Mega Spiral

Kay bought the kittens the lovely Mega Spiral which was seen in the last posting. Since they've been out of Gina's bedroom getting to know the dogs and GG for the last week, they've also discovered how much fun it is to be on the Mega Spiral.


And all of them have tried out GG's stroller as well. Stamp was a bit too heavy for it and now it leans a little bit. But Zip doesn't seem to mind. It's a good place to get some respite from the often way too friendly dogs.



I think that there must be some catnip in that top part of the Mega Spiral. Check it out!

Introducing the Cats & Dogs!

The original plan was to wait until Thanksgiving and bring Stamp out to meet the dogs and then after Christmas introduce Zip & Code. But the last 4 times I've opened Gina's bedroom door, Zip has scurried out to explore the rest of the house. I've had the dogs outside each time Zip has done his escape routine. Today I decided to let the dogs in and see how it went. The kittens are as big as GG now, so I figured there was no reason to keep putting it off.

BTW, Stamp did get neutered last week and weighed in at over 8 pounds! He's a really big boy!

Good news! Tater was just interested in meeting the cats - not eating them. As you can see she was quite excited - just watch that tail go!



Porch Boy wasn't quite sure what to make of the cats. Trip totally ignored them. Tater was the only one that tried to engage them, and as you can see here Code & Stamp weren't too sure that they wanted to be engaged...



Zip was more demonstrative with his displeasure, but there were never any claws exposed and rarely any hissing going on.



Tater did respond appropriately when the hissing happened.



All in all, I am quite pleased that all my little critters got along so well.

Kittens or Cats? You decide!

Took Stamp in for his final round of vaccines and he weighed in at a whopping 6.14 pounds! That's just a pound shy of Porch Boy and Garage Girl - both over 5 years old - while Stamp is supposedly still a baby at just 4 months! Yep, I've got another Montesquieu on my hands here. The vet said he wouldn't be surprised if he made it to 20 pounds when full grown. Yikes!!!

The twins are still much smaller than Stamp, but they've doubled in size since we got them.



I asked about getting Stamp fixed sooner than the recommended 6 months old because he's not only big, he's maturing very quickly. Check out the family jewels on this boy!




And Code is such a flirt with both her brothers...



So Stamp is scheduled for neutering next month. I'll have Zip & Code fixed later.

Another Toy for the Kittens

Busy Bee - well, their interest in this toy was over within 10 minutes.

My New Office Decor

My friend Kerry, whom I met on the Star-Trek themed Alaskan cruise, made this wonderful gift for me - a cloth art piece with memories of our time in Alaska. Gina decided to get it framed to preserve it.

Although gorgeous, it was too big to fit on any of our walls at home, so I hung it on my new office wall. A perfect fit!

My office used to be a virtual shrine to Star Trek, but I took most of that stuff home and it's now in my bedroom. Had to keep a little bit at work since I spend so much time there.

Tater Enjoys Loot Bag Goodies

Zoey's Birthday Party

Saturday, Gina & I took all 3 dogs to their friend Zoey's celebration of 5 years with our friend Tanai. It was quite festive as you can see with a luau theme.

I never noticed how much Zoey looks like an Ewok until I saw this photo.I always thought she looked like Yoda. (OK, all you who have no Star Wars cred, look at Tanai's t-shirt. That's an Ewok. You're on your own to know what Yoda looks like. Sheesh....)

There was a ton of food to eat for the humans and for the dogs.

Condoleeza (aka Condi) got a bit too much cake and had to have a Heimlich maneuver from Angie.

It was such fun to see all the dogs dressed up for the occasion.

When we left each guest got a personalized Loot bag with a toy and treats inside!

Cheap Toys from the Cat Show

There were all kinds of toys being sold, as you can well imagine, but we had seen the sheer delight the kittens had in a simple ping pong ball when Kay brought it along with Stamp. It lasted only a few minutes because Gina accidentally stepped on it. But we found a vendor who was painting the balls and putting holes in them to put some sort of little rattle noise maker inside. We bought 12 of her plain stock and brought them home.

First, we gave one to GG, but Tater intercepted it. Then she took the real toy I'd brought for her -- a Koozie.



Then we gave the kittens a crack at them. As you can see, they had already made quite a game out of unrolling the toilet paper all over the floor!




Then Zip decided to change it from Ping Pong to Kick Ball :--)



Here's another shot of the sisal-covered scratching post. Here you can see the platform on top.


And today when Gina got home, all 3 kittens were curled up together asleep on the top of the tree house. By the time I got my camera out, they were wide awake but did pose nicely, huh?

The Houston Cat Show

Check out this article and read to the bottom to see my comments about the Houston Cat Show. Gina found a Scentsy dealer among the vendors and was buying out her entire stock. So I began to wander around and this reporter from the Houston Chronicle asked to talk to me. Well, you know me... I love to talk! Especially about my new babies!

Gina & I haven't been to the cat show in years, but we went hoping to find a good deal on some cat furniture for the new kittens. Although the show was much smaller than in previous years (only one furniture vendor) we got what we wanted. A small sisal-covered scratching post for the bathroom, where they spend most of the day while we're working.


And a big tree house for when they get into Gina's bedroom to explore the wider spaces!


At first they were a bit intimidated by the huge new carpet-covered tree house thingy...



But soon enough they were crawling all over the thingy...

Stamp (aka Harley) has joined our family!

We weighed the pros and cons, and decided we wanted to adopt the 3rd kitten that Kay had rescued as well. Now we have the whole litter. But, in keeping with the post office theme, we accepted our friend Brad's suggestion to name him "Stamp" and believe me, Zip Code & Stamp all go postal :--)

Here's Kay kissing him bye-bye...

And Gina giving him a welcome home hug...

Note the new toy that Kay brought over with him. Zip & Code love it!

Play Time With Zip & Code

These videos need no introduction. Enjoy!

Harley Needs A Forever Home

Who is Harley? He's Zip's & Code's brother! Kay was able to rescue the whole litter after all. But so far no one has offered to adopt this little cutie. He thinks he's quite good looking :-)

I quite agree! As you can see, Harley has a lot more white on his face than Zip & Code but the same beautiful blue eyes.

Kay tells me he's as wild as his brother Zip, and purrs when he's cuddled. Wouldn't you love to take him home with you?

Zip's Been Sick

It's taken awhile to get back on the blog - mainly because I returned to work and have been putting in long hours trying to get ready for the State monitors who will be coming in August. My energy levels are still about 85% of normal. I'm really tired and have slept most of the weekend. But enough about me...

Poor little Zip has had a terrible time with diarrhea all week long. It got so bad that I took him back to the vet on Tuesday. He tested for all kinds of parasites and all came back negative, so he opted to just treat the symptoms. We stopped the KMR and over-the-counter canned food and kibble immediately to give him special Rx canned food (expensive!) all to no avail. By Friday he had gone from extremely loose mucous-laden stools to absolute brown liquid squirting out. And his poor little anus was incredibly irritated and red. He also had to endure daily baths and Gina had a horrible mess to clean up in the bathroom each evening when she got home from work. Ugh.....

I was concerned that he might have been dehydrated. He hadn't gained any weight while Code has put on a half-pound over the last week. So I took him back to the vet on Friday and he tested him for all kinds of bacterial infections. Again, all tests came back negative. But he gave him some antibiotics and meds to treat for bacteria. This seems to have helped. Yesterday and today Zip is back to extremely loose stools. Hopefully he'll start putting on weight soon.

Here's some more videos of him & Code before the diarrhea commenced.

First Vet Visit and Bath Time

Zip is a boy & Code is a girl. Dr. May said they were both very healthy and although the fecal flotation test didn't show any worms he de-wormed them anyway. He said it's virtually impossible that they don't have roundworms. Also gave them first round of vaccinations - next ones in a month. They both have earmites and we got meds for that. He also treated both with Revolution for fleas.

They were pretty good until the tech stuck Zip in the butt for the fecal sample. He was furious and let them know it! He told us to go ahead and start feeding them kibble and gave us some Science Diet kitty to get started. He said that we could continue with the KMR and canned for a couple weeks. They should do fine on 3 feedings a day now. He said they were probably 5-6 weeks old and Zip weighs 1.1 pounds while Code is 1.3 pounds. All in all, a glowing report.

Here's what happens during bath time.

And now drying off...

Feeding Time with Zip & Code

Wathcing the kittens eat is hilarious! They make funny little noises. Well, hear for yourself...


Zip says, "Thanks Jeraine. That was delicious!"

Then proceeds to try and nurse my belly :=)

When they finish eating their little bellies are totally bloated. Thankfully they've learned very quickly to use the litter box.

Meet Zip & Code - Two New Additions to Our Family

My friend Debbie Chapman is a champion of homeless animals, as is her friend Kay, who goes to the Greenbriar Post Office daily to feed a colony of feral cats. Kay tries to capture them and get them neutered/spayed but some still are able to stay fertile. Recently she found 3 kittens and was able to rescue 2 of them. Debbie knew that Timitu, our 20 year old cat, had recently died so she asked if we might be interested in adopting one of the kittens. We decided to take both.

When we arrived at the Post Office to meet them, and Kay, we were both shocked at how tiny they are. The kittens that is. Kay is normal sized :-) Kay thinks they're only a month old. I have never adopted such young animals. Montesquieu was 10 weeks old when I got him and was about 5 times bigger than these guys. Or girls. We have no idea what gender they are.

Kay called them 'Uno' and 'Dos' but she also mentioned that she thought of calling Uno 'Zip' because s/he was always running around like crazy. Gina and I had considered several possible names. Cheech & Chong, Peanut Butter & Jelly, Venus & Serena, Donny & Marie... but not knowing their genders makes some of those not quite fit. Once we sat in the bathroom with them for 20 minutes (their realm for the time being) it became clear that 'Zip' was the perfect name for 'Uno' and Dos naturally became 'Code' since we did get them from the Post Office!



Here's Code along with the toy that Kay sent along with them. Kay also gave us food, litter, and KMR - a substitute for milk.

Now, don't you agree that these are the cutest little things in the whole wide world???????


Zip looks a bit concerned in this one!

This little space under the cabinet in Gina's bathroom will be all they need until they get a bit bigger. Expect a ton of photos to be posted in the near future :-)

China Town & Washington Square

Our final day in San Francisco and I wanted to see China Town. It was within walking distance of the hotel, but that walk was straight up a very, very steep hill. There was no denying where we were once we entered.




We walked several blocks and things started looking a little less Asian and a bit more European. Gina wanted me to take a shot of this street sign. She kept asking me to google it, but I never did. I'll let her comment on this post to explain what it's all about.

Eventually we emerged onto this lovely little park called Washington Square.
Dogs played, homeless folks slept, and old Asian ladies did Tai Chi or other group exercises.


There were really interesting looking trees in this park
and a church called the Cathedral of St. Peter & Paul.
I'm not sure which was Peter and which was Paul.

On the way back to the hotel we found some other sites of San Francisco... including Coit Tower
which reminds me of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The Stinking Rose restaurant, where they season their garlic with food :--)

And right around Jack Kerouac corner, the famous bookstore City Lights Bookseller, where Jack and his beatnik buddies hung out.


We dropped inside to see the books and I bought Annie a San Francisco cookbook as a thank you for taking care of my fish, BlueBonnet and PaintBrush, while we were gone.

Right across the street from the bookstore, was the first topless bar ever opened. And a few others that joined in rather quickly.

There were also several very intricate wall murals.


We were lucky enough to see one in the process of being made.

Gina took one last rest on bench with a couple of friends and then we were back to the hotel and on our way back home.