groceries. When I left, Kuro was sleeping in his new hidey spot in the bathroom.

When I came back, guess who was waiting at the front door and nagging for food? He didn't eat much, not near enough, but he held it down, and stayed out in the main room for quite a while, with other kitties around. So far, he's held down what he's eaten and is resting, but alert and he responds when I talk to him or say his name.

If he does ok tomorrow, I'll be cancelling that appointment and getting him a few more cans of the super expensive prescription recovery food. He loved that stuff, even though he's a ridiculously fussy eater.

So fingers and toes and paws crossed...

There's no cure and no treatment really beyond symptomatic treatment and keeping him comfortable, and he still won't have much time, but if he's engaged and still shows that spark of life in his eyes for a while longer, I'll do everything I can to give him that extra time, with a lot of love.

05/01/2019

I'm sorry it's been so long since we posted. Cloud is doing fine, a little ditzy sometimes, but aren't we all?

Sweet Pea, Punkin, Zelda,Turkey, Anastasia and Marie are all doing well. We had a bunch of rescueversaries/adoptiversaries. Zelda's four year "Can I come inside-versary" was December 14. Turkey's three year adoptiversary was December 8. Anastasia's three year fosterversary was December 8, her three year fosterfa
ilureversary was December 26, once I got her fattened up enough for her spay surgery. Later this month will be Marie's three year rescueversary.

Next Saturday would be Kuro's one year rescueversary, except, he won't make it that long. I've had some medical and health issues in the past months, and Kuro has been fighting his lymphoma, just like Vlady did, almost six years ago. It's been hard to keep weight on Kuro, but he did come back from the brink and stabilize for a few months. At least externally, but the cancer is winning out. Last night was particularly rough.

Depending on how he does overnight, we may have to make that final trip to the vet tomorrow. Or Monday or Tuesday at the latest if he rallies a bit and seems to be more engaged, but today, he's barely eating, and withdrawing for the first time ever. He's letting me know it's time to say good bye all too soon.

12/08/2018

Guess who ate his dinner then had seconds?!!!!!! Kuro is definitely gaining a little weight back.

11/08/2018

Kuro update! I posted the details in his GoFundMe oage update. Kuro is improving day by day, and he's starting to gain some weight back. We won't know for sure until his initial course of treatment and recheck next Thursday, but things are hopeful.

Thank you so much to everyone who has donated!!!!

Kuro is a senior kitty who was dumped in an industrial area with a small feral colony last Christmas. He's not at all feral - in fact, he is the friendliest cat anyone has ever met. He lived in a drainage ditch until it rained, then he told me he needed a new home. I took him to the vet, and...