David and Susi’s Blog

The move was very easy – for us and for them. The first days I had them in my bathroom to get them used to their new home, now they are already exploring the house and they mostly play in the living room where it is bright all day and where they have enough room to run – and they do! From the living room to the kitchen, into the dining room, further into the hallway and into our big laundry room/office. They really enjoy that big playground that they have now and don’t make any effort any more to get outside. Momma Kitty has seen her babies inside our house (through our glass storm dorm) and it seems like she agrees that we take care of her babies. And the babies are not searching or squeaking for her any more – they have accepted their new Mommy and Daddy – and their new “siblings” Snaps, Laces and Cutie. Especially Cutie is happy to have playbuddies again and sometimes it even looks like he is slipping into the role of being their “Cat Daddy” – he is cleaning them, they sleep some times together – snuggled next to each other.

It is great joy and fun to watch the little ones. They are growing fast right now – especially the runt Mephisto. God, he can eat! He is always the first at the food bowl and he even emptys the plates of the other ones.

Since yesterday all three are starting to spend more time also downstairs in our bedroom suite – especially when David and I are there. It was most likely Cutie who led them downstairs – we had some thunderstorms lately and Cutie is very scared about the thunder. So he hides into our closet downstairs and the little ones follow him, although they obviously aren’t scared a little bit about thunderstorms. In fact yesterday, after David came home from work, we had a big one – but the babies were together with us in the living room, playing, while Cutie was hiding downstairs to get away from thunder and lightening.

And Mephisto was even sleeping next to the open window while it was storming outside…
It looks like all three are very happy in their new home – and we are happy that we have them with us. It was the right decision, although we have more babies inside now than we always wanted. But they need us, they know that they are loved here and that’s what they need for a happy and unstressful life – in comparison to a life outside…… Moritz would agree and I know that he is happy as well with this solution. All three are so alike him that we very often wonder if he had not been their biological Daddy…..

On my family’s front: my daughter has arrived in Dunedin/New Zealand where she will practice at the University hospital there. It’s one of the last big steps for her medicine study.
It is obviously winter time over there – hard to imagine while we have a hot and sunny summer here, spending a lot of time outside on the deck, on the porch or in the swimmingpool. Michaela told me that it’s freezing over there and the house where she and her studying friend are currently living in has no furnace. Life is very expensive over there – even for European people! So they will take advantage of the fact that they will be provided with food and all kinds of other free stuff at the University. Other than that she says that New Zealand is a beautiful country, the people are very nice and helpful and it’s a great experience so far.

My Mom is doing pretty good, she only has a few more radiation therapies left – thankfully, because it’s also very hot and humid in Europe right now.

On the home front: David is searching for a new job and it looks like he’s about to get a new one. I’m keeping my fingers crossed right now, he’s having an interview this morning and I’m waiting for his call to hear the result……….

Life is getting better and we for sure enjoy every single new day.

Tags: Cats, Uncategorized by Susi
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It’s very sad – we lost our baby Moritz ………………

Two days ago in the later afternoon it showed that he had become sick again. He didn’t want his dinner, only a little bit of cat milk. His ears were hot and his inner eyes closed up more and more with every new hour. He made some breathing noise, so we think he started with a cold again, maybe another pneumonia. We tried to make him feel as comfortable as possible, but it was already clear for us, that one day this sad situation will arise.

He slept through the night, even went to the litter box. But he still had no desire to eat or drink. I called the vet’s office in the following morning and although the vet is normally not in on Wednesdays I got a return call two hours later with the message to bring Moritz in at 2 pm. I can’t describe the feelings here that I had these last few hours with Moritz. I held him in my arms, I was lying next to him, I pet him, I just wanted to make him feel good and not alone. David had already said Good Bye in the morning, we knew that this would be Moritz’s last day.

The vet examined him, Moritz was seriously sick and any new treatment would only made him more suffering, which we wanted to avoid. It was hard to make this final decision for him, it was hard to say Good Bye, it was heartbreaking when they took him away….

Moritz, I hope you felt and still know how much you have been loved here although we didn’t have you for a long time, …… how much you are still loved, we hope you have a painfree, funny, wonderful time now – again with your tail. I also hope you are together with my Dad – you died on his birthday. Thanks Moritz, that you waited until it was for sure that the 3 little kittens (are they maybe your kids?) are healthy without that terrible virus that you had been suffering from. Mommy and Daddy promise you to take care of the little ones in the memory of you.

Have a good time on Mommy’s and Daddy’s star……..

We will always love you and always remember you!

Tags: Uncategorized by Susi
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Four weeks have gone by since the last posting – four weeks of fun, joy but also disappointments and sadness.

It turned out that Moritz is seriously sick, first suffering from pneumonia, now he has leukaemia and there is no therapy for him. He will die probably pretty soon. I didn’t know that he was already infected with that special cat-aids-virus when he had pneumonia, I would have had him put to sleep if I had known. It was at that weekend when my friend from Switzerland arrived here, Moritz was about to die – but somehow I managed to get him through. I slept on the floor next to him, fed him with a syringe some special food every other hour, it was a very hard time for me and for him. Two days later the vet finally tested him and we heard about the terrible truth…. My next concern were our three other babies, especially Cutie who had been playing with Moritz all the time and all four sometimes change food bowls and use the same litter boxes. So I took Cutie, Snaps and Laces to the vet and had them tested as well – thankfully all three are not infected and I had them vaccinated immediately.

This picture shows Moritz after he had pneumonia. As shown his ears, nose and paws are not rosy pink any more – that’s because of the leukaemia…..

I also had taken Momma Kitty for spaying to the vet, had her inside in our big bathroom during the first night after the surgery and then I needed to keep her away from her four new babies – they could already eat kitten food, their mother’s milk was not enough to feed them any longer and on top of that the little guys would have been a risk for Momma Kitty’s fresh wound from the surgery. Somehow and with the help of our friend we finally managed to catch all four little guys and I put them into my greenhouse. Unfortunately one of them escaped, but the other three are still inside and doing pretty fine. They meanwhile got used to their new home and love it there. The fourth one is obviously together with Momma Kitty on our porch, I had put up one of these big blue plastic bins (I cut a hole on the side as an entrance) and in fact I saw the little red kitten walking back and forth on our porch the other day. So it looks like Momma Kitty and her little son are living in that bin and that’s a good shelter for them.

This is Momma Kitty

and these are two of her four kittens:

All four babies are boys for sure, the three in my greenhouse will be tested for the cat-aids-virus next Tuesday and depending on the result I will have them vaccinated as well. We will most likely take one of the kittens inside to replace Moritz when he will not be with us any longer and I am desperately searching for new good homes for the rest. I would like to keep them all, but unfortunately this is not possible. I hope we will find a good solution for everybody.

The visit of our friend was a great experience and a lot of fun for us. We had a great time together and it sounds like our friend enjoyed the vacation here. These three weeks went by so quickly and I only hope she will come back visiting us.

Thank you very much for your support during these three weeks! We really appreciate what you had done for us and for all of our babies…..

Dad is doing better these days, he has started eating better again and his depression is also getting better. He joined a geriatric group including some therapy at the local hospital and it looks like this helped him. He is also meeting his girlfriend again once in a while. I don’t know if this will last, we all got more or less used to take every day like it shows up – looks like this is our new “normal” for now. But it’s definitely not a final solution.

David is currently in Germany for another business trip, he will be back home in two days. I can’t wait to have him back, I miss him so much. The first week was not so bad because my friend was still here and we had a lot to do before she flew back to Switzerland. But this second week is really very long and David is also very ready to come home. Two more days, honey!

Tags: Cats by Susi
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