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Smokey Adjustment Period Begins

black cat sleeping
Smokey's favorite spot in the house

So far we are resolving issues as they arise with Smokey.  We give him time in and out of his kennel cage, so he, our other animals, and we can continue to adjust.  Fortunately he is very food motivated, so a little kibble placed into the kennel and in he goes.

On his first morning out of the cage he emptied his bladder on a thick dish drying towel that was on our counter.  We know it was just because he was too anxious to go to a litter box, and feeling threatened.  Then sometime during the night he “marked” one corner of the house with a little pee, which fortunately our beagle/basset hound found right away this morning so I could clean it.  I have bought extra litter boxes, strategically placed, and Lorenzo bought a dish rack now instead of an inviting towel on our counter top.  It’ll just take more time and good strategy but it’ll be fine.

Now he is asleep in his favorite window spot, which he steals from our boy YoYo.  That was YoYo’s all time favorite spot, so we are working on creating new happy places for YoYo.  Oh and by the way I didn’t even know he had that other little tuft of white hair by his belly until I saw this photo!  Considering this is all so new, everyone is doing pretty well.

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Smokey the cat makes his rounds, first hour

black cat on kitchen counter
Smokey enjoying temporary counter privileges

We finally got lab results that Smokey no longer has any intestinal parasites, so we opened up Smokey’s cage this evening and let him out just over an hour ago.  As you can see in the photo, we are being lenient and allowing him on the kitchen counter, but only for the first 24 hours.  We want to go easy on him until he gets used to using the communal litter boxes.  So far he hasn’t found the communal boxes but he probably will soon.  His cage is still open so he could use his old box.  He pretty much already knows the cats so there’s only been a little growling between them.  He still hasn’t picked his hang out spot yet, and keeps walking around inspecting everything.  I’ll be watching things closely for the next day or so.  Wish us luck!  🙂

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Cat #1 becomes Smokey, our new cat “son”

cat
Smokey catching up on his sleep

This is an update to our Humane Cat Trapping Project.  Yesterday we brought our trapped cat “Cat #1” to the Tree House spay/neuter clinic.  We had arranged for them to keep him overnight after the surgery, and we picked him up this afternoon.  The best news is that he tested negative for both FIV and FeLV, two cat viruses.  They said overall he seems healthy, and is between 1-2 years old.  He is 10 lbs.  For now, Lorenzo has named him Smokey.

We brought him home and he went from the trap to a big dog cage we have that will be his home for at least the next week.  We have to make sure he does not have intestinal parasites before he is allowed to be out loose in the house.  He hisses less and less now.  Our other cats come by to see him and there is a little hissing our growling on one side or the other, but nothing major.  We have a huge litter box in his cage and he used it almost immediately, which is great.  The first time I opened his cage to scoop litter he gently tried to get out and meowed twice.  That’s the first time we’ve heard him meow.  I didn’t let him get out, but I did pet him for a few moments which he allowed, twice on the head, twice on the neck, once on the cheek.  That was the first time I pet him, so that’s exciting too.  We’re keeping him.  This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship!  🙂

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Got him! We just trapped “Cat #1″

outdoor cat in humane trap
Cat #1 trapped and in our home!

This is also known as Humane Cat Trapping Project Day #8, and our third blog post on this project so far.  Our clinic appointment is tomorrow bright and early so thank goodness we really did trap Cat #1 tonight!!!!  We trapped him about an hour ago.  He is not a very big guy, and all black with a tiny tuft of white fur at his neck.  I brought his trap into my home office, my floor protected with a large tray and newsprint in the tray.  I used a “trap comb” to partition his trap safely and give him more tuna and water on one end, and a clean towel on the other end, while preventing his escape.  He can’t eat any tuna after midnight in preparation for his neuter surgery, but I’m sure he has already finished it.  He has hissed a few times but other than that does not seem to need to hide from us.  We took the sheet off of one end of the trap and he did not wriggle back under cover.

Tomorrow I will bring him, still in his trap, to the Tree House clinic and we will learn much more about him.  We really don’t even know for sure his gender, but we’ll know all sorts of things by this time tomorrow!  Stay tuned…..

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Humane Cat Trapping Project – Day 5 Report

black cat outdoors
The cat we saw looked like this, but this is not him

We have learned a lot since I last blogged on Wednesday afternoon.  I had to bring the trap over to our porch late Wed eve so it didn’t get rained on and I noticed a skunk-like smell on it, not super strong but noticeable.  I took that to mean that at least one unneutered male cat had been around the trap and “marked” the covering sheet with a little urine.  Unneutered male cats have urine that smells like skunk scent.

Then Thursday eve when I was bringing out the trap  there was a black cat actually in the area where the trap usually is.  He ran and leapt over the fence when he saw me.  I baited the trap as usual, taking my time.  I figured he’d stay out of view until I was gone, but after about a minute he moved into full view on the other side of the gate, and sat there watching me, about ten feet away from me.  That could indicate that he is not feral, since he let me see him when he didn’t have to.  I only glanced his way so as not to alarm him, then slowly left when I was done with the trap.  Once back in the apartment, Lorenzo and I got to watch him going in and out of the trap eating all of the tuna from our window.  It was a real treat to see so much of a cat we will probably be trapping.  He’s all black, much like this photo here, though the photo is NOT him. In the dim light he was hard to see sometimes, but we did see his eyes and also his tongue as he licked his lips after the tuna.  Mmmmm-good!

Another piece of news is our clinic appointment for the spay/neuter is next Tuesday 11/8/11 so that means the actual trapping night is this Monday evening.  I can’t wait!!!  Last night when we saw him eat he was done by 6:20pm, though tonight he hasn’t shown up yet.  Maybe he’s on his way right now……..

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Humane Cat Trapping Project – Intro & Day 3 Report

baited cat trap for trap rehearsal feeding
Tempting trail of tuna for humanely trapping a cat!

This is a photo of the trap we are using in our humane cat trapping project.  We have the trap on loan from Tree House Humane Society.  Lorenzo and I have been contemplating adding a fourth cat to our animal family for a while now.  Recently we have decided to trap our next pet cat, since there are plenty of abandoned cats roaming around our neighborhood, though some people may not realize it.  I find trapping cats really fun and exciting.  You never know which cat you will get, since in most cases there are many roaming around you haven’t seen.  You have to plan and prepare, all things which I love.  It’s a combination of a good deed and a fun adventure.  I personally trapped our pet cats Zen and Bambi back in late 2006.  There’s more info on those trappings on my site www.MyFeralKitten.com

This photo shows the basics about how we bait our trap, shown with no sheet for illustration purposes.  Right now we are in the “trap rehearsal” phase, where our trap is rigged to stay open no matter what using several zip ties.  It’s a tuna buffet essentially that we bait every evening with fresh smelly canned tuna, packed in oil.  Once we are ready for the real trapping night, we will remove the zip ties so that the cat will get safely trapped when he steps on the “put paws here” part, labeled in the photo.  The first night the tuna remained undisturbed.  For night two, last night, I got rid of the old tuna and replaced with new tuna.  Success!!!  By 12:30am just after midnight I noticed that all the tuna had been eaten.  I can check the trap right from our apartment window with a flashlight, the height of convenience!

We will continue to bait the trap every evening, to train our mystery meat eater (hopefully a cat) to return each night.  I have a call into Tree House Humane Society’s spay/neuter clinic to make a spay/neuter appointment.  We are hoping for an appointment for next Wed 11/9/11 but we’ll see.  We will be trapping our cat the night before the spay/neuter appointment, and will bring him/her to the clinic in the morning still in the trap.  Stay tuned to our blog posts for the next week or two.  I will be updating our readers as things develop!!!  If you want lots more detailed info on trapping, socializing feral kittens, etc. you can check www.MyFeralKitten.com which is very complete, and as I said details some trapping I did in 2006 and 2007.

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I Made My 17th Kiva.org Donation- for Free!

photo of Kiva loan recipient in Mexico
I just helped to fund Felipe's loan so he can buy clothing to sell

I have blogged here before about my microlending through the website kiva.org.  For other posts on this topic check the right hand side under Categories: Giving.  Giving with the Kiva site is really neat, probably the most rewarding philanthropy work I’ve done so far.  You make a loan of $25 at a time to one person, and other donors around the world also pick whose loan they want to fund.  Usually I try to pick people that I feel are very positive and whose positivity benefits those around them.  I’m an energy reader, and with their name, photo, and description given by Kiva.org that’s way more than enough for me to get a sense of the person.  I think that’s enough for anyone to get a sense of the loan recipient!  For this last loan I made, I searched for people whose business involved clothing sales, and as I was looking through the photos, it struck me that Felipe in Mexico really needs this loan.  He’s not my usual pick beaming with positivity, but I get the feeling he really needs a break.  His other income source is farm work, and he has a wife and son he supports.  Here’s the page with information about Felipe and his loan.  Since these are loans, the people do repay them.  I made this loan a few weeks ago.  If you follow the link you will see that as of the date of this blog post not only have other lenders jumped on board so that his loan was fully funded, but he has already paid back 23% so far.  As they repay the loans I get the money back into my kiva account so I can loan it out again.  My loan to Felipe including the few dollar donation to kiva operating costs was all covered by balance I had already in my kiva account.

With Felipe and other loan recipients paying back into my account, I already have almost the entire amount I need back to make another loan!  Stay tuned to see who I’ll pick next!  🙂

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Donating Unwanted Clothing

logo for Brown Elephant resale shops
Howard Brown gives medical care & counseling to gay/lesbian people in need

Recently I donated two big bags of clothing.  I think it’s really positive to donate clothing you no longer need, rather than throwing it away as garbage which benefits no one and uses up landfill space.  Others  can really still wear the good clothes we no longer fit or want to wear.  If any readers don’t have transportation but want to donate clothes, try to get a friend to give you a ride and you can both donate clothes, furniture, and other household items.  You could also google “chicago clothing donation pick up” and check out the well known charities that will pick up your clothing for you by appointment.

This time I used a metal clothing donation box.  The clothing donation box I ended up using is just about a two minute drive from our house.  I had the clothing in the trunk of my car, and I saw it on my way home from some errands, so it literally took two minutes of my time to park and put the bags into the donation bin.  Instant good karma!  I have been doing some reading on the internet about the donation bins, and they say that you should be careful as to which donation bin you use because some organizations give more to the poor than others.  Soooo, I guess it could have been better karma if I had done a little homework on the internet first.  It sounds like it’s safest to deal directly with a reputable organization like Brown Elephant, Amvets, or even Salvation Army if you don’t mind their more conservative perspective.  I think next time I will drop off the clothing at one of the two Brown Elephant resale shops like I usually do.  Either way, I think any form of donation is better karma than throwing it away and having it take up landfill space.  If you have any clothing donation tips, experiences, or comments, please comment here.

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Goodbye Summer 2011

box of strawberry popsicles
Natural strawberry popsicles- guilt free summer fun

Summer 2011 is ending this week, and I think it can be helpful to get closure on the last season and try to embrace the upcoming season.  Summer 2010 we had just moved to our new apartment, so there was a lot of settling in, slowly making the home look and feel like we wanted.  This past summer we were able to enjoy our home more.  We do have central air in this apartment, a first for both Lorenzo and myself, so that felt like a new luxury.  We wanted to save money on electricity but still use our AC on those humid 90 degree days, so we kept the thermostat at a higher temperature.  That worked very well, particularly with liberal use of our secret stay-cool weapon, natural fruit popsicles.  Lorenzo’s favorite is coconut and mine is strawberry.  They’re only 100 calories each, and I’m sure we saved a lot of money on AC because we were keeping cooler by eating popsicles.  Well come to think of it, we did have a lot of popsicles!  On my last shopping trip I bought more, but it will probably be the last time this year.  Now I have to have hot tea afterwards to stay warm.

Janet w/pansies
Summer flowers on our back porch, greeting us every morning

Another thing that stands out about summer is that I finally planted pansies in a window box.  We inherited a large window box planter at the end of last summer, and I had a very specific image in my mind of dark pink pansies for it.  This spring I procrastinated, but this summer I went and got the pansies and  and also a hanging basket of pansies.  I went with my “Little Sister” Jazzy from Big Brothers Big Sisters, so that made the purchasing and planting a million times more special.  Watching a 10 year old city kid make her first mud pies with a bucket, dirt, and a hose was pretty much priceless.  I’m looking forward to having even more fun this fall, and I hope you will too.

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YoYo The Wonderful Cat

We love all of the animals in our home. There’s Zen, Bambi and YoYo the three cats and Odie the COO of Barney’s Home Dog  Boarding. The most photogenic of the bunch has to be YoYo. The others have really endearing qualities but YoYo is the glamour boy.

Janet has blogged about YoYo before so some of you may remember him. He is a three year old “american shorthair” as our Vet Dr. Dickus describes him. He’s very vocal, demands a lot of attention and is quick to gobble up his sister’s food. He’s also so cute I find myself picking up a camera to snap his photo all the time. I’ve decided to take some of those shots that I have tweaked in various graphics applications and post them in our Etsy store.


These are the first three but there will definitely be more. Stay tuned for more adventures of our little feline prince.