12
Kitties Rule, Except For That Awful Smell
15th May 2009 16:42 ∞ Animal welfare, Pets, Photos ∞ WTF? ∞ RSS 2.0
Hey folks, long time no anything! I thought you might like to see a couple of pictures of the new kittens, who are 8 weeks and 1 day old. We have four, all males, and they’ve officially entered the cute overload stage. They do little hopping attacks and leaps, graceful and clumsy all at once. It’s precious. Yesterday I caught the four of them sleeping on the towel rack, and went for the camera. Naturally, as soon as I got back with it, one of them decided to jump down and wouldn’t stay when I tried to put him back. But here are the two pictures I took.
The one on the left is the prettiest one and he’s absolutely gorgeous. He’s very calm natured, though a little timid. Kara wants to keep him. There’s another one, one of the grays, that was the first of the four to purr and who purrs every time you pick him up. He has been lying beside me at night, or on top of me, snuggling up and winning my heart over and over again. Needless to say, he’s the one I want to keep. So we have a dilemma. Kitten #2 is the top kitten, the one who ventures first into most things and who is always the kitten leading the others into the room. Kitten #1 has never purred for me, though he’s purred for Kara.
We want to keep one kitten, possibly with occasional outdoor privileges since my mother (landlady) is more comfortable with indoor-outdoor cats. Since we lost Bandit last year, who was Kara’s cat, we’ve been seeking a suitable replacement. Akiyama, the orange kitty we rescued in December, didn’t work out as his personality was too abrasive to the other animals in the house. He was always pouncing on Midnight and chewing on his head, and so on. So we’re seeking, technically, a cat for Kara, and for that reason will probably go with her choice. But it’s going to break my heart to give up a kitten who has clearly chosen to bond with me. 
This is easily the worst part of fostering an animal – you get attached or they get attached, and it’s painful to let them go and see the confusion and betrayal in their eyes. Even if you know they’re going to adjust just fine and be happy, that initial pang is awful. It’s rather like taking your child to kindergarten or preschool for the first time, and watching them cry as you leave with your heart breaking, certain they will never forgive you. But at least the child gets to come back home at the end of the day.
There is another issue that ventures into the disgusting bodily function TMI zone, so those who can’t stand that sort of thing should skip down to the next photo. The momma cat, Tonks, has in the few weeks or so during weaning, begun to develop potty issues that are close to driving me to a new home. She weighs all of about 8 lbs, if that, and is very thin since giving birth though she’s started to fill out a bit. She looks bloated off and on, and when she shits, it’s an enormous, wtf sized pile of crap that would do a medium-sized dog proud. I’m not exaggerating. It’s like, “Holy shit, cat, what did you eat?” And she does this three or four times a day. She also sucks at burying, though she tries. And the smell. Oh. My. God. I have a really sensitive nose, and Kara has a nose that misses almost everything, but it knocks her out of the room and me into a state of anguish unmatched by any other indoor pet I’ve ever had. It is vile.
There is no sign of tapeworms in her stools, which I have to bury myself while holding my shirt over my nose and spraying abundant quantities of Febreze Air Freshener. I’m going to treat her and the kittens for roundworm today. But I don’t know of a condition that would cause the enormous piles of crap that this cat leaves, and with such a stench. It’s very close to inspiring desperate measures to keep the cat boxes out of the house. I want the porch screened in asap so I can put the damn things out there. Ugh! But it’s gonna be a few months before that happens. If anyone knows what could be causing this, please comment. I can’t imagine how she shits like this three or four times a day at her small size.
Okay, moving on. I snapped a couple of pics of my new ferret yesterday, as well. His name is Pantalaimon, or Pan, for the daemon in The Golden Compass. He’s white with dark eyes, but his eyes shine pinkish-red in even mild light, so I think he’s an albino with eyes so dark it’s easy to miss the pink. The photos show it very well, but I did use a flash. He’s deaf, as is common with albinos or any ferret with white on its head, and I’ve successfully (and rapidly) taught him to respond to me thumping on something (if he can feel it). He’ll come if he feels or sees me doing that, which is a relief. He’s a little bouncy spaz, and cracks me up with his antics. I try to keep him caged in a large dog kennel, or in his playpen, until I have the house cleaned out for yard sale and ferret proofed. I’ll bring him into the bedroom to play or close off doorways in the living room on occasion so he can bounce around.
You can see in the pics of his cage that he has a hammock, a litter pan, and a two-tiered cat condo, which seems to be perfect for him. I just scrubbed down his cage yesterday, but he’s a messy little guy so there are already footprints all over and the litter pan is out of place. His playpen, the white wire thing, I tend to fill with things he can tear up and play with. Newspaper, towels, random objects that no other creature would find fun, an igloo… he likes to burrow under stuff and hide treats, etc. He’s a very sweet boy though has gotten a bit rougher since I bought him because I play rough with him sometimes (similar to playing the grr-attack game with a dog). It’s made him more prone to chewing on people, though he doesn’t actually bite (much). It’s all in play. Honestly I should stop encouraging that…
I have another post I want to do regarding a long article in the NYTimes the other day (Sunday? I think) on depression, so that may be coming up. There’s also news regarding spirit work, which I’m sure is of more interest to you, so that’ll definitely be incoming. See you there!
Please remember that comments left on the RSS feed do not come to me, nor do I get notifications of those comments.
If you have something to say, I'd appreciate it if you commented at the blog.
All content is ©Sheta Kaey for Spirit Companion.com ~2002 and beyond. Some Rights Reserved.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Previous post
12 Responses to “Kitties Rule, Except For That Awful Smell”
Leave a Reply
Additional comments powered by BackType
All content ©Sheta Kaey 2002 and beyond for Spirit Companion.com. This work is licensed under a 
Creative Commons 3.0 United States License. Some Rights Reserved.
Awwww! Kittens!
Are they Bengals? Fostering kittens can be so hard… I was lucky with the last large batch of kittens my family and I fostered in that there was one kitten who was clearly the sweetest, so we chose to keep her. (She’s still the sweetest of our cats.)
The ferret is pretty adorable, too. And I love the name. I used to want a ferret, but when I started reading about them I got intimidated by the amount of ferret-proofing needed for the house. I guess you just keep him in his playpen?
Yeah, they get into everything, and if there’s an opening, they’ll find it and do their best to wiggle through. They are notorious for getting inside reclining furniture and then getting killed when it’s moved. They like to get under chairs, couches, beds, etc and dig at the soft underparts and crawl inside the springs. Plus there’s the whole appliance nightmare waiting to happen. If you intend to give them run of the house 24-7, then you have a lot of proofing to do, indeed.
My couch sits less than an inch off the floor, so that’s safe, though he likes to dig on the cushions. The chairs are more interesting for hiding under, and once I get this room proofed he will be able to run freely in here as long as there’s someone present in the room. I need to reinstall the doors and baby gates, possibly reinforced to avoid him going through them or climbing them.
We’ve had to reinforce his cage with hardware cloth and a dividing wire screen, because he was escaping. We’d leave the house with him in the cage, and when we came home he’d greet us at the door. He’d show up in the bedroom in the middle of the night, etc. lol. So I think we have the cage proofed, I hope.
When I am busy or need to leave the room, he’s confined in his playpen, which is harder for him to escape. So far he hasn’t managed it.
He’s like a fur-covered slinky. lol
The kittens and ferret are adorable! On the note of the mother cat, Tonks, it could be a viral infection of some form, maybe with the intestines. That is the only thing I can think of, unless you have a neighbor (if Tonks is an outside cat) that is poisoning animals. I know that is really common around here. I lost about 5 cats that way when I was younger. I hope you are able to find out what is going on with the cat. Poor dear.
I’m not sure what is going on. I’ll keep my eyes open, though. Thanks.
Maybe someone is feeding her milk? (Don’t know if you knew but cats are horrendously lactose intolerant.) Another thing that can cause poo problems is if you change the cat’s food suddenly. I’ve had that happen even when I tried to mix in the new food slowly. It could just be something in her regular food. I had one cat who just couldn’t deal with a certain ingredient, can’t remember what it was.
I hope it’s something simple like that and she’s ok. Nice photos though! Very cute! We have one of those stripey grey and black cats. He’s one of the cutest cats I’ve ever had.
Yeah, I know they’re lactose intolerant (so am
, but I don’t know if that would cause such an extreme reaction with no other noticeable symptoms. Too bad cats can’t talk.
I’ve changed the dry food twice — once to a cheaper brand, briefly, and once back, though I am still using a mediocre canned variety (Friskies), which seems to make their litter boxes smell worse than before. I am just having problems affording all of these cats right now. It’s ridiculous.
They’re cute until they give you whiplash! I tripped over Odysseus on Thursday, and threw out my left shoulder and neck. Not fun. But yes, they’re still cute creatures, even when you know they’re plotting your demise.
Grey Glamer´s last blog post..The Minor Arcana and Gender
I know! You try to step over them and they pick that second to run ahead “out of the way” and so you end up nearly killing yourself. Cats are buttheads.
She said gracefully.
Aww my cat did one of those running directly under the foot things yesterday and I stepped on his foot. He screamed! He was fine, I think it just scared him and it made me feel bad even though it was his fault.
He once tripped my husband onto the floor before my husband was used to having cats. He’s the kind of cat who needs to rub on your shin every time you walk past him.
Kitties are good pets, but I agree about the smell part. My cat (whom I like to refer to as the shit factory) is a clean healthy animal, all indoor, but when he potties in his litter box, the smell will make your eyes water clear across the house. For this reason I keep the litter box in the bathroom, so I can hose the air with Oust and shut the door with the vent on. And god help you if you’re in there when he goes.
I don’t know why he’s like that. I feed him a regular brand of cat food, and indoor formula. If I work a different kind of food into his diet, it’s just as strong. It might simply be the way it is for some cats, I don’t know.
I’m used to cats and can get by with Febreze and a few moments of choking, but when Tonks goes it’s horrific. I mean it smells like 3-days-in-the-blazing-sun roadkill. Vile. I have no idea what is up with her but it’s only been going on about three weeks, since around the time she (mostly) weaned her kittens. I have never had a smell like that inside my house, except once when a snake got into the attic and died. It rained maggots in the bathroom before we found it. It stank for a year.
As a matter of fact, I am pretty sure this is worse, at least in terms of intensity if not stench.
Yikes. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the kittens were just weaned? That would be my guess. You might call a vet’s office and ask about it. She might need a change in her diet until the effect wears off.