Frantic Friday

 One result is this:

The remaining three ABBA kittens were adopted today. Agnetha and Bjorn went to an enthusiastic teenager and her parents first. They were torn between them and Pumpkin and Midnight but Bjorn had called to the daughter over the www. 

Later a family came to find a kitten to replace their dark tortie who died not so long ago. Amber looked too much like their previous cat and they wanted somebody to go with their 8 year old boy cat. So they chose Freda who was looking very sorry for herself with her siblings gone.

Alongside these adoptions there was a superfluity of vollies and trainees, folk coming with donations of such generosity that they deserved a conducted tour around all the cats, folk coming to pick up their boarding cats who were more, or less, eager to go home. Tilly/ Daphne didn't really want to go but she will be back. Fosterers came in with kittens to be vaccinated including the fosterer of Sushi and her litter. Sushi is in the small stand alone. She is very sweet and a little shy.

Sushi

Her remaining two kittens are in the stand alone beside the trolley.

Tofu

Pork Bun

Lots of cats got to wander around enjoying the visitors. Max got time in the play place (as all boarders who paid for time have had it.) He is happy to be carried there by Katie.

Max

I didn't get to eat my lunch until 3 - 3:30. At which time I decided that it was too late to hand out the chicken. But Rosanna was so horrified at the idea that the cats would go without their Friday chicken that she offered to stay late to share it out. And Katie wanted some for the Incoming cats too. I got away just as Tim came back from the vets with Coco (check up), Cleo (desex) and somebody else. Opey was let out in the hope that Tim will get him back into his stand alone when he came back from the vets. As I left Opey's expression dared me to walk past him.

Opey is all bluff

 

Timless Friday

 He had a day off today. Friday is a good day to choose. The training of a new batch of volunteers always adds an element of chaos to the morning. But all the washing up was done by 12:30 this morning. (And overflowed to the floor again).

It was a busy afternoon with visitors.
The first batch arrived to look at kittens because Santa had left all kinds of kitten gear while they were away on Christmas Day. Slight complication is that the daughter has displayed allergy to cats. But she says that it was just certain cats that make her sneeze which is why they had to come to test our kittens. I sat her down with a Cleo kitten and her younger brother with the other (which they kept swapping) for 10 minutes. She should have been sneezing if she was allergic. But she didn't with either of them. And Mum fell in love with the calico. Then I sprayed her hands with F10 and she sneezed. She didn't sneeze at Earl but did sneeze at Midnight and the F10 lotion. So they went away to talk to dad.

Then a mother and her son came to donate us cat stuff. I didn't ask the details but think that their cat had recently died because of what she gave us. They has a short look about.

Then a prize winner came to pick up her raffle loot. She volunteered with us when she was let go when Covid struck. She gave us up when she got another real job and then got her old job back. She was very pleased to meet the new cats and did recognise Stella who has been with us for way too long. I mentioned that we are always looking for foster homes for our long term residents.

All these visitors were a fine audience for Ginger George who strolled around and introduced himself to everybody (in the hopes of more treats). Later Phantom had a lovely roll in some cat nip. He is moving better and his movements are more solid now that he is on ZD.

Even Tabby is surer footed. Perhaps the antibiotics that she is on for her tummy wound is good for her balance?

Lucky was the Top Cat and hypnotized me into feeding her a tube of treats. We left her there overnight and opened Nada's door in the hope that they will not tear each other to pieces overnight. They may as well be friends as they are both on weight reduction crunchies and their condos have a connecting hatch. (Remember when Diego used to force open the flap and end up with Nada overnight?)

Nada + Lucky = ?

Daisy came back to board after her people took her home for the night on Wednesday.

Daisy

Our Daphne (their Tilly) is back in boarding and has settled down quickly.

Daphne/Tilly

Joy worked the morning shift in Incoming and was happy to get more photos of Jasmine's smallest kitten who is doing much better now. He eats everything and his tail is a curly as a piglet's.

Jasmine's piggy

There are ringwormy kittens in Incoming so vollies who work there cannot linger elsewhere after their shift. I don't know if these are they as Joy took the photo.

Thank You Helen

 I slept in this morning and arrived at Safe a little late. But, thank goodness, Helen had taken home all the poo bags yesterday so I didn't have any to schlep down to the bins. I could get straight on to feeding our 62 cats plus four boarders. There will be many more boarders next week. But our Daphne (now Tilly) goes home tomorrow. She was really happy to see me today having got over her disgust at being sent back to lock up land last Friday.

Daphne/Tilly

Yin had tossed all his bedding into his litter tray which was in his tall space. So I tossed the blankets onto the upper shelf to get it out of the way of his breakfast. Later I found him wrapped up in his blankies.

Yin

I put the red and black spotted rug thing in his sleeping room because it might be more difficult for him to dig it out of there and into the litter tray. Later he went into that space and I removed the dirty blankets. Cats have strange ways of relating to two leggeds.

I demonstrated the erection procedure of the Top Cat play place to Terry who came by with a load of litter. (If the person who overfills the litter trays on Tuesday will stop doing that, the litter will last much longer). So now he knows how to do it.

Kiki enjoyed it. But later when we moved it, Diego escaped through the gap at the bottom.

Kiki kinda likes it

Kiki preferred being in the proper play place. A couple of blokes came to find a friend for their ginger, 1-2 year old boy. They rather fancied Duke on line. (What's not to like!) But I thought that two bossy boys was not such a good idea (especially in view of the nasty pee smell that came with Duke and Bowie when they arrived) and suggested that a female cat would rule the roost and everything would smell sweet. So they looked at all our single girls. Couldn't decide between Courtney and Kiki. I put them in the play place with each, successively, for a good while. .   for them to get to know each other. They went off for a cup of coffee and a talk. They came back and chose Courtney. 

Courtney's new best blokes

Enzo and Cleo are in Truffle's stand alone. The daughter of the house is doing her HSC and doesn't need the distraction. But said daughter and sister arrived to have a kitty cuddle today. I put them all in the play place. (I had a struggle getting the kittens out of the high-rise-hidey-hole when they left).

Enzo and Cleo's girlfriends

Later their mum and brother arrived to have their cuddle and discuss other cats that need to be rescued. 

And another woman came in to see one of the Supermodels. She will return on Saturday, perhaps, when she makes up her mind about her first ever cat.

Head to head super models

Luckily, Ann baked a banana cake this morning and brought it with her. Thank you, Ann. There are left overs.

Nada doesn't need cake. She has been on weight reduction crunchies for ages. It is not working.

Nada

And a fortuitous kitten photo. (Thanks Robyn)

Cleo plus 4

Still raining

 The rain caused traffic havoc that delayed two vollies and stopped another vollie's car from starting. It also kept away the person who was going to come to choose an older cat. But the bloke who adopted Max dropped by with his paperwork (rather damp. . . both him and the paperwork). He said that he and Max were getting on very well. Max was leaning against his leg and purring so he put his hand down to give Max a pat on the head and chomp. He ended up in hospital on IV antibiotics. He didn't see any cats that he fancied today. . .. . once bitten, etc.

But Max has gone to Katie's for a break. Juliet has moved into the Palace to await her Romeo. She may be moved to Jackie's condo if we can persuade a nice person to foster her for a while to see if she gets better in a home. She cries a lot in the cattery. And there is no room in Boarding for Juliette. It is fully booked for the school holidays. Luigi and Bambi are coming in. And Daphne (now known as Tilly) is in residence. She seemed very pleased to see us.

Daphne/Tilly

Ginger was in the play place when I arrived. He was very chatty. Just like he is in his condo. His ringworm treatment is finished and he has been declared cured.

We put a couple of the boarders in for a play, not together. Tip loved it. (He has a white tip on his tail). Mayka and Daphne/Tilly were not thrilled.

Tip

Sunny refused it. Or maybe it was the gloves.

Sunny

At the end of the day we wheeled in the Coffee shop kittens and they settled right in. By tomorrow morning they will be all played out.

The best thing to happen was that Vicki scrubbed the snot off the inside of Star's stand alone. You can now see the kittens without opening the door (which risks an escapee kitten, usually the ginger.)

Star and her kittens

And we had a rainbow array of scoops.

Gifts from everywhere

Instead of counting cats when I arrived, I took the 18 bags of rubbish out to the garbage bins before the garbos arrived. Success! Then I counted 77 cats and 1 rabbit. Coco is back. I had buried the rabbit hutch so deeply in the store room so that she wouldn't be a foster fail but she did not get on with the other rabbit in the house so is back with us. 

Coco

Yesterday when Tim was feeding the naughties next door, Max or Gus came out of his condo and stropped against Tim's leg and generally made a fuss over him. While he was wending his way around Tim, tail raised, Tim had a good look and discovered that he is a she! We thought the white one was one of the boys! According to the bloke who surrendered them to us and just happened to phone today to find out how they are getting on, she was always friendly. So, she is now in Willow's condo.

Willow

And the tabby who we have called Willow for months is back with his brother. Neither seem too happy about it. Both are hiding.

?Max

Frankie was posted on the website last night so I had an early call for him from a mother of 3 boys who has put off getting a kitten until she got all the windows in her house screened. She wants an indoor cat. She came early with her 6 year old to meet Frankie. It was love at first sight.

But she wasn't my first visitor. A young woman and her mother arrived to find a cat for her. She asked which of the available cats had been with us the longest. I like people who ask that. She took her time and eventually decided that Tori would be best for her apartment. She liked Mr Magoo but he would have wanted to go out. And Maple was a bit stroppy. So she took Tori who was quite difficult to get into her cat carrier.

In the meantime the kid decided that Frankie was the one and I couldn't find the paperwork. I phoned Tim to ask where it could be. They decided to come back tomorrow. Just as they were walking out the door Tim phoned back with the info and I unearthed the paperwork. They took Frankie home. Small boy and small cat had very happy faces.

Later the woman arrived who had received the gift voucher that I wasn't able to process before Christmas because I had no idea how to do it and the gift voucher giver wanted it TODAY. But evidently it was done because there it was on her phone. Neither did I know how to spend it for her. But we managed it and poor Tim will have to work out the details tomorrow.  

This woman grew up on a farm in New Zealand at the end of a track where people dumped their unwanted cats. She has grown up with cats. At one stage she had 8 cats of her own. She met everybody: both the ones available now and the ones who would be coming online soonish. But that voucher was burning a hole in her pocket. And she chose Maple!

But really it was Maple who chose her. Just as in the case of Tori and her new owner. I thought I would have a struggle to get Maple into a carrier. But I put a just bought carrier into Maple's condo. She walked into it. I shut the door. Magic!

And another woman arrived with a huge pile of mostly dog food to give to us. She has a group of friends who have decided to do something charitable. Another lady rang to ask what she could send us. I said litter trays, pooper scoopers, etc. She made an online order that will be delivered to us.

And Daphne is boarding. Her name is Tilly now. She looks quite plump.

Daphne

Adoption tails: Daphne

 Remember Daphne who had three lovely kittens Danielle, Douglas and Dallas back in February?

Daphne and family

 

They caught the flu and were the first into our quarantine room. But recovered and all were adopted happily. Daphne worked as the meet and greet cat in the first seen condo for a couple of months while she recovered. Then she was adopted by somebody who came in for Sprinkles but chose her instead.

Day 1 in her new home at the end of May:

Her new owner called to say that Daphne had climbed up the chimney overnight! Irene phoned her back to see if any progress had been made though the day. The food her owner had left out in Daphne's room had been eaten sometime between 1.30 and 3.30. Perhaps Daphne went back up the chimney after eating as there were sooty pawprints in the room and still no sign of Daphne in the room itself. Irene advised that she should be ready to block off the space at any moment as she may find that Daphne comes down at anytime, so should be ready. She also said Daphne will be more likely to come down at night when the kids have gone to bed, so hanging out for a little while in that room quietly may be a good strategy as well.
 

After 1 week:
Daphne is very happy in her room and interacting with the family. She seems curious about the dog when the dog is on the other side of the door. Daphne is near the door a lot so her owner will start to introduce her to the rest of the house.

After 1 month:
The cat/dog introduction went well and Daphne continues to explore the house more. She does love sitting on her owner's lap at nighttime

Quarantine rearranged

The condos from in front of the desk have been moved into the "front office" to be quarantine accomodation. The stand alones/wheely cages have been moved to their space. I understand that we will get more shelving for the For Sale carriers.

Marigold, Gracie and Bridie have been moved with their condos into quarantine even though they are not in quarantine. . . . confused? I cleaned the condos that had been occupied by Candy and Collette, Daphne (who was adopted by the person who came to met Sprinkles but fell for her instead) and Apricot. Next time I will bring my head torch with me to see the grubby bits clearly. It was a good thing that I cleaned them because Buttons, the smallest of Belle's kittens failed her desexing today. She has flu. Because they have all been in the same condo (above Ashleigh, out back) Terry and I decided that they should all go into quarantine to see who sneezes or not. Honey's kittens are getting more adventurous. One of them kept going downstairs, finding him/herself all alone and screamed. (I bet he is a boy).

Honey, being the perfect mum that she is, would go down to calm him/her.

leaving the sibling in the carry cage upstairs.

Eventually I got sick of the scraming and moved the carry cage and sibling downstairs and Honey followed. She can jump up to her litter tray from some peace and quiet. Another scream came from Coco and Mason's Palace. Mason said "It wasn't me. It was him" But the tuft of brown hair dangling from the side of his mouth tells another story.

An L of an Day

Two lots of cat schleppers: Terry arrived first, at 7:30am to take Daphne, Lillian and Skylar to Mona Vale Vets. Daphne was easy to pop into a carrier. Lily needed some coordination. Terry tried with the gauntlets while I held the carrier over the door to her bed chamber. She went into the darker space. And Skylar, who is one of Steph's latest litters, the one girl of a litter of 5 who had a collar. But she is fluffy and the collar was not easy to see in the scramble of hungry kittens. So we microchipped everybody and found her last of all. Then Tim arrived to take the rest of the boys to Pet O. Then Mona Vale vets rang to say that Skylar didn't weight 1Kg (should have used a heavier collar!) so wouldn't be desexed today. And thus it continued. Tim came back and showed around/entertained a pair of women from Pet Love. They raise money for good charities, I gather. We qualify. The vollies tried to work around them. We wouldn't wnat to get their pretty, high healed shoes dirty. Eventually a nice lady from Bayview came to replace her beloved cat who died quite some time ago. She had spotted Mixa on our website and wanted a boy cat. I showed her all the availables. She liked Marmalade, because he is a red head like she is. Then I introduced her to Lily and Lily liked her, curled around her hand, purred loud enough to hear across the room and generally acted like a bit of a slut. It worked. The nice lady changed her mind and took Lily. Hurrah! She is an experienced cat owner. I told her all about Lily's frustration at not getting her share while she had kittens. She stays at home, plays music and wants a loving cat companion. Purfect. I took this photo of Lily just before moving her into the carry cage to get out from behind bars forever.

A little later another older couple came in. They have always had cats. She is allergic to rats so wants somebody who will deal with them. He is happy if she is happy. They both rather fancied Peggy who would probably have been perfect for them. But, they chose Luna who was very affectionate with them. (Irene tells me that she was loving to the previous folk who adopted her but then hid for a month when they took her home). I hope that this couple will have lots of patience with her. Or that she will realise that she is being given a second life at a spoiled, comfortable life outside a cage. We have another Luna, whom I have dubbed Luna II (after the lander). She came with a group of 3 other large kittens but doesn't get on well with them. So she is where Starmoon was. (Incidently, Starmoon has been trapped by her owners). And we have a new big boy, called Sprinkles who was found with a colony but does not behave like an urban stray.

And a man surrendered the cats of his deceased parent. They are Caesar, Anthony and Cleopatra. They share the condo below Ebony, peacefully, at the moment. But I hope they can be moved to the palace when Coco and Mason go home.

The Mum of Mum+4 was given the name Kendra.

We promptly named her two boys and two girls. Let's see if those names stick.

The couple who adopted Salt came in to find a friend for him. He loves one of them more than the other except at 1am when he NEEDs somebody to play with NOW. She thinks that if there was another kitten around Salt would let her sleep. I suggested a girl kitten and showed her Danielle (Daphne's). Danielle played up splendidly, of course. She is such a loving handful. But they rather liked Douglas who sat, calmly against their chests and teared up. Of course, it might be that he still has a bit of flu and his calmness is lethargy and his tears of joy are gooey eyes. We decided that they should call Tim tomorrow to see what his advice is. They live locally so are happy to come back.

First the good news

Which is of Billy Bigmouth. His new owner Valda reports that he gives lots of kisses, no rough stuff and Sam and Billy sleep together on the sofa at nighttime.

Then the not so good news that Suki was very flat today. She had an ultrasound yesterday and has various shaved areas around her legs and tummy. All too much for an old girl.

Then the "Oh Really!" news. Yesterday I phoned Tim to get the running orders for today. He told me that he had Silky's boys booked in to be desexed but nobody had volunteered to get them to the vet. Irene was going to bring them home in the afternoon. We had a bit more discussion about them being off ringworm treatment so that they could be moved across the aisle in quarrantine to the flu section. I said it would be easier to change their wheely with just Silky's girl in residence. So I this morning, I decided I had time to get the boys to the vet as I had got to SH good and early and there weren't too many crap bags to schlepp out to the bins. I got them there before the Pet O shop opened. Good thing I knew that there is a back door to the vets. I arrived with three black kittens to be told that they were expecting two ginger boys. . . . . Daphne's boys. Bugger. I had already fed them so it wasn't a matter of going back to SH to swap them over. It all comes of not giving the kittens proper names as soon as possible so that we all know who we are talking about . . . I say! Meanwhile there were lots of volunteers. Even Catsie visited. I put her in the play place with Mia and Belle. Belle cooperated and played a bit. Mia just wants cuddles. We have a new "mum +4". And Mini is back in the cattery where Christopher was.

Buttons, the smallest of Belle's kittens is on a pill, twice a day. I tried to pill her but she has 20 very sharp reasons why I did not succeed. I crushed the spat out pill and mixed it with her breakfast and put her food and her into a carrier. She ate some of it. Come time for the afternoon pill, I did the same. She ate about a third of her dinner. Eventually I moved her and her dish back into the condo with the other two siblings. I stopped them from eating her food and encouraged her by adding a crunchie at a time to her wet/pilled food. Baxter was very happy to be patted. He purred and purred, not at all interested in the soft or hard food. Whereas Bonnie was just interested in eating her share of crunchies. I think the purring encouraged Buttons to eat almost all of her soft, pilled food. Success! Belle is putting on weight again.

At the end of the day all the cats curl up in their beds and wait for the lights to be turned off. Here is Freya, Celeste and Peggy who had had enough human entertainment for the day.

And the bad news is that Starmoon who was adopted on Sunday escaped from her new home. They will try to set a trap for her.