Gracie was adopted today!

Gracie Mae and her brother, Diego, were adopted today by a very nice, older couple who recently lost their cat due to illness.  Diego was in a different foster home but they were together today for adoptions.  Sorry, I don't have a picture of Diego but he is solid black.

I brought a new kitten home today.  Her name is Lucy and she is actually Gracie and Diego's remaining sibling.  She needs some time to get more used to humans before she can get adopted.  She is beautiful!  She is solid grey with gold eyes.

I will take a picture of her tomorrow and post it.  I don't want to freak her out too much on her first night in her new (foster) home.

Cute kitten pictures!

I have some cute pictures of Artie, Karma and Gracie for your viewing pleasure!

Gracie Mae is available for adoption!

Gracie Mae is available for adoption.  Click here to visit her petfinder page.  She is a sweet, playful kitten who would prefer to live with other cats.  She is spayed, microchipped and up to date on her vaccinations.

No Adoptions at Petsmart...ugh!

We did adoptions at Petsmart today and unfortunately, nobody was adopted.  Nobody even looked seriously at any of the cats!  Some people wanted to hold Gracie but not because they wanted to take her home.  It was the slowest adoption day I have ever helped with.

Gracie did much better than anyone expected. She let strangers hold her, she was curious about what was going on, she didn't hide or hiss at anyone, she did great!  She came to me pretty scared and skittish so I expected her to be a little nervous with strangers and definitely scared of all of the noise of Petsmart but she reacted like a well adjusted kitten.  My hard work has paid off!

Taming Gracie is going well!

Gracie came to us to be tamed.  She was trapped with her siblings about a month ago.  There were four siblings and we separated them into 2 boys and 2 girls and brought them to different houses to be tamed.  The two boys were doing fine together but the two girls were not interacting with the humans and were not making progress.  So they were separated.  I have one of them.

It takes a lot of work and energy to tame a kitten.  For my opinion on taming adult cats, please click here.  
I agreed to tame Gracie because she is 3 months old.  At 3-4 months old, it is possible to tame them.  It isn't easy, though.  Taming (among other things with kittens) requires patience, energy, time and space.

My job is to get her used to be around humans, get her comfortable around the noises she will hear in a household (such as vacuuming) and begin to enjoy being around us.  Gracie is not considered feral.  She is very shy and very skittish.  She is just a "hard stray".  She is a stray cat that requires a lot of work to get her to be like a normal house cat.

Using baby food helps immensely.  I have noticed with all of my ferals, they are the most nervous and skittish when you are walking towards them or around them.  They run and hide.  I am trying to show her that she will not be hurt if I walk by her.  So, I carry around baby food and walk to her and give her some baby food.

I sit with her to lure her to my lap with baby food.  Once she gets some baby food, usually she will lay on my lap and let me pet her.  Sometimes she will snatch some baby food and run away to play with the other kitties.  She purrs and rolls around so I can scratch her belly.  Taming is a constant process.  You can't really tame them once a day, or even twice a day.  You have to keep on them and keep challenging them.

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Gracie and Artie are meeting for the first time.  Gracie loves Artie!  When she sees him, she instantly purrs.  It is so cute! :)

Gracie is eating baby food off my finger.  In order to tame her, we use baby food to get her to interact with us.  

Gracie is on the cat tree with the "big" cats.

Gracie is making some new friends!

Our newest foster kittens...one was hit by a car.

We have two new foster kittens:

Gracie, is 3 months old, weighs a little over 2 pounds and is a little shy.  She is black with a little white patch on her chest.  She was in another foster home with her sister but we decided to separate them because they were not making progress.  They were both trapped outside with their two brothers.  (There is a 4 in the litter, 1 black male, 1 black female, 1 grey male, 1 grey female)  Because they are a little feral, we need to tame them so they can be adopted.  Sometimes when litter mates are together, they do not bond with humans as well as they do when they are alone.  The other two of the litter are doing well together but Gracie and her sister were not.  So, we separated them.  All 4 of them are available for adoption.



Karma is 6 months old and weighs 4 pounds 3 ounces.  She is slightly emaciated.  She was hit by a car two weeks ago and a woman who has been feeding her decided to call our shelter to get her help.

I am not sure why this woman waited 2 weeks to get Karma medical attention but we have her now and she is getting the help she needs.  She went to the vet yesterday and today.  Yesterday, she had x-rays taken and was given a powerful painkiller.

Today, she was examined and another vet looked at her x-rays to determine what surgeries she needs.  She has 3 fractures in her pelvis, one through her hip socket and one in her femur.

She is scheduled to have surgery on her femur on Tuesday.  Surprisingly, she is able to walk.  I am not sure how she can physically stand but she gets around fairly well.  She is confined to a cage to prevent her from running and jumping which may cause her more damage.  I do let her out periodically because she likes laying next to me and getting some pets behind the ears.  When she is out, I have to constantly supervise her to make sure none of the other kittens try to play with her, which could hurt her.

After she heals from this first surgery, she will have another surgery to fix her pelvis and hip.

As you can see in the picture to the right, sometimes, she doesn't want to use her legs.  Here she is eating some wet food. She does not appear to be in any pain because she is on pain medication.  I am watching her very closely for any changes.

She is such a sweet, loving kitty.  I am surprised that even in her condition, she is so loving. She wants to lay next to us and purr.  She is such a sweet girl.

After she heals from all of her surgeries, she will be available for adoption.