My first ferals

Jasmine

Jasmine and Cheddar came to me in October 2010. Both were trapped as ferals by Maria. But Cheddar - or Cheezie, as he's affectionately called - took no time at all to climb on my lap and try to adopt me. He was 3 months and Jasmine was 4 months old. She took much longer to accept me and I got to practice my feral-domesticating skills for sometime with Jasmine.
Cheezie was adopted in November, but Jasmine was with me until January 2011 because she was so fearful with visitors. Unfortunately, her adoption didn't "take," and she was returned to me in August, along with another young cat named Nuka, who'd been adopted as a playmate for her.
Nuka ingratiated himself with visitors so well that he was snatched up at a Petsmart adoption event in November, leaving Jasmine behind again.
But she finally found her forever-people in January 2012, and she has since become a lapcat which was so wonderful to hear!

Cheezie

Nuka

The summer campers

Ashley and Skor came to stay with me in August 2010, while they're foster mum was on vacation.

Ashley

Skor

The beasties of July 2010

First there was Petey and Jasper. Then came Venture Cat, and close on her heels came Jayda. All four were adopted pretty quickly, with Jayda and Venture Cat going to the same home since they'd become great little playmates.

Petey

Jasper

Venture Cat

Jayda

Emma goes home

On June 25, 2010, Emma was adopted by a wonderful couple. She'd been with me some months, and if she'd been here much longer it would have been hard to let her go. Farewell, little beauty!

Nope! we're back in the bathroom...

Emma gets pretty anxious when she's out of the bathroom, so for the time being she's back there. I had Maria come and look carefully at her mouth and throat today, because she grunts and snuffles occasionally and I was concerned when I saw her pick up a crunchy then drop it and pick it up again. Plus she often swallows them whole, and she gulps when swallowing as well. The exam found nothing - her teeth and tongue look great. Maria said half a Thayer's Slippery Elm lozenge ground up and mixed with water was good for sore throats in cats, so I might try one and see how she does. I could also massage the sides of her nose in the sinus area - cats apparently like that and it could loosen up anything that may be left over from the terrible infection she had for 2 months. But everything looked fine on the surface, and I did see clear discharge the one time I observed Emma sneeze.

We've graduated to the bedroom!

Found out yesterday that Emma's 6 years old. She had dental work done in September last year at Killarney vet.
Last night for the first time I heard her lapping up water, which is a good thing considering she's only eating dry food. She seems to like the dry food I had left over from Peaches - I'd begged it from a neighbour (maybe Mariner?) and I'm not sure which one it is.
I've passed a bio and photos to Michele and Elizabeth so Emma can be posted on the website.

We live in the bathroom

Emma's a very needy little girl. It didn't take her long to latch onto me once I began scratching her neck and stroking her fur. It's hard for me to leave the bathroom because she's almost insatiable with her need for love, probably as a result of being sick and in isolation for so long. But on the other hand, when I tried carrying her into my bedroom this morning she quickly let me know that it was all too scary too soon. So back to the bathroom we went.

She wasn't pleased though when I took a shower this morning. "Thank God for this tube!" she says, because she spends most of her time lying in the carpetted hidey-hole that my dad created out of a cardboard construction tube.

She ate a number of TD crunchies that I hand fed her this morning; and just now she ate about a tablespoon of Whiskas dry. Maria had brought me about 6 bags of dry because she's a finicky eater, and she won't eat canned. I tried her with Wellness Chicken & Lobster last night, but she hadn't touched it by morning. When I watched her eat the TD I offered, I discovered she was actually swallowing most of them whole. That made me wonder about the condition of her teeth, but then I wondered about her age. My cats as they got older seemed to have trouble working wet food to the back of their mouths so could swallow. They often did better with crunchies, like their tongues and mouth could manipulate them better. And with Peaches in particular, she would chew the crunchies without any trouble; it just seemed as she turned her head from side to side, that she then had trouble manouvering the food to her throat. This is mysterious to me. No one's ever given me a satisfactory explanation for this phenomenon.

Regarding her appearance:
Emma is black with a pearly undercoat - the most remarkable hair ticking that I've ever seen. She alternately looks like she's rolled in talcum powder, or her fur's all mussed up, or she's got highlights in her fur. She also seems to have a perpetual frown on her face, because she has little furrows over her eyes - perhaps it's more of the pale undercoat showing through.

Here Beginneth a New Chapter

Emma

Emma arrived today, brought by Maria. She was abandoned at the SPCA by her people sometime ago, went to the barn and promptly got the mother of all cat-colds. She was sick for about 2 months, and after that was kept in a large wire kennel, at Lane Street, in order to protect her from anymore infections. Apparently she has no other disorders though and she's currently healthy.

Emma's charcoal/black with a white undercoat - very unusual. She has a chunky body shape with a broad forehead and somewhat pointed chin and golden eyes. Maria brought her special bedding and as I write (5:45 pm), she's snuggled down in the carpetted cat-tube in my bathtub.

We had a nice bonding session earlier (she arrived her at about 4:30) when I picked her up and held her while I scratched the sides of her face and neck. This was very well received - she loved it and was purring within minutes. So I think we're friends, even though her pupils are still very dilated. She's molting big-time too, because of the stress of the move, so I'll go in there and give her a good brushing soon. ...The brushing was the biggest hit of all - she got simply ecstatic and couldn't get enough of the slicker brush. I raked heaps and heaps off her - her coat's very dense, much like Tabitha's was - and the leavings were all pearly grey - no sign of black fur having come off.

Food:

Maria brought three stainless-steel bowls and many bags of food that Emma likes at various times. Unfortunately, she currently addicted to Temptations as one of her staples. We'll try to wean her off that at some point. I've put a bowl of Origen and one of PC (1 T. each), with one Temptation treat on top, plus a bowl of 2 T. TD in with her, and I'll record the quantity she eats. ...At 8:15 pm I put out 1 T. of canned Wellness Chicken & Lobster, just in case she can be tempted. She hasn't eaten yet, but I can hear she's now christening her litterbox.

ALL gone!

Stella was adopted on January 15, 2010.