Welcome to Kitten Season 2017 edition

Awww, they are beautiful. That's a nice age for cats. Past the kitten crazies but still young enough to be playful.

This is the chaos at my house. The head of the rescue needed to go to stay with her dad, post-surgery, in another state and asked me if could care for her bottle babies.  It was supposed to be for eight days but sadly, on the seventh day, her dad passed away so she has to stay longer to make arrangements and honor him.

Fergal, one of the kittens who kicked off this thread, is back in this mix! You'll be happy to know he survived and is thriving. So... how many kittens do you count?

8? And your house is spotless!!  

mtierney said:

8? And your house is spotless!!  

  If I didn't love her and the kitties so much, I might hate her. 

I think there are eleventy-seven kittens  

E

mtierney said:

8? And your house is spotless!!  

Ten. Two in the bed in the crate, and one under the curio cabinet. 

And believe me, my house is far from spotless. There are spots everywhere and you don't want to know the provenance of many of them.

That room is filled with pure human therapy. The one playing with the orange kittie's tail is adorable.

Update: all but the smallest kittens have found homes. (The two smallest are still too small to be adopted.) Even the adults found great homes! 

At the moment, I have one kitten available; 11-weeks-old, spayed, shots, tested. She's a bit shy but she has a sister who is going to her new home Saturday. That means this kitten will have to rely on my family and me for interaction, fun and support. When they're alone, it helps their socialization with humans. She's very cute and feisty.

I'm kitten-free!  Of the last two kittens, one went to her new home today and the other one (above) was taken back by the rescue today because someone is coming to meet her.  But there are 3 more bottle babies in the pipeline......

bigben_again said:

I'm kitten-free!  Of the last two kittens, one went to her new home today and the other one (above) was taken back by the rescue today because someone is coming to meet her.  But there are 3 more bottle babies in the pipeline......

You are simply amazing!   

One full day of being foster-free, and then right back into it Sunday. Here are my three new kittens. All sisters, the white ones are nearly identical except one has a few (more ) light stripes on her tail. Three weeks old.  

There has to be a special place for you in heaven!  

Here are the kittens I posted three weeks ago, along with a new friend joined who them (far right). I nearly lost one of the white ones a few weeks ago. She had managed to both get herself wet from the water dish and somehow get stuck behind the litter pan so she was separated from her siblings for most of the night. When I went to check on her in the morning, she was nearly dead from hypothermia but with a lot of TLC she bounced back with no lasting effects. It was a pretty scary 24 hours.

These girls are The. Most. Social. Kittens! In the picture, they're sitting on top of the cage in their "playpen" at work, just waiting for someone to come by to pick them up and play with them. If I sit in a chair in my living room I'm immediately covered in kittens. They are just starting to learn how to clean themselves, so being covered in kittens isn't necessarily as fun as it sounds.....

I would like to thank the MOL folks who contacted me to see about fostering kittens.  There are four other households in Maplewood currently fostering for the rescue for whom I foster, which means:

1) four times as many kittens can be saved and

2) they're not at my house!

I truly appreciate your generosity. If anyone reading this post knows of someone who would like to act as short term (2-3 weeks) foster, please contact me.

And there's more.... Now that the four kittens are all pretty much eating on their own and pretty much litter trained, I thought I'd complicate my life again and take on another litter.  These are three chubby brothers, all three... all black.  I don't think their own mother could tell them apart. They're about two weeks old, healthy and eating. 

So cute! <3

Tempted! I'm currently looking to adopt another Siamese mix, but I have a bad case of kitten fever and may just adopt a regular DSH instead. I'll keep an eye on these little guys as they grow.

I had all seven on my lap. Each one wanted my attention, simultaneously. It was rather a madhouse.

Well her is a bit of before and after with a little guy who was touch and go. The vet thought one eye was gone and the other at risk so I worried that he would be blind but his one eye is "looking" good and the other seems to be revealing an eye as well. He was completely emaciated and wouldn't eat or drink on his own but miracles do happen. He also has a sister who was caught two days earlier and both are playing and eating and beautiful!

His beautiful sister.

Here's one of my sweet fosters. Still tiny but wants to give a ton of affection. A family babysat the four  fosters last week and decided she's "The One". She just needs a little more time to grow.

From Robert Roe, Maplewood Health Dept.   We have contracts with both St. Hubert's and People for Animals to do trap-spay/neuter-vaccinate-release.    Volunteers are needed to help make this a success.  Please contact me.   973-762-8120 x4400.   Also, St, Hubert's has a very active kitten-cat adoption program and residents from Maplewood can contact them.   

Thanks Bob. I hope people will contact you to help trap. I need to "stay in my own lane" as it were, which means fostering, bottle feeding, and socializing. If I did trapping and adoption days too, I'd have no time for my family, my employees, my clients, or myself. 

It's great that Maplewoodians have the services of both of the organizations you mentioned. While PFA will be a good asset to our TNVR program, they are not a shelter so they can't help out when a hoarding situation crops up, as happens every few years in our community. And while they take kittens found through TNVR efforts (which they transport to no-kill shelters in New England), they can't take owner surrendered pets. St. Hubert's coverage fills in these gaps for us and also supplies an Animal Control Officer to our town.

Here's a nice shot of the four girls. Last night was the first time I didn't lock them in the crate overnight and they behaved beautifully. No accidents and no frantic, "Let me outta here!" when they saw me.

I thought the rescue told me they were all girls so I never checked. Turns out the only the black one is a girl; all others are brothers.

Last Saturday, on another local social media site, someone posted about a kitten in Maplecrest Park.  When she went to look for help and returned, the kitten was gone.  A second person went to look for it later and also wasn't able to find it. Several hours later I figured, "What the heck...." and went to try my hand. On the third pass around the bushes where the kitten had originally been spotted, I heard kitten noises.  I didn't see her but I approached the area from where the noise was emanating, lifted a big patch of ivy and found a tiny black kitten with her eyes sealed with pus. I picked her up, put her in a carrier, drove her home, cleaned out her eyes, applied ointment and here she is, good as new!  For having such a rough start, she is the calmest, most docile, gentlest kitten we've fostered since....ever.

I've heard of a number of kittens appearing in places all over Maplewood lately. Should you happen upon one one (or more) yourself, please be aware that People For Animals was recently awarded a contract to manage the TNVR (Trap Neuter Vaccinate Return) program in our town and as part of the arrangement, they will take such kittens. PFA will raise them until old enough to spay/neuter and then bring them to no-kill shelters in New England where they are adopted. I don't know the procedure so it's best to call them first. The agreement does not include the offspring of unspayed family pets. For that, Maplewood's contract with St. Hubert's will cover the situation. St. Hubert's would also handle any hoarding situation that arises and also take owner-surrenders if a pet owner should become unable to keep his/her pet. It's nice to know our town is covered on all counts.

A little black kitten showed up in my yard this week and I live a stone's throw away from Maplecrest Park.   Which end of the park did you find the kitten in?

I found her in the patch of ivy across the street and catty-corner to the Hilton Library parking lot, where there are several large bushes among the ivy. Do you think you found a sibling?

The only way I can describe this kitten, when I first saw him/her was that it looked like a little munchkin.  I hope that makes sense because that was my first thought.  The kitten eats cat food and looks to be about 3-4 months old.  Totally afraid of me right now but also weighing his options LOL

Ellenlynn, the one I found is younger; I'm gonna say, 8 to 10 weeks. If you would like help trapping him to be TNVR'ed let me know.

Just wanted to remind everyone that along with all of the adorable kittens we are rescuing, there are often moms that we find, like this beauty that @bigben helped me to pick up with her 4 little ones. Nursing moms are a blessing, ensuring a healthy immune system and pitching in to litter box train them. The other side of the coin, is that we find homes pretty quickly for the little ones but often have to search for a heart big enough to adopt the mother, either solo or with one of her precious kittens. Here is a very affectionate and gorgeous mom that the colony caretaker called Sophie and I am calling Sophia as her cat's eye liner reminded me of the stunning Sophia Loren. Take a look please and let us know if you think there is a potential home for her. Introducing Sophia.