Voids

My first two voids came from Hawaii as a last minute foster change.  Their original foster had an emergency and needed to pass Dorothy (light collar) and Toto (red collar) to me the day after they arrived in California.  Despite their long flight and multiple transfers from intake to foster to foster, they were two of the calmest and most mellow kittens I'd ever met!!  My other fosters, the noodles, were a little jealous of the attention I was giving the voids and spent a few hours growling and stalking them.  But Toto and Dorothy ignored their bad manners and curled up in my lap to accept all the love they received from me and my friendly housecats. 

I didn't have much time to spend with them though, because the very next day we hosted my extended family's holiday gift exchange at my house.  We spent the morning cooking and cleaning before over 20 people (young adults to seniors) arrived, bringing excited chaos and some EXCESSIVELY loud voices.  In addition, my nephew brought his 2 kittens, Hanabi and Obsidian, formerly Ash and Flame of my Fire Pits litter.  Despite the abundance of strange humans and cats in their new foster home, Toto wandered downstairs, followed by sister Dorothy.  They quickly discovered the joys of chasing down wrapping paper and causing trip hazards by darting in the path of anyone who tried to move.  Then they plopped themselves onto any human that would hold them and napped for hours.  

Toto and Dorothy loved everyone and everything they encountered.  They insisted on sleeping in my armpit or wrapped around my head and always wanted to be near me.  I fell in love and would have been very tempted to keep them if my house wasn't already over my husband's cat limit.  I wondered if they were bonded, as they LOVED to spend time together.  But they didn't mind being separated, and also seemed content with me or my other pets if they couldn't find their sister, so I didn't list them as a bonded pair (though the adoption team did advertise them as a bonded pair, which was ok with me... it might take them longer to find a home but they'd be happier together).  

I did have to take them to another foster a few days before they were scheduled to go to Petsmart for adoption, as I had a trip planned.  I was both devastated that I wouldn't get a last goodbye, but relieved because dropping them off is still emotionally draining.  But though they got a clear health check in Hawaii and also showed NO signs of anything when they were in my home and in the other foster's home, after spending a day at Petsmart, one of the volunteers noticed a small patch of fur missing on Dorothy.  They were pulled from Petsmart and started on medication for ringworm, even though the spot didn't light up under blacklight.  Another foster agreed to take them during their treatment phase. Meanwhile, another pair of sleek black voids arrived from Hawaii that weekend.  Cosmic and Jeepers were nearly identical to Toto and Dorothy in looks and personality.  Friendly, confident, happy kittens.  And just like Toto and Dorothy, one popped up with signs of ringworm while the other was symptom-free.  Within hours they joined Toto and Dorothy, 2 boy and 2 girl mini panthers with another foster.  The 4 of them were instant friends.  Around 3 weeks into treatment though, that foster had a vacation planned, so I agreed to take them back.  I was thrilled to see Toto and Dorothy again!! 

 
Dorothy-yellow collar
Cosmic-green collar
Toto-no collar
Jeepers-satellite dish

I was told that the boys were even sweeter than the girls but I didn't really believe that could be true.  The girls were like purring lumps of love.  I never managed to last longer than they did when they wanted to sit in my lap- their love always outlasted my bladder.  But these boys managed to outshine them in both craziness and affection!!!  Jeepers came with a hard plastic cone due to a scratch on his eye.  He managed to get around the soft cones they tried so the vet insisted on using the hard plastic cone of shame.  But Jeepers felt no shame and never let that cone bother him.  Even when his eye was swollen and we worried that he'd lose it, he showed no signs of discomfort or pain.  He played hard and loved harder.  I have plastic indentations in my face from his insistent kisses.  Cosmis is a talker and lets you know when he wants attention, which is always. And it should always be with both hands.  

Cosmic and Toto, with no signs of ringworm, were let loose in my home.  We continued with oral meds and baths to be sure they stayed clear, but decided to separate them from their siblings to reduce the chances of spread.  Cosmic was the first foster to explore and find the tallest cat wall shelves on his own and the hammock above our stairwell became his favorite place to wait for me if I wasn't around.  He showed Toto how to get there and that's always the first place I look for them now.  

Dorothy and Jeepers are quarantined in my kitten room.  We give Jeepers eye drops 7-8x/day, but they have been alone a lot as we're in the middle of tiling a floor right now, so I've been sleeping in there with them every night.  Today I had an online conference, so I set up my laptop in the kitten room and spent the day with them.  They were so excited, they typed all sorts of things into the chat and on my pdf notes while pinging off the walls until they finally settled down.  Then they were the perfect conference pals, curled up with me while I learned.  It's not very restful to sleep with them right now, especially on the days I got to work all day and then tile floors all evening.  They're mostly alone unless we're giving them medications... so they get overly excited when I come in for the night.  That means zoomies.  LOTS of zoomies.  LOUD zoomies.  Zoomies across my body and over my face.  Zoomies that do not coordinate well with sleepies.  But, with liberal use of a fishing wand cat toy, we finally got settled down for our nightly cuddles.  I was careful to build in a few minutes of play time with their medication visits the next day, lol.  

All of the babies get medicated baths.  Their former foster said they were terrible with their medications and baths, but they've been very good babies for me!!  We paired their baths with treats and used (for the first time!) my brand new pet dryer.  It was much easier to dry them until the huge storm took the power out.  Luckily, we'd finished bathing all of them and were able to towel dry the last kitten, then keep him wrapped and cuddled against me for body heat until he was warm.  

Toto and Cosmic have been on medications and symptom free for almost a month now and will be heading to Petsmart soon.  I'm a little sad they won't get to go with their siblings and have the chance to stay with their true litter mates, but I really hope they'll get to stay together.  Cosmic, in particular, is going to need a cat friend or some very interactive humans.  He's a bit of a chaos goblin!!  Okoye, of my Wakanda litter, is the only kitten I've had that was more active than Cosmic.  She was an aimless jumping bean-  spastically sprinting and pouncing around.  Cosmic's activities are more intentional- he's super curious and just wants to get into everything.  But his siblings keep him busy enough that he's not destructive.  But all 4 of these kittens are really just perfect... a great mix of energy and affection.  These voids will fill a void in their future families hearts!! 

Update: 3/3/24
Toto and Cosmic hit the jackpot and got to stay together in their new home.  The next day, we took Jeepers to the vet to check on his eyes. We decided to see how he'd do with a harness and he took to it immediately.  He was a perfect gentleman at the vet, submitting to his eye exams and getting rave reviews for his demeaner and the marked improvement in his eye.  He may always need some over the counter lubrication drops, which he accepts pretty easily, and his eye may always be a little cloudy, but his vision and health seem unaffected.

About a week later, I got a call about yet another void that was in his last stage of medical treatment and needed a place to land.  Enter Goofy!! A well named fella with a single white whisker.

At no fault of his own (vacations, other kitten's illness) Goofy got shifted around to 3 different houses in 3 days before landing with us.  His former foster was worried that he'd have trouble adjusting.  But Jeepers and Dorothy ignored his non-threatening growls and were determined to make friends with him, so he settled in and the duo became a trio! 

There has to be some super sweet black tom cat roaming around Hawaii, because every one of these voids have been absolutely sweet, social, confident, adorable kittens.  They are eager to cuddle and will usually let me pick them up and smooch them even if they're in the middle of frenzied play.  They get along with absolutely everyone.

Goofy is quite the explorer.  He wants to be into everything I'm doing, and jumped into the food bin while I was scooping out their breakfast recently.  Unfortunately, it was a tilt out bin that tilted back in with his weight.  But then he was trapped inside the bin, and pushing his head up against the interior lid so I couldn't tilt it back out again.  It took some minor dismantling to free him and he felt no regrets.  His previous foster let me know he had jumped into her vegetable drawer and got locked in for about 10 minutes.  Luckily, he has a loud yowl and let her know he was trapped before devastation happened, but he's going to need to be carefully monitored. He's extremely territorial with feather toys, but he's all growl and no fight.  

Dorothy holds her own amongst her brothers and is very responsive to being called.  I recently discovered that she is a toy hog.  She is pretty sneaky, darting in to steal any unguarded toy so she can run off with it.  She's SMART and observant and will always know where we hid her favorite toys. If they're not truly secure, she'll get to them when we're not looking.  She's working on learning how to open the doorknobs currently.  

Jeepers cannot handle being alone.  He's fine with human or feline company, but he will yowl his head off if he's left alone.  When it was just him and Dorothy, bath time was a challenge because he always had at least 15 minutes of alone time, whether he went first or she did.  I was very happy to get Goofy in the mix.  We bath Dorothy first, then Jeepers, then Goofy.  He always has at least one friend!