Author Topic: The Zev thread (was "Anybody want a kitten?")  (Read 107798 times)

Kim

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Re: Anybody want a kitten?
« Reply #25 on: 01 August, 2011, 11:44:39 pm »
She seems to have the hang of solid food, so I expect will be absolutely fine on the kitten specific stuff (sadly the 24 hours shop didn't have any, but she wolfed down ~50g of chickeny cat food a couple of hours ago and hasn't barfed it up yet).  I'm guessing somewhat about the age.  She's very scrawny under all that fuzz, so might well be a bit older than she looks.

Obviously we're in no rush to put her through a big journey.  The landlord's very much the non-intervention type, so there's no problem with her staying her for a while to build a bit of strength up.

It's been a while, but my general experience of young cats is that, much like audaxers, they pretend to have infinite reserves of energy while there's something interesting to do, but once left on their own will calm down and slink off for a snooze in a quiet corner somewhere.

Re: Anybody want a kitten?
« Reply #26 on: 01 August, 2011, 11:46:25 pm »
Ours were 16 weeks when we got them and the Battersea chaps said that for the first few weeks, I'd have to come home at lunchtime to see them, which I did.

There's something to be said for that, and I could probably do it for a few weeks, although I'd have to stop eventually, since over four hours a day travelling would be a bit of a killer after a while! (...especially if I was cycling.  It would help return my cycling mileage to normal, 46 miles a day!)

It sounds like Kim and Barakta need to move the kitten on sooner, rather than later, which I can understand.  I'm not sure there's ever going to be a good age to transport a cat, very few seem to like car travel, although my Dad used to know a GP who would drive to see her patients with her cat asleep on the rear parcel shelf of her car!
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Re: Anybody want a kitten?
« Reply #27 on: 02 August, 2011, 12:09:59 am »
Of course, everyone is missing the really important question, regardless of the eventual location, what is he/she/it going to be called?

YAFC (Yet Another Forum Cat) doesn't really trip off of the tounge. ;D

... of course Charlotte has a spreadsheet of several hundred cat names!
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Kim

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Re: Anybody want a kitten?
« Reply #28 on: 02 August, 2011, 12:17:32 am »
I'm concentrating very hard on not calling her Jiji.  Because naming her would be bad.

On the other hand, it would be simpler than Charlotte's spreadsheet and easier to pronounce than 'bocb' or whatever the next standard issue forum username is supposed to be.

Valiant

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Re: Anybody want a kitten?
« Reply #29 on: 02 August, 2011, 02:16:45 am »
Tim I step down, we decided that as amazing as it would be to have a new kitty, the journey on train might be a bit traumatic for her and then there's Frankie, we're not sure how he might treat a new baby kitty.

But you have to post pics and loads of them regularly :)
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Re: Anybody want a kitten?
« Reply #30 on: 02 August, 2011, 08:00:02 am »
I am not in a position to take on a cat on a permanent basis, but could certainly help go get it from Brum in the purple machine (also known as a car) to drop it at an appropriate new home if that ends up being London-way.

I'm also self-employed and not beholden to a landlord, so could "foster" it for a time if needed as I'm home for large chunks of the day!  I do have a prior resident in the way of a dog, but she's exceedingly easy to deal with and rather likes cats as long as they're not Siamese.

As for names...FC for "Forum Cat" could work  ;)



Andrij

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Re: Anybody want a kitten?
« Reply #31 on: 02 August, 2011, 08:07:52 am »

As for names...FC for "Forum Cat" could work  ;)

Ummm.... naming the kitteh that might cause some confusion.
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Re: Anybody want a kitten?
« Reply #32 on: 02 August, 2011, 08:42:09 am »
Hopefully it goes without saying that if Kim and Barakta can find a new caretaker for YAFC closer to them, then I'll happily bow out, since I don't necessarily want to expose the kitteh to unnecessary travel.

Sam, if you were trying to introduce another cat to Frankie, my understanding is that kittens are easier to introduce to an older cat than an adult cat would be, since the existing cat sees a kitten less as a threat than an adult (regardless of the fact that we may see the kitten as winning on cuteness).
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Re: Anybody want a kitten?
« Reply #33 on: 02 August, 2011, 09:30:10 am »
If it helps with transportation, I'm due to go to Warwick in a couple of weeks' time, and I'll be meeting a Birmingham inhabitant there. I also have a large bottle of Feliway for ease of kitteh-car-calming.

The above points could probably be constructed into a plan.  :)
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Charlotte

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Re: Anybody want a kitten?
« Reply #34 on: 02 August, 2011, 09:37:28 am »
You mean, drug the kitteh and kidnap it?

:D
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border-rider

Re: Anybody want a kitten?
« Reply #35 on: 02 August, 2011, 10:00:17 am »
 :D

I would offer to foster her for a while but:

The odds of Daisy not eating her/Tam not sitting on her by accident are slim

If that did work out, the odds of her ever being allowed to leave would be zero.

Re: Anybody want a kitten?
« Reply #36 on: 02 August, 2011, 10:06:24 am »
I think a kitten would be easy to transport, train or car.

Just put them in something dark that can't be ripped open.

We shoved our cat in a wicker basket to get to the vets - put folded bin bag on bottom, old towel on that. easy peasy.

They are tougher than you think, and can go hours without food - just like audaxers.
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Re: Anybody want a kitten?
« Reply #37 on: 02 August, 2011, 10:08:51 am »
Just to alleviate worries, I have a broadly working car (a 15 year old 1.2L Corsa) and large spray container of kitteh drugs Feliway.

Feliway is meant to help alleviate stress in cats, it's an artificially manufactured chemical based on feline pheremones.  It sometimes worked with Talisker, who hated travel by car, bus and bicycle.  He didn't mind trams and trains though.
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Valiant

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Re: Anybody want a kitten?
« Reply #38 on: 02 August, 2011, 10:11:01 am »
Moar pics! Kathy are you driving?

SWMBO said yes essentially
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Re: Anybody want a kitten?
« Reply #39 on: 02 August, 2011, 10:34:54 am »
Could you put  a folded towel in the bath for her to sleep on ? Bath's are very cold to sleep in as anyone who has crashed out n one at a party knows.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

HTFB

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Re: Anybody want a kitten?
« Reply #40 on: 02 August, 2011, 10:42:52 am »
If more Londoners want forum kitties than Kim and Barakta can provide for, you might get in touch with the Sidcup sanctuary who are struggling enough that they visited our community library yesterday to put up hopeful posters.

I haven't told the Beloved Stoker about this. I'm not yet strong enough to face another bout of late-night kitty-mugshot-browsing.
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Re: Anybody want a kitten?
« Reply #41 on: 02 August, 2011, 10:57:13 am »
I think most of the cat protection bods and similar are struggling at the moment, it's that time of year.  When I took Talisker into the vets, I was chatting to a woman who was there under the auspices of one group (Croydon Animal Samaritans I think), and she had five kittens with her for the vet to look at.  She said that they currently had 41 kittens, plus obviously a mass of adult cats. :-\  Interestingly, they also have some Feral cat colonies.

If I take on this one, I may chat to the woman I know at my local cattery, and see if it's reasonable to introduce a second kitten (possibly slightly older), and that way get better value for money (iyswim) out of my time.  I was mostly planning on getting a couple of kittens or cats, but would probably have got them together, rather than individually!
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barakta

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Re: Anybody want a kitten?
« Reply #42 on: 02 August, 2011, 11:01:32 am »
Update as of 08:30ish this morning was that she had decided the litter tray was a nice place to sleep and was all curled up in it.  She hadn't seemed interested in fuzzy bathmats to sleep on - just weed on them - silly kitteh doing it wrong  :facepalm:

We went to bed at nearly 2am after Kim had spent some time scritching and stroking her before finally leaving her to sleep - we felt she would be ok.  Kim spent half an hour with her stroking her and talking to her at about 4am and then about 15 mins at 8am and I spent 5 mins saying hello on my way out to work and she was still sleepy and so so cute. 

I'm not getting a reply from Kim to twitter DMs or IRC so suspect she's busy sitting with kitteh in the bathroom.  Hopefully the cats protection people will call back and advise today as we'd like to get her to a vet/experienced cat person to check she's actually properly okay fairly soonish our main difficulty is lack of suitable carrier and transportation as we don't want to scare her.  Hoping cat bods will have sensible thoughts on what's least scary/traumatic for her.

I really appreciate all the offers of help and taking her in that are coming up.  I suspect we'll know more over the next day or so as to what's the best option for her.  I so so wish we could keep her ourselves, but we really can't. :'(  (literally)

barakta

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Re: Anybody want a kitten?
« Reply #43 on: 02 August, 2011, 11:06:08 am »
Ah, twitter DM just in from Kim: "Ate nonsense, grudgingly allowed me to de-snot eyes. Currently purring on my lap."

Am assuming 'nonsense' is some autocorrect nonsense bollocks.

As our plan is to keep her in the bathroom for the forseeable for weeing everywhere and "only room in our house which isn't full of crannnies of tech for her to hide in" values of 'safe'.

Charlotte

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Re: Anybody want a kitten?
« Reply #44 on: 02 August, 2011, 11:22:21 am »
Aw  :)

You don't really *need* a cat carrier.  I'm sure someone as resourceful as Kim could molish something slightly less durable, but perfectly serviceable out of cardboard and gaffer tape.
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Re: Anybody want a kitten?
« Reply #45 on: 02 August, 2011, 11:49:01 am »
Happy memories of taking Iphigenia, my pet mousie, to the vet in a Twinings Tea Box.

Now I think about it, she sat through an hour of lectures in there too!
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Mrs Pingu

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Re: Anybody want a kitten?
« Reply #46 on: 02 August, 2011, 12:31:15 pm »
To be fair, at c. 8 weeks Pippin wasn't actually eating food, so Pingu had to go home at lunchtime for a week or two to give her kitten formula.
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Re: Anybody want a kitten?
« Reply #47 on: 02 August, 2011, 01:48:55 pm »
Can I also just say, that in a time when the forum cats don't seem to have been having such a great time of it, it is great to see someone going out of their way to rescue a kitten who was really in need of rescue, and that so many people are then offering help to Kim and Barakta with it.

I know that on the scale of things, it's only a cat, and many may think relatively unimportant, but with the news often back to back unpleasantness and things in the world going wrong, it's nice to see people being helpful and friendly to the less fortunate, even if that happens to be someone small black and furry.
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Kim

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Re: Anybody want a kitten?
« Reply #48 on: 02 August, 2011, 02:05:12 pm »
Okay, update:

She spent the night snoozing comfortably in the litter tray, because cats are contrary like that.

Had a bit of gunk in her eyes this morning, and was a bit sniffly.  She nommed down the other half of the sachet of catfood from last night without trouble, and has had some cat milk.  I spent all morning with her on my lap, and eventually gained enough trust to clean her eyes out properly - they don't look too bad, just a bit weepy.  I think we both must have fallen asleep for a couple of hours (purring cats have that effect on me).

I managed to persuade her that licking a knob of butter off my precision scales was a good idea.  She appears to weigh ~640g.  The interwebs are surprisingly non forthcoming with a decent kitten weight chart, but it looks like that's on the low side for 8 weeks, and she could well be a scrawny 10 weeks or more, given how prominent her ribs are.

She's had several wees since last night, but not as yet passed any solids.  On the plus side, she hasn't vomited anything either.

I got a call back from the cat rescue people, who were delighted that I have a potential home for her.  If she's got potentially infectious cat flu (which doesn't seem unlikely) it would be even more difficult for them to take her.  They don't do vetinary care other than neutering, so I've made an appointment with a local vet, and molished a bicycle-friendly cat carrier out of one of barakta's plastic crates of bisexual propaganda.  I expect they'll give her some antibiotics and probably some eye ointment (which is no doubt going to be fun).

Right, I should feed myself before trip to the vet.

red marley

Re: Anybody want a kitten?
« Reply #49 on: 02 August, 2011, 02:08:40 pm »
Of course, everyone is missing the really important question, regardless of the eventual location, what is he/she/it going to be called?

YAFC (Yet Another Forum Cat) doesn't really trip off of the tounge. ;D

I think that would be a great name for her. Pronounced "Yaffker", it trips off the tongue nicely.