Who’s in care with TinyKittens as of February 28:
♦ Shelly’s basement: Mama Lorelai and her five new kittens (Luke, Paris, Lulu, Sookie, and Lane) are in the nursery
♦ Shelly’s home: Mason and Auracuda are in the main part of the house with the Tiny Tuxies (aka Teens and Cassidy)
♦ Shelly’s sun porch: Salia, Madelyne Pryor, Stanley, and Lorelai’s daughter Rory from a previous litter
♦ TKHQ 2.1: Chester (new entry in colony database, a ginger and white cat) and Horace (also a new entry, a handsome brown tabby)
♦ At Kimsies’: Moustachio (aka Stashie Bumblepants — see Kimsies’ Leo, Bobbi, Bowie & Big Brother Jager Facebook page for updates)
→ Comparison weight chart from the Country Superstars to Lorelai’s Gilmore Girls ←
(Note: The chart now includes all of the TinyKittens litters from 2013 to now whose weight charts I could find. It doesn’t include Molly’s kittens, Sophie’s kittens, the Fairy Kittens, or Petunia’s kittens.)
February 28
- (The following update comes from Shelly’s on-screen update on March 3.) Dr. F consulted with Stanley’s internist and they decided to start him on low-dose insulin and monitor him closely.
February 27
- (The following update comes from Shelly’s on-screen update on March 3.) Gwen took Stanley in to Mountain View because he had lost some weight and they wanted to do some more tests. At the time, he was stable. His glucose came back high, not uncommon for stressed cats. (They’d gotten a high reading before, but also many normal readings.) He had no other typical diabetes symptoms, such as excessive thirst or peeing. They did a fructosamine test, which returns the average of the last two weeks of glucose levels. It was normal. (Dr. F has never seen a cat that had a normal fructosamine test who turned out to have diabetes.) Dr. F will consult with Stanley’s internist.
February 25
- Luke got himself into a bit of a pickle this morning and got stuck between the ledge stairs and the wall. Mama to the rescue and Luke was safe to go back and try to do it again. (Kids! LOL)
- Kimsies transported two intact males (ID currently not known by viewers) from the Happy Forest to TKHQ. They will be neutered tomorrow. She posted some pictures of their traps as well as a picture of Mason and of Aura. (Aura is currently getting eye drops.)
- Lorie N visited with Lorelai and the kittens in the evening. She weighed the kittens, but Shelly’s weight chart hasn’t been updated yet. (The comparison chart has been. The kittens’ weights aren’t recorded very often these days, though, unfortunately.)
February 24
- Kim T posted pictures from her visit to the Happy Forest today.
February 23
- Maddy was adopted today. No audio for the visit and no on-cam tiny suitcases. Salia and Rory tried to work their wiles on the adopters but surprisingly (not) the adopters didn’t take all three. LOL Her new name is Widget and her Facebook page is Widget the Cat.
February 21
- Lorelai spent a large chunk of the night (early morning) carrying the kittens out of their enclosure. (She carryed some directly in to Rory in the other room; the others were too much to carry and just got a lift over the wall. LOL) Lulu was first, followed an hour later by Paris and then Sookie. (Lane and Luke were up on the cat tree and so were left for last.) Shelly returned them when she came in later in the morning.
- Kathryn Jane posted pictures from her visit to the Happy Forest today.
February 20
- Rory was brought down to hang out with Lorelai and the kittens. She mostly hung out in the outer room. (Shelly had left the sliding door open so the adults could come and go.)
- Gwen trapped Quarren at the Happy Forest this morning because they had noticed she was having trouble breathing. She was found to be in heart failure and passed away peacefully at Mountain View. (Kim T got a couple of lovely shots of Quarren during her February 17 visit to the colony.)
February 19
- Kim T posted pictures from her visit to the Happy Forest today.
February 18
- Kimsies posted videos from her visit to the Happy Forest. (Today is Family Day in Canada and, for the first time ever, British Columbia is celebrating that on the same day as the rest of the country.) Rollins is showing a lot of fur loss, like Riska did.
- Tim Boone’s uploaded a couple of videos recorded from the live streams.
February 17
- Tim Boones posted a video from the live stream of Shelly and Kimsies visiting the Stan Lee cats on the sun porch.
- Kim T posted pictures from her visit to the Happy Forest today.
February 16
- After a few days of kittens easily escaping the nest enclosure and Lorelai trying to carry heavy kittens out of the nest, Shelly decided it was time for the big expansion. The kittens now have access to a large chunk of the room, with room for zoomies and things to climb. Mom seems much happier, as do the kittens. Tim Boones posted a video recording from the live stream of part of the expansion.
- Kathryn Jane posted pictures and video from her visit to the Happy Forest today.
February 14
- Lane continues to go walkabout, getting out of the nest on her own. (At one point, Lorelai tried to open the clear hatch cover in order to let Lane back in, but failed.)
- Kathryn Jane posted pictures and video from her visit to the Happy Forest today.
February 13
- The back hatch opening in the nest is now covered by a clear smokey plastic cover, so kittens on either side can look in/out but can’t get through. Lane went walkabout and could be seen though the hatch.
- Lorelai is on new GI food for her issues, and Shelly thinks she looks less engorged.
- Kim T posted pictures from her visit to the Happy Forest today.
February 12
- Lorelai has been feeling a bit unwell lately, throwing up. (She’s had GI issues all along, like the kittens, but it’s just flaring up more now.) Her temperature was up in the late afternoon (down a bit later in the evening) and her breasts are engorged–she may be trying to wean the kittens or perhaps she’s not nursing them as much because she hasn’t felt well. Shelly has started her on Clavamox. Later in the evening, Shelly also gave her some anti-nausea meds and will be starting Lorelai on a five-day course of a different, really thorough dewormer.
- Lulu hasn’t been eating enough and is still having some GI issues (vomiting and diarrhea) so Shelly supplemented her with syringe feeding.
- Tim Boones posted some video from Suzanne’s visit with the kittens today.
February 11
- The kittens have torn down more of the wallpaper covering the camera bay in the nest and have made the camera bay their new favourite napping spot.
February 10
- Shelly was on unexpected clean up duty tonight after Rory knocked a dish off the chair upstairs.
- Luca and Cache’s human, Linda, posted some pictures from the new TKHQ 2.1, taken at the snuggler party.
February 8
- Per Shelly’s update yesterday, BA-03 and BA-22 should be getting their spay surgeries today.
- Shelly posted a cute video of Stanley playing. The YouTube video also includes a lengthy description of the updates she gave during her visit on cam last night. (See February 7 entry here and/or click through to read Shelly’s update on YouTube.)
- Kimsies posted pictures from the Happy Forest of the fresh straw and new tarps that Willow Sarin’s daddy Trev brought out. (He also brought a new and improved bridge for over the ditch.) ♥
February 7
- Now that they have the room to house them temporarily, TinyKittens has gone back to the Bradner colony to start trapping for TNR again. They’ve trapped two females of the eight or nine cats left to TNR there–BA-03 and BA-22. Ultrasounds show that neither cat is pregnant so they will be spayed tomorrow and returned back to the colony after they’ve recovered.
- Also, TinyKittens will now be able to start TNRing again at the Happy Forest — there are a number of un-speutered cats there now (including lots of adorable gingers).
- Stanley went for his follow-up visit with the internal specialist today. He had x-rays, an ultrasound, and other tests. (Shelly brought him back at 19:35 — she’d tried to give Maddie some gabapentin so that Maddie could be Stanley’s support kitten on the way home, but Maddie was having NONE of that and Stanley had to make the trip home solo.)
- They still don’t know what’s causing his GI issues and smaller stature. They’ve ruled out metabolic disorders.
- They’ve had encouraging results from the coronavirus titers. Stanley is completely negative so he’s never been exposed to the virus. That doesn’t 100% rule out FIP as a diagnosis, but it makes it less likely. Everything else they’ve tested for so far has been negative; they should get the results back from a few tests next week.
- Now they have to start looking at the more rare stuff. It could also be lymphoma–the vet doesn’t think it looks like it but can’t rule it out yet. Stanley’s intestinal walls are still very thick. They’d expected that would go down as the medications kicked in and he started feeling better. (There’s possibly a very small improvement but not nearly was they’d expected.)
- There’s a rare bacteria that lives in the intestinal walls that presents like FIP but is treatable. They would have to do a very invasive full-wall biopsy to determine if that’s the problem here. They’re going to wait another three or four weeks and do another ultrasound; then, maybe, do the biopsies.
- They discovered that Stanley’s heart appears enlarged, which surprised everyone. They don’t know what that means; the vet can’t connect the enlarged heart with the GI issues. Could be nothing. No one can hear a heart murmur. He’ll have to be scheduled in for an echocardiogram.
- Otherwise, he’s doing pretty well. He’s eating better and is more active. He has an occasional softer poop but that’s it other than that he’s small for his age.
- Aura has a some “stuff” going on with her “snot rockets”, but Shelly didn’t elaborate.
- Willow Sarin‘s human Trev was at the Happy Forest today bringing fresh straw. He found a ginger boy who had passed away peacefully in the shelter. TK volunteer Lorie N. and her husband laid him to rest with the other Happy Forest cats who have passed on. He was given the name Lucas. ♥ Kathryn Jane has painted a stone to go on his grave.
- Dave the Fireman visited with the teens upstairs on the sun porch tonight (with audio on for once).
February 5
- HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT!!! TinyKittens finally has a new home, though it isn’t quite ready for them to move into yet. The house is very near to Shelly’s house (next door, in fact) and is a lovely big home with loads of character.
(A side note: I like to torment myself by getting real estate alerts for properties in the Fraser Valley area that I couldn’t possibly afford. In late September 2018, I got an alert for the house that just became the new TKHQ. It sticks in my mind because I thought then that it was perfect for TKHQ — lots of character, lots of individual rooms in a nice large house, even a downstairs suite for a caretaker or something, a decent-sized lot, a big open porch. And so close to the old TKHQ and Shelly’s house. I even saved the ad just in case, you know, I won the lottery. LOL The inside staircase is very unique and recognizable, and I was so excited to see that staircase in the announcement video.) - Shelly posted a video of Mason with Auracuda.
- She also uploaded a video of the Gilmore Girls being super cute.
- Kim T. posted some pictures from her visit to the Happy Forest today.
- The expanded nest includes a litter box and some yummy wet food and water. Lulu has taken a liking to the wet food. (I’m sure the others tried it, but Lulu is the one I watched just chowing down.) The video below is from early this morning. (The video was just directly uploaded to this site, it isn’t on YouTube.)
- For some reason, the kittens aren’t being weighed daily (or even every other day), unlike with previous litters. The kittens are thriving so no worries there, but it does make for an incomplete comparison chart for those of us with a little OCD about completeness. 😉
February 3
- It was expansion time for the Gilmore Girls. They haven’t really made use of the expanded area — that’s normal at this age, and the next day or two should see them getting out there and into trouble.
- Shelly had a nice visit with Maddie, Rory, Salia, and Stanley, to try to encourage them to play with each other.
February 2
- Kathryn Jane posted videos and pictures from her visit to the Happy Forest today.