An Odd Day

 At 10am a woman arrived to choose one of Sabrina's kittens. They are not available yet. But she has been "told" by spirits that a Sabrina kitten is fated to be in her life and she must come to be chosen by the kitten or her world will . . . .. goodness knows what. Tim said "They are in Isolation and you can't go in there". "Come back when Prue has moved Pickles and her lot out of the play place, cleaned and sterilized it and put Sabrina's kittens in there". 

She was happy with that. And I got on with cleaning up Pickle's mess. She came back when the kittens were just exploring their new digs so were somewhat distracted. I shut her in with them. She phoned her medium to discuss the situation. After half an hour she had decided which kitten had "chosen" her with the help of the phone medium. 

So I said, when that kitten comes up on our web site, come and get her. "But I want her NOW". Sorry, she isn't on the web site. Besides. Her tummy looks a bit red and she can't get adopted until her surgery wound is all healed. 

Eventually she went away with our assurances that we wouldn't adopt "HER" kitten to anybody else.

In a effort to get normality, I gave PC and Dexter a run this afternoon (after Aslan had his). They decided that they are office cats. PC chose the guest chair and loved being groomed by Charlie. He has gloop in his left eye. Tim gave him some ointment.

PC loves to be groomed

PC's grooming tool

Dexter took over the office chair. It matches his eyes.

Dexter

Then we had a call from the emergency vets at Terry Hills. Last night man jumped from his balcony down four stories to his death. He had his small dog in his arms. The dog is only slightly injured. It is more shocked and is missing the other dog that was left in the apartment. The vets wanted to know if we would deal with the dogs. I said we don't have any dog fosterers. They are all foster fails. She said their staff would happily foster the dogs if we would do the adoption process. Tim was on the phone so while she was waiting to talk to him she said she would try the "pound". With success. Somebody else is taking the two dogs. 

I have a sore finger from playing tennis. My physio sister gave me a pair of gloves to ease the pain. Catsie came in to work with a sore hand. She is left handed so I gave her the glove that I don't need. It helped. I will try the right glove at tennis on Friday.

Double chicken

 I took two bags of chicken to Safe today knowing that Betty would want lots and have some left overs for the weekend. She still is not eating tinned food or mother and baby cat crunchies. But if you put chicken or chicken juice on top she will. I was handing out chicken to the rest of the cats when a representative from Royal Canin arrived to chat to Tim and meet the cats. The cats were all awake and interested (in chicken but don't tell her that). Let us hope that we will get more donations from them.

Mystery of Tommy's shed was explained by Geoff who made the shed for him when he moved Tommy from Incoming to Better Row. We are to work on him by degrees to make him a perfectly friendly cat. It may take some time.

Josie, diagonally above him is overfeeding her kittens. They are little tubs of lard!

Josie plus 2

They probably weigh almost as much as Pickles' brood. They were all vaccinated and microchipped today. The kittens were a pleasure to hold for Tim to do the injecting. Pickles knew what it was all about and wriggled/fought, but good naturedly, as she does. She forgave me when I gave them afternoon tea. And Geoff's dinner was a treat. The kittens have names related to pickling: Brine (which sounds like a Queenslander pronouncing Brian so should be changed to Briney as she is a girl; Caper, Salt, etc)

Pickles and makings

There was a drama in Incoming when Sebastian was discovered underneath the condo in which he and Pebbles are housed:

He is hiding under their condo in the far, deepest corner on the right

I suggested that food be put in a trap and left there overnight. He was not going to venture out to the food bowl beside the dirty clothing bin during the daytime busy-ness. Pebbles is missing him. . .  perhaps.

Pebbles

Let us hope that the weekend does its magic and cats get adopted. Martin and Gemma are ready to go.

Martin, the pass around kitten

Gemma whose eyes say "please"

And Angel whose previous "buyer" visited to day and signed up to be a vollie. Perhaps her landlord renegged on allowing her to have a kitten.

Neat day

 I got all the poo bags out into other peoples' bins early. Including the old ones that I had left behind the door last Friday. So today we have two empty Willoughby bins in the basement and two Cousins bins on the sidewalk. One is full with 30Kg of poo bags, etc. The other only has 17 Kg of trash in it. So can be added to before Friday afternoon.

Sue tackled the stuff that shouldn't be in the entry hall. I squeezed those cardboard boxes into the Cousin's bin which wasn't emptied on Friday. Then we tackled the teetering column of cat carriers in the Boarders Back Corner. They are up top now and the ridiculously large sifting litter trays (which must take all of a 15Kg bag of compressed sawdust litter) that were put in the working space in Better Row are now back where they used to be in the Boarders Back Corner. Some people will be unhappy. But more will be overjoyed at not having to negotiate piles of stuff all morning long.

Pickles and kittens are back in the play place. They were having such a lovely time, Sue and I decided to leave them there. Pickles is a great mum. She supervises and plays with her kittens.

The person who was going to adopt Angel, didn't. She (the kitten) is available again. Don't know what happened there.

Angel and Luke

They have new neighbours in the corner whose names I have forgotten.

And Talia above, whose condo mate (?Henry) was adopted. She is very pretty.

Talia

There was only one visiting couple today: a daughter who is trying to talk her dad into having a cat. He doesn't speak much English so it was hard for me to gauge how convincing his daughter was. She seemed to like any and all kittens. He seemed to like Dexter who behaved perfectly.

We moved Chilli's carry cage out of his condo and replaced it with an igloo shaped like a Xmas plum pudding. He seemed much happier! Who knew that cats like plum puds.

Chilli before the plum pud transfer

He has a new neighbour who must have been well loved because he came in a box labelled Tommy's Shed. I don't know his story but will try to find out.

Quiet Friday

 There were enough vollies and I got there early and coped with the poo bags. When you open the door to the verandah there are none left of the great pile that took up almost all of the floor space. But, that is deceptive. There are poo bags behind the door. They are the oldest ones from the bottom of the pile and should be taken away first, please.

We didn't have any visitors. Angel's person came yesterday to adopt her and will pick her up on Sunday as planned.

So I had time to let cats wander and to take photos of Katie's cats. . . . just in case Katie would like to see their happy faces.

Luna has the celestial condo where she happily hides

Nala is below her where she can chat to all passers-by

Frank is at knee level so when he looks up you can see he amazing blue eyes

Dolly and

Zane are next door

Mali used to have a boarding Burmese upstairs. It is quieter without the boarder.

Kimmy doesn't mind the noise. She makes enough of her own.

Cleo is regally quiet.

But Sundae is anybody's for a pat.

Josie's 2 kittens are fine. She is an attentive mum and has learned very quickly that mums get more food.

Sabrina's kittens were in the play place. The tabbies/white ones are friendly and playful.

Sabrina's tabbys

But the black and white ones are hiding. And in the Nursery/isolation they were the ones (or one of them was the one) who always screamed "FEED ME" at the window whenever somebody looked at him/her. Now look at them!

hiding

Sabrina has been separated from them to wean them. They are out of ringworm quarantine. 

Betty is struggling along with her seven and lack of appetite. Chicken helped this afternoon. So I left a bunch for her and some cats missed out (but not Lola who follows me around).

Betty polishing off chicken while her line of kittens snoozes

Surprises

I was late again after taking DH to the eye injecting doctor. There were very few vollies and all worked hard . . . . especially Catsie who not only did Incoming but also did the washing up. That is devotion!

The rubbish hadn't been picked up when I got there. And I didn't have a moment to think of it until I left. There are bags and bags on the verandah and the Cousins bins to be filled (with only 30Kg please) tomorrow.

There was one woman who came in to adopt Angel. I think she was taken by the name. The kitten is not particularly angelic. But the woman was convinced that Angel was the kitten to replace her ragdoll who loved to sit beside her. She really wanted a small dog but couldn't find one. Pity I didn't know last week when somebody rang to surrender their family's chihuahua and I couldn't help them.

Angel

Luke is her condo mate but, while they like to play together they are not particularly bonded

Luke

 So we went through the adoption process until it got to the place when I ask for $375 dollars for a kitten. "But your website says that they cost $70!" So I checked our website and there was no mention of $70. "It must have been another website that I was looking at." Indeed. She will be back tomorrow when her pension cheque is deposited and she has enough money to pay for her angel.

Then some schoolgirls arrived with a collapsible cage. . . probably one of ours from the time when one of the girls fostered our kittens. I said, of course, "have a look at our lovely kittens". So they did. Go look at Tinkerbelle, I said. And the one who was in the foster home did and she reported on the cute kittens in the condo next door to Tinkerbelle. "Really" said I and went to check:

two indistinct blobs behind Josie

behind Josie

Tim said that the "thread" in the mid ground might be umbilical cord. 

More babies!

And Betty is not eating. She looks very thin all of a sudden. Tim has seen her suckling her 7 but mostly she just sits and looks sad.

The stand alone from incoming has decanted Cass, Michelle, Denny and John into the enclosure next door to Patch and Lily. I think they are getting used to kittens for neighbours.

black and white forever

Full again

We had a busy day today because there were not as many vollies as usual on a Friday. Even Geoff wasn't there as he was in Melbourne.

So I did the evening feed and the last thing check that everybody had water, etc. It was funny to see the cats all settled down for the night. They weren't expecting to see me again and had given up hope of a second serve of chicken.

Bassuria and Julie, photographed through the perspex, were relaxed.

Bassuria and Julie

Even Henry was in his igloo. He had a lovely time earlier running around with the low barrier only just keeping him constrained. He was helping Robyn make friends with Raven. (Raven wasn't having a bar of friendship but she did enjoy the Greenies)

Henry

Talking of igloos. I keep pushing Mickey's under the shelf and it keeps on sliding forward towards the perspex. Never see Mickey doing it. It must be magic. (Not the cat who is still hiding in her condo on Better Row and is still ? ringworm)

Mickey's Xmas igloo

Even Bissie in Incoming was "out".

Bissie

Lola was sound asleep in her stand alone. On Wednesday morning when I arrived early she was very pleased to see me because she had spent the night in Opie's room. She let me pat her before jumping into her stand alone to eat her last night's dinner's crunchies.

Lola on her shelf

We have Jacqui's two cats, Callie and Sootie. They are to go into the play place. Pickles and her kittens had a lovely time there this morning. Callie and Sootie did not enjoy the enclosure even after I added a hammock.

Sooty

Callie

And Freya had three kittens yesterday. One died overnight so she has two.

We also have Katie's cats filling up Boarding row. You will recognise several of them. So we are quite full, again.

PC rearranged

 It struck me this morning when I had fed the cats that the stand alone beside the filing cabinet and the cleaning trolley might change positions to make the hand disinfectant accessible and make the cleaning stuff more central for the enclosure cleaning. So I moved Gemma across. Then I had another thought, Martin would prefer watching the comings and goings through the door while Gemma would rather be in a quiet corner. So I swapped them around. I think it works well. But will be interested to see if it is still so arranged by Friday. 

Later in the afternoon PC came out for a wander. Sue cleaned his eyes and I gave him a good brush which he LOVED. He looks so much better than he did when he arrived.

PC

Ms Claws only has one kitten unadopted. Dasher was picked up today. She and Dancer were in the play place together overnight. I put Dancer back in with her mum, disinfected the play place and put Henry there. He keeps saying what a big boy he is, so I thought he would like it. He hid most of the time.

"Thought I'd got rid of them" said Ms Claws

Mariko came. . . a little late because her bus from Chatswood station didn't arrive. She asks how long does it take to walk? I don't know. But she noticed the Freya's tummy is hard. I noticed that her nipples are becoming bald. Sue said that she was thought to be pregnant when she arrived. Not very then, but quite noticably now. But remember how long it takes some mums to drop their bubs.

Freya

Betty had seven kittens by Saturday morning last week. They are doing well and tend to lie beside each other in a row. 

Joy took some photos. Her brief it to take a photo of each cat in the cattery so that there is a good one to upload when they become available. Tough job, but somebody . . . . . 

She had a cat named Misty. Wonder if she looked like this Misty.

Misty

Joy noticed that Rory and Little have symmetrical face markings. Merged they would have a white nose and two white cheeks.

Rory and Little

Tinkerbelle has been desexed. The collar is too big and has to be folded back for her to eat.

Tinkerbelle

Shortest stay at the Safe cattery

 I arrived around noon and Chewy, Joda, Leia and Luke just beat me. They came from a foster home. By 4pm Leia had been adopted! The lady who met her in her foster home decided that she was needed in her home.

Luke and Leia

Chewy and Joda

They are next door to Lily and Patches who do not like to be able to see their neighbours. New or otherwise.

Lily and Patches

The kittens got a scratchy pole inserted into their condo when Geoff arrived. So we had to move them into the play place. Inserting a stratchy pole means that the whole enclosure needs to be moved, rescrewed, re curtained, and replaced. I imagine that the kittens will stay in the play place overnight. 

Martin had a turn there and was really happy running around and sitting with/on any visitors. He is a real sweety when out of the stand alone.

But the best news of the day is that Molly was adopted. A young woman came to meet our cats. We spent time saying hello to everybody. I thought that she was just doing a recee but after talking to Irene and getting Molly's background, she called her partner and said "I WANT HER". FIV, no teeth and all. Mind you, Molly behaved beautifully with her so it must have been a match made in heaven.

And late this afternoon Betty gave birth. When I left there were perhaps 5 wee slugs. There may be more by morning. I didn't like to disturb her so she missed out on afternoon tea but I imagine that Geoff gave her a good dinner.

Betty plus ?5