Ginger Express

There was a superfluity of day managers this afternoon: Tim, Irene, Katy and me. I busied myself filling the laundry shelves. They are full. I might have to relocate the feeding puzzles on the bottom shelf under the handtowels. . . . next week. Belle's kittens are no longer in quarantine. They are back where they were, above Ashleigh. While I fed Ashleigh some chicken, they tried to pat my hair with their paws. The idea is to get Ashleigh comfortable enough to take the food from my fingers, so I have to lean in to the back of her sleeping shelf because she backs herself into a corner. Which puts my head at the perfect patting place for Belle's kittens. They don't need to be enticed to be patted. Since Wednesday Skylar and Scooter have been adopted (the littlest kittens). We cleaned their condo and moved the Japanese family in there. They, being grey, will probably go over the weekend. Mimi won't have noisy downstairs neighbours for long.

Then I cleaned the quarantine condos, again. I really will put my headlamp into my glovebox for next time. Finished that job, I started to hand out chicken. Daisy wouldn't eat it. Mako wanted cuddles before chicken. Romeo ate it out of the bowl. I still haven't seen Juliet (or is it vice versa). I got around the corner and had a lovely head scrunching with Silky (!) and a stand off with Ebony (as usual) when Tim declared that he was off to collect cats. I'll go, says I. You have more important stuff to do. I picked up Magnus who has had his eyelid stitches removed.

He made a few comments on the way home. And Caesar who had three teeth removed including a canine. He will be on soft food for a few days. While I was gone, Daisy got adopted by the perfect woman for her. They will snuggle and love each other forever. Katy did the adoption. Daisy and her new owner are both camera shy.

Quarantine rearranged

The condos from in front of the desk have been moved into the "front office" to be quarantine accomodation. The stand alones/wheely cages have been moved to their space. I understand that we will get more shelving for the For Sale carriers.

Marigold, Gracie and Bridie have been moved with their condos into quarantine even though they are not in quarantine. . . . confused? I cleaned the condos that had been occupied by Candy and Collette, Daphne (who was adopted by the person who came to met Sprinkles but fell for her instead) and Apricot. Next time I will bring my head torch with me to see the grubby bits clearly. It was a good thing that I cleaned them because Buttons, the smallest of Belle's kittens failed her desexing today. She has flu. Because they have all been in the same condo (above Ashleigh, out back) Terry and I decided that they should all go into quarantine to see who sneezes or not. Honey's kittens are getting more adventurous. One of them kept going downstairs, finding him/herself all alone and screamed. (I bet he is a boy).

Honey, being the perfect mum that she is, would go down to calm him/her.

leaving the sibling in the carry cage upstairs.

Eventually I got sick of the scraming and moved the carry cage and sibling downstairs and Honey followed. She can jump up to her litter tray from some peace and quiet. Another scream came from Coco and Mason's Palace. Mason said "It wasn't me. It was him" But the tuft of brown hair dangling from the side of his mouth tells another story.

Laundry redo

Firstly, Katy sent photos of Suki whom she is looking after lovingly at home.

I arrived late because my morning tennis was rained off after I left home. I went home and made another hammock. When I arrived I suggested that the laundry shelves be rearranged to put all the winter woolies together. Tim said that he would prefer that the dishes be moved to the shelves in the feeding area. So I suggested that the hand towels be swapped with them. So now we have (from right to left) first bay: top shelf face towels/washers, second shelf: hammocks on top of the modesty cloths and bath mats on the right. I later moved the dirty clothes bags from the top shelf to above the dirty clothes baskets on the feeding shelves.

Second bay: cuddles and small blankets

Third bay is all towels.

Fourth bay (next to the tall bookshelf) has big blankets on the bottom shelf, just in case we need to wrap a person in a blanket. Sheets, doona covers, etc which are good for draping over a wheely cage on the second bottom shelf. Very big towels on the top shelf with space there for . . . . .

And I moved all the bowls, each of which was a different size, to the top shelf of the food shelves where the hand towels used to be. They fit very snuggly. But, of course, when more are added the space occupied will expand exponentially unless there is a organising nazi is involved. (I mention no names). How long will this splendid organisation last? In the meantime, I made myself popular by handing out bits of BBQ chicken. Even Mako, the uncle of the Japanese kittens below was seduced. Before:

After chicken (at dinner time):

I fed Silky's kittens last and they got to lick out the chicken container. While they were licking, I picked each one up and give each one a good cuddle whether they wanted it or not. They might get adopted tomorrow.

We got two new cats today: Romeo and Juliette/Juliet. One is very shy, the other is more outgoing. Neither wanted anything to do with chicken.

Noses

I count noses when I arrive in the morning, just to make sure that everybody is where they should be and they all look pleased to see me (or whoever will give them breakfast). There were 80 today. And just one cat in boarding who may not be a boarder. She is Daisy. She is 13 years old according to her condo card. And she didn't eat dinner last night or breakfast this morning. Not happy Jan.

I am told that Sandy and Sammy are Lillian's kittens back from foster. They are a bit shy (as she is) and sort of like each other, at times.

I worked out how to tell the difference between Harry and Harley. Harley has black elbows.

Otherwise they both have white cheeks, a white area above their eyes, etc, etc. Joy is still on the search for a suitable cat for her friend. She wants an older, friendly, no fuss, healthy cat. Caesar?

Peggy?

Apricot?

After 4:30 we had a delivery from the cat catcher Clare. . . . . Honey and her tiny, plump kittens. I think there were only two in the carrier but wasn't prepared to explore too much.

Which means that we are now up to 83, or more, cats.

Chicken magic

There were only three vollies to do all the work this morning. They did a splendid job even though they had to use the old yellow bucket and mop. I stopped on my way from tennis at the Bunnings just off Eastern Valley Way (It is HUGH. Sandy said that people go there for holidays). I bought a new spinning bucket/mop. It doesn't work by pumping a foot pedal but by pumping the mop handle. With any luck, the mechanical bits won't rust and fail within 6 months. Despite being only three they didn't leave much for me to do so I happily pottered about my animal behaviour duties. Silky's four are happy to be patted if there is milk or chicken involved. I was rather surprised at how avidly all the new cats took to the chicken. Like they had eaten it every day of their lives and had missed it being with us. For example, Miyuki and kittens (in the far corner in boarding) fell on chicken. I can't figure out their names because all are listed as black and white or with a black face but one is definitely grey.

This is the BW kittens and mum eating chicken.

Sabrina and her kittens, Luke, Oscar and Rosie also went wild for chicken and tried to stare extra out of me after I had handed it all out.

Lillian let me hold her dish while she ate it. This is as close as she has let me come so far. Such a beautiful cat.

After giving Ebony her share, I was horrified to find Cleo and Ant alone in their condo. What happened to Caesar? He has been moved to the condo above Matty and Maddy. I don't know if he is missing his siblings or is shocked by the goings on downstairs! Matty and Maddy make an excellent impression of clothes being washed in a top loading washing machine when you approach with food, of any kind. Chicken just increases the tumbling speed.

I think Silky's kittens will be available this weekend. They got milk as well as chicken so are softened up for the adopting hordes.

Replacement cats

I did a nose count this morning and there were 81 cats including 1 boarder (who went home at lunchtime) despite all the adoptions over the weekend. New on the scene is Apricot who is quite shy.

Roscoe is anything but shy. Don't know what his story is but he is around 6 months old and very loving.

And Misty is very friendly too. I had to hold her while her condo was being cleaned and it was not a hard job at all. She had wee'd under her litter tray. We hope it was just a mistake not a habit.

Sammy and Sandra are in a stand alone which I put where Lily was because they seemed overwhelmed being beside the desk with all the people walking to and fro in front of them. Don't know their story either but they seem sweet.

Catsie dropped by and was soon in the play place to try to humanise Silky's kittens. They did learn to play but kept one eye on me, the feeder, at all times. I tied a hook to the cross bar by their door so that you can keep the door closed from the inside instead of bending your fingers through the bars to try to get to the bolt. Try it.

Magnus had his diseased eye removed yesterday. Today it was a bit swollen below the eye but the vet expected that. It didn't seem extreme by the end of the day and he was happy enough to be fed and made a fuss of. He does like a good pat. Joy will probably take some good photos of Cooper, Chloe and Lily who arrived last week. They are a bit shy and Lily has a squeek rather than a meow. It may just be nerves. One of the others has a lump on his/her left ear that Joy will need to document.

Sabrina's kittens were desexed today as was Skylar (who weighted in at 1.04Kg this morning). Sabrina's boys went crazy when they got home. They exploded the water bowl so that everything was saturated including themselves. We dried them off, put the water bowl into a small litter tray. And then they did it again! Sabrina and Rosie just sat and watched the crazy critters. One potential adopter came looking for a boy kitten and decided that Mia was for her. She will phone Tim tomorrow to see if she can go and Bella stay.

Bumper weekend

After Socks on Friday, Dallas, Danielle, Pepsi, Sparky and Sunny were all adopted on Saturday. That left Douglas to be adopted on Sunday. Sparky is the brother of Socks. That litter hasn't been listed as available yet. I dropped by the four carriers that I picked up from Pittwater Animal Hospital last Friday today, as I was passing by. It seems that the ring worm quarantine kittens are now out of quaranteen so will be available for next weekend!

Tomorrow will be a beaut

People keep ringing or emailing about adopting this or the other kitten and making a date to come tomorrow. Tim will be busy. I pottered happily on my "animal behaviour" duties this afternoon. I cleaned empty carriers, refilled empty spray bottles, fed the littles, handed out cooked chook. Then my lovely Chinese couple who want a companion for Salt arrived. They had a good cuddle with Douglas who was relaxed in their arms. We almost got his paperwork out when I remembered that she wanted a fluffy kitten. When they were at Safe on Wednesday, Skylar's fluffy brothers were at the vet being desexed. (She was sent back, unfixed because she was less than 1Kg in weight. Long haired kittens put more energy into growing hair than putting on weight). I mentioned these boys. They looked. She fell in love. We then had to figure out who was boy and who was Skylar which wasn't very difficult because the boys had shaved nether regions and she didn't. They chose Socks whom we only identified by his michrochip number.

Instead of bits of BBQ'd chook I had given them cat milk earlier which they had all enjoyed.

The adoption was done. I hope Salt enjoys his new brother. While I was busy cuddling kittens with them (such a hard job!) Tim dealt with a bloke who wanted an older long haired cat also. I think he wants a pedigreed cat at our price! There are new cats including Sabrina, Oscar, Luna (another one!) and Rosie (yet, another one) who seem quite tame. They are where Tara was. Tara is doing well. She ate the meat that was bought especially for her.

The three big kittens under Gracie (the grouch) are quite shy. They wouldn't each chicken but did lap a littl milk. Cooper and Chloe are the grey tuxedos and Lily is the tabby. But should she be called Cily instead? Her stripes are very dramatic in good light.

An L of an Day

Two lots of cat schleppers: Terry arrived first, at 7:30am to take Daphne, Lillian and Skylar to Mona Vale Vets. Daphne was easy to pop into a carrier. Lily needed some coordination. Terry tried with the gauntlets while I held the carrier over the door to her bed chamber. She went into the darker space. And Skylar, who is one of Steph's latest litters, the one girl of a litter of 5 who had a collar. But she is fluffy and the collar was not easy to see in the scramble of hungry kittens. So we microchipped everybody and found her last of all. Then Tim arrived to take the rest of the boys to Pet O. Then Mona Vale vets rang to say that Skylar didn't weight 1Kg (should have used a heavier collar!) so wouldn't be desexed today. And thus it continued. Tim came back and showed around/entertained a pair of women from Pet Love. They raise money for good charities, I gather. We qualify. The vollies tried to work around them. We wouldn't wnat to get their pretty, high healed shoes dirty. Eventually a nice lady from Bayview came to replace her beloved cat who died quite some time ago. She had spotted Mixa on our website and wanted a boy cat. I showed her all the availables. She liked Marmalade, because he is a red head like she is. Then I introduced her to Lily and Lily liked her, curled around her hand, purred loud enough to hear across the room and generally acted like a bit of a slut. It worked. The nice lady changed her mind and took Lily. Hurrah! She is an experienced cat owner. I told her all about Lily's frustration at not getting her share while she had kittens. She stays at home, plays music and wants a loving cat companion. Purfect. I took this photo of Lily just before moving her into the carry cage to get out from behind bars forever.

A little later another older couple came in. They have always had cats. She is allergic to rats so wants somebody who will deal with them. He is happy if she is happy. They both rather fancied Peggy who would probably have been perfect for them. But, they chose Luna who was very affectionate with them. (Irene tells me that she was loving to the previous folk who adopted her but then hid for a month when they took her home). I hope that this couple will have lots of patience with her. Or that she will realise that she is being given a second life at a spoiled, comfortable life outside a cage. We have another Luna, whom I have dubbed Luna II (after the lander). She came with a group of 3 other large kittens but doesn't get on well with them. So she is where Starmoon was. (Incidently, Starmoon has been trapped by her owners). And we have a new big boy, called Sprinkles who was found with a colony but does not behave like an urban stray.

And a man surrendered the cats of his deceased parent. They are Caesar, Anthony and Cleopatra. They share the condo below Ebony, peacefully, at the moment. But I hope they can be moved to the palace when Coco and Mason go home.

The Mum of Mum+4 was given the name Kendra.

We promptly named her two boys and two girls. Let's see if those names stick.

The couple who adopted Salt came in to find a friend for him. He loves one of them more than the other except at 1am when he NEEDs somebody to play with NOW. She thinks that if there was another kitten around Salt would let her sleep. I suggested a girl kitten and showed her Danielle (Daphne's). Danielle played up splendidly, of course. She is such a loving handful. But they rather liked Douglas who sat, calmly against their chests and teared up. Of course, it might be that he still has a bit of flu and his calmness is lethargy and his tears of joy are gooey eyes. We decided that they should call Tim tomorrow to see what his advice is. They live locally so are happy to come back.