HAPPY BIRTHDAY TANNER!!

Tanner's birthday was April 7th. My baby boy is now 5 years old! It is hard to believe that he is that old...it seems like only yesterday that he arrived at the house...

Tanner was 13 days old, and weighed 7 ounces, when he came to us with his sister Riley, and they were a fussy group! They didn't like the taste of the formula we were feeding (KMR) because they were used to a surrogate mom's milk. She was doing an ok job with them, but she had kittens of her own that were much larger and older than Tanner and Riley, so they weren't getting what they needed, and were not gaining weight. They were a bit weak and dehydrated when they came to me, but with the help of a friend who rushed over after a frantic "Get over here and bring a heating pad!" phone call, we got them eating. It took almost all weekend for Tanner to want to nurse on his bottle. Riley understood a bit earlier. He finally caught on, and we knew the drill. Tanner liked the short squatty nipple on the bottle, and Riley preferred the long skinny one. As long as they had the right nipple, they would eat fine!




This is Tanner after almost 6 weeks at our house! What a cutie!

Tanner and I went through a lot together. He developed ringworm and we spent months treating that. Once he was ready to go to adoptathons, I wasn't ready to let him go. It took some convincing, but I was finally able to adopt him!

When he was almost two, he was diagnosed with his heart condition, Hypertrophic Obtrusive Cardiomyopathy. He is handling the daily medications like a trooper.

In the last year, Tanner has become a real snuggle bug. He sleeps with me everynight now. He lays at my feet and stretches out...he takes up most of the bed, but I'll not complain. It's just nice to have him in there! He has also gotten so he will sit beside me on the couch some nights.

His favorite pasttime is definitely playing! He loves for me to sit in the floor and play with him. He likes to do flips over my feet while trying to "get" a toy!

He talks a lot more now that he used to, and he enjoys talking to and waving to his birds outside. Some nights he'll put on a show for them and dance around on the rug in front of the doors!

Tanner is a happy boy that loves life! I hope he'll be around for a long time to come...Happy Birthday Tanner!