Adoption Tails: photos from Irene

Pete and Buddy at home.
 

 

 Pete and Bud have their eye on the bird

Darcee keeps struggling with flu symptoms. But has a mate to keep him warm.

Darcee and friend

 

Duke is much loved and his eye is improving.

 

Duke

Adoption Tails: Pete and Buddy

Pete and Buddy in Dec 2020

1 day: Petey and Buddy are in the ensuite but have access to the bedroom. When their new owner went out today, Buddy went exploring but Petey stayed in the bathroom hiding under the sink. Neither of them have eaten, drunk or toileted yet. I told her that this is not unusual and for a few of our cats it took 3 days before they did either in their new homes. Her new owner will contact Irene if there is any concern.

2 days:  Their owner messaged to say that Petey let her pat his head and when Buddy saw this he ate some treats in front of her and then Petey decided to do the same. 

Pete and Buddy in Dec 2021

1 week: Their owner called Irene to give an update on Petey and Buddy. They are making fantastic progress. Even Petey is now coming out and looking at her without running away from her. She sent a wonderful photo and video. 

Pete and Buddy, 1 week

 

1 month: Petey and Buddy have settled in incredibly well. They like to look out and ponder life next to the balcony windows and they meow at their owner when she gets home from work. They are still a little cautious but have definitely come out of their shell a lot more than the first week after adoption. It's been a very rewarding journey for their owner and she thinks they are absolutely beautiful.

And today Ziggy got adopted.

Adoption Tails: Faith and Bud

 Not much news on recent adoptees. Folk are getting too busy to answer our text messages/phone calls. Pete and Bud were doing OK after one week. We will have to wait a week to see if their owner has more to report on their 1 month report card.

Pete and Bud 1 week

In the meantime, Faith and Bud are coming in to board this weekend. Unfortunately I won't get to see them. Give them a cuddle from me.

Faith

Bud

Naughty corner

Diego has learned from Fawny how to trash his condo. It was covered in dirt this morning, and his two level scratchy pole was overturned.

Diego

 

 Fawny's was flooded, as usual. He is to go to an eye specialist next week. Beauty's kittens didn't survive the weekend. Izzy and Jetta went to the vet to be desexed and both are boys. Izzy will be short for Isaac and Jetta is an alternate spelling for Jeda! Unfortunately, the vet thinks that the skin lesions on Izzy may be ringworm. We will await the cultures. I moved him into a quarantine corner in Incoming.

Incoming is full. The latest arrival is another Oreo, black and white this time which makes more sense than tabby Oreo. He is a sweetie. He moved into Rufus' condo and Rufus went to the naughty corner by the feeding station. His narrow door is cable tied shut to avoid the possibility of him exploding through the ceiling tiles again.

Rufus

 

 

Kendra moved to the main cat room to make room for Rufus. The vet has decided that she is just fat (probably from all the expensive food we have been feeding her and from when she OD'd on Babycat when her kittens who were not feeding from her).

The other Oreo was frantic to get out of her condo today. She kept scrabbling at the glass. I tried putting a solid scratchy pole in there to give her something else to scratch. But eventually she started beating up on Lucky, her son. So I added various toys. They worked for a while. But as I was wandering around in the peaceful afternoon (no visitors today), suddenly there was Oreo making for the nearest door. The pot flew out of my hands and I grabbed her. She must have jiggled the door open. Bibi upstairs was not impressed.

Bibi

 

 Above Pete and Buddy is a handsome ginger called Maple who also has a cattitude sign. She doesn't spit but seems to get overexcited easily.

Maple

There are naughty corners all over Safe Haven.

 

Ellie stars

 I had three calls about Ellie before 10am because she was posted on our website yesterday evening. Talk about Miss Popular. But we don't reserve cats over the phone. It is a matter of first come, first served. A local woman arrived with her three school aged kids at 1:30. Good thing that she is a teacher so can decide what is most important. . . . lessons or filling the gap in the family that can only be filled by a cat. They came to look at Petal who has been desexed and is not quite ready yet. The eldest daughter used to be allergic to cats but has got better since getting bigger. They all loved Petal but she isn't ready yet. (The mother/daughter team who fell for her last week called later this morning to see how she was getting on and were hoping that they could be first to get her.)

The mum used to have a Persian cat. They knew about Ellie and asked to meet her. Ellie behaved beautifully. The oldest daughter didn't show any signs of sneezes or itches. They were tremendously excited about having her. So they took her. 

Later a woman arrived to meet Ellie. She had phoned earlier. She showed me a photo of the cat that she had to leave behind in China. He looked just like Archie so I introduced them. It was a case of mutual love at first sight. Archie has the best purr! And he has a shaved portion of his tail . . . . don't know what happened there. She will keep her eyes glued to the web page for when he is available. She lives just down the road so I invited her to come visit.

I was too busy to take photos but Robyn took some.

Nada is the new girl in Incoming. She is recovering from having her tail amputated. Why?

Nada

 

And we have a second Shadow. This one is a boy too (as is the companion of Ellie and Sasha) but he looks like a female: very fine boned. It was very clever of Robyn to include two shadows in her photograph.

Shadow 2

Robyn also took a photo of Tiger who never moves. But the food disappears from his bowl.

Tiger

 

And she had a chat with Buddy. Pete doesn't usually get involved with conversations. (I still think we should change Buddy's name to Dud so that we can call them Dud and Pete but perhaps I am the only vollie old enough to remember Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.)

Buddy (Dud)

Fifty barrier broken

I counted noses this morning. There are only 49 cats in residence! As I was counting, I saw that Buddy and Petey's door was open. They were sitting primly in their condo, side by side, as though butter wouldn't melt in their mouths. A little while later I went back to their corner and Silky's door was open! She looked at me as though to say "I just made it easier for you to feed me." Her sliding bolt could be a cm longer. But since Friday's clearance "sale" the following cats have been adopted: Bridie, Sabrina, Bobby, Candy and Apricot. James, who hasn't been in since last Wednesday was shocked. So I gave him this blog addy so that he can keep up, kind of. Welcome James. And Daisy, the pregnant cat has disappeared from Incoming. In her place is the marvellous Sir Dudley.

And the miniscule Billy who only does meals in bed.

Megsy is still with us but wants to break out of condo confinement. He lead Robyn a merry dance when she tried to clean his condo.

Another of Santa Maria's kittens ventured out of the box this afternoon. She is pretty. The two who are out most of the time (five kittens do not fit into one Purina box) are very friendly. I got kisses on my forehead.

Another still in hiding one is named Ginger: no prizes for guessing what colour he is. And out back, Honey, she of the two yummy kittens in Boarding last month or so, is back. She has had her flank shaved. There is a little cut with no stitch. I can only guess that it was a tubal ligation via keyhole surgery. But why shave such a swath of fur? She is not in the best of moods and bit Joy who was just trying to be friendly.

Tom and Jerry and co are in the play place. They were having a lovely time when I arrived good and early but then slept the rest of the day until I enticed them with milk. A trainee spent some time with them and only the fluffy boy would play nicely with him. The rest rested:

Tortie corner

Barb Webster gave us a cat clock. Today, I finally got around to installing it with Rod's help (after I dropped the one, tiny screw and we put the battery in the right way round). I put it over the feeding table so that the cats out back can enjoy it's wagging tail and sweeping eyes. Buddy and Petey were enthralled.

I also dangled feather toys from the ceiling in the outer office to give the cats there something to look at. They only like them when they move. There is a tortie corner there with a new Harley. As a tortie she is obviously a girl and by the look of her tummy, she was recently a mum.

Joy spent time smooching with Apricot, yet another tortie, who really does like to be loved on. (They both do!)

Don't know what happened to Max, son of Misty but there is a bonded pair in the perspex place. They are Bobby (friendly with a squinty left eye) and Doel (below).

Don't know what the outcome of Pearl's vet visit was. She is happy in her new condo and even happier with a new bed (sans poos and hair balls). Her nose looks a little less encrusted.

Rod gave Mixa a clean bed which he loved too.

No adoptions today but a Chinese family will be back with their 15year old son on Saturday to see if he likes Oscar as much as they did. The kid will fall in love.

Grass for treats

The rain has made the grass in pots grow. So I took a box of pots to Safe Haven this afternoon to give as treats for the cats. They were not as keen on grass as they are on chicken. And one box of pots doesn't have enough grass for everybody. So I had to play favourites. Of course, Billy got his pot first. He has decided that I am "alright" and accepts pats willingly. Marmalade, on the other hand, is still unhappy that I am not Tim. Same with Soxy and Buddy/Petey. What is this boy/boy thing. The kittens are unaffected it is just the adults. It might just be that they are shyer and like the hand that feeds them most often. When I came to take a few photos, I got the "flat battery" message, again. So I will add some old photos. Candy and Collette were not feeling well this afternoon. They didn't leap out of their condo when the door was opened with a food offering. They just lay at the back of the very hot box. They were desexed earlier in the week and still have their collars on.

Sapphire is wearing a collar too. She, and Tiny Tim will be adopted on Sunday. Big Tim is counting the nights he still has to take them home with him.

Octavia is still with us but has moved to the outer edge of Quarantine. Gracie has moved out to the condo below Dobby (whose nose is getting stuffier every day in the stuffy condo). Daphne and the 3 little d's are in a wheely cage where Octavia was. I have talked my cat Cody into being brushed every day. He rather enjoys it. But he doesn't purr as loudly as Tara did when I brushed her today.

I roll the fur I brush off him into balls. I would much rather these fur balls that the ones that he vomits up.

Chicken fingers

I took some BBQ chicken to do my cat behaviour routine this afternoon. Give me chicken, was Dolly's reaction.

But she says that to any food on offer. Other more circumspect cats were lured into more friendly behaviour by my chicken fingers. Even Windsor came out of his cave. (He had heard the fuss that Buddy and Petey were making: Buddy even let me pat him with my chicken fingers).

Silky was interested to eat chicken but not to make friends. She wears white stockings.

And Marmelade let me pat him. And Billy shut up while I tossed chicken at him. Gracie yelled for her share and Mimi and Macey fought over every piece. Macey got most of them because Mimi is a push over. The cat who REALLY LOVES CHICKEN is the new mum with four grey kittens. She still doesn't have a name. But, she is wearing a rather frayed collar. Her "rescuers" put the collar with a bell on her to stop her catching birds (to feed her kittens). She still doesn't have a name. I think we should call her Ruth, or RBG, or Rubygee because of the lace(y) collar. She was not going to give any of her chicken to her kittens . . . . she laid down the law. Then she followed me with her eyes as I distributed my inadequate stash to those other worthless cats.

Patchy and co have finished their ringworm treatment. To celebrate, I redecorated their wheely cage with new hammocks. And I swung it around to face the action. Tim is worried that they are not yet desexed so should not be on show. But I said that visitors won't see them until they are leaving and by then it will be too late. They have names. Meet Spotty, named for the spot on her nose/the end of her nose is black.

Tippy because she has a white tip on her tail.

And PJ who is the tortie.

They should be desexed and ready to go next week. Irene said that she would share photos of our cats who now live with other servants who take photos of them too.

Weight lifting

When I arrive in the morning I leave all the doors open so that the pong de chat can dissapate. Imagine my horror when I went through to the feeding station to see Buddy and Petey's door wide open, again. I rushed back to close the doors and then approached their condo. They were sitting together in their carry cage. Petey has learned to jump up to the higher level. My heart beat went back to normal.

Later when I was bathing the face of the dark tabby kitten (to the right of the desk) I heard Peggy hiss. I looked over my shoulder to see Macy stopped in her tracks on the gutter outside Peggy's condo. Perhaps Macy wanted to visit Rara. Mimi was watching from the open door of their condo with a worried expression on her face. I just turned Macy around with one hand (the other was holding the above kitten) and she walked back home. But it may be the eyebrow marking that makes Mimi look worried. Because later when I was washing the gummy eyes of some of Gracie's kittens, she watched with concern. I went to take a photo and my camera said "Charge the battery". Sue had three new volunteers to train this morning and Robyn is still nursing a very sore arm so took it gently. There were plenty of helpers. And then the men's shed arrived. They call themselves a community shed these days because there are women as well as men involved. They wanted to attach the brackets that will support the walls and top of the play place. And they the brought bits to fit.

We thought that they would be able to work around the stack of litter bags. But no, they had to be moved from where I put them yesterday. Luckily the community shedders did the moving, not me. I did it yesterday. And we had to move Hera, Diamond and Octavia because the litter bags are now behind Octavia where the scratchy poles used to be. They have been moved to the foyer beside the ones for sale. Really Octavia and Lily should change wheely cages. Octavia's only has three wheels and a peg leg. Lily's has 4 wheels. Maybe tomorrow. The community shedders will be back tomorrow or Friday to finish the job. By the way, I think Hera and Diamond are happier in separate areas rather that bunking in together. Patchy and her crew were happy when I rotated them so that I could mop their area.

We have a new, nameless, label-less mum with four grey kittens. She is a frightened, hissy mum. But she has a collar on. So she must just be really pissed off to be with us rather than a wild child. Later when It was quiet I noticed Star's tail hanging out of her condo. And when I looked at the photo there are two kitten tails hanging out as well. . . . cute.

Meet Sam

He is a lovely, friendly, 3 year old ginger boy who was brought in on Wednesday. He has settled into his condo above Ashleigh very well. Let's hope his cool vibe washes over her.

And next door to Ashleigh. . . . . tragedy. Buddy has lost his one white whisker.

I took Dolly's five kittens to be desexed today. One came back not desexed (Dobby the tuxedo who snuffled a few weeks ago). And another got worse snuffles after his op (a ginger and white). It is not a good idea for us not to know kittens names before they are ready to go home. Sue has priced all the stuff that we don't need. So there are bargains for kitty Christmas presents.