Sunday, December 1, 2013

Military Names for Kittens


Fostering kittens and you're stumped for kitten names?  Oh these many many foster kittens!  Or are you a Crazy Cat Lady?  Sure, I have lists of names but this is so much simpler.  Ready?  The Military Alphabet!  Yup, it was developed by NATO because sometimes you just can't hear over the radio or phone EXACTLY what someone is saying.  How does the NATO Phonetic Alphabet go?  I'll bet you already know some of it, whether you've been in the military or not!

  • A-alpha
  • B-bravo
  • C-charlie
  • D-delta
  • E-echo
  • F-foxtrot
  • G-golf
  • H-hotel
  • I-india
  • J-juliet
  • K-kilo
  • L-lima
  • M-mike
  • N-november
  • O-oscar
  • P-papa
  • Q-quebec
  • R-romeo
  • S-sierra
  • T-tango
  • U-uniform
  • V-victor
  • W-whiskey
  • X-xray
  • Y-yankee
  • Z-zulu

And when you get to the end, start over again! Or just use a few.  A kitten named Zulu is cool.  What about Victor and Oscar and I have a Romeo right now. 
I have a vested interest because my son is, against my wishes, dropping out of college to go join the Marines.  "Join the Air Force," I said. 
"The Chair Force?  Nope."
"Well, you only want to join the Marines to defy me because you know all the men on my father's side are Navy.  I might point out that they got out asap because it wasn't for them."  See, this way, maybe he'll, "jump ship," and NOT be the group who's always the first ones in to battle. 
Nope. 
We watched Battleship again and reminded him that if he wants to fight aliens, join the Navy.  He pointed out Aliens.  I reminded him the Space Marines all died.
And I thought I was winning when I easily talked him out of the Army, even though his best friend from high school is there now. 
Marines.  Sheesh! Worse, he wants to be a doctor but he's joining the Marines first.  Since they don't have docs, he won't even get experience!  If he survives, he'll be like 30 before he even gets started anywhere!  Life is too short, you know? 

Oh well.  What can ya do?

Here's a couple of things I've learned from a vet tech who also fosters (she has over 30 cats and kittens in her house).

She swears this totally works on cat urine smells!

and
Does you cat get sniffles and sneezes and runny eyes, or worse, conjunctivitis?  Well, every one of this latest litter of kittens had Feline upper respiratory infection (URI) and because my youngest cat plays with them, his eye went from drippy to swollen and nasty in less than 12 hours!  A lot of these eye things are a form of herpes and it's super contagious (even to humans, so wash your hands).  The cat rescue group gave me these:
And they help get them over these nasty URIs better than they can on their own.  If you catch it early, this might be all you need but if it takes off, take your pet to the vet.  I took my big baby boy in and the vet gave him 2 anti-biotic shots, cream for his eye AND twice daily anti-biotic medicine.  Even before we started fostering, my indoor-only cats, who's precious little paws never touched dirt, never had a flea, and never saw another feline in their lives would occasionally get runny eyes and start sneezing.  And it would go around to each one of them.  I always wondered if there was something I could be doing to help and this is the stuff. 
And yes, if you haven't tried lysine for your own cold sores, get some for next time.  It helps a lot!



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