Thursday, April 15, 2010

Smiles :)

You all never cease to amaze me. :) :) All the wonderful words that have flown in are soooo... ♥♥♥♥♥♥
Plain and simple!!
Thank you Lisa! SpacePaws has been such a wonderful supporter of us all along... and seriously, they do such terrific work! (amongst MANY of you!) You are all so terrific :) :)  (Hobbes House had a lot of advice for me too! Go visit them if you haven't yet!)

Today, I've been feeling good. I re-read my post from yesterday, and I apologize, as I realize I appeared to come across as quite 'down'. But, really, I was somewhat happy to know that these two wonderful perky boys weren't alone... not by far!

CH really isn't as bad as it seems, as long as you are an owner who is willing to care enough about them being a little less coordinated. One must be dedicated that they may not ever fully walk, but, from my readings, there are so many wonderful people out there ~soooo many~ that just have hearts of champions.

I talked to the wonderful lady at Petsave earlier today, and as I somewhat expected, something came up this evening which drew her from her visit. BUT! She promised to be by tomorrow evening to check in on things.
Unfortunately, one of her comments were along the lines of: "they may not be worth saving"... due to all the denial of animals she has seen.....
But, regardless, we may take whatever measure to ensure these wonderful boys get the loving lives they deserve (aka, if that's the plan with the shelter, we will take matters of adoption into our own hands ~ so no worries!).

I feel so much better knowing that our kitties aren't alone. They may have disabilities, but they are still as awesome as ever. We're only going to do whatever we can to make sure they get the best support.
We've both been still working with Wesley with the Physiotherapy, and we're seeing results. Albeit, he's never going to walk perfectly, but darnit! He is certainly getting a grip on his gait! Balance is the issue, and well...
HE ATE FROM THE BOWL tonight!!! With my assistance, holding his body, but... He did it!! He did it!! I was overjoyed. (Oh, and 'gottagopractice', thanks! We did take your advice and move him to a mix of KMR 2nd, KMR liquid, and chicken pate. It did say that we could use water in place of KMR, but we will go with this for now anyway!)

We've decided to bring the cage upstairs. The two boys are in there together now.
Our decision is based on them not learning litter and food on their own. So in the cage they have both without Rosie, but with the watchful eye of her. (Rosie would always use their box and throw litter everywhere, and eat all the food we wanted them to eat... this is great alternative). We will open it up again so that L can nurse when needed, too. Because, as suggested from Forever Foster, it may be good to let him keep going until she is -totally- done with him).
We will let them out, especially L, often.. to roam, "walk" and continue their normal lives... but for now, we want them to learn the basics of eating and bathrooming (we have had a lot of instances where Wes is going pee and poo all over, cause he has no skills to get to the litter ~ FYI, Anyone with CH Litter/Feeding tips, We encourage to send this way, Please!! :):):):))

Just a couple shots of the cage in the room... Hopefully, with luck, they will begin to adapt.

12 comments:

  1. Oh, kittykye, we're just so glad you're taking such good care of Wesley and L and Rosie. Yes, indeed, one of the things I love about our blog community is the constant reminder that there are an awful lot of really nice, caring people in the world! And we're very, very, very glad to see you smiling again!
    Hugs'n'headbuts from B'more!
    L

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  2. Hehe, hugs'n'headbuts, that's too cute, I love it! I'm glad you're spirits are up Lynds, I'm sure with your help and perseverance they'll continue to adapt & even if it's not at 100%, it's life and it'll be great no matter what! :)
    Keep up the great work!! :)

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  3. Really proud of you and Doug, the kittens had the misfortune of not being normal, but the luck of having found you two great kids.
    My hat goes off to you both..:)))

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  4. Hi, I tend to just "lurk" around the internet looking at cute cat blogs and not comment but I felt the need to with your current situation. From what I've read about animals with Cerebellar Hypoplasia they can live productive, normal lives while just being a bit (or more than a bit) wobbly. I am attaching a link below from Best Friends Animal Society about a cat they took care of who had Cerebellar Hyperplasia (not sure if there is a difference between hyper and hypoplasia. If you'd like you can check out their approach to dealing with the cat (who has since been adopted). They may also have someone you can contact with questions about the condition (not sure about that). It is a fairly well known animal sanctuary and is located in Utah. Stay strong and enjoy the "differences" in these kitties who are special in their own right.

    http://www.bestfriends.org/guardianangel/index.cfm?csid=4812&csii=4813&csit=Set

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  5. best friends is the people who do dogtown on animal planet! one of my faves! i WANT to work there!!! i think there was a dog on there once with ch, but they didn't go into it much - it was a revisit episode where we got to see how adoptees have been ding in their new homes.

    i love when the kitties sink into that super plush bed. and i love rosie's peek in the last pic! i see she's moving on up..to the desk shelf. :p does she let you pet her now?

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  6. I am *so* happy you are feeling more positive about it.

    You are really showing why it takes a special kind of person to do this sort of work. Loving cats is one thing, but being strong and maybe even stubborn enough to work through tougher times is what sets you apart.

    Yay Lynds! (And a yay for Doug too!) We are all cheering you on. :-)

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  7. Yay for Wesley eating from the bowl! It's a big step! I can only imagine all of us cheering when the kittens master the litterbox! ;-)

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  8. Thanks for the link Rachel! I'll check that out tonight at home!
    Angie, she does! I mean, she's still a little weary of me, and I get the occasional hiss from her when I first enter the room ~ but I just smile and say her name, and she completely relaxes. I even gave her a full brushing the other day, and she seemed to really like it (she's shedding like crazy right now!).
    Deleilan, starting yesterday, since he's been in the cage, with a little bit of assistance from the both of us, he has now officially peed in the box TWICE! His method is to hang his chin over the side, spread his legs really far, and lean slightly on our hand or the other side of the box. I'm sure he's going to figure it out completely on his own soon. Next step is to give a poop too ;) (oh, I totally did not just say that! ~ haha)

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  9. Hello! I've been quietly reading your blog, and I wanted to let you know that a friend of mine has a kitty with CH, and she ADORES him. If I lived a few hours closer, I would scoop up one of those sweeties and bring him home! Sadly, 12 hours by road is a little far. :-/ If you don't find anyone up there, let me know. I'm sure I can talk the husband into a road trip ;-)

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  10. Kittykye
    I have a cat with ch. Hers is a mild case but she has made great strides. Litter and food can be accessed easier by putting it into a cookie sheet with slightly raised sides. They can get into and out of it easier. Also they benefit from being around other cats who do not have the problem. They need a reason to try to do things. Another cat helps. I am also sending a link to another ch website. www.chkittyclub.com. It is a wonderful site.
    Good luck

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  11. What a thoughtful link, Lyn!! Just got back from taking in some of the stories!

    Just stopped by to give you ('n'Doug'n'the babies) a virtual hug for today. Know you're in our thoughts... a lot!

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  12. For our CH kitty Sonya, having high sides on the litterbox is important so she can lean against them. There needs to be a lower side to get into the box, of course, like this pan: http://tinyurl.com/6mlhvl

    If your kitties are lolling to both sides, I wonder if a "chute" would work better. It would have to be open at both ends, because they might not be able to turn around. If you took a long, skinny plastic tote and cut entry/exit holes at both ends? Sounds a bit weird, I'm brainstorming here... :)

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