Ashland gets a harness

So last time Ashland went to the store, she was wiggly and just about all over the place. I decided our little girl needed some reining in, so I opted to buy her a harness. I ended up with a cute little red FERRET harness, since every single kitty harness was just WAY too big! The ferret harness fits her wonderfully, so long as it is as small as it goes. I was asked by Ashland's Auntie Kathleen, the wannabe kitten-napper, why I didn't get Ash a pretty pink harness! I would have gotten a more girlie color, had a more girlie color been available!!

So all day long today, Ashland was at the store with us and the dogs. She is definitely the crowd draw! Everyone wanted to see the little baby kitten who was "already" in a harness! The looks we got when we told people Ashland will be 14 weeks old tomorrow, were quite funny at best!

As the day wore on, I task Auntie Kathleen with taking Ashland and finding a toy. After Kathleen showed Ashland many toys that terrorfied poor little Ashland, they finally settled on a cute little blue, pink and grey mouse with this feathery tail! Ash LOVES it, so kudos to Auntie Kathleen!!

We weighed this little girl today, and she tipped the scale at a whopping TWO pounds. I have to weigh her in ounces tonight, as I am not sure teh scale didn't round up her weight. SHe was also wearing her new harness, and a scarf! She is very funny looking, kind of like the blueberry girl in WIlly Wonka, the older version. Her tummy is about the only thing growing these days, but I suppose the rest of her will catch up soon enough!

Ashland is a very picky eater! She will only eat Prescription food, and canned at that! If we give her dry food, she looks at us as if to wonder why we are trying to kill her!! She can eat the dry food, she just doesn't WANT to!! I have to find a way to get her to eat a less expensive cat food, canned or dry, as she is going to have to rob a bank to pay for her own food before long!!

Ashland the trouble maker!!

Okay, so she isn't REALLY a trouble maker, but today she discovered the joy of unrolling the toilet paper! I was surprised to see the floor of the bathroom covered with unrolled toilet paper when I walked in just now. Don't ask me WHY I was surprised, but hey Ashland is just a normal little kitten!! It is moments like this that reinforce the idea that babies are cute for a reason!! How could I be mad looking at that sweet little face all proud of her new discovery! Sorry Ash, the toilet paper is now in the drawer! It is time to put some new toys in there for you, point taken!

Sweet tiny baby pictures

Okay, so I haven't been doing this every day. I was waiting to decide if I was truely crazy enough to keep Ashland. I am going to keep this up to date as much as possible, starting right now.

Ashland was born on May 25, 2008. Today Ashland is 88 days old, and she weighs only 21.7 ounces! These pictures are ones I have taken over the past week and a half. Most of them are of a sleeping kitty, as she sleeps if you hold her! The pictures of her in the purse are cute. Her Auntie Kathleen was trying to kitten-nap her! She was saying how easily Ashland could be hidden in her purse. You can see how worried Ashland and I were at that, since I took the picture! Have to ever seen anything so cute!?!?

Let's go back to where it all started

I was cruising Craigslist one day in June, and came upon a crazy person's ad in the pet section. I don't often look at the pet section these days, since about 85% of the ads are from crazy people. Anyway, this ad was crazy even by Craigslist standards. The title of the ad was: "SOON TO BE ORPHANED KITTENS". I sat and stared at it for a long moment trying to figure out the stupidity of that title. It wasn't already orphaned kittens, it was for soon to be orphaned kittens. After taking a deep breath, I opened the ad figuring I would find some nut threatening to kill the cats if someone didn't take them. What I found was much more bizarre! The woman's cat had had a litter of kittens, and she was taking them away from her to give them away...they were only 17 days old!!

I sent her an email immediately, being as nice as one can be, I wanted to get the cat and kittens before they were all dead! I told her we would take them all! I got most of them along with the story about why she "needed" to take the kittens away so young. Turns out she had gotten the mother cat and her sister a year ago from a neighbor. After having the 2 girls for awhile, she figured out she was allergic to cats. She started looking for homes for the 2. In the meantime, one of the cats became pregnant. Instead of taking the cats to the shelter or give them away, she opted to keep BOTH cats until the one delivered. Once the cat gave birth, the woman immediately started to farm the kittens out to people to bottle feed, figuring it would be easier to find a home for the mother without the kittens.

Well, the mother is a very beautiful tabby that we called Paisley. The sister was a back and white tuxedo we named Dallas. As for the kittens, we ended up with 4 of 6. One had died, surprise(!), before we could rescue them. Another one had been farmed out and the woman refused to give it back to Paisley. When I asked the woman WHY she would even think it was okay to give away the babies, she said her neighbor had HAD to bottle feed kittens when the mother feel ill. I explained to her that it was one thing to bottle feed the kittens when needed, but it was animal cruelty to do it for convenience reasons!

Keeping with the Oregon cities name theme, we named the kittens John Day, Aurora, Ashland, and Eugene. The kittens were 17 days old, very skinny and sickly. Paisley, being less than a year old herself, really had no clue what to do with these babies. It wasn't her fault, she had had them taken away from her. When we put them back together, things were bleak. 3 of the kittens knew what to do, but Eugene didn't want anything to do with Paisley. It took many days and a lot of coaxing to finally get Eugene to see that Paisley had a lot to offer! All went well for the next few weeks, even though Paisley really did not want to be with her kittens.

When finally all 4 kittens were eating food, Paisley pretty much pushed them away. Without the kittens to care for, Paisley became the social butterfly she really was. It wasn't long before Paisley found a home of her home, one that will love and keep her forever. I am almost certain this is the first time the rescue has ever adopted out the mother before the kittens, but Paisley was just that cool!

The 4 kittens stayed here for awhile, they were all much too tiny to be spayed and neutered since they had not been properly nourished when they needed Paisley the most. Eventually John Day and Aurora were big enough to be spayed and neutered. Unfortunately that same day Eugene past away. It happened very quickly, the vet says it was likely a ruptured spleen. Ashland was the only one left, since John Day and Aurora moved on to find their forever homes.

Ashland is still so petite! At nearly 3 months old, she weighs in at only 21.7 ounces!! She is so small, it is a frightning concept to think of her running around the house. To keep her safe, she is confined to the bathroom. Oh, don't feel badly for her, she also gets to go out with us when we leave for long periods of time...well except for last week when the temperature was in the triple digits!! I figured her being lonely was not as bad as if she got too hot!

I have been contemplating keeping Ashland. I mean how do you justify keeping a kitten when you already have 9 cats!?!?! Only a crazy person would do that, right?! Well, I might just be crazy then! Ashland is staying! I look at her and I just laugh at her tiny little kitten body zooming around and up and down all over the bathroom! She is a perfectly healthy 3 month old kitten, she just happens to be the size of a 1 month old!