![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Kitty Updates
Feb. 1st, 2025 03:17 pmRi is doing well, and is unfazed by nearly everything. I guess having had a horribly infected eye left him saying something akin to "life is good, and so are adventures." He certainly doesn't seem to miss the eye. He has also earned a nickname: Cuddle Bug. He is growing huge, and looking moreso because of the long hair.
Keigan had her first heat shortly after my brother died, when I had no spoons to deal with anything at all. After the second one, barely three weeks later, we took her in to the vet to get her spayed; she's at home recovering and glad to be here. Since her brother is Cuddle Bug, her new nickname is Lady Bug. She remains more diminutive than her brother.
Faegan Zorion, who will be 2 soon, enjoys playing with the kittens. He is the not-really-a-kitten-anymore who ran into the kitchen from outside last year. The ambassador between Faegan and the kittens was the red dot. Faegan, who previously hissed if they got within five feet of him totally understood having a kitten practically run into him if they were following a red dot.
Nebula, who is 7, seems reasonably happy with her smaller roaming range (she's restricted to half of the second floor). Her weight is not going up and down now that we have better control over the food that she can reach, and is trending slightly downward. She is also quite happy to only see Faegan Zorion when he wants to nap (he has no trouble getting over the baby gates that are totally impassable for her very chubby self).
Donnflaith is our oldest cat, about 13 years old. She was born in my living room, to a Mamacat who had never been inside before, but while drugged by her own pre-birth oxytocin, she let me carry her in before a super-cold blizzard to give birth in safety. I held Donnflaith and her four littermates the day they were born. The ambassador between Donnflaith and the kittens was canned cat food. Getting the treasured "good food" more often made it worth her while to let them wander around near her. She is also happy that they distract Faegan from pestering her to play. She won't let them up on my bed when she's there, however (though she's recently become accepting of Faegan occasionally sleeping there, so long as I'm not in the bed).
Overall, all the cats are happier for the addition of the two kittens, which was my hope when I decided to try keeping them. I had thought that three cats was plenty, until I had three cats who seemed to always be unhappy, so I'm very glad that worked.
I can also offer updates for the other two feral kittens I caught last summer.
Kaiju is doing well in my sister's house and is huge and healthy. Seeing him makes me happy, even if I'm not one of "his people" and he will only play with me through the stair railing.
Sadly, the sweet little black kitten that my daughter was caring for because she had (just barely) enough space in her tiny apartment to quarantine a sick FELV+ baby from her two cats, didn't find a new home. From the start, he struggled to gain weight, reaching a maximum of just over 4 lbs before he started losing weight again. When he lost all interest in food and had dwindled to just 2 lbs, my daughter put him to sleep just a few days ago. I feel bad about this, since I think she feels guilty that she couldn't save him. She called him "Little Guy"; I had tentatively named him Dorchadas (darkness in Irish) before I caught him. Rest in peace, Little Guy. I know you had a much longer and happier life in my daughter's kitchen than you'd have had living outside in the Wisconsin winter.
But back to our cats. When we took Keigan in to get fixed, we also took Donnflaith in because she has a thing that was originally diagnosed as a cyst on her neck, and nothing to worry about. But it had gotten scratched and became a regular source of scabs matted in her fur. Donnflaith is a long-haired siamese, so seeing the thing was really not happening without shaving her neck, and while she isn't bothered by the thing, it bothers me. The vet shaved it and upgraded (or down-graded) its description to "a mass" and recommends surgery and pathology. "It's not an emergency," she said, "But sooner is better."
That is not good news, either for my sweet old lady or for my budget. I haven't even started paying off Donnflaith and Keigan's vet visits from this week (I got a care card, so if I pay it off on time, I avoid interest). The estimate for the surgery to remove the mass isn't quite as horrible as the one for Ri's eye enucleation, but it's about four times the cost of spaying a kitten and way out of my budget. So I'll be setting up a card draw soon (yes, even during FAWM), and trying to get more songs up on bandcamp to raise money. (If anyone would like to simply donate a bit toward the surgery, please put "cat surgery" in the paypal (paypal.me/DeirdreMMurphy) or zellepay notes, so I know what's earned income to track for taxes and what's a gift.)
I also have a patreon (https://www.patreon.com/c/Wyld_Dandelyon) and I have been scheduling posts "from the archives" for a while into the future, fiction from Torn World and old Live Journal posts and songs I'd never posted anywhere yet, and I will be posting new things too, starting with the first song I posted to FAWM this year, just an hour or so ago. You are welcome to join my Patreon as a free member, if you prefer, and read the many posts that aren't earmarked for only paid members. I will be putting the patreon funds toward this new cat surgery as well, until it's all paid off.
Keigan had her first heat shortly after my brother died, when I had no spoons to deal with anything at all. After the second one, barely three weeks later, we took her in to the vet to get her spayed; she's at home recovering and glad to be here. Since her brother is Cuddle Bug, her new nickname is Lady Bug. She remains more diminutive than her brother.
Faegan Zorion, who will be 2 soon, enjoys playing with the kittens. He is the not-really-a-kitten-anymore who ran into the kitchen from outside last year. The ambassador between Faegan and the kittens was the red dot. Faegan, who previously hissed if they got within five feet of him totally understood having a kitten practically run into him if they were following a red dot.
Nebula, who is 7, seems reasonably happy with her smaller roaming range (she's restricted to half of the second floor). Her weight is not going up and down now that we have better control over the food that she can reach, and is trending slightly downward. She is also quite happy to only see Faegan Zorion when he wants to nap (he has no trouble getting over the baby gates that are totally impassable for her very chubby self).
Donnflaith is our oldest cat, about 13 years old. She was born in my living room, to a Mamacat who had never been inside before, but while drugged by her own pre-birth oxytocin, she let me carry her in before a super-cold blizzard to give birth in safety. I held Donnflaith and her four littermates the day they were born. The ambassador between Donnflaith and the kittens was canned cat food. Getting the treasured "good food" more often made it worth her while to let them wander around near her. She is also happy that they distract Faegan from pestering her to play. She won't let them up on my bed when she's there, however (though she's recently become accepting of Faegan occasionally sleeping there, so long as I'm not in the bed).
Overall, all the cats are happier for the addition of the two kittens, which was my hope when I decided to try keeping them. I had thought that three cats was plenty, until I had three cats who seemed to always be unhappy, so I'm very glad that worked.
I can also offer updates for the other two feral kittens I caught last summer.
Kaiju is doing well in my sister's house and is huge and healthy. Seeing him makes me happy, even if I'm not one of "his people" and he will only play with me through the stair railing.
Sadly, the sweet little black kitten that my daughter was caring for because she had (just barely) enough space in her tiny apartment to quarantine a sick FELV+ baby from her two cats, didn't find a new home. From the start, he struggled to gain weight, reaching a maximum of just over 4 lbs before he started losing weight again. When he lost all interest in food and had dwindled to just 2 lbs, my daughter put him to sleep just a few days ago. I feel bad about this, since I think she feels guilty that she couldn't save him. She called him "Little Guy"; I had tentatively named him Dorchadas (darkness in Irish) before I caught him. Rest in peace, Little Guy. I know you had a much longer and happier life in my daughter's kitchen than you'd have had living outside in the Wisconsin winter.
But back to our cats. When we took Keigan in to get fixed, we also took Donnflaith in because she has a thing that was originally diagnosed as a cyst on her neck, and nothing to worry about. But it had gotten scratched and became a regular source of scabs matted in her fur. Donnflaith is a long-haired siamese, so seeing the thing was really not happening without shaving her neck, and while she isn't bothered by the thing, it bothers me. The vet shaved it and upgraded (or down-graded) its description to "a mass" and recommends surgery and pathology. "It's not an emergency," she said, "But sooner is better."
That is not good news, either for my sweet old lady or for my budget. I haven't even started paying off Donnflaith and Keigan's vet visits from this week (I got a care card, so if I pay it off on time, I avoid interest). The estimate for the surgery to remove the mass isn't quite as horrible as the one for Ri's eye enucleation, but it's about four times the cost of spaying a kitten and way out of my budget. So I'll be setting up a card draw soon (yes, even during FAWM), and trying to get more songs up on bandcamp to raise money. (If anyone would like to simply donate a bit toward the surgery, please put "cat surgery" in the paypal (paypal.me/DeirdreMMurphy) or zellepay notes, so I know what's earned income to track for taxes and what's a gift.)
I also have a patreon (https://www.patreon.com/c/Wyld_Dandelyon) and I have been scheduling posts "from the archives" for a while into the future, fiction from Torn World and old Live Journal posts and songs I'd never posted anywhere yet, and I will be posting new things too, starting with the first song I posted to FAWM this year, just an hour or so ago. You are welcome to join my Patreon as a free member, if you prefer, and read the many posts that aren't earmarked for only paid members. I will be putting the patreon funds toward this new cat surgery as well, until it's all paid off.
