Adoption Tails: Mom cats, Joni, Josie and Betty

 Betty

1 week: “Betty is doing beautifully well.” She ate, drank, and used the litter box within the first 24 hours. “She has been very comfy in her safe room but has begun gradually exploring the rest of the house, always returning at pace to her safe room if she gets startled or feels uneasy. She is being treated like a princess. At this stage we aren’t changing her name, just adding 1000 variations to how you say it, or what it’s added to”

1 month: “Betty is settling in beautifully. She is playing happily, eating well, cuddling us on the couch and sleeping close at night.”

6.5 weeks: “We are just so in love with our beautiful Betty”

Joni

3 days: “She is doing well”. She has eaten, drunk and used the litter tray. They have renamed her. They have a camera set up in her safe room. She doesn’t like the carrier at all so they took it away and she has been hiding under the bed. She comes out to explore when they are not in the room.

1.5 weeks: She is completely fine in her safe room. They’ve opened her safe room door to see if she would like to explore the living room. She started exploring when her owners were sleeping or were out. “We are glad she is settling well”

 

5 weeks: “She is doing pretty well”. She often comes out from underneath the bed and plays with their resident cat while her owners are sleeping.

Josie

3 days: She hasn’t used the litter tray or eaten yet. She has been moving around in different hiding spots but still appears very scared. They will be keeping her name.

1.5 weeks: She is still very scared but is eating lots and toileting every day. Her owner can hear her coming out at night when it’s dark.

5 weeks: 

“Josie is doing well. Very playful at night when it’s dark and has her favourite bed up high in the kitchen. Here she can keep her eyes on me. Still not letting me pick her up but she loves being stroked in her bed.”

Movement in photos

 Is not as desirable as movement in adoptions. But is inevitable. Trude and Prue were sitting at attention this afternoon, waiting for chicken. But as soon as I pulled out my camera one or the other moved.

 Miz and Riley have a "bonded pair" sign but they really don't act like a pair. Only one ever comes out for a wander when the door is open. Charlie likes them because they don't eat all of their crunchies and they let him come into their condo.

Riley and Miz

The folk who were going to come to adopt Yang either didn't come or got talked out of it. The sisters are both still here. Yang tends to hang out on a top shelf and Yin stays in a hidey hole. Both accept pats happily enough.

While Billy and Harley are not in the same condo (Billy is above Harley) they seem to have the one still/one moving vibe going:

Billy

Harley

I gave Harley a cuddle this afternoon and almost had to wash my face afterwards. She is very enthusiastic.

A bloke rang up about Cooper. He regularly looks after other folk's cats and wants one of his own because the hole in the house when the cat goes home is just too hard to live with. If he takes Cooper, he will be able to have other folk's cats visit because today Cooper, PC, Harry and Charlie all shared the front desk while Meatball frolicked in the corridor. Harry has been moved from Better Row to Betty's stand alone. I am not surprised that he preferred his bed on the desk: the stand alone was uncovered and hammock-less. It is habitable now.

Muffin and Venice were the last ones out in the Top Cat. (Sebastian and Pebbles had a fine ping pong ball game, Sparkle surveyed his domain and Abigail and Annabelle had a lovely time there too). I hope it is not too hard for Irene to take it down in the morning.

Muffin and Venice

Movement at last

 After an adoption drought (despite the rainy weather), there have been adoptions and movements of cats.

Dexter got adopted by a man who "has experience with difficult cats". It has been 4 days which is 3 days longer than the last time he was adopted. So fingers crossed. 

And Betty has gone to a foster home. And Hermionie has gone to Katie's to live. And two of Honey's kittens have been adopted naturally including the super friendly Socks. Left are Luna, Scarlett, Patches and Panther. Honey is posted as 10 months old. What a heroine!

Honey plus 4 this evening at dinnertime.

The Squee litter in Isolation has been moved out except for Pumpkin who is still there and being treated as infectious. Two have . . . ? been adopted. . .. disappeared. And two are in Dexter's condo. They are still dedicated to eating.

Spots and Marmalade

We have new cats on Better Row. Moet and Jerry were surrendered. I will try to find out why. They seem to be a lovely pair. Jerry is the ginger male who is friendly. Moet is the ginger and white girl who is wary. Or the other way around!

Jerry and Moet

And Calli is under Josie who is getting friendlier every day.

Calli

As are Theresa's big cats in the stand alone in Incoming. They are very food oriented. They loved it when they were getting 2 month old kitten rations.

Theresa's three

Trude and Prue would like to go back to those good old days. But with patience, Sue is getting them used to being touched.

Trude, Prue and Sue

And for entertainment we have: Meatball, PC and Derek. Meatball is a comedian, PC is an opportunist, Derek is a fanatic (aka a kitten).

Cat fight

 Well, after the weekend we know which one is Harley and which is Quin. Quin has been adopted so it is Harley who is still with us. I can't tell if she is the friendlier tortie or has become friendlier since her sister left her.

Harley

My camera was playing up today so it is still difficult to tell who is who.

One of our earlier vollies, Monica brought in her cat. Molly whom she adopted from us, to board while she goes to Canada for a holiday. Somebody had left instructions about the eardrops to be applied to a boarding cat called Epsilon. Turns out they changed her name. She might be the same Molly who might have been adopted on the blog of September 1, 2023. Her name has been changed to Epsilon. (Google definition: Epsilon: the fifth letter of the Greek alphabet (E, ε). the consonant sound represented by this letter. Mathematics: an arbitrarily small quantity, used to indicate that a given quantity is small, or close to zero. 

She will be with us for three weeks. She is not close to zero.

Epsilon

Later, after letting Seb and Pebbles out into the Top Cat (which they love), I noticed that Dexter's window was covered in snot. So, as he had been happy out wandering with other cats before, I let him out and cleaned his perspex. Then the screaming started. He went for Cooper. I went for him. Used my foot to separate them. Shepherded Dexter back into his condo with the rubbish tin lid and retired for bandaging.

Cooper afterwards just wanted cuddles

Dexter afterwards (when my camera went on the blink)

Ignore the blood smears on the floor. They are either mine or Adrians who got smacked by Billy earlier in the morning or Azar's who got chomped on by Betty yesterday.

Lily and Patches gone

 The nice couple came yesterday to adopt them. Even Tim agreed that they are nice people. But he didn't give them the round hidey hole that Lily lived in for the first month that she was with us. It is worn to tatters now and would hardly have been a pleasant gift to get. But Lily would have been comforted by its familiarity. 

I cut off the worst of the shredded covering cloth, cleaned it, gave it a good spray and put it into their Enclosure, in memorium, so to speak.

A woman and her wheelchair pusher came to visit some cats because Jiji's, the cat cafe on Eastern Valley Way, area for wheelchairs is in the open and the weather was not conducive to sitting outside today. They wheeled out the back and I immediately put Harry on her lap. They were both delighted and had a good pat and cuddle. He is such a tolerant cat.

But later, when he wanted food, he showed his loud side. And when he got out of his condo and wanted into the main cattery, he showed his determined side. Such a character.

Talking of which, Betty has been in the stand alone by the door. She tries to engage every person who walks through the door. I thought perhaps she wanted to play rather than just wanting more food. So I put up the Top Cat straight-wise, wheeled her stand alone into that area and had a vollie try to entice her out with a wand toy. No way was Betty going to go out of her stand alone, thank you. She might have for food, though. I gave up eventually and pushed her back to where Cooper was. She can watch other cats wander around and play. And Cooper can be the door warden when he is not sitting on his poof under the computer desk.

Later I let Pebbles and Sebastian into the Top Cat. On Wednesday they were very reluctant to venture out of their condo. This afternoon they came straight out and started to play.

Pebbles and Sebastian

The only other photo I took was of Barry and Blaze. They looked so comfy on a newly warmed up hot water bottle. Wonder what happened to the hotty cover?

Barry behind Blaze

A family (Mum, Dad and teenaged daughter) came to look at kittens. Luckily they rather fancied champagne kittens. They wanted to compare Ryan's colouration with Josh's. So we let Ryan walk in front of their condo. . . in the gutter. They all enjoyed that. The family has gone home to think about it and check out the foster kittens. Irene says that we have even more champagne kittens almost ready to be uploaded.

Blossom adopted

 She was adopted yesterday last thing. Don't know who to. And I can't imagine why she should have been chosen ahead of Cindy Clawford, Betty or Pickle. But, thank goodness, . . . . it takes all types. And we have a cat to match any type.

Including a new boy called Big Kahuna. When seen from the rear you can tell that he was well named but that they have been taken care of. From the front, he has chopped off whiskers and several wounds around his neck that necessitate the Elizabethan collar and shave job.

Big Kahuna

Don't know why his whiskers were cut unless it was to "stop him from leaving his new home". This was supposed to work like buttering the cat's paws to keep it in a new house. Old wives tales might work some times. And I don't know how he got the wounds but he is a real sweetie.

As is Mr Garfield in Incoming now that he has stopped screaming for attention. He has learned that meals come at regular intervals and that cuddles and naps are allowed.

Mr Garfield

We have a new girl called Annabelle who is in Michelle's small stand alone by the front door. I don't think she will last as long as Michelle did because she is white and just as friendly. Don't know her history.

Annabelle

Bonny and Ricky have been moved from Isolation. They used to compete for food there but seem to be friends now.

Bonny and Ricky (on the right)

And what was Lola doing today?

Lola

She put herself into her stand alone, settled down in her hammock and then made love to her blankie! Talk about teaching old cats new tricks!

And the Fab Five. . . .

happily eat anything they are given. 

Thanks for the photos Joy and Robyn. (Have a good trip Joy and lovely to have you well enough to spend time with us Robyn.)

One left

 Rufus Maxwell went today. I got a phone call at about 1pm from a family driving home from Coff's Harbour. Evidently the daughter of the family had spotted Rufus on our website earlier in the week. Mum managed to stop phoning us until they were on their way home. She was delighted that he was waiting for her when they arrived at around 2pm. They didn't pop home to Allambie Heights to get their cat carrier. I loaned them a kitten sized one that they will return. Rufus will have two dogs to get used to. These dogs like cats already. They will love Rufus.

So that leaves Indiana Ginge with Cindy. Today I noticed that he has matching spots on the back of his ears and managed to get a photo while he watched Tim try to vaccinate Bassuria and Julie. (B yes J no)

Indiana Ginge

And perhaps you can see that Betty has been moved into the stand alone by the door. She was easy to move and settled in well.

Betty

Her kittens were feeling much better today especially Barry who just wanted to play and play. Blaze just wanted to eat and sleep.

The palace crew wanted to eat also. Feeding them chicken is a risky business (for my fingers). Geoff manages them well though.

Geoff and our new pile of litter bags (thanks Marissa)

DINNER!!!

Mia says they should wait their turn.

a good Friday

 The traffic was terrific. The parking was plentiful. But Cousins didn't come to empty their bins.

Otherwise it was a good Friday with 11 vollies falling over each other and lots of cuddling going on when I arrived around noon.

With not much to do, I decided that PC needed some beauty treatment. His saliva blackens on exposure to air and where he licks himself is covered with black tar-like stuff. I put some warm water in the big sink and added PC. He didn't like it much. But he is such a gentleman he tolerated it. And he didn't really mind being dried with a towel by Emily. And he really liked being combed with a fine tooth comb while sitting on the visitors chair when he was all dried off. Meanwhile Stephen Gumptioned his condo. PC was quite happy to go back to his condo and was ravenous for his dinner.

Meanwhile Marissa arrived to spend time with her Azlan. Her house is being "fixed" so he is better off with us but she misses him. She pops a harness on him and lets him take her for a walk.

Azlan walkies

While I took this photo a man arrived and said "I am here to pick up Emily". My memory failed me. We don't have a boarder named Emily. Of course not. He came to collect his daughter Emily. And to check out our torties (because he had one in his boyhood). While showing them to him I noticed that Salt was trying to suck on Pickles. He is too big to do that. . . . and she is too skinny to tolerate it. So I let her out. She immediately went back to her previous enclosure.

Pickles pickle

But Yin and Yan are in residence there now. They have come in again from their foster home where they were doing very well. I tried to make lots of covers for them to settle into/under. One had made it out of the hidey hole when I left.

Yin/Yan

Chilli was moved into Mouse's stand alone because his condo is needed for a boarder. He was transported in his plum pudding. That will definitely need to go with him when he is adopted.

Chilli

I reaarranged the two stand alones so that neither Chilli or Eric is in a busy traffic lane. The trolley is back there.

Betty's two kittens are still with us. One is much plumper than the other. Guess which?

Maggots in March

 I missed the Willoughby rubbish collection this morning. So I didn't get our surplus bags out into other folk's bins. I filled the Cousins bins (with their 30Kg only) after they came in the middle of the day. Then I put the rest of the bags on the verandah into the empty Willoughby bins. The bags at the bottom of the pile were oozing maggots. Good thing I was raised in Queensland or I would have swooned.

The maggots are in the bins in the basement and the maggots on the balcony have been tromped on. One found its way into the play place water bowl. Sabrina's kittens didn't notice it. They were too busy watching ants wandering across their floor. (I have decided that the loud Sabrina kitten should have his name changed to the name of a famous male singer who sings LOUDLY). (Alternatively he could be called Banshee. I tried him out on that name this afternoon and he liked it. . . . we had a contrapuntal game going. . . Banshee . . . yowl. . . Banshee. . . yowl. . . )

We were three vollies down today but two kindly stayed into the afternoon to help. Sue was kept very busy answering the phone  and accepting boarders for the coming (Easter) weekend all morning.

As I was about to leave not having taken any photos, she asked me to take photos of Queen Victoria:

Queen Victoria

And Gigi who used to be called Venus. But her foster mum didn't like Venus and called her Gigi. She seems happier now that she has her own name back.

Gigi

Pickles and Salt have moved to the condo below her. Salt had a fabulous time playing with a ping pong ball on the bare ground floor space in the morning. They were all tuckered out this afternoon.

And photos of Betty's remaining two kittens who have moved into the Nursery/Quarantine. You can tell that they are feeling better because they did not stay still for a photo.

Ants

 I came home today to find ants in Cody's quarter full bag (4Kgm) of crunchies. It has been a very bad summer for ants here in Sydney and I had not sealed the zip seal properly last time I scooped out a jam jar of crunchies. Be warned. And hope that ants don't discover the Safe crunchy shelves!

I moved Pickles from Isolation (aka Maternity) into Dancer's enclosure. No, Dancer hasn't been adopted. She has been moved next to Angel and Rory and Little have moved to the condo below Virgo.

Pickles and co love their new space. They were acrobatic when exploring the possibilities when they first moved in. There are 3 hammocks. Top two have one kitten each, bottom one has two kittens. Mum gets to sleep on the floor.

Salt and Brine

Dill

Cucumber

Penelope and Dot were brought in by their foster carers. And left them with us accompanied by tears. They are quite young so should settle down well (both cats and people). [Dot is a boy and has a spot above his right eye].

Josie's kittens are doing very well. They are plump and adventurous. A grand advertisement for not having 7 kittens at one time like Betty did. Her lot have gummy eyes and empty tummies because she has quit feeding them.

Josie and her ginger

PC had time out today and got to meet Michelle. She was not impressed. He was much more interested in being groomed with the strange blue cylindrical toy-thing.

Michelle and PC