Category Archives: Kitten

I'm lucky my foster mama loves ornery boy kittens!

He’s less than four months old, but in his short life, Moe has already used a few of his nine lives.  First, he was born outside to a feral mama.  It’s a big, bad dangerous world out there for teeny ones.  He was lucky in that our friends at Animal Allies rescued him, brought him inside and took care of him until Tails High had room for him.

Second, within two days of coming to Tails High, he stopped eating, stopped playing, and spiked a fever of 105+ degrees — probably a “mysterious kitten virus,” from which he’s now fully recovered.

And third, once he recovered his kitten mojo, characterized by unbridled curiosity, playfulness and joy, Moe discovered the heating duct in our dining room, likely assisted (and egged on) by our three-year-old cat, Phaedra.  When Ken came downstairs Friday morning, he saw that the metal vent on the floor had been lifted up, Phaedra was looking down into the heating duct, and scratching sounds were emanating from under the floor.  Ken reached his arm down and in, and felt Moe’s nose, just as he backed up, out of reach.  Because the vent was too small for Ken to do anything other than reach into it, he decided to make “interesting noises” in the room.  Sure enough, within a few seconds, Moe popped his little head into view, and Ken was able to get him.  Whew!  Thankfully, we did not have to rip up the floor to extricate the little troublemaker.

Moe is looking for a forever home, and will have no trouble finding one, because along with playing and exploring, he loves cuddling and making anyone who comes into this world happier for having met him.

Today’s post is an excuse to show some pictures we’re recently received.  First, Sophie, a four-month-old kitten looking for her forever home::

I'm Sophie. People say I'm beautiful,inside and out ...

... and up close and far away!!

Then, Louise and Clarke, two three-month-old cutie-pies, also available for adoption.

We're littermates, can't you tell?

And last, but certainly not least, here’s two former Tails High kittens, showing how happy they are in their forever home:

We're Coco and Cheeps (formerly Eldora and Faun)

Tails High has the most wonderful adopters!!!  We recently received the following email from Tara and Danny, who adopted Malcolm about a year ago:

Last fall you united us with Malcolm, who has since become our pride and joy. We are so thankful for him, and can’t imagine life without him. To show our appreciation to your wonderful organization, and because our hearts really go out to the countless other unfortunate kitties out there who are still searching for a “forever home”, we would like to do something to help.

We’re both professional photographers, and were wondering if we could offer our services to Tails High, by taking beautiful photographs that reflect the personality of each precious kitty, for use on your website, posters, or wherever else (at your discretion), so these cats have a better chance at getting adopted. This will, obviously, be at no charge whatsoever to you. We’d simply like to help in whatever small way we know how in the hopes that it will lead more cats to find a good home, faster

Ken and I went to the first Tails High photo shoot last Thursday.  We took six kittens:  Happy Jack and Gemini (black males, miracle babies, about whom I’ll be writing a special blog entry), brown tabbies Chips (M) and Barnie (FM), and siblings Iggy (F) white with brown tabby ears and tail, and Picky (M) brown tabby with white.  It was hard to choose a couple of pictures, but we put Iggy’s on top, and a wrestling picture (always a favorite) below.

All the pictures are fabulous, as you’ll see yourself if you use this link.  Enjoy!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/57022725@N06/sets/72157627309213274/

My name is Jennifer. My foster mama says I'm even sweeter than I am beautiful.

We used to have lots of orange kittens.  Except for one sweet boy with medical issues, all of the orange kittens have been adopted.  (Don’t fret … more will come along.) 

Now we have lots of of gray kittens.  We have six solid gray kittens (from four different litters), plus four gray tabbies with white and one silver tabby (from three different litters).  They are different sizes and ages, but they have in common their beauty and sweetness.  The current TH gray/gray tabby/silver kittens are:  Chip, Dale, Faun, Fu Man Chua, Jennifer, Joel, Marcy, Mosbie, Munchkin, Rosie and Starburst.  May they all find wonderful homes as did the orange kittens before them!!

I'm very exotic looking ... so I need a special name.

I'm handsome and shy ... and I also need a special name.

During kitten season, kittens come to us with names and without names.  These two beautiful 4-month-old kittens came without names.  For now, we’re referring to them by their collars, i.e., “Purple Boy” and “Green Boy.”  Ken suggested we ironically name them “Whitey” and “Snowball,” but we’re not doing that.  If you have suggestions for names for these gorgeous fellows, send them to th@perfectsolutioninc.biz.  I’ll post any suggested names, as well as the ones chosen.
Sparta and White Paws went home with a lovely family today… a mama, dad, and three children under the age of 7 who were arguing about who got to sit next to the carrier on the way home.  S and WP are very lucky kittens. Cambridge also went home with a mom, dad and teenage human brother.  They were all completely in love with him by the time they walked out the door.I’ve got a smile-inducing video of two kittens playing that I’m going to try to post in the next few days.  My IT guy (aka Ken) has to figure out how to reduce it in size by 50% so it will make the size limitation on pix/videos for the blog.

I'm Nepture. I'll let you know what's on my mind.

I like a talking cat.  Of our four resident cats, one is very talkative.  Our orange tabby, Spencer, follows Ken around tattling on the foster felines in the house.  She seems to be saying, “And then that little black played with my tail, and then the orange one thought I was her mama and tried to nurse, and then the one that looks like my sister [Rory] tried to eat my food, and then” … on and on.  Rory only talks when she thinks it’s time for food, and we’ve ignored her other entreaties (kicking things off nightstands, desks, etc.).  Zorro makes only one sound, a squeak, when he’s getting his daily 10 kibbles of dry food, or when he’s involved in a social play/death match with one of his siblings.  Phaedra makes very sweet cooing sounds when she’s looking for affection or attention.  Oh, and Spencer has a wailing meow she makes from our bedroom when she wants one of us to come up; translated, it means, “I’m the loneliest cat in the world!”

So I’m always interested in kittens as they develop their new voices.  Babies who are nursing have a piercing cry.  Their sound is louder than any they’ll make as adults, and is designed to alert their mama when they’re hungry, need to go potty, or have become lost (sometimes this means they’re less than a foot away from mama, but they think they’re lost).  But once weaned, kittens’ new voices come out … or don’t.  Some don’t make a sound.  Some have meows.  Some make demands.  Some complain.  But whatever the sound, they’re communicating.

Neptune, shown above, is a talker.  When we got him and his littermates (Casper and Eli) babies, they needed oral antibiotics.  And I always had to laugh when it came time to give Neptune his dose.  Clavamox doesn’t taste awful.  I’ve not tasted it, but after giving it to literally hundreds of cats and kittens, I can attest they don’t mind it much, if at all.  But when we squirted the antibiotics in Neptune’s mouth, he always made a sound that sounded like, “Mom-mom-mom-mom-mum …” until he had swallowed it all.  And he continues to speak up.  Last evening, when we were up in a kitten room with a couple of TH Advocates, all the kittens were having a great time playing/cuddling, and I heard one kitten complaining.  “Who’s crying?” I said, looking around.  And there sat Neptune, behind Marie.  I  picked him up and put him in front of Betty, who had a wand, and he started jumping and playing.  Whoever becomes Neptune’s family won’t have to worry that he will keep his thoughts to himself!

You can see Neptune and a couple of other TH kittens in front of Nature’s Nibbles tonight.  Advocates Devon and Andrea will be at the Del Ray First Thursday celebration, promoting TH and our cats and kittens.  If you’re in the neighborhood, stop by and say “Hey.”