Daxia

Here is Daxia having fun with 3 of her roommates.  She is with Ryder, then with Booker then with Boston.  She thinks she is a big girl and likes to do big girl things.  She was climbing on some boxes today with the older kittens as seen in the pictures.  She is not afraid or wary of anything.  She has been growing so fast and weighed 470 g yesterday.  She now drinks a whole bottle at a time (just 8 days ago she was drinking 1/4 of a bottle) so no wonder she is gaining weight quickly.  She and I have a routine which she caught on to very quickly as she is smart.  She sure knows what the blanket means--that a bottle is coming.

Back in Babyland

This is Daxia.  She is 4 1/2 weeks old.  I got her 6 days ago after she was rescued from someone trying to kill her on the street.  She was 306 g when I got her and 5 days later she is 414g.  She was thinnish when she came and too young to eat canned food but too old to learn to drink from the bottle easily.  4 weeks is the hardest age for me to take in.  But after practicing for 5 days Daxia has now sucked and drank her last 2 feedings.  She is a ball of energy and is using the litterbox.  What a smart girl!
     2012 was the most stressful baby year ever.  FIP is a horrible disease and you never know when the disease will strike.  Little Nox from 2011 died of FIP just recently.  He was a year and a half old so it was a horrible shock when he was lost by his family.
     I still have Booker, Boston, Ryder and Lyric living here.  They are here the longest out of any babies I have had as usually babies are adopted by 4 months of age.  Ryder is my love boy.  He goes into a mellow mode and just melts in your arms.  Lyric is fascinated by water of any sort in the bathroom.  She loves when I let the water drip in the bathroom sink.  Boston and Booker are busy kittens exploring everything they can.  Upper respiratory in Lyric, Boston and Booker had kept them from being up for adoption for a very long time which is part of the reason why they have been here so long.
     I lost little Garrice (formerly Garrick).  She was almost totally blind but was acting pretty normal as it was months before I realized she was unable to see more than shadows.  My dad died the evening of Dec 28 a bit unexpectedly.  I was reeling from losing my last parent.  I woke up the morning of Dec 30 and Garrice was laying dead on the floor.  Turns out she had FIP too.  So I had another loss to deal with.
     I hope we find out a lot about FIP as it is such a silent fast killer.  All the vets said they had seen a huge increase in the rate of FIP in 2012 so it was not just my world being rocked by FIP.  I had so many heartbreaking blows to deal with when my babies were taken by FIP.  I questioned whether I could keep doing this job which is demanding and difficult under normal circumstances.  But the babies need me so here I am again, with a beautiful kitten to love, watch over and keep in my heart