Skate Update: Day 4

So many of you have stopped by and offered sweet well wishes to little Skate that we thought it was appropriate to give you all an update.

Skate is doing very well. She's still on antibiotics but doesn't show signs of having the respiratory virus that she did last Thursday when she was found.

As you can see in the photo at left, Skate loves all the attention she's getting. She is a real cuddler and loves to be cradled in my arm while she stretches out her tiny body, sometimes stretching to pat my face with her sweet little paws.

Speaking of her paws... we mentioned in a past post that she has slightly deformed paws. Many of you wondered if she is polydactyl. We counted all her funny little toes and she isn't polydactyl. But we think she does have double jointed toes and paws. Her little paws sometimes look quite normal, but other times her little toes are all pushed backwards on themselves making them look like funny little cartoon "clubbed" paws. When she trots around they do this and she kind of making a little "clomping" sound instead of the normal soft padding of kitten feet. She sometimes even pulls one her toes with her own teeth to straighten them out. Both front paws seem to bend backwards on themselves quite liberally. It's very odd but cute nonetheless.

Skate eats and eats and eats! She loves her food! Her tummy is quite round and bulging, but she still is very scrawny in her legs and ribs. From what we can tell, she seems to be a long and lanky kitty in the making so that may account for her proportions. We still would be more comfortable if we could get some more meat on her wee little bones though. She's doing her part, that's for sure! And she's so cute because she burps a lot after eating. Such cute kitten burps too. I know that if she could she'd say, "Excuse me, please."

As you can see from the photos of her little tummy, she has gorgeous markings! Her tummy spots are so beautiful. I love to have her turn over in my arms just so I can tickle her little round spotted tummy (which she loves). Her markings on her back are coming out more and appear to be a combination of the spotted pattern with stripes. She also has a cinnamon color that is coming in to some of her head stripes which is really pretty in the right light.

In case you're wondering about her eyes, they are all clear, but when we take a photo with the flash she closes them halfway so it looks like she's still having problems with them. Her eyes are actually quite clear and bright. And her nose is clear too. Which accounts for all the exploring she wants to do around my studio (which I keep to a minimum).

And finally, how are the other kitties handling having Skate in Mommy's studio? Well, they don't like being excluded from any place in the house, but particularly any place where Mommy is spending time. So each of them have been allowed to come in one at a time to see what's in here now. Dexter is taking it all in stride without any hissing. He sniffs around the cage to say "hi" and do his patrol. Then he's ready to go back out to patrol the rest of the house. The others are still hissy, but that's to be expected. They don't have to worry. Mommy won't let Skate get them.

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