# Hello from Texas!



## JBerotte (Feb 4, 2011)

Hi, I just joined the forum today but I have been lurking for a few weeks mainly on the Behavior board. I have 2 pets....a 6 year old shih tzu named Raven (perfect angel!) and a 5 month old black kitten named Buffy Marie....my dad refuses to call her Buffy and insists on calling her Marie. Lol!


My brother found Buffy at a Buffalo Wild Wings restuarant hence her name. She was 1 day old and the umbilical cord was still attached so I hand raised her. She has many moments of being a heathen but can be very sweet in the morning when I wake up. I hope her evil biting and scratching stage passes soon!  


Buffy was diagnoised at 6 weeks old with Feline AIDS (FIV) so she will be rested at 6 months, which is on March 1st. She is a very active curious kitten and there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with her medically so hopefully her retest will be negative (fingers crossed)!! 


I look forwarding to chating with others soon!


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## catloverami (Jul 5, 2010)

Oh, I thought she was named after native folksinger *Buffy Sainte-Marie*! I hope she has a good result on her test in March. Look forward to seeing pics of your black beauty. Biting and scratching in hand-rasied kitties is not unusual, especially if she missed her "socialization" period (6-14 wks.) when kitties roughhouse and wrestle with their litter mates. It's at that time they learn to control their bite and claws, when it's too hard and when it's not. Don't let or encourage her to bite, just say "no" and withdraw your hand and walk away, or substitute a toy for her to bite. Hopefully she'll learn that if she's nice nice, you're fun to play with. At 5 mos, she's getting in her bratty teenage months (up to a year old) and most kitties do a lot of biting at that age.


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## beamjoy (Nov 6, 2010)

Welcome to the forum, and thank you for taking care of a little kitten that needed help so desperately.

Looking forward to seeing some pictures!


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## JBerotte (Feb 4, 2011)

catloverami said:


> Oh, I thought she was named after native folksinger *Buffy Sainte-Marie*! I hope she has a good result on her test in March. Look forward to seeing pics of your black beauty. Biting and scratching in hand-rasied kitties is not unusual, especially if she missed her "socialization" period (6-14 wks.) when kitties roughhouse and wrestle with their litter mates. It's at that time they learn to control their bite and claws, when it's too hard and when it's not. Don't let or encourage her to bite, just say "no" and withdraw your hand and walk away, or substitute a toy for her to bite. Hopefully she'll learn that if she's nice nice, you're fun to play with. At 5 mos, she's getting in her bratty teenage months (up to a year old) and most kitties do a lot of biting at that age.


Hi, thanks for the quick reply. Buffy can be a handful but hopefully oh so hopefully she will mellow out as she gets older. When she was younger (about 2-3 months) the biting and scratching was horrific when she was being held or picked up from the floor. My hands looked like road maps!

She doesn't bite nearly has much now but she will get in a good swipe or bite every few days. I ended up putting Kitty Klaws (hot purple) on her last week so I don't feel the scratching. It took about 4 hours to finally get them all on because she was sssooo cooperative. Luckily she doesn't scratch the furniture.

I didn't know to expect the teenage bratty stage to last until about one year. She's my first indoor cat so I'm learning a whole bunch in a short period of time. I had an outdoor cat as a kid but my neighbor ended up stealing her by leaving out tastier wet food all the time.


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## JBerotte (Feb 4, 2011)

beamjoy said:


> Welcome to the forum, and thank you for taking care of a little kitten that needed help so desperately.
> 
> Looking forward to seeing some pictures!


Hi beamjoy,

Thank you for the kind words. I have to download the pictures of Buffy from my cell phone but I do have a video of her on Youtube. It's from about 2 weeks ago when I introduced her to the Bergan Turbo Chaser for the first time. Here's the link:


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## love.my.cats (Jan 29, 2009)

Buffy is beautiful! I love her little pink collar too. She looks like she's having fun with the Turbo. Meeka was laying on the bed next to me and when she heard the noise, she turned around and repositioned herself so she could watch too!


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## Susan (Mar 29, 2010)

Hi and welcome! Kudos to you for raising Buffy Marie from birth...that must have been a lot of work and a lot of fun. She's lovely, and she certainly enjoys the Turbo Chaser. I hope she re-tests negative.


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## JBerotte (Feb 4, 2011)

love.my.cats said:


> Buffy is beautiful! I love her little pink collar too. She looks like she's having fun with the Turbo. Meeka was laying on the bed next to me and when she heard the noise, she turned around and repositioned herself so she could watch too!


Buffy thanks you for the compliment. She is quite cute....long and skinny. Hopefully she fills out some more. She's 6 lbs. and turned 5 months on Feb. 1st.

It's really cute that Meeka wanted to watch her put on a show. The reason why I bought the Turbo was because I was watching a video of it and Buffy immediately started trying to paw at it on the screen. It was hilarious so of course she had to have it due to it's entertainment value to me!

I bought her collar at Petco and it's an elastic kitten version. She used to have a hissy fit everytime I tried to put on the regular old snap on collar even though she had worn one since she was 4 weeks old....go figure! This one leaves me with less bite/scratch marks.


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## JBerotte (Feb 4, 2011)

Susan said:


> Hi and welcome! Kudos to you for raising Buffy Marie from birth...that must have been a lot of work and a lot of fun. She's lovely, and she certainly enjoys the Turbo Chaser. I hope she re-tests negative.


Hi Susan, 

Thanks for the welcome. Yes it was very interesting raising a kitten from such an early age. I was sleep deprived until I started weaning her at 5 weeks. I generally feed her every 2 hours for the 1st 2 weeks and then every 3-4 hours until week 5. After that she got the bottle at least once a day until week 8....she was in love with her bottle.  

My dad didn't really like Bufy until he had to feed her for the first time when she was 6 weeks old. Now he loves his Marie. I videoed him feeding her and it was the funniest thing ever because he likes to project a Mr. Macho attitude and there he is baby talking while feeding her....priceless!

I hope she retests negative because she's perfectly healthy otherwise.


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## love.my.cats (Jan 29, 2009)

JBerotte said:


> Buffy thanks you for the compliment. She is quite cute....long and skinny. Hopefully she fills out some more. She's 6 lbs. and turned 5 months on Feb. 1st.


Sammy was quite long and skinny for a long time too. He didn't really 'fill out' until he was about 1.5-2 years old. The vet used to comment that he was 'lean' even though I constantly had food out for him. It's caught up with him now though, and not only has filled out, he has a bit of a 'fat sack' under his belly too!

How did you find the hand raising experience? I did it once, with two kittens from a litter of 4.. We re-homed them all through the vet that I was working at. I thought it was such an amazing experience. Adopting them out was so hard but at the time, I wasn't in a position to have 2 cats. Sammy was such a good big brother to them.


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## JBerotte (Feb 4, 2011)

love.my.cats said:


> Sammy was quite long and skinny for a long time too. He didn't really 'fill out' until he was about 1.5-2 years old. The vet used to comment that he was 'lean' even though I constantly had food out for him. It's caught up with him now though, and not only has filled out, he has a bit of a 'fat sack' under his belly too!
> 
> How did you find the hand raising experience? I did it once, with two kittens from a litter of 4.. We re-homed them all through the vet that I was working at. I thought it was such an amazing experience. Adopting them out was so hard but at the time, I wasn't in a position to have 2 cats. Sammy was such a good big brother to them.


This post is long so sorry in advance... 

Your cats are very pretty! I can't imagine having to raise 2 kittens but at least they each had a playmate to keep them busy! Buffy never had that oppeortunity. My neighbor has 3 cats but since Buffy tested positive for FIV I can't take her for a visit until after the retest next month. If she is healthy then I'll take her over and have the older cat teach her some manners. Buffy has a bit of a round pudgy tummy but luckily the vet has not said anything about her weight. 

Hand raising Buffy has been an wonderfully rewarding experience. It's amazing to see her transfermation from a completely helpless baby into a little furball of terror....my poor shih tzu shys away from Buffy after she receiving a nasty swipe to the eye. My Raven had a corneal ulceration and needed drops every 3 hours for 10 days....that was about a month ago.

The same day Buffy was found my brother had given her to his girlfriend after he'd made a trip to the vet for a checkup and kitten milk replacer. Her parents didn't want the responsibily so Buffy was handed back over the same night. I had to do some quick research to find out how to properly care for a newborn. Good thing I had everything she would need from the small dog kennel to the water bottle & heating pad. Buffy wouldn't take the bottle so we had to use a dropper to feed her for the 1st week. My parents weren't sure if she would pull through because she was so tiny. The only major problem in this whole process was when her eyes were starting to open she developed conjuntivitis and needed drops for a week. The saga continues.....

A side note on rehoming:

I love animals and have a hard time letting go of them once I've had to care for them for a long time. I recently had to give one of my dogs to the SPCA after having her for 2 years. Roxy was a beautiful Rottie/Lab mix that my brother found....he's an animal magnet! She did not trust any new people and was just getting a bit comfortable with my brother and dad when my parents made the decison to take her to the SPCA. I made my mom actually sign the transfer of custody papers...I couldn't do it. Roxy was scared of literally everything (esp. new people / places) even after 2 years of me training her...she was a mess when she first came home...would try to bolt anytime someone came near her but she gradually learned to trust me and became a wonderful playful energetic dog but she still didn't like anyone new. There was strong chance she was severely abused. I did what I could for her but she needed more care than I was able to provide. Hopefully the behaviorists at the SPCA will be able help Roxy work through her issues to find another loving home.


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## love.my.cats (Jan 29, 2009)

Wow, sorry to hear about Roxy. It would have been so hard to give her up after so long! Were you able to keep in touch with them to see how she was progressing? 

I hope Buffy does test negative with the next test. If not, she can still have a happy life. You've put so much love & time into raising her, I'm sure you'll do a god job keeping her well even if she is positive. 

Luckily the kitties I raised were about a week or two old when I got them so it wasn't as much hard work. I was setting my alarm for every 3 hours the first week but I found I was waking them up to feed them so I was lucky enough to be able to do an 11.30pm feed, then sleep until 5am when I would get up and feed them again.


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## JBerotte (Feb 4, 2011)

love.my.cats said:


> Wow, sorry to hear about Roxy. It would have been so hard to give her up after so long! Were you able to keep in touch with them to see how she was progressing?
> 
> I hope Buffy does test negative with the next test. If not, she can still have a happy life. You've put so much love & time into raising her, I'm sure you'll do a god job keeping her well even if she is positive.
> 
> Luckily the kitties I raised were about a week or two old when I got them so it wasn't as much hard work. I was setting my alarm for every 3 hours the first week but I found I was waking them up to feed them so I was lucky enough to be able to do an 11.30pm feed, then sleep until 5am when I would get up and feed them again.


Thank you about Roxy. It took a lot of time and patience to get her to the point of trusting / loving me....I was her person and she was my 60 lb. lap dog. We had her spayed and treated for heartworms when she first arrived at 9 months old. It was very very hard to give her up. I miss her dearly but I knew she needed more structured training and socialization. No, I don't have the option to check on her. Unfortunately, the SPCA rules don't allow for updates once you sign over custody to them, which sucks. I can only pray that she is doing well with them or a rescue group.

My family isn't really into cats because we've never had an inside cat. My mom repeats "I don't want that cat on my dining room table or kitchen countertops" but I bought 2 scat mats and 3 of the ssscat canisters to solve those issues. The parents are really are entertained by Buffy and said that even if she is positive we'll still keep her. It would be extremely hard to rehome her after ensuring her survival. I think my dad would be devastated if anything happened to her.

I remember the days of my kitten alarm clock. She would wake up and meow every 3 hours! I eventually had to wake her up at meal times because she would just sleep all the time but once she realized I had her bottle then it was game on.


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## love.my.cats (Jan 29, 2009)

It's funny how parents attitudes can change.. I grew up with my parents 'hating' cats. It wasn't until about a year or two after my parents separated, I was able to talk my Mum into letting me get a kitten. Her and my Grandma drove with my brother and I for an hour to a cat rescue. We spent time with lots of kitties and there was one I instantly loved.. We took him home and it only took a few weeks before my Mum was totally in love with him. She even told me that when I moved out of home, he was staying with her! Unfortunately he was hit by a car after we'd only had him about a year and we were all devastated. He definitely changed my Mum's opinion of cats though.


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