Bonnie is pregnant

It is inevitable. It seems that she has two kittens in her womb. Tim is taming her by feeding her frequently and rubbing her head. Her auspicious name was chosen because she is the 200th surrender to SafeR.

Jewell will be desexed in a fortnight. She has been suffering from hypocalcaemia (three litters in a row will deplete your calcium stores). But after special food she is recovering.

We had a bit of a fright this afternoon. A woman came in asking for "Gypsie". Our Gypsie went to her new home on Wednesday afternoon. The person who surrendered Gypsie and Blink is now a volunteer with us. It wasn't her. The woman said "my Gypsie who is boarding". We sent her next door with the staffer from there who was giving Ming a cuddle.

Blink over Bailey

I moved Blink up to Gypsie's condo and Bailey into his condo below. So the B's are together. I wonder if that top corner condo is going to turn into the HOT BOX for adoptions.

I took two chicken necks in for the kittens. Cody didn't much fancy the one I gave him a month ago. I tried him again, and he is still not interested. So off to SH they went, each got cut into two and all were greeted with growls of delight. But the kittens still wanted their lunch.

J kitten meets chicken neck

Jewell's kittens have names

The only one we know for sure is the girl whose name is Jill. The other names are Jack, James and Josh. The vet knows. Tim suspects the gingers are Jack and James.

Lil Ging has had her name changed to Sienna. "But that is a girl's name", I said. "She is a girl", Tim said. . . . Really.

The mum with tiny kitten's has been named Candace. And her sister is Bonnie.

Bonnie

Shivers is in the wars again. He was desexed last week but this week he has had an operation to removed an abdominal "cyst". It hasn't stopped his purrs. And his coat is looking splendid.

Shivers

Rajah and Prince have gone to heaven on earth. . . . they are living with Lauren.

Rajah and Prince

Still here

Gypsie is on hold until her new person/family gets all the things that she will need delivered via the Internet. What she really needs it to be in a loving home. . . forget the accessories. . . . cuddles will do.

Gypsie

There is a tentative date to pick her up on Oct 30. 
In the meantime, she enjoyed her grass munching. 

I get the feeling on Friday afternoons after Sandy has done a splendid job cleaning everybody up, that the cats see me as a grass distribution mole. Blossom leads the chorus. She has a brush in her condo. While she ate her grass, I brushed two full brushloads of fur from her.

Blossom and brush

 The chorus of "Me, me, meow" by the Kitty/Kimmy/Scarlet chorus does not quite overpower the Charlie MEEEEEEEEEE.

Bailey was more interested in smooching than anything else. And Little Ging loves grass but is not still sure that people are worthwhile. His sister, Diva is all about the cuddles.

Peanuts is slowly getting to be a black and white cat rather than a cream and black cat. If we gave him a bath he would achieve tuxedo status quicker. Anybody want to give a cat a bath?

Peanuts

Jewell is very vocal. Tim and I decided that she is on heat. . . . AGAIN

Jewell

Welcome Joy

Joy came to help this morning. We certainly needed the help because it was busy. There are new protocols to stop the spread of cat flu which are posted on the condo near the door between boarding and adoptions.

The "brother" of the mother cat who came last week is a girl. She is below Blossom and behind curtains. Next door are Jewell's kittens who have been weaned. They don't seem to mind but Jewell is still demanding breast feeding rations.

Jewelettes

Elsa, from her previous litter, has emerged, somewhat. She now hides in full view in the cubic bed. . . just a matter of finding the right bed.

Elsa

We have a new cat for adoption called Pepi. He is still overwhelmed.

 Pepi

Initially it looked like it was going to be quiet so Tim decided to run some errands.

Jake

Soon Jake's family arrived to pick him up. Luckily Tim wasn't far away so he could come back to tell them how to reintegrate Jake and collect the boarding fees.

Then a family arrived to inspect the boarding arrangements. Luckily they want a couple of weeks at the end of November. It seems that Christmas is almost fully booked, already. I showed them around while Tim talked to Jake's family.

Then a lady arrived with a donation and wanted to see the cats. I walked her around.

Poor Joy was left doing most of the work.

Gypsie

As I was swabbing the floor another lady arrived to adopt Gypsie. She had been in on Sunday, brought her husband in yesterday and today she needed to discuss all the gear that Gypsie will need. She will be a very spoiled, much loved cat. . . and thoroughly deserves to be.

A swoosh on the M2?

I drove to Arndell Park this afternoon to pick up 20 bags of litter. Arndell Park is somewhere off the Great Western Highway on the way to Penrith. I didn't actually lift any of the bags. The nice man there did.

On my way back to Safe Haven, I might have felt a swoosh on the M2 because Ninja was adopted by a family from Castle Hill and they would have been driving him home then. They left Ming behind.

Ninja at his foster home in April

Ming didn't seem too worried. He was more concerned that Prince and Raja were getting food and he wasn't. They also got throughly brushed because somebody with a pooey bum has been lying on somebody else. And somebody has been digging through the poo rather than burying it. Needless to say, they loved it and ate a whole sachet of their food when I stopped. . .. and I had a double length shower when I got home.

We have a new stray. He was found in Surry Hills and is fifthly. But he is very friendly and sweet. His name is Peanuts and although he looks more like Pig Pen at the moment, he will grow into his name.

Peanut

Notice that his lip slit goes almost to his nose. The vet thinks that he may have had a fall or been hit by a car because he has some broken teeth as well. And he has a bare patch on his tail. He has had a full life already and can't be more than 6 months old.

Liz away, we have fun

Liz was away today and there were five volunteers to try to replace her.

She missed the fun of the arrival of our latest litter. A friend of SafeR has been feeding a pair of kittens in Brookvale. She realized that one was about to have a litter so put out a dog carrier and feed her in there. This morning the cat was finally in the carrier when she arrived (the cat was in the process of having her babies!). So she shut the door and high tailed it to Safe Haven.
As soon as the carrier door was opened to put the mum into a condo, she hightailed it to the top of the condos, well out of reach. We didn't take long to "guide" her back to her babies. There are four of them. Mostly black with some white touches (just like Mum).They are well disguised in this photo:

 Across the aisle, Kitty, Scarlet and Kimmy were fascinated.
PS. The mini mama I picked up in Blacktown and delivered to Avalon, has had her litter. There were five. One didn't make it. She is being a very protective mum.

By the time these day old babies are as old as Jewell's bubs, they will have their own condo too. They are three boys and a girl. The girl is the clear eyed tabby. All the boys let me pick them up and turn them over to tickle their tummies. She wasn't having a bar of that!

(We should have a naming competition: Jasper, Jett, Mica, Ruby?)

Meanwhile, Jake (the spraying cat) has had his undescended testicle removed. No wonder the poor boy was acting like an entire male. . . he was one (or, more accurately, half of one). He had been medicated against his natural chemistry.  Already after his operation, he has settled down: no more calling, mounting and very little, not so smelly spraying. Let's hope that he has a chemical free future.

Jake

Bailey's story

Sandy did a sterling job this morning. All that was left was a few dishes, etc to wash. Thank you.

So I had time to fit the washed bedding back into the shelves and feed the cats grass.

There are only two condo's of boarders on the back row. It was full last Friday. But there are 6 or 8 boarders on the front row. And Blossom who doesn't feel as though she has put on any weight despite being on double rations. She enjoyed the grass.

Charlie waited patiently for his turn. It is a pity that he is so far down the list.

The grass helped me make friends with Diva who has a wonderful purr and Little Ginj even let me pat him, for a while. And then he decided he wanted to play handsies, so I stopped playing before it got bloody.

Diva and Little Ginj

At least their sister Samantha comes out to watch the action. I haven't set eyes on their other sister Elsa who lives on the very top shelf behind her bed. The food disappears and the litter tray gets used but not while there are people about.

Samantha

Bailey belonged to an old lady who died. The family came and emptied out the house and left the cat behind. The nice neighbour man looked after Bailey for 4 years before asking the vet for help because he felt that his time was near (the man not the cat: Bailey is only 7 years old). He is a lovely boy. Wasn't the least bit interested in the grass but wanted more cuddles.

Bailey

Tortie needs cuddles more than grass too. I left her to last because she has the most flu and gave her a good body rub. Don't you love her white whiskers: one on each side, straight out like a villain's moustache.

Tortie

Zero chance of guessing who got adopted today!

And while you are thinking about it:

Dotty is back . . . but as a boarder. She was pleased to see me. Hence the fuzzy photo.

Dotty

Paco and Ethan got adopted over the weekend. The family wanted to take only one of them but Tim refused to separate them so they took them both.

Paco and Ethan

We have a new cat in Welfare, Bailey who seems sweet.

Bailey

There is a huge pile of laundry because lots of the boarders have gone home already. The pile is now in my laundry and will take days.

Give up?

Zero

A lovely lady who has just moved and her two overweight, precious cats have recently died, came in because her daughters had nagged her into it. She loved everyone but decided that Zero would match her new couch cushions best. They spent ages getting to know each other and will be very happy. Zero's name will be changed probably to Lassie because she is a Scottish short hair, according to her paper work, and her new owner has famous Scottish forebears.

Raining cat dishes

I stopped by the park up the road to pick some grass and Sandy sped past me. Pity I missed her.

When I arrived, I found out why. There were masses of dishes to be washed. But it was a hot, windy afternoon so I decided that they would dry on the balcony. I swept it and set up the clothes drying rack. By the time I got one load washed, rinsed and F10'd the previous load on the rack was dry.

It worked like a charm until the southerly came through and pushed the door (propped open with a can of paint) into the clothes rack loaded with dishes. They went flying in all directions including over the edge of the balcony to the driveway below.

But at least they got all washed. Some of the surplus towels have been stashed on top of the condos. They will make a comfy bed for runaway cats. The shelves still look full so we have heaps.

And we have heaps of boarders. More will arrive tomorrow. I counted 16 today. Including Simon and Patty:

Simon and Patty

Everybody got grass. Charlie came out for grass. We should keep some on had for when potential adopters visit.

Charlie

The babies are getting fluffy. I pointed my camera at them, beautifully posed, and the battery went flat.

PS

There is Rhubarb and Ginger jam in stock. And the left overs in a small pot labeled "TASTER" if you want to know what it tastes like before you buy some.

It must be love

Dotty

Dotty was adopted over the weekend by a young family who haven't had a cat before. She will teach them everything they need to know. 

There is a new Burmese boarder called Hermione. I haven't read any Harry Potter but understand that the Hermione in the books is something of a witch. This Hermione walked straight into my arms and cast a spell over me.

Blossom is settling in. The vet thinks she is a bit thin so Tim decided to weigh her. He knows that she doesn't like other cats but she likes to be cuddled so he picked her up, carried her to the scales in the other room and put her down on the scales. She took one look at the wall full of cat portraits beside her, flew back into his arms and held on for dear life while he rushed her back to her condo. We humans have got so used to those photos being there that we don't see those dozens of staring, cat eyes

Blossom

I have finally got Cody to walk out of doors on a leash. He still doesn't like the harness but he loves exploring outside. Today he walked around the house to end up in the garage to love on the smelly shoes I wear walking and to Safe Haven.

Cody