Happy Catmas

Yesterday afternoon, Catsie and I went to Safe Haven because we felt guilty that we couldn't be there this morning (Christmas Day). It was a good thing that we did because Rod, the volunteer, wanted to get away and Tim had to go to the vet in Brookvale.

So we entertained the cats and tried to figure out the kittens.

Boarding is almost full of adults: some vocal, some cross, some shy, some needy but all lovely.

There is a new surrender, Wendell who is definitely pissed off. He is in a kitten sized condo so doesn't have much room to vent his spleen.

Wendell

I still don't know who is Kit Kat and who is Maggie. They are 9 years old and very friendly.

 Angelo and Annabelle

These two are Angelo and Annabelle (according to the condo signs). Easy to tell from the rear.

Arnie is the spotted  silver and Alex is the spotted brown. Both are asleep after much fun and games. Not so easy to tell.

Arnie and Alex

 There are now four Melody kittens (again). The fluffy one has reappeared with a shaved rear end. We decided that he should be called Mikado. Monty has more ticking that Mozart and so is greyer. It is easy to pick the fluffy Mikado.

Melody's kittens

Shivers is back with us for boarding. But he is in with "our" cats. His coat is looking splendid.

Shivers

At home for Christmas Day the family had a lovely time around the table while the dogs played in and out of the house and the cat, Cody, was shut in the quietest, downstairs room available.

Jessie of the green smile is just a bit ball obscessed

Greenest grass

I met Sandy leaving as I arrived at SH this afternoon with the great news that there were three volunteers this morning and all the work had been done.

So I cannot understand why I worked constantly all afternoon and was late, again for my physio appointment at 4:30!

I did have a basket full of lovely succulent grass to feed the cats. There is a broken pipe on the sidewalk a few doors down from me and the grass grows very well. So well that I suspect that it is a sewage pipe but as this is the only green grass around at the moment, neither the cats or I will report it.

Charlie

Penny in her new condo

Melody with a raw patch on her nose

 

Taylor and Buffy share a condo. His skin is full of scabs from some kind of allergic dermatitis.

Scarlett was adopted to a family who has experience with cats and another female at home. Lucky them.

Candace's black and white kitten that Joy admired on Wednesday was struck down by the nasty virus that his black  brother had and died very suddenly yesterday. The black kitten is feeling better and the black and white one is OK, at the moment.

I cleaned condos so that cats could be moved out of the boarding area in expectation of the influx this weekend. Only Blossom is on the other side of the door and she may have to be moved out eventually. And I cleaned the condos that they moved out of. . . some were quite manky.

A couple of boarders arrived. Kittens were moved. It was busy.

? Correct Date

Sandy commented that the blog posts always have the wrong date. I don't know if it is a day earlier or a day later. As I am writing this on Thursday, it will be a test.

We were very busy at SH yesterday. By next week when we are full of boarders, it will be frantic. Tim had the day off (excellent) but had left instructions about moving kittens around. We thought it would be a good opportunity to name and photograph the kittens. First problem was to agree on their sex (three agreements out of four opinions was good enough). Then to decide what system to use.
Melody's kittens got musical names: Madonna, Mozart and Monti (for Montiverdi)
The kittens who came from Blacktown got A names (starting at the top of the alphabet as we don't know their mother's name): Angelo (for the heavenly mackerel tabby), Amanda, A..... I left the piece of paper on the filing cabinet because I was in a rush to get to a Xmas luncheon. To be continued on Friday.

One of Candace's kittens has lost a lot of weight so it is at home with TIm getting fluids and extra care. The other two don't look very well. Candace is still full of flu and has retreated to her bed box without the kittens to give her courage.

Joy thinks that this C kitten is improving in looks.

Joy also wondered if Elsa ever gets out of her cave.  . . . She does when it is time for the people to leave. If Tim is late, he often sees her. Plus stuff moves overnight. This morning her igloo was sitting, saturated, in a puddle of water. Luckily I found another teepee shaped one. I hope she likes it.

Elsa

Smokey got adopted. Of course. Pity grey hair is not so popular on people. 

Smokey

Mini Mama

Remember back in October when I went to Blacktown to pick up a pregnant kitten and called her mini Mama?

She has been in the Avalon foster home since then but is back at Safe Haven because the six kittens who came from the Blacktown pound at the same time as the two ginger kittens, Mango and Mandarin, who were sent to Avalon so that they could get six feeds a day, have come down with the same virus that the gingers had. Three of them have died. So  Mini Mama and her four kittens have been sent to SH out of reach of the dreadful virus.

Mini Mama's name is Eve. A heater fell on one of her kittens and damaged his pelvis. So he drags his back legs around. The foster carer will adopt him. The others are fine and all are very pretty.

Eve

  Eve's kittens

Maggie and Kitkat were surrendered. They are a bonded pair, and are 9 years old. You'd think they would have learned to find nice places to lie down at their age.

Maggie/Kitkat

Maggie/Kitkat

 
I got to SH rather late without any grass. I hid in the kitchen and did the washing up to avoid the disappointed stares from the cats who rely on my grass. Talk about a guilt trip.

But when I arrived, Charlie was having his time out. He flopped on the ground in front of me so I gave him a twirl (360 degrees by holding head and rump). He must have liked it because he kept flopping down in front of me. So now we have a new way of drying the floor after we mop it!

Running Kittens

It seems that Blossom is hyperthyroid which explains why she is thin, and loud. Medication may make her happier.

Blossom

The little ginger, Mango, died in the same way that his big brother Mandarin did: couldn't digest, had a fever, probably a virus and no antibodies from mum's milk. They were such a charming couple that it is hard to say goodbye.

But the other kittens are thriving. The four out the back will do anything to get out to play including leaping from their upper shelf to the ground as soon as their door is open a crack regardless of whose head gets bumped. Tim put one into a condo to eat by herself. As soon as she was done, she yelled and screeched to be put back with her boisterous brothers.

Melody's kittens are full of beans. When let out of the condo they fly in all directions, tails right over their backs just for the joy of running. Their mum is a friendly girl who is sitting on her tummy (/teats). She might just have had it with these kittens. And she hardly looks bigger than them.

Melody

Candace's lot has a special talent in spreading pooey paw prints over everything. When you add poor Candace's sneezy snot it makes for a condo that NEEDs cleaning.

Candace and kittens

 When I arrived, around 10am, Tim was accepting a cat who had been brought, on public transport in a cat carrier in one of those prams that joggers put their toddlers into, from Wollongong. The woman says that she will bring his sister tomorrow. We wondered if she walked from Chatswood station.

 Wollongong boy

 The cat has a microchip but there no names listed on the website. But he seems to have lived on the other side of the Princes Highway from his rescuer. Did they run across the highway and could not find their way back home or were they dumped on the highway?

I went to Narrabean markets this afternoon and there were heaps of volunteers at our stand and not many visitors. So it was decided that I should go to Safe Haven so that Tim could get to Narrabean early to pack up and schlepp back to East Roseville.

big ginger on Wednesday

The big ginger kitten, Mandarin died. And the little ginger kitten, Mango is off his food. So I spent the afternoon trying to coax him into eating/drinking in between avoiding spreading his germs to everybody else. So I fussed and fiddled to make things tidy.

TA DA:

I am tempted to make signs: sheets, blankets, towels, hand towels, cuddles, pillow slips, etc, etc. But I know that nobody else is as driven to create uniform piles of textiles as I am. So I will just promise myself another good tidy up in . . . .  2 weeks/2 months/2 years time.

As the normal dinner time passed Charlie got very restless and may well have ripped the door of his condo. So he came to join the "feed the kitten" party. He was more interested in eating the kitten food. At least he didn't eat the kitten.

Charlie and Mango

Tim eventually got back, we unloaded his car, shared the feeding of the cats and I left at 5:20pm. Tim needs some time off.

Sick ginger

Jack has been adopted, again. He hasn't come back, yet. Let us hope that his new owners follow Tim's advice this time.

The 6 Heinz kittens have gone to foster in Avalon because Tim can't manage 4 hourly feeds as well as everything else that he does. And Bron already has Mini Mama's four. . . . what is another 6 kittens!

Mandarin the bigger ginger kitten was not eating yesterday so Tim took him to Brookvale vet. He is very dehydrated and full of flu. He was put into Shivers' first condo where we can all keep an eye on him. His little brother, Mango was moved next door. After I fed everybody the pitiful grass that I gathered in the park, I gave him another comb through. More flea dirt came off him but no live fleas. And I washed his face as well as I could.

Mango

Milly wasn't interested in the dry, tough grass but happily posed for a photo.

Milly

 Blossom demanded seconds after I had fed everybody so I spent time with her and groomed a pile of hair from her. Her tail is thick but she doesn't like it to be brushed. While I stood there I could hear Bonnie purring and kneading the front of her condo. She sounds like she has asthma but it is probably only the flu. As soon as it can be confirmed that she doesn't haven any kittens inside her still, she will be put on the flu treatment. She is getting very friendly in the meantime.

Charlie

Talking of tails: Charlie's is a beauty. But he has something sticking to his bum. I offered to brush it off but was told NO. Always obey a big cat.

Enough excitement for one day

It started quietly enough with Joy wrangling kittens out the back and me cleaning the welfare cats. 

We had finished all but the three wild ones who Tim brought from Lauren's. They were supposed to be "sweet" when given to us, but either the process has been upsetting for them or the donors lied. Or perhaps they didn't like the names chosed for them: Winston (ginger), Wesley and Tammy. They were in the condo below Scarlett as a hissing, spitting trio. Tim decided that they should be separated to give them a chance to be socialized. We set up sheets as barriers to make a straight path to the condo where Shivers was. Tim donned his gauntlets. Tim grabbed the cat he wanted but Tammy hightailed it to freedom.

Silly girl chose to bolt behind the condo block adjacent to the ghastly wall art. Sienna had tried that before so Tim had a method involving a broom. We again set up "barriers" of blankets and sheets to direct her to the nearest condo. The broom was inserted and the cat shot straight out and up the huge climbing tree. Luckily I was standing beside it and grabbed her and threw her into the condo. It was over in two seconds. No blood was drawn. My heart beat fast for five minutes. 

So the ferals are sorted. They will soon be tamed by tender words, food and love.

Next door (below Kimmy) are four little kittens and their mother who hides under the bed. The kittens are friendly. Charlie was prepared to play footsies with one of them.

Charlie

Joy played with another

 Smokey was surrendered this morning. She walked out of her carry case into the condo but would not say goodbye nicely  to her person. There was a clash with a dog at home. I doubt she will be with us for long.

Smokey

Samantha was very keen to be patted so I decided to wipe the gunk from her eyes. She didn't like my choice of cloth so I had to do it with my fingers which I washed three times and F10'd throughly. Candace is full of flu. But her kittens don't seem to be infected.

Alarms and excursions

House guests this week have left me feeling muddled. I thought I had taken socks with me to tennis but couldn't find them when I got there, borrowed a pair, went to put on my new (purple) tennis shoes and found the ones I had brought after all. They had fallen between the seat and the car door.

When I got to Safe Haven, I discovered that the camera battery is still being charged, at home. So I pulled out my phone and took lots of photos. Now I can't figure how to get the photos from the phone to the computer. Never mind, they are just photos of new kittens after all. (I may be able to add some later.)

When I arrived the former owner of Blink and Gypsie was visiting. She tried to volunteer when they were still with us but was overcome by tears at the sight of them in condos. Now that they have both been adopted she is willing to try again. In the meantime she adopted a puppy who hasn't lost his milk teeth (so has two sets of teeth like a shark) and neither of his testicles has descended. So the dog will be "top and tailed" soon leaving her free to volunteer with us.

First I fed the boarders grass and Barb's catmint. There was a condo with two names but only one cat apparent. It gave me a fright. I wondered if it was a very flat cat asleep underneath the cat in the bed. But Tim told me that it was next door being groomed.

While "grassing" the boarders, I noticed Charlie trying to get into one of the clean beds in the linen storage area. He was easily enticed back to his condo with a handful of grass. The sliding catch on his door is misaligned. So he has often taken himself off for wanders. Once, he made it to the front door, which was open at the time. But, being a wary cat, he turned about and came back inside.

After telling him what a clever cat he was, Tim asked me to attend to Jimmy's teeth. The vet says that he has plaque and has provided beef flavoured toothpaste and a "toothbrush" that fits onto a person's finger. Said person is to put her/his finger into the mouth of the cat and brush! It might work if you had a vet nurse with bandages at the ready! Tim volunteered me to try it. Jimmy now has clean canines. He wasn't going to open his mouth for me. . . . and I don't blame him. I suggested some nice chicken necks. Tim said that it would be his next owner's problem.

Then I, as instructed, socialized the new kittens. Hard job but somebody has to do it.

There is a pair of ginger boys who have seen the vet and named (by the vet &/or nurse) Mango and Mandarin. Tim took them home last night because the smaller one (Mango) was cold and not interested in food. He was better this afternoon but had a very dirty face. So I wrapped him up in flannel and washed his face. Then I felt a lump at the base of his tail, investigated it and found that it was solid flea dirt.

The vet gave both of them the flea treatment yesterday. I think we should put the treatment in the water of the western suburbs. (These two and the other litter came from Blacktown pound).

Suddenly Jimmy appeared and was interested in what I was doing with that scrap of ginger. The work experience girls where back from lunch by then and perhaps he talked them into letting him stretch his legs. Jimmy behaved well. And jumped, in a spectacular fashion from the back of a guest chair to the top of the adjacent condos. We forgot about him, until suddenly we couldn't find him. We looked high and low until he jumped down from a scratchy pole, calmly. Such a cool cat.

I combed and combed a pile of shit from both of the ginter kittens who are too small to clean themselves properly. Tim tried to put them in with Candace. She was interested and willing but one of her kittens was jealous of the attention she gave to them.

So you have missed photos of piles of flea dirt.

Next I sorted through the other "litter" that came from Bankstown. The quotation marks are because these kittens are probably not from the same mother. Their weights are too widely spread. And their personalities vary more than you would expect from siblings. There is a grey and white boy (big) and five girls: three torties including one fluffy tortie who is a luv bug, a tabby and . . . . I was relying on my photos but I think I missed one or two. Told you I was muddled.

None of this "litter" had flea dirt. But all of them have eye grunge. So they probably have cat flu, the symptoms of which will appear in a day or two. With that in mind, I threw the rest of the grass and catmint at the other cats with gloved hands and took myself off.

(A thousand words for every picture?)

Made in China

Shivers

Shivers has a sticker on his tail that reads Made in China. We have a pair of Chinese work experience students this week. Coincidence?

We got a sweet girl, Caramel this morning whose owner has to go into care. She was a bit stunned.

Caramel

At the same time Narla was picked up by a very excited young man.

There is a new cat called Penny. Don't know her history.

Penny

And the mackerel kitten is definitely ginger behind the ears. Catsie and I installed a scratchy box with platforms so that they can climb up to their upper self and not have to launch themselves into space to get down to their toilet. What we need is a carpet covered ramp.

Bonnie still doesn't have any kittens or any signs of them despite the positive ultrasound a fortnight ago. Curious.

Bonnie

From the dog park, West Chatswood

There were hundreds of dogs of all shapes and sizes. About a third of them are some kind of poodle cross. There was one cat in a cage at the Cat Protection Society booth. Poor thing will need lots of quiet and love to recover.

But the real news is that Blink and Narla were adopted today. . . . separately.

Blink

Blink will be so happy to be master of everybody's domain again.

Narla

And Narla will forget about her stay with us and become a loving fluff ball.

Litter delivery

I did another run to Arundel Park after tennis this morning. I have changed my TomTom to avoid toll roads. It didn't take any longer to get there as it did last time when I went via all the toll roads possible. The little car doesn't go as fast on the way back with 20 bags on board.

But Tim and the work experience student did the heavy lifting to get the bags upstairs.

When I arrived Charlie and Shivers were having Time Out, ie a good time out of the condo. Charlie looks much more handsome (if that is possible) while being a gracious host to all visitors. Shivers just wants to play, or sit on the printer which is his safe place.

Later Peanuts came out. He and Shivers are about the same size but Peanuts is probably younger but the vets don't agree on how much younger. They don't get on particularly well. They parallel play: just like toddlers.

Peanuts

Then Jimmy had a turn. He is a charmer with his riveting gaze. He loved to be brushed and let me know how much.

Jimmy

It seems that we have another foster fail. The folk who volunteered to foster the pug want to adopt. Sigh.

Stellar weekend

Eight cats were adopted this weekend. Plus the dog, Ella.

Ming went to a family who already has a cat. So he will be happy rumbling with his new buddy. (Shivers has been upgraded to his condo. Tim tried to add Peanuts but they didn't like sharing digs).

A family came for a pair of kittens but took Tortie and Kitty instead. . . sensible people.

But, all three of Jewel's son's were adopted. So little Jilly is left by herself. . . . not for long: she is so cute.

Next door to her are four new kittens not yet ready to desex. They are all tabbies. Three are spotted and the fourth is a mackerel tabby with ginger fur. She must be a tortie and will be a dramatically gorgeous adult. Perhaps we should auction her to the highest bidder! This is a lousy photo but kittens will not stand still to be photographed, even if they look fabulous. Perhaps Joy will get an appropriate shot.

On the other side of Jilly is Bonnie who hasn't had her kittens yet! But she has had an ultrasound to prove that she is pregnant. Evidently, a queen can be pregnant from between 7.5 and 10 weeks. She is somewhere in there and holding on.

 Bonnie

Her sister, Candace hardly looks bigger than her kittens who are getting bold and playful.

Candace

Tilly was also chosen! And her condo has an new shy occupant, Olivia.

 Olivia

We have a new 6 year old, JImmy in Kimmy's condo. 

 Jimmy

And Jack, a disgruntled ragdoll who will accept pats, in Torties' condo. Where do they all come from?

 Jack