Finally, a Photopost!

I haven't posted any images of Diamond lately because I had forgotten my photobucket password and couldn't get into the account for months, and worst of all, they have some new policy where you only have so many tries, which was crushing my attempts.

So anyway, finally, the photos will come back.

This one needs a bit of explanation. There's a large fishtank at The Bookie, and the fish always come to you because they think you're going to feed them... even if you're a cat! So here's Diamond, surrounded by hungry fish. ;)


From what I understand, the Bookie is going to be housed inside the CUB eventually, so this tranquil scene will be no more. *sighest...*

I RULE.

July 26th, 2006. Oh, and I am TEH ROCK for socializing kittens. All of the kittens, and the mother, are now all safely ensconced at the Humane Society, awaiting their appointment with the Vet tomorrow, and the director says they're all ready to be adopted out, behaviorally speaking. I tell you, I have a magic touch. X-D

Kittens Doing Well.
July 20th, 2006.

Hi! I don't have homes for the kittens yet, but they're doing fairly well. One is actually with me, hidden in a cardboard box in the basket while Diamond rides on the floor of the scooter under my legs for shade. I had brought said kitten to Ric-O-Shay, but it turned out the person was only interested in female kittens. *sigh* We're taking the bus home in order to keep cool. I need to find a way to get them FIV tested. (I used to be able to edit the dates I wanted a given post to appear in, I don't know what's gone wrong.)

KITTENS!

July 17, 2006

There was a mother cat and four feral kittens on the side of one of our apartment units, so I dutifully called Animal Control, who came the next day, and we trapped them. Unfortunately it is kitten season, and the first kitten we caught that the AC Officer brought to the shelter was said to be too wild, and that we were to release them all. I talked her into releasing them into my custody, and they are all now safely ensconced in my bathroom while they learn to adjust to humans. It turns out the mother is actually completely people friendly and comes to me for cuddles every time I join them. Two of the kittens have begun to accept cuddles, and the other two are slowly losing their shyness. They've been with me one week as of yesterday, and they're all gray tabbies. Two kittens are long-haired, and two are short-haired like the mother. Eeek! I've gone from one cat to six! It's work but it's fun work!!

Diamond's Reaction to all this.

You know, I totally forgot to write about how Diamond was taking all of that. Diamond was totally loving it! I was really shocked and pleased that he wasn't showing any agression or jealousy towards the other cats, but all he wanted to do was smell and meet them and hopefully play with them. He even tolerated bieng locked in the bedroom for his safety on days when I'd leave the bathroom door open to encourage Mamma and the kittens to explore. (Only one kitten ever did, though.)

MammaKitten (as I called her) wasn't having it about meeting Diamond, though. She hissed the two times that she met Diamond. Once, she escaped from the bathroom and ran under a small table I've got, where Diamond was already sitting, and sat down. She turned when Diamond said hello, hissed angrilly, and ran back to the safety of the bathroom. (Everyone else had a good laugh.)

The second time a few days later, we had to take everything off of the floor of the bathroom and clean everything because although they're all quite good about using the litterbox, they kick sand everywhere. I loaded everyone into Diamond's adult-cat carrier and set them in the hall, and MammaKitten and at least one kitten hissed at Diamond when he came tearing over to investigate.

So introductions didn't go so well. And the kittens had some pretty severe ear mite infections as it turned out, so Diamond's going to have to be checked at his next Vet appointment, *sarcasm* which I'm sure he'll love. ;)

So all in all, I'm terribly proud of Diamond. One of the kittens was decidedly unafraid of him, and I'm sure that totally helped in that lil guy's socialization process.

I'm crossing my fingers now that they'll all pass their FIV/FIL tests... I'm so worried that they'll have to be euthanized even after all the hard work. If everything turns out okay, I'll be sure to link their PetFinder.com profiles up here!