Our First Thon

Last Saturday, we hauled the Greeks to Petsmart for our first Thon (adopt-a-thon) from 11-2. It was quite an adventure (and the day went on to be even more, uh, "something"; which I'll blog about later).

Anyway, we managed to get all of the crackers (my new pet name for them) into one carrier. Zeus and Ares immediately started to bite at the wire while Hera huddled in the back, petrified and Athena and Apollo looked stunned.

None of them are what I'd call good car riders, but, they'll likely get more used to this as the weeks go by. Anyway, as we were driving to the Petsmart (luckily only 10-15 minutes away), I turned around to look in to the carrier. In essence, they resembled a kitty monster; one big blob of kitten with five heads. I took this picture after Ares (left) and Apollo apparently decided it was okay to look around. BTW, Zeus was, at that point, laying on the bottom of the carrier with his four siblings piled on top of him. So much for being brave.

By the time we go to the parking lot, all five appeared to be dozing off (I assume Zeus was, obviously, I couldn't see his face, though!)

Into Petsmart we went, lugging them and a bag with towels and a few toys (I was gamely hoping they'd be interested in playing; show them off some!)

The rest of the folks from Hobbes House were there with their kittens, two adult cats and some cages. They are loaning us a cage for the duration (in essence a medium size dog crate; much more manageable than Lucy's huge one).

After getting the cage set up and lined with towels, we pulled the extremely resistant kittens from the carrier and deposited them into their temporary home for the next three hours.

Along with our five, there were 11 other kittens there + the two adult cats (so much for ours being the only show in town, as we were told they'd be).

Unfortunately, it was a slow day. Not that many people were out (bloody hot plus it was Father's Day weekend). The ones who were didn't seem terribly interested in adopting a kitten (although many stopped by to look at them, poke them through the cage, pet them, ooh and aah, etc.). We'd been advised by Hobbes House not to let just anyone hold them (we did get a few requests) unless it was apparent they were interested (gauged by the number of questions asked about a particular kitten). I guess Petsmart has rules and if a kitten ever squirmed away and started running around the store, or, worse yet, got outside the door (our display being right up front), Hobbes House would not be allowed to come back. Liability issues, I guess.

I suppose, in a way, it was just as well not that many people were swarming around as the Greeks were freaked! This was not terribly surprising, given it was their first time out (which is what we told people who thought it was cute that the majority of them (3) were hiding under the pet bed we'd put in there; something we won't do next weekend). Funny enough, it was Apollo, the previous shy boy, who was the only one who seemed relatively at ease, followed by Ares. At one point, Apollo and Ares were acting like bookmarks to the other three. Zeus appeared horrified by his predicament (which really surprised me, given his nature at home; the leader, always out, forever curious). Athena was ok; but poor little Hera was having a time of it. Even though she was on top of the bed (rather than under it), she was breathing so fast her little ears where quivering. We finally put her back in the carrier; hopefully next time she'll be a bit more relaxed.

Anyway, none of them hissed or meowed excessively or did anything bad; they just sort of alternated between hiding or simply laying there. They were definitely shown up by the three orange kittens out in the front of the display (so a like that their foster dad had to dye a bit of fur around their necks with different color food coloring so he could tell them apart) that were having great fun romping around and playing with a wand toy. There were also two orange kittens next to us; a bit more subdued than the others but, for whatever reason, it seems folks are really attracted to orange and orange/white kittens (having had three myself, I understand this attraction). The others out for display ranged from tuxedo, to all (plush) grey, to a mish mash of white/brown/black. And ours, of course; tabbies.

We became better acquainted with the other fosters; if you think Mr. B and I are good people for doing this, than you should meet these folks! Christy was there, of course (the Greeks and Pete and Lily's former foster mom) and Dan was the other (with the three triplet orange kittens). Dan, although obviously a caring foster, does not seem to allow himself to get as attached to his charges as Christy does to hers. In fact, he just appeared to love ALL of the kittens/cats there, even ours. He said he thought it would be neat to switch the kittens around some; let them experience different home environments/other pets to make them more adoptable. I thought in theory this was an excellent idea (but might be hard to put into practice).

Anyway, only one application was put in that day by a lady with two extremely wild young boys who "Really want a kitten NOW!" She seemed a bit put off that she couldn't take the kitten home, but, as Dan murmured to me, "This is why we DON'T let them take them home right away; we don't want people making rash decisions". I sort of shuddered at the thought of her taking one of ours, but, thankfully, they were more interested in a black/white kitty; "My son HAS to have black and white kitty!" However, they picked out one, then, decided to go with another, all in the course of about 10 minutes. Fruit Loop might be the lucky winner (one of Christy's).

Both Dan and Christy assured us it was SLOW; that they usually get 10-15 applications per outing and of those, about 1/2 are good.

So, we'll be back there this coming Sunday, hoping for the best.

In the meantime, the Greeks are getting spayed/neutered as I write this. Poor things, but, obviously, quite necessary.

Christy informed me this morning that there is interest in "one or two" of yours from a family that is already pre-approved because they'd adopted from them before. In fact, they've adopted two, but the second one is not getting along with the first one so they want to return it and try a younger kitten (this is probably the only bad thing about this arrangement; we could get one or more of the Greeks back if they don't work out).

Anyway, what she meant was, they are interested in ONE out of TWO and I don't know which two they are considering. Christy told them they'd best get an application in soon.

So, we'll see!

I wonder who'll go first?

Mrs. B