sally cat

sally is a white, dark grey/black, and tiger striped 2yr, 2month old cat currently being fostered with her kittens. sally was rated "no concern" at the city shelter, and as soon as i got her home for foster, it proved very true - she was friendly with everyone she met, always open to affection and even let us all handle her week-old kittens as we got them all settled in. she is very protective nonetheless, and when she feels threatened (pretty much only when any dog is around) she'll hiss to keep any danger away from her babies.

so sally is generally a mellow cat...and i think she rolls over for affection even more than my dog. she's happy to sit next to you when you're in the room, or at your feet, whether your acquiesce to her chin rub demands or not, although when she wants to be particularly close she will climb into your lap.

otherwise she's content to lie in a cool place and groom herself, and grab onto any kitten that happens by and groom them too. when there's a lull in the day, and her kittens are asleep, she'll sit by a window and watch all the outdoor action for hours.

as you can see in the picture(s), sally's coloring is one big jackpot of white, tiger, & black (or is that dark grey?). although she's mostly white, she has plotches of tiger on her head, ears, nose, tail & back, and a stripe of grey/black & white shoots down her spine as well. her light green eyes are gorgeous and big, but you can definitely get distracted from staring into them when she takes on a particular pose or if you find her mid-lick.

[reminiscent of jaba the hut?]

sally was picked up as a stray, and was very emaciated when i got her home - her shoulders and hip bones stuck out far too much. in the past few months she's gotten over an upper respiratory infection, been de-wormed, and gained plenty of weight (reference the reclining pose above). it's clear that her maternal instinct is quite strong, and whether sickly & thin or healthy and well-fed, her main concern has been that the kittens are fed, clean, and out of harm's way. i think currently they're all she has to focus on, and so she is quite attached, but perhaps she's ready to find a home where she no longer has to protect and defend, and can focus on being the baby of the family.

sally wants your chin rubs dammit, and she'll lock you up in chains and put you in a bikini if you don't comply!

bob kitten

bob is an 11week old kitten that's being fostered with kendra and their mother. they're all now ready for adoption.

when they all came home with me, the kittens were just a week old and i couldn't keep track of which was which - they were all tiny, ears not fully developed, were hardly able to move on their own and getting increasingly sick. they were easy to tell apart because they were all different colors and patterns, but who was it that last sneezed? did kendra start biting on bob or was that karen? who just had breakfast? who should i make sure gets some food next?

while they all shared the same symptoms at first, one morning i noticed one of bob's eyes would not open. it was a little encrusted and bob was meowing miserably. that's when bob and i started to get to know each other very well and i never again had problem tracking his progress....

every morning, every afternoon, everytime i noticed his eye (left) sealing shut, i had to get a clean towel under warm water and use it to loosen open that sucker, and wipe away any of the gunk that was there. and because he was sick bob wouldn't eat - so each time i opened his eye up, i'd have to sit there with kitten formula and a syringe or bottle for at least 20 minutes before he'd keep down a few milliliters of the stuff.

while none of the kittens liked being hand-fed, they all ate even as they angrily chewed on the syringe ends. bob, on the other hand, would put up a real struggle to escape. then he'd stay stock still, offering no resistance at all. but feeding success would not come easily even then...bob would decide not to react at all - not even to swallow! so food would go in, and then dribble right back out of his little mouth. eventually, bob would accidentally eat some food and i could stop the torture a few hours.

i started to think that bob was a very, very irritating kitten who did not AT ALL appreciate the things i was doing for him! and bob in turn, did not appreciate it when the daily routine had to be stepped up; i had to start opening up BOTH of his crusted over eyes AND give him eye drops several times a day on top of everything else. but his pouting was so ridiculous and cute, i found myself looking forward to these appointments with my little emo bob...the little dark grey smudges on his nose, the grey chin contrasting against his mostly white face, it was like tears had smeared his mascara and chalky face paint. robert smith momentarily re-incarnated as a tiny, whiskered, stray.

his eye infection started clearing up after a couple of weeks (!), but the originally infected eye was healing very slowly...it was still sealing shut every once in a while, and when it was not crusted over, it was barely open and inside his eye was irritated and cloudy. what if this eye had been damaged beyond repair? would his vision be impared? would he have to get surgery and lose an eye!? being so young, and still sick, i'd have to wait until he was much better before any further treatments could even be considered.

happily, bob's eye began clearing up and at 7 weeks, both his eyes were crystal clear

[the black lipstick is still there tho]

bob happily left his days of illness behind him and is enjoying his kittenhood. he likes to say hello when you come into the room, then meow to himself a bit longer as he gets back to his exploring. when he gets a bit of extra energy in him he's ferocious with his toys, and will leap onto you, hang on and then start sniffing. little bob is a about 3.5 lbs, a little over 2 months old, and although he likes to respond to your close approach like it is a tactical attack, he'll purr like a madman when you rebuff his defenses and rub his neck and chin and belly.

don't worry, he hasn't lost his edge, bob still likes to show just how terribly he's "suffering"

kendra kitten

kendra is a 11week old white and dark grey kitten - she is currently fostered with her brother and mom, and she is ready to find her permanent home.

this little family has been through a lot in a very short time - after they were found as strays when the kittens were just a few days old, they all fought off upper respiratory infections, took antibiotics to keep bacterial infections at bay, and have had to endure a lot of strangeness all around (vet visits, train rides, adoption vans, crate & litter training, and a constant stream of new people taking care of them).

throughout it all kendra has been most resilient - there's not much that can stop her from being a playful & curious little cat. she's been an avid wrestler since she was 6 days old, and always full of energy. nonetheless she's not at all a spaz; she runs, climbs, and plays at top speed, but she is always in control. still - she'll climb amazing heights to hang off the side of a door and play with something sticking out of the hinges, so it's always fun to see what precarious situation she'll end up in next.

kendra is also the easiest to handle, which says a lot because they all are very easy to pick up and pet, or play with. still, it's kendra that's most amenable to almost anything you've got going, even an ear cleaning is too fascinating to pull away from. and you can wrestle with her a bit and all she'll do is pretend to take a nibble of your finger in order to get in an exploratory lick (maybe there's cat food on there). the best part about it is that she's this way with everyone she meets, she's never run away from any new person coming by to say hello, and is happy to play with whatever you offer her.


it's wonderful to see such a smart, strong, and gentle kitten flourish, and we want to do the best we can to ensure that the rest of her life will be a great one with her new family. you can visit kendra in greenwich village where she's being fostered, or else at one of the many upcoming anjellicle adoption events.

for more information go to anjelliclecats.com - there you can get info on upcoming events, updates on fostered cats, and learn all about the adoption process. kendra has been given medication against parasites (like heartworm), and every cat adopted through this rescue organization is tested for the Feline Leukemia and FIV virus, vaccinated and spayed or neutered, so she's ready whenever you are!

share your 'tude

i want to let the world know what i'm feeling.

in a very specific single message trasmitted from lilypad arduino over bluetooth to a nokia n80 that will text a message to twitter using python for the symbian s60 platform fashion (i know, sorry).

the thing


the phone and snake


link to the twitter account
and the link to the class project page

and here it is on my canine


she's definitely got a lot to share...