New Camera, and More Exploring

Sorry about the break in the routine. We're hoping to get back to regular daily updates now!

I am, by the way, typing this in the living room with Eva sleeping tucked under my chin, occasionally waking a little to knead at my skin ("making biscuits") and/or yell for another mouthful of kitten milk, then falling back asleep. We did this last night for a while, too, and she was so excited to be exploring that she wouldn't settle down for more than a 5-minute nap until we put her back in her kitty-carrier in the bedroom -- after two hours! She's very bright and inquisitive, and endlessly curious about her own toes and tail just like she is about the world around her! She loves to climb, and loves under chins and on shoulders best as places to stop and check things out and get cuddles.

She's now up to 6.5 oz. Slightly over a week ago, Thursday night, she was 3.7 oz, so she's grown quite a lot! She's getting stronger all the time; her head is still a bit heavy for her, but she's doing her best to hold it up.

We're going to do our best to get her socialized successfully, a tricky thing with a singleton orphan. That's why the extra cuddling, now that she's gotten past just eating and sleeping. We're trying to get the older cats accustomed to her, in hopes they can help out.

Speaking of which: Loki's doing fine. The small volume of subcutaneous fluids I gave him Tuesday morning perked him up noticeably; we picked up some Fancy Feast, which is a lower quality than I prefer but he likes it, and we gave him 1/3 of a can mixed with a little water multiple times a day. At this point, he's eating half a can, no water, at a time, and keeping everything down. I'm making time for extra quality time alone with him, and that seems to be helping as well, and the small dose of Pepcid AC (2.5 mg) he's now getting every second morning is helping with excessive stomach acid. So the crisis is over, and we can all relax.

We do have a new camera now! It's a much nicer one than our old one! The person who sold it to us, a member of the Canadian Armed Forces, dropped the price because we're using it for Eva and told Sean to give the difference to the Humane Society. The only drawback is the learning curve. We didn't do very well in terms of photographs, but we got a 12-minute video -- which YouTube won't allow us to upload, so we'll have to put it here without them. We'll try to work on breaking it into two parts and putting it on YouTube, for anyone who has problems seeing it directly. To anyone who has problems watching this: I'm sorry.

Here's the one picture that came out right (wow, I love the quality of this camera -- can't wait until we learn to use it properly ):

Here's Sean's intended write-up on the video:

First, Thanks Dave (99GSRCiv) and his wife here on a local board(http://www.kingstoncomputerplanet.com/forum). It will take a while to get used to the camera (it is definately an upgrade), but as you see by the video - the quality kicks a$$ (and of course, being a Kodak - it goes through batteries, well like our old one - thanks for rechargables) note: the pics will get better once I get through this learning curve, please bear with us.

We let her loose again, this time on the couch / futon after lots of snuggling, snorglling, feeding and her using Steph as a Mountain, fearlessly climbing her - practicing her skills like a pro.

I hope you enjoy watching her as much as we enjoy spending time with her, and sharing with you. This socialization is a huge part of her on her road from becoming a fosterling without a mom to a normalized kitten / cat, ready for adoption.

Stephanie (Prysmcat.org) is a Veterinary Assistant student at St. Lawrence College (sl.on.ca/). The resources of teachers who are open to help and supportive fellow students who enjoy watching Eva's growth, makes this a learning experience for a few people. We are doing more than saving a life.

Read more about her at Eva's [almost] Daily Blog: www.prysmcat.org/foster/ includes pics, videos and updates.

*Eva will be available to be adopted through www.kingstonhumanesociety.ca/

*Thanks to our great friends at icanhascheezburger.com

*Check out her other videos! Please don't forget to leave comment, vote and even subscribe ... let us know what you think (& that you are at least out there *grin)

SeanNetherWorld / Seanya

The video is in the process of being converted to a more manageable (and more compressed) format (130 mb is a bit large to watch online) and will be added right here ASAP -- again, sorry for any inconvenience or disappointment! We'll get all these technical bugs worked out quickly, I hope!