Whimsy World

Drizzt and Guenhwyvar were ready for adoption just in time for me to prepare and pack for a trip to the East Coast.  We visited with my husband's family in NC, a friend in north NC, then drove to VA to see my family, including the 3 kittens my aunty adopted from me last summer.  

I was home about 24 hours when I was sent 4 pictures with one word.... "interested?"

Even had I not been foster kitten free a whole week before my traveling, with 1 week of traveling in mostly cat free homes... (we stayed one night with a friend who lives between the hubby's family and my family- and he realized how desperate I was for feline companionship that he arranged for us to spend a few hours with his sister and their 2 cats, lol).... this is the most absurd question anyone has ever asked me.  Yes, I was more than interested. The intake coordinator was heading to the shelter to pick up them and their medicines to fight the nasty URI that was more than evident in their pictures, and I made plans to meet them as soon as they were in custody of my rescue.  I was handed a box of what was described as kittens, some medications, and informed that they'd been found and treated for fleas.  In the short car ride home, holding my phone flashlight in one hand, I managed to pick and smoosh a good number of fleas off of them.  

They were so lethargic and seemed to be less like kittens and more like 4 kitten shaped flea buffets.  The orange in particular was crashing fast- he barely responded when I picked him up and started flea combing him.  We also gave them a B12 shot to combat the anemia-their gums and tongues were white!  I couldn't bath them for the first 24 hours, so I flea combed them constantly.  Luckily, the meds had kicked in and the fleas were dead or dying, but I feared they'd done too much damage.  They woke up to eat, though they could only eat for short bursts... so like bottle babies, it was a long night of near constant presentations of food. I was thrilled the next morning to find 2 torties eating kibble and the other two alert and they were all playful.  All 4 had gained weight.

Later that day, we were also able to give them a bath- getting a few more fleas, tons of flea dirt, and cleaning up their poopy butts.  I'd been saving the name Flibbertigibbet for a long time, along with "Marlarkey" and "Oopsy Daisy"... and it just seemed to fit this little orange boy. My friend Sarah was over to help me feed and bath them, and she wasn't sure... she couldn't pronounce it and wasn't sure what it meant. She campaigned for "Oliver", but I just don't do human names for my pets or fosters.

Mararkey didn't really seem to fit any, but Oopsy Daisy seemed good for the kitten with an orange splooch on the back of her head- it seemed flower shaped! The little one with a dot on her chin was zooming around us and causing a general uproar while her siblings crawled into our laps for pets... so she was dubbed Shenanigans.  Finally, the one with the little stripe on her nose also has the most mottled color pattern on her back, so she became Hodge Podge. 

After their initial weight and energy gain over night, I thought we were out of the danger zone.  I was wrong.  Although they regained their energy and were acting like typical kittens and seemed to eat well, all 4 kittens were not gaining weight steadily.  I was weighing them before/after every meal, and they'd typically drop 5-10g then regain 3-7g.  I know the weight can fluctuate, especially after a big poop- and all their med problems meant they were pooping a LOT, but they're still supposed to gain weight every day.  By the 4th day, 2 of them had lost 3-6g, one gained 1 single gram... only one had made any substantial gains: Shenanigans. In those 4 days, we'd tried a multitude of kitten foods, supplements, probiotics, and syringe feeding them- all to just keep them at their baseline weight.  Sarah worked from our home the first day, and then my husband ended up being sick and staying home the next 2 days- and I got sick and stayed home the next 2 days, so we made it through our work week being able to offer them food every few hours.  

On day 4, we added in more meds... to help treat the worms they probably had due to the nasty flea infestation.  Finally, we saw some stabilization without the extra supplements and syringes, and all the fuss- and by 36 hours, they were actively gaining weight.  

Oblivious to my emotional and mental distress, these kittens were proving to be an easy going, social bunch.  They are very cuddly and responsive, and began showing their distinct personalities quite quickly.  Shenanigans lives up to her name, often running amuck while her siblings are snoozing or coercing them into more energetic battles when they're playing.  Oopsy Daisy is quite sweet until it's med time, when she uses her under 1 lb body to exert the force of a bob cat- resulting in many oopsy daisies of medications missing her mouth before I began to purrito her for med time.  Hodge Podge loves to climb up and snuggle into my hair or burrow into my chest, even inside my pajamas sometimes. She will nurse on my clothes while purring.  

Flibbertigibbet... he's the most orange kitten I've ever fostered.... and I've fostered a lot of them! He has no thoughts, only screams.  Despite his deplorable weight gain, he is an avid eater and always the first to remind me if I am late for dinner.  He throws his body, mouth open, towards the food... misses, and ends up standing in his food bowl, screaming about the injustice.  He started to eat kibble, but can only determine it is food if he actively sees me putting it in his food bowl.  This morning, he stood in his kibble dish, telling the entire world about his empty belly and imminent starvation... until I scooped out some of the food from under his feet and put it in a different dish.  Then he pounced upon the delicious food and ate with gusto.  While his sisters play with actual toys, he baffled himself trying to catch a sunbeam.  

While working on this blog, I found these 3 pictures of Flibbertigibbet that absolutely represent how he got his name.  It reminded me of an internet cat I follow named Deli Department, so I toddled over to the Deli Department Cult FB page and posted a little info about Flibbertigibbet, then wandered back out to blog a little more then play some games with some friends.  My phone started blowing up with notifications.  Little Flibbs has a fan club now- and his new friend Dakotah made a meme.  

I'm going to weigh them and weigh their kibble before bed and sleep for the ENTIRE NIGHT without refilling their food. This should give me a good indication of whether they can make it through my work day or if I need to come home during lunch or ask Aunty Sarah to drop by during her lunch.  I've been distracted a lot, so it's way past my bedtime... so it's really just 5-6 hours they'll be without food, so not much more than the 3-4 hour schedule we've been on the last few days.  Fingers, paws, and eyeballs crossed for all of us!

Update 4/7/25

The babes survived the night and continued to gain weight.  They seemed tip top until we had clinic and they got their vaccines. I'm not sure if it's coincidence or just bad timing, but 36 hour later Flibbertigibbet was falling apart, again.  He ate food with the same zest but began dropping weight... losing about 60g in 2 days.  This is an alarming amount of weight loss for kittens.  He also began leaking from his nether regions and yacking from his mouth hole.  Being the orange that he is, he never realized he was sick.  He continued to eat, play, and enjoy life between doses of medicines- oblivious as ever of my worry and stress.  

His sisters, very sweet for tortis, never excluded him from the pack, though he was always a step behind.  When playing with wand toys or fishing rod toys, they'd charge after the toy, thundering around the room, pivoting mid pounce if I changed the direction of the toy quickly.  Flibbertigibbet would trail behind, pouncing in the place the toy was... 2 seconds before that, then he'd contemplate the meaning of life with a stunned look on his face until the toy caught his attention again.  The toy would whip by with 3 tortis close behind... you could count the wheels turning in his head for the few seconds it would take him to register the action, then his little paws would whip out, catching the empty floor space. 

Several times, we've see him stand up on his hind legs, throwing his paws into the air like someone is pointing a gun at him.  I've never caught it on video because there is never a "trigger"... it's random.  Sometimes he is so energetic in his movements that he tips over backwards.  

The one thing Flibbertigibbet knows is how to come when called.  I almost typed that he knew his name, but I think that's not true.  He comes charging if I call ANYONE.  He loves to be snuggled.  He's not great at it... he comes charging in at top speed and has scratched me several times with his aggressive love.  He has no idea.

You're not supposed to have favorites, but Shenanigans definitely sets herself apart in the torti pack. All 3 sisters are obsessed with cuddles during nap time, particularly face cuddles. But Shenanigans will zip by for a cuddle and kiss in the middle of a zoomie, often startling me if I am in the middle of something else, like cleaning her litter box.  I'll hear them rampaging behind me, chasing each other and climbing up the cat wall, scooping out litter, when she appears without warning, popping into my face to give me very insistent kisses for 5-50 seconds before launching herself off to rejoin the play.  Even when I do get a warning, it's typically in the form of her leaping onto my back so she can slide around my neck, belly up, trusting that I'll catch her and hold her in place so she can smother me with kisses from that position.  

Oopsy Daisy likes to imitate sister Shenanigans, but you can usually see her coming and it's typically when she's starting to tire out and is ready for some serious nap cuddles.  I had something else to say, but Shenanigans caught me glancing at her and she climbed up my chest to kiss me and is now settling in to nap on my shoulder and all my thoughts flittered away.  

Hodge Podge is the sweetest and most adoptable of the bunch.  Unlike the others, who have no manners, patience, or sense of personal space, Hodge Podge will wait for her turn to get a treat, ask sweetly for cuddle time by stepping politely into your lap and tapping you for attention, and more often waits to be picked up versus climbing (though she does do that as well).  Her siblings will all come with disclosures and possibly a set of nail trimmers if I can get my act together.  She's also obsessed with my youngest resident cat, Nimbus, who loves to hang out in the kitten room with us.  

Two days ago, I got a bottle baby singleton and moved a large kennel into the kitten room for him. Flibbitigibbet abandoned me to sleep next to the kennel near the baby. The following day, the baby got 4 bottle baby playmates- one that is a suckler and needs to be separated from the rest when not directly supervised, so that resulted in me separating the kitten room into a Whimsy world zone and a tiny kitten zone.  The Whimsies are so intrigued by the babies and love to spend their time chasing them around the room, trying to pounce on them through the panels.  

All of the big kids are scheduled for surgery this week, so they'll be up for adoption next week.  I'm going to miss them, but they're such a sweet bunch, I'm sure they'll find great homes with humans with tough skins who can handle being used as a climbing post!