Boring Animal Update

Tomorrow marks the one week "weekiversary" of Charlie's arrival. With his back leg broken, he isn't getting nearly as much exercise as we'd like. He spends his days in the bathroom, since there isn't much risk in there and his nights in his cage. He is getting to be very roll-y poll-y. He's like a little ball now. My oldest, Big Bear, has really bonded with him, and has decided that when Charlie is well enough, he'll be moving into his room with him.

Little Mama is making progress as well. She has quit pooping on her blanket for the most part. If she poops once in the litter box though, she will not reuse it. She is starting to show more affection, however. She comes to me willingly, and even allowed me to hold her very briefly earlier today. We're planning to make the room cat safe over the weekend so that we can let her roam the bedroom safely.

Little Mama is starting to fill out a bit more as well. We've been giving her a poached egg each morning for the protein, and hand feed her a bit each evening. She loves her eggs! Her fir is a lot shinier and smoother than it was and her bones aren't sticking out nearly as badly as they were before. I swear, I think we've even caught her purring quietly once or twice!

Sonny and Cara are frustrated with their chains, and Cara chewed off a collar. However, we can't risk them getting out and getting hurt or causing damage to someone's property. This weekend, my wonderful husband and son will be working on replacing the fence. Hmm... Mark keeps telling me if we need help with anything, to call. I wonder what he's doing this weekend?

Arlen knows the cats are here, and he's already getting protective of them. He hasn't seen Little Mama, but if she meows, he starts giving us his "check on her NOW" bark. Somehow, I don't think Little Mama will be quite so receptive to him. The times he's seen Charlie, he's checked on him more than anything. Charlie will hiss, growl and puff out. Arlen will just look at him with this confused and dazed look upon his face. I don't think he understands Charlie is still scared of him or why.

Hana, our other cat, has been pretty confined right now. Usually, we let Hana out during the day and put him in Pie's bedroom to sleep at night. With the dogs either inside or on chains, and with Charlie and Little Mama, we've been keeping Hana in his room even during the day. I hate doing it this way, but right now all of the animals are pretty high strung. They all know each other is here, but the newer ones are stressed about it. The older ones are used to new animals coming and going as they get re-homed.

Tomorrow, I'll be speaking with one of the animal groups here about help with rehoming the kittens once they have all of their shots and are sterilyzed. I want these guys going to fantastic forever families. Their mama has been through enough hell for all of them. While it is tempting to keep all of them, (we'd never have a mouse problem again) we simply can not afford all of them. Plus, the house just isn't big enough.

I do have to say, these guys have kept us quite busy! I've been sleeping on the couch because Charlie and Little Mama wake up in the middle of the night and start talking to each other. Charlie seems to love digging in his litter box as well, and will do that for hours in the middle of the night. Of course, when Little Mama hears us asking Charlie to be quiet, she becomes aware of our presence and starts meowing louder just to be let out of her cage.

I wish we could trust that if we let her roam the entire house, she won't try to escape out the front door. I know that once she has the kittens, she'll stick close but until then, the risk is too great. I do hate depriving her of her choice to leave when she wants, but at the same time, we want all of her babies to survive this time, and we need to have her spayed. She also needs to have that bullet removed, and get every innoculation possible.

When the kittens are 1 to 2 weeks old, we're going to start exposing them to the rest of the animals. We want all of the animals to get along once they get older, and we want the kittens to be used to being around other animals. This will make it so much easier to rehome them, if they get along with dogs, cats, and kids. I'm not sure when to expose Little Mama to the other animals though. We don't want to stress her out any more than absolutely necessary but at the same time, once she leaves that room she will want to go outside. We want her to not be afraid to come back in again.

So anyway, there's my rambling for the night. It's a nice, boring animal update. I wish it was a Little Man update, honestly. I still miss him greatly. I hold out faith, and still send my love. Even with all of the critters, the house is still too quiet without him. I hope that he's doing well.