Merry Christmas & update on my fosters & The Parking Lot Colony

Hola mis amigos!!
I haven't posted in agesssss and a good friend texted and said i shouldn't stop :) Thanks Eileen! I actually have tons to update on and that's kinda why I haven't... You know when you procrastinate until there's so much to do you don't know how to start tackling it? This is one of those things. I won't go into major details and verbal diarrhea like I usually do. Quick summary of everything alright peeps? Here we go.

Charlie is a 3 month old tuxedo kitten. He was rescued by a friend who found him while walking his dog. Charlie was tiny then, perhaps 6-7 weeks old and he had been tossed out in a shoe box. Luckily the dog sniffed him out and Charlie was rescued. He was very ill with a virus similar to Coccidia and Parvo but has since recovered after two weeks on two kinds of antibiotics. Charlie is ready for immediate adoption. So far, 5 separate parties have inquired about adopting him. Hopefully one of them will be awesome and Charlie can go to his forever home. Charlie is playful, affectionate, mischievous, and of course Uncle Fat Fat loves him and has been giving him lots of parental love.







Knut/Knutella is a 3-4 week old pure white kitten. Not sure if he's male or female hence the name options.. hahaha.. The little booger is named after Knut the hand-reared polar bear that passed away and also my favorite hazelnut spread Nutella :) I found him the Thursday before christmas in my condo parking lot. I suspect he may be one of The Parking Lot Colony Tortie's kittens since my neighbor MK and I have been unsuccessful at trapping and spaying her. The Tortie was pregnant and then I did not see her around for a week or two. When I found Knut he was under a car parked two spaces down from mine, all alone. He was extremely filthy, dehydrated, covered head to toe in fleas and had an eye infection although his eyes had not even opened yet. I hate fleas. They are such bastards and there were hundreds of them feasting on this little guy's body. *SHUDDER* soooo gross. they were even crawling all over his face and eyes. I itch now just thinking about them. It was touch and go the first couple of days. He refused bottle feeding and syringe feeding and you know how much i HATE hand-rearing. I wasn't sure Knut would make it. His appetite was shitty and he was weak. But the last couple of days he has started drinking more formula and his teeth have come in so I have started him on very soft mushy food as well. His eyes have cleared up and they are bright blue. I am pretty confident now that he will be ok and adoptable in about 2 months. The pictures below were taken the day I found him. He looks much better now!






Below, Knut on Christmas Day. The crud around his eyes is dried up discharge stuck in his fur. I didn't want to injure the little baby's eyes so just left crud there but you can see his blue eyes are clear and healthy :)



The Parking Lot Colony continues to be an epic meow-filled soap drama. The Ginger Tom is still scary, The Tortie is still scared of everyone and everything, Carpark Cat is back and in decent condition but still scared of the Ginger Tom and Mr CrankyPants. There is a new resident in the colony, I'll call her The Calico. Another female. ARGHHHHH!!!!!!! I hope she doesn't breed!!!!! She's a scaredy cat like The Tortie. Why are the females so hard to trap and spay? They are the ones MK and I reallyyyyy want to catch. No more kittens please :( I wonder where Knut's siblings are :((( Mr CrankyPants got the shit kicked out of him again while I was out of town. Much worse this time. Luckily for him his other mummy MK was around and took him to the vet. He had to stay there for a couple of nights and the wound was infected and required draining. After he was discharged from the vet, he stayed with MK for a couple of weeks at her apartment. His whole neck and chest area were raw, totally furless, and there was a huge puncture like a gaping hole in his neck going through to his shoulder. We don't know what happened. All the other cats in the colony are totally unscathed so it doesn't seem likely he fought with any of them. Anyway Cranks is the alpha male and the rest run at the sight of him, not stay and fight! Plus he was neutered after his last fight recently so I thought he'd be staying out of trouble... Below, a photo MK took him immediately after rescue. All that pink and red mess is exposed raw flesh :(

The Parking Lot Colony

Four neurotic felines make up the feral colony in my condo parking lot. Each one is crazy in his/her own unadoptable way. They are fed and looked after by my upstairs neighbor MK who has been feeding them for years and now by me as well after I moved in a year ago. The cats in the colony are Carpark Cat, The Tortie, Mr CrankyPants, and the Ginger Tom.

I have only gotten to know (and photograph) Mr Crankypants and the Ginger Tom. Carpark Cat and The Tortie are super duper scared of all humans except MK. I can't even get near them. If I leave them food, they will not eat until I am out of sight. Mr CrankyPants and the Ginger Tom are tamer but in an aggressive, demanding, bitey, scratchy sort of way. They don't want to be friends but they are not afraid of us. Cranks will yowl at the top of his lungs demanding food, the Ginger Tom will get angry and actually bite us or grab our feet and scratch us if we don't set down his food fast enough for his liking. We keep containers of cat kibble in our cars for them but sometimes we run out and have to go into our apartments to refill. When this happens, the Ginger Tom gets really mad and chases after us and blocks our path furiously. I have scars on my legs from this lunatic. He is a freaking nut. He looks nuts too with all his bald patches and battle scars. Sometimes while he eats I muster up the courage to cautiously stroke his scarred bald head with one tentative finger.

None of the four in the colony get along with each other. The Ginger Tom and Mr C are both alpha males and always pick fights with each other and anyone else. Carpark Cat is also male but much smaller and timid and easily bullied by these two. The Tortie is the only female in the colony and also easily bullied... Poor thing. MK and I try to make sure everyone is regularly fed but more often than not, the bullies eat, and the timid ones are off hiding somewhere. We hope to have everyone neutered to stem the bullying and territorial issues and also to make sure they don't breed. They are extremely difficult to catch :( People who live in the building have been complaining about cats in the compound and also complaining about people feeding cats in the compound (MK and I of course.. hahaha). I don't see why it bothers or affects other people that we feed the cats but well, I guess some people are just petty, arrogant, heartless, and really really stupid with nothing better to do or think about.

Mr CrankyPants and Carpark Cat had a big fight last week. Both ended up pretty badly beat up. I managed to catch Mr C (he went ballistic when trapped) and send him to the vet. He's been patched up and neutered and is staying in a cage in my study until his antibiotics are finished at which point I will release him back into the parking lot. His stay with me has been challenging as he can't stand being confined and became super freaking mean. He makes a huge disgusting mess in the cage everyday. I can hear him "working" very hard at that all the time and yowling his head off. The vet and her assistants had a lot of trouble with him. I had hoped to rehome him but the vet says he's not adoptable. She's right. Carpark Cat is still out there somewhere with his injuries :( MK was out of town when the fight happened and isn't back yet. She's the only one that might be able to catch Carpark Cat and bring him in for treatment and neutering. I haven't seen him since last week.

Mr CrankyPants at the vet. He stayed there for a few days because he was too scary and angry for me to treat at home. His wounds needed daily cleaning and he was also neutered during his stay. I was too shit-scared to do any wound cleaning.

Mr C giving me the angry stink-eye. His paw pads were badly torn up. When walking (limping painfully really) he left bloody patches on the ground. His front forelegs also had many deep scratches.

He took of his e-collar and I was too scared to try putting that back on too. Anyway it occurred to me that if it was replaced, I would then have to worry about taking it off as well. Argh. I'm a chicken, I admit it.

The Ginger Tom and his bald, scarred, head.

My poor scary feral friend.

I have a feeling there might be a cuddly kitty in there somewhere... Just don't piss him off :)