I once lost a kitten who wouldn't "wean". She was an orphan, & I raised her on KMR, but she never would drink on her own, & she never learned to eat. The vet couldn't offer any help or advice, other than to keep the kitten every day & have one of the vet techs handfeed her (my expense, of course). Eventually, the kitten weakened & died. Looking back on that miserable experience, I think the kitten had something like "fading kitten syndrome", & the kinder thing would have been for the vet to tell me that the prospects were dim. Yes, the kittens will be old enough to separate from their mother. If all conditions were ideal, I'd say keep them with her until maybe 10 to 12 weeks, but they'll be fine. I wish you the best.

Glad this is taking a better turn. I refrained from comment intially because I am both an adopter and a volunteer with rescue groups. Yep, we all have serious jobs and lives and fit this fostering and home visiting stuff into our evenings and week-ends. I don't think three weeks is excessive considering that in that time the application was reviewed, your references were likely checked, a home visit appt was scheduled and completed, and the application was approved. Two weeks would be ideal given that most of the visits happen on week-ends, but during busy times when volunteers are on vacation, three weeks doesn't sound like 'forever.' "It seems that in their eagerness to remind me that rescue dogs come with ''baggage'' and that I may want to adopt from a breeder if I'm concerned about health issues, they are less concerned about finding good homes for the dogs than their own agenda." I suspect that their 'agenda' is a permanent placement for the dog. Although you say that you would work with any dog with problems, your requests do raise red flags that would trigger any responsible volunteer to have the 'dogs change, dogs have issues' discussion with you or any applicant. It isn't 'personal'. What you probably ran into were experienced volunteers testing a bit (given your requests) to make sure that the dog wouldn't bounce again. Obviously, they found you sincere and a good potential home, so please forgive them for treating you like any other applicant. Many applicants are not experienced and many really do have unrealistic expectations that no dog can meet and see nothing wrong with returning animals if they don't magically and perfectly fit into the household. What strikes me oddly here is that they don't have photos of the dogs on a website. Maybe you could 'give back' (whether you do or do not adopt the pup you're interested in) by volunteering with the group and taking photos of the dogs for display on the groups website. By doing that you'd be helping many other dogs and many other applicants. Good luck, and do deep us posted.

Thank you all so much for your kind words and your interest in our "growing" little family! Baby Tonto quickly found his way into our hearts, and as with Posy, we are absolutely smitten with this kitten! He is SUCH a little lovebug. He will literally run and jump into your arms when he sees you come through the door (he's still sequestered away from the rest of the gang, but we are doing slow introductions), and he nuzzles and kisses like crazy, and has his purr-motor going constantly. I have a fuzzy pink robe that I wear in the mornings, and he has taken to kneading it like mad and suckling on it. It must remind him of mama! I just let him do it ... it'll wash! In typical kitten fashion, Tonto is nonstop movement and it's hard to get him to sit still long enough to take his photo. This one looks slightly possessed, but this is pretty much him in action! He manages to somehow look like a big boy in the pictures I do get of him ... But he's still quite itty-bitty, as the size of his head will show here ... The other cats are having mixed reactions to Tonto. While Posy initially seemed ok with him, she's started acting a bit more aggressive towards him. She sits right outside the door to "his" room, but when brought INTO his room, she sits next to the door and whines and yowls, sticking her paws out underneath the door as though to say to the cats on the other side, "Get me OUT of here, you guys!" She has run at him a few times and slapped at him, and of course there's the hissing that comes from BOTH of them. Tonto sounds like the tiniest little snake! He seems to be able to hold his own, and while he hasn't been the aggressor, he doesn't run away from the others either. After awhile, they'll sort of settle down, and even sleep within a couple of feet of each other, but they are still keeping a wary eye out. The playful interaction I'm hoping for just hasn't happened yet. In the meantime, Posy is getting more and more integrated into the activities of the older cats. She is almost always in their presence, and they don't seem to mind her anymore. Penny especially is doing much better with her. Although they still won't play or cuddle together, Posy does seem to have infiltrated their little "posse" and more or less become one of the gang. Old man Pooh seems to like BOTH of the young newcomers. Molly is still ambivalent and a little grouchy about the whole thing. Penny is not at ALL keen on the new baby. I'm sure all things will work themselves out in Catland, as they always do. That doesn't stop me from longing for everyone to get along well in the here and now, so I'm working on my patience as well! Here is Posy after tiring herself out Friday evening being grouchy towards Tonto. Perhaps having a baby makes her seem so much bigger in comparison, but I swear she has had a major growth spurt just in the past couple of weeks. This pic of Posy was taken just recently: And this was taken on Saturday. (I love how her face is a little bit Spuds MacKenzie looking here! Remember him?) She is an amazing little cat. :-) Finally, here's a quick snap of Penny I took yesterday. Her eyes looked so green up against the colors of the bedding. Doesn't quite translate in this photo, but I thought she was still looking pretty. :-)

Yay for the violets, Nancy! And...you still have summer squash? The bugs killed ours long ago. Even the C. Moschata. I am pooped. So tired. We shopped today and I don't have to tell anyone that shopping is very unpleasant right now. However, Dillards allows you to try on clothes and I found a dress. It's not exactly the bohemian/fairy princess dress that I wanted. But it fits nicely and its a forest green color...and it's Robin Hoodish (not really), so I bought it. Paid more than what I wanted to pay, but it's done. DONE! Came home around 3 and sliced, breaded and froze okra. Then figured out how to use my pressure canner as a water bath canner and pickled some okra. On my own. The lids sealed so hopefully we're good. My house is getting to the point that I am very unhappy. I know a clean house isn't the most important thing in the world....but I enjoy a clean home. It just feels nice to me. However, a clean house isn't anywhere in my near future. I am hoping the robot vacuums are cheap this Christmas. That will at least help. We are celebrating Mason's BD tomorrow and that will be fun. It's at a very good restaurant that I haven't been to in a long time. Then grocery shopping and then maybe starting more lettuce seed. In between all of those things is animal care. Lots of animal care. There's always one of them doing something they shouldn't be doing or somewhere they shouldn't be hanging out. One of the fat buff orpingtons has figured out how to get out of the chicken yard. And she isn't swift. She is dumb--beautiful but dumb and wanders over by the dogs. So, I'm constantly leaving whatever task I'm working on to catch her or entice her back to the yard. And everyone is always hungry all the time. The 3 young pullets mingled with the main flock today. It went very well. Having a good rooster helps with that. They're roosting in their own coop, though. It will be a gradual thing as always. Momma Blossom will be tired of her chicks soon and those two chicks will need to move to the pullet coop at that time. Although, at least one of those chicks is a cockerel. Tom may or may not start doing meat birds and these two could be the start of it. They won't be THE meat birds, but they might be the parents of. I've named the one I think is a girl. Her name is Gwendolyn, which is sorta funny because Gwendolyn (actually related to Jennifer/Guinevere.) means white ...and Gwendolyn is a dark cornish. I'm simply rambling now.