Tuesday's Show and Tail...Ash and Zoom

Welcome to Tuesday's Show and Tail sponsored by Angela over at West Virginia Treasures.  For a list of this weeks' participants head over to Angela's blog.

This week Ash managed to beat the other cats to the basket.  It's on a table right under a lamp and they all enjoy sunbathing.  To be honest that's why I've left it there.  They take turns.

Meanwhile, Zoom is up to her old tricks...

Never a dull moment.

Tuesday's Show and Tail...Sophie is better!

Welcome to Tuesday's Show and Tail sponsored by Angela over at West Virginia Treasures  Please head over to Angela's blog for a list of participants and information on how you can join in on the fun.

I posted about our dog's e-coli infection last week.  You can read about it here.  I wanted to let everyone know that Sohpie is better.  Her latest test showed absolutely no e-coli!  Since she never really acted sick she's acting no different, so we'll just have to go by the test results.

Here's a picture of Sophie and Ash taken last March.  I haven't had my camera out this week. :)

 Just wanted to share the good news!
Now head over to Angela's blog to see more pets/animals.

Tuesday Show and Tail...My Sweet Little Sophie

Welcome to Tuesday's Show and Tail sponsored by Angela over at West Virginia Treasures.  A list of this week's participants and information on how you can join in are posted on her blog.

Our sweet Sophie has had an e-coli infection in her kidneys.  I suspect she had it for a while and I didn't realize because this dog has NEVER gone in the house.  Even when Reid was in the hospital and she'd have to wait ten hours to go out she never went in the house.  Then one day I came home from the store and didn't put her out right away.  She had an accident in the hallway and I blamed myself for not getting her out right away.  It did seem very unusual, but she was excited to see me and had waited a while, so I dismissed it as a one time thing.  Then she went in the house two more times in the next few days and that's when I suspected something was wrong and brought her to the Veterinarian.

She was treated for a bladder infection, but the infection didn't get better.  Then it was discovered that it was e-coli, but it still didn't get better on the oral medication.  Eventually she had a sonogram and we were told it was in her kidneys.  She started daily injections.  I gave her the first six shots, but then she knew it was coming and would move on us, so the last shots were given at the Veterinary Clinic.  Last week I took her every day for three days so they could try and flush out her kidneys with IV's.  I would leave her for the day and bring her home in the evening.  They left the thing in for the IV, so we had to make sure she didn't pull it out.

The funny thing is that this happy go-lucky dog still loves to go the the Veterinarian.  I've never had a dog like that before and I was afraid all of this would make her change her mind, but I took her yesterday and she was still happy.

Yesterday they got a sterile urine sample to send off the the lab.  We'll have the results in a few days and I'm hoping she'll be OK now.

We've only had her for around six years and she was six when we adopted her.  She had never had an X-ray before, but the Veterinarian took one a couple of weeks ago.  She showed me the X-ray.  At some point in her life someone shot her.  You can see the buckshot in the X-ray.  Why someone would shoot such a sweet dog is beyond my ability to comprehend.  I felt like crying.

All of our pets are rescues and I wish they could talk and tell us their stories.

Now head over to Angela's blog so you can visit other animal posts today.

Tuesday's Show and Tail...GUILTY!

Today I'm participating in Tuesday's Show and Tail sponsored by Angela over at West Virginia Treasures.  For a list of this week's particpants head over to Angela's blog.

GUILTY!!



Need I say more?

Tuesdays Show and Tail...Zoom has OCD

Today I'm joining Angela over at West Virginia Treasures for Tuesday's Show and Tail.  Head over to Angela's blog for a list of this week's particpants and information on how you can join in on the fun.

I'm afraid little Zoom might have OCD.

Most morning's we wake up to this:

And if I go somewhere during the day and no one is home she unrolls the paper towels in the kitchen.  I know I have a picture of this somewhere, but I can't find it right now.

She isn't a kitten.  This is a grown cat.

Usually when I'm in the kitchen cooking dinner she comes in and joins me.

I can't even begin to tell you how many times she opens this cabinet.

I close it and she opens it.

Over and over again we play this little game.

A long time ago I kept cat treats in this cabinet, but Zoom kept chewing the lid off the plastic container I kept them in, so I moved them to the pantry.  That hasn't stopped her from continuing to open the cabinet door.

Eventually, she opens the door and comes over and bites my calves.  I guess she wants to make sure that I've noticed she hasn't gotten a cat treat yet.

Of course, once she bites me I give her a cat treat so she'll leave me alone.  I know, I'm reinforcing this behavior, but the bites are a little annoying.

I do have a rubberband that I can hook around the cabinet knobs, but she can still get it open a couple of inches and then it bangs shut.  That goes on and on too, and becomes a little annoying.

Could Zoom have OCD?

She had a difficult start in life.  You can read her story here.  Zoom is a little strange, but I guess understandable.  She is very possesive about food and one of the reasons I have that rubberband for the cabinet doors is because if the dog comes in the kitchen she'll go over and start hitting her.  She doesn't want the dog near the open cabinet that used to hold the cat treats.

There's never a dull moment with Zoom, but we love her anyway.

Now head over to Angela's blog for more information on Tuesday's Show and Tail.

Loud scream for Tuesday's Show and Tail

Today I'm joining Angela over at West Virginia Treasures for Tuesday's Show and Tail.

Last week we had a beautiful, cool morning and I decided to go outside and sit on the deck steps with my coffee.  Scout (one of my formerly feral cats) was out along the back fence sniffing something.  She looked up and saw me, grabbed something in her mouth, and came running over.


That's when she dropped it and Jem (her litter mate) picked it up.

I very calmly screamed and ran for the camera.

Yes, I know it's a little snake, but when it comes to snakes size makes no difference to me.  (You can see the snake in the photo below along the left side of the stepping stone.)





                                      


Jem and Scout were very proud of their catch and sat and admired it.  In the photo below it's between Jem's paw and the garden hose.)

/Even though it's a snake I would have liked to have gotten it away from them, but there's no way I'm going to grab a snake with my bare hand.  I went inside for a few minutes and when I came back out the snake was gone.  We'll just have to use our imaginations here.  I like to think the snake happily slithered off to someone else's yard and lived happily ever after.

Now head over to Angela's blog to see other posts about animals, pets, etc.

Feral Kittens Progress For Tuesday Show And Tail...

Today I'm participating in Tuesday Show and Tail over at West Virginia Treasures.  For information and a list of participants head over to Angela's blog.

The feral kittens are now over 7 months old and all of them have been fixed along with their mother.  I started going outside and sitting on the back step with some cat treats.  At first they wouldn't come near me, but I started to toss cat treats towards them and eventually they started eating them and coming closer.

Atticus and Scout loved the cat treats, but Jem would just sniff them and walk away.  Eventually all three of them came right up to me, but Jen just out of curiosity.   I've held treats out towards Jem and let him sniff them, but he's just not interested.  The other two gulp them down as if they were starving.  I wish I could find something that would attract Jem because most of the time he keeps his distance.

I can now pet Atticus and Scout and I've even picked them up for very short periods at a time.  I've managed to pet Jem a couple of times, but when he turned around and realized it was me he quickly walked away.  I hope with patience I can make some more progress with him too.

Reid used his cell phone to take this short video.  The sound isn't always clear, but I commented on how fat around the middle Scout was getting and he joked about her being pregnant.  She's not.  Like her mother and brothers she was fixed.  They all have their left ears clipped which is done with feral cats to indicate they were spayed or neutered. Jem kept his distance while the video was made, so you won't see him.  Atticus is the red tabby and Scout is the black and white one.

TUESDAY SHOW AND TAIL

I'm participating again this week in Angela's Tuesday Show and Tail.  For information on how you can participate and a list of this week's participants head over to her blog West Virginia Treasures.

This week I thought I'd tell you about our dog Sophie.  She is a ten year old Miniature Schnauzer, but we've only had her for four years.  After our dog Shelby died we were devastated.  We had gotten Shelby from the Houston Humane Society and knew we wanted another rescue dog.  I went on Pet Finder and saw Sophie.  She was being fostered by a Veterinarian's wife about 45 minutes from here.  We went down to take a look and met the sweetest dog.  We adopted her on the spot and she ran out and jumped right in our car.  She sat on my lap the whole way home.

Her original owner's weren't able to keep her because of the cost.  She ended up needing two surgeries which were done before we adopted her.  She's now on a special diet.  I believe they really loved her because there's no way she would have been such a sweet dog unless she received lots of love.

Living with cats has left her a little confused.  She thinks she's a cat and loves to have them take turns grooming her.

The ferals have decided to start stalking her in the backyard.  This is Sophie with Atticus.  I know the picture is a little dark, but we have a lot of shade.

There's a close up of Sophie on my sidebar, but I thought this one was kind of cute.  Sophie and the ferals have one thing in common...they all like to watch squirrels!

Update:  We caught another feral last week and now Jem has had his big boy operation.  With a little luck we might catch Atticus this week and then they'll all have been fixed.

I caught them sleeping in one of their favorite spots.

I no longer park the car in the garage.  It's their garage now.

Now head over to Angela's blog for a list of blogs featuring pets and/or wildlife this week.

Tuesday Show & Tail...meet Grace our senior cat

Today it's time for Angela's Tuesday Show & Tail over at her blog West Virginia Treasures.  For more information and a list of this week's participants head over to her blog.

I've decided to feature our senior cat Grace this week.  She's been with us for almost 16 years and is the sweetest cat.  She sleeps by my head every night and on occasion will hit me with her paw.  That's my signal to wake up and pet her for a few minutes.  I really don't mind because she's my best bud.

(I've actually written about Grace once before, but never for Tuesday Show & Tail.  You can read that older post here if you'd like.)

In 1994 I noticed a little kitten around the neighborhood following the kids home from the school bus.  I assumed she belonged to someone.  The night before Thanksgiving was a cold night (for us anyway).  The little kitten curled up in the lap of a scarecrow I had sitting on a bale of hay on the front porch.  One of my son's friends came to the door and brought her inside.

We weren't sure what to do, but decided to let her stay the night because of the cold.  The next day my husband walked around the neighborhood asking if she belonged to anyone.  He was told she belonged to some people on the next block, but they were away for Thanksgiving.  So, we kept her until they got back.  I was kind of annoyed that they left her to fend for herself, but when my husband went over there they told him that she was a stray that had been hanging around and they fed her once in a while.  They really didn't want her.  So, she officially joined our family and we named her Grace because Grace always comes before Thanksgiving dinner.

I hope she has a very long life because I can't imagine life without her.

A New Adventure for Tuesday Show and Tail

Our feral mother and kittens have gotten pretty adventurous.  Can you find Jem and Atticus up in the tree?  They've started trying to follow the squirrels.  Hint...Jem is in the "Y" of the tree and Atticus is on the lower branch that goes over the garage roof.  (Click on pictures to enlarge.)  This was early one morning last week.

Their sister Scout watches from a safe distance.

Mom is never far away.  This is Cali watching from the driveway.


We've had to temporarily pause our Trap, Neuter and Release program.  Cali and Scout have both been fixed, but Scout raised such a stink crying and carrying on when we put her back in the garage that none of the others would go in the garage for a while.  Since we like to put the trap in the garage and out of the hot sun we decided to wait a little while before we try catching the boys.  I think next week we'll try again.

I'm linking this to Tuesday's Show and Tail over at West Virginia Treasures.  I had originally intended to post about all the cats I've had in my life since childhood in order, but I haven't had time to go through old photos and scan them, so this week I'm sharing the newest members of the family with you.  Head over to Angela's blog for a list of this week's participants.