Rita report plus

Irene heard from the folk who adopted Rita. They say that she is the BEST cat that they have ever introduced into the family. She leans into any hand that is stretched out to love her. May they be happy together foreever. Elona has come back. I think we/the cat got in the middle of a perennial mother/daughter tussle. Elona was very happy to get some chicken this afternoon and happy to be patted. (She might not have been given breakfast before she was returned which may explain her eagerness for food. But I prefer to think that she is happy to be back with us.) And Lane, one of Luna's kittens was returned.

For him, the timing was perfect. One of our Friday volunteers adopted another of Luna's kittens. She has loved being woken up at 6am with an invitation to play footsies under the doona. (She is under the doona and the kitten is on top of it). Today she realised that what her kitten needed was a brother to play with. So Lane's feet hardly touched the condo floor before he was whisked away to PLAY. Someone has booked the Palace for Easter. So I had to move Dobby back into the condo that he shared with his mum and clean (the snot off) the Palace.

His nasal congestion has improved since he has been there. It will be interesting to see if it returns when he doesn't have so much airflow. I replaced the large scratchy pole there with another from on top of the condos. It is called a "Bono Fido". Doesn't that mean "Good Dog". What a strange name for a cat scratchy pole company.

Sapphire is booked in to be desexed on Monday. I imagine the person who is keen to adopt her and Tiny Tim will be in on Tuesday to take them home.

Joy and Vi dropped by to check on Billy and she took this photo of TT and S which was much better than mine. They were more focused on chicken when I tried to photograph them. I had lovely, fresh BBQ chicken to share. Everybody went wild. Petey mistook my finger for chicken and bit me. This is Tim's finger who demonstrate how much Petey loves him, and the probably not ring worm lesion on his face.

We had a delivery of "free" food today so Irene took off the slightly out of date kitten kibble for the woman who feeds a cat colony. It will be better for them than cold noodles.

Continuous visitors and enquires

Before we had finished cleaning up a woman arrived to check out Floyd. But on further chat she indicated that she would prefer a pair. So after lots of cuddling she chose a boy and girl from the N kittens who got 50 kisses each a day from their fosterer. . . . . Nancy and Nigel will continue with their luxury lifestyle. Poor Nero is left behind to be handed to any visitor who wants to cuddle a kitten. By the end of the day even he had had enough cuddles. Then somebody came to see if we had any kittens. I showed her the availables and she chose the grey tabby. . . either Charles or Christopher who are not available. She will keep her eye on our website. Another woman came to check out Elona who was having none of this being looked at business. She stuck firmly to the inside of her igloo. In the meantime, Nero got cuddled, Luna performed beautifully, I got the history of her previous cat who was adopted from Ingleside AWL 8 years ago. The cat's name was Calico. . . we did have a few of those. . . . She was incompletely desexed so kept coming into heat. She was a stress eater because of problems before AWL days. So she developed diabetes. She didn't like to sit on her person's lap unless there was a cushion there ready for her. She was a much loved cat. This woman brought in her son because he is a good cat picker. He cuddled Nero. In the meantime, she enquired about the birth dates of all the available, and unavailable cats. She liked Octavia. And Lily. She will return. One of my jobs for the day was to find out the sex of each of Silky's kittens who now live in the play place. Silky is in glorious isolation below Windsor. She gets to eat all the food all by herself. I sat with her kittens and played with them. They were not enthusiastic.

Being their mother's children, the only time I could try to determine their sex was when they were lined up with their heads in their food bowls. I quickly lifted their tails and made a guess. . . boy, girl, boy, girl. Four little kittens were dropped off yesterday. They were lively this morning but by the afternoon they were not happy. Could be worms. Could be they miss their mum.

Hera the hero

Yesterday I picked up a carload of litter from way out west and delivered it to Safe Haven in time to chat to Liz and Cass. They were fighting over the right to cuddle Tiny Tim. Cass lost because she had cleaned the ring wormers. Liz had a lovely cuddle. Tim (the big) told me that Gracie's kittens have ringworm. They were in their own, tight quarantine area around their condo. He was worried about how to move them somewhere else when nobody could be moved because everywhere was full. This morning I arrived to find that Hera was adopted yesterday. Lucky adoptees! Lucky us. We had a spare wheely cage. So I cleaned and reorganised so that now we have an expanded quarantine corner with better access to the scales and fogger shelf. With Rod's help I moved the humungous scratchy pole out into the foyer so that there is room to move in the Rita/Gracie quarantine quarters. A couple came to find a replacement for a cranky, unpillable cat to go with their lovely lady cat. He really liked Mia. But Mia and Bella are billed as a pair.

Another pair of young women came to look at one of Mini/RubyG's long gone greys. They rather liked Mini/RubyG.

And liked Elona except that she hides.

And REALLY liked Luna who cuddled up to both of them and is so small and sweet. But is not on the website yet.

The folk who fostered Zelda and her kittens brought in the pair that they adopted to board today. They couldn't resist spending some time (quite some time) with Zelda who loved their attention. They said that they felt angst every time that they read that one of Zelda's kittens was adopted by another family. They wanted to keep them all for themselves.

New Years specials

It is almost as though we have a sale on and cats are going "out the door". Primrose and Patchy were picked up today by a young couple who paid for them a couple of days ago but had to get all their gear ready. Diamond was adopted. Hurrah. Robyn took home Isabella who still hasn't had her kittens. She might have had them in the car on the way home she looked so full of kittens when she went into the carry cage.

Robyn is thrilled at the prospect of being a foster parent. I forgot to tell her to give Isabella some newspaper to shred into a nest. It didn't often work at Peggy's but sometimes it brought on the litter. Irene also has a mum at home who had had four kittens by the time she dragged herself away to come volunteer at Safe Haven. We expect to get lots of Zelda's kitten sized kittens back from them both in 3 months time. My purpose this afternoon was to get decent photos of Dolly, Elona and Elliot for the website. Dolly eventually obliged, after numerous photobombs by Dobby.

But Elona was not going to smile. (And look at that odd shaving on her leg).

And Elliot would not stand or sit still. See how beautifully in focus the scratchy pole is!

Because Diamond was gone, I convinced Tim to let me move Mia and Belle into her wheely cage. They didn't like the move and hid in the igloo that Mia arrived in. But their heads came out at dinner time.

Wretched man

Didn't come back to adopt Ollie! His loss, of course. Somebody else's gain, eventually. The man who adopted Patchy's PJ and Primrose returned our carrier. When he adopted them he brought a brand new, cloth type carrier and they absolutely freaked out. There was NO WAY they were going to go into that carrier. Makes you wonder what happened to them before they arrived at Safe Haven. They have settled down beautifully with the man and his family. He bought a scratchy pole for them and we gave them two of the free, cardboard house thingies. He said that his wife is keen to get another cat, already!

A young woman arrived with a large amount of almost/just expired kitten food. She has intriguing tattoos and studs in amazing places BUT the kittens let her trim their nails. Even Mini/RubyG let her cuddle her and trim those ferocious nails. All were accomodating except Mini/RubyG's hissy kitten. S/he would not be mauled. S/he escaped and ran in circles until we corraled him/her back into Mum's condo. Because of more food, I was appointed the arranger of the food. On the top shelf: the adult food is on the left, the big kittens in the middle and the 2-4 month kittens food is on the right. On the next shelf is the Baby cat (never enough) and the surplus special diet food. How long will that organisation last? Perhaps until next Wednesday. I took a Xmas photo for next year's calendar:

Cute enough? There have been movements. Dobby and Dolly are in the condo bank between the desk and the front door. Dolly does not look pleased.

Elona, Elliot and Ezra (with a white spot on his nose) have been moved to the main floor. The kittens had a fabulous time in the play place this afternoon. They should be adopted this weekend. If the Northern Beaches are shut down, there will be a rush for our kittens and cats!

And the wild mum plus 1 have moved out of boarding so that the boarders can fit. Need space for Sultan the Magnificant.

Its raining kittens

There were four more this afternoon" two sets of pairs. I think they are to go to foster homes. Below the hissy pair:

Are is pair of tiny's"

And next to them below the crazy quartet are another pair who will be picked up by Sara:

Gracie's five are coming on quickly. The fluffy dark tabby had only one eye open until we bathed the stuck eye.

Elona was out with her two. I still don't know if they are a boy and a girl so that they can be named after the Keoride buses called Emma and Eamon I saw on my drive home after they were born.

I tried to get a good photo of Mia's Bella but they were focused on getting pats and treats and I couldn't get a good shot of Bella's super long, thin tail which has a curl on the end like a monkey's tail.

Rita deflated

She has had five kittens so is much slimmer now. And looks a bit shocked.

Mimi's kitten has been named Macy.

Mia has a grown up kitten, Bella, a dark tortie, added to her condo. She is more confident than Mia who stays in her igloo (except when chicken necks are offered. She pockes her head out then!)

Elona's kittens are getting big but she keeps them very close.

Gracie's five are doing well. Last week they were in two clumps now they are all together.

Joy got a photo of Silky with her five.

Another cat arrived whom I didn't meet. And Lizzie was adopted today. Just Laurie, the last of Lily's litter, waits to be picked up on Friday. I gave him a small toy to play with because he had lost his sister and he crowed as though he had just killed it.

Toby not well

Last week Toby was telling us all to give him more food and more cuddles. This week he hasn't eaten anything for three days despite being offered freshly opened exotic cans and even warmed up delicious bits. I don't think he has Angelique's bug. . . it should be long gone. But he is depressed. Notice his downturned whiskers even when he was let out for a stroll. He will go to the vet tomorrow.

Lillie hadn't eaten all her crunchies by lunch time but she grazes through the afternoon usually.

Ashleigh and Angelique will go to the vet tomorrow too -- to be desexed.

Lily's kittens are big enough to be desexed but there may be suspicious lesions on an ear so they are confined to condos. She needs more food before she can be desexed, she says.

There is a new mum and 2 kittens next to Star. She was nameless until Alison came up with the name Elona. It is from the latest Sherlock Holmes show, it seems. I took a "thrust in the camera and press the shutter" photo just for the record. Her kittens are probably all black.