Nothing much happened today

And so this post won't be very significant or necessarily interesting.  Apologies!  Sometimes we are really boring people...

I've learned something - there is such a thing as planting too much lettuce.  When I planted mine I had no idea just how much we'll end up with.  I don't think we'll ever use it all - even if we had salad for breakfast, lunch and supper (and then some more in between...).  Anybody wanting some lettuce leaves?

Saw the cutest little kittens yesterday.  I used to volunteer at the SPCA with the lady 2 houses away from us.  She sometimes fosters kittens and keeps them at her mother-in-law's house next to our house and so when she saw me at swimming on Friday she invited us to come and have a look.  Oh my goodness!  So cute!  There is a mother cat and her 4 kittens who are only about 2 weeks old now.  In about a week we'll go visit again to see how they are doing.

And now I'll leave you with this photo and message I saw on Facebook - how true!

Source

"As long as we have memories, yesterday remains; as long as we have hope, tomorrow awaits, and as long as we have friendship, each day is never a waste." -Heart Matters

Hope

Last week I had to go to the SPCA (a different day to the my volunteer day) because Looey had a knotted bit of fur underneath her one leg and it was knotted right against the skin.  We didn't want to cut it because we were worried we would hurt her, so I asked Tracey if she could help by shaving that little bit.  So off Caitlyn and I went with Looey.

When we got there I asked Tracey about the kitten I was helping a few days earlier.  And Tracey told me that they named her Hope.  And that Hope was doing really well.  She was getting antibiotics for the sniffles, she was alert and eating well (and gaining 20g of weight a day) and best of all she was well enough to go to a foster's house until she was ready to be desexed and put up for adoption.  And more good news - the person who found her (she was apparently dumped on the side of one road) wanted to adopt her once she was ready for adoption.  That really made me so incredibly happy that this kitten is doing so well.  She still has a bit of a way to go to get her body weight to where it should be, but she is just doing so incredibly well.   It was so good to see her while we were there.

Isn't she just the cutest little kitten?

This is what it is all about...

On a Tuesday I volunteer at our local SPCA.  I have been doing this for a while now and really enjoy it. 

Sure enough most of the time I end up helping with laundry or filling cat litter boxes with new cat litter, sometimes getting a cage ready, sometimes packing food bowls away and sometimes I even get to spend some time with some of the kittens or cats or rabbits or whatever other animals may have come in.  Not so long ago I got to help out when Tracey the receptionist / office lady had to feed these 2 or 3 week old kittens with tiny little bottles and another time I got to feed these teeny-weeny tiny little birds that didn't even have feathers yet and we had to feed them every 20 minutes (making me realise that I'm truly happy I'm not a mommy bird :-) ).

I don't get anything out of this other than the satisfaction that I'm helping a great charity and that whatever help I give makes a difference in their ability to run the shelter.

So this morning I got there as usual and as I got there Tracey passed me this bundled up blanket and asked that I hold it against my chest for a while.  Turned out inside was a small little black kitten.  This kitten must be just over 6 weeks old and came in yesterday.  It had the sniffles and was overrun by fleas.  They treated the fleas and because of the sniffles put the kitten in one of our isolation rooms so that it would not infect any of the other cats.  This morning when Tracey got there this kitten was completely unresponsive and very cold (no body heat).  It was still breathing and as I held it I could see it at times having laboured breathing, other times seemed almost no breathing.  Its gums were white (a sign that it was anaemic - probably because a huge flea infestation can kill a kitten, its pupils were not reacting to the light.  And she felt convinced that it was busy dying.  Tracey tried feeding it with a syringe at one point, but it didn't do anything, so I sat there watching it breath, softly talking to it and just making sure it would be as warm and comfortable as possible.

Probably an hour or hour and a half later it seemed more alert.  Tracey gave it some more food and it actually swallowed it and licked its lips.  It started feeling warmer (with its body heat).  It started purring when I stroked it.  It is still very sick with its sniffles, but for now, it pulled through. 

It was such a rewarding feeling to know that I was able to help this kitten today. And this is what helping the SPCA is all about!

The things we got up to in the holidays (mostly a photo story)

The last few days were truly relaxing. Up to Christmas and even the few days afterwards that Terence's brother was here, was still pretty busy. Not only with Christmas preparations, but also showing Alistair some of the things New Zealand has to offer. After Alistair left, we kept it quiet and low-key. We didn't really go to the shops other than to find me a new cell phone, a new oven light bulb and to buy groceries and I must say I really enjoyed the slower pace of the last few days - very relaxing.

Every morning we got to sleep in. I have wonderful kids! Bianca likes to sleep in a bit too and each morning we'd wake up and Caitlyn would be quietly playing next to the side of our bed, patiently waiting for us to get up. I really don't envy parents whose kids get up and demand attention from 5am each morning!

Apart from this we took the kids to the park where they got to ride their scooters, Bianca got more practice with her roller blades and they even got to play at the park for a little bit.

Then we went to Staglands which was lots of fun and we got to see many cool animals.

And we've gone for walks. Caitlyn and Terence did shorter walks, but Bianca and I enjoy walking for around 5km. All the way to her school, around her school and back home again. The best time for us is around 7pm and it is really peaceful. You can hear the birds as they go back to their nests for the night (even though it still looks really light) and I love seeing all the pretty gardens and all the trees. Bianca would take her scooter and scoot ahead while I follow - I love that she is able to do this! And when I read on some of my South African Facebook friends' statusses that they never go for walks because it is not safe - then I feel truly blessed that we can do this without a worry in the world.

Today it was back to reality and to our normal routines to some extend. Caitlyn's one daycare started again today and Terence was back at work and Bianca and I mostly amused ourselves. We visited the library where we borrowed a bunch of books and a highlight was spending time with 5 little kittens at one of the SPCA fosters who live really close to us. It was sooooo much fun :-)

Please adopt me - I promise to be very very good...

Update on our kittens

This morning we were woken up around 5:50am by a loud screech. I jumped up shouting "bird" to Terence. Sigh! Prince Charming caught a bird and brought it inside. Not a nice way to wake up. So Terence had to get up to go and see what was happening. He got to the lounge and there was one of those black birds with the yellowish beaks sitting high up above the curtains and Prince Charming... sitting high up above the curtains trying to get to the bird. Terence opened all the windows and thankfully the bird managed to fly outside much to Prince Charming's disgust.

For those of you new to the blog we recently adopted these two kittens from the SPCA. Well not really recently, we got them when they were around 4 months old. They are now around 8 months old and not quite as little anymore. When we moved to Wellington we finally got permission from our landlord to have pets. No dogs, but cats would be fine. So we decided to adopt 2 kittens from the SPCA. We didn't tell Bianca because we wanted to keep it a surprise. For so long she's been wanting a pet of her own, but of course throughout her leukemia treatment she wasn't allowed to have a cat and it is hard getting permission for a dog. We then told her that we were going to visit the SPCA and she could donate some toys to the animals. We explained how some animals don't have any toys and they would be so happy. We got there and while the kids were busy looking at the kittens we chatted to the people there and made arrangements to adopt 2 kittens. We then told the kids that we were going to take 2 kittens home and so Bianca adopted Prince Charming and Caitlyn chose Looey.

The kittens are doing very well. Prince Charming is our little hunter, much to our frustration when he catches birds or rats and then proudly comes to show it off inside the house. We don't mind so much when it is bugs that he hunts and certainly it is so amusing when he catches leaves and proudly comes to show us :-). Looey is our little fly catcher which is great because we simply hate flies. So she is definitely earning her keep :-). Looey doesn't like to be picked up / sit on your lap unless she chose to. She loves being brushed and she loves to follow me around the house. When I work at the computer she will often come and sit on my lap.

Prince Charming is so gentle (both kittens actually are and tolerate it well when Bianca carries them around). He is quite vocal and will often chat away "telling us all about his day". Unlike Looey he enjoys walking around outside. Looey also enjoys the outside, but is happier staying inside more often.

Here are two photos I took of them today:

Doing my bit for the animals

The past few months I have been helping out as volunteer at the local SPCA. I only go on Tuesday mornings and usually help out with whatever needs to be done. The group of volunteers that arrive early i.e. 8am as well as the ones who arrive late afternoon usually do routine jobs like changing cat litter boxes, washing food bowls, cleaning out animal cages / areas and so on. Volunteers like me who arrive after they dropped off kids at school (around 9:30 or so) do whatever is required. So I usually help with doing laundry like the blankets and towels they use, re-filling cat litter boxes after they have dried and putting them on the shelf ready for the next morning, sometimes I spend time with some of the animals because socialisation is a really important part as well. And when animals are brought in / adopted during the day I would help with getting cages ready or clearing it out. Little jobs like that that makes a difference.

Last week there were the cutest, tiniest kittens I have ever seen. They must have been around 2 weeks old (I think their mum was killed by a car) and they still needed to be bottle-fed every 3 - 4 hours. And when they drink from the tiny little bottle, their little ears would move forwards and backwards. So cute! I wish I had my camera there on the day, but unfortunately I did not.

The week before somebody brought in 3 little kittens around 5 or 6 weeks old. They were born under a house or something and their mum was nowhere to be seen. So usually kittens like these would be trapped, brought to the SPCA and they would then spend time with them to socialise them to get them used to people, they would desex them as soon as they are big enough and they microchip them. If the kittens are too old to get tame enough, then they would be released again where they were found, but at least won't be able to have kittens of their own and so prevent any further problems. These 3 kittens are currently at a foster home. Basically somebody keeps them at their house, they feed them, spend lots of time with them and when they are happy to be around people, then they go back to the SPCA for adoption. Bianca and I have been visiting these 3 kittens and they are so cute. Meet Mindy, Mandy and Monty -

Bianca had a great time playing with the kittens. Especially Mindy who is by far the most playful of the 3:


Mandy is so beautiful, but she is still a bit shy and not quite sure about people. Hopefully soon she will be just as playful as Mindy:


And Monty is the smallest of the 3. He is quite happy to sit on your lap and purr loudly.

Hopefully on Thursday we'll be able to go and see them again.

Today I got to meet the cutest, tiniest little birds. I'm not sure where they were found, but maybe their nest fell out of a tree or something, I don't know. They are so small that they don't have any feathers yet and each time you open the box (with air holes) where they were kept they would open their little beaks really wide begging for food. It was so cool to feed them - basically they are currently being fed on some wet cat food with bits of small meat - 2 pieces every 20 - 30 minutes (from early morning when the sun comes up to around 7:30pm). All I know is that I'm sure glad I'm not a Mommy bird, to feed your babies every 20 minutes the WHOLE day, wow!


"Food, food, food... starving, starving, starving!!!!"


Helping out at the SPCA is a really rewarding job. It feels great to help make a difference!