Happy Easter!

Same to you!

I'm contemplating lightly raiding my basket in passing on the way to acquire a caffeine source.

The stuffed animals this year are alpacas, largely because the first one I saw in the store was from just far enough away that my first thought was, "Wait, is that a llama?"

And, well, llamas

Alpacas are nicer, I admit

It wasn't. (I would have been a lot more surprised if it had been.) Definitely one of the cuter oblique inside joke references I've acquired. XD

Those are very cute camelids, regardless of their actual species.

They are!

The shelf tag said alpaca, which was what I suspected after my slightly closer look. They are also VERY soft.

I think I might have to consider the cat MOSTLY forgiven, because he just made the cat-activation-noise "prrt?" and when I touched his head to pet (counter-pester) him. It's also quiet, because my mom's gone off to church & parent duty for a few hours, and Evie isn't awake yet.

Okaaayyyy, I guesssss.

I just got back from feeding the keetin we're cat-sitting for the weekend, and also intercepted a loose dog and returned him to his owner, so the day is pretty good so far.

::applauds::

That's definitely a pretty good so far.

This is Arwen. She is 7 months old and made of purrs

... oh my goodness she is so small and soft.

I've been around kittens, but somehow both of the cats acquired as my own and therefore lived with regularly from the point of acquisition onward... were both rangy 10 month olds.

Objectively, I've been around younger cats! But I still see Arwen-keeten size and think IT'S SO TINY AND FLUFFY.

Yeah, she's right in that IS A KITTEN phase now. Duncan was 8 months when we got him, so he was a lanky teenaged cat, but she's still small and so kitten. (And so very soft)

Max kept growing FOREVER because he is smol as far as breed standard goes, but definitely a Maine Coon (or at least a very high concentration thereof). Blue got a little less rangy, but was pretty much already done growing up shortly after I got her.

I want KEETEN eventually, but I think we're pretty full up on (even accidental) cat for the foreseeable future. So I will just continue to squeal HOW IS ANYTHING SO TINY at moderately sized kittens instead.

Once we're back to a reasonable number of resident cats and I've had a chance to build a custom door for the downstairs not-a-bathroom, we'll be fostering to handle our kitten fix.

endless kittens

I like when you're doing fostering. XD SO MANY KEETEN PICTURES.

Do you do it through an agency / local shelter, or just have really good luck with getting multiple cats rehomed?

The most recent "oops, that very sweet stray we rescued WASN'T just putting on weight, now there is one (slightly less) large cat and many small ones" foster situation a friend was in, they literally couldn't give the cats away. (Some, but not all.)

Last rounds of fosters were with a lady at work who worked with a number of different rescue groups.

This time, I'll probably work either with the local humane society, or with this one local charity where you provide a temporary foster for pets for people leaving domestic violence situations.

We did some of that last time, which is where the pictures of Merlin, The Giant Grey Purrblob came from

Probably, we'll do both. Since the DV fosters are more short term emergency stuff.

That makes sense. I wouldn't have thought about it, before - when we were running the rescue (high school / early college age), kittens were always easier to find permanent homes for - Max actually ended up in mine because he'd gotten big enough to get passed up for a second litter of kittens, and had to get rehomed past when we had foster places available.

But then this past year my buddy Gloria ended up with six Accidental Cats, and even as smol balls of fluff, we were out of people we could shake down into taking a cat. (I even offered to deliver, if any of my FB friends adjacent to the drive between Phoenix & Dallas was interested. STILL NO.)

Yeah, it's harder to place these days. I think it's also harder when you're not affiliated with a rescue org, because then you're asking people to pick up the costs of spay/neuter and first shots themselves, where as agencies can partner with local vets to get it done at cost and then bundle it into the adoption fee.

We got very lucky that Cassie the cat only had 3 keetins, one of which my parents planned to keep.

(She was the one who wandered into the cottage and had kittens on my birthday)

Have an agency/shelter that you're working with at least means it's not All On You to find homes, though, and there's probably a procedure in place for how to wrangle any stragglers.

Exactly!

Also you get support in terms of food and litter and other costs of keeping the fosters.

We even spayed/neutered and did the first sets of shots! That's what baffled me about it.

Wow, that is odd. Overpopulation + poor economy?

... I've never been on the foster home side of the equation, except for the bail-out housing Max. I then very solemnly paid his adoption fee to myself, and signed the paperwork. I forgot about the stuff that we'd (and rescues that weren't four teenagers and their very long-suffering parents have more funds for) provide.

Yeah, it's definitely one of those things where organization = economies of scale, as well as better coverage and supports.

Although one then does occasionally have Drama between competing organizations, because we're talking volunteer groups being run by middleaged cat ladies. But so it goes.

Yeah, I think so. We don't have the same kind of network / reach that we did when this was our job (that we weren't making enough money at to actually pay ourselves with).

I also did TNR of feral cats (with Ivana) for a while, after the rescue dissolved. That was Completely Batshit Insane.

... I just realized that I don't actually know what happened to the Cat Infestation since I came back. I'm going to ask. (Because now I'm curious.)

Hopefully there are other groups still working on it. TNR works, but it does need to be maintained a while.

I think the organization we were volunteering for is still around, we're just not still involved.

Max is continuing to maintain the tenor of our interactions, today: he wants my lunch, so he's made it impossible to do anything either two-handed, or on the computer.

Not pictured: when I pay either more or less attention to the food, and he reaches out to attempt to grab my bowl while simultaneously Doing Things With His Butt thanks to his shifting on the keyboard.

Awww, soot sprite wants love. Always. Eternally.

Preferably in the form of sammiches and scritchings

Now he is purring VERY LOUDLY while trying to grab my hand in confusion, because when I stood up it contained chikkens he could smell, and now it is just hand. (Which then got headbutted into providing Petting of the Face.)

He's managed to completely close Chrome WITH HIS BUTT AND BUTT ALONE and is about to have his slightly sullen grooming interrupted by being picked up with TWO HANDS and unceremoniously deposited out of the way.

Oh, Max. <3

He used to have slightly better manners, but his lack of fucks to give has increased exponentially the older he's gotten.

I keep including pictures because who doesn't want to see pictures of this frankly ridiculous monster, but also cause man, when it ISN'T April 1st, his Everything Altogether (in a row!) is sometimes hard to believe / sounds exaggerated for effect.

Such sass in that turned back.

SO MUCH SASS.

Tori, meanwhile, is being a very particular grumpy old lady who wants to be petted on her cheeks, but not on her head. Except that she also wants to press her head against my hand, but I may not pet it.

Also I am to stroke her back, but not as far up as her shoulders, and not as far back as her hips.

However if I decide she's too cranky to pet and step back, she YELLS.

Further, I am to break after every couple pets to let her give me kisses.

Or else she YELLS.

HELLO, VERY PARTICULAR DOWAGER COUNTESS KITTY.

I'm now taking advantage of Max's emphatic ignoring to shove my inexplicably freezy feet all the way entirely under him in the hopes of leeching some body heat.

Good luck! Duncan has proven excellent for this, because when he sleeps he is an immovable black hole of warmth.