Bottle babies growing up

Remember the four little kittens brought into the last clinic? They went to a foster for Act V and were lovingly bottle fed for weeks.

Remember the even tinier lonely only that came in to Red Lake Rosie's Rescue a week or so later -- Autumn, now Baxter? He ended up with Feline Rescue at a foster home with another teeny tiny lonely only.

Of the group of four boys, the smaller tabby Moe and the Siamese-looking Simon have been neutered and adopted already! They are resting here after their surgery.

Orange Fezzik and the bigger tabby Larry are waiting for their adopters to appear.
FEZZIK

LARRY

Finally, Baxter and his buddy, Willy, have gained weight and started eating on their own so they are moving to another foster home. It will be another month or two before they are ready for adoption, but all is well.

Update on bottle babies

UPDATE FROM THE ACT V FOSTER MOM OF THE OCTOBER CLINIC DITCH KITTENS:
I thought I would send you a quick update on the kittens. They are doing fabulous! I can tell they have grown already when I pick them up to potty them. They are starting to walk much better, too.
SIMON

The scratchy thing I had that I gave them, they are really putting it through its paces. They love to climb up on it and paw at their brother has he walks by. I’ve been trying to give them some play time after they eat and potty since they are really starting to wrestle.
FEZZIK

I bought some balls with bells in them and Larry loves to bat them around. The others, not so much. Larry seems to be the first to do everything!
LARRY

They have given up their midnight feeding – and up to eating two cans of food a day! They still like their milk before bed.
MOE

They are just so cute and loving. There will be some pretty lucky owners to get these babies!

UPDATE ON AUTUMN (NOW BAXTER) AND HIS NEW BUDDY WILLIE FROM FELINE RESCUE BLOG:

We are ever grateful to the volunteers who take on bottle babies. Feeding kittens and pottying them around the clock every three to four hours is exhausting.

Willie and Baxter (aka Autumn) are two of our newest bottle babies.  Willie was brought to our shelter one evening cold and thin, and Baxter was transported from Red Lake Rosie's Rescue.

Here is Willie - he is so hard to photograph! He really is a beautiful kitten.

Current pic of Autumn/Baxter asking for a drink!

After lots of love and medical attention they are both doing well.

Carma's clinic memories: Susan

This is Susan, what a lovely child! She is in 3rd grade and she came to hold the kittens and play with the puppies. She was such a wonderful little one! She sat and visited with me as she held "Kirsten's Orphans". The one she is holding here is 'Simon', a siamese looking baby!

I asked what she would want to be when she grew up. She looked at me quite seriously and said, "I will be a random citizen!". I asked what a 'random citizen' would do? To which she was quick to reply, "Well...I would know when the great idea hit me!". What a breath of fresh air!!! I haven't had a child sit and talk to me without a cell phone for years!!!!! I hope that she will come back, she says that she will!! I won't forget her!

Carma

Heroic efforts for orphan kittens

NOTE FROM DENISE: If you try to get kittens this tiny to eat from a dish, you wind up with papier-mache' kittens.

I received this note from Karen last week:

"We have a clinic going on at Red Lake and a citizen brought in a litter of four 2-week-old kittens currently being syringe-fed at the warehouse by clinic volunteers.

"Three of the kittens were found in a wooded area near the road, but one crawled up onto the road and was discovered. Miracle they survived- been very cold.

"Does anyone have ideas for this little foursome?"

I had an image of a tiny cold kitten crawling away from his siblings in search of help, so I told Karen to send them down and I would figure something out.

I got the word out on Red Lake Rosie's Rescue Facebook page and soon I heard from Act V Rescue & Rehabilitation that they would sponsor the kittens, but they didn't have a foster who could offer the round-the-clock care they would need.

 I got an offer of a nursing mother cat from Feline Rescue (she and her kittens were left behind when her people moved, the realtor called Feline Rescue, but something got in and killed her kittens). Unfortunately this sweet girl didn't take the strange kittens, but we got an offer to foster from a RLRR Facebook Friend!

She had never cared for bottle babies before and I kept expecting her to back out as I explained all that is required, but she took them in. While I've heard she's "exhausted", she is also having a "blast" and the kittens are doing great. Many, many thanks to Kathy!

PHOTOS AND NOTES FROM FOSTER:

Here are some pictures of the kitties from Saturday. They are so cute and getting used to their new home! They are all males, so I call them the brute squad. LOL. They aren't very brutish.

I call the little Siamese Simon. He is the first one to come out and if he isn't the first one fed, he will push his way to the nipple.

Larry is the bigger dark tabby. He loves to wrestle with Simon.

The littlest is Moe. He's pretty cautious, but so loveable.

Last is Fezzik. He's a snuggler, too.

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~

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.

The dogs of Red Lake Rosie's Rescue

Here are more photos from Laura's visit:

GRANDPA, DAISY, MAMA, GINGERDarling shep mix pups grow into gorgeous shep mix dogs!

MOUSERMouser is Karen's dog and a favorite of visitors.

DOGS ON A WALKHazel, Kia, Daisy, Shilo and Ginger are trustworthy without leashes; Jaycee, Karma, and Della are still learning their limits.

SIMON BUMBLE BEESimon is seriously proud of his Bumble Bee sweater, but it makes me smile ;-)

ROOM TO ROAMThe long mild fall has been a blessing in the north country.

Giving thanks for sweaters

SWEATERS!We had a wonderful time with Laura and Ann who spent Thanksgiving weekend at RLRR. We finished the tarping, did lots of cleanup at the shelter, socialized dogs and pups, and got lots accomplished.

ABBY AND CHEETAHLaura brought more sweaters knitted by her mom, and we had a great time dressing up the dogs and pups.

SIMON BUMBLE BEEThe sweaters are not only warm and comfortable- they are very colorful and beautiful. The animals seemed to love the excitement and attention.

CHEETAHLaura and Ann left this morning with 7 dogs/pups on board including Cheetah, Estelle, Daisy, 3 Singing Chipmunks- Alvin, Theodore, and Simone, and Ada.

DAISYThey are all going to foster care, and our dear Daisy is going to Auntie Ruth's courtesy of Pet Haven for a while. Dee Dee was able to get the great placements for us.

LAURA AND ADAWe had a great and productive weekend, meeting Ann for the first time
and renewing our friendship with Laura. We had a blast!!

SWEATER KIDS GONE WILDSincerely,
Karen and RLRR

ESTELLESIMON SANS SWEATER