Mr Orange - New photos of the little monster :)

Mr Orange is about two months old now. He's grown so much! He knows how to drink water on his now. Finally! I think he may have learnt how by watching his Uncle Fatfat. I have seen them drink water from the big bowl in the kitchen together several times. When Fatfat drinks, Mr O goes and gets a drink with him.







His nose is still a little grubby. He likes to stick his face in everything! But isn't he adorable? A good friend of mine, an ex-colleague from my advertising agency days, wants to adopt him! Yay!

They grow up so fast - Mr Orange at 6 weeks

The reincarnation of Dorian Grunge, Mr Orange, is turning out to be just as grubby as Dorian was.. The dirty paws and food stained faces are an exact match. I don't mind this at all because now it seems like Mr Orange is going to grow up to be a strong healthy cat. I was so worried the first two weeks he was with me. He was so young and so fragile. After all the foster deaths I had this year I just couldn't relax even for a second with this little guy. I was so afraid that he could weaken at any moment and go like the others did, that whole fading kitten syndrome thingy. I swear its real and it makes me paranoid!

It didn't help that Mr O was kinda slow when it came to learning how to eat wet food so I was always worried that he wasn't getting enough nutrition. He spent so much time trying to suck in food instead of opening his mouth, its a miracle any food ended up in his belly at all. He was always crying because he couldn't 'find' the food even when it was right in front of his face. I wondered if he was retarded or something.. If that can happen in cats.. I guess he's just a slow learner. Until now I have to syringe feed him water because he doesn't understand how to drink yet.

The good news is he has finally learned how to eat kibble. This is a really big step for Mr O and I. Its been quite a process going from fully weaning him, to feeding him wet food mashed into a paste with water, to just wet food, then to kibble softened with warm water, and finally dry royal canin babycat 34 with nothing added. He has filled out so much now that he knows how to eat on his own. I could feel his ribs before. He's also a lot more energetic and zips around my apartment at top speed chasing after the big cats or attacking my feet. He's stable on his legs now and super confident.

You guys know what this means.. My little foster tyke is ready to leave me. These times are always bittersweet. I always look forward to them being strong and healthy but at the same time I'm sad because I know our time together is ending. My role as foster mother is done and Mr O doesn't need me anymore. He can move on to his forever home now. It seems like just yesterday he wobbled on infant legs into my life.

Sweet Molly

Do you think its always green and pretty where she is now? I hope so. Molly loved the smell and feel of grass. I wish you could've all seen her nosing around in the weeds during her happy days. Was enough to make a heavy heart sing.

Gone but never forgotten my Molly. Always missed, my three-legged angel.

Oh happy day! Mr. Orange finally took a crap!

When you enter the world of animal rescue and fostering all sorts of new things start to make you happy. You find joy and satisfaction in the strangest places. Small things that never mattered before take on new meaning. I now find joy in expelled roundworms, perfect turds, and soiled litter boxes. Some of you might wonder why.

Expelled roundworms? Better out than in I say. These nasty parasites can really sicken already weak young animals. Particularly major infestations can even kill. When I see a bloated tummy on a skinny malnourished puppy or kitten nothing gives me more satisfaction than deworming the little dude and then waiting for the fruits of my labor :) I usually find the dead, expelled, worms in three ways. If you are squeamish don't read on, the following will be disgusting.
1. Expelled when the little animal takes a crap, the worms are wrapped around turds in the litter box.
2. A pile of wet rubberbands I almost step on turns out to be dead roundworms.
3. Little animal runs around with strange stringy object dangling out of its butt. Did baby eat thread? No! Dead roundworms are on their way out but have gotten stuck halfway. No biggie! Just grab a tissue and yank away!

Perfect turds make me happy? Why yes! They certainly do. Turds are a big indicator of a critter's overall wellbeing. Newly rescued pups and kittens often have diarrhea. You know they're on the road to health and happiness once their runny puddly poops become well-formed firm solid pieces of crap. Victory is mine!

Finally, my favorite. Soiled kittens litter boxes. Yes, soiled. Used. Crapped and peed in. No I do not have some weird shit fetish. It's sooooo awesome when kittens start using the litter boxes. Especially if they're kittens that you've raised since they were newborn, so young, helpless and immobile that their muscles weren't even strong enough for them to be able to poo and pee on their own at all and you've spent weeks rubbing their bottoms with moistened cotton after every feeding to help them 'go'. When they start clambering on wobbly clumsy legs into a tiny baby-sized litter box on their own and leaving deposits on their own... its like WOW!!! A whole new stage in their development, from babies they become kittens. I swear the little deposits in the box those first few times are like a smelly but welcome and much-appreciated gift. Gone are their days of having accidents and messing themselves. So much less clean-up.

Why am I suddenly going on about this? This morning I woke up to find a perfectly formed, firm poop in Mr. Orange's mini litter box. I'm so proud of him. At just over 3 weeks of age, this toddler kitten knows where to do his business. I'm also very relieved because before today he had not pooped at all for like 4 or 5 days. So... YAY!!! He's not sick! Not backed up! Not going to have accidents all over my apartment! Another milestone.... :)

I'm going to wrap up this post with a text message I received from my dear friend and fellow animal rescuer NT who is currently fostering 5 baby kittens:
"Oh! They've finally learnt how to use the tiny litter box to pee! I want to shed tears of joy!"

That says it all!

I wanna say something funny and obnoxious.. Mmmm... Yeah. I've got nothing.

New foster kitten - Mr Orange

Dorian Grunge is reborn! He passed away a few weeks ago and now I've got Mr Orange, a 3 week old male kitten I found in the parking lot of Hartamas Shopping Center in Plaza Damas. Mr O looks just like Dorian! Its spooky but nice to feel like I might have a shot at making things right and good with this one.

I found Mr O on Sunday night after dinner with my cousin ML and my parents. We were driving out of the parking lot when a little flash of color caught my eye. I turned to look and there was this tiny baby kitten sitting all alone in an empty parking space looking lost and terrified. I think I yelled something like "STOP STOP STOP!!!" at my dad. He stopped the car and I dashed out and picked up the little shit. He was soggy, filthy, wet and smelly but oh wow he was still so darn cute. Mr O hissed at me all the way home. You know the way baby kittens hiss, there isn't even any sound, just an opening of the mouth. So cute when they're pissed off. I love being threatened by something that fits in the palm of my hand :)

I set Mr O up in the guest bathroom. In the shower stall to be exact. He's so young and so small I don't want him wandering around and getting squished. Tried to feed him some canned cat food but he wasn't particularly interested. It occured to me that he might not really be weaned yet even though he's got little nubs of teeth coming in.. Tried to syringe-feed him KMR formula. He wasn't interested in that either. Eventually I stuffed food directly into his mouth thinking that he might not know how to eat real food yet. I've seen kittens go crazy after the first time they taste real food and look around eagerly for more. Mr O is not one of those kittens. He spat out the food.

The next morning I brought Mr O to the vet. He was dewormed and Dr L prescribed a course of antibiotics for an eye infection. There isn't any discharge coming from his eyes but his eyelids are very red and swollen. I told Dr L that I was having trouble getting Mr O to eat. She opened him a can of Hill's Prescription A/D. You know, the really freakin expensive shit. 8 bucks a can!!! And yeah he started chomping away. Thanks for your expensive taste Mr O! HMPF!!! But who can stay at mad at him? He's so cute he makes my eyes hurt. Last night he was sleeping in his box on an old t-shirt. He burrowed his face under and all I could see what his tail. When I woke him up for his dinner he looked up at me bleary-eyed and annoyed and then hid his face in the t-shirt again as if to say "go away! can't you see i'm sleeping?". When he finally did wobble out of his box, he gorged himself on his insanely expensive food, then tottered on shaky, babycat legs back in to sleep. It's sooooooo cute when kittens are still wobbly on their legs. They think they're all grown up and shit :) Too cute too cute!!!

Mr Orange will be available for adoption in about a month's time. As usual neutering and vaccinations are mandatory. Adoption procedure is outlined on the right sidebar.