The Owl House Foster Spot

03/05/2026

Go visit little White Toes (extra front toes and white back toes) at Alley Cat Cafe this weekend. She's a true sweetheart, and I enjoy sharing my home with her as a foster kitten.

Quiet days call for snuggle time with polydactyl girls!

03/05/2026

White Toes (the one-eyed cat) and Benedict, who is exploring under an ottoman and not seen in the video, have been transferred to another rescue for adoption. You can visit them at the Alley Cat Cafe in Ithaca!

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

03/05/2026

How cats get back at you after you clean their ears

03/01/2026

Thank you, Jo, for the four cases of food that arrived Friday!!

03/01/2026

Also ordered 3 stainless steel XXL cat litter pans to start swapping out the Rubbermaid totes I usually use, as scratches in the plastic pans (inevitable as cats paw at the pan edges) won't pass inspection. I dislike purchasing off Temu, but they are affordable there. I'll wait until these arrive to check the quality before I order more. I will ultimately need 12. One good thing about all these high quality stuff (in addition to the gold standard facility management) is that when I ultimately move and close down the rescue, it can all be seriously disinfected and donated to another rescue, whereas the plastic tubs would have had to have been tossed anyway. (This purchase made with personal funds)

03/01/2026

UPDATE: This printer offer turned out to be a bait advert, promising same day 'shipping,' then sending a "sorry, delivery was attempted but you weren't there" message (no delivery was attempted; I was here, and there's a big package delivery box at the end of the driveway). Then my account said the purchase was ineligible for cancellation. I waited 3 days. No additional "attempts" were made and there was no tracking number. Cancellation remained "unavailable" and a hold remained on my debit card.

I finally tracked down human Walmart customer service who could (surprise!) cancel it. I'm guessing there wasn't actually "shipping" available (meaning delivery via Walmart staff). Walmart probably offered the delivery to the local gig drivers who use their delivery app, and wisely, no driver took it without a tip. Had it HONESTLY been posted as "local delivery" I would have had the option of adding a decent tip. T

I ordered a better printer from Amazon which I will arrive Friday.

Lesson: Don't fall for Walmart's "one day shipping" offers. If you want it in one day, look for local delivery and include a tip. If local delivery isn't available, it's also possible Walmart doesn't even know if the printer is actually in stock at your store and they figure they'll follow up with warehouse shipping 'someday' if it isn't (therefore the inability to cancel the order.)

ORIGINAL POST: Just bought a new printer for cat paperwork since my old one died (and that one took $120 ink refills anyway, yikes!). I ordered a new cheap printer from Walmart for $44. Comes with ink. Ink refills are $37 on sale. I guess it's an $7 printer! (and it arrives today, the same day as ordered). What a crazy disposable world we live in. At least the old printer lasted more than 10 years, purchased two jobs ago and they didn't want it back when I left. That's a pretty good run. (This purchase made with personal funds)

Buy Canon PIXMA TS3722 All-In-One, Wireless Inkjet Printer for Home Office at Walmart.com

03/01/2026

Rare Disease Day was yesterday, February 28, and of course I didn't note that until the day after (meaning today, March 1). Working in a vet clinic has certainly reintroduced me to a lot of uncommon pet diseases that can disrupt people's lives, physically, emotionally, and financially. While diabetes isn't particularly rare, it is one difficult health condition my past heart-cat Ivan and I wobbled through over 16 years ago.

Just wondering what disrupting or rare diseases you all have navigated with your cats? While diabetes meant pricey meds (depending on the type of insulin needed at different stages) and a whole community of people helping to feed and inject him when I was traveling for work back then, I'm glad I had the friend network and pay at that time to help him.

My Ivan cat is very ill. He was originally diagnosed with diabetes, but it looks like there may be other issues. Potassium deficiency, et...

02/02/2026

Here is a look at some of the important dates and themes coming up! We'll have more info and showcase additional days as we progress through the month. 🐱

02/01/2026

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1098612X251379219

This is a fascinating study of FeLV testing and survival, and while I'm copy/pasting the Discussion on survival, there's a lot more to explore in this article if FeLV is on your radar! (Please do NOT share the copy/paste info below without linking to the full research article).

The longest an adopted FeLV-positive TNR kitten survived in our TNR efforts was 14 years. The landowner decided to keep 6 FeLV positive kittens from their colony as indoor pets, and Rhett beat the odds. His siblings survived only a few months to a few years.

"Our findings from this prospective study of adopted FeLV-infected cats revealed an overall median survival of 2.8 years, with high positive cats having the shortest median survival of 1.4 years and only 2/90 cats still known to be alive at more than 7 years. The low positive cats had not yet reached a median survival, with 19/29 cats still alive. Because the cats were admitted to the shelter with previously acquired FeLV infections of unknown duration, the survival times represent intervals since study enrollment, not total survival times since initial infection. Reported median survival times for naturally acquired FeLV infections in a study of over 800 FeLV-positive cats and 7000 age- and sex-matched uninfected controls were 2.4 years and 6.3 years, respectively."

Objectives Thousands of cats in the USA are newly diagnosed with feline leukemia virus (FeLV) each year, and known FeLV-infected cats are increasingly adopted f...

01/28/2026

Need a movie? A Street Cat Named Bob is free on YouTube.

Based on the International Best Selling Book, A STREET CAT NAMED BOB is a moving and uplifting feel-good true story.