Daily Photo: That Ceiling Fan…

Mariposa is absolutely stunning even when she’s just watching the ceiling fan go around, her face at exactly the purrfect angle and lit by natural window light to capture all her best features. Look at those eyes, and her nose! Her whisker pads and all of her black outlines—eye liner, nose liner, lipliner. That ear hair! And, of course, those WHISKERS! And bountiful cushy fur and at least one of her Big White Mittens.

I know she knows I’m taking her photo, and I know she knows I know she knows that. It’s the deal I have with my cats. They get this passive attention and lots of praise and pets afterward. It works for both of us.

Mimi’s veterinary visit

Mimi just wants to know why humans need to poke and prod kitties all the time when they’re doing just fine.

Our little 21-year-old had her follow-up with her veterinarian today and got very good marks. Her blood pressure is purrfect, all her blood levels look good even with hyperthyroid disease (methimazole) and a level of renal failure (phosphorus binder seems to be helping), her heart function is strong and she weighs exactly 5 lb.

After a small dose of fluids I gave her in May her right paw swelled. I’ve seen that in the past when I’ve given fluids because they tend to go to the lowest point of the body and usually it clears up in a day or two. This did not. Her paw remains a little swollen all the time. The circulation is fine, her paw is the same temperature as her left paw, she licks it every once in a while as if it’s irritating but otherwise doesn’t seem like too big of a deal, but that’s why the extra check into her heart function.

As usual, she has a yeast infection in her ears, suspected result of a possible food sensitivity which I’ve never managed to find, but a short-term medication for that and then a long-term regular treatment to keep her ears clean will help keep it from happening again.

In addition to that, I give her small doses of sub-Q fluids every 3 or 4 days, Miralax in her overnight food, and a very small dose of Gabapentin for her dental discomfort because she’s not in good enough shape for a dental.

So she gets a lot of little tweaks every day. Mimi doesn’t like the fuss, so I try to keep everything as minimal as possible. But when you’re sort of a centenarian plus, and you’ve outlived all your children, a few little tweaks is a small price to pay.

Thanks to those who helped me cover the cost so soon after Morty’s visit, and my work hiatus for my gall bladder surgery!

 

Photos from Previous Years

Meet the Bosses of the Five Little Kittens, 2023

These two girls are clearly the bosses of this little rogue kitten operation. Here’s what they looked like as I walked in to look at them.

The gray kitten has been the most outgoing from the beginning and is becoming quite friendly, while the black kitten is the tiny little bean who only weighed a pound! But they are the first to do everything, always make eye contact, and be handled. All the others are following their lead, learned to love their squeeze-ups through the bars of the crate, then quickly licked it off our fingers, and started to take treats from our fingers and then accept petting. I am instructing the fosters, from the grands who are actually fostering to their daughters and grandchildren, to handle the kittens inside the crate until they are all comfortable with handling, and only then can we let them out. But do all you can while they are in there.

The bosses at play. The kitten on top of the scratcher is the gray girl though she looks black, and the little bean is at the bottom.

Gray girl again, though this is the other one, much easier to tell when you’re in the room. Both of them are innovative! I never realized this was the actual purpose for the other side of the dish!

Normally that dish has dry food in both sides and the kitty dish near it has water in both sides, but they run over and have a bite while they play and the near side of the food dish gets emptied first.

More ears, this time the big fluffy boy was looking out. He’s been significantly more brave and interactive since the squeeze-ups.

And here he is with two of his sisters lounging around.

I tend to stop over at night so I don’t get as many good photos as I’d like to. Once the work is finished here I’ll be getting over there to help introduce them to the room when they are ready and work on getting great adoption photos.

With the reconstruction I’ve been all week trying to get to this post. I visited them on July 3, but have spent all my time since then getting ready for the work, but I’m keeping in touch with their fosters. I had taken several brief videos of their foster feeding them with squeeze-ups and then changing to food on the finger, and they were all into it. I was able to do the same but couldn’t get a video of me, but I did cut together the videos I had. A link is at the bottom.

Here’s that video!

Their foster is giving them squeeze-ups through the bars of the crate, then at the end changes over to using his finger. I did the same, with great success, and the kittens are much more comfortable with us after a few days of this.

You can find all the articles about these kittens by searching “five little kittens”.

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Gifts featuring cats you know! Visit Portraits of Animals

Feline Gifts from Portraits of Animals!

Mariposa stars in “Bath, Interrupted,” here a print on a solid wood cigar box. Read more.

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Copyright

All images and text used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission, although links to your site are more than welcome and are shared. Please ask if you are interested in using and image or story in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of an image or a product including it, check my animal and nature website Portraits of Animals to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.

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© 2009-2025 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

Weekly schedule of features:

Sunday: Essays, Pet Loss, Poetry, The Artist’s Life

Monday: Adoptable Cats, TNR & Shelters

Tuesday: Rescue Stories

Wednesday: Commissioned Portrait or Featured Artwork

Thursday: New Merchandise

Friday: Book Review, Health and Welfare, Advocacy

Saturday: Your Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Living Green With Pets, Creating With Cats

And sometimes, I just throw my hands in the air and have fun!

 

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