Daisy St has been quite a project for the past year and a half - we got the reference from the shelter where someone on the street kept bringing in trapped
ferals to be destroyed. We went out to see the situation and found one elderly lady feeding 25+ cats in her yard, and her neighbor, another elderly lady,
trapping to kill. *Sigh*.
We set to work fixing the cats and got about 25 done in one weekend... it was a hard project because most of the cats were black or tortie (all looked alike, in other words), and the feeder did not know the cats well so couldn't tell us exactly when we'd caught anyone. She just puts out the food and leaves, doesn't stick around to see who is eating. But 25 was pretty good, we thought!
Unforunately it wasn't everyone. As the summer and fall trickled by, she kept calling us about small litters - one or two kittens at a time, in the yard to come pick up. We always picked them up and set traps for the mothers. The kittens that we dubbed "Daisy Streets" shared common characteristics - always black, orange, or tortie, always very slow growers, often prone to coccidia or sudden death. Presumably the small litters meant many were dying outside before being discovered. No leukemia or FIV though. After losing a few out in less experienced foster homes, I decided that from now on all Daisys should filter through my house first - I start them all on coccidia treatment regardless of what the stool looks like, and make sure they are sturdy before sending them out to other foster homes.
Anyway, two mothers seem to have given birth this summer (we definitely caught and spayed one mother - the other is still at large and unknown). I got the call for the first two kittens - typical scrawny Daisies that I tube fed for a week or two. Then more recently we got the call for another litter of 4 - atypical Daisies who were fat and glossy.
Here's the whole crew at my house today - from left to right at the top are Tempest (F), Johann (M), Amadeus (M), Carmen (F), Wolfgang (M) and in the hidey-hole Haydn (M).
Wolfie and Amadeus are the first group that took so long to grow and are 10-12 weeks now. The rest are the second, chubby litter, at about 6 weeks.
We set to work fixing the cats and got about 25 done in one weekend... it was a hard project because most of the cats were black or tortie (all looked alike, in other words), and the feeder did not know the cats well so couldn't tell us exactly when we'd caught anyone. She just puts out the food and leaves, doesn't stick around to see who is eating. But 25 was pretty good, we thought!
Unforunately it wasn't everyone. As the summer and fall trickled by, she kept calling us about small litters - one or two kittens at a time, in the yard to come pick up. We always picked them up and set traps for the mothers. The kittens that we dubbed "Daisy Streets" shared common characteristics - always black, orange, or tortie, always very slow growers, often prone to coccidia or sudden death. Presumably the small litters meant many were dying outside before being discovered. No leukemia or FIV though. After losing a few out in less experienced foster homes, I decided that from now on all Daisys should filter through my house first - I start them all on coccidia treatment regardless of what the stool looks like, and make sure they are sturdy before sending them out to other foster homes.
Anyway, two mothers seem to have given birth this summer (we definitely caught and spayed one mother - the other is still at large and unknown). I got the call for the first two kittens - typical scrawny Daisies that I tube fed for a week or two. Then more recently we got the call for another litter of 4 - atypical Daisies who were fat and glossy.
Here's the whole crew at my house today - from left to right at the top are Tempest (F), Johann (M), Amadeus (M), Carmen (F), Wolfgang (M) and in the hidey-hole Haydn (M).
Wolfie and Amadeus are the first group that took so long to grow and are 10-12 weeks now. The rest are the second, chubby litter, at about 6 weeks.
& Callie
He's a mama's boy, that one.
but I'm so glad to see those cute little ones, Kim.
How I can relate!
Not only would the entire roll be shredded all over
the floor in little tiny pieces, it would also be peed upon. It's just very unpleasant to wake up in the morning, stumble into the bathroom, and step
onto sodden toilet paper. Then you try to clean it up and it falls apart into a million pieces.
