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

Bumper weekend

After Socks on Friday, Dallas, Danielle, Pepsi, Sparky and Sunny were all adopted on Saturday. That left Douglas to be adopted on Sunday. Sparky is the brother of Socks. That litter hasn't been listed as available yet. I dropped by the four carriers that I picked up from Pittwater Animal Hospital last Friday today, as I was passing by. It seems that the ring worm quarantine kittens are now out of quaranteen so will be available for next weekend!

Tomorrow will be a beaut

People keep ringing or emailing about adopting this or the other kitten and making a date to come tomorrow. Tim will be busy. I pottered happily on my "animal behaviour" duties this afternoon. I cleaned empty carriers, refilled empty spray bottles, fed the littles, handed out cooked chook. Then my lovely Chinese couple who want a companion for Salt arrived. They had a good cuddle with Douglas who was relaxed in their arms. We almost got his paperwork out when I remembered that she wanted a fluffy kitten. When they were at Safe on Wednesday, Skylar's fluffy brothers were at the vet being desexed. (She was sent back, unfixed because she was less than 1Kg in weight. Long haired kittens put more energy into growing hair than putting on weight). I mentioned these boys. They looked. She fell in love. We then had to figure out who was boy and who was Skylar which wasn't very difficult because the boys had shaved nether regions and she didn't. They chose Socks whom we only identified by his michrochip number.

Instead of bits of BBQ'd chook I had given them cat milk earlier which they had all enjoyed.

The adoption was done. I hope Salt enjoys his new brother. While I was busy cuddling kittens with them (such a hard job!) Tim dealt with a bloke who wanted an older long haired cat also. I think he wants a pedigreed cat at our price! There are new cats including Sabrina, Oscar, Luna (another one!) and Rosie (yet, another one) who seem quite tame. They are where Tara was. Tara is doing well. She ate the meat that was bought especially for her.

The three big kittens under Gracie (the grouch) are quite shy. They wouldn't each chicken but did lap a littl milk. Cooper and Chloe are the grey tuxedos and Lily is the tabby. But should she be called Cily instead? Her stripes are very dramatic in good light.

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.

No phone peacefullness

I was all organised for a busy morning with lots of vollies but it turned out quiet. The main reason for the quiet was that the phone wasn't working properly and the internet wasn't working at all. Irene spent ages trying to sort out the phones. Occasionally a call would come through. It was very strange. And quietly un-stressy. Sandy didn't come. I didn't think to check my phone until I was driving home. There will probably be a load of "sorry" messages when it is all working again. But Catsie dropped by and was put to work washing up and meeting cats. She distracted Sesame while I Gumptioned her condo. That cat has the filthy-est paws and the flirty-est manner. Even Lily was delighted to meet Catsie.

One of Rosie's six newborns died this morning . . . a ginger male. I took him next door and Dr Kim could only count 3 heart beats. Later she took time out beside her litter box and I got a photo of her pile of kittens snuggled up on a heat pad.

I was worried about Belle because she didn't eat her breakfast until dinner time. Then she ate her dinner as well and wanted a look around.

Suki threw up her dinner last night so had to have a complete redecoration of her condo. It was probably a hair ball. I took a flicker to her and got a pile of hair as tall as her.

Daphne is doing really well as are her kittens. On Wednesday I had to encourage the boys to eat and the girl ate happily. Today, the boys gobbled down everything and until her nose cleared in the afternoon, the girl had to be helped to eat. After that it was a matter of keeping the boys away from her food until she had time to eat it. [Suggested names: Dianthus, Douglas (fir) and Dandelion]

The nice couple who adopted Salt dropped by at 4.10pm after their appointment with Dr Kim to tell us how well he is doing, how much they love him and how happy they are to have got him from us.