Valentina's Day

 Her man came back today and decided that he wanted Valentina not Darcy. Fastest adoption ever. I sent him off with an old litter tray and a scratchy pole from below the couch in the hallway as "adoption freebies". Tim retired for bandaging after getting her into the cat carrier. She even managed to draw blood from his leather-gloved-left-index finger! And achieved a swipe to his left leg. As well as pee-ing on her pillow. (I whipped off the pillowslip, replaced it, and gave it to her new owner too). I believe she will settle down with Colin and be a loving companion.   . . . . . in time.

Irene is about to go overseas for weeks so came in to rearrange as many kittens as possible.

The three kittens in Incoming have moved to Welfare. One of them, Loki, is already earmarked for a very nice man who came in this afternoon. He has a white and ginger cat at home who needs a ginger and white friend. Loki will be perfect.

Loki

His condo mates, Amelia and Lexi are not his siblings.

Amelia and Lexi

Jellybean went to the vet and passed so he has been moved to where Jimmy was. I expect he will have the same short stay as Jimmy did because he is a loving spoonful too.

Jellybean

Griffin went to the vet too. And has a new place in Welfare.

Griffin

When Angelica came in she wouldn't eat anything but crunchies. Now, after 2 weeks with us, she only eats babycat wet food.

Angelica

And the two kittens with Japanese names are just the same.

Thanks to Joy for the lovey Incoming photos. 

Cordelia has moved from Isolation to Incoming.. . . no signs of ringworm on her.

And we have another "pregnant" mum in Incoming. She really looked as though she had swallowed a football when she was photographed on the street that she was picked up from. But will she absorb that bulge just like Chicken and Goosey have done? A woman came in with some nice donations. Her name is Lorraine so we decided to name the new "mum" after her. But then she said that her nickname was Roxy and we chose that one instead for her.

Boarders

 For school holidays we are remarkably unfull of boarders this week. But a pair of cats who were "adopted from us 2-3 years ago" came in this afternoon. . . . Calli and Lexi. I can't remember them but they may have put on a little weight. And they are not happy, Jan.

Calli and Lexi

Over the weekend all the "desirable" kittens were adopted. We even had another call to adopt Souffle today!

And a man came to meet Valentina. She played "I want to be alone" as usual. So I introduced him to the other available cats who have been with us for a while. He really liked Darcy. He will be back on Friday morning when he has set up his apartment to adopt one, or the other.

And a nice teacher came in with her mother to adopt Astrid. She knew all about her dodgy patella and is fine with it. She will bring Astrid in next Thursday because her vaccination is due and there wasn't anybody around who is trained to give injections.

One of the vollies is doing Animal Heath at Tech and had to give a cat a "physical". Not so easy choosing a suitable cat for that! But we settled on Velvet who tolerated being prodded and handled. Vovo was a bit jealous of the attention that she got. It was definitely a two person examination!

Sue spent the afternoon giving Calli's four kittens a bath. . . separately. And thoroughly scrubbing their condo. They are probably ringworm free now. But don't look very happy about it.

They have names: Jasper (ginger), Lapis (black tabby), Coral (white tabby) and Jade (orange).

There are plenty of pretty kittens in Incoming: photographed by Joy.

Amelia and Lexi

Loki

And two from the stand alone:

Chicken makes purrs?

 Jellybean has the BEST purr even though he looks shy. Perhaps it was chicken induced.

Jellybean

The three Incoming kittens have names:

Loki is the ginger, Lexi has a black nose  and Amelia has a white nose. Lexi and Amelia are tuxedos.

When I went to Isolation to give afternoon teas, Cordelia was standing on one hammock while grooming India while China watched from above. (Those hammocks should be thrown away when the family has been cleared of ringworm.)

India, Cordelia, China

We had expected a rush on Monte Carlo, Mont Blanc and Souffle this afternoon. But they haven't been added to the available list because their incision lines (from desexing) look a bit grungy and swollen.  I hope there is not a chorus of complaint tomorrow for Terry to deal with.

LeClerc is enjoying his role as le door clerk.

LeClerk

Roisin adopted again

 Let's hope it is for good this time. Because her stand alone was emptied, a pair of foster cats came in. They are Alladin and Jasmin. They are VERY shy. Their fosterer came in today to give them their favourite bed but they still look terrified. I decided that being inside the front door opposite the desk where the phone rings and folk talk all day is perhaps not the best place for them. So I swapped them for Le Clerc (ie I moved the stand alones around).

Hiding Alladin and Jasmine

LeClerc is now the meeter and greeter cat and likes it.

Sue and Le Clerc

Mylo has gone too. And Jimmy will be picked up on Sunday. 

Coco Cranfield is visiting again. She was very chatty today.

Coco

There are new kittens in Incoming including Griffon and 3 in C20

Amelia, Lexie, Loki (ginger)

Griffon

Souffle and co had several inquiry phone calls today. They might be ready on Friday. If so, there might be a "I got here first" fight for Souffle.

Souffle

A Touch of Terry

 If I had a smidgen of Terry's magic I would have adopted out 5 cats this afternoon. First a young girl arrived with her mum. She has had health issues and is giving school a miss at the moment but likes to spend time with our cats. They were here earlier in the week. They will be back. (Terry would have sent them home with a kitten).

Here she is making friends with Garfield(a). Biggie Kahuna had a coneless wander earlier with an attendant so that he could scratch/groom the rest of his body but get shouted at if he scratched his chin. He kept the collar on for the rest of the day.

Big Kahuna

Garfield

Then a Uni student arrived with his mum. They have just moved into a house so have room for their first cat ever. They have had a dog. We looked at all the availables and nobody "spoke" to them so I told them to go away to think about it and see who else is on the for adoption list because there might be some in fosterhomes who would suit. Terry would have made them fall in love with Amelia, at least.

Amelia

While they were inspecting everybody a mother and daughter arrived to find a cat to replace their beloved 20 year old who died some time ago. They followed along and then went through them all again with me, falling in love with each condo occupant in turn. After their second go-round, the mother had decided that she really wanted a pair of cats (so we went around again) and the daughter decided she really wanted Garfield or Jamie. I told them to have a think and come back tomorrow when Terry can do his own magic.

I was going to get a good photo of everybody to have a backlog of photos but my time was taken up. I might need them because I am having surgery on Monday on a lump on the back of my hand that I thought was a ring worm. . . except that it didn't itch and kept growing. It will be removed and a bit of my skin moved to cover the wound. I won't be much use in the cattery for a couple of weeks, . . . or more.  But I am sure I will find something to blog about.

Dark day

 The fire alarm system was being checked and they turned off the electricity in the morning. We asked for it to be turned on if they could have it off a bit later (after the work had been done.) We compromised

Bubbles and Squeek were deliberated over this afternoon by a young couple. The kittens behaved beautifully while being observed. I didn't tell the people that they had been fighting, wrestling and generally behaving like boys all day long. The people will be back tomorrow morning (early) to adopt them and for them to be vaccinated which might slow them down for a nanosecond. 

Bubbles and Squeek (or vice versa)

 

I hope that Tim has rounded up Stardust by then. When I went around to Boarding to feed them their dinner, Stardust's condo door was wide open. Surprisingly, there was no cat in the condo. He hadn't gone far. And, thank goodness, he was at ground level not on top of the condos. Eventually he found a good hiding place on the lowest clean linen shelf. After the folk who came to adopt one of the fostered cats had left Sue and I tried to entice him back into his condo. No go. So we left him securely stuffed onto the shelf with his dinner in a carry cage pressed up against the shelf. All Tim will have to do is to shut the door (we hope).

We tried to entice Amelia out of her condo this afternoon. She wasn't having a bar of the big wide world, thank you. She did tolerate pats and hair brushes. But not stepping out onto the conveniently placed stracthy pole.

 

Moet and Jerry are on the Available List. I suspect that Moet is the cat who got at the bags of crunchies stacked on the floor beside the food shelves on Better Row. She was very keen to get the door of the play place open today. I moved the secondary latch from inside to outside and it kept her in during the day. 

As are Miz and Riley. They are supposed to be bonded but Riley prefers Champ. She makes a bee line to his condo as soon as Charlie steps out. Not for the food because the girls have more in their condo. Charlie is inclined to wander into their place on the off chance of an extra nibble. Miz is not happy to share her space. She'd rather wander around. Cats are interesting.

Marvellous Meatball

 got adopted today. By the partner of a woman who adopted a black cat whose name she has since changed Perry. She likes to be up high on the top of cupboards and on tall stratchy poles. He likes to be at ground level. She is rather overweight so likes her food. So does Meatball. They should make a perfect pair. The lady cat will get taken to Melbourne to keep her mum company while she does her masters degree. Meatball will stay at home to keep the partner company while the girls are away during term time. Perfect.

The R kittens got a turn in the play place because the boarders went home. So I cleaned Meatball's enclosure and Geoff added the fine mesh screen that sits behind the course mesh screen that Terry installed on Wednesday. Kittens' small snouts and sharp teeth can chew through the coarser mesh (as we discovered in the neighbouring condo). It might be easier to feed them in the larger condo than in the small single in Incoming. Or it may not be.

R's in the play place

Amelia above doesn't look happy about her new neighbours.

Amelia

Or was she upset because there were no seconds of chicken? Honey wanted thirds!

Honey

But Tommy just wanted more time with his Geoff. Or perhaps her Geoff. She looks more and more tortie-ish. A very small percentage of torties are male cats. In those cases the male cat is sterile. Tommy has been desexed. It might have been a waste of money!

Tommy/Thomisina

Geoff decided to let Billy get some exercise in the Top Cat. I suggested that he leave some greenies on the floor. If they aren't there in the morning, Billy might have explored.

And in Isolation the stand alone is EMPTY. Barry and Blaze are both with (separate) foster carers and both are doing very well, Irene says. Sharon scrubbed that stand alone religiously this afternoon. Thank you, Sharon.

Terry Tidys up

 Terry came today on his day off to replace Dexter's mesh. I remembered to bring my needle and thread and luckily by the time I arrived (late because of DH's doc visit) he had already removed the screws, located the mesh and was on the job. Meatball was delighted that his new condo (he is now available so out of Incoming) because he got to roam around while the vollies were working so could make mad dashes out the front or back door then get chased, picked up, cuddled and settled onto another lap. 

After Terry finished his mesh, he started to repairing all the cat carriers that adorn the top of the condos. Many of them didn't have doors that fitted, or tops that stayed with bottoms, etc, etc. By the end of the day there were only 4 left that couldn't be repaired. All the rest are neatly stacked on top of the condos or in the area where goods are for sale because they are almost new. THANK YOU Terry.

And Joy was back from her eventful holiday in the UK. She tested the National Health and was delighted by the service. And for friends and relatives who made her mum's fall bearable. We will celebrate with some of her photos from today.

Lion and Enoki are in Oscar's enclosure.

Lion (calico) and Enoki

And Sebastian and Pebbles are in Yin and Yang's enclosure. I made new hammocks for them out of the mask fabric brought in a couple of weeks ago by a visitor.

There seems to be a wine theme going on with names. Merlot and Jerry are where Sebastian and Pebbles used to be in the corner.

Merlot and Jerry

And Gino Grigio and Pino Nero are in the stand alone next to Julie and Bassuria where. . . . used to be. (Having a senior moment). I installed two hammocks (old ones) for them.

Gino Grigio & Pinot Nero

Amelia is where Annabelle and Abagail used to be. That has fine alliteration.

Amelia

Happy Harry

 Sorry I am late. Geoff usually does the night feed on Fridays but he has gone off to WA to swim with the whales and enjoy the big skies. For three weeks. . . . 

But Irene came today to catch up the paperwork on the cats who are ready for adoption. There should be new faces on our website soon. Hansel and Derek are ready to go. They want out of their stand alone. They wiggle so much it is difficult to get a good photo of them. Sod's law says that after all the efforts to get photos of them together and separate today by Irene and others, Terry will find them a home tomorrow.

Somebody was handing out clean cat beds. I don't know how Harry came to have his put on the front desk. He was happy and stayed there most of the afternoon while Cooper was on the poof under the computer.

Harry is happy

Later Charlie took up his preferred place on the visitors chair. (Lola spends her days on the conference table on Cass's hoodie in a cat bed in Opies room). Champ was tucked into a stratchy pole box.

Charlie

I agreed with Sebastian and Pebbles that they NEEDED time out in the Top Cat.

And Miz actually got up to visit them. 

Riley was not going anywhere, thank you!

Theresa's four are only three these days. The little one has gone to foster. The remainders are getting bolder. There are two white ones and one tortie. We need names beginning with T.

Amelia has been desexed and moved to Boarding. She was quite confused this afternoon. But quite needy. As was Mira. And Epsilon. Maybe it was a bit chilly back there.

Anticipating a busy, wet weekend

 Liam doesn't have a younger sibling or cousin any more. Amelia's kitten died overnight. But she still looks very plump around the tummy. Liam is trying to adapt to life in the Welfare area. It is a bit busy for him.

Liam

His downstairs neighbours took ages to get to the stage that Charlie is comfortable sitting on PC's blanketed chair while there is a person sitting at the front desk. (Champ is still hiding more often than not).

Charlie

We moved Annabelle and Abigail from Incoming to next door to Liam. I don't know which one didn't want her photo taken.

An A plus an A tail

Sparkle, on the other side is still confused about whether or not he likes people at face level.

Sparkle

But next door Isabelle loves everybody except those who want to put stuff into her left eye. Irene has her eye on the perfect adopters for Isabelle.

Isabelle

This afternoon while I was handing out ludicrously small pieces (in felines' opinions) of chicken I noticed that Tommy's colours are more like a tortie's than a tabbie's. There are male tories but they are invariably sterile. Tommy has been desexed. . . . hum!

Tommy/Tomasina

 

A new cat arrived in Incoming called Jamie. (That is a good name because is could be male or female)

Jamie didn't like the chicken