Cricket

In late August of 2010, Red Lake Rosie’s took in an unwanted litter of grey kittens. They had a foster home waiting for them in the Twin Cities, so they made the long journey together. The five kittens were about five weeks old. Four of the little cats were underweight but normal-sized for their age. The smallest did not even weigh a pound; her body was so tiny that her head appeared too heavy for her to hold up. This little one was named Simon. The others were Sterling, Sassy, Sabrina and Scarlett, The S’kitten Family.

Tiny Simon seemed to be pretty happy and played hard with his brother and sisters despite being so much smaller than they. When the others went off to be spayed/neutered, though, Simon stayed home. He wasn’t feeling well, had no appetite, not even for the choicest-of-choice treats: tuna. His vet had some interesting news and some bad news that day. First, the interesting news: Simon was really Simone. He had been ‘misassigned’ on intake, which explained why there was no sign of testicles on the kitten. The other news was that the doctor was not sure what was wrong with Simone, but suspected that it was FIP or another serious illness.

Probably because of her difficult start to life, her digestive system wasn’t working properly and she had diarrhea all the time. Her foster mom pondered the right thing to do -- if the kitten had an illness such as FIP, maybe it would be better to spare her an excruciating death later. On the other hand, despite her weakness, Simone still showed a strong spirit, so it was decided to give her fluid therapy and see if she would improve over the next few days.

Once they got home, now as a girl, Simone started eating and drinking and felt much, much better. She had a good growth spurt, although she would never catch up in size to her siblings. Eventually, all the other S’kittens got homes but Simone still had chronic diarrhea so she ended up staying in her foster home for another three months. Many different treatments with drugs and herbal preparations were tried to cure her of her problem. None of them improved her condition, and Simone heartily disliked getting pills and drops. She was still cheerful and willing to let her foster mom give her the medicines, though.

The happy day that Simone finally was rid of her diarrhea, her foster mom crumbled a little on the inside, knowing that now it was time to send the petite, lively and loving grey tabby cat to her forever home.

Simone had a couple of little secrets for her human caretaker that day, though: she was already home, not planning to go anywhere else; AND her real name is not Simone, it is Cricket. No longer Simone and no longer ill, Cricket is an outgoing little cat who follows her mom all over the house and loves running in a pack with her two younger feline brothers, Monty and Marlowe.

C~

Simone S'kitten at home as Cricket

After nearly a year in foster care, Cricket (formerly Simone) was adopted by her foster mom. Cricket was part of the S'kittens family who was turned in to Karen at Red Lake Rosie's Rescue last summer as an unwanted litter. The five kittens - Sterling, Sassy, Scarlett, Sabrina and Simone -- were about five weeks old, skinny and wormy.

The other four recovered from their malnourished state after a couple of months, but little Cricket had digestive problems for nine months. At one point, she was doing so poorly that her foster mom had sadly concluded that perhaps the best thing would be to put the struggling kitten to sleep. Luckily, the RLRR foster cat coordinator, and her foster mom decided to try one more thing: they gave Cricket some more fluids and within a day or so she was out of the woods.

She still wasn't able to shake her chronic diarrhea, though. A wide variety of medications was administered in an attempt to correct the problem. The poor little thing was given wormers, antibiotics, metronidazole, herbs and probiotics over several months. It would get better, then worse. Two steps forward, one step back. Finally in April, Cricket got better.

Her foster mom thought she should give the kitten some time to make sure she was really fine before putting her up for adoption. (The other four s'kittens had already found wonderful forever homes.) In those few weeks, Cricket made it clear that she was already home.

Hadn't she proved it by never getting mad at her foster mom even after getting a syringe of icky-tasting stuff shoved down her throat, followed by a dry pill? And by snuggling on mom's pillow and following her around the house - even more than the resident German shepherd? Surely it was clear that she didn't need to find another home: she was already there!

Today Cricket has a job: supervising some foster kittens that her mom pulled from an impound in rural Minnesota. She plays with her older cat sisters with good humor, easily moving on to another playmate when an older cat gets tired of rough kitten play.

Cricket is grateful to Karen Good and RLRR for sticking with her through her health problems and letting her stay in her great home!
--
Celayne

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S'kittens

HIGHLIGHTS FROM S'KITTEN BLOG POSTS BY FOSTER MOM:

Simone likes a comfy private place to hang out when she's had enough of the cat-race.Here's Scarlett, resting after her first public appearance. She was the one I was most concerned about having a good time, but she did fine and even happily let a woman in the store hold her.I love the spots on her belly!

Just in! Sassy's Thanksgiving photo.

Sabrina is one smart s'kitten -- taking a break from working the Sunday crossword...

Hey, Sassy tried to send a fax the other day. Why not play FarmVille with Simone?

Photo: clockwise from top: Sassy, Simone, Sterling, Sabrina, Scarlett.

Sterling has found a home, but his four sisters are still looking. Fill out the adoption application on our website www.redlakerosie.org if you are interested in these or any of our kittens.

Meet & Greet RLRR cats & dogs Sat. Nov. 20

Meet and Greet Red Lake Rosie's Rescue foster cats and dogs! S'kittens plan to be there.

When: Sat, November 20, 12pm – 2pm
Where: Chuck & Don's Pet Food Outlet in Wayzata

NOTES FROM FOSTER MOM OF S'KITTENS:
Sabrina and Scarlett: s'kitten sisters
These two kittens truly are bffs and will be adopted out together. I haven't been able to get a decent, recent photo of them together, however. Here's Sabrina:

SABRINAShe's a snuggler who loves to be cuddled. In this picture, she looks a bit mischievous and ready to play. She and Simone are the ones who follow me around the most.

SCARLETScarlett is kitty-crushing on James, my big orange boy-cat. He's tolerant and, frankly, happy to have a feline friend. My other cats don't really care for him for reasons I don't fully understand. Maybe because every human who meets him falls in love. They're jealous!

Sassy & Simone enjoy FarmVille

SASSY & SIMONEHey, Sassy tried to send a fax the other day. Why not play FarmVille?

Simone bounces back

Simone is the smallest of the s'kittens. When she came to me, she was under a pound. She gained weight slowly and has been consistently a pound or more lighter than the others. There's a big difference between two pounds and four pounds in the world of kittens.

SIMONELast week, we almost lost this little one. She was not eating and doing poorly. The vet thought she might have FIP or kitty parvo. There didn't seem to be much hope, but we gave her some fluids. One miracle and one week later she is thriving! Now up to 2.43 pounds, she may never catch up to the others in size, but she is healthy and active. (For comparison, Sterling is over four pounds and the other three girls are 3-1/2 to 4 pounds.)

Like Sterling, Simone has the lovely swirly markings of the classic tabby.

Oh, and I forgot to tell you that Simone used to be Simon. It's hard to tell sometimes on the itsy-bitsy cats. Oddly, I always thought 'he' had a girl personality. Yes, there's a difference.

S'kittens

BEFOREThese snotty-nosed kittens were lucky to get out of the kennel in the cathouse at Red Lake Rosie's Rescue and move on to their foster home in the metro where they have quite a large room all to themselves. They will be spayed/neutered in mid-October, but you can meet them now! I call them S'kittens because they all have names starting with "s".

SASSYSassy - the biggest kitten and the boldest. First to try to escape from their fantastic s'kitten quarters; Sassy and Sterling like to roll around together and make a lot of harmless noise. Sassy likes to climb, legs especially. Sassy has beautiful tabby markings without a touch of tan.

STERLINGSterling also hopes to explore the wider world beyond s'kittenland. He has met two German shepherds while being held by his foster mom. Dogs are used to cats . When they sniffed and licked the s'kitten, Sterling purred. Sterling has the mackeral tabby markings. Sterling is vocal and he also is tidy. He scratches around the food dish when he is done as if to bury the food for later. He also runs over to cover other s'kitten poop in the box if one of them forgets!

SABRINASCARLETSabrina and Scarlett are BFFs. Usually if you see one, you will see the other. They are smaller than Sassy and Sterling and have touches of tan in their grey coats. Scarlett has more tan in her face and she is quite tolerant: some of her whiskers have been chewed off by her sibs. These girls are very sweet and at this point in their young lives seem to be docile s'kittens.

SIMONAnd then there's Simon. He's by far the smallest s'kitten. Now gaining weight each day, he is 1.44 pounds. Sassy is a full pound heavier. His markings are very like Sterling's. He is happiest when he is getting human contact and particularly likes to climb from your arms to your shoulder. His purr is much larger than he is! He keeps up with the bigger s'kittens when it is playtime, though.

Complete and submit the adoption application on the website, www.redlakerosie.org, or send an e-mail to blog@redlakerosie.org with questions.

Post-clinic midweek transfer

Nancy Blanck came up on August 25th and spent the night at Red Lake Rosie's Rescue. This is Nancy's second trip to the shelter this month. She and her husband Terry had been up a week before the clinic.

ANDREA SMILINGNancy brought lots of supplies and food, as well as took care of all the cats while she was up.

MOLLYThe next morning we were up bright and early and she left with 12 animals bound for transfer to Tricounty, ARVSS, Cause for Paws, Northwoods and RLRR foster care.

MIDGEThank you so much for your dedication to Red Lake animals.

MARGARET OZZIESincerely,
Karen Good RLRR

FIVE KITTENS