We apologize for not posting a meet & greet last week, but we were swamped and didn't have time to go looking for blog info on our own. We really need some reader help, so get on your toes ... um, paws and send us some info and photos of your own blog or another one. We realize you are busy too but have some fun, tell us a little about some kit or pup's blog.
Today we're going to introduce a new spinoff from an older blog. Many of you know Maw from Forty Paws. She doesn't blog as often as she used to but she's still donating a ham-mick or two to fundraisers.
We asked her to tell us a little about themselves and her ham-micks.
We started the blog back in 2007. At that time, we had Forty Paws (10 cats) at our house.
Bow and Jenny were the first 2 of the Forty Paws.
Although none of them look alike, Obi, Reno, Smokey and Sally are siblings we fostered. They were so ill with diarrhea that would not go away. Plus, they all have feline herpes, which affected their right eyes and occasionally gives them colds. Weird how they each have problems with their right eyes. We ended up keeping all four of them.
Dorf and G.T. are brothers. We fostered a group of 8 kitties and we kept Dorf and G.T. out of the 8 kitties. Mostly because they stayed with us for so long, that we couldn’t let them go.
We fostered Annie, who was a bottle baby, and I couldn’t let her go because I was so attached to her. She was “my” little baby. We also fostered Gatsbi, and she had some type of cerebral issue and had difficulty walking and leaping onto things, so we kept her.
In 2009, we lost Bow to renal failure, but we brought Orinch in from the outside when we moved to Royse City. He lived on our roof, under the patio cover. We had to trap him to bring him out here because we had never gotten close to him. We had trapped him earlier to have him neutered and to have his shots given to him. Over the years while he was outside, he acquired FIV. We don’t worry about that. The other kitties don’t like Orinch too much, and chase him when they see him walking around. They hiss and spit, but they don’t really attack the poor guy. Orinch has asthma also, so he has an inhaler and has to take prednisolone daily. After a couple of years of living inside, Orinch got used to the humans and now we can pill him and give him asthma inhalers, and he sits on our laps.
We lost Gatsbi and Annie, both to cancer in 2010 and 2011. In May, we lost Jenny to old age and Obi to renal failure, so we are down to 6 cats at Forty Paws. We miss all of the Angels who have crossed over, including Davy, who was not of the Forty Paws, but was extremely important to us.
We started making Ham-Micks before the blog started. We had purchased some that were made with wooden dowel rods. Well, large kitties jumping onto hammocks with wooden dowel rods holding them together can break those wooden dowel rods. So, we purchased PVC pipe and put together PVC pipe hammocks. Then we found that we could purchase the 3 way smooth connectors on-line because Lowe’s and Home Depot don’t sell them. So we were set with the on-line purchases. And then we just kept expanding the fabric choices. I like to purchase my fabrics at JoAnn’s, and am about ready to go see what winter fabrics they have right now. It’s that time of year for winter fleece to hit the stores. Although it will be 102F here in Dallas this week, the winter fleece is in the stores.
I typically donate the money that I make from the Ham-Micks to kitties needing funds on the blogosphere. It just seems like that’s the correct thing to do. Sometimes I donate the money to IEFS (International Exotic Feline Sanctuary) which is just down the road from us in Wylie, TX. Unfortunately, they have been hit with canine distemper, likely from raccoons in the area, and have lost 5 large cats so far this summer to the distemper. Very sad. The cats are so sick, and don’t want to eat their food which has their antibiotics in it.
A lot of kitties have the Ham-Micks, and we hope that more of them will order them since Ann of Zoolatry designed the new blogs for us, and now we have kitty testimonials on the blog. The fabrics can be washed and dried tons of times. The kitties at Forty Paws love to have fresh, clean hammocks to flop into. Then they put their fur back on them again, and the process starts over.
Oh, and now I have Forty Paws Pet Sitting, which is my business. I go into other people’s homes and feed/water and let their dogs out, scoop litter boxes, etc. My petsitting website is www.fortypaws.net. So, Forty Paws has gone a long way on that name.
Maw has been very kind and generous to bloggers in need, so be sure to check out the Forty Paws Ham-micks blog at http://fortypawshammicks.blogspot.com/.
We hope to be back next week.
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