Animal Farm

Recently, we have added a new pet to our family. We're now up to four animals:

Fozzy, one of our 14-year-old bichon frises,


Gonzo, our other 14-year-old bichon frise, whose health is rapidly declining unfortunately,


Nibbles, Car Guy's rabbit, who is now hopping around and playing again after battling a near-fatal bout with pasteurella and head tilt (more details at http://musingsthoughtsandponderings.blogspot.com/2009/04/bunny-nurse.html and http://musingsthoughtsandponderings.blogspot.com/2009/04/hanging-in-there.html),


and Snowball, a 12-week-old kitten who is our newest addition.


Let me preface Snowball's story by stating that I have never previously owned a cat and have never considered myself to be a "cat person." My family and I started watching Snowball about six weeks ago, though, when we discovered that she belonged to a stray mother cat we had been feeding. For the back story on Snowball's family, check out http://musingsthoughtsandponderings.blogspot.com/2009/06/cat-wrangler.html and http://musingsthoughtsandponderings.blogspot.com/2009/06/cat-wrangler-part-2.html.

Since I had not been successful in previously catching and aiding the stray cat family, I had just continued to feed them and let them be until I learned this week how quickly cats can reproduce. My guess was that we would be covered up in stray cats unless I quickly took some action. Meanwhile, Curly Girl and Car Guy enjoyed watching the five kittens hang out on our porch and especially took a shine to the white kitten which they dubbed "Snowball."


This past Wednesday night, our family inadvertently left our garage door open during a thunderstorm. By the time we discovered our error, the mother cat and her kittens had taken up residence in our garage. When Patrick and I went in the garage about 10pm that night, we saw five cats run out, but did not spy Snowball running away. After searching for him for a bit, Patrick and I closed the garage door and went to bed.

The next morning, however, I heard a kitten loudly meowing in our garage and found Snowball tiptoeing across the top of our garage door. Realizing that this was our chance to intercept one of the kittens, Patrick gently picked up the feline and placed it in a pet carrier.


I still wasn't sure about the cat thing, but told my children that we would check into what we needed to do to acclimate a feral cat into being a pet. First, we took Snowball to our local Humane Society so someone else could handle him before I stuck my hand in the carrier. After getting the all-clear and making a future appointment to have the cat neutered and receive his vaccinations, the children and I brought Snowball home. The kitten did have a bit of a respiratory illness and needed some antibiotics for ten days which meant that we had to keep Snowball inside for the duration of his meds.


For now, Snowball is ensconced in one of our bathrooms where he will stay for the next two weeks. Since I have no previous cat experience, I wasn't sure what to expect from a kitten, and a stray one at that. Snowball has been fabulous, though. He has used his litter box consistently and has not displayed any aggressive behavior. After voluntarily hanging out in his pet carrier or in a corner for about the first 24 hours, he now plays with toys, purrs when held, rubs your hand asking for more petting, and rolls over for tummy rubs. The kitten has even been cooperative when taking his twice-daily oral antibiotics.


When allowing Snowball in the house, I told Curly Girl and Car Guy that we would re-evaluate Snowball's status in 10 days. For some reason, I think the kitten will be staying, though.

Cat Wrangler

When I awoke this morning, I anticipated a fabulously calm and productive day.

After accomplishing a lot this morning (I am all about marking things off my to-do list), my day skittered marvelously astray about lunch time. We're all animal lovers in our house with a history of gathering and caring for strays. To this end, my children and I have been feeding a lovely gray stray cat for a few weeks. "Smoky" now regularly frequents her food bowl on our front porch, appearing shortly after her food appears each day. When I rattled Smoky's bowl today, she quickly emerged from underneath our neighbors' deck followed by five small kittens. Until today, I had no idea that Smoky was a she (She won't let us more than a few feet near her.), much less that she supported a family.

Excitedly and naively, I called my neighbor to ask if she knew a family of kittens lives under her deck. At the same time, Car Guy and I trekked down the hill to check out the kittens who quickly scattered when we drew too near. They were too cute, though, and Car Guy spent much of the afternoon using binoculars to watch the kittens play in our neighbors' back yard.

I like our neighbors; I really do, and I tried very, very hard to be kind and tactful today. After speaking with my neighbors, though, I learned that they do know about the kittens and aren't too thrilled that I have been feeding the mother cat. Our neighbors would be more than happy to dispose of the cats and have an exterminator coming to spray for termites next week, so bye-bye kittens. They also have a trap from Animal Control to try to catch the cats and send them to the pound.


Now, I have never owned a cat, nor can I afford to have six cats spayed/ neutered and updated on shots. But I can't stand the thought of the mother and her kittens being automatically put down or killed by termite poison. After spending much of my afternoon trying to catch Smoky and her kittens, without any luck, I now have the trap on my porch with food in it. I figure if I can catch Smoky and her kittens, they'll at least have a better chance of survival if I'm in charge of their fate.

As my dear, "patient" husband asked me tonight, "What are you planning to do with these cats if you catch them?" I'm not exactly sure, but I won't take them to the pound. I've been to the pound twice and can never handle going again (Note: I can't handle watching Bambi or The Lion King either.) I did ask my in-laws (who have a farm with lots of animals) if they could take some more barn cats, but they're maxed out at 35 animals (horses, dogs, cats, pigs, guinea hens) now.

So, if anyone, has any productive ideas about how to catch these cats I would love to hear them. Any leads on low-cost/ no-cost shots and spay/neuter would also be greatly appreciated, as well as ideas on what to do with these cats if I can actually catch them.

Thank you!

Bunny Nurse

Have you ever tried something new only to realize that you aren't half bad at it? That's how it has been with me for the past two days, only it's a skill that I certainly did not want to develop. Car Guy's pet bunny, Nibbles, has fallen ill, and since Car Guy is a seven-year-old boy, I seem to be the rabbit's main nursemaid. Apparently, I'm not too bad at caring for a rabbit. People, however, are a completely different story. My husband, Patrick, repeatedly points out that I was not the sweetest human caretaker when he had shoulder surgery in November. He seems to forget that animals are kind, not grumpy, when they do not feel well.

Nibbles' health issues began on Thursday night when Patrick woke me up about 12:30am saying something was wrong with Nibbles. The bunny kept rolling around like he couldn't control his head or body. After doing some hasty research in our bunny book and online, we determined that he had head tilt, and it was serious. Luckily, I was able to speak with someone at the 24-hour emergency vet to make an appointment for 9am Friday morning.

By the time the kids and I got Nibbles to the vet, he was extremely lethargic, in addition to the frightening head tilt. An expensive vet trip later, Nibbles was diagnosed with a pasteurella infection which has infected his eyes (looks like he has pinkeye), an ear (bunny ear infection), and caused the head tilt (from vertigo-like symptoms due to the inner ear infection). To fight the infection and symptoms, Nibbles now receives eyedrops, prednisone, and an antibiotic two times a day. The kicker, however, is feeding and giving him water with a syringe every four hours. I even had to make a schedule to keep track of when to give Nibbles all his medicine and food on schedule.


So why go to this much trouble for a $29 pet store bunny? Car Guy adores his pet bunny and, to tell you the truth, I am rather in love with the small mammal, too. When well, Nibbles loves to snuggle, play, and perform his bunny dance. He usually has so much personality, so it is very hard to see him so sick and pitiful. Honestly, can you imagine anything worse than having a pet rabbit bite the dust at Easter? If you read my February Valentines Schmalentines post, you learned that I detest Valentine's Day due to a series of bad experiences on the holiday. So I certainly don't want my children to always remember that their pet rabbit died at Easter. To head that off, I have spent much of the last two days hand-feeding and holding a two-pound Netherland Dwarf rabbit.


Water seems to be Nibbles' favorite thing at the moment, and he easily takes it from the syringe. He will also happily eat timothy hay from our hands. The bunny gruel has been a bit of a challenge, however. We can't quite get the correct consistency of mushed food pellets, water, and yogurt which is compounded when we try to squeeze it through a syringe. After Nibbles' last so-so feeding, Patrick and I tried giving Nibbles plain old vanilla yogurt. He loved it, so I think we'll stick with that just to keep him eating so he can get his strength back.

Because of the vertigo, Nibbles is very unstable. He can't sit up straight and his head tilts precariously to the side. To help him feel more stable, we have taken to swaddling him in a towel like a baby. He is so lethargic that he has spent most of the past two days being held and carried by assorted family members. Nibs even got a visitor today when my mom came to check on the patient in his sick bed.


We're all hoping that Nibbles feels better for his big Easter holiday. So we can keep an eye on him, he is even going with us to Easter lunch at my parents' house. The entire family, even our 14-year-old dogs, are concerned about year and a half old Nibbles. Please send lots of positive thoughts Nibbles' way. It will certainly be very difficult over here if Nibbles doesn't spunk up soon.