Gotcha Day and Blog Celebration

First of all thank you for your concern over our Yoko girl.  She is doing better after two does of the antibiotic and is out of jail!  We have left the dog kennel set up and Yoko and Chica are enjoying the comfy spot on the blankets I put n top!

Monday is the 5th Gotcha Day for both Mamacita and Rosa.  With all the posts last week about adopting less adoptable pets, we wanted to give you a brief recount of how we came to have both these beautiful house panthers.  Here goes......

Mom was still feeding Ivy, the last of our feral cats living outdoors, when she noticed a skinny little cat sneaking up to the deck to eat the leftovers,and then running off across the street.  Mom could tell she had just had kittens and started to leave a bigger portion of food out for her all the time. Mom followed her but could not see where the kittens were.  She named her Mamacita cuz she was such a little cat to be a momcat - hardly 5-6 months herself.  Before long, Mamcita moved her two black kittens over to our neighbor's storage shed.  Mom put the food bowl over there so they could eat when they were old enough.

One day she noticed the kittens sneezing and coughing with runny eyes and that scared her.  Kittens can die of upper respiratory infections if they don't get medication. That's when she decided to catch them and bring them indoors even tho we already had plenty of cats.  She used a dog kennel cage and put a string on the door so she could pull it when they went inside.  She left food in there and hoped for the best.  Meanwhile Mom put some homeopathic remedies in the food but it was not enough and the kittens were getting sicker.  Finally it happened and all three of them went inside the cage and Mom caught them.  The kittens' faces were so swollen with infection.  Her vet gave her eye ointment and oral antibiotics to give them.  She kept them in a small room with Mamacita.

Unfortunately their first taste of people and being indoors was to get eye ointment put in both eyes and pills popped down their throats but they did get better.  They were very timid and scared of everything.  Mamacita was doing much better than they were but she was not sick. She gots lots of attention and treats not medication.  All three were moved to a larger room and they were spayed and neutered (not an easy thing to catch them!!!) at a clinic. We named the kittens Rosa and Manny and they got big and healthy. 

We lost Manny in 2007 to a severe urinary blockage and some vet errors He was only two and we still miss him.

Mamacita loves to eat, play with the laser toy and cuddle with Mom on the sofa or bed while she reads.  Rosa is still more aloof and hides in quiet spots most of the day coming out at night to join in the activities.  It will take more time for her to relax and be one of the gang but each day is a little better. They are inseparable and groom each other and snuggle together.

It is also our 300th post (actually last Friday) so in celebration we want to give away a brand new copy of the paperback version of  Homer's Odyssey by Gwen Cooper - about another house panther who is blind.  Gwen had spoken to Blind Cat Rescue in North Carolina before she wrote the book and promised 10% of her royalties.  Well, she gave them a $10,000 check last week!  Isn't that great?  So if you don't win this drawing, go out and buy a copy so Blind Cat Rescue will get even more money!

To enter the drawing just leave a comment and tell me you want in on the give away. It is open to all readers!  We will run this give away for the week. Please help yourself to goodies and nip and have fun!

We will be hosting a Mr Linky on Oct. 2 for Livestrong Day so do stop by and link up. We set it up to share Mr Linky on your blog too so join in on this day of cancer awareness.

NEWSFLASH For those of you stopping by late, we just found out Huffle's friend Diamond is having his 14th birthday on Tues Sept 28. Please do stop by.