Gibson ("Gibby") Update!

Guess who we heard from?! Ok, the subject line of this post kind of gives it away ... Gibson's mom! She wrote in to Joa's Arc recently to let us know how well our Gibster is doing and we couldn't think of a better way to close the year off than by sharing it here for all the wonderful people who check in on the animals of Joa's Arc through our blog.

Gibson's mom wrote: Gibson is amazing. I can't even express it. He's the greatest cat ever. He's sweet, affectionate, quite the little cuddler, and totally hilarious. Just a total sweetheart, lovebug. He makes everyone laugh with his antics. When he's in the mood to play, he likes to crouch down behind things and then jump out at you. He's also the first cat I've ever know who'll actually play hide and seek with you! And he's got this cute little hop that he does when he's excited. It's adorable.

He's definitely special. We call him the little supervisor because sometimes he just likes to stare at you. Even if he's not in the same room, sometimes he'll just stare from the hall. Otherwise he likes to be in the same room with one of us at all times, just watching what we're doing. He sleeps in my bed and he even knows what it means when I say "time for bed Gibs". He'll follow me into my room and curl up on the right side, putting his head on the pillow that is very much his pillow now. He looooves cuddles and being nuzzled. He also loves kisses. He won't sit in your lap but he'll sit right next to you with his paw in your lap or wrapped around your arm.

Gibby also has this funny obsession with the bathroom. We don't know what it is. When you're in there, he likes to be in there too. If you don't let him in, or if anyone is in the bathroom, he will sit outside the door and wait for them to come out. Sometimes he likes to hang out in the bath tub, and I've also found him just hanging out in the sink. Strange, but funny and sweet. Like Gibson himself.

We went to the vet for a check up at the end of October and the vet said he was great. She was impressed with how sweet he was and the softness of his coat. He's about eleven pounds! A little chubby food hog, but we're working on that. I'm taking pictures of him all the time. I've attached some of my recent favorites.

One of those attached photos on her email is the photo featured in this blog post. Yay for Gibson and his awesome home!! Thanks so much for writing to us, Gibby's mom, and letting us know how well he's doing. You have no idea how much that made our holiday! Gibson certainly came a very long way from the extreme circumstances that brought him into Joa's Arc care and we are ecstatic to see that he is so loved (and still so silly).

Joa's Arc is wishing all sorts of happiness on you, readers, in the coming new year. Lets keep up the good work! Tweet This

Introducing Bucky

Meet Bucky!! Because of his little face and giant ears, people keep insisting I (Jen W of Joa’s Arc) name him "Yoda", but Bucky was the name I got him with and I like it more than "Yoda."

I first met this boy a couple weeks ago when he came into the Animal Welfare Association with his foster mom to be weighed and I just fell in love with his little face and squeaky meow (it's probably not a good idea for a "rescuer" to work for a shelter...). Within the last few days though, I've become Bucky's foster mom! His two "normal" siblings weighed enough to be spayed/neutered and put up for adoption, but this poor little guy was still too tiny. I more than happily offered to take him home with me.

Do you see anything a little off with this little kitten? No, not his tiny eyes. Keep looking! Real close! Ok, maybe I'm not being fair. It's a little hard to see the craziest thing about this kitten in that picture, so let me show you another and make it easier on you...

Four ears!

Yes, tiny little alien eyes (when he blinks, he doesn't really shut his eyes so much as he just folds his third eyelids over them), a little face, lots of fur and tiny little ear flaps behind his actual, normal ears!! Apparently, he's not the only one though. When first looking into this weird condition, I came across a fairly famous kitty who is named, surprisingly, Yoda! Upon further digging, I found this website which is really interesting and apparently Yoda is not the only kitty like my foster boy either: Feline Medical Curiosities: The Ears.

For now, Bucky's in foster care with Joa’s Arc because he seems to be a little slow developing. As I mentioned above, he had two siblings that seem to be completely normal and are an appropriate size for their age. Bucky on the other hand is still pretty tiny. Joa’s Arc is considering having a vet take a good look at Bucky and maybe take some blood work to see if he is maybe a bit abnormal on the inside as well.

Right now, like most kittens though, he likes exploring, wrestling and snuggling. He's a great little kitten! Tweet This

Gibson Medical Update

It seems our poor boy is currently in medical limbo at the moment. After recovering remarkably well from running into a moving vehicle, Gibson stopped eating and spiked a fever in his foster home. Along with a list of other things, including an enlarged heart (which is "normal" again now), Gibby was diagnosed with non-regenerative anemia - basically his red blood cells weren't "resupplying" themselves. Once we were told of the anemia, we were advised that the best place to go would be the University of Penn and that the best option as far as testing to find us answers would be a bone marrow test.

Up until this point, Gibby was being cared for the wonderful staff at the facility his rescuer Rick had taken him to when Gibson ran into Rick's car. We decided to seek a second opinion of our trusted Dr. John at Tri-County Veterinary Hospital.

This type of anemia would be classic for Feline Leukemia, however he has now officially tested negative for that twice now. Yes! We had him re-tested just in case. So, our only other theories were pretty poor - that of all the cats to run into kind hearted Rick's car, it was a terminally ill kitten whose life could only be prolonged with frequent blood transfusions, a painful procedure and only a temporary fix.

However, after seeing Dr. John we are now being cautiously optimistic about Gibby's condition.

Dr. John has a theory that Gibby had so much happen to his body at once when he smacked into Rick's car door that his red blood cells were a minor problem that fell to the bottom of his body's 'priority list' of things that needed to be recovered.

Right now, Gibby's temperature continues to remain fairly normal and he's eating - he's even put on weight! In a couple weeks, Gibby will be returning to our wonderful Dr. John for more blood work to see how his red blood cell count it.

His foster mom, Joyce, recently wrote: "I think Gibby is missing Petey (his neurological foster buddy who recently passed away; pictured curled up with Gibby in a cat bed), he wouldn't leave me alone while I was drying my hair: biting my feet, running in circles, attacking my legs, etc. So I threw a towel over him to see how long it took for him to come out. The result? ... let's just say Gibby would still be under the towel if I didn't remove it. Of course, as soon as I did, he was right back at attacking my feet. What a character!"

Keep your fingers crossed for this brave little guy. Tweet This