The past couple of days I have decided I needed to have my head examined! On 6 April we lost our beautiful Cookie the Tuxie Cat to heart disease.. We knew she was very delicate but her outward appearance hid her true condition and she lived a full and happy cat life right up to the last hour...When she had trouble breathing, I took her to our PetER ( funny thing that name, when I was going through my check register a few months ago I wrote in a hurry and couldn't understand why I wrote some guy named Peter a 500.oo check....it was the PetER! color me tired maybe?) Anyway after Cookie had gone to the Rainbow Bridge, what did I hear..you guessed it some tiny little mews...there were 3 kittens....two girls and one boy..the boy a black kitten, one girl a black tabby and the tiniest girl,..a tuxie...so I now have the girls....Xena The Warrior Princess is the black tabby nicknamed Zippy Xena. And my tiny little tuxie is Gabrielle..Xena is nearly 3 lbs and my little Gabrielle is still only 1.7 lbs and she can pretty well hold her own...Ebonie my 11 year old black cat knows they are here and sort of ignores them for now....for another month then they can be tested for FeLeuk..then get the shots.
It has been interesting as my DH was very involved with Cookie who made him pay attention to her. Sometimes with the wee ones he is very entertained other times his personality seems a little "flat". They are very busy kittens and Zip has already been up the lace dining room curtains! She is fearless and goes head long into something. Gabrielle is more studious and will take her time...she is a doll...the other is pretty as can be but missing her little devil horns, those are invisible...
And did I make more work for myself? Youbetcha! Color me batty.
The vet tech who fostered them until they could be placed had a neighbor who wanted the little boy. I am glad of that since the girls are a handful.
I took Gabrielle and her sister into the Pet ER the other night, Thursday, because Gabrielle was kind of lethargic and I wanted to be sure she is ok since she is so tiny for her age..just a kitty cold and she is fine now..The vet on call was the one who was there when the kittens came into the ER...It seems that when the kittens were only about 3 weeks old, someone drove by in a truck past the Animal Services Dept and hurled the box out onto the shelter property or curb. Lucky thing someone saw this. One kitten did not survive and three did. My little Gabrielle suffered an injury to the ligaments in her left rear leg. She is doing fine and gets around very very well...but such an awful thing to such sweet kittens.... They were in the ER the night I lost my beautiful Cookie the Tuxie Cat. Here was this baby tuxie....well...nuf said....so when the kittens were old enough to be placed Zippy Xena The Warrior Princess was ready to go but Gabrielle was not. However, because the ER put in such a high recommendation for me, the shelter let the underwt kitten go with her sister...good thing too..better for the little one's health. And they are together. So in June they go back for the FeLeuk test and shots and I hope the little one can be spayed then. She needs to be 2 lbs...she still is under wt but she eats...she plays...she is all kitten...and we love her...DH is besotted with both of them and our older Black cat, Ebonie..He talks to them all the time now.
mimi, I just love your story. It has made me smile. The beginning of the story did not make me smile. I think people like that need to be shot and peed on........will I get edited?
All my kitties have been rescues and most of them have come to me with injuries and/or evidence of mistreatment. I've only had a couple of kittens, most came to me as adults. It amazes me how after some of the things they endured they decided to trust a person.
Mimi, I just love the names! How wonderful you found each other.
Those meanies should be stuffed in a box and tossed off the back of ma truck. See how they like it!
You can see my little girls on my FBpage.
We went tHrough several names before, settling on Xena and. Gabrielle. In just a week the girls know their names and Gabrielle followed me like Mary's little lamb,
Mimi, I LOVE the pictures you posted! I don't know if you remember, but I have a tuxie too named Junior. He is my joy along with our 2 dogs. Your Gabrielle is just toooooo cute!
The kittens know their names now.. Gabrielle follows me everywhere..And Xena..Zippy Xena is a handful..tonight through the screen she met Kisa the outdoor kitty that visits...he rolled around and spoke politely to her but she arched her little back, flattened her little ears and growled at him...I can only imagine what she thinks she will get away with when she meet my senior cat, Ebonie....Zip will be in a kennel for the great event...Little tiny Gabrielle will do fine..she is so sweet and her interests are so different from her sister the huntress...Xena has just the right name!!! I'll post more photos on FB soon.Yes Elaine I remember Junior.I think Tuxies are among the smartest of kitties...though Russian Blues and Tonks and some Siamese are not far behind... DH is amused with them and enjoys having them in his lap.
mimi, your names are so great. I seem to have no imagination. When the evil former owner wanted Cleo out, her name was Chiquita. There was no way I was having that but could not think of a name. I stole the name of my niece's cat.
briegull* I sent you my FB page...and an email with a couple of pics..
Ah the names of the wee ones..well we started out with Grace and Smudge but hubby didn't like that. He wanted to call the tuxie Cookie but I said how will we know which Cookie we are talking about then and he said he would call the other one " the dead Cookie" I said I didnt like that one..so we watched them and in the end Grace was so active and such a little normal demon kitten, into everything all at once and pouncing on things and was just so fearless, I thought we should call her Xena Warrior Princess ( Zippie for short since she zips here and there like lightening) and Xena's best friend was Gabrielle so that is how they got their names and Gabrielle fits the tiny one..and since she yells at the top of her tiny lungs when she is hungry ( sounds like she is being murdered) Gabbie works for a nickname for her.
And true to myself, I changed the spelling of Zippy to Zippie and Gabby to Gabbie..I don't do things the easy way. My Black cat is Ebonie.
Mimi, they are adorable. Thanks so much for sending the pix. as we have said here many times, there is nothing like a kitten for raising one's spirits.
I took the girls in for their check up today...can't be too careful with babies..Xena is now 3.3 lbs and so far no symptoms of respiratory issues kittens can have. Her tiny sister, Gabrielle is only 1.8 lbs and does have some respiratory issues so next Tuesday she goes for some tests to see which one she has and how to treat it..Both are active and busy. Today DH forgot to put the toilet seat down in the bathroom they are using as their room for a time until they get tested for FeLeuk before joining Ebonie, and Xena ended up going for a swim..she did not like this adventure one bit...you could hear her scream from CA to South Africa!
I'll post more pics on FB...shhhh right now they are both down for a nap having been going at it hammer and tong all day..