Wednesday, May 6, 2026

Going, going

 The conference room (aka the junk room) is half empty.  The shelves on the right hand side have all gone (along with the boxes of gloves. But I am assured that there is a box of gloves somewhere). I couldn't find Lola this morning. She wasn't waiting for me at the front door. But when it was her turn to be fed, she appeared like magic.

There were only a few vollies but they did a splendid job and even though the mop is broken the place sparkled at the end of the day.

We had one customer. . . a young couple. He said that she had promised him they would have a cat before kids five years ago when they got married. They went around everybody. Every cat loved them. Including Peanut.

Peanut
They took photos. I sent them to the cafe next door to decide. The came back and adopted Bruce and Ruby. They will be very happy.

Kath did the adoption which went well until it came to printing out the Adoption Contract. Because Ruby has just turned 1 year old, the system has a hissy fit and doesn't process it to the end. It has happened before. (But not to Kath or me). But Kath worked around it and they took the cats off. 

On my way home I dropped by the new premises which look much better in real life than in photos. Geoff was there working away with Tim and Sue. Most of the new enclosures are erected so I was able to install one hammock in each. When they are all there, I will add extras because there are no shelves yet. 

Some of Joy's photos from last week: 

 

Piglet having time out

 Dory will now happily take treats from everybody.

Dory
 

And you have to put Gary's medicine into his left ear. He is such a sweetie he has forgiven those who put it into his other ear.

Gary

 

Friday, May 1, 2026

Chalk likes chicken

 Or he thought he did when I gave him a small bit. But when I gave him the dish to lick out, he was a bit confused. I moved the meat to his dish and he ate a bit. But then he settled down in his hammock looking much more relaxed.

Chalk (pity the phone focussed on the bars not on the cat)
 

Jasmine brought in her two foster cats. .. . the family is travelling so there won't be enough folk left at home to look after Pebbles and Tilly. They did, eventually, come out of their carry case.

Pebbles and Tilly
Borealis was adopted this afternoon. Her tummy is looking better than it did on Wednesday. Her new people were thrilled. (There is a photo on the Safe phone.)

I counted cats before she went and got to 86 in Safe Haven. Don't know how many carriers we have.

 The Voonies are much more lively. Very interested in their food. And mum is not a shy.

Voonies at play
Piglet down below them can run really fast. She took off out of her condo. Did a dash under the desks and circled back to her condo in a twinkling.

Chloe still has mucky eyes. She is being treated. And one of the other C kittens she came in with has it too. She is doing a great job in frilling the edge of her box.

Chloe
Tyler's foggy eye looks better.
Tyler

And I gave Ruby and Bruce a larger hammock because their second one lost a tie. They love having a bigger bed to snuggle in. Kind of hard to tell where each cat stops and starts. . . they just flow together.

Bruce and Ruby

 

 

Wednesday, April 29, 2026

Better Row

 The Willoughby bin trucks were late this morning so I got 20 bags of rubbish off the balcony before they arrived. We still only have one Willoughby bin and it is 2/3 full already. We do not want to take any bags of rubbish with us to Mona Vale.

Progress is being made there. We will have lots more enclosures (10 of each size) so I am frantically making hammocks for them.

Today I noticed that Cheeto's stratchy box was hairy. He must loose hair continuously . . whatever breed of cat that he is. That is a very condensed ball of his fur from the  box.

Cheeto and his hair
 His neighbours, Cosmo and Coco just want to eat.

Cosmo and Coco
  There is a new cat on Better Row, Enzo who would dispute the name.

Enzo
 And a couple of kittens below Cheeto don't seem to spend time together in their condo. Always one above and the other trying to get to whoever opens his door.

Daisy (I just vant to be alone)
and 
Milo (Let me show you this trick)

 I moved Chalk from Incoming to where Oreo and Gingie were. . . they were adopted.

Dinesh is back from the vet and is transitioning away from the ZD diet. Hope this makes him happier.  

He is not happy. And not eating. Not even special treats of baby food.

Chalk
Nutmeg, on the other hand is full of beans and happy to be where Cookie and Marmalade were. . . they were adopted.

Friday, April 24, 2026

Dory spoke

 He greeted his favourite Friday vollie with a kitten sized meow!

Dory
And, there is no dirty laundry at Safe Haven! We have finally caught up. (It has taken 5 years!)

Of course, the rubbish is another story with only one Willoughby bin still. But visitors took off several bags, as did I. So the balcony is not too bad. But anything but empty of bags is bad.

Bruce was blue today because his mum was at the vets. He stole Mickeys toy but still missed his mum/pillow.

Bruce

 Peter, Patch and Phoenix have been moved to Welfare. It is nice to have some tiny tabbies there.

P's
Faith and Flora were desexed. They came back with plastic cones but I changed them to cloth ones which are more comfortable.  They don't seem to get on all that well. But it might just have been the post op!
Flora and Faith

Chloe who was moved to Welfare some days ago, seems to have developed a mucky eye. She will get the dreaded ointment which is a shame because she has become much friendlier since being moved.

Chloe

Australis has been moved back to Incoming. Borealis left in Welfare all by herself is now enjoying visitors.

Borealis
In Isolation the four champagne, identical kittens suddenly have a champagne mum! She escaped while they were catching the family but has since been brought in. She seems a calm, sweet cat (who luckily remembered her kittens).

There is another kitten in Isolation called Bonnie. She was adopted from a breeder of British Short Hairs but developed ringworm and giardia. Both of these are infectious to people as well as to animals. So she was surrendered to us with a bag of food and meds and cash! I wasn't going close enough to get a good photo because both of those parasites infect people as well as felines. But she is cute enough to wait for.

Wednesday, April 22, 2026

Gary back

 He is back from foster and just as cuddle-able as when he went. Others came back from Kym's as well. She has been a huge help with shuttling cats from the shelter to and from vets and has had many of our cats living at her house. Many thanks Kym.

Aslan has declared it to be winter and has taken to sleeping all day on my doona.

Aslan

 Geoff visited today and showed up photos of the new shelter and talked of all the plans he has offered to help with. Thank you Geoff. The move will start on May 7 and be finalized on May 17. It will be an interesting 10 days.

 The only photo I took today was as I was checking waters at the very end of the day. Eleanor, in Incoming, was calmly stirring her water bowl on the shelf below with her tail.

 

She has three kittens, Ebony (the black one) and the tabbies Erica and Evie.

There are four identical champagne kittens in Isolation. They seem to be very well. . . so far. 

And I have been saving this photo of Autumn. She is still on wet only food. . . . hence the lean and hungry look. But the leaves on the Liquidamber along our driveway are turning so it is appropriate to include her.


 

Friday, April 17, 2026

Jerry gone

 There were lots of vollies this morning so the work got done early and very well. And the vollies got to spend extra time with the cats. Which paid off:

Dory accepted a pat

 A couple of visitors arrived to replace their elderly, unwell cat with a kitten. . . . culture shock ahead. She had done her homework on our blog and he had chosen the last cat they had so it was her turn to pick. So she fancied Sumi but Jerry fancied his beard. It is a long, multi-coloured beard. Jerry and he played and smooched. Sumi and she cuddled calmly. 

I took them out back to meet Mouse who looked calm and unconcerned (thank goodness her breast feeding hormones have gone!)

Mouse
 He won. They took home Jerry. (Let's hope they change her name to Gerry.  . short for Geraldine.)

 Irene gave Nutmeg's kittens an anti fungal bath and checked them all over for lesions. None were found. So they have been moved into the Palace. I suspect they will discuss a plot with Ravyn overnight. So be warned for tomorrow morning!

And there was discussion about putting Salt and Pepper back together again. But I think they are better apart.

Pepper

 

 

 

Wednesday, April 15, 2026

Smashed bin

 Only one Willoughby bin was taken to the sidewalk yesterday. There were more bags on the balcony and and empty bin in the garage. But, perhaps, if it had been filled and taken to be collected this morning, the collection truck would have dropped and smashed it as well. 

Seems to be our luck with trash cans.

It has been reported. The mess moved into the erstwhile empty bin which is back in the garage. Let's hope they are quicker at getting us a new bin than usual.

In the meantime, our monthly tally of one cat/kitten adopted per day is holding in April.

This afternoon last week's keen family came back for Cheetah. I left Kath to it because I wanted to rush home to PC. (Just like previously, I left two bags of washing and a bag of washed tins in the loading bay in my rush to get home).

PC had a very quiet day in bed. He hadn't got up even for a drink of water, let alone food. Yesterday he and Aslan basked on the nice warm tiles on the verandah . . . between snacks.

PC and Aslan

 I don't think PC got out of his bed today. Not even for a drink of water. We have fixed that but he isn't interested in eating anything. But rather likes it on my bed.

PC
Just like Cookie liked it on my lap earlier in the afternoon while I brushed her tummy.

Cookie's pretty tummy

And Bruce loves lying on his mummy's tummy.

Ruby is a pillow for Bruce

 Old AWL vollies will enjoy that we had an email from the daughter of the woman who adopted Jasmine, with 3 legs. I fostered Jasmine before and after her amputation and she was a lovely cat. And I used to feed her when the mother went to visit other family in Canberra. I could go through the blog I kept then to find a photo if anybody is interested.