Awwwwwww

Not really a cat, but....

There's a different pussy associated with Shayla that I think of.

Awww-inducing video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkKZF9MK91k

Ceiling cat looked down and said.... her schedule got all effed up so start Caturday early. She has to work Friday through Monday, so give her a minute to play....

And she looked on... and was happy... and she said, "All hail Ceiling Cat....

Video with a slightly longer article.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/cutestuff/3080062/A-dog-and-her-kittens (new window)

How the hell does a creature that hasn't had children start nursing? I didn't know that was possible.

Pocket Ninja: How the hell does a creature that hasn't had children start nursing? I didn't know that was possible.

Looky at my article link. Something about false pregnancies in dogs & them getting all hormonal & producing milk.

females who are not pregnant can produce milk based on hormones produced through circumstance... easiest way I can explain, but I'm sure others will do better.....

vossiewulf... you rock!!!

Good grief, already? No wonder I could never catch up by the time I saw the thread Saturday morning :P

I don't have copy written yet for my donation thing.. I wasn't expecting the thread to be around until at least tonight.. but I'll get on that as soon as I finish replying to the emails that have built up in my inbox this week. Still no idea how to get modded approval, though.

Pocket Ninja: How the hell does a creature that hasn't had children start nursing? I didn't know that was possible.

Lactation can be induced. Maybe even in males, I'm not sure. But if the.. em.. milk taps are .. uh.. turned on repeatedly, even if nothing comes out at first, eventually the milk *will* start coming, in most cases (maybe all, I'm not 100% sure). When Galileo and Seiyuu were babies (well.. like three months old), they started nursing on Kitty, because their mother was getting tired of them. Kitty started lactating, after a little while. Same thing when Blue was little, he started nursing on Seiyuu (who always has and continues to hate all other cats.. he was the sole exception, and I have no idea why), and even though she'd been spayed, she started lactating.

Nature is a funny thing.

FTA: "Shyla cleans their bottoms"

Hi jaynleng! I'm so happy to see caturday this early!! Thanks again!!

/can't post cats at the moment but will soon
//does anyone know if we made the record last week?

Get your dog out of my Caturday thread!

Yay Caturday!!!

Traitor!


Cats Drool
Dogs Rule

BillCo: Cats Drool
Dogs Rule

post a pomeranian and we'll talk

moar funny pictures

YIPPEEE! CAAAATS!

Cats and chihuahuas, two of my favourite things!

"Hey, you got cat in my chihuahua!"
"No, you got chihuahua in my cat!"


/obvious

Happy Caturday everybody!

Happy early Caturday! Just gave miles a bath...so i found this caption...not mine but a great one..


moar funny pictures

spinach gunk: YIPPEEE! CAAAATS!

Cats and chihuahuas, two of my favourite things!

"Hey, you got cat in my chihuahua!"
"No, you got chihuahua in my cat!"


/obvious

Happy Caturday everybody!

For those who didn't know Chihuahua's are good for those with asthma. I found this out 4 yrs ago..never knew that b4.
Also a big hiya to everyone!

see more dog and puppy pictures

">Link (new window)

Cat-loving chihuahuas, you say?

Whoa, real early this week (not that I'm complaining...)

Paging SHG, please report to the Caturday thread, we need an update. Did you get the kittehs?
Inquiring (if somewhat tipsy) minds need to know...

sherpa18: Whoa, real early this week (not that I'm complaining...)

Paging SHG, please report to the Caturday thread, we need an update. Did you get the kittehs?
Inquiring (if somewhat tipsy) minds need to know...

Hai Sherpa! Party on dood!

Warning: absurdly long post with 99.9% textual content. If you're not interested, skip it, no harm done. If interested, read on.

I don't know how much you guys know about me, or even how much you *want* to know, but I figure I should open up and share, since I'm asking a favor. If it's too long, you can just skim: I know I tend to babble at the mouth sometimes. The important bit is at the end anyway.

My soon-to-be-ex and I have been living in this house for three years now. Almost exactly three years to the day when he moved out, to move in with his new fiancee. I've been without a job since I got laid off last fall, and despite looking nearly every day for a solid year now, so far I haven't even been asked to an interview. Credit bills have been going unpaid, grocery budgets tight, etc. Some weeks, because we had to buy dog food *and* cat food *and* gas, we'd have almost nothing left for human food. I always put the animals first, even though hubby objected: the dogs lived primarily outside, and as such I felt they should get better quality food; the cats, while they are indoors-only (busy area, too dangerous), include individuals with weakened immune systems, and I'm happy to do anything for them to help them out.

When we moved into this house, we had, so far as cats go, Fred, Socks, Romeo, Fluffy, Butters and Mom, taken in from our apartment complex; Mom's kittens; plus our set of previous cats. That set includes Kitty (rescued from the street near a city health clinic), Moira (rescued from the euthanasia section of the city animal prison), Galileo and Seiyuu (kittens born to a stray in the apartment complex), and Skinny (a friendly stray who showed up one day with a giant gaping hole in the side of her neck).

Fred was a big strong tom cat who'd been adopted by some neighbors. Who would not let Fred come inside, and the man refused to get him fixed, because he did not want to 'take away the guy's manhood'. His tiny water bowl was usually bone dry and they didn't feed him much, so I'd put out food and water on my own patio for him. Then the neighbors moved away, and left Fred there. Nobody else claimed him, so we brought him with us when we moved, and gave him a home indoors. It turns out, however, that Fred had caught feline leukemia, and about a year and a half later, after refusing to display weakness while I was watching, one day ended up laying in his litter box, unable to move his hind legs. Leukemia gave him a spinal tumor. Prednisone brought it down some, but eventually he ended up in renal failure, although I didn't recognize it at the time; he died one night, the day before I was going to take him in to the vet. But he died curled up on a rug, with blankets, in a nice soft house where people loved him, instead of lying paralyzed out in the woods, alone.

Socks, Romeo, Fluffy, and Butters.. I don't know where they came from, but they'd come to our patio for food, so we trapped and brought them with us when we moved, because I couldn't stand leaving them there, where kids were encouraged to throw rocks at them, or hit them, or shoot them with BB guns. It turns out Socks was already been pretty old: we had him (and Butters and Romeo and Fred and Fluffy) in at the vet's temporarily, while we finished building the room in the house for them (yes, this house has a cat room: vinyl floor, multiple litter boxes, a mattress and things to climb on, etc.), and he developed what looked like an auto-immune disease. Doc couldn't figure out exactly what it was, but she said he looked ten or twelve years old, which is old for a hard-living stray, and he ended up dying a few days later. I kind of feel bad that he died sitting in the vet's office, but.. there, he had the whole staff mooning over him and taking care of him. At the complex, he would've been half-blind and half-paralyzed out in the woods. So I guess we still did some good by him.

Fluffy had had a kitten, shortly before we moved out, on a different neighbor's patio. The kitten had no water or anything, and was old enough that just nursing wouldn't cut it anymore, but was too small to jump the fence and get out, and too big for Fluffy to jump with him. So, after a rousing chase around the patio, because the kitten had never seen friendly people before, I retrieved the kitten, bringing him to our own patio, with food and water and easy access to his mother (who watched the whole process with something that seemed like bemusement). A friend ended up adopting the kitten, but it turns out he (and Fluffy) had feline leukemia. He died several months later, after we'd moved, but Fluffy is still here, and is still bemused.

Romeo also has leukemia, though Butters managed to avoid it. Probably because Butters is terrified of everything, and would have avoided a fight. He's feeling a lot better since I've gotten him on anti-anxiety medication, and Romeo is his best friend. Romeo is kind of everybody's best friend, because (and I say this with love), Romeo is too stupid to know any different. I don't know how he survived out there; dumb luck, I guess. He really is awfully stupid. But I love him anyway, and so does Butters, and they're both doing just fine.

Then we come to Mom. Mom is the source of a lot of heartache in this house, through no fault of her own. She showed up at the complex with a very injured right hind leg. I have no idea what happened to her, but she still limps on it sometimes, and her toenails got mangled such that they grow kind of together now, and there's a bald patch on her heel. I made sure she got food and water, and, surprise surprise, she ended up pregnant. Eventually one day, she showed up at the sliding glass door, meowing frantically.. I opened the door, and voom, she rushed in, white lump of something in her mouth, into the bedroom, up and over the night stand, and deposited a baby kitten. Then made three more trips to get three more babies. They were maybe a day old. It was interesting, at first, because while she obviously trusted us enough to put her babies in our apartment, she was still extremely feral, and if you moved too quickly, she'd turn around and attack you. Handling the babies was just fine, as long as she could see us and they weren't squalling too much, but she only had so much trust in her. She's a lap-cat now, and even does tricks, but back then, if you thought you might have to handle her, you brought thick leather gloves. Once the kittens started moving around, and we were worried we'd hurt them moving around at night (or get hurt by Mom, for moving too much), we cleared the closet floor and moved her and the babies in there. She took to it right away, and things went well.

When the kittens were a month old, she really really *really* wanted to go outside. She hadn't been out since the kittens were born, but I called and checked with my vet at the time anyway, and they said no, she can't get pregnant if she's still nursing, it's safe, she probably just wants to go run around outside, since it's been so long. Well. Turns out they *can* get pregnant while they're still nursing. She only wanted out that one day, and she was only out for about 20 minutes, but that was apparently enough. Two months later there were five more kittens, just in time for us to move into the house.

Problem is, Mom (and therefore her kittens) has feline leukemia. So, over the past few years, we've been through some horrible, awful, terrible things that I would not wish on anyone. Only one kitten survives: Abby, from the first litter. We've lost Dot, Dash, Ravi, Tinkerbell, Blue, Samira, Akash and Prince. Every single one of those kids was a fighter, and had some amazing moments. Samira developed her tumor and paralysis shortly after Fred did, and hers was almost as bad, but as soon as she was on prednisone, boom, all hint of weakness was gone, she was back to her four-footed self. Same with Prince. Dot was the hardest: she was the first, and she wasn't quite six months old. And she had pleural effusion; if you know what that is, you know how bad it was to watch a tiny little young cat go through it. Dash and Ravi had the same eventual problem. Then Pinkers and Blue both had brain tumors, with seizures and eventually blindness. Tinkerbell's death was the most horrible thing, though: one day she had a bad seizure, and when she came out of it, she was completely blind, and couldn't walk anymore (she could stand, sorta, but she'd stumble, and couldn't move in anything remotely like a coordinated fashion). Taking her to the vet's office scared her silly (understandable, really), and Doc ended up having to inject the drug straight into her heart. She and the tech and I were all really upset by it; even now, it bothers me.

But, of the deaths we've experienced.. Socks died quietly, even though he was at the vet's office.. Fred died quietly at home, as did Blue, Samira, Akash and Prince. I think I did the best I could for them. On Prince's last day, he was uncomfortable and unhappy, but he cried horribly if I left him alone. As long as I was there, he would curl up against me and try to sleep, so I just sat there, on the bathroom floor with him (that's the room he wanted to be in, although I have no idea why), all day. I left once to get a pillow to lean against and a book to read, came back and calmed him down, and then just stayed there. I did talk to the emergency clinic, and they said sure, they could put him to sleep, but it'd be the $80 emergency fee, plus $250, and I wouldn't get to be there with him, they'd just hold him until they had a slow moment to take care of it. Which was *not* going to happen. So I stayed with my little Prince all day, and when he finally died that night, he wasn't upset and crying and terrified and alone, he was curled up in my arms, safe and warm and loved.

jaynleng asked late last week how I deal with the heartache. It's simple: I will do my damnedest to provide the best I can for these guys, no matter what it takes. Just knowing that I've helped them live a happier, longer, more loved life than they would have otherwise is all the return I need for it. If I'd left Mom and those kittens back at the apartment, do you even want to consider what the ends of their lives would've been like? Could any of you do that to an animal? I know I couldn't. So, yeah, it's heartache, but I'd rather know I did everything I could to help them live the longest, happiest lives possible than leave them to the winds like that.

The problem is, I'm jobless, and Joe's moved out, and while originally he'd given me six more months of his income, now he's lost his job as well. The irony is, I'd just gotten a good solid lead on a job option the day before he got laid off. It would require a few months of study, and I'd have to take the certification test the next time it comes around in the spring (which of course also costs money), but the source I talked to assured me there are always openings, and the pay is pretty good. Plus there are ample opportunities for advancement, so it was a great idea. Except now I don't have six months of income anymore, and it's looking like I'm going to be homeless in another two or three weeks, because neither one of us has any savings. The name on the house is Joe's, and he's determined that if he can't afford to keep it, he's going to dump it, because he doesn't need it. He's given me a few weeks to sort things out, but.. I don't have anywhere to go. I have no friends to live with, my only relative lives in a tiny apartment with two roommates, one of whom is already sleeping on the sofa, and they live 2500 miles away anyway. But the worst part? The cats have nowhere to go either. I've got 11 cats with me (we added Sweetie, another rescue, after living here for a year), facing euthanasia as their most likely option. Romeo, Skinny, Mom, Abby and Fluffy all have leukemia; Moira is blind in his left eye and has begun marking; Kitty is 10, and has litter box issues; Galileo has mouth problems, and marks; Seiyuu hates *everybody*; and Butters is on anxiety medication, and I'm still working on getting him using litter boxes, instead of just sneaking off to go in the nearest corner. The only cat I've got that is considered adoptable is Sweetie. There aren't any no-kill shelters around here, and no friends who could take them in. I don't have anywhere to go, but even worse, if I end up homeless, the only real option for these cats is taking them to a shelter where they'll be euthanized.

Which brings me to the favor. If I can find a couple thousand people with ten bucks to spare, that would pay for everything for me and the kitties for the next six months, so I could do the schooling and take the test and get a job, and they'd be able to continue living their warm happy furry lives, here in a house where they get almost nothing but love (sometimes they get yelled at, but not too much; despite all their problems, they manage to get along well with each other most of the time). If you've got ten bucks you don't need, I'd be so grateful if you'd consider passing it my way. I don't have much to offer in the way of gratitude.. the best I can think of is that for every 100 donations, I'll take and post a new picture of the kitties for everybody to enjoy.

And, in case you want to pass this along to friends, but your friends hate Fark, I've set up a Facebook group, and you can contact me and I'll tell you where that is.

So.. click the picture of Prince, below, and that will take you to PayPal, then use the email address from my profile (skloak at gmail) as the recipient of your donation. Thanks, in advance, everybody, for anything you can do, and if I somehow manage to hit the magical 2000 donations, I'll .. well, heck, maybe I'll actually post a picture of myself, then. Although you're free to suggest other ideas, because I can't imagine that would appeal to everyone :)

Thanks so much.

God, that was long. So sorry. Here are some pictures to make up for it.

Baby picture:


Fluffy and her baby:


Fred:


Skinny:


And Socks, although unfortunately not from the front:


Does that help any?

I bet she is using like 75 Bumpits and she looks like a hammer, which is pretty sweet.

Hawaii


Now that's a titty!

California

baka-san: media.peopleofwalmart.com
I bet she is using like 75 Bumpits and she looks like a hammer, which is pretty sweet.

Hawaii

media.peopleofwalmart.com
Now that's a titty!

Whoops, waaaayyyyy wrong thread.

jaynleng: Ceiling cat looked down and said.... her schedule got all effed up so start Caturday early. She has to work Friday through Monday, so give her a minute to play....
And she looked on... and was happy... and she said, "All hail Ceiling Cat....

Just for you, hon:

I had so much fun doing it last week, I made another "mew-sic" video this week. This one is a little more serious, but I'm very pleased that its ending sequence dovetails nicely with the article.

Hallelujah (new window), Jeff Buckley

I dedicated it to my second family cat, who died 2 years ago this month. He had problems with his tail when he was a baby, so he had to have it cut off and though his first family paid all his medical bills, they left him with the vet because he 'wasn't perfect'. So we got him from our vet when he was 8 months old, soon after our first family cat had died. (I was about 9). He could be very cranky with people outside his family, but with us he was incredibly affectionate.

Enjoy the vid! =^.^=