Lola went to the vet

 Tim is concerned that her tummy is swollen. We had been rather pleased that she has stopped throwing up daily. Bloods and fluids have been taken for testing.

Lola with a tummy

Roisin was on the list for adoption but today isn't because she too has a funny tummy. She has evidence of a particular bacterium that might cause sloppy poos. She had a visitor this afternoon. A woman brought in her nephew (about 5yo) to meet Henry because she really wants a ginger cat. Henry did not like the nephew at all. He hissed and fluffed up his tail. The kid has a big dog at home. Perhaps Henry could smell the dog? But the woman really preferred Roisin. She will be back when her card colour changes.

Roisin

Could have adopted Gimli to her if he was ours not a boarder. Gimli was grooming Tim just before I took this photo.

Two new friendly cats came into Incoming from a grateful cat rescuer who made a donation as well as buying a mug.

They may be mother and daughter. Cordelia is not yet 2

Cordelia of the splendid ear hairs

And Zoe is around 1yo. Both named by their rescuer.

Zoe

I did the adoption paperwork for a pair of kittens, Poppy and Meeka, who had been met while in their foster home. A dad came to make his two children very happy this Valentines Day.

Adoption Tails: Micky, Rainy, Henry, Fluff and Tango

 Micky 

Micky  at Safe

1 day: He’s settling in nicely. “Very gregarious and already keen to play and explore.” He’s eating and drinking but ignored the litter box in favour of a quiet corner of the room for a poo. They’ve moved the litter to that quiet corner and he managed to find it for a second poo earlier in the afternoon. He slept under the bed last night but is already coming out as soon as anyone goes into the room.

1 week: Micky’s still a bit shy about leaving the room but probably because there’s an exuberant puppy wanting him to play. “Micky doesn’t seem to bothered by him but at the moment not keen to play!”

 1 month: All is going very well. Micky is quite comfortable around the entire house and also with their dog. The next step is to explore outside but he seems pretty happy still inside.

Rainy, now Lizzie

Rainy at 6 days

6 days: “Rainy is doing very well. Very settled and very playful. My kids love her”. She is toileting and eating fine but they’ve realised she can be quite fussy with meals. They bought kitten Dine and she didn’t like it but she loved Purina kitten wet food.

3 weeks: Rainy has been renamed Lizzie. She’s doing very well and is part of the family now. She goes around the whole house and up and down the stairs like her own home. “She jumps around quite a bit too!” She is very attached to the owner’s daughter.

Rainy now Lizzie

5 weeks: “She is very good. Getting mischievous and pretends nothing happened… super cute!”

Henry

 

1 day: Henry is settling into his safe room at the moment, he's eating and drinking, quite a hungry boy. The owners are sticking to 1/8 cup of dry food 3x a day and 2tsp of wet food. He's using the litter tray. He'll be keeping his name. The owners will be going to NZ for 10 days in roughly 1 month, they are trying to see if they can get someone to house sit so that Henry doesn't feel displaced but may end up booking in some boarding with SAFE since he is familiar. They don't want Henry to feel like he's being returned. He has started to come out to eat and will even come up and purr for pats and things.

No 1 week response. 

1 month: Henry is fantastic now! He has opened up so much since the owners first brought him home.

Henry

Meatball, now Pippin

1 day: Meatball is doing well. He did not toilet until the second morning which was a relief for the owner. He is eating well, eating dry food slowly but loves the raw chicken. He also loves cuddles and be around people. Enjoying the cat bed and pet heated mat as well. They've decided to rename him Pippin from Lord of the Rings.

Meatball now Pippin

 1 week: Pippin is happy and playful. He loves to roam around the apartment. He has a big appetite and tends to inhale his food so the owners need to be careful not to overfeed.

 1 month: Pippin is happy, healthy and such a good eater. He plays with all his toys, climbs the cat tree and sleeps in the human bed at night. His ear yeast infection shows signs of returning so the owners will take him to the vet. Other than that, Pippin is loved and full of life.

Fluff, now Gatsby

 

1 day: Fluff has been renamed Gatsby and he’s settling in very well. “He plays with us, and even lets us pet him already”

1.5 weeks: He has been very confident. He has been playing around, jumping on every cupboard, biting all the plants and getting zoomies. “He’s loving life - he’s also eating, drinking & sleeping well. And enjoys his cuddles”

Fluff

1 month: no response

Tango, now Hanae

 

1 day: Tango was really scared for the first few hours but has since settled in well. She has been eating, drinking, toileting, and playing a lot. She hasn’t met the resident cat as they don’t seem happy to see her.

Tango day 1

1 week: Tango has settled into the unit very well. She runs around and plays a lot. “She seems to be very comfortable in the new environment.” The resident cat has not adjusted to Tango yet. Tango tries to get along with the resident cat who gets scared and runs away. Her owner thinks it will take longer for the resident cat to adjust to Tango. She had her 3-month vaccination this morning. She was a bit scared and the nurse needed to help but it all went well.

1 month: “I renamed her Hanae (which means flowers & smile). She is very active and loves playing with toys, running around a lot. She seems to be more comfortable now. My resident cat is not able to adjust yet but I can see her slow improvement. Hanae has brought a bright light to my life and now she is my loved family member”

Tango and resident cat

 

Neat day

 I got all the poo bags out into other peoples' bins early. Including the old ones that I had left behind the door last Friday. So today we have two empty Willoughby bins in the basement and two Cousins bins on the sidewalk. One is full with 30Kg of poo bags, etc. The other only has 17 Kg of trash in it. So can be added to before Friday afternoon.

Sue tackled the stuff that shouldn't be in the entry hall. I squeezed those cardboard boxes into the Cousin's bin which wasn't emptied on Friday. Then we tackled the teetering column of cat carriers in the Boarders Back Corner. They are up top now and the ridiculously large sifting litter trays (which must take all of a 15Kg bag of compressed sawdust litter) that were put in the working space in Better Row are now back where they used to be in the Boarders Back Corner. Some people will be unhappy. But more will be overjoyed at not having to negotiate piles of stuff all morning long.

Pickles and kittens are back in the play place. They were having such a lovely time, Sue and I decided to leave them there. Pickles is a great mum. She supervises and plays with her kittens.

The person who was going to adopt Angel, didn't. She (the kitten) is available again. Don't know what happened there.

Angel and Luke

They have new neighbours in the corner whose names I have forgotten.

And Talia above, whose condo mate (?Henry) was adopted. She is very pretty.

Talia

There was only one visiting couple today: a daughter who is trying to talk her dad into having a cat. He doesn't speak much English so it was hard for me to gauge how convincing his daughter was. She seemed to like any and all kittens. He seemed to like Dexter who behaved perfectly.

We moved Chilli's carry cage out of his condo and replaced it with an igloo shaped like a Xmas plum pudding. He seemed much happier! Who knew that cats like plum puds.

Chilli before the plum pud transfer

He has a new neighbour who must have been well loved because he came in a box labelled Tommy's Shed. I don't know his story but will try to find out.

Full again

We had a busy day today because there were not as many vollies as usual on a Friday. Even Geoff wasn't there as he was in Melbourne.

So I did the evening feed and the last thing check that everybody had water, etc. It was funny to see the cats all settled down for the night. They weren't expecting to see me again and had given up hope of a second serve of chicken.

Bassuria and Julie, photographed through the perspex, were relaxed.

Bassuria and Julie

Even Henry was in his igloo. He had a lovely time earlier running around with the low barrier only just keeping him constrained. He was helping Robyn make friends with Raven. (Raven wasn't having a bar of friendship but she did enjoy the Greenies)

Henry

Talking of igloos. I keep pushing Mickey's under the shelf and it keeps on sliding forward towards the perspex. Never see Mickey doing it. It must be magic. (Not the cat who is still hiding in her condo on Better Row and is still ? ringworm)

Mickey's Xmas igloo

Even Bissie in Incoming was "out".

Bissie

Lola was sound asleep in her stand alone. On Wednesday morning when I arrived early she was very pleased to see me because she had spent the night in Opie's room. She let me pat her before jumping into her stand alone to eat her last night's dinner's crunchies.

Lola on her shelf

We have Jacqui's two cats, Callie and Sootie. They are to go into the play place. Pickles and her kittens had a lovely time there this morning. Callie and Sootie did not enjoy the enclosure even after I added a hammock.

Sooty

Callie

And Freya had three kittens yesterday. One died overnight so she has two.

We also have Katie's cats filling up Boarding row. You will recognise several of them. So we are quite full, again.

A Terry kind of Wednesday

 I am a little late to post because I had to send Vicky the url of a really good anatomy podcast, https://www.instantanatomy.net/podcasts.html. If, like her, you need to learn anatomy to be able to teach pilates or some other such ambition, this is the podcast to do it. Run it on a loop while you sleep and it will percolate into your brain.

Today was busy, as usual. But busy with adoptions!

A mother and daughter came to adopt Rainy at about 11am. Seen her on the web, fell in love, had to have her! Done! But she is still with us because they have to get organised at home. Earlier in the day Vicky had thoroughly cuddled all of these kittens so they were primed to be adopted.

Rainy

Then around lunch time a family arrived. . .mum, dad, boy who needed to adopt Rainy, his sister and two friends of the sister who were sisters. And Rainy was adopted already. So they had a little cuddle with Micky and Henry and decided that Micky would do.

Micky

They took him home with lots of other stuff. While the decision was being made, the daughter's friends fell in love with PC. And he with them. Unfortunately they are a bit allergic to cats so don't think that their parents will cooperate.

Later in the afternoon, the woman who said that she would come back as soon as she had a door problem sorted, came back! With her son to help. And adopted Trixie and Roxy. How good is that! I put together the last carry cage on top of the enclosures and popped Trixie in without any problems. I expected to have trouble with Roxy but she allowed me to hold her firmly around her chest and front legs and to place her gently into the carrier with her daughter. Quelle relief. (Perhaps that is just what Roxie was saying. . . . . "What a relief to be leaving this place").

During all this I let out Charlie and Champ for a wander. Champ seems to be salivating excessively. And there was vomit in their condo. As well as left over breakfast crunchies. Perhaps he has a sore tooth.

dribbling Champ

Robyn took this photo after he met the delectable Molly. But I don't think that is why he was dribbling.

Molly

Now, if he had met Tinkerbelle, I might have expected some drooling. Her leg seems much improved and she is, as Joy says, a Purr Machine.

Tinkerbelle

Thanks for the photos Joy and Robyn. I didn't have time to take any today.

There is a pile of towels, sheets, pillowslips, bathmats, tea towels, adult sized bibs, etc, etc, in the foyer. They are not suitable for us to use for the cats: too big, too thick, too slippery, etc, etc. But they are good for people to use. So please take what takes your fancy. Or if nothing does, please take an armful to put into a charity bin near you. With all the floods we have had this summer, folk could well need some free bedding. Or some towels to clean up the mess.

Back to the old days

 I had wondered why Terry was not on with Fiona on Saturday. Today I learned that he had gone to a funeral. Because the funeral parlor lady and he got to talking and soon talked about cats. She has a very fussy, demanding British something-or-other who would not eat the very expensive, exclusive fresh meat that she bought for her. After chatting with Terry, she decided that we might like it. It is in the freezer beside the feeding station.

 She also had visited Peggy Brown's way back when and was glad to get news of her. Sandy filled me in with her latest news. A small ginger kitten found its way into her garden and made friends with her chickens. Peggy trapped it. Called the local vet. Told the nurse not to open the trap until they were in a locked room. The nurse didn't believe her and the kitten escaped. After 4 days the kitten turned up in Peggy's chicken coup again. Peggy has resigned herself to having a kitten. After just a few days, this snarling, frightened kitten accepts cuddles from her. (She has not lost her touch).

A man came in to buy a water fountain. He said he knew us from AWL Ingleside days. He fostered one of the legacy cats, Whiskey. I checked the old blog and there he was! (the cat, not the fosterer).

Lots of critters were adopted in the past week: Darcy and Figgie together, Kingsley (to the lady who came the previous week and couldn't choose between him, Maple and Mr Magoo), Tigger, Angelica, Celeste, Andy, Baby and Tux, Squirrel and Sunshine (although they haven't moved into their new home yet because stuff needs to be bought).

Amy much happier with just one kitten

And we have another Amelia with two kittens.

Amelia (#2) +2

And Augustus has moved into Kingsely's condo. If he is 7years old, I am 27!

Augustus

There are two little kittens in Incoming, Henry (black) and Cavill who are full of flu and shy.

Cavill and Henry

New faces

We may become the shelter for shy/stray cats if this week's new faces are anything to go by.

Behind complete blackout modesty cloths are Leopold and a pregnant mum. The mum is the one who should have come when Chevy arrived. He has gone to foster somewhere. But there are 2 kittens in semi-modesty, but without names:

"Kitten 4 months"

"Kitten 8 months"

Perhaps they could be called Quartro and Octavius.

Another of Harriet's kittens, Heidi, was adopted. One of the remaining boys has an EOI. They cuddled together on their smaller hammock. 

Henry, Harold, Haley

Bosely is back from his op and not feeling very well. Shumai was vet checked and has a heart murmur. Saxon is still having his water consumption monitored. He doesn't look like a nine year old.

Saxon

Nam is upset by his neighbour next door, Midnight who was surrendered for any number of reasons. She is only 1 or 2 and is loud. But the cat below who is a screecher is more upsetting to the cats, and to the gaunletted Tim. Didn't try for a photo of him/her or even to clean his/her litter tray

MidnightNam

Kimi is back from 12 months foster. She is still shy.

Kimi and Jo photographing Kimi. Tim wants better photos of Diva and Sienna for the website. Joy took hundreds by enticing them to play. (I replaced their old carry cage/bed with an identical one which is not hairy or wet (yet)/

Sienna and Diva

Should a collection of shy cats be called a blush of cats or a skitter of kitties?

Late yesterday afternoon Pepi was adopted. Hurrah.

RIP Chester

As I drove to Oz-Pet in the west I followed a car, for a while that had a cat escaping from it's boot.

When I arrived at Safe Haven, Chester was on his final journey. I will forever think of him as the car boot cat.

We named kittens. The last lot were G's and then there were Jaffa's. Jaffa's two grey kittens were adopted this afternoon by a mother and son who is a JJ. .. .appropriate. They got full instructions about how to tame nervous kittens.

.
The new mum of 5 kittens was named Harriet. She has been moved to the main room. Her kittens are
Henry: white and ginger
Harold: ginger and white
Heidi: calico
Horace: brown tabby and white
Haley: champagne ginger

Lucia's kittens are both boys:
Leonard with the shorter hair and Larry with the longer fluff who seems mostly to be outside the maternal carry cage while Leonard is inside with her.

Larry

Willow's kittens are:

Wendy: the grey tabby

William: the tabby and white

Wal-E: the black and white

Walter: the grey

Wal-E, Wendy, WIlliam

Walter

And Tessa's are 

Tommy: black

Toulouse: dark tabby

Tobias: white face

Tinkerbelle: light tabby.

Next is I . . . . . Ian is an awfully prosaic name for a cat.