1532 Florida's Kitten Foster Frenzy

ZOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!! is an amazing loving kitten looking for her new favorite people ever.

Age: Unknown. Likely 12 weeks.
Color: Black. (dark brown in sunlight, the pictures show her much lighter than she truly is.)
Eyes: Green.
Likes: Laundry baskets, string, laps, sunlight, hide and go seek, and running.
Dislikes: Painters plastic, big dogs, and the vacuum.

ZOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!! is the energizer bunny of kittens. She has two modes: full on play and sleep in your lap. She is super curious, investigative, and a gold medalist in the one meter dash.

Completely self sufficient, fun kitten. Might not do well with (big) dogs, or would need some time to adjust. She’s only met one (a huge retriever) and had some super cute puffball hissing action. Very tolerant kitten, would likely be fine with children (never tested.)

ZOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!! would do best with playmates or lots of toys; she has boundless energy. ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!! is bonded with her matching littermate 12 Step. I would drastically prefer to see them go together, but understand that might not be possible.

$100 donation to the Feral Cat Foundation for one kitten, $150 donation for two. Must agree to keep kitties indoors and not declaw them.

I am Siamese if you please?

This wonderful kitty is a people pleaser. She loves you. I fully understand she hasn’t met you yet, but she loves you. And your friends. And your friends friends. And your friends friends mother-in-law’s girlfriend’s sister. They have hands, right? They can pet? Oh, yep, love!

Triple sSs is the runt of a rescue litter. The rest of the litter is bonded very firmly in pairs (litter of 5) and Triple sSs has always been on the outside. Excluded by the other kitties she’s found that people are a much better form of companionship. Triple sSs does love other cats and is dog-curious. Unknown how she’d do with children, but since they have hands and can pet her, she’s likely in love with them too. Due to her love for attention Triple sSs would do best in a house with multiple people or a work-from-home human.

Triple sSs is a quiet kitten with a very loud purr. I’ve only heard her meow a handful of times and they’ve almost always been my fault. While she LOVES YOU, she is content just to sit next to you, on you, or near you. She’s found a good mix between being super cute and around without being omgannoying.

Age: Unknown. Triple sSs is part of a rescued litter. The vet just told me she’s eight weeks. Different vet told me three weeks ago she was eight weeks. Who knows? I think she’s about ten weeks. She’s small, cute, and totally kitten-like.
Likes: People. People. People.
Dislikes: Water. Baths. Not being petted.

The catch: Now that you are completely in love with Triple sSs, I have bad news. Triple sSs tested positive for FIV. FIV is kitty HIV. Now for the good news – FIV cannot be transmitted to humans, dogs, pigs, chickens, mother-in-laws, etc. FIV can only infect felines. FIV can only be transmitted in utero or through saliva entering the muscle tissue. Therefore unless your cat gets bit hard enough for teeth to enter muscle, your cat is safe from FIV. Therefore all FIV cats must be fixed and be indoor animals.

Now for the good good good news. FIV tests in kittens can only tell if a kitten is NEGATIVE for FIV. The positive test is inconclusive. Kittens have all sorts of crap in their system from mommy kitten that can screw up tests. At six months old Triple sSs will need to get another FIV test to find out if she really has kitty HIV or if she is free and clear.

Can you give this super sweet kitty a good home? She’ll love you (and all your friends) forever.

$100 donation to Feral Cat Foundation required for adoption. Must agree to keep Triple sSs as an indoor cat and not declaw her.

Lord, er, Lady Tiberius and McGurken (the grey tabbies) have found new homes. Renamed Percy and @@, they are quite happy in their new lives. When their new parents came and picked them up they brought with them hand made kitty blankets! Yay to everyone who adopts rescues. The kittens and I thank you.

Adam (my partner) is becoming much more tolerant of the kittens. They say it is not nice to announce you have a favorite, but I clearly do. 12 Step is the best. thing. ever. Sometimes she even gets to leave their little room (my office) and have adventures with us.

Adam will learn over time that plastic boxes do not do much to keep kittens in. Neither does eating them. 12 Step is not impressed.

Cuteness aside, the vet has some bad news for us. All the spay and neuters went well, but two of the kittens tested positive for FIV. The good news is that everyone is negative for FeLV (feline leukemia) and that even a positive test for FIV doesn’t mean they really really are positive. The test for FIV can only tell if their are antibodies in the kitties system. Before six months they have antibodies from their mother as well. If a kitten is negative for FIV before six months of age then they are really negative. If they are positive the test is inconclusive. The vet thinks it is unlikely they are FIV positive with most of the litter testing negative, but either way it is shitty news. It makes the kittens much harder to adopt.

What is FIV? Well, it can’t be anything that bad if a cutie like Triple sSs has it, right? FIV is kitty HIV. It CANNOT be caught by humans, dogs, pigs, sheep, your alien stepmother, or anything that is not a feline. FIV can only be transmitted in utero or through saliva entering the muscle tissue. Therefore an indoor fixed kitty is no risk to anyone else. So Twelve Step and Triple sSs need to go to single (or other FIV positive) cat homes. The problem comes where we are in the middle of kitten season and everyone wants (and can get) a perfectly healthy super cute cat. I have cats that might have kitten HIV. I’m hoping they find a hero on craigslist. Or here! Super cute kitties! Adoptable!

More cute pictures coming shortly. We had our “adopt me” photo session today. I have to admit I’m not the best pet photographer – the temptation to stop and pet them is just too high!

Posted by stand-in-foster-mom Jen:

I’m very sorry Internet, for I have let you down.  There have been no new posts this week, despite many many adorable kitten things.  My best excuse is that kittens are often very very fast and the camera on my phone is very very slow. which means I have a ton of pictures of kitten blurs, but not so much worth posting to the internets.  You are all very happy that I live with someone with a real camera- yay Mo!

My master plan for the past week was to pack up my office space while playing with adorable kittens.  They decided to help out since I was clearly not using my office chair.  This is how i found them every morning when I went into the office.  I’m pretty sure the black one that is missing there is Twelve Step, as she was most likely curled up in the cat bed..

Twelve Step and Zoom both have a snuffly head cold- Twelve Step has spent most of her time being super snuggly or sleeping in the warmest place she can find, but Zoom has been too busy running around making snuffly noises like a pug to care about a silly cold.  Its hard to tell who is cuter.  I also broke down and bought collars so that I could tell the black ones apart, so now I know that Zoom never stops moving and Twelve Step is the world’s biggest cuddler (and they aren’t just alternating when they get tired).

Triple sSs would like you to know that none of her S’s stand for stupid, scared or sane.  She’s been known to leap several feet, claws first, at nothing but human flesh.  She manages to look very very cute while doing it though, so you can’t help but forgive her and love her anyway.  She’s no longer the tiny runt that everyone picks on, she’s started standing up for herself in a big way.  She’s also an accomplished leg climber, and will be up to your thigh before you know what is going on.

McGurkus and His Lordship continue to be stripey and adorable. The biggest scare of the past week occurred when McGurkus found a previously ignored hole in my screen door and went through it. Luckily for us, he just got very confused because he would much rather be inside playing with his siblings and was thrilled to be brought back inside. Phew.

More pictures can be found here here.

The Feral Cat Foundation  got back to me with adoption rules.  Each kitten costs $100.  If you adopt two kittens, the price is $150.  This is much less than has been spent on the kittens – one vet visit alone (spay/neuter, full physical, vaccines, FIV testing, etc) costs more than this.  Also, by requesting a donation it ensures that the kittens are not going to be used as lab rats, fed to snakes, or any other horrible thing.  Boo, horrible things happening to kittens.   The kittens should be indoor animals only and can never be declawed.  (Declawing is cruel and vile.  Trimming kitty nails is a-okay.)

The kittens are heading to their spay/neuter appointment on Wenesday.  Once they are healed they are good to go – adopt away!

Triple sSs would like you to know that Macs are better than PCs.

I know that kittens this old (seven weeks) should be expert meowers. These guys, however, are completely quiet. I’ve never seen (heard, I guess) anything like it. Adam thinks it is because they were feral. Meowing might be a good way to tell other things in the world that you are here and should be eaten. I’m not sure. Either way, I’ve never heard an honest meow out of any of them before. There is plenty of purring and a squeek or two as someone gets pounced too hard (ah, zoom) but no meowing.

Today I learned that yes, they can meow. I locked McGurkus in the closet where the food is stored on accident. After a few minutes the meow meow meow meow started. Adam and I looked at each other for a moment with the ‘what the heck is that?’ before the kitten was promptly rescued. I would hope that this teaches them the closet is verboten, but I have my doubts.

But you don’t care about any of that. I know why you are here. Pictures. Therefore, I give you the star of our post, McGurkus:

A week ago I fostered 5 six week old kittens.  They are seven weeks old now and almost ready for adoption. 

Six weeks:

Seven weeks:

So who are these precious kittens? Let’s introduce them:

Starting any line up has to be ZOOOMMMM!!!! Zoom is a dark brown girl with bright blue eyes. She also is the first one into anything. She runs up to say hello, she charges the food, she finds the way into the forbidden areas. Zoom has no fear. To prove this, I chased her with the shop vac. She pounced the suction tube. Everyone else ran for their lives. Ah, Zoom.

Zoom’s almost identical sister is a much mellower kitten named Twelve Step. Our friend Henry named Twelve Step after visiting the first night the kittens arrived. We gathered ourselves for a night of kitten watching while having some beer and wine. Twelve Step seemed to instinctually know which glasses had wine verses which were water. She wanted booze, she wanted it all, and she wanted it now.

Twelve Step and Zoom can be differentiated by their eyes and time required to pounce. Zoom has blue eyes and has already pounced your foot. Twelve Step has gold eyes and is in mid pounce.

If I thought the black ones were hard to tell apart, the world did a number on me with the gray kittens. One is named McGurkus and the other Lord Tiberius Ravenspaw. Lord Tiberius has slightly larger ears. Slightly. Maybe. He’s also the one hiding in the corner, while McGurkus is timidly investigating your toe.

McGurkus was named by our friend Jenn after Dr. Seuss’ Circus McGurkus. When McGurkus is excited he raises his little paws in almost a military march. McGurkus loves nothing more then bellyrubs. He’s also a very curious coward – quick to run away, but just as quick to wonder what he ran from!

Lord Tiberius Ravenspaw is the most gothic kitten in existence. He is gray and black with eyeliner markings. Lord Tiberius would also like you to know that he is better than all other kittens. Ever. He believes it is his destiny to sit on laps, look amazingly stunning, and purr. The only acceptable other kitten is his brother, McGurkus. Together they play and roll around on the floor…but don’t tell anyone. His lordship would not like it if such undignified rumors got out.

The runt of the litter and general all around outcast is Triple sSs. She’s the stereotypical little sister; the bigger kittens ignore her and she tags along begging to play. Triple sSs also missed the ‘Gothy McGothass’ notice at birth – unlike all the other black and gray kittens, she is a Siamese. She is the nicest complete misfit one could ever hope to meet. ZOOOMMM!!! is a particular jerkhead to her, as the larger black kitten will come and steal the runts toys as she’s playing with them. It is both hysterical and totally pathetic to watch. Triple sSs also has some structural flaws. Her back legs are strong and powerful, but her front legs are simply too short. It gives her a strange hopping sort of movement that defines cute. I’ve promised her the best human ever. All she wants is someone to love her, pet her, and include her in everything.

All of them are looking for wonderful homes and should be ready for adoption in the next week. If you know anyone who wants a super amazing bundle of fur, send them my way. I got five amazing kittens – everything from the wild explorer to the perfect lap kitten.