BeeBee's House

On Hiatus

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Due to COVID-19, BeeBee’s House is unable to foster kittens for the foreseeable future. We work closely with our local shelter and veterinarian, and both have strict precautions in place to prevent the spread of the virus that include limiting contact with the public. In addition, the James Household is immune-compromised, and as COVID-19 can infect cats and kittens, we decided to suspend our fostering activities out of an abundance of caution.

Thank you to all who have supported us over the past two years. We hope to resume our services as soon as it is safe for all (post-vaccinations).

— BeeBee’s House

Bianca Needs Your Help!

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Late one April night (the 21st to be precise), there was an urgent message on social media from a friend of a friend, looking for help for a couple whose house had flooded. They were displaced, in the middle of the night, during a global pandemic, when all the hotels in the state were closed to new guests. The message said the family needed a place for a nursing mother cat and her five 10-day-old kittens, in addition to their very pregnant other cat, due to give birth at any moment.

We’re BeeBee’s House, and this what we do.

Near midnight, a woman rolled up to the house in her SUV, borrowed two carriers, and returned shortly with both mother cats and the kittens. The original plan was for their owner to take them back once a new place to live was found, but given circumstances (global pandemic, among other things), they ended up surrendering both mothers and their kittens to BeeBee’s House for both fostering and adoption. For the past 12 weeks, we have played host to both mothers and their kittens. The 10-day-olds and their mom went into the Big Kids Room and grew up healthy and happy, and all (including their mother) have new forever homes.

The younger mother held on to her pregnancy for two more weeks, and gave birth to five black kittens (all girls) the morning of May 2 in my bathroom.

Ginny (as we called the mother cat) is a small cat, and her kittens were all small and healthy, save one.

Baby Bianca was the largest at birth, but was also the least active. Even newborn kittens have a level of activity, and Bianca wasn’t showing much of it. As the days passed, it became more apparent that there was something going on.

She has been to the vet several times, with another visit upcoming. In addition to her visits, we had her mother spayed (as she went into heat again just after weaning her kittens).

BeeBee’s House has paid out of pocket for each appointment, and our reserves are tapped. We know times are hard for many right now, so if you have a little money to spare, we would appreciate you helping us care for these little lives.

Where does your donation go? It will help pay down the balance on the credit card we’ve been using to pay for these appointments. Services must be paid for at time of service, which we have covered for both preventative care and surgeries. Worming, flea control, medications, appointment fees, vaccinations, and two spay surgeries add up to quite the sum. Given estimates for upcoming care, we have set the goal at $2500. Anything left over will be kept for future kitten care. (This does not even consider the costs of water for laundry/cleaning, sanitizers, litter, food, and toys. All funds sought are for the veterinary care alone.)

Thank you for your time and attention. If you are unable to support us with a donation, a signal boost on your various platforms is appreciated just as much.

Best,
Dina James (and Bianca!)

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Milestone: 30 Kittens Adopted Out!

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It’s been a very long year for BeeBee’s House. When we did our year-end round-up, we realized we’ve had non-stop fosters since April. We took a short break in September to go out of town for a planned absence, but even that was cut short on our return by three days with an emergency call. (Hey, emergencies are just that – emergencies!)

We did some counting and calculating, and discovered that since our first litter of fosters in October 2017, we’ve adopted out 30 kittens! We’ve had our share of losses, but we take a modicum of comfort in that overall our mortality rate is lower than the national average when it comes to fostering kittens. Some kittens fade even with their mother present. We do what we can, and sometimes even our best isn’t enough.

Our wins have far outweighed our losses, however. We have fostered a total of 35 kittens and have adopted out 30 of them. That’s a 14% mortality rate.

From Maggie’s Fund, another foster page on the web:

The veterinary literature reports intimidating mortality rates for orphaned kittens up to 12 weeks of age, ranging from 15% to 40%. Deaths are rarely exhaustively investigated, but may be attributed to birth defects, trauma, infections and nutritional problems. Non-infectious causes are more common in the first few weeks of life, while infectious causes are more common at 3 to 4 weeks of age when the maternally derived antibodies from colostrum start to wane.

The biggest determinants of natural kitten loss are low birth weight and poor growth rates. For dedicated caregivers, it can be heartbreaking and frustrating to lose kittens, but it is worth remembering that up to 60% of low-birth-weight kittens under natural conditions will fail to survive.

This makes me extra-proud of Steve, one of the Marvels in our last foster group of 2018. Steve was the smallest of the Marvels, weighing just 78g at a day old. We lost two of his siblings, Clint and Natasha, and neither of them were next in line for low birth weight. Steve grew up to be the second largest of the group, at one point being the biggest until his brother Phil beat him out by 20g. Steve was named (aptly!) after Captain Steve Rogers (Captain America), who began life as a scrawny little guy and became a big healthy guy after a dose of super-serum. Our Steve grew into a hero, too.

Steve is the big orange fluffball, napping with bestie Wanda

BeeBee’s House is on holiday hiatus through February. We desperately need a break, as we’ve had non-stop fosters since April 2018 — sometimes two litters at a time! Our largest litter by far was the Marvels, and we had them the longest amount of time (11 weeks due to the holiday in November). We are seriously overdue for a break, and are enjoying the time with each other and our household cats. We ended up adopting one of the 30 ourselves (which still counts as an adoption!), and she just turned six months old last week. She’s a nightmare and we love her. She gets along well with her new family, and absolutely loves her big sister. (They’re curled up together on the bed behind me as I type this.)

Thank you to all the supporters and donations and general help to everyone who has seen us through this year. We couldn’t do what we do without you, and are very grateful to you all.

Happy New Year!

Dina and Rob James
BeeBee’s House Kitten Rescue

Foster Kittens: The Marvels

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We had just gotten home from our planned absence and weren’t due to go back on the call list for fosters for another three days (allowing time to recover from the trip/unpack/settle back in at home) when BeeBee’s House got an emergency call about a litter of six newborn kittens abandoned by their mother in a rural home. The homeowner did the best she could for them through the night, then called the shelter the next day for help. The shelter called me, and I picked them up at less than 24 hours old. There were three orange boys, a tuxedo girl, a calico girl, and a black tabby with white cheeks girl.

BeeBee’s House has a policy of not naming kittens until they’ve passed the crucial 48 hour mark, which all of them did. We named them all after Marvel characters. After 72 hours, the black tabby kitten we called Natasha started showing symptoms of Fading Kitten Syndrome. We did what we could for her until we could get her to the vet the moment they opened the following morning, and they did their best for the next eight hours, but she was unable to recover. She was three days old.

The rest of the litter continued developing normally, except four days later one of the orange boys stopped putting on weight despite having a good appetite. 24 hours later, I sat with little Clint as he began to fade just like his sister Natasha had done earlier that week. He was only seven days old; he hadn’t even opened his eyes.

We know Fading Kitten Syndrome is possible to beat when combated early, but despite our best efforts (even with the help of a veterinarian), it’s usually not enough. We did our very best to help Clint, and all we were able to do was keep him comfortable as he passed. We are aware of the fact that two losses of such young kittens out of a potential six is a fantastic outcome, but it doesn’t make it better. To lose Clint right after Natasha was a blow to our confidence in being able to foster neonates, but we had four others depending on us to care for them, which is exactly what we did.

Soon after Clint passed, the others began opening their eyes. First Peggy, then Wanda, then Steve, then Phil!

Soon after, they began toddling around.

Then they learned to use the litter box and eat solid foods.

They grew and grew and played and played! (And napped — Steve loved his naps.)

They ended up staying with us through the Thanksgiving holiday in late November, and went up for adoption at 10 weeks old in the second week of December. We usually return them at 8 weeks old, but as the shelter was closed for the holiday and Wanda hadn’t quite made weight despite her age, they all stayed with us a bit longer. Not that we were complaining! We loved having the Marvels and we’re so happy four out of six grew up healthy and happy.

Congratulations on your forever homes, graduates! Steve, Phil, Wanda, and Peggy!

Foster Kittens: The Wildflower Posse

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The Air Crew had just flown out of BeeBee’s House and they were supposed to be the last fosters for us as we had long-planned and unalterable out-of-town business to attend to. Emergencies are just that, though. We were getting ready to close down the kitten rooms when a call came in about a litter of nine found abandoned in a field. Now, nine is a very large litter (the average litter is 3-5 depending on a lot of things, though up to 10 is possible), so it was thought that someone likely dumped two litters of newborns at the same time. (THERE IS A SPECIAL PLACE IN HELL FOR THOSE WHO DUMP BABY ANIMALS TO DIE! There are options! People like me will care for them!)
/rant

Four of the kittens had already died of exposure, but five were still alive. I rushed to the shelter to at least weigh and assess them, and found they were complete newborns — eyes still closed, umbilical cords still attached, still covered in effluvium. Clearly whomever had collected and dumped them (because their mom would NEVER have them out in the open like that, exposed and cold in a field) did so just after they were born. Plans or no plans, we had to take them as long as we were able. I packed them up and brought them home. Another foster who takes care of neonates was out of town but due to return before my own planned leave, so we did what we’re here to do and cared for them for the ten days we had left before we had to go.

We named them after wildflowers since they were found in a field; three girls, two boys – Rowan, Fern, Petal, Nettle, and Bramble.

Everyone did well for the first three days. I went in to give them their usual evening feeding and found little Petal burning up with fever. We did what we could, but she passed away at 2AM of Fading Kitten Syndrome — a fast and highly lethal set of conditions that are unpreventable, unpredictable, and very hard to beat. It comes on suddenly without warning and is heartbreaking to help a kitten fight through. We did our very best (even the vet comforted me the following morning, assuring me I did everything possible) but lost her. She was the first kitten I’d ever lost to FKS. We were devastated.

Despite our loss, there were others depending on us to care for them, and they continued to eat well and grow. They began to open their eyes right on time.

Baby Rowan with both eyes open!

As they grew, the time to send them off to another foster home to finish growing up drew near, and we tried desperately to alter plans so that we could continue to care for them. Things didn’t work out that way, so we passed them over to another wonderful foster who takes in bottle-babies. They were only two weeks old and would need a bottle for another three at least. I wrote the new foster a letter detailing their personalities, likes, and dislikes, and sent them on their way with their favorite blankie, some KMR kitten formula, and other supplies.

We missed them terribly and thought of them often, and kept an eye on the shelter when they were due to return for adoption. They knew I was waiting to give them hugs before they went to their forever homes, and I got a call when they were brought in. They were so big and grew up so beautifully!

Special thanks to Patsy who fostered them during our absence! You did wonderfully, and we can’t thank you enough!

All were adopted very soon after being returned to the shelter. We were barely home 24 hours from our planned absence with another three days left on the “out of town” roster when another emergency call came in….