Crave Cupcakes and Ms Shaylee

Yesterday on my day off I finally trapped the last kitten. Just call me Trapper Ellen. I already made an appointment at the Houston SPCA to take them. I emailed Bill to tell him I caught the last one and he begged me to keep the runt. We could not turn the runt in anyway because she only weighed 1.4 pounds. You have to be 2 pounds to be accepted by the SPCA. Here is a picture of the terrors, uh, darlings, that I turned in. I have no idea what sex they are. They are quite wild.

After I accomplished that mission, since I was just blocks from Crave Cupcakes, I had to stop. I got a vanilla on vanilla, espresso chocolate, red velvet and dark chocolate. I ate the espress last night and it was quite tasty. But the vanilla on vanilla was outstanding. Bill hasn't eaten the other two yet. I don't think we have to worry about Crave going out of business. It is located in Uptown Park and is always packed. A man walked in as I was getting my order. He asked what was good. He was just walking by and saw the sign and couldn't believe how much activity was going on. You can see the bakers baking and it is non-stop activity there. I still need to go on Sunday or Tuesday for the peanut butter and key lime cupcakes.

Here are a couple of pictures of Shaylee. Shaylee means fairy of the fields. She has the cutest face and looks like an elf. See the picture below. She is still very little and quite scared. She was so used to the other litter mates keeping her company and snuggling. She does purr quite loudly when you hold her. She is getting very used to be held. Bill put Keagan in there with her, and he immediately had her pinned down and had his mouth around her neck. We decided that she's too little for him still.

Keagan has quite the personality now. He is all over the place and thinks nothing of harrassing the bigger cats. Getting him to eat his kitten food is quite an accomplishment because he just marches over to the big kids food and starts chomping. He is now sleeping with us and everyone else at night. We put him in the bathroom in the middle of the night a couple of times and he howled. But now we have move Shaylee in there with all the toys and so we have to keep him out. We hope Shaylee's personality comes out soon. I was worried about Keagan the first day because he was so docile. He had also been fixed that day. He is no longer docile.

Keagan and utube

Here is Keagan's utube video. This is part of the toys I had to buy for him.

New Kittens

Here is where I took Keagan for his first vet visit. He was loved by all. He didn't even get mad at me for putting 3 pills down his throat today.
In the meantime, I found 3 other kittens out on the back porch. So I put the trap back out. This is from another stray and all of her kittens look alike. There is an older kitten out there but I haven't caught it yet. These will all go to the SPCA.


I went to check on them, and this one was on top of the exfoliant. I thought it was a hilarious picture. The biggest problem is the Houston SPCA won't take them till they weigh 2 pounds and these guys are really little. But they are eating well, so they should plump up quickly. Then off to the SPCA they go. I have a temp job starting tomorrow so I'll have to take them on a Saturday or Sunday.

I Caved

Bill was mad at me for taking the kittens to be adopted. And he kept begging me to let him go get the kittens. I said no. Here is the conversation from Friday.

B: Do you know the ID numbers for the other two kittens (or just all of them)?

E: The number I got was the one for Dunn.

B: They said the other two were #7656389 & #7656394 (named Willie & Badger) and that they have already been adopted out to different owners... do those numbers match what you have?

I have Brooks (siamese mix) #7656354 and Dunn #7656399 for the other two and they have NOT been adopted... (sure I can't have just those two...? PLEASE????)

E: kittens will tear up the house worse than it already is. And Spike can not handle anything new. It upsets him too much. And we don't have room.

B: It's adult cats that bother Spike, not new kittens... Kalliope and Xena came in as kittens and they don't tear things up and I lost Rusty and Gizmo...

E: And I'm not having 2 more male cats to pee on things.

B: I'll help more

E: And we gained Scooby and Silver. Kalliope was full grown when we got her. She is just special.

B: cuz she's "your" cat...

E: No more cats.

Then Saturday I finally told him that if the kittens were still there on Monday he could get them. But I made the mistake of looking on the website, and the Siamese had been adopted. So he begged and pleaded more. So I said he could have the white one, which was his favorite all along. The whole way there I said you have to think of a name. We are very picky about our names, not that you would know by some of the names. Some of them we inherited. Anyway, the SPCA said the kitten was white with mustard. So I was joking around saying we could call him Col Mustard, or Clue. Bill said he liked the name Keagan but thought it was a girl's name. I said I thought it was a boys name. So we get to the SPCA and Bill goes postal. He is frantically looking for the kitten and can't find it. So he goes and stands at the desk. Meanwhile, I find him, asleep in his litter box. Great. Xena used to do that.

So we get the kitten but have to leave him to get fixed. So we pick him up tonight, after he gets fixed, his shots and microchipped. But while we were talking with the person doing the paperwork, she says he's really not mustard, but flame-tipped. And he's really sweet, not wild like he was when we took him in. He was getting sweet while he was holed up in my bathroom.

So we get home and look up Keagan. It can be male or female and means flame. So we have a name! It was destiny.

Meanwhile: This morning I found 2 more kittens on the back porch. I have the trap out. This week after we catch the kittens, we will catch the adult cats and take them to the Spay Neuter clinic.

Pictures to follow.

Refurbish Cat Tree

One of my many projects of unemployment is to refurbish the cat trees. Bill's ex bought them and she left 10 years ago. With lots of cats, the numbers vary from month to month, this is the condition of one of them.



I started with these tools. But to get the old nasty carpet off, I used needlenose pliers to get all the staples out. The carpet cutter was very handy too.

This is what my arms looked like before I got the carpet off the wood.


Here is the finished product. Sienna has proclaimed the new tree is hers and chases everyone else off. In the house part is Silver. When Sienna was a kitten, she was a stray that was attacked by a dog. Allison worked at the vet, and when someone brought Sienna in and did not want her, she took her. She brought her by our house to take care of her till she found a home. Well, that was 3 years ago. She has become the sweetest cat. And has recovered from all of her wounds. Silver was one of Bill's mom's cats that we took in when Bill's mom died. She has bad asthma, but is very sweet and loves me.

I think the finished product turned out pretty nice. I ran out of carpet halfway through, and had to play let's make a deal with Lowe's for more remnants. They don't match, but that's ok, I don't have a job and it was cheap.

The tile on the floor is one of my other DIY projects.

Kittens Up For Adoption

I caught all the stray kittens in the rabbit live animal trap purchased at the Tractor Supply Company. Here they are as bunk cats in the carrier. I took them first to a no kill shelter. Fortunately the shelter was booked, because I didn't like it at all. The cats were in cages but not in air conditioning. The place was not sterile at all. So I went to the Houston SPCA not because I wanted to. And I was pleasantly surprised. First of all the building is gorgeous, and was designed by my college roommate Martha. It has sections for drop off, adoption, spay neuter and education. The place is spotless.

The adoption area is very nice. They keep the litters together. There is a get acquainted room. I was so impressed! I did pay $50 to drop off the litter, but I feel they are so cute they will be adopted quickly.

As you can see, the mother got around. These are all from the same litter.

I feel good that these cutie pies will be taken care of. Now the guy checking them in wasn't the brightest. He put one in the new cage, then was having a hard time with the rest, so he took the lid off the carrier. Of course kittens went everywhere. A quick thinking lady guarded the door so no one could come in and the kittens get out. I grabbed a towel and got one of the kittens. Finally the staff caught the other 3. So all we know at this point is the Siamese is a male.

I'm just glad the kittens are not outside any longer getting in Bill's engine (we found them there on Monday morning) or playing with the raccoons (the little one's eye has been scratched) or being eaten by fleas and other such stuff. And I did not let Bill keep any!

Update: I knew this would happen. Bill told the other cats that Evil Ellen threw the kittens away. Fortunately they don't believe anything he says.

Cat Towers

Getting the icky, gross, old carpet off the cat towers is a pain in the rear. I have been w0rking on the smaller one for 2 days and still have the worst part to go.

It's not as humid as yesterday, but it's still awful.