So when you're laying on your left side, you can remove the left arm and be much more comfortable. Or sitting cross legged-- my legs are addicted to that but my hips hurt from it. If I could remove my legs, i wouldn't have to cross them.
I'd like them to be easy to reattach.
In college I worked with disabled people, and I spent every Friday with Margaret. She had cerebral palsy and autism, and she was super smart, and she didn't say a whole lot, but she was super honest when she did.
Margaret and I always went to Target on Friday and this must've been around 2004/5 because Devendra Banhart had a new album out, Niña Rojo. I picked up the CD in the $10 section where they had new and upcoming artists and I couldn't wait to listen when we got back to the car.
The song Little Yellow Spider came on and I didn't think Margaret was paying any attention to the music, until it got to this line:
*Hey there little sexy pig, you made it with a man
And now you've got a little kid with hooves instead of hands*
Margaret gasped. She said,
"that's blasphemous! What's wrong with you that you listen to this?"
(There was another Margaretism, "where do you come from that you don't use contractions?" if someone said "cannot" or instead of "can't" etc. She was really funny about language.)
I laughed and she looked at me with total disgust. I turned the music off and waited till we got home to step away and laugh uncontrollably for several minutes.
Mind you, I'd never heard the album before but it this wouldn't have occurred to me even if I had.
So the other day that song came on my archive mix and I thought about Margaret, and her indignation over a sexy pig and hooves instead of hands, over two decades ago. She cracked me up.
Then I saw a little yellow spider on my car and it all came full circle.
I had cats all my life up until about 15 years ago when my last cat passed and we were fostering so many dogs for so many years, getting another cat just didn't make sense. So it's been a long time since I have had a real relationship with a cat.
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There are a lot fewer dogs now (just one) so I got four foster kittens last month, and wow I have learned so much!! Probably stuff I never knew to begin with but so helpful, I want to put together a kitten guide for my rescue to give to fosters. I'm sure y'all can help me fill in what's missing.
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The very disappointing thing I learned: cats actually don't really like being petted much. It's super overstimulating for them, unlike most dogs. So why are they so soft?? 😭
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Pet their "scent zones," their faces mostly. Gently and briefly. If you manhandle/pet them a lot like I was, that's how you'll get a cat who seems chill and welcoming pets only to swat and bite after ten seconds.
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They seem to have specific play in different stages. Three of mine got adopted and the one who's left was the runt by far, so she's done it kind of differently than usual but you have to adjust based on whatever stage they're in. This kitten was SO sweet, I just fell in love with her and I didn't know how I'd let her go.
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Then she turned 9 weeks and became a satanic snake, constantly biting and striking at me just like a snake, with her teeth.
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It occurred to me that getting them adopted at 8 weeks is smart, because the people will have a week or so to get really attached before the kitten turns to violence.
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I learned you should never play with them with your hands, and when they start to bite, you have to stop the play immediately and give the kitten something better than your arm to play with. This one is teething, too, and loves biting yarn balls and kick toys.
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Now she's in the stalking and pouncing stage, and chasing the ribbon wand thing ain't it. Chasing is cool but pouncing is better. So I attached a little toy mouse to the end of the ribbon and she likes that. The best part about this stage, she's a maniac in the morning before I get out of bed and I keep a box of toys next to my bed and just throw them for her, one after another. There are a couple in particular that she actually brings back to me, but mostly she just chases and pounces, and then comes back to the bed and looks at me expectantly, waiting for me to throw another toy. It's almost like a dog. It's really cute, she knows exactly what we're doing and what game we're playing.
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I also got her a couple of battery powered entertainment devices that really help get her pounces out. This one is a hit:
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The toys! I thought the kick toys were a scam because the kittens had no interest in them at all. But it just wasn't time yet. They didn't have that back leg kicking drive yet. Now they are my most important tool in self-protection from this tiny beast.
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Catnip doesn't affect them until they're several months old! I didn't think it was a great idea to get catnip toys since they were already brutally insane, but it's fine.
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Laser pointers! They can be great but they can also be terrible if you're willy nilly with it. It confuses them when it's bouncing around all over. I just use it to get her to run and chase when she's a maniac. Best advice is to point it at something they can actually pounce on, because pouncing on nothing but a light that disappears is just confusing. Also read that when you use it, it's best to end it pointing at a toy or something they can actually pounce on and then turning the light off immediately, without moving it, so they think they got the thing.
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Their natural cycle is play, eat, groom, sleep. If I time it right, she's actually chill when it's bedtime.
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Mine were with their mom for five weeks and the difference between them and bottle babies or really early separation is stark. We had a bottle baby litter that was a couple weeks older than mine, and while mine were politely grooming themselves and each other, the other litter was clueless, diving face first into the food and their faces and butts were gross all the time.
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Mine had never seen a litter box before, and it took a couple of days for them to figure it out, longer than I expected. Finding a litter box that was low enough for them to get into was difficult, and a 16" plastic plant saucer worked great.
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We're treating them all prophylactically for coccidia now because every single one of them has gotten it this year. Highly recommend. You can get 2.5% toltramax on Amazon.
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A steam cleaner is really a must-have for coccidia. I got one that gets hot enough for $50, absolutely worth it to prevent reinfection. Also, the key with coccidia is removing the poop right away, it doesn't become infectious immediately and that really helps.
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I'm sure I'm forgetting things but please share your helpful tips for someone as cat-dumb as I was! Also, I welcome corrections on any of the things I've said, I don't necessarily count on Google to be accurate.
I won't explain the whole thing because I don't totally understand it myself and it doesn't really matter because the outcome is: it's about to get a lot, lot harder for people to claim that their pets are ESAs. Some states have their own laws that will lessen the impact but many, including the south, do not.
I hate how much that system has been abused. Meant to help people who actually get helpful emotional support from their animals, how harming the people it was supposed to help. Kinda reminds me of no kill...
Anyway, regardless of opinions on that, I don't want people who already have and love their pets to give them up, obviously. We certainly can't handle another big influx of intake and surrender, but it'll be significant by the end of the summer. It's probably already a factor in all the housing-related surrender requests we get.
How do you think this will affect you, in your area?
And, anyone else have a stomach ache? 😣
I recently learned that a lot of fosters pay for everything themselves with other organizations. Like, even food. Vet costs are covered but that's about it, from what I'm hearing. We provide everything. Some fosters won't let us buy food etc but they're lake house people who pay for DNA tests and premium food and training for their foster dog.
Right now this is especially problematic, with so many people too broke to keep their own pets. What do y'all provide/what's provided to you?
I'm thinking we could drum up some foster homes if people know it's not gonna cost them anything...