sneaky_minx, posts by tag: kittehz! - LiveJournal

Okay, so, even after Brylee left (by the way, visited her, and she's slightly terrified of me now, convinced I am going to take her away from her parents again. Always nice.) the week was busy. Thursday, I went to do paperwork for work, get on the payroll, etc. And the rest of the day was kind of blah, as I had a headache to nurse. Friday was going to be errand day. It was going to be take care of this and that, including buying a few more clothes for work attire. This did not happen. Friday was a very long day that started in the morning and ended after midnight because Oliver was throwing up. It was a bit forceful to be regurgitation, so that had me sort of worried. But then, he was just not himself. He was like a zombie version of himself -- only even more stiff and slow. The lethargy was a warning sign, but I had to wait a couple hours to go the vet, because that's when their walk-in hours are. He ended up pepping back up, still had a sick stomach later that night, though. The vet tested to see if there were any parasites they missed the first time, there weren't. And everything else looked and sounded fine. He gave me some suggestions, etc.

The vet also said that we'd be back in 2 weeks for vaccinations. And since Oliver did come from some outside cats, he strongly suggested we test him for the viruses before we give him the shots. So, hopefully he's free of them and will be fine after the shots. He gained a quarter pound since the last visit, so he's up to 12 ounces. Hopefully in 2 weeks he'll make it to a pound, because I think that's what they're waiting on him to get to before the shots.

Oliver's acting fine. And he can't say I didn't spoil him because I brought his box in my room for the night to keep an eye on him. And I've finally gotten him on softened food! It took me forever to figure it out, but what I needed to do was get the hard food soggy enough but not mash it up. He won't touch soft/mashed up food. So, I get it soggy enough so that it's mashable/chewable and he can easily chew it -- but it's not mush. And he likes it. My mom forgot and gave him a bowl of milk replacer this morning, and he wouldn't even touch it. He waited for me to get him some soft food. Yay Oliver!

I'm just kind of worried now, because I start training tomorrow (more on that in another post) and I'm going to have to leave instructions and count on my mom to feed him during the day. I'm going to try and work it out so she just has to do it once. And I'm going to have to make super specific instructions for her. Possibly with graphics...

Also, just because I haven't blabbed enough, now have I? Once again, at the vet, the doctor (we had a different one this time) and his assistant kept talking about how gorgeous Oliver is. I hope this doesn't go to his head.

And another also, an unresolved question has been resolved: Gracie (Oliver's mum, outside cat, came to us as a stray kitten, etc.) has indeed been tending to the rest of her litter. How do we know this? They are now wandering around outside near the garage/washhouse. There are four: 2 white like Oliver (1 exceptionally fat and fuzzy) and 2 black like Gracie. They are not friendly, so it might make finding homes for them even more of a challenge than it's already going to be. They should be 6 weeks now, so they're at that age when it's okay to say bye to mama.

So, as requested, some pics of Oliver. These are actually screencaps of some quick video I did, as my digital camera is somewhere I do not know and very much not charged. So, there should be better quality ones when that happens. Some of the latter ones are rather dark, but brightening didn't help at all, so just do your best to squint. I racked up 19 images of various poses, if you will, so enjoy!


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So, it seems the kitten is here to stay -- in more ways than one. That kitten is a survivor, he's a fighter. He's an escape artist. No matter what little enclosure we fixed for him, he got out. He is very, very sneaky. We finally found a box he couldn't get out of. Hooray for us!

I should say that he has been named. After my dad tried something out that none of us liked (he named him after one of John's old friends he mentioned once, thinking he'd win points with John, why? Well, just don't ask. It's my dad. I don't ask about anything. It's a good life that way), we floated around some other ones. I had some token cat names that I had stored up in the ol' noggin' (Moony, Rochester - in case anyone got the joke, etc.) but John and Sara didn't care for any. And neither did I. I like the names, but none fit this little scamp. So, I stayed with the literature theme and said "Oliver" as in Oliver Twist, a fellow orphan. I was telling Sara and then I laughed, "They even had a Disney cartoon based on it. Oh, and heh, Oliver was a cat in that." To which Sara replied, "He was a white cat, too, wasn't he? Yeah, let's go with Oliver." So, he's Oliver, Ollie for short, or Goob(er) which I call him often. He may also answer to "Oscar" as that's what my mother keeps calling him.

(You'd think I'd have "Why Should I Worry?" stuck in my head often now, but I actually am more prone to re-enacting the beginning of The Lion King and singing "Circle of Life." That's the kind of nerd I am. Dig it?)

So, Oliver's doing fine. Thanks so much to polarsun for the help! I found that book you talked about at the local library and checked it out. Hooray! After a few days of tummy issues and trying home remedies in an expert book as well as on various Internet sources, all signs pointed to red flag and the need for vet attention. It was Saturday night, so we had to look into an emergency vet service. We went, they checked him out and helped him with his tummy issue, and he's doing better. The past few days, I can't count how many things I've done to a cat that I never thought I'd be willing to do. I'm just glad that it's over (hopefully). I made the call, though Sara drove and John rode, and I filled out the papers and such, so the cat's now under my name there. I guess he really is mine now, though Sara helps. Of course, she and John are going to see his parents on a long road trip to Michigan for 2 weeks, so this should be fun.

But, the vet was rather inexpensive. They gave us a huge discount and my mom let me use the card to pay for it. Basically, we were looking at a little under $150 in fees at the emergency clinic, but the vet told he just wanted to charge us $50 since the procedure he did wasn't much. I think that since we mentioned we were handrearing an orphaned cat, that got us points with him. I didn't catch his name before we left, but my sister realized afterwards. We know his family, they're a very well known family in the area. My dad's really good friends with his aunt. He actually called her when we found the cat for help, and she said that when the cat gets better, if we needed someone to find a home for him to call her nephew -- who was the vet! Apparently he also does placement for little puppies and kitties, so I'm definitely sticking with the combination of theories 1.He's just nice 2.We got brownie points for taking the kitten in.

So, this was my Oliver update post. And there will probably either be more, or spans of absences without posts as he's keeping me very busy.

(Also, site recommendation that helped out: http://justanswer.com - it's a pay service, but a very cheap one in terms of the possible important answers you'd get. Just saying.)

Dorkitude and geekdom always make me smile. And happy. (Insert random "Whee!" here.)

These past couple of days have included some rather dorky moments that made me gleeful.

Via purple_smurf on Twitter, I learned that not only does a freaking pink dolphin exist, but it's right near my home town. I was all like "How did I not know about this?," so I decided I'd call my sister to see if she had seen it on the news in the past year or so or something. Of course, because it was a freaking pink dolphin (and I don't even like the color pink!), this was not a matter that could wait until the next day. I called her that night, and she immediately answered the phone "What's wrong? Are you okay?" Oops. My bad. (Mind you, it was only 10:30PM my time and 9:30 hers, but due to my calling rarity, concerns were raised.) So, anyway, she had never heard of it, so I sent her a link via e-mail, which she shared with her coworkers who were all equally surprised. I then talked to my other sister who watches the news everyday and has for the past several years, and she had never heard of it. I explained to both of them how I learned about it: A friend of mine in Australia linked to an article from England about something that was happening in our backyard. So yeah, we're all excited. I go home for Spring Break soon and maybe we'll get to go see it.

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First off, quick belated bday wishes to pamiriver! Sorry, hon, thought I'd have time to do it yesterday and didn't!

Second, the mere fact that this exists is proof that there is some benevolent higher being out there: