Meet Napoleon Maximilian

Or "Max" to his friends.

In other words, the Kitten Hatchery is unexpectedly open...

Two nights ago Beatrice's Mom came over to watch some television. When I opened the door, however, and said "Hi," she responded with, "Kitten." Uh, kitten? Sure enough, there by the food dish was a kitten I'd never seen before. A bit of chasing later and hey, there's an angry, angry kitten in my bathroom. (And a lot of blood from a kitten bite on my thumb, and a trip to the doctor for a tetanus shot in my very near future.)

He seems to be about 3months old or so and very, very dirty. He spent most of yesterday growling and huddling in the bathtub. But by last night he let me pet him a little (while hissing.) This morning he let me pet him, and leaned into the pets. Then, breakthrough! This afternoon he stretched up into the pets and started purring! I was able to pick him up (and discover that he is, in fact, a he) and plop him my lap-- where he promptly started rolling about and asking for me to pet his belly!!
We still have a ways to go-- I can't get him to play, for example. And he starts to growl whenever he sees me, but stops when I start petting him. He's eating well, and using the litter box with no trouble. He let me clean out his very dirty, very gross ears, although I suspect there'll be more of that to come, too. He clearly has worms (ew!) because he has the roundest belly ever.

So here's the thing. Fuzzy funny face, aka Angry Kitty (who is no longer so angry), aka Napoleon Maximilian, aka Max, needs a few things. First, he needs vet visits. Second, he needs a home. Should you wish to, you can help me with either of those...

I'm hoping to take him to the vet on Tuesday for his first kitten check up/vaccinations, etc. (De-worming.) If you'd like to help this poor, poor graduate student afford said vet visit, you can kick a few dollars my way via that PayPal button over there....

(Tomorrow he gets a bath... I'll try to take pictures.)

Holy Carp! An update!

I know, I know... I'm well aware that I have been pretty much the worst blogger ever. The good news is that I have been keeping a close eye on our colony and everyone is doing pretty well. Okay, so Mistoffolees looks like he's molting, which is weird but doesn't seem too problematic. Tuxie is a bit pushy-- alternately mewing and hissing when I feed her. And everyone else is, well, everyone else.

See? I still take pictures! To the right, Agatha says hi (from between a set of stairs, if you're wondering).

As long as the colony is its usual self-- just requiring food and water-- we're good. I don't mind finding the cash for the food (and while they do go through a lot, some of my neighbors feed them, too), and I've got friends around here who have been lovely in helping to take care of the colony when I've had to frequently go out of town.

More pictures:






Lovely Daphne wondering why I'm bothering her with that flashy, clicky thing....


And Tuxie playing at being shy. (She's not really.)






However, two things have come up. First, I really do need to get the last of the colony TNRed, both for the sake of not wanting any more kittens, and for their own health. Remember that Pigpen, Tuxie and Barnaby all escaped TNR the first time around. And since then we've been joined by Tuxie and Paint.

And then there's Tigger, but he's better left to his own entry.

So I need to raise some monies to TNR these guys. Fortunately, it's not quite the undertaking that getting the first THIRTEEN was, but still. So if you're feeling in the mood, please feel free to hit the donate button over there on the left. (My birthday's in about two weeks-- you can make it a gift!)

I can't run another raffle-- well, I could, and I'd be happy to, but as it turns out they're illegal... So any other thoughts on how we can raise the moolah for these guys' TNR?