Nevermind

It's high time for an update. Otis is now 6 months old. He a whopper -cat weighing 9 pounds, and he's still growing! He just visited the vet last week to get his "kugels" removed. (Kugel is the German word for round ball usually referring to Christmas decorations.) Otis is recoving quite nicely along with his sister Gracie who was spayed.

Here is a picture of Otis and Gracie taken a few months ago.


This is Otis sitting in his sleigh waiting for his POUNCE kitty treat. I've trained him to do that. I love to surprise people by casually asking, "Otis, will you please go sit in the sleigh?" It's so much fun to see their reaction when he actually does it! I know... I have way too much time on my hands.


Here is one of our outside cats, Pudge, sitting on Leo. Pudge could always go to the barn to get warm with the rest of the outside cats, but he prefers Leo's company. They are best friends. Leo is a magic dog who can roll in the mud turning his coat brown. The next day he will be white again. How does he do that? ?? I told you... he's "magic"!

Our two outside dogs, Jake and Leo, spend the warm summer days hunting for moles and wading in the pond . I encourage both activities. What a wonderful life! One thing I do not encourage is the hunting of turtles. I have caught both of my boys with box turtles many times. Sadly, they have killed several of the turtles. My scoldings don't stop them. I have managed to save a few of the turtles by stealing them away from the dogs and relocating them to the creek about a mile down the road. Here is a picture of my latest rescue. Emma "mothers" nearly every living creature she meets. The turtle was very tolerant of Emma's kisses even after the rough treatment he had just received from Jake.

By special request of my friend, Barbara...
This is her favorite picture of Emma.

Otis is 53 days old today... nearly 2 months. He took his last bottle this morning. He's finished the last of his kitten milk replacer. I know he's old enough to be weaned, but we both really enjoy the nursing experience. Otis and I will be disappointed tonight when we must to forgo the bedtime bottle ritual. All babies must grow up, and I'm happy that Otis is thriving. He will be a big, handsome cat one day.

Labels: Yet More Otis

As promised, here are some pictures taken today of Baby Otis. I wish I would have taken pictures from the beginning. He has grown from a puny little guy spending his day wrapped in a towel lying on a heating pad to the fiesty fellow you see today.

Otis in now eating canned kitten food in addition to his bottle. He loves our Golden Retriever, Emma. She seems to enjoy mothering him. Gilda, our other house cat is not thrilled with Baby Otis, but I think in time she will accept him.

In this last photo, Otis is getting ready to spit and pounce. He is very playful and and sometimes gets a little too aggressive. But isn't he adorable?!?

Labels: More Otis

I've finally decided to post on my blog which has been registered, yet void of posts since June of last year. Thinking of something to say that might interest anyone has been a real chore for me. I've made a few feeble attempts during the last several months, but I alway delete them before I publish. Today, I've made this decision: I will begin by writing about my new kitten.

"Otis Freeman" was born on May 25, 2007 to first time mother and barn cat, "Hannah". He was one of 3 litter mates. Hannah's inexperience caused her to become confused. She began to ignore her own babies and instead joined in feeding a litter of 5 kittens that had been born on May 22. By the time I noticed her own kittens weren't being fed, 2 of them were extremely weak, and my attempts to revive them failed. Otis, however, clung to life, and he is now thriving. He drank from a medicine dropper for the first 5 days until he was strong enough to nurse from the bottle. He is currently downing 1 1/2 tablespoons of Kitten Milk Replacer every 4 hours. Thankfully, he sleeps from midnight till 8 AM so I can get a full night of sleep. Otis has mastered the litter box, too. I am SO proud! In case you're wondering about his name... (I always give my pets "human" names) he just looks like an "Otis". His middle name, "Freeman", comes from a very sweet gentleman in our community who recently passed away at the age of 95.


My next post will include pictures of Otis, and I will give updates on his progress. Well... that's all for now.

Now, that wasn't too painful, was it???

Labels: My first post