Riley the Romantic

Tuesday, January 25, 2011 Hi Nancy, We started Riley in a bonding room, so he would not be overwhelmed, and get used to us, his food dishes, litter box, new toys, and the sites and sounds of his new home. Every day we see progress with him...he is coming out more. From all I have read, these things take time, and we are patient and want him to do things in his time....but each day he is out more and he has started to play a bit, and come out of hiding. From the beginning he took treats from our hands, and seems to love to have his belly rubbed. He is the most loving and gentle cat that I have ever had a privilege to know. He truly is a gentle giant. He has an amazing purr with little squeaks in it, but never once has there been a growl, a hiss, or a swipe. Even with my older cats, when they felt in a strange situation, or a new cat was introduced there would be one or two of those, naturally, but not with Riley. He is just an amazing guy. Last night was a huge step....he laid down on his bed, and I petted him asleep and I believe he is learning to sleep on his bed, where I made him a little tent. He was lying on my lap the other day, and he could not fit his whole body....and he kept curling up to make himself smaller and finally just rolled on his back and wanted his tummy rubbed again. Here are some pictures of him, on his new window perch that we introduced to him. I also bought a natural diffuser that helps reduce stress. It introduces pheremone smells in to the room, similar to what a mommy cat gives off to comfort a kitten. We hope this will help support and ease his adjustment, as well as that of our older guy. We simply love the blessing of this special gentle giant. We are excited to be his parents. We are making a vet visit for next week, but just wanted to get him settled in first. Please let us know if there is something we should be doing differently. I hope the pictures will show you the bigger story. Thank you again so very much. We truly love our big boy, and feel that God brought us this precious soul to nurture and love. I truly never have known such an exceptionally gentle cat. We have yet to hear a meow, but just love his purring squeaks. We will send you the Petsmart paper sometime this week, when we get back over there, with an additional donation. Blessings to you Patricia, Dennis Jazzie, Beanie, Linus and Riley

Ricky & Ricardo -No 'splaining necessary!

8/81/10 - Annette, I just wanted to give you an update on the "boys". They are doing great. They get along really well w/ their big sisters and are growing chubby everyday. I have continued to feed them the canned kitten food once a day and they share a can just to supplement their dry food. They have both been re-named; Ricky is now Radar (because of his big ears) and Ricardo is now Sam aka Sammy. I will send an updated picture when they grow alittle more. They sleep and play together all the time, I am so glad we were able to provide them a home together because I really think they would be lost w/o each other. They are an awesome addition to our family. Thanks again Jen

Rose

Rosie was number 2 in the adoption process. While back at Petsmart one day I walked up to my favorite foster Mom jokingly and asked her if she had any three legged cats. She looked at me and said "yes I do". I was shocked because what were the chances? Here was this beautiful little calico kitten that had been born with a deformed leg. She was sweet and shy and seemed almost embarrassed about her leg. I held her for awhile and thought I was just going to take her home. But, having quite a growing number of pets in my house thought if someone else was interested in her she should go to another home. I found out that she did have an application and that they just needed to check the references. I told her foster Mom that if for some reason things did not work out (just a strange feeling) that I wanted Rosie no questions asked. We said that we would keep in touch. About 2 weeks later I e-mailed her foster Mom and found out that Rosie was coming back to her because of "issues" that Rosie was having at her new home. They wanted to give her a month back with her foster Mom and then she would decide from there what would be best for Rosie. Two weeks later a very pushy lady was off to Harrisburg to pick Rosie up. Rosie was with us for about 3 months when Max entered the scene. Being a rough and tumble tomboy, Max loved to go after the weaker girls. One night while playing very rough with Rosie she fell off of a table and broke her defromed leg as well as tearing all of the muscles and tendons holding it in place. The next day Rosie was in our Vets office having the bad leg removed. She recovered well from the surgery but her spirit was not there. She almost seemed to need something to replace the deformed leg and she became very quiet an withdrawn. Once she was healed up and getting around on three legs we knew that we needed to do something to bring her great spirit back. So, it was off to PetsMart to confer with foster Mom. While there we met another foster Mom who had a tiny kitten that had bonded with a very large older cat. They wanted to have the two cats adopted out together but were not having any luck. I went home and got Rosie. We put Rosie and the kitten in a carrier together and before we knew it, Mom Rosie had taken this tiny little kitten on as her baby and Rosie immediately became herself again. needless to say, Rosie is in her forever home.