Sophie's been adopted!

Sophie has been adopted! All of Sohpie's kits found homes, and Sophie herself went to a the same (extended) family that adopted two of her kittens together. yeah!

Sophie's kittens are starting to eat

You can see above a very cute photo of Sally (left) and Linus (right) with a dirty chin. Sophie has a potassium deficiency (vet says this is common) and has gotten an infection in one of her breasts (also common). So, this was good timing for the kittens beginning to be weaned.

They're also getting litter-trained as I type.

Video of Sophie & her kittens

Sophie is well again and the kittens are really big for just three weeks. Cathy named them after the Peanuts cast.

Charlie - solid dark kitten
Sally - dark with tabby stripes
Marcy - black & white, dark head, no white line on top
Lucy - black & white, dark head, half a white line on top
Linus - black & white, dark head, full white line on top

And, of course, Sophie is the momma.

Almost lost Sophie yesterday

Wow. We almost lost Sophie to a fever yesterday.

We got ready to head to the shelter's weekly adoption at PetsMart early Saturday morning. I went into the "office" to feed Sophie and check on her kittens and found her laying under a table on the other side of the room. That wasn't completely unexpected, as Sophie has to start weaning the kittens this week.

But, she didn't come to me like she normally does. I left the food by her and brushed my teeth. When I came back a few minutes later, she still had not touched her food. She felt warm to the touch and her breathing seemed rough compared to a few minutes ago. I got worried.

Cathy & I decided to take her to the vet in PetsMart, Banfield. We have an arrangement with a couple of Banfield locations; they give us a 15% discount for shelter cats. Anyway, by the time we got there, Sophie was panting. They promised to call.

Half way to the adoption we got another call - Sophie has a 105° fever (a cat's normal temperature ranges from 100.5° to 102.5° Fahrenheit). A sustained temperature of 105° causes serious complications, such as delirium, seizures, immune failure or brain damage. They were working on bringing her temperature down -- we OKed the estimate, although it was a steep price.

About 1 P.M. the doctor had not seen any decreases yet. The tests all came out negative. Sophie had an infection driving the fever, but the cause was unknown. In fact, if they couldn't break the fever before 5 P.M., we'd have to pick her up and take her to the emergency room. The local Banfield suggested that, given the available information, we should have Sophie euthanized; we left the adoption to pick Sophie up, hoping and praying for a change. I was terribly distressed.

After we arrived at Banfield, we were told that her fever finally peaked and her temperature was down to 102.8° (still high, but better). We were told that Sophie's temperature dropped about 2:30 P.M., and with antibiotics and fluids she may yet recover with no permanent damage. We picked up Sophie, an I.V. bag of fluids, and some antibiotics. We took her temperature hourly last night, and it remained the same, but she took some food.

Today, she's looking better. Her last temperature was 101.5, and she's drinking and seeking attention again. Thank God.

New Cat: Sophie

I'm really sorry I haven't posted sooner. We have a new guest, and Cathy has named her Sophie.

We don't really know much about Sophie. The vet indicates that she is about seven years old. She came to the shelter as a pregnant stray. So that's how Sophie came to be with us on Saturday, March 17th -- as a shelter mommy. Cathy was told she would deliver any day now.

When we got Sophie she was almost bony, although her stomach was truly very big. She was very friendly and has no fear of humans, so it seemed unlikely that she was always a stray. The vet indicates that she is in good health, except for being really hungry.

Cathy made a next for her in the "office" of our apartment and set it up in the large cage we keep around. Sophie delivered five kittens, we think three girls and two boys, but we're not really sure. (We thought Zechariah was a boy...)

The kittens are a week old now, with the youngest being one week old at 3 A.M. Sunday. You can see the album of Sophie's Kitties here.