No lift, again

 Yesterday's torrential rain not only flooded Roseville Bridge, burst Manly Dam, broke through Narrabeen Lagoon but flooded our lift. . .  again. I remembered the last time and thought it must have been about 2 years ago. Rod thought it might have been 15months ago. This blog tells me it was on March 24, 2021. Not even 12 months ago. It has been a long year.

This morning I had vollies who weren't on the roster yesterday for one reason or another, but it all worked out very well and smoothly despite having to walk up the stairs. (I walked up them 15 times, but I was counting).

Yesterday cats were moved because we have boarders coming in. Tommy and Mia were moved to the Berry's stand alone because Blackberry got adopted. Tommy is delighted to be back where the action is and demands to be let out to wander. 

Blueberry still has a touch of flu under treatment. She didn't seem to mind having all the food to herself.

Blueberry

Valentine, Augustus and Darcee were adopted over the weekend so their condos have been taken by Kitty, Blueberry and Gracie (who hasn't come back from foster quite yet. They are going away.)

Kitty

Below Kitty where Lee Lee was is Honey who spent all day on her litter. I hope she can gather up the courage to eat her breakfast tonight.

Honey

I had lunch with Max, as usual. He was very friendly so I picked him up and put him on the shelf by the window. He got to see some sun.

Max vs sun

While I sat to eat with Max on my lap, Adelaide watched us from her Palace. I looked up the Database to find out her name and discovered that two of this litter were born last March and two born last April. Strange.

Adelaide, the only grey and white

Coco and Lily are available for adoption. They are cute bunnies. Perfect for Easter. Tell your friends.

nose to nose with Coco

Sick kittens galore

 I was too busy to count the number of cats this morning. Amy's wheely is filled with a mum [Sabrina] and her 6 kittens one of whom has a UTI, 5 have the flu and one, smaller than the rest and a smooth haired tuxedo looks perfectly well. He sticks close to the mother. I wonder if he is her kitten? 

 [Later Irene added: Lulu, the black and white tuxedo kitten in the glass cage is not Sabrina’s kitten. The lady who rescued Sabrina had trapped a spare kitten and just added it to the family.]

And Wanda's little grey adoptee (named Midsommer) has stuck-closed eyes that need to be bathed open and ointment applied as well as an eighth of a pill given. And there are two kittens from a foster home with ringworm. The friendlier one isn't as badly affected. It is the shy one that has to be ointmented. And they both have to have nasty medi. 

Bonnie and Lemmy were taken off to be desexed.

Bonnie came back shattered.

Post op Bonnie

Bonnie last Friday

Lemmy was full of beans and ready to PLAY.

Lemmy

Lemmy last week

We had a delivery of 20 litter trays. They each came in a separate cardboard box wrapped in two pieces of bubble wrap. Luckily, the bloke down the corridor spotted the flattened boxes and took them all plus the bubble wrap. He is the nice father of the girl who loved Chris and who has two dogs in his office all day.

A woman came to meet Romeo and Juliette whom she rather fancied from the web site. 

Her partner fancied Ziggy. We took videos of her relating to those cats. Then she spotted Augustus who is a kiss magnet and she went away without a cat.
 

Augustus

She did buy a T-shirt and gave us a donation. I expect they will be back on the weekend.

I introduced her to Max. He bit her when she got too friendly.

Max

Double bunnies

 Coco and her original friend Lily (they didn't get along together) were desexed yesterday. Today they were both decidedly seedy. Lily hid in her green igloo and Coco sulked in her litter tray. When I arrived Lily's rabbit run was on top of Coco's. So that I couldn't open Coco's flap to clean her and give her new food (which she wasn't interested in anyway). So I moved the couch out of the vestibule to the hallway outside and positioned Lily in her rabbit run there. Not one of the vollies noticed that the couch was outside and the there was a different rabbit in the vestibule.

Bunny instead of couch

They were all too excited to be coming to work at Safe Haven, of course.

Especially excited as we have a pair of 9-10 year old Persians, Gigi and Bambi who are very close. They are super friendly and love to be brushed even though they don't look as though they have had much attention recently.

Bambi (girl)

Gigi (boy)

Augustus and Darcee are looking much better. The vets who treated them asked after Augustus. 

A couple arrived early (around 11am) to ask to adopt a kitten that I thought would be suitable for their family (!) We chose Lunar because 1. She looked like the first cat that he had and 2. because Annie was a bit off colour this morning. All adoptions should be so easy. I said as they left that if they found that one kitten was not enough for their 2 kids, they should come back and get Sunny tomorrow. They might.

Mia in Incoming has been reunited with her Tommy out back. He is pleased. He gets twice the food and all the cuddles this way because she holds back. Their kittens had a wonderful time without Mia. There was mess all over their condo twice this morning. But Rod eventually sorted them out.

Tommy and Mia

Their delinquents: Bonnie and Lemmy

Violet had 5 babies on Sunday. I looked up my colour book and found the following names:

Purple names

Joy found more purple names: 

Ones I don't like as they are not purple enough: Sapphire, Iris, Topaz, Bluebell.

Ones' I do like: Lilac, Lavender, Amethyst, Roxo (Portuguese for purple. Confirmed by my husband who was born in Portugal and lived there until a teenager. He pronounces it Rocho which is a splendid name for a hyperactive kitten), Viola or Violeta.

This is an excellent example of why it is best to have just one person naming kittens.

Baby names

 Sorry about no blog last night. The modem decided to go wrong, even though all the lights were shining. I left it to think about it overnight. This morning there were no lights so I turned it off, waited a bit and then back on again. It seems to have worked.

We had a quiet day yesterday. The only visitors were fosterers who came to pick up more baby cat food.

We were thrilled by the "Please clean" sign on Tammy's condo. We assumed that Tim has taken her with him on holiday. I wanted to leave it there to surprise and delight the rest of this week's vollies. But Irene assures me that we need every available condo for the raft of kittens that she has parked on foster carers. So I gave it a deep clean, with bleach, gumption, muscle power. . . . the full Monty.

There is only one boarder whose owner is very devoted and wants daily reports on how she is settling in. There are 70 other cats in residence, and one rabbit. Only 9 of the cats are on the Safe webpage ready for adoption.

Valentine is a new cat in Iso, aged 15. Her owner has moved to the old people's home. The kids were coming by occasionally to feed her. She is desperate for the kind of companionship that she is used to.

Valentine

Trixie overnighted in the play place. She had a marvellous time and needed a good long sleep today to recover. I tried the Ragdolls there (separately). Augustus grumbled and grouched until he found the dog scratchy pole (brand name Buono Fido!) to curl up in to go to sleep. He wouldn't come out when it was time to go back to his condo. So I had to carry him in the scratchy pole to the condo. When there, he promptly got out of it, of course.

Augustus

Darcee settled in well after Augustus (and fogging). He curled up and napped until I joined him for lunch. Then he sat beside me. He didn't want my salad. He just wanted pats. He is a nudger: stop patting him and he will prompt you to continue by nudging your hand. Cute!

There is a new cat below Augustus named Lee-Lee (as opposed to Lele). She is young and very sweet. Don't know her story.

Lee-Lee

The newborn kittens have names. Three of them came from Jayde's when Wanda was with them and knew that they were not her kittens. They are Pickles: the calico, Racoon: the tabby with swirls and Squiggle: the tabby with parallel lines. Sandy and I decided that Wanda's own kitten, the ginger should be a Q name and chose Quentin if a boy, and Queeny if a girl. I changed the birthing towel for a clean one.

Calm Amy

 She sat on her upper level all day and didn't snarl or hiss a bit, even when her doors were opened and tempting arms were inserted. All because her last kitten Annie was taken off to the vet very early this morning (before even I got there). It must be the kittens that turn her into a frantic cat. Unfortunately, Annie had blood in her poo at the vet's today so wasn't desexed. It will be interesting to see if Amy reverts to her crazy mode or not. Meredith also went to be desexed. Her mum, the other Amelia, is still frightened and hissy. Perhaps having a drugged daughter will calm her down.

Cookie and the last of her girl kittens were desexed today. Cookie was zonked when she got back. Bianca was more normal. I held her food bowl so that she could eat inside the oversized plastic collar. There is one left to be desexed: Raja.

Robin said that somebody who knows rabbits says that they should have somewhere to hide, to simulate a burrow, perhaps. So I found a box and cut just one opening. She spent some time in there digging, unsuccessfully, on the cardboard. Of course, she jumped out when I took a photo.

Coco

We have a Frankie "boarder" . Not the Frankie that we adopted recently. His owner is distressed because he "won't eat". She has a resident cat with gastric sensitivities on a special diet. She might not be able to cope with another problem eater. He is such a pretty kitty that everybody was happy to spend time with him to encourage him to eat. Catsie was so successful at playing the "chase the crunchie and munch it" game that Franky spent all afternoon sound asleep (with a full tummy). I had to wake him up for dinner. He was happy to lick wet food from my fingers but wasn't really hungry.

Frankie

A woman called to ask if we had any older, medium haired cats. She and her husband lost their Ragdoll, Fluffybum, last year and need another cat to enliven their lives. If only the vets who help us had enough staff, were not on annual holidays, were not overwhelmed. . . .  we could get Augustus and Darcee vet checked and ready to be adopted.

Another Darcy

 Except this one is spelled Darcee. Does this mean that it is a girl? No, according to the database he is a boy. He is also a shaved Ragdoll. 

Darcee

And he also came from Mona Vale Vets just like Augustus did. Evidently Augustus was dumped on their doorstep tick paralysed. He didn't have a microchip so they just guessed at his age. They both could go to foster homes and be immediate foster fails they are so friendly.

Linda brought in Smoochie and her kittens. We are to keep Smoochie who has a similar tummy upset to Jacky. Perhaps they could share a condo and bitch about how having a litter of kittens messes with your guts.

Smoochie

Her three kittens were microchipped and vaccinated and taken home by Linda who already has homes for them. This makes 7 kittens that she has found homes for after fostering them. She also used to foster rabbits and says that bunnies like dark green greens like kale, watercress, bok choy leafy bits, etc. And if they don't poo they need to be given pineapple juice. It seems that if rabbits are not regular they quickly become ex-rabbits.

Shortly after 3 there were two phone calls about Amelia's kittens. I said "first come, first choice". Two parties arrived almost simultaneously. An elderly gent had his heart set on Aurora. She was a gift from the "Computers for Old Folks" group that he has run for years. He is a very experienced cat owner with a 3 bedroom flat full of cat trees and toys. 

The second party was a pair of young women who fancied Kiwi. Tim dealt with them while I did the oldies. And now Amelia has a stand alone all to herself.

Diego is on the to be adopted list. Somebody must have told him to look cool.

Diego

I don't know why Nipper isn't on the list. If I don't pat him when I go to his condo he reaches out for my hand in a gesture that could be mistaken for a swipe but he doesn't mean it that way.

Nipper

And last thing in the day, Tammy shows herself. I suspect she wants a smooch from Tim.

Tammy

Back to the old days

 I had wondered why Terry was not on with Fiona on Saturday. Today I learned that he had gone to a funeral. Because the funeral parlor lady and he got to talking and soon talked about cats. She has a very fussy, demanding British something-or-other who would not eat the very expensive, exclusive fresh meat that she bought for her. After chatting with Terry, she decided that we might like it. It is in the freezer beside the feeding station.

 She also had visited Peggy Brown's way back when and was glad to get news of her. Sandy filled me in with her latest news. A small ginger kitten found its way into her garden and made friends with her chickens. Peggy trapped it. Called the local vet. Told the nurse not to open the trap until they were in a locked room. The nurse didn't believe her and the kitten escaped. After 4 days the kitten turned up in Peggy's chicken coup again. Peggy has resigned herself to having a kitten. After just a few days, this snarling, frightened kitten accepts cuddles from her. (She has not lost her touch).

A man came in to buy a water fountain. He said he knew us from AWL Ingleside days. He fostered one of the legacy cats, Whiskey. I checked the old blog and there he was! (the cat, not the fosterer).

Lots of critters were adopted in the past week: Darcy and Figgie together, Kingsley (to the lady who came the previous week and couldn't choose between him, Maple and Mr Magoo), Tigger, Angelica, Celeste, Andy, Baby and Tux, Squirrel and Sunshine (although they haven't moved into their new home yet because stuff needs to be bought).

Amy much happier with just one kitten

And we have another Amelia with two kittens.

Amelia (#2) +2

And Augustus has moved into Kingsely's condo. If he is 7years old, I am 27!

Augustus

There are two little kittens in Incoming, Henry (black) and Cavill who are full of flu and shy.

Cavill and Henry