5 posts tagged “kitty”
With all the crappy news going on right now (job hunting, politics, economy, etc.), I thought I'd post something happier.
This is the kitten we are planning to adopt when she gets old enough. Bekah (the foster mom) calls her Smokey, for now. Can't think of any other name yet.
There's another female kitten, but she looks too much like Puka and Mike doesn't want to go there. They're about 3 or 4 weeks right now, so another 4 weeks or so to go.
I forgot about this video. I had to upload it to MySpace because it's too large for Vox.
I've been bringing Puka to work with me this week, making sure she's getting accustomed to us. She likes to sit on my foot and nap. weird. right now, she's small enough to do that.
Last night was her first sulfer bath for the ringworm. The vet said to sponge it onto her and let it air dry with a hair dryer. I haven't owned a hair dryer in probably 10 years... so I bought a cheap, travel-sized one at the corporate devil.
The sulfer bath was pretty nasty... but at least it was a natural smell, instead of an intense chemical smell. Puka was struggling at first, yet still purring away. She started getting used to it... then she started shivering from being wet. we had to let the solution sit on her for a few minutes (10 minutes, from what the foster lady told me), then pat her down with a paper towel and blow dry her. She was scared of the hair dryer, at first, but then started to calm down as it dried off her fur.
I haven't tried to smell her after being dried, but her fur doesn't look discolored anymore. hopefully we got enough solution on her. We have to do this once a week for at least four weeks, possibly six. what fun.
Well, I think we have finally come up with a name for the new kitty. Her name is Puka. Puka is Hawaiian for "Hole," meaning she's already causing a hole in my pocket.
I took Puka to the vet yesterday, and found out she has THREE different parasites in her system, plus the goopy eye thing. Altogether, the vet visit cost me $150. I have to take her back next week, which will probably cost me another $60 (this is just my guess, but I could be wrong and the follow-up visit might not cost anything).
For those who may not want to know details of her condition, please turn away. This might be TMI for you.
She has ringworm, which is a parasite that can be transmitted to other animals, including humans. Most adult humans have a strong enough immune system to avoid getting it, but children are more likely to get it. Thankfully no children here, but we do have Bela, and he might get it... so we're trying to avoid having the two of them out and about at the same time. She also has coccidia, which is a microscopic parasite in the intestinal tract. This can be transmitted through contact of infected feces, so the best way to prevent spreading this is to keep the litter box clean at all times. She also has tapeworms. This one will be taken care of later on, when she gets a little older. According to the vet, Puka is younger than what we were told, probably 4.5-5 weeks instead of 6-7 weeks. I guess she's not quite old enough to get the tapeworm medication, so we'll be taking care of the other crap first.
I have ointment for her eye, liquid gel medicine for coccidia, liquid gel antimicrobial treatment (to boost her immune system for any other problems she might have), and a medicated dip for the ringworm. Medicated dip? We haven't done this one yet... going to do this tonight. It's a sulfer-based medicine that is diluted with water and will be sponged onto Puka's entire body, and paintbrushed onto her face area. There's a spot on her nose where the ringworm discoloring is visible, so we must make sure to treat that area. Sulfer-based... yay... we're gonna have a stinky kitty. We have to dip her once a week, for anywhere between 4-6 weeks. oh fun.
Someone had told me to give up on her and get another cat. What? that's like adopting a child and then saying, "oh, this one is broken, take it back and get a new one." at least that's how I feel, anyway. At the time, I didn't know how the foster lady got her kittens... until I was already interested in adopting Puka. The foster lady and her boyfriend trap feral kittens and raise them and adopt them out to people. It's a good way to control the feral cat population, but at the same time, you have no clue what illnesses they might have. I guess she does all her own medicating, rather than taking them to the vet to do check-ups. I was under the impression she took them to the vet when they got old enough for it, but perhaps I misunderstood. In any case, Puka is our responsibility now, and it's gonna be quite a journey the next couple of months.
I Loathe:
- poor spelling/grammar/punctuation/etc. it's one of my biggest pet peeves. I'm also not very fond of the txt talk... the UR 4 ME O RLY 2NITE. if you get text messages from me, they will almost always be full words, no abbreviations or acronyms (although some chat acronyms and abbreviations I do use...). I can get annoying like that.
- veterinarian prices. I'm going to take the "Boo Boo" to see the vet later today, and I KNOW they are going to charge me a kidney for the visit. since she MIGHT have worms, and they aren't sure yet, the vet tech was already talking about "we'll do some tests, and then send it up to the mainland for more tests..." blah blah blah... yeah, I'll have to hold off on larger purchases for now.
- having to get to work earlier than usual. The owner of the company said, "we'll come down there sometime soon to check up on things and see what we can do to help and improve." He didn't say WHEN exactly... so he could appear at any time this week or next. Need to make sure we're all here from the beginning of our Hours of Operations.
- having to teach "Boo Boo" to use the litter box.
She pees in there, but she doesn't always poop in there. She tends to
poop under the table in the kitchen, hidden away. Maybe that's where
she went at the foster house... the foster lady should've already
taken care of this litter box problem. I've never had to teach a
kitten where or how to poop, so I have no idea what to do. I hope she
starts understanding it on her own.
- waiting. I hate
waiting in all its forms. I hate waiting for a vacation to start, hate
waiting to find out what happens to Doctor Who in the next episode,
hate wondering whether I'll get the full stimulus package amount (I
know they have a calculator, but I keep forgetting to pull up my tax
info at home and checking it), hate waiting for the work day to end,
etc.
I Love:
- taking silly photos of kitty. She's such cute little thing. Everytime she's in a cute position, I want to take a picture. There have been a couple of times when Mike has caught her trying to eat Bela's food. Bela's food is bigger than she is, and she's trying to eat it! I haven't seen it yet, or else there would be a photo of it.
- having a nice barbecue birthday party for friends. Kristie's birthday party at Kaka'ako Beach Park was really nice. I'm glad she liked her gifts.
- Netflix. I rent movies AND can view certain movies online. I watched the first season of Dexter, which I enjoyed. Quite a good storyline, for an American series.
- getting approval for a somewhat large purchase. I asked Mike if I could buy a new knife, specifically a Kyocera HIP (Hot Isostatic Pressed) ceramic Santoku knife.
it's a high density ceramic blade with a damascus-like design on it. Ceramic blades won't brown vegetables and fruits, and stay sharper for much longer than steel. I'm also going to order the ceramic peeler they have. I'm going to wait for payday next week (or if we get our stimulus package on the 9th?) before making this purchase.
- watching kittens practice their pouncing. You know what I mean? When they crouch down low, shake their butt, and then dash over to what they want to pounce. it's hilarious.
- salsa. not the dance, the food. yum.
