Adoption Tails: Star, Baby Cleo and Enzo

 Star

Star ready to be adopted

 1 day: Star is going well. She is slowly getting used to her new owners and environment. She has been drinking and eating without any issues along with using her litter tray from the start. 

1 week: Star is really starting to feel at home now. The owners have bought her some toys and things to scratch on and she is really active. She has no trouble eating or drinking and her poo problem is now resolved, as her stress levels from moving to a new environment reduce.

1 month: No response.

Baby

1 day: Baby is eating but is not drinking a lot. She has also used the litter tray. She has not stopped talking/crying since the owner brought her home. She did not realise Baby was very vocal when she first arrived at SAFE as she was very quiet when they met. Baby has 2 beds to hide under as well as a box to hide behind as she adjusts to her new home.

Baby eating

 1 week: Baby is settling in well and follows the owner, talking all the time. She feels secure and she is grooming herself well. Very content and affectionate.

Baby chilling

 1 month: Baby has settled in well. She has found her sleeping spots and knows when it is food time. She has a little sprint each morning then settles for the day. She is totally at home and has just gotten up from one of her favourite spots where the owner left her this morning to tell her what a hard day she has had!

Baby's spot

Cleo & Enzo

1 day: Cleo and Enzo are doing well. Cleo did not eat anything until this evening but ate all of her dinner tonight. There has been no litter tray problems with Cleo thus far.
1 week: Enzo and Cleo are in a large cage in the lounge where they sleep with covering over the cage, the litter tray is inside with them. They have started to roam the rest of the house, spending about three quarters of their day outside and retreat back into the cage if they feel frightened or visitors are here.

Enzo, 1 week

 1 month: Enzo and Cleo are part of the family now. They are gorgeous and have distinct personalities. They seem very happy with the owner's family and enjoy playing together. Both Enzo and Cleo are skilled fly hunters. Enzo is bigger but Cleo is in charge.

Enzo and Cleo, 1 month

Fresh air at last and Bye Bye Baby

 Somebody came on Sunday to install the ducting to force air into the AWL condos. It comes out of the gap around the glass fronts so the cats don't live under any extra air pressure. They just get good air circulation. The block of double condo's against the wall of Palace condos has been moved across the aisle to be beside the long double condo block. The block of single condos in Welfare will go into Incoming, eventually. They don't have the extra air yet. But the ones who do, look happier. Nada was sitting at the front of her downstairs this afternoon.

The stand alones which were behind the desk were moved across the aisle. I rearranged them so that Yoko and Linda are no longer in the major traffic way by the door. That space is taken by the cleaning trolley. They have been moved to beside the Palace condos where the double AWL condos used to be. And the other stand alone, which used to house Courtney but now has Dexter, is where the trolley used to be . . . opposite where Beauty was and where Macy is now. 

Macy

Opey was moved to Rosie and Callie's condo. (They were adopted!) As soon as I opened his door to feed him this morning he bolted out of the condo, ran around the room once and stopped in front of this old stand alone and cried to be let in. I could not entice him back to his new condo. So I moved all his stuff to his old stand alone where he grumbled and whinged but settled down by lunch time. There is a new ginger boy above where Rosie and Cally were whose name is Lobster. He is very friendly.

Lobster

 A kitten was delivered by a good Samaritan who rescued her from the middle of the road. She has 60 cats of her own at home so couldn't fit another. This kitten, Mary, is 3-4 months old, has flu, mucky eyes and the dirtiest feet that I have ever seen on a cat. She was rather overwhelmed but is friendly.

Mary

Then a nice lady came again. And chose Baby. She wants a cat who won't sit on her all the time. She was a little worried about the amount of hair that Baby was shedding. So I got a brush to see if Baby likes being brushed. Baby loves it. Sold! She had a cat carrier in the car but no litter so planned to stop at a shop on the way home. I gave her the opened bag of paper litter that we left for a vollie to take which has been on the shelf in the junk room for months. Bargain!

Whitney had a busy Sunday. She came in pregnant but her teats were not ready for kittens. Nevertheless kittens came. The smallest one, 60 gm, died but the 70 and 90 gram ones survived. But Whitney wasn't producing any milk or colostrum so it was decided that they should go to a fosterer willing to feed them every 2 hours. On Monday another mother cat in a foster home went into labour. It was obvious that she was struggling so she was taken to the vet. They discovered that she had a broken hip. Imagine the pain trying to give birth with that! Two kittens were born by Cesarean but the mother could not be help and was euthanised. These two kittens were added to the feeding foster mother. They are bigger than Whitney's. But we hope that by feeding Whitney like a lactating mum, we will be able to put all four into her capable paws soon.

Whitney

Second helpings of chicken

 I took more chicken to Safe Haven this afternoon. The cats all swore it was the first helping they had had (from me) for weeks. True enough. I wasn't there last Friday and Sandy handed it out on Wednesday. I was so busy with the chicken I forgot to take any photos.

Joy will be on duty tomorrow morning so I hope that she will take lots for us.

Geoff has devised a moveable, play space that can be pushed against the Cat Palace condos so that the doors can be opened and the cat can come out to stretch their legs. It doesn't quite have a top yet. He is working on that with the structure pushed against Baby's condo. (There is nobody below her as Cyber and Sammy are still in the play place). Baby graciously supervised him. She offered no criticism and didn't try to test anything out until it was all perfectly finished. Max, next door, would not have been so cooperative!

For some unknown reason, Mia was in a cranky mood again today. Tim says that she let him pat her at breakfast time but she spat at the vollies. She enjoyed her chicken without any spits too. I think she is just extra smart.

Maggie was desexed today. She survived the procedure despite the heart murmur. Let us hope she recovers without any issues and that the family who adopted her brother Bart still wants her. Star
was also desexed but her last kitten wasn't well enough to go.

Because I have to add a photo, here is the dog next door that I knitted for their grandbaby.

Who's who in the Play Place

 The usual crowd of four been there since last Friday. At least, turning the tall scratchy pole around has stopped them from toppling it over during their night time partying. I sent Jayde in with the microchip reader to try to sort out who is who:

Sammy (.....594) has large black spots over both ears with a straight, white line between.

Cypher (....599) has large black spots over both ears that meet in a V in back and front. This looks like a white egg timer-shape on his forehead.

Bambi (...118) has tabby markings on her tail.

Thumbelina (...119) has small black spots under her nose that make a heart shape.

Katie and I think that they don't need to go as two boys separate from two girls. They seem all happy with each other although the girls are shyer than the boys.

Lily got adopted yesterday and Kiki has been moved into her condo today. Maggie was then moved to Kiki's top condo because her mum Lisa was adopted yesterday too. She didn't like it much up there initially but will get used to it. Plenty of vollies will give her cuddles. Dan(ger) moved into Lisa and Maggie's condo this afternoon. About an hour later a couple of girls came to look for a cat to be friends with their puppy. Their mum liked Dan best (she was there via Facetime). So Dan when home with them. He will be able to cope with the whippersnapper dog.

Dan's new owners

He may be back over Christmas in boarding. We got Princess and Precious out of the corner of no adoptions to the double under Nada. She must like their smell because she was out lying on the connection door this afternoon. Or was she remembering Diego's visits and discouraging any more invasions with her, not inconsiderable, weight?

Baby is back from foster because she doesn't like to be part of a multi animal home. She wants to be the one and only.

Baby

Skeley has had another name change. First she was Skeletor, now she is Sophie. Whatever the name, she is still a scardey cat.

Sophie = Skeley

After chicken, I went back to boarding and Juliette looked up at me a blinked. More chicken magic.

My Cody is being photogenic. .   he can't help himself.

Bye bye Baby

 Vicky took home Baby today as a foster to adopt. She has an old cat already and hopes that these two old ladies will get along together. And with the younger Lucky cat. And the dog. But first, everybody had to say goodbye:

I am told it was fairly chaotic this morning with lots of folk coming to fill in paperwork for kittens in a foster home. The last one was processed this afternoon. I wonder if folk have had second thoughts about going away for the school holidays and decided to get a kitten instead. Perhaps all the Coffee shop kittens will be gone by Monday!

Remember when I spoke to the man who surrendered Max and Gus. I thought that he had named them. But it was Katie who named them after her sons. But didn't apportion the names. So I decided today that the tabby is Gus (short for guts. .. . he always wants first at the food and more of it thank you). His downstairs, shyer brother is Max. Now we just have to figure out who is who of the Akela/Rafiki and Diego/Samira family.

Diego/Samira

Rafiki/Akela  one photo does for both of them

Luigi and Bambi are boarding. Bambi has been shaved because he has a skin condition. Doesn't stop him eating Luigi's medicated food. Luigi didn't want it until I laced it with chicken juice.

Luigi and Bambi

Flu begone

 I arrived around midday to a busy scene: there were new vollies being trained, lots of regular vollies and Geoff trying to get odd jobs done before having to leave, Helen came in to be trained in the new computer system. We will all have to learn how to log on when we come to do our shifts. . . . yet another password to remember!

The coffee shop kids had been in the play place since the day before. I sat with them to have my lunch. The tuxedo, Bean, was very keen to share my salami. The others had to be tempted with tiny fragments. But when it came time for chicken, 3 of the 4 jumped into their stand alone to get their share. I had to carry the last, reluctant tabby and white one in. Will have to learn their names.

Now Caramel can have a turn. She is staying an extra day or two because her people's travel plans have been delayed. That's no trouble for us as she is a sweetie.

Caramel

We are fully booked for the school holidays which start next Friday. And every condo is occupied. Baby was moved out of the big stand alone in incoming. Her flu is much better. She LOVES chicken so she will get the leftovers today. Bubbles and Cheena have been moved in to her big one because their condo in Boarding was a mess of splatters. One of them has an ear that needs to be "drained".

Dymano is looking better but definitely not dynamic.

Dynamo

Diesel accepted seconds of chicken (Joy's instructions) without a sneeze. And Oreo, below him, is a girl. Our previous Oreos have been boys. Perhaps Orio for a girl. Or Oriette, Orea, Oray. . the possibilities are endless. One of the vollies spent so much time with her at the end of her shift that I was tempted to check her bag as she left!

Oreo-f

Suzie is looking much better too. So this has been a mild, albeit highly contagious strain of cat flu.

Suzie

Even the supermodel kittens have got over it. And, because of the extra attention and medications, they are much more friendly. . . . . or was it the chicken?

Cindy, Kate, Naomi

And Helena upstairs is more wary because she has had more stuff put into her eyes.

Helena

New adoption proceedure

 We are now using Shelter Buddy to process our adoptions. It is supposed to be more efficient. But it doesn't add the adopted cats names to the calendar so that they can be followed up. I hope this will be done somehow or my Adoption Tails will be cut short.

Since last Friday, Dabi, three of Violet's kittens (only Orchid is left) and the pair in the stand alone by the printer have been adopted. Plus the lift is on the blink. Often the door fails to open on our floor. You have to continue up to the second floor and walk down a flight. Poor Robyn had an accident on the stairs last week. Plus the trolley has lost three of the four bolts that attach one of its four wheels. That was the only photo I took today so that Geoff can bring the appropriate bolt to fix it on Friday.

But Joy took some lovely photos especially of this gorgeous cat who has finally come out of hiding. S/he is Akela or Rafiki.

Akela or Rafiki

The rest of the family is in another condo.

Diego and Samira

Look at those furnishings!

And we have yet another Oreo who is a charmer.

Oreo

And Baby, a 16 year old, white cat in the stand alone that Wanda and her kitten family lived. She is loud (possibly deaf) but very sweet. I took Midsummer to Catsie and Michael to be delivered to the Avalon vet tomorrow morning. She will need an X-ray first to make sure that her diaphragmatic hernia is all fixed before being desexed. She certainly looks healthy enough. Not like poor little Florence who is full of flu. Her nose is completely blocked so that she can't smell the food. But if you put it in her mouth she can taste it and realizes that she is hungry. She ate well today by being hand fed by me.

I tested the "pick up a rabbit and give it a cuddle" technique demonstrated by our intern last week. It worked on Coco. But not on Lily. They have furry bottoms of their feet instead of pads.

Coco

And I took pity on the tuxedo Coffee Shop kitten who was most often on the bottom of the pile in their triangular hammock with his butt hanging half off it. I gave them a square hammock which fits much better.

All four in a hammock in comfort

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

Banished

 Tim told me yesterday when I called to get the running orders for today that the naughty corner had been moved to Dr Kim's suite. Our hand over conversation usually happens at 4pm. Yesterday Tim was busy then so I said "ring back when you have finished". He called back at 6:30pm. The cats who have been moved are in a state of shock today. I imagine that Tim and whomever helped him also spent the day recovering from the transfer. At least it is nice and quiet next door. And cool with the air conditioner playing on them. But Remi is not happy. She has retreated to the back of the upstairs nestbox and didn't even hiss at me!

Peach, Blueberry and Blackberry next door

But this has freed up all the condos out back for boarders who are streaming in. Many are "our" cats/kittens and it is lovely to see how they have grown.

I happened to check the list of animals and the most recent entry was Fat Louis at Safe Haven. He is listed as a white Rat. I couldn't see any rats anywhere. It was reassuring that there were no condo cards labelled with "Fat Louis" or I would have worried that he had escaped. Very intriguing. Every condo has a label.

I resurrected the small stand alone that we used when Incoming was separated into a quarantine area and an incoming area before the condos were moved there. There was a mum in the small stand alone. I can't remember her name. I will come to me. . . . 

Two kittens Baby and Tux, both girls who were desexed yesterday, were added to the play place which is now the home of Imogene's kittens. 

Baby or Tux

They are younger than Imo's kittens and were overwhelmed by the boisterous, bigger kittens. Not to mention they are sore post op. So I unearthed the small standalone from the store room, with Catsie's help. It was a good thing I did because Frankie arrived, unexpectedly, from his foster home to be desexed. It wasn't on the list but Tim will sort it out now that he has rested.

Frankie

Charlie is taking it all in his stride.

Charlie

PS Jumi and Victor have been adopted. As have Anvi (Dusty) and her two kittens. The woman who found them in her back shed decided to give them all a home. What a lovely lady!
 

Lola adopted

I know this because my friend Gina is finally ready to adopt a cat. She came in some months ago and fell for Penny and for Bailey.

Gina with Penny

Bailey

Gina has kept an eye on our website and rather fancied Lola. She was going to come in on Friday afternoon but couldn't make it. Lola was peacefully asleep in her condo. I advised Gina to ring before she came to make sure Lola was still there. When she rang at mid day on Saturday, Lola was just leaving with her new owners!

Lola

Baby

I thought that Baby would be a good match with Gina but her eye condition has flared up again. Baby will not be available again until her eye has had 4 weeks of antibiotic treatment. I hope Gina can wait that long and that it will be third time lucky!

Big Ginge

Despite the lack of a daily newspaper, the world and its girlfriend has heard about the cat who was thrown out of a car in Newport on Saturday. The people in the car behind stopped, picked up the cat and took it to the Emergency Vet Hospital  in Terry Hills. They cobbled the cats face back together again and posted progress on their Facebook page. Somewhere along the way, we got involved as the group who could put this cat up for adoption when he is discharged from hospital. They have named him Big Ginge. We are getting phone calls from folk who want to help pay for his vet bills, or adopt him, or to tell us that the vet nurse has fallen in love with him and has already bagsed him. A good opportunity for some publicity for us may just have slipped by because he is such an appealing cat. (Aren't they all!)

In the meantime, back at Safe Haven . . . .

Catsie commented that Pepper, who is in the wheely cage just inside the front door and who was looking miserably unprotected in that wide open space, with a little bit of TLC morphed into a "give me more loving -- don't leave me" cat within two shakes of her orange tipped tail. She pulled the same trick on me later on and purred in the most enticing way.

 Pepper

I had to give her some attention because I spent time making a list of the stuff that came with Cookie and TIm Tam. My idea is that when Irene calls their new owner to see how they are getting on, she mentions that their stuff is still here and they should hire a moving van to take it to them.

Catise demonstrating the height of the C/TT scratchie pole

In the meantime Joy took lovely photos of cats

Baby, looking slimmer and younger

Edward and Jacob being winsome

Lola looking regal

 Milo just woke up and displayed his stripes

Willow was not going to cooperate even though her eye is much better.