Flurry ran out of fight

Flurry the kitten passed away. I guess she was always sicker than we were willing to admit to ourselves. The veterinarian was gentle in his explanations of her illnesses and let us have some time to hope but she was too sick to go on very long. Looking back at pictures of her she looks sicker than I think we "saw" her at the time. Especially in comparison to her sister Felix. We really did think she would eventually do well, or maybe just REALLY wanted her to and tried to make it happen that she would be well by simple willpower. She lost her fight and went downhill quickly at the end. She was always sick from the day we adopted her but Flurry had her moments, she had spirit and fight in her and had some good times in spite of her illness. We will miss her and what could have been.

Homeschool, year 15, Day 1

Today began our 15th year of homeschooling! New year and new curriculum. For Tristan (and at co-op) I'm using Paths of Settlement with extension. Other curriculum and resources we will use this year are Apologia Physical science, Physics 101 (when it comes out), the Great Courses Math Fundamentals and Algebra, America-The Last Best Hope (older boys through co-op) and as usual anything that fits a need through the year.

It's very different this year, all boys! Hayley has graduated!! Another change it that, youngest child Tristan is starting high school!!! Trevor and Colin are so independent and doing all their courses through co-op or independently. So it's just me and Tristan for full on homeschooling, or should I say Tristan, me and....furry friends!

Tristan gets some "help" from Felix and Flurry.

Flurry studies the teacher's manual.

Homeschool with kittens=chaos!

Felix checks out the water routes of the early explorers.

Felix wants that pencil, Felix REALLY wants that pencil!

Felix snatched the pencil and tried to bury it!

Flurry is ready for read aloud time.

Now THIS looks fun!

Felix will help paint.

 

Tired kittens after their first day of homeschooling.

Kittens, Flurry doing better

Flurry is finally doing better. I'm not sure if she's out of the woods yet but she's far more comfortable, growing and keeping down 80-90% of her meals. We tried several kitten foods but only one seems to work for her and I'm not intending to switch now and fine out if any others work! Wellness grain free canned kitten food seems to work for her. Also feeding her little bits at a time, watering it down and feeding her separately from Felix all help. This way she eats more slowly and we can monitor how much she eats. Flurry is now up to 14.6 ounces (415 grams) and has had steady growth for the past week. She goes back to the vet again next week. Hopeful that we'll get a good report. It would be great if her problems are something she will simply outgrow. She didn't seem to have the best start in life, maybe with continued care she will eventually be just like a normal cat. She is happier, plays longer and even purrs sometimes.

 

the trouble with kittens...

The trouble with kittens is that they're so cute you want to spend time with them rather than working. The trouble with the tiny kitten, Flurry, is that she still isn't doing well. She has good times but she still has a lot of hard times too. I've called the vet in a panic more than once since this began. We've tried all the things there are to try that are non-invasive and she's so small, putting her through something invasive could kill her. Trying, so hard, to figure out why she can't seem to keep down her food and what we can do to fix what hurts her. It's so hard and I've spent sleepless nights worrying about how to fix this. She seems particularly sick in the late afternoons and can cry so pitifully, it's upsetting. I've ordered some grain free kitten food to see if that helps at all.

 

Flurry loves sitting on the power adapter (or whatever it's called) for the laptop. it is warm! We have a heating pad for her too.

Playing in the sun.

Flurry

Felix

Flurry sleeping in the way that seems to help her feel better after a meal.

Freeze checks out the kennel that the kittens sleep in at night. We need a safe spot for them when they're unattended until Flurry grows more.

VBS

We helped at the vacation bible school in Goffstown this week. I didn't get many pictures because I was too busy shepherding 5th and 6th graders! Hayley helped in the crafts department and Tristan helped shepherd 1st and 2nd graders. The theme was international spy academy. It was a fun week and all the children seemed to have a good time and hopefully learned some things. I know those catchy tunes will stay in my head for a good long while!

 

 

 

Kittens vet visit and update

The kittens now have names. The larger one is Felix and the smaller, Flurry. They had their first visit to the veterinarian today. Felix got his first shots and a clean bill of health. Flurry on the other hand did not gets shots because she is too small. The vet also has concerns for her size. He thinks that the people we bought the kittens from might have exaggerated their ages a bit and also that Flurry was developmentally delayed to only 4-5 weeks. We'd already figured some of this out and had a few scares with Flurry already. She seems to have digestive problems and feels so uncomfortable sometimes. We've been giving her baby kitten silk replacer and very watered down canned kitten food. Nothing seems to agree with her though. Sometimes Flurry is well enough to play but then later she may go downhill fast. It's a mystery and we hope we can find out what's wrong so she can grow and thrive.

Environmental Science merit badge

I ran an environmental science workshop for boy scouts in our troop. I planned to do this ins a few shorter sessions over multiple days. It was hard to find a date that all interested scouts could do so I finally settled on doing it in a long one day workshop. I found some ideas online for how to do this. I made sure to have everything very organized and ready, all experiment items in labeled bags, all timeline materials cut out, a schedule that needed to be followed and 3 pre-requisites the boys needed to bring on the day. I wasn't sure how well this would work but it went great! With a few minor exceptions the boys stayed on task and all earned the merit badge by the end of the day! I was very pleased, the day went much better than I had anticipated.