Tag Archives: kitten

Floki’s Turn at the Vet


Since we hadn’t spent enough money on Frankie at the vet, we decided to bring Floki there on Friday. He had an 8 a.m. appointment, which gave me enough time to go there with Rose before I had to leave for work.

He needed to get the second in a three-part series of core vaccinations (tune in again in three weeks for the exciting conclusion). I’m not a big fan of vaccinations for indoor cats because of all the bad side effects that I have read about, but I will accept these. However, after the third set, that’s it. No more.

I saw in interesting video this morning that talked about vaccination being good for life in most cases (although I only made it through the first twenty minutes). Essentially, annual booster shots are not only unnecessary, they add to your pet’s toxic load. The vet being interviewed, Dr. Ronald Schultz, said you should wait a minimum of 3-4 years, if ever, to get a booster shot, unless, of course, you worry about local antiquated regulations (those are my words).

When we got to the vet Rose noticed a sign that said, “Dogs will accept you as boss, cats want to see your resume.” How true is that?

I felt bad that Floki was shut in the carrier, so I let him out in the waiting room. Once out, he climbed on my shoulders, which is something he has never done before. When they called us into the examination room, I just carried him in there on my shoulders.

Kitten Floki on my shoulders

He stuck with me for a long time. I assumed he would be ready to go exploring. He is a kitten after all. If that was Chris, he would be exploring every nook and cranny of that room.

Kitten Floki on my shoulders

Kitten Floki on my shoulders

Kitten Floki with vet tech.

The vet tech came in and looked Floki over, which he was not happy about, before taking him in the back where they have their secret laboratory. When she brought him back, he was up on my shoulders again.

Kitten Floki on my sholders

Rose and I were both away at work the rest of the day and as soon as I got home, we had to leave again to meet Rose’s sister and her family for dinner. It was her last day here before returning to Massachusetts.

When we finally got home around 9 p.m., Rose wanted to sit down with Floki on her lap, but Floki wasn’t interested. In fact, he didn’t look well. I have heard that vaccines could cause some problems so we hoped that he would be better after a good night’s sleep, but this morning he still seemed lethargic.

Normally, I feed the cats in the morning, but Rose couldn’t sleep and got up early and fed them. I didn’t know it until later, but she opened up another can of food because Floki was eating like a pig.

About 9:30 this morning, Floki’s vet’s office called, and I said he has been a bit lethargic. She asked if he ate, and I told her he had. She then put me on hold and came back and said the vet would like to see him to check his temperature. I didn’t want to spend another $100 to have his temperature checked so I said I would talk to my wife. She then told me about how much Floki ate this morning, so I called the vet back and said that he was eating fine, and I was going to keep him home unless he got worse.

Now all I can do is hope he doesn’t get worse.

Meet Floki, Part 2


 

At this point I think I could write a book about adopting our latest kitten. Instead, I just posted the related links at the bottom of this post so if you have missed what is going on, and if you have a bunch of free time, you can catch up.

Our last episode ended up with our heroes trying to rescue a kitten from the dreaded carrier. By “rescue” I mean they hissed and whacked at him, especially Frankie, but the kitten endured and seemed to be having a good time exploring the house. Whenever Frankie would approach him in a threatening manner, the kitten would hide under the sofa or wherever he would fit and Frankie would not. Once the danger passed, he was out running around again.

Once things settled down a little, I opened a can of cat food and split it in fourths. Chris never eats much of his wet food and this time Frankie didn’t eat much either. The kitten, however, ate like a pig. I had to keep adding food to his plate.

Later that evening we sat down and watched a little television. The kitten was pretty busy since we brought him home and we wanted him to take a nap so Rose held him on her lap for a while.

kitten

That calmed him down but sleeping was not on the agenda.

He then found his way to my lap where he dosed off at 9:30. At 9:31 he was awake and ready for the day. That lasted until 10:00 when he fell asleep again… for five full minutes.

We went to bed sometime after 11:00. At this point the kitten had been awake for at least 12 hours straight, minus six minutes. We didn’t want to close our bedroom door and “throw him to the wolves.” so to speak, so he slept on the bed with us. Rose was worried about squishing him in the night but he survived.

The following evening we had to think of a name for him. Rose and I were both reading through seperate lists of cat names but nothing sounded right. Finally I said “Rollo” from the show Vikings. I had a new appreciation for the character when I discovered that he was an ancestor of mine (I also learned he probably never even met Ragnar). Rollo seemed like a great name for a cat but another character from the show, Floki, seemed even better. So Floki it is.

Today the cats are still jealous of Floki but nobody is fighting with him except for the occasional hiss and whack. Rose worked from home the last two days but today they will be without supervision all day. Let’s hope the peace lasts.
Related Posts:

A New Fourth Kitty

The Kitten Dilema

We Came, We Saw, We Left With No Kitten

Meet Floki, Our Newest Addition

Meet Floki, Our Newest Addition


I felt a little bad Sunday after we went up to my sister-in-law’s vet’s office to look at kittens that needed a home and then left without one (If you didn’t read my last post you can find it here). Rose felt bad too and called her sister and asked about seeing the second male Siamese kitten.

The two cats were being fostered and Felice chose the one she thought was more friendly and brought that one in to be fixed. Rose wanted to see the other one so the foster parent agreed to meet us with the other kitten at the animal hospital, where the first kitten was still staying,

When she arrived, Felice put a ribbon around the neck of the fixed cat so we wouldn’t confuse them and then took both kittens out. The big gold cat was there to greet us again and was a little bit like Baby Huey.

Kittens and catKittens and cat

After checking out both kittens, Rose came to realize that the first kitten we saw was the better choice and he was not sickly like she first thought. It was like she was seeing him for the first time and was convinced he was the one, so we put him in the carrier and headed home after briefly considering taking his brother too. Of course, we knew we were pushing the limit with four cats, especially since we are only allowed two.Kitten in carrier

On the way out we had to pass by this scene, which was very hard to do.
Kittens in cage

We were happy to hear that this girl’s potential adopter is not as bad as we thought. While she will be an outside cat, we were told that she will be living on a farm with other outside cats that are well taken care of. Apparently, there is a part of the barn that is set up for them. I sometimes think Frankie might be happier living in a place like that where he can come and go as he pleases. I then see him lying upside-down on our bed and I think maybe not.

The kitten cried almost all the way home, and it was a long trip. I heard Siamese cats are very vocal and this confirms it.

I thought introducing a kitten would be less stressful for our cats because kittens are not a threat. I noticed when we introduced Puck, a kitten, Chris was happy to have him but when we got Frankie, an adult cat, Chris was not happy about that.


This time Chris and Puck did a little growling at the kitten but were mostly tolerant. Frankie, however, wanted the kitten gone. He spent his time hissing at him and trying to whack him. Fortunately, the kitten was small enough to get into places where Frankie couldn’t reach him.

Our kitten Floki

Floki and Chris

I wanted to tell the story in one post but preparing the pictures and videos is time-consuming, and I have very little spare time these days. I will finish this tomorrow, hopefully. I will say that as I write this, Frankie is mostly over being mean to the kitten but he is still jealous and needs attention.

The Kitten Dilema


I recently wrote about a kitten that my sister-in-law, Felice, was raising and would need a home soon (read here).  We decided we would meet the kitten on Sunday (today) and make the decision then. At the time I did not have pictures of the kitten but Felice sent a few the other day.

Kitten Kitten Kitten

A day or two after we heard about the gold kitten, Felice informed us of another kitten that needed rescue. This was a female that was being taken care of at the vet’s office where Felice works. Her litter-mates have a home to go to when they are old enough and she also had someone interested in adopting her but, if I understood it correctly, that person plans on keeping her outside, perhaps as a mouser. I don’t know.

Kitten Kitten Kitten Kitten 20160615_175304

Now it gets even more complicated. a couple days after we find out about the girl kitten, we also find out that Felice and her husband decided to keep the gold cat. That is a good thing because even though they have about 100 cats, give or take, they lack a gold cat.

You would think that would simplify things but wait… Felice knows someone who is fostering a male Siamese kitten that needs a home.

DSCN1850

Both of these kittens will be together for us to see when we visit Felice later today. It will be difficult for us because we don’t even know if we are ready for a fourth kitten and now we will be forced to reject one or more kittens. This kitten business is tough.

 

A New Fourth Kitty?


My sister-in-law is at it again. She has been busy saving the lives of more kittens and still has one gold kitten that will need a home soon. Rose has been hinting that she wants to adopt him but emotional decisions do not always end well. Let’s consider the pros and cons, starting with the cons:

  • We are already over our two cat limit.
  • Raising cats the healthy way is expensive.
  • We already have three boys. Perhaps a girl is needed.
  • Our dream of traveling after retirement could be more difficult.
  • We would be dangerously close to entering the Crazy Cat Lady/Man Zone.

Now for the pros:

  • Chris is a very touchy-feely cat. He might like having someone else to nap with.
  • Cats can tolerate a new kitten better than a new adult cat.
  • A new kitten might motivate me to start making my own cat food.
  • We would be helping a kitten in need.
  • Retirement is still more than 10 years away, 20 if they keep raising the retirement age.
  • Kittens are super cute.

I do not yet have a picture of the kitten but I snagged this picture off of Pixabay. It is what I imagine he looks like.

kitten-943275_1280

Photo by Rudy and Peter Skitterians, Skitterphoto on Pixabay.

So what do you think? Any suggestions?

On another note, I actually won the Tuesday Teaser on One Spoiled Cat and get to display this badge.

teaserbadge2016-1

I had a long streak of missing the Teaser but catching the Tell-All the next day.