First the good news

Which is of Billy Bigmouth. His new owner Valda reports that he gives lots of kisses, no rough stuff and Sam and Billy sleep together on the sofa at nighttime.

Then the not so good news that Suki was very flat today. She had an ultrasound yesterday and has various shaved areas around her legs and tummy. All too much for an old girl.

Then the "Oh Really!" news. Yesterday I phoned Tim to get the running orders for today. He told me that he had Silky's boys booked in to be desexed but nobody had volunteered to get them to the vet. Irene was going to bring them home in the afternoon. We had a bit more discussion about them being off ringworm treatment so that they could be moved across the aisle in quarrantine to the flu section. I said it would be easier to change their wheely with just Silky's girl in residence. So I this morning, I decided I had time to get the boys to the vet as I had got to SH good and early and there weren't too many crap bags to schlepp out to the bins. I got them there before the Pet O shop opened. Good thing I knew that there is a back door to the vets. I arrived with three black kittens to be told that they were expecting two ginger boys. . . . . Daphne's boys. Bugger. I had already fed them so it wasn't a matter of going back to SH to swap them over. It all comes of not giving the kittens proper names as soon as possible so that we all know who we are talking about . . . I say! Meanwhile there were lots of volunteers. Even Catsie visited. I put her in the play place with Mia and Belle. Belle cooperated and played a bit. Mia just wants cuddles. We have a new "mum +4". And Mini is back in the cattery where Christopher was.

Buttons, the smallest of Belle's kittens is on a pill, twice a day. I tried to pill her but she has 20 very sharp reasons why I did not succeed. I crushed the spat out pill and mixed it with her breakfast and put her food and her into a carrier. She ate some of it. Come time for the afternoon pill, I did the same. She ate about a third of her dinner. Eventually I moved her and her dish back into the condo with the other two siblings. I stopped them from eating her food and encouraged her by adding a crunchie at a time to her wet/pilled food. Baxter was very happy to be patted. He purred and purred, not at all interested in the soft or hard food. Whereas Bonnie was just interested in eating her share of crunchies. I think the purring encouraged Buttons to eat almost all of her soft, pilled food. Success! Belle is putting on weight again.

At the end of the day all the cats curl up in their beds and wait for the lights to be turned off. Here is Freya, Celeste and Peggy who had had enough human entertainment for the day.

And the bad news is that Starmoon who was adopted on Sunday escaped from her new home. They will try to set a trap for her.

As is drinking

In his excitement to get a bit of BBQ chicken this afternoon, Magnus knocked over his (full) water bowl. Perhaps he was trying to wash the salty-ness of BBQ chicken down. His downstairs floor was flooded. I don't think it diminshed his enthusiasm for chicken. The bandage on the end of his tail is off. He went to Dr Chris to have it looked at. All is well. The eye needs a specialist appointment. But before that, when I arrived, before touching any fluey cats, I wanted to give Tara lots of love. She hasn't been eating her crunchies and only eats her wet food slowly. So I took the brush to her which she thoroughly enjoyed. She even let me brush her tail (which had knots) and purred throughout. We had a lovely time. She wouldn't eat a bit of chicken that I gave to her as a "thanks for the cuddle" but, I noticed that she had eaten it when I came back later. I came back because a young, red headed couple came in looking for a kitten. They work from home so want somebody to be a lap cat and play thing. We have a lot of cats available at the moment. Olsen/Olsanne is available as are Candy and Collette (but not on the website yet).

I can't get a photo of them together because Candy doesn't like Collette and Collette is more interested in running than people. Starmoon is available. And Amber, Opal and Jet will be up soon. I think they need to be separated to be "humanised".

Bridie isn't, yet. But she is prepared to have pats, and chicken.

The young couple looked at everybody. They liked Christopher until we got to Tara who turned on her purr and charmed them. They think that she sounds like a frog. Of course, they have to get permission from the strata body to have a cat. The landlord is willing. They know that Tara will sulk for weeks, if not months, at the change of venue. But it looks good to me. I put Mia and Bella in the play place. They rather liked it. . . Mia more than Bella. But the liking was associated with chicken and cat milk. Mia was easy to take back to her newly redecorated wheely but Belle had to be extracted somewhat forcefully from her hidey hole. They are to go as a bonded pair. Perhaps a dependent pair would be a better description.

Eating is hard

Earlier in the week Tim arrived to find Magnus' condo covered in blood. There were smears, flicks and pools of blood. It seems that he had removed the bandage from the end of his tail which had had some kind of surgery and it bleed. He now has an large, plastic, Elizabethan collar on to stop him chewing off the bandage on the tip of his tail. The collar makes it hard for him to eat. So I held his dish at an accessable angle for him. It is a great confidence building opportunity. It seems that his right eye may need further investigation. It may have a tumour in it in which case the eye will be removed. He sees (his dinner) very well with his left eye.

Next door to Magnus is Luna who is back again. I don't know why. She is just as sweet and friendly as she was when she left. And just as hungry.

Between Luna and Ebony is Caspar who came from a colony. Poor girl had all her teeth except for two canines removed last Thursday. She is on soft food only until her gums harden up which will take 3 weeks or so. She ate all the wet food that I offered her. (Which is more than Tara did. She seems to be on a hunger strike at the moment. Perhaps she is a Moslem cat. It is Ramadan at the moment which means that you should fast during daylight hours).

I moved Coco and Mason into the Palace condo. They had a lovely time exploring their new digs.

There is only one other boarder left now. Milly was picked up early because her people went to Far North Queensland and the weather was shocking. They came back three days early and picked her up this afternoon. They paid the full boarding fee and asked how they could give us a donation as well. What nice people! Katey noticed that Marigold's sleeping condo needed cleaning and fresh bedding but Marigold would not move out despite offers of treats. She didn't move until dinner time. I quickly shut her bedroom door and cleaned the bloody snot off the walls, replaced the bedding and refreshed the air. Marigold was most suspicious of my efforts.

But it was nice to see Olsen out of her cat carrier bolt hole this afternoon (after everybody had left). She is a lovely, large, medium haired, grey tortie. So should be called Olsanne!

Belle's kittens have come back. There are only three left. They seem healthy except for Button who still has a touch of flu.

Meet Magnus

I don't know his story. His left eye may be sightless. He is a big boy so the name is appropriate even though the Elizabethian collar looks a bit sissy.

I delivered two filing cabinets that have been stored in Barb Webster's garage since Ingleside AWL folded. They still have "Cats Adopted" signs and empty files. One has a shallow drawer and one file draw. I hope that will live where we can access pens, scissors, sticky tape, paper clips etc. The other is a two file drawer unit on wheels. It will soon be filled up. The Stephanie kittens who were new on Wednesday and were two girls and two boys are actually four boys according to the vet who desexed them. And three of them have been adopted already. Only one remains, Arne (who used to be Anne Marie).

My excitement for the afternoon was after a mum and her daughter came to visit and drool over the cats. They have a rescue cat whom they adore. But they think that she needs a friend her own age and species. The other fur babies in the house are a pair of middle aged caboodles who love the cat, who is their boss. They loved Christopher, Charles, Sunny and Pepsi. But. . . . there is a teenaged son who is doing year 12 this year. He says that he could not abide another cat in the house. It would be too much distraction. He needs . . . . to be the center of the family universe. . . So the mum and daughter will come back another day. Tim was busy in the annex with a visiting dignitary. I was carefully handing out grain free treats to the cats. It is a bit hard to do animal behaviour training when you really cannot touch any of the cats for fear of spreading flu viruses. But I told the cats how lovely they are and here is a treat. I opened Matty and Maddy's door and he bolted. Luckily I got to the door to the boarding/off limit area before he did. He ran a few laps around the main cattery and then scaled Lily's wheely to hide on the top of the bank of condos behind all the for sale litter trays. I gently took all the trays down to floor level. Matty retreated behind the potted plastic plant. I moved the large black, cloth carrier that lives on top of Lily's wheely on the other side of the pot. I got the black blanket from underneath Maddy who was having a peaceful snooze with that dratted brother gone away. I covered the carrier with the cloth. Matty walked into the carrier. I zipped up the door. And let out a long-held breath. Putting him back onto his condo was no problem. I just had to put all those wretched litter trays back on top of the condo. Sooty was fascinated by all this. She watched from her condo across the way from Matty and Maddy.

And Lily wasn't phased by a ginger boy climbing up her walls. Her eye is back to normal after being fluey weepy on Wednesday.

Goodbye Sesame

I was worried when I realized that Sesame was not in her condo and it had the "please clean" sign. She wasn't in the Available for Adoption file, on the website as having been adopted. I worried that she had taken a turn for the very worst. But Irenne rang in the afternoon to check on the flu cases and told me that Dr Kim came in on Sunday to teach her how to give vaccinations and spotted Sesame. When Sesame first arrived it was via Dr Kim for a checkup. Dr Kim fancied her then. She fancied her even more on Sunday. So on Monday, she came to adopt her. She will have expert, constant veterinary care and we hope she does not get as fat as Angus.

Below Christopher are four more Stephanie kittens. These are not so over-the-top friendly as the previous bunch. In the photo they are, starting from 1 o'clock, clockwise: Hank, Jean, Logan and Anna Marie.

Charles has been returned "because he was too playful".

And Nori was returned because he sneezed.

Another woman came in with a donation of weird shaped litter boxes. She adopted Paco and Ethan in the early days. She, and the family, love them. They have made being house-bound very enjoyable (although she suspects that the cats prefered to have the house to themselves). She has a teenaged son who drops his dirty clothes on the floor. One of the cats adds his smell to the pile. What to do? [I told her to call Tim]. The annex has been rearranged and has lines on the floor that the germs are not allowed to cross.

Belle was looking better today. She has her appetite back.

Marigold's flu seems a bit better but Lily is miserable (but she still managed to purr at the vollies).

No phone peacefullness

I was all organised for a busy morning with lots of vollies but it turned out quiet. The main reason for the quiet was that the phone wasn't working properly and the internet wasn't working at all. Irene spent ages trying to sort out the phones. Occasionally a call would come through. It was very strange. And quietly un-stressy. Sandy didn't come. I didn't think to check my phone until I was driving home. There will probably be a load of "sorry" messages when it is all working again. But Catsie dropped by and was put to work washing up and meeting cats. She distracted Sesame while I Gumptioned her condo. That cat has the filthy-est paws and the flirty-est manner. Even Lily was delighted to meet Catsie.

One of Rosie's six newborns died this morning . . . a ginger male. I took him next door and Dr Kim could only count 3 heart beats. Later she took time out beside her litter box and I got a photo of her pile of kittens snuggled up on a heat pad.

I was worried about Belle because she didn't eat her breakfast until dinner time. Then she ate her dinner as well and wanted a look around.

Suki threw up her dinner last night so had to have a complete redecoration of her condo. It was probably a hair ball. I took a flicker to her and got a pile of hair as tall as her.

Daphne is doing really well as are her kittens. On Wednesday I had to encourage the boys to eat and the girl ate happily. Today, the boys gobbled down everything and until her nose cleared in the afternoon, the girl had to be helped to eat. After that it was a matter of keeping the boys away from her food until she had time to eat it. [Suggested names: Dianthus, Douglas (fir) and Dandelion]

The nice couple who adopted Salt dropped by at 4.10pm after their appointment with Dr Kim to tell us how well he is doing, how much they love him and how happy they are to have got him from us.

Octavia has left the building

It happened yesterday. Tim said that the man who had adopted her and had such a struggle with his body corporate to accept that he should have a cat, finally won his case. When time came to parcel her up into a carry cage, Tim said that she turned herself inside out to love on him. So it was really easy to pop her into the carry case. Her new owner was watching so now knows that she can be a bundle of loving. I remember that I named her Octavia because she was "8" months old when she came to us. She had a sister, Quattro who was "4" months old when they arrived in June last year and was adopted promptly. Lily next.

Today was a busy day with boarders going home, vollies coming and going and sneezing cats all over the place. There are only 5 condos left occupied by boarders. We were full over Easter. We may have to rearrange everybody so that the sneezers can be confined to one area so that they don't infect the rest. Daphne is much better but her kittens came down with the flu.

The girl (who I call Dianthus) is quite well. She will eat her Baby Cat from a bowl. One of her brothers (with more white) will eat it from a spooon. But the other brother needs it to be squirted into his mouth just like we used to do to baby cats at Peggy Browns. I had forgotten the technique but it came back to me. Let the kitten chomp on the syringe, slip it behind the canines and gently press the plunger so that the milky food trickles into their mouth and they swallow rather than choke. But it takes time. I didn't have any time left over to take photos. But Joy did. The pregnant mum, Rosie who was taken off to a foster home kept trying to escape from there so was brought back, kittenless yesterday. During the afternoon after her redelivery, she popped 2 kittens. Overnight she popped another 3. . . we think. It is hard to count when peeking quickly so not to disturb her.

Matty had an adventure on Sunday night. He escaped from his and Maddy's condo at dinner time. Helen could not entice, force, coerce him down from the top of the air conditioner. So she left a litter box, his dinner, some water near his condo. By morning he was back with Maddy but hadn't eaten the offerings.

Bridie still doesn't like new people even if they are as nice as Joy.

Splendid is the grass

Joan took home lots of the pots of grass that we were given last year. She gave up on trying to revive them and planted seed in other pots. It has grown and grown to very tall, tender, delicious grass. She delivered a box full this week and I took them onto Safe Haven and delivered them before breakfast. I had intended to take a before and after photo but, as usual, got busy. This is how good a pot looked after it had been chewed to at least a half of its original height.

The reason that I took it out of the condo of the cat who ate it is that he, Julio has gone home. He only came yesterday. He was surrendered because the mother of the family of young children has terminal cancer and it was decided that the cat had to find another home. But this morning the kids and an adult were back to take the cat back home before 10am. They couldn't cope without the fabulous Julio. (A vollie who arrived earlier than me had already fallen in love with him). Don't know what the de-surrender price was but, undoubtedly worth every penny. Also on the doorstep before 10am was the woman who NEEDED to adopt Gracie's tabby girl, Gabrielle. The deed was done. She was happy. Gabriella will grow big and fat and the rest of Gracie's kittens will get a better share of any food that is on offer. While this was happening the crew was cleaning the full house. The house now has an annex. Yesterday's crew must have worked themselves to exhaustion because quarantine is now in the new room which makes SPACE in the cattery.

And isolation for the flu cats. Which meant that everybody else was moved. Freya is in the main room. (That must have been a tense transfer). And Suki is in ex-quarantine. She is waiting to be just right to be taken home to foster care. Next door was a VERY pregnant cat who had a battered nose. She has been just trapped and delivered. A brave vollie came to take her home for the birth and tiny kitten period. Another vollie came to take home Bella's kittens. All five went to the vet on Monday but only 3 came back yesterday. We hope that they will do better now they have been set up by the vet to thrive. In the meantime, boarders kept arriving. Like Finn who is a bossy cat, according to his owners.

During the afternoon Tim interviewed a volunteer bookkeeper. Imagine! She is to job share with another vollie! She grew up on a dairy farm in NZ so knows cats. Peggy liked her. I sat her in with the G kittens.

The friend of Sue who has been fostering Apricot came to sign the adoption papers. She is very happy with Apricot who is very happy with her other cat. Apricot is still vary of strangers but hides in a place where her ears show, so that everybody knows where she is. And a woman from Hornsby rang at 2.45 to ask if she could come to adopt George but the shops are shut on Good Friday and do we have the stuff a kitten would need? Of course we do. She brought her two young kids and took their time (even grandpop turned up) to decide that Dash was a better choice for her kids. I may just have influenced that decision. Bridie came out.

because dinner was late.