New Blogger

The bloody web site has been threatening to change (?update?!) its protocol for the past month. Today it has done it and I can't work the new system. Luckily they have given me the option to retain the "old fashioned" method for a transition period. Mutter, mutter, grumble, grumble. . . . if it ain't broke WHY fix it! We have The Big Ging in the Palace Suite. He was thrown out of a car in Newport and rescued by a young woman who took him to the Northern Beaches Emergency Vets. They have passed on the pleasure of finding him a new, improved owner. He is much younger than we expected. He didn't like what he was given for breakfast this morning but lapped up the rather smelly fishy food that he was given for morning tea.

The Big Ging

We have two new surrenders in the boarding aisle. Persia, whose name really should be spelled Pursia, is a very pretty girl.

Persia

I don't like the feel of crochet cloth so gave her a fleece and she was much happier. Candace and Bonnie's sister was brought in from the industrial estate at Brookvale. We decided that she should have a D name and the only sweet name we could think of was Dolly. She came with 5 tiny kittens and is is the far corner of Boarding. Hera and Diamond have been declared non ringworm and probably never were. So they were moved to the condo under Lola. Initially they were shock/horror at the move but they soon came out to watch the action on the front desk. Tim's back side is always interesting. Lola, upstairs from them, did not seem pleased to have a noisy pair of grown kittens downstairs.

Lola

Talking of Tim's back view: here he is trying to give Larry, Leonard and Lucia some lunch.

Tim

Cody update: Tonight there were two fat bandicoots frolicking on the grass out front because I overcooked a bean bag and tipped the scorched grain there a couple of days ago. Brush turkeys have been having a lovely time digging them up and the bandicoots are probably sucking up the worms that they have uncovered. Cody was peeking at them from behind a brick wall. I don't know if it was caution or fear. He came in shortly thereafter and put himself to bed. . . such an exciting evening.

Bon Candy

Candace and Bonnie were adopted today. They have gone to a woman who has had cats before, works from home and has her two peri pre-teen kids every other week. The cats will have a quiet life for one week and lots of fun the next week. Terry was the hero that put them into the carry cage. He dripped blood after Candace.

Then we had a quiet time tidied up. Sorry Tim, you might not recognise the place.

Tessa's kittens are Tommy: black, Toulouse, dark tabby, Tobias: White face, Tinkerbelle: light tabby.

Jaffa's kittens are Jenny: grey tortie, Josie: tortie and Jayda: grey (the one who almost got away on Wednesday)

Stephanie and her partner came by with a 20 year old cat, Casper who has been surrendered. He is in the guest quarters recuperating from his trip in from Cronulla way with an elderly Maltese who is off to be fostered, somewhere close by. He seems a sweet dog but Luca, Kit Kat and Maggie were not at all convinced.

After bandaging, Terry consulted his better half and decided to foster Milly. He donned the gauntlets. She was very vocal about being moved -- first time I have heard a word from her. She will have her own room with a view, three other cats to sniff at under the door and devoted people to love her.

Co habiting

I decided to install the new hammocks before the weekend rush. Perhaps some folk will decide that if they must be quarantined at home for a fortnight they may as well get a kitten to keep them company.

Alex and Angelo

Annabelle looks very fetching in her Elizabethan collar.

But Tim decided that it had been long enough since she was desexed and she could go back in the stand alone cage with her brothers. Her brothers (especially Alex) were not convinced. They had one hammock each. And who was this cat with a funny neck.

When I installed a third, triangular hammock they settled down.

Annabelle, Angelo, Alex

Mozart loved his. It might have spun his head some.

Mozart

And the F's had a ball.

F kittens

I enticed Taylor down to nose level with sweet talk and pats. She is such a pretty cat and loved to be patted.

Taylor

I moved to Elsa who had upended her food bowl in her bed. So I had some food rewards for pats. She obliged. Quite liked it in fact. When I took my hand away, she reached out for it with her paw.

Elsa

Then, moving to the next grey cat, I kneeled before Olivia. She hissed at me. After 5 minutes all I got was a couple of blinks but no softening. Next time, perhaps.

I peeked into Candace's condo but she wasn't there. She was downstairs snoozing with Bonnie. Their communication door has been left open for the past few days. Bonnie is due to be desexed on Tuesday. As soon as she has recovered, Tim hopes that she and Candace will go together to a woman who is keen to have them.

Bonnie and Candace

 At lunch time Ginger appeared to bury his face in his food. Look at that round belly!

Ginger

Cuddle time

The Friday morning crew finished up early and had left by the time I arrived at 12:30. Or perhaps it was the smell that drove them away. I talked Tim into turning on the fan. The worst smell might have come from the A kittens. I replaced the dirty white sheet that "protects" the dreaded painting.

Angelo and Annabelle 

(who deny that anything was going on)

I decided to spend time with the shy cats.

Bonnie loved her pats especially if I stroked her with her small mouse.

Bonnie

Milly wasn't keen to be touched but was soft eyed and blinky. And she was very interested in what was going on with the other cats she could see with her doors open. Kit Kat and Maggie demanded, and got, extra food. I always thought that they were both girls. But KitKat is a boy. He has the straight line of white up his nose. Her line wobbles.

KItKat

Penny was keen. She looked heartbroken when I stopped. Olivia did not want to be touched. Or even looked at, thank you.

While I was stroking Candace, who loves it, Elsa managed to knock her food bowl from her ledge. It must have given her a surprise as well as everybody else. She was probably leaning forward watching me pet Candace. I fed the escapee crunchies to her sisters who appreciated them (having eaten their own HOURS ago). And gave Samantha a box which she immediately got into. Tim suggested that she might like it better than sitting in her litter tray. She is not easy to see in the box.

Samantha

Taylor seems settled in a condo away from Buffy (who loves her venison soft or crunchie). But Taylor hadn't eaten any of her crunchies. She ate them when I put them under her nose, one by one. But not out of the bowl. . . . cats!

Taylor

C kittens adopted

Somebody had put an expression of interest on one of Candace's kittens. When they were desexed she came to confirm her interest and ended up taking them both! They have such different personalities but I suppose she didn't realize that at Safe Haven. She will at home. I wonder if she will continue to call them Caleb and Cooper.

Two of the F girls have been desexed and look very fetching in their Elizabethan collars. I don't know why the other tortie wasn't done. Perhaps she is too light. The boys are both black but who know which is Franklin?

Buffy has been put on a special diet to try to control her dreadful skin/drool condition. Which meant that Taylor needed to be moved to a condo of her own. I carried her across with her towel to the (cleaned) condo where Bonnie was. I carefully put the hairy towel back into the condo with Buffy just in case she needs the smell of Taylor to keep her calm.
Taylor has a modesty cloth to hide behind. . . Buffy doesn't need one.

Taylor

Bonnie is now below Candice and the plan is to open the trapdoor between them so the sisters can be together.

Bonnie and her bear

A ginger colony cat was brought in by Clare. It is assumed that it is a he. He is around the back next to the D kitten condo. 

Clare's ginger

The remaining two D's, Diana and Danielle have been moved to Charlie's condo. They were fairly shattered by being moved inside their square bed which is normally a flat bed.

Danielle and Diana

I noticed that apart from Peanut and his downstairs mate Sootie who is behind modesty cloths because he is so unsettled that he is not using his litter tray (perhaps he need some dirt). . . . that all the cats in that adoption area are female. 

We have no borders and it is all clean. Storm has moved back to the palace.

PS Tim had the day off. He has Freda and Ginger at home with him. Freda is not well.

Storm moved

Storm in Boarding Row

He has had to vacate the palace condo because we have a family of boarders there until Saturday afternoon. There are 7 of them, tabbies, all the same family which curious names.

I have often thought that we should trawl other languages to get names for kittens. I think these cat's people are Cambodian or similar from their accents. 

Our new Sootie has lost his modesty cloth. He is a friendly old boy (11yrs old) with an interesting history. He was owned by some folk who didn't make too big an effort when he disappeared 8 years ago. He moved in with another family in the neighbourhood. But when they had to move they couldn't take him so he ended up and the vets who found his original owners via his microchip. They didn't want him back again so he is with us.

He didn't eat anything for the first three days. Until it was discovered that he only eats BBQ chicken. On day 4 he ate LOTS of chicken. He had rejected everything that was tried from our considerable store. Just chicken. So those folk who kept him for 8 years spoiled him, somewhat.

Sootie

There are only 4 A kittens left: Archie was adopted. Candace was desexed and looks beautiful in her Eliz collar.

Cooper and Caleb were desexed too. They are crazy cats.

Fred and Ginger have lost weight. They are not well so are still with us. As is Bailey.

Still with us

I got to Safe Haven early-ish because the tennis group folded early because we were one person short, one person with a bad back, one person with a chest infection. Enough already, we said after 2 sets.

So Sandy and Joan were just finishing up and Tim had taken cats to the vet:
         Kit Kat (or Maggie) was checked out to be better than expected.
         Buffy is on antibiotics. Her skin is looking better.
         The D kittens are still off their food. But obviously not REALLY sick.

Sandy and Joan were worried about Freda who is off her food too. She was due to be picked up by her foster-to-adopt person. Her bum was a bit red and sore looking. But she ate her lunch (when Tim got back) and was still passing formed stools. So perhaps it is just a reaction to having been vaccinated on Tuesday.

The family who is to foster to adopt Ginger plus Freda came. The mother loves cats and had them as a child. The husband doesn't know cats so is worried about hairs on everything. The two little girls are just thrilled with the idea of having a kitten. They are about 5 and 7 so if Ginger and Fred go home with them, we will never see them again!

While Freda was having her lunch (she ate well and he polished everything off), Bailey performed fabulously for them. He let them pat, brush and love on him. Personally, I think that he would be a better match for the family but having F & G in a foster home would be better for TIm. They went away, catless with instructions to call on Sunday to see how Freda is and whether she is well enough to leave Safe Haven.

Bailey

My friend Gina was supposed to visit but she couldn't get a taxi in time. I will pick her up at home next week on my way! I think Bailey will be perfect for her too.

I spent time organising stuff.

I put labels on the wheely cages. Tim remembered where the blue labels were so I added them, later.

Angelo inspects the label

And I spent time socializing:

        Blossom: she is much more relaxed since her thyroid is appropriately medicated.

Blossom

Bonnie: who is off her food. She managed to eat two dental crunchies and some mouthfuls of breakfast wet food.

 Bonnie

Candace: who, if you give her enough time, really likes to be patted, stroked and generally loved on. She, and Bonnie, will be desexed next week. Tim and Chris (the vet) hope that the assigned day will be a good one for them because they both still are flu-filled. Candace's purr is deep and rumbly. She wouldn't pass a Corona virus test!

Candace

Big bags

Food was delivered today including a 20Kg bag of kitten chow. I asked Tim if he expected a lot more kittens. He replied that he expected the kittens to eat a lot more.

I had a Sunday volunteer to help clean up so we were finished by 1pm. Thank you. The litters are all in wheely cages except Diana and Danielle one of whom is not well. She isn't eating despite being tempted with every variety of food that we have. I just hope that Dale (adopted on Saturday) is OK. So it is easier to clean them. We will have to remember to disinfect their carry cages and shift them to the top for storage. . . . we need the floor room with the big bags of food!

Five F kittens fit on one square hammock.

 F kittens

The M kittens who are left are Madonna and Mozart. As I was getting out of the lift a mother and cute blond daughter arrived carrying an empty cat carrier. I assumed they were for us so asked them where they were going and escorted them up in the lift. They had come to adopt Madonna. So by this time it will be just Mozart left!

Caleb and Cooper are not on the cleaning list so get missed. Evie is not on the list either because we have run out of bandaids. She behaved perfectly for me. I bribed her into good behaviour by introducing a stratchy pole. She just needs to be distracted.

Bonnie has been upgraded to a Palace condo. She is overwhelmed. Perhaps Candace, across the way is giving her the evil eye.

Bonnie

I tried to unsquash Penny's ping pong balls but saw that she had bitten them, probably when trying to carry them around.  I got her some soft balls to carry around and her story came out. She was spotted by an animal worker being kicked by a man. The animal worker rescued her and took her to the vet who realized she was near her time and when she was put under her kittens were stillborn. So I got her a soft toy. Unfortunately it is a pink and purple bear with big, stick-on eyes. . . . perhaps that will transition her from her need to carry baby cats to a desire to rip a bear to bits.

Penny

 I took a photo of Bailey because my friend might come visit him on Friday (xxxxxx fingers).

Bailey

The other big bag was all the washing from the adoption day at Petstock. Mostly sheets to cover the wheely cages. My neighbour has started working at the local Red Cross and has claimed all the cat sized cloths for me. I may just substitute new for old and bin the dirties.

Another whisker

While I was giving Blossom some attention this afternoon I noticed that she has a short whisker on her jaw bone, below her ear. She has one on each side which match. I had not noticed these back whiskers before. Tim hadn't noticed them either. Then he looked at other cats and some have them and others don't.
Caramel doesn't have them.
Candace has very visible white ones. (I gave her a corrugated scratchy pole for something to do). And I stood beside Evie and unravelled the feather toys to entertain her.)

Candace

I gave Samantha a scratchy pole. She was not impressed.

Samantha

Buffy's skin is looking much better and less itchy. The hair is growing back on the shaved areas.

Buffy.

 I decided that the tiny kittens should be called Fred(a) and Ginger as they play footsies. Tim says that they hope to have a naming competition for them as a fund raiser, if they can figure out how to do it.
I washed their feet which were much better than on Wednesday. Apart from a footprint on the back of Ginger's neck, he was quite clean and excessively wiggly. Freda's feet were the usual skate board of hardened poo. But she purred loudly while I soaked her feet and picked turds from between her toenails. They were rewarded by food. No wonder their tummy's are so round.

Ginger and Freda

Sooty Shoots Through

When I arrived from picking up 20 bags of litter from Arundel Park, all was under control at Safe Haven. Dishes were washed, floors swept, last few condos to be done by the four volunteers. And the family of two adult men and one boy who stayed for HOURS to play with one kitten at a time had finally left. Then Joan got to Sooty to clean. She opened the door a crack and Sooty shot over her head, through the air to the other side of the room and hid behind the block of condo's next to the giant climbing tree. 

Other cats have hidden there. We have an established technique that involves a broom, a blanket and the magic gauntlets. All primed, Sooty was encouraged out from behind the condos. But instead of coming into the open, she opted for climbing up the "art work" behind the climbing tree. She only got half way up, hung there for a while then dropped to the ground. She was grabbed by Tim's gauntlets and hustled back into her condo. On the way she managed to bite through the leather but didn't break any flesh. Those gauntlets will be washed/bleached/F10'd.

So now, Sooty knows that her condo is a safe place and that "out there" is fraught with brooms, unscalable heights, shivering blankets and squeezing blue hands.

After we caught our breath. . . . all was peaceful again. As I had been to Arundel Park I didn't have any grass to distribute. I don't think Charlie will ever forgive me.

Charlie

Candice's kittens are much better. They are eating well but unfortunately being eaten by fleas. They have been treated and the fleas are in a death frenzy and driving them mad. I decided the black and white one with half a moustache should be called Cemi (because it has to start with C rather than S). But Tim's Mum has names for them already.

C kittens

 Candice's sister Bonnie looks younger and younger. She is definitely not pregnant any more.

Bonnie

Candace has decided that she likes to be patted. Her purr is amazing. . . . probably because her lungs are still full of flu so the reverberations are legend. 

Candace with two hands patting

 I spent some time with Blossom who seems much happier in her bottom, small condo. She has put on 250gm since the last weigh in. I gave her a soft bed because she has old bones. She will have another thyroid test next Tuesday.

Blossom

Spit and polish

I did go to SH last Friday but the camera was out of battery so I didn't blog. The situation is the same today. We are in emergency clean up and sterilise mode. Wesley and Winston (the two strays who came in with their sister Tammy) developed feline panleucopenia  which demonstrates that they had never been vaccinated against this virus. They died despite Tim's efforts. Tammy is still OK. She doesn't have any symptoms yet. But we have lots of other cats who haven't yet been vaccinated, including all the kittens.

So very strict protocols have been introduced including new gloves for every condo, bleach for wiping down condos, chuck the Chux, F10 the worker between each cat, no unnecessary handling of the cats, not cats playing around the place, bleach swabbing of floors. It should only have to be this strict for two weeks until all possibility of lingering viruses are eliminated. Then we can get back to normal.

Today there were lots of volunteers which made the work get done in time for Tim to have a couple of hours off in the middle of the day early afternoon.

The boarders are all well (so far). There are some gorgeous cats.

Poor Jimmy couldn't go for his usual wander.

Jimmy

And Kimmy was not pleased not to get her usual cuddles.

Kimmy

Candace is looking better and she can breathe through her nose  at last. Her two surviving kittens are doing well.

Candace

Penny hadn't eaten anything for 2 days but managed to scoff her breakfast today.

Penny

And Eve wants out.

Eve