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Yesterday I went to the foster home where the three little kittehs are staying with one of the Defensa Felina volunteers, to finally meet them all in person and decide which cat was going to become Azar’s new buddy. And oh, what a decision to make! They were all adorable. Nog and I took turns cuddling each one, but the more we swapped kittens the harder it was getting to not want to take all of them home. So we put them down and watched them walking around a bit and then we put them in their little basket. And while the other two slept the little orange kitteh decided he still wanted to play…
Apparently he is the runt of the litter. All three were found out in the rain in a piece of construction tubing. Their mother had stopped feeding them and they were all in pretty bad shape with runny eyes and sinus infections. Livia has had them at home since then (she lives with her family and three other beautiful cats) and the kittens were treated with antibiotics and nursed back to health. The runt is the only one to still have a bit of congestion and weepy eyes, and he is noticably thinner and smaller than the other two. But he also seemed a lot more curious and interested in playing and especially climbing onto human shoulders to have a different look at things. So I guess you know what happened.
Yes, the grey & white kitten was the prettiest, and the black & white one the most robust. But there was something about this little inquisitive guy that finally stole my heart. And of course Nog was always partial to him. So if all goes according to plan, we should have a new resident at casa az next week. Livia has to check with the vet on Monday, to see if the kitten still needs to be on meds. If so, I’m told I can still take him and keep on with the treatment, but they’ll want to give him another check-up and put in a chip before handing him over. And he’ll get his first vaccination shot a bit later, once the meds have cleared his system.
I am sooooo excited and can’t wait to have the little guy here. I’m hoping we’ll get all the stuff sorted early in the week. And of course I’ll need a name for him. Any suggestions?
I’m thinking of calling him Tapa…
casa azahar 
Awww…. how adorable.
He reminds me of Jack the Cat, who my daughter took care of during her last six months in China (he was adopted to a new family a couple of days before we left).
He looks as a Merlin to me – just don’t ask me why.
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Call him Toybox, that’s a pretty name (egocentric? Who’s egocentric?) Or Wolfgang Busi von Drachenfels (if I remember well, Boris Vian had a cat called like that).
I once shared my flat with a stray cat for a few days. At some point I started to call him Archimedes, because of his fascination for water and taps. And one day he left never to come back (in all likelihood he just went back to his rightful servants, er, I mean owners). And another one (a street cat) I called ‘Jean-Paul’ because he had an eye like Jean-Paul Sartre’s. Amusingly, I think Jean-Paul was a female.
Ah well, eventually the cat will let you know his name. And maybe you will end up calling him ‘el gato’ or ‘bloody cat’ or ‘le chat’ like anywhere else in the world.
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They are all cuties, i would have adopted all three of them at once!
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Our ginger cat is called Amber which causes endless confusion because people automatically assume that Amber is a she… “She” is a “he”.
Most of our cats were called after T.S. Eliot’s cats loooong before “Cats” the musical was conceived. My first cat (well, there were two, Henry and Midge, when I was born but Henry was poisoned and Midge disappeared for a few weeks and Mom got took in a cat who had been dumped in from of a farm and when Midge reappeared with a batch of kittens, he drove her off) was named Skimmie, short for Skimble Shanks. He lived to a ripe old age but was run down by a car (run down, not just run over).
We finally ran out of Cats names and ended up calling the last in that series Eliot (spelled Elliot) in honour of T.S.
There was Mable (as in “Mable, get off the table. The money’s for the beer!”, Chum-chum (she chose that name), Sam (such a lovely, slow fellow), Tika who was a neighbour’s cat who when she first came to us had licked all her fur off from the waist down because of stress (The fur grew back and she went back for a while but came back permanently naked from the waist down again — what a sweet tiny thing she was! She loved my Dad and despite his grumbling, he loved her too). Macavity was my cat who appeared shortly after Skimmie was killed. Chum-chum was her daughter. Macavity brought Elliot home, just before she died and Elliot brought Sam home, just before HE died.
There were many more over 30-odd years….
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he’s very cute
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I’ve always been partial to marmalade cats. 🙂
When picking a cat/kitten, go for the curious and active ones. They’ll be more fun for you and you’ll be more interesting to them.
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three cheers for the orange one!
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Wouldn’t the cat hmself be more aptly named something like Tapavore? I’m not sure he should be named after a nom…
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How very exciting! I’m afraid that when I was young our cats got named things like “The Big Orange Cat” and “The Black Mamma Cat”. Later on we had Kitty Ball, KB for short, who got named that because our dog thought she was a wonderful selfl-animated dog toy and we were constantly rescuing her from him and saying “No, no, Opus. The Kitty is not a ball.” We had a marmalade cat who was the runt of the litter who was named “The Insignificant Cat” because she was so small. Then she started having kittens and every litter was sets of identical twins so she became “The Significant Cat” and finally “Sniffy.”
In my experience, cats often name themselves. Get the baby home and his name will become evident.
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Look out! I have a friend who has a cat with “a bit of congestion and weepy eyes” and that turned out to be feline herpes!
http://www.animalhealthchannel.com/rhinotracheitis/index.shtml
http://www.cat-world.com.au/feline-herpesvirus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feline_viral_rhinotracheitis
The poor little guy (named ‘Bailey’) has constant discharge and my friend is constantly cleaning his eyes and nose up.
I really, really, really hope this isn’t the case, he sounds good for you both. 🙂
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Wow, that’s scary! Especially because it could infect Azar, which would be awful.
But thanks for passing on the info. I’ll ask the volunteer to check with the vet about this. Apparently they give me the kitten’s little health log booklet that tells me what he’s been tested for and which vaccinationes he’s been given.
Like you, I hope this won’t be the case. I’d really like to pick him up on Tuesday.
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I’d call him ‘Noninge’ because that’s how my little sister pronounced ‘orange’ when she was little, and it kinda stuck in my memory to the point where I actually have to think before saying the word now!
He looks adorable – they all do. I really hope he’s okay to come home with you on Tuesday.
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It’s a good thing you told me about your friend’s cat, zoomer. The Defensa Felina women said they were going to call their vet this morning to arrange the check-up, vaccinations, chip, etc for the kitten. I still haven’t heard back from them but I’m assuming that their vet will (or should) tell me the same thing that my vet just did.
He said that such a small kitten with those symptoms, especially one found in the street, is most likely carrying FHV. He also said that before I bring any new kitten into the house I have to make sure it’s tested for feline leukemia & AIDS (which I was told would be the case by Defensa Felina) and that it was extra risky bringing in a kitten who had recently been sick. Apparently testing positive for either leukemia or FHV doesn’t have to be a huge problem if it is going to be the only cat in the house, but both diseases are highly contagious, even when the cat is asymtomatic.
I am so sad about this because, after finally deciding on the little orange kitteh, I realised he had already found a place in my heart. But I can’t put Azar at risk, there’s absolutely no question about that. Dammit!
I was so lucky when I brought Azar home because, although his front leg was busted up and he was full of worms (that was easily taken care of) he was quite healthy. Didn’t even have fleas. Back then I never even thought about taking him in to get tested. Duh!
Anyhow, I am going to start looking around elsewhere because I’m not sure about this cat shelter any more. When I was there the other day I noticed that many of the younger cats were sneezing and had weepy eyes and I put it down to the cold and damp, having never heard of FHV until yesterday. But I would now bet that most of the cats there are FHV carriers. It seems very irresponsible of these people that they didn’t say anything about this to me, knowing that I already had a cat at home. I mean, what if I’d taken Indira? And even when I was with the kittens on Saturday I asked if what they had might be contagious and was assured that it was only an infection. They should have known there was at least a chance of it being FHV, right?
So, I am glad that I avoided a possibly tragic situation here – thanks again, zoomer – but I still feel very sad about it. That little orange guy was too adorable.
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Oh, I’m so sorry to hear this. What it tells me is that probably every cat at that shelter is infected. How is this a good thing?
You WILL find the right kitten.
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😦
Sorry to hear that az, but it’s sensible to act this way. No benefit for any cat to get sick because of an ill newcomer. This is one of the reasons I didn’t volunteer as a foster home for the cat shelter.
I do hope you will find another pal for Azar soon.
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They all break your heart. It’s awful how the bonding is instant, but I imagine that’s how some people get out of their depth.
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Thanks guys. I feel stupidly heartbroken. Especially since this gatito was supposed to be for Azar. But of course I wanted to find one that would suit him well, hence small and sweet. And playful. And this one sure fit the bill.
I had a new class with an old student today – Manolo has finally returned! And he says his daughter is always talking about her friends’ cats having kittens, so maybe that would be a better bet. Instead of paying 60 euros to the cat shelter I could use it to have my own vet do the tests.
Oh, and Manolo also told me he is hardly using his Málaga apartment these days, and said I was welcome to go down any weekend I liked. Maybe I could try doing tapas tours there too … 🙂
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Maybe your kitten is waiting for you in Malaga!
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I typed up a comment earlier, but somehow managed to get distracted before posting it. But now I see that things have changed. How sad! Poor little kitties. And poor you, breaking your heart again.
Those photos are adorable, though. I find that one in the lower left corner, with the 3 kitties curled up together, particularly gets me.
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