I have to admit— I’m exhausted. I’ve been cleaning up after and playing with kittens for probably 3 hours this morning while spending another hour on laundry and 30 minutes on the kitchen and 15 minutes on the birds. (Though they cockatoo spent at least an hour on my shoulder.)
It’s cold and rainy and I just ate breakfast at 11:30. The teens are due home from school around 1 pm, at which point we are taking Zeus and Apollo, two of the three remaining foster kittens from the Greek Pride, to Chaar pet supply in Forks Township to live in one of their habitats for a while. And hopefully find a home.
Hermes and Apollo are both still skittish, but Apollo is definitely braver than Hermes. Apollo will sit with you— just don’t touch him! He won’t lash out on you but he will leave. And look at you like you are a presumptuous monster.
Hermes and Apollo
According to our foster godmother, Hades is doing well but still retains her feral instincts so transitioning her out of domestic life was the right call. We may get to see her in our cat-themed travels today.
The Greek Pride taught me a lot about the classic “nature vs nurture” debate. The Greek Pride has five members— Artemus, Hades, Zeus, Apollo and Hermes.
Artemus (then Artemis) came to us fully socialized. He found a wonderful family and became Artemus Gordon sidekick for a real life Jim West.
Zeus was the runt, but learned to play and frolick very quickly. Apollo and Hermes want to trust people but both became very sick and needed medicine to heal. They have bad associations with human hands and won’t let you touch them.
And then Hades… she’s the one that bit me and would walk right up as if interested in me and then run. Her behavior got increasingly aggressive instead of calmer.
Five very different cats, from the same litter, that were wired very differently. They had the same life circumstances but different outcomes.
Reminds me of some human families, including my own.
The teenager and I applied to be foster parents for feral kittens through Feline Urban Rescue and Rehab at the end of July.
We received our first litter July 31— a little faster than we expected. That litter was about 3 months old (the same age as our newest litter) and consisted of 5 spunky but sickly kittens. By August 2, I was in the hospital for a cat bite.
Trial by fire, I guess.
There was only one all black kitten in that litter of tabbies. Two were lovely silver tigers. Two were brown tabbies with lots of white.
Since we wanted to name them after Greek Gods, we quickly decided the black one, regardless of gender, would be Hades.
Hades had bad eye infections and bit me, piercing me with one tooth, while I was trying to give her meds. It was my first time in nearly a decade scruffing a kitten. I’m used to scruffing my 15 lb adult cats.
Hades never trusted people. She would never let me closer than 2 feet away. Yet, if I sat still she would come up to about 18 inches away from me and cock her head inquisitively.
Sometimes she slept in the top bunk with the other kittens, but most of the time she hid in the corner.
And then she got ringworm. We crated her to try and give her meds. She would not let us. And every day she got more aggressive.
So we talked to our FURR foster godmother. Together the three of us decided it was time to transition Hades to a barn cat.
Today we transferred Hades to godmother’s house where she will have her ringworm treated and continue the process to become a barn cat.
We all hope the open space is what she needs to be happy.
I am a big believer that things tend to sort themselves out and some things the universe takes care of.
Zeus and Apollo
I got up at 6:15 a.m., tending to my four cats; then I turned my attention to the four new 3-pound fosters in the Roman Pride, trapped by Feline Urban Rescue and Rehab.
They had did a number on the crate. I let them out to roam the small mud room while I prepped their breakfast and decided what to do. YouTube: Roaming Fosters
Today was the first Wilson Warrior home football game, and the teens had to hustle and bustle to get there. I did not get a ticket because of my commitment to get the Greeks to PetSmart for kitten adoption day.
I got the Roman kittens corralled into their crate and the teenager #1 situated their litter and gave some of them a little bath since they ended up sitting in poop.
Ah, the joys of babies.
By some miracle the teens got to the game on time dragging instruments, one gallon thermal jugs, masks, uniforms, lunches and goodness knows what else!
I came home and gulped down a quick cup of coffee with my neighbor before hanging kitten blankets on the laundry line (Hmmmm…. as a kitten foster for a non-profit does that make laundry and dishwashing expenses partially tax deductible?)
Ah, the joys of babies.
I went up to the teenager’s room to grab Zeus and Apollo of the Greek Pride and take them to PetSmart. (Video: Off to PetSmart)
Forget rodeos with bulls and cowboys, kitten wrangling should be a sport or at least count as aerobic exercise. Seriously, how many calories does that burn?
Ah, the joys of babies.
As I arrive, I get a text. No adoption fair today. But at the same time, a mom with the sweetest sleepy baby boy expressed disappointment that there are no kittens today.
I just happen to have two.
Within seconds, we are standing at register three cuddling Zeus. The woman I am speaking to wants a female kitten for her family as their large dog passed away I believe three months ago.
She starts to consider asking her husband to adopt both kittens. But she’s not sure it will fly. He comes in and holds Zeus. They both scritch scritch Apollo.
They take the information I share with them and I hope— pretty pretty please— that they consider Zeus or her and her brother.
If you are reading this lovely people with two sons…
In the end, you need to follow your instincts on what is best for your family but… if I can persuade you…
Four Reasons Why Two (Sibling) Kittens are Better Than One
They have never been an only cat. They only know life as part of their litter. They will cry less and the transition will be less frightening if they are together.
They entertain each other. Kittens can get bored and/or lonely, and if they have a sibling they will attack each other instead of your furniture or your houseplants.
They have a bond like human siblings that will entertain you. When they play it will be no holds barred. If one is sleeping, the other has no issue walking up and biting him in the butt just because. They sleep in a pile. Get enough kittens and you can’t tell where one starts and the next begins. They communicate with each other, which is heart warming.
If they look alike— and Zeus and Apollo have only minor differences— you can have fun confusing friends, family and neighbors.
And the football game…
I couldn’t go because I didn’t have a ticket, but I walked over and got really lame footage of the band playing Hail to the Warriors (Hail on YouTube) and the National Anthem (Star spangled banner on YouTube).
Today we made a very difficult decision regarding the fate of one of our Greek Pride kittens, that we are fostering for Feline Urban Rescue and Rehab.
Hades, the little black cat who bit me and sent me to the hospital, is inquisitive but hides most of the time. She now has caught ringworm from her brother Hermes, so we crated her.
Hades
Even in the crate, we can’t get the anti-fungal cream on her.
The complete opposite of her sister, Zeus (the runt!!) loves people and runs into any situation to protect her siblings.
With a heavy heart, the teenager (#1) called our FURR foster godmother and asked if she could help us determine if Hades behavior was based in fear or aggression.
Together we decided that Hades is a female cat who will always feel trapped and cornered in a home environment and would do better as a barn cat.
In more optimistic news, Zeus and Apollo will be returning to Petsmart this weekend for their second adoption fair and may head to an in-store habitat to increase their visibility.
And we’re working on teaching Hermes to cuddle. He’s been the sickest of this group so poor guy has spent most of his life getting scruffed and having medicine applied: first antibiotics and eye cream, then ringworm cream on muzzle and belly.
Timid but lovely Hermes
Onto the insane news, we got MORE kittens! This will be our second set, trapped this morning, and will be named after Roman Gods.
So today is going to be a hard day. Even though I put on my sparking eye shadow from Baby Bat Beauty and finished my look with some of my beauty products from Ipsy.
I’ll offer a review of those products in a future post.
Right now, I want to use this space to talk about our FURR foster kittens who will turn 6 months old in a couple weeks. (For more information on FURR, visit their web site Feline Urban Rescue and Rehab
We took two of them, Apollo and Zeus, to the adoption event at our local Petsmart.
Our godmother in the organization, I’m not sure how else to refer to the person we report to, introduced us as the new foster family that took a litter of five very difficult feral kittens to try and turn them around. And told the story of how I ended up in the hospital when Hades bit me. (This is the blog entry that starts to chronicle those events: The Unfortunate Cat Bite.)
I had asked Gayle to help me make a sign about Zeus’ personality as I knew she would be nervous and scared and not herself. And we included a QR code to load a playlist of YouTube videos of the whole litter playing.
The other members of the organization loved this.
And we even ran into my former work colleague Emery and her husband who adopted three cats from FURR.
Hermes has ringworm and we’d been medicating him— but now Hades has ringworm on her head so I’m not gonna lie I’m scared to catch her. Not for my own sake, but because Hermes has lost the ground he gained in trusting me because of his need for medication.
These kittens had some bad cat colds when we got them and to add ringworm to their other struggles seems so unfair.
The 9-month old cat “graybies” (gray babies— ha ha) broke into my room at 7:30 this morning. Fog meowed his way in, old man Opie followed, and Misty brought up the rear.
Fog curled up in bed with me making Nala the cockatoo very jealous so she was stomping her foot in her cage.
After I got out of bed (into the cold outside world), I fed the troops and decided to vacuum my room as Nala had decided to terrorize my parakeets and remove as many toys, newspapers and chunks of litter as she could from the cage.
The roomba was not picking up. He was roaming around the room happily but with no suction. So I went downstairs and carried the real vacuum cleaner to my bird-filled bedroom.
I clogged the hose.
It’s a rough morning when all the vacuums in the house gang up on you.
I got myself dressed, let the teenager fix both vacuums, and decided to try my luck with dark eyes and red lips.
Face by Baby Bat Beauty
I used my new Baby Bat Beauty cosmetics— eyeshadow in mechanical and lip gloss in trepidation. I’m pleased with the results.
Darnell (of Evolve Media) and myself (as a representative of Thrive Public Relations) had our regular lunch meeting with Sophia regarding her Lady Boss Women’s Entrepreneurial Club. The sample copy of Lady Boss magazine is available on Issuu but we are looking forward to future expansion in style and content. That’s where Darnell and I come in.
Upon arriving home from our meeting, I tripped over a shipment of cat food and scraped my hands and knees. Upon cleaning up and changing from my bloodstained pants, I actually started working on copy for the next issue of Lady Boss.
All I’d had to eat today was some sushi and too much coffee, so when the time came to take the teenager to marching band, I realized I had the shakes.
I didn’t have my wallet though. I ordered a pizza from my phone via Little Caesars and had a free soft drink coupon for Wawa.
I ate the whole damn thing
After inhaling the pizza and a diet ginger ale with all raspberry, vanilla and orange flavors, I attended a library board meeting as I am a trustee.
Now I have just enough time to pee before I run back to the school for the end of band rehearsal.
What does your Monday look like? Did it look like mine? The teenager finished painting the custom litter box she and her uncle made yesterday from my neighbor’s old TV shelf.
Nan came over to work and I invited her to stay for lunch— we had the chicken feta spinach sausages from Park Avenue Market and they were so good Fog had to curl up and play adorable on Nan’s lap.
And Nala, my Goffin’s cockatoo, and I hung out in the sun because it’s certainly warmer outside than inside.
There are elements of every week that feel harder than the previous week.
I think I have determined that if I don’t move enough and I sit at desks and in similar circumstances my spine cannot handle it. Perhaps I am a candidate for a standing desk.
I spent yesterday cold and in pain, rotating my chores with cuddling kittens.
The teenager went with her uncle today to build a cat litter box for her room. She’s on her way home so I’m anxious to see how it went.
I was trying to determine what to do with my day when I got an email from my friend Gayle— yes, the same Gayle with whom I walk and who is designing ASPIRE to Autonomy’s annual report— “If only you lived closer…”
And me being me, I said “I’ll be right over.”
What was her dilemma?
Filming how to video mini lectures for her classes in the graphic design department at Northampton Community College.
It was fun to help her discuss magazine layout, master pages and style sheets in one video and cutting and scoring in the next.
Then we went for a walk. Gayle had new shoes she needed to break in before her 9-mile walk on Friday. And my back did just fine on the 4,000 step promenade.
Gayle has new sneakers
She took me for a walk to Fountain Hill, past the house where she used to live. We stopped to talk to Violet who used to feed all the stray cats and I noticed a pretty cool stick. And I stopped at Dunkin on the way home as the Eagles were playing so I got a $1 iced coffee.
The past few days have been a roller coaster. A cliche I know but the simplest way to describe life.
Something spooked the budgies at 5 a.m. this morning, which in turn spooked the cockatoo. I had not caged the cockatoo as we had a rough day yesterday and she was mad at me. So I turned the light on to soothe everyone and Nala (my Goffin) flew into my bed with me.
This blog will be mostly a random list of nice things with pictures and a review of McDonald’s spicy nuggets.
So let’s handle the review first.
Angel’s Review of McDonald’s spicynuggets
I like them. Very much. Good with a side of ranch.
For more on our trip to McDonald’s for Buy One Get One nuggets — with TWO teenagers— see our video on YouTube: Taste Test: Spicy Nugs
Onward…
MY teenager had her first day of Zoom classes as part of her hybrid public high school yesterday. Her friend, who will affectionately be “the second teenager” in this space, joined us.
After class, we visited our friends at Feline Urban Rescue and Rehab to get a large crate for our Greek Pride Foster Kittens so we could segregate Hermes as he has ringworm.
Humans often create intense bonds with their pets. Sure, it’s emotionally fulfilling to have a creature that sits with you, listens to you and, if it’s a mammal or needy cockatoo, cuddles with you.
Other pets, like fish, have a calming effect — watching them swim. Reptiles give a sense of the wild and of adventure even within your own home.
We had a red-footed tortoise for about a decade, a childhood companion of the teenager, who despite her rather boring demeanor was actually quite a character and a low maintenance (but entertaining) pet. And a good meteorologist. She always knew when a big storm was coming.
My current cats—all freakin’ FOUR of them—bring a sense of chaos and delight. The older boys, 9.5+ year old men Oz and Opie, received younger companions this winter.
Our “kittens,” now cat teenagers really, were born under a neighbor’s porch (Sobaka’s mom if you are a regular here) either late October or early November. Once weaned, Mama left them (a feral/stray the block beyond ours refer to as ‘Baby’) and the two strongest prowled the neighborhood. The runt remained under the porch.
The teenager successfully trapped all three kittens but the mother eluded her. The teenager claimed the runt as her baby, she rehomed the second kitten, but the final one, this baby cat who survived on his own for a month, arrived in our domicile a month later. I could not separate him from his brother.
So I now have four cats. (Which, since they exist in two ‘pairs’ are WAY easier than the five years or so we had three cats. At that time I had one older female and two male kittens.)
The way life works I (and my precocious offspring) got involved with FURR (Feline Urban Rescue and Rehab) and have spent the past three weeks socializing a litter of five kittens the teenager has given names from the Greek pantheon.
This week, their kitty cat cold seems finally to be under control. This should end our two steps forward, one step back progress. But even with eye meds and antibiotics, this crew has made great strides this week.
In this video, Zeus succumbs to my cat-paralyzing head scratches: Zeus. Zeus is a very playful, cautious female cat (we think) with gorgeous silver and black markings. Not grey. Silver. And she has this adorable white tip on her tail. She was the runt. But she also is the first to protect her siblings.
Opie, our three-legged, cancer survivor cat who started life as the offspring of a feral, came to visit the kittens and Zeus puffed up and hissed… her little three pound self ready to take him on. Always a gentleman, he gazed at her and declined the challenge by walking away.
In this video, Artemis is the kitten with the white paws attacking the wand toy. He has been neutered. He is ready for a forever home. He loves to be pet, but isn’t quite comfortable being scooped up and cuddled. He won’t fight though, just hide his head.
Artemis and Zeus are the two kittens in the foreground in that video. Artemis loves to be nearby. He and Zeus are always the first to the food bowl. Artemis has also worked up the nerve to start exploring the rest of our house. And he’s so fuzzy.
Zeus
Artemis and Zeus
Zeus
Artemis
Artemis & Zeus
Artemis and Zeus have also proven very gentle and even when playing have not scratched or bit. This video is Zeus exploring my coffee cup with a cameo by Artemis.
Now the other cat in that earlier video was Apollo. So silver and black. No other color. I think we still have confidence and that Apollo is male. Apollo likes to sit on the bookshelf. He will usually emerge in the middle of the group but doesn’t really approach us humans. Occasionally we confuse him and Zeus and then, when he is cornered he will tolerate our petting.
Now, Hermes has the cutest white bib and patches on his face. He’s timid, but curious. He will sit and watch you and then start bolting around the room, hence naming him after a messenger with wings on his shoes. We have not 100% confirmed his gender.
Hermes
Hermes & Hades
This leaves Hades. We think Hades may be a girl but we have only handled her once. She was terrified for the first two weeks and hid.
Hades is solid black and looks the most fuzzy of all of them. She has huge golden eyes. Earlier this week, we started pushing single serve portions of wet cat food (laced with antibiotics) into her favorite hiding spot and a few days later, she started slowly joining the rest of the litter.
The teenager and I are over the moon.
Hades
Hades, Zeus & Apollo
Hades & Hermes
Hermes & Hades
As I am writing this, the teenager texted me this video from her room: Friday morning kittens.
So, if you need a kitten in your life, and I will remind you that kittens that start in the wild tend to be vigilant when it comes to rodents & insects, please consider one of our Greek Pride. Or two. Kittens thrive in pairs. And are often less destructive when they have each other to entertain them.
FURR has these and many other wonderful cats available. The kitten adoption fee is $110 and includes all shots, initial vetting, spay/neutering, and microchip.
And if you adopt one of my fosters, your kitten comes with all these videos and photos.
* These kittens and my teen kittens will eat any big. This litter will snatch flies. My teen boys sit at the back door waiting for spotted lantern flies to creep in the crack under the door. They fight over who gets to dismember and eat them. Especially the wings. So I don’t worry about mice.
Angel Ackerman 