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Category Archives: Cats

I absolutely adore cats. They are wonderous, graceful animals that bring me so much happiness.

Toxic plants

I think that most people know that poinsettias are poisonous to animals. But just recently, I learned that lilies are highly toxic to cats as well. Our newest guy, Ezio decided to make a snack out of the flower bouquet I brought home for Sarah this past Friday. Among the flowers in the bouquet were three lilies and a few peruvian lilies. I didn’t think it was an issue, but fortunately Sarah knew better. In 24-48 hours lily ingestion in cats can cause severe kidney damage in cats. We rushed him to the Emergency Animal Hospital and they started to work on getting the lilies up. Unfortunately, all attempts to get him to vomit up the offending plant matter did not work. The vet on duty gave him some activated charcoal and told us they would need to keep him 3 days to monitor his kidney function. Fortunately, we caught this early enough and he is home safe & sound.
If you have a cat, I’d definitely recommend taking a look at the ASPCA’s toxic plant tool. There are a huge number of plants that are harmful to both dogs & cats.

A healthy start

Ezio sees something

Ezio sees a new blog post!

I have the privilege of beginning my new blog with a happy post.

My fiance and I spent this past summer doing a TNR program with our neighborhood feral cat colony. It has been a bit of an emotionally challenging, but ultimately rewarding, experience.

It started with a pair of adult cats that were breeding on our street. We and our neighbors decided to help out a little by leaving food and water for them. It became clear early on in the year, that the queen was pregnant. We decided there that we should do something more to help. We named the queen, Mama Cat and the tom, Larry. Mama Cat had two litters this year. One in April (that is where our beloved Ezio Auditore da Firenze was born) and one in August.

Rescued kitties

Freddie and Fiona, the first day that we captured them. Eye infection, upper respiratory infection, flea infestation, and worms. 🙁

The litter that Mama Cat had in August had two kittens in it. We had no idea where the litter had been delivered, so we waited until they were old enough to make an appearance. About a month after we noticed Mama Cat was no longer pregnant, two sickly little kittens, one male, one female, emerged from the crawlspace of a neighborhood house.

After getting them vetted, quarantined, and healthy, we were able to find homes for them. The male was adopted by a wonderful cat-loving couple in Charlotte. They are big Queen fans, so they named him Freddie Mercury.

Mr. Mercury eats dinner

Freddie about to go “Om Nom Nom!”

The female we named Fiona Fuzzybritches, the Duchess of Nom. We were able to quickly find a home for Ms Fiona through with the help of Sandra from the Kitten Action Team. She found a loving home on the first day she was up for adoption!

The Duchess of Nom

Fiona Fuzzybritches, The Duchess of Nom

With the successful adoption of Freddie and Fiona, things are settling down in our house now. All of the feral cats in our neighborhood have been fixed and can hopefully live happier, healthier lives.

We and our neighbors continue to feed the three remaining members of our colony and really enjoy seeing these guys running around the neighborhood.

I am sure I’ll be writing about them more in the future.

A Dozen Cats Set To Be Adopted Killed By Shelter Computer Glitch

As a vegan and a programmer, this article I recently read, horrifies me on a few levels. In my line of work, its so easy to just think about the bugs in my code as harmless, annoyances for customers, or, at worst, maybe some giant company loses some money. Never really thought about how anything I could write could actually lead to the death of anything…

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