Adoption Tails: Mom cats, Joni, Josie and Betty

 Betty

1 week: “Betty is doing beautifully well.” She ate, drank, and used the litter box within the first 24 hours. “She has been very comfy in her safe room but has begun gradually exploring the rest of the house, always returning at pace to her safe room if she gets startled or feels uneasy. She is being treated like a princess. At this stage we aren’t changing her name, just adding 1000 variations to how you say it, or what it’s added to”

1 month: “Betty is settling in beautifully. She is playing happily, eating well, cuddling us on the couch and sleeping close at night.”

6.5 weeks: “We are just so in love with our beautiful Betty”

Joni

3 days: “She is doing well”. She has eaten, drunk and used the litter tray. They have renamed her. They have a camera set up in her safe room. She doesn’t like the carrier at all so they took it away and she has been hiding under the bed. She comes out to explore when they are not in the room.

1.5 weeks: She is completely fine in her safe room. They’ve opened her safe room door to see if she would like to explore the living room. She started exploring when her owners were sleeping or were out. “We are glad she is settling well”

 

5 weeks: “She is doing pretty well”. She often comes out from underneath the bed and plays with their resident cat while her owners are sleeping.

Josie

3 days: She hasn’t used the litter tray or eaten yet. She has been moving around in different hiding spots but still appears very scared. They will be keeping her name.

1.5 weeks: She is still very scared but is eating lots and toileting every day. Her owner can hear her coming out at night when it’s dark.

5 weeks: 

“Josie is doing well. Very playful at night when it’s dark and has her favourite bed up high in the kitchen. Here she can keep her eyes on me. Still not letting me pick her up but she loves being stroked in her bed.”

Finally

 How long have we been at East Roseville? How long have I arrived at 7am on Wednesdays to see wet footprints wandering away down the corridor from the Shower? Well! Today I saw the towel clad bloke who owns the footprints. He didn't see me.

And, the unregistered car parked in the loading zone has disappeared. As has the boat in the basement. Changes afoot in Barcoo Street.

And Moet and Jerry have moved from their condo in the corner where Seb and Pebbles used to be. Somehow the patched mesh has failed. They have moved to the play place where they can display their superior foot tripping technique.

Moet and Jerry

Josie is much more friendly than she was when she arrived and gave birth.

Josie

And Shawna next door is settling in quickly.

Shawna

I opened Charlie and Champs condo at the same time as opening Miz and Riley's. It didn't take long for Charlie to go for a wander and for Miz and Riley to move in with Champ. Anybody want to adopt 4 cats?

Miz, Riley and Champ with Liam above.

There are new kittens in incoming who are scardey, nameless cats. Also in Isolation in Barry and Blaze's stand alone. (I hope that ensures that they will not return from foster)

And some nasty vet really chopped the end off Sweetpea's ear.

Sweetpea

Coco

 Again, thank you Tuesday for schlepping out all the bags. But Willoughby council only emptied one of our trash bins! The other is full already. I put the empty one in the garage and left the full one where it was put along the pathway down the hill. Who put it there? It was with all the rest on the gutter when I arrived. The mysteries of trash collection!

Coco, our frequent boarder was in the play place when I arrived. She wasn't happy. Eventually I thought that she might be happier back in a condo where she is usually happy. I talked her out of the multi-storey climby thing to somewhere I could pick her up. I think she couldn't figure out how to get out if where she was. The story is that her owner, a SAFE member, had a heart attack on Saturday and Coco was to be with us indefinitely. Later in the day, we had a call from the owner to say that she would pick Coco up this afternoon. She duly arrived and Coco was overjoyed to see her. I held her carry case up to the condo and Coco walked straight into it. Easiest cat to crate in existence! 

Lola kept trying to get into Incoming. Eventually Sue gave her a new bed on the table in Opies Room and she was a happy cat snoozing the afternoon away.

Lola

Josie's kittens have names

Jake

Josh, no longer holding up a sore paw

Several calls came in about Ricki. All from the family of the neighbour of her foster carer. They wanted to reserve her. But we don't do that. It is "first in, first served" at Safe. But by the time I had heard the sad story of the neighbour's lovely cat having died yesterday, and how much they loved Ricki, and that they really could not get to us this afternoon, and that they will be at Safe at 10am tomorrow. . . . I said that if any other customers came this afternoon, I wouldn't show them Ricki. Luckily, no customers came.

Ricki

Sue had me writing bios of the cats who are not available for adoption that she can use when she needs instant bios. It is not easy to do. For example what do you say about Willow except that she has hidden for 4 months and seems to be coming out of her shell now.

Willow

Or about Harley and Quinn who have only been with us for a week and in that week have changed from scardey cats into coy young girls who long to flirt with you.

Harley and Quinn (or vice versa)

Or about Stardust who was one of three crazy cats in the Palace who is now a pussy cat as a single.

Stardust

Late Wednesday

 I was late to Safe Haven today because of a DH doc appt. And am late to blog tonight because of a Guild committee meeting. The latter had cats wandering around the Zoom meeting. The former just had nasty needles.

In the meantime, there have been movements out of incoming into the Welfare area and into Incoming from goodness knows where.

Twinkle

Sparrow

Spuddy

Oscar

They don't look very happy. But remember how Bassuria and Julie used to be so frightened and starving. This afternoon was the first time I saw them cuddled up together in the open.

Bassuria and Julia

And out the back, under Josie, is a returned cat. Sparkle/Sparky was returned because he attacked the neighbour when cornered (as you would) and bit his owner. We will find  him a better person next time.

Sparkie

He is below Josie plus two. One of her two went to be desexed today. The other stayed at home and did something to his foot/leg. He was very pathetic (and cute) this afternoon holding up his right paw. (It didn't stop him jumping up to share his mum's afternoon tea!)

Sore paw

The highlight of the afternoon was a visit by Barb Webster who got to cuddle Freya's kittens who are where Cindy and co were.

Fingers crossed

 I was a bit early today. . . for a change. But I still didn't get to eat my lunch until a quarter to three. There were adoptions.

Salt was adopted, perhaps in the morning. Pickles is delighted to be all alone in a double condo. 

A couple came in to adopt Salt whom they had chosen from the website. So I showed them the other availables and they chose Little and Rory. I told them that it is a much better idea to get two kittens because they can play with each other at 4am without waking up their people. They believed me. I was so pleased that I gave them a litter tray (the green, wobbly one with curved edges that is a pain) and loaned them a carry cage to take the boys home in. Rowen will be devastated next Friday. They were his favourite cats being so easy to cuddle.

Then a woman came in to adopt Jade from foster. We filled in the paperwork. It is to be a holiday thrill for her children but she agreed that Jade should be in her own room so that she can have time away from the kids.

Then another woman came in, having been sent to us from Jiji's (the cat cafe on Eastern Valley Way). She checked the website and came to see Jade! Mostly because she wants a "tabby". So I showed her our tabbies. . . which come in ginger, grey and brown. She rather liked Eric who was being his shy, retiring self. She said she would think about it. 

Misty is a tabby

 So I feed the cats their chicken.

Lola has appointed herself the doorcat. Maybe she saw Marissa take her Azlan out to walk the corridor.

Lola

The new cats on Better Row, Miz and Riley seem more comfortable. What is their story?

Miz and Riley

Josie's kittens are getting big and bold.

Josie is the lowest face

While I cleaned up Sebastian and Peebles condo (they had knocked their water bowl into their litter tray in the excitement of seeing me with dinner coming towards them) Irene answered the phone. The woman who came in and met Eric wanted more details. She found the right person to ask. Irene could give her details that I had never heard. They chatted for ages, eventually in German! So I hope Eric has found his forever person.

Camera fixed

I recharged the battery and put in the date and time zone. If only other electronics were as simple!

Vollie Michelle came in this afternoon with her daughter whose 3 year old grey cat has just died. She just wanted the comfort of being around folk who love cats and other cats (especially grey ones like her previous cat.) Violet fit the bill.

Violet

And Dexter who almost bit me. I picked him out of the box that I put into his condo that he loves and he sat happily to be admired in my arms for a while. But then he got stroppy and went to bite me. Luckily I knew the signs and my shirt got bitten while my arm escaped all by very marginal tooth marks. Which Emily happily bandaged for me even though it was really a waste of a good bandage.

Max and Maisie came in to board. It took her owners three hours to get Maisie into the carrier. They carefully hadn't made any moving moves. . . . no suitcases taken out of cupboards, etc, etc. But she KNEW that something was going on. Max was no trouble, of course. I put her into their condo in her small carrier. When the owner left I checked on them and Max had moved in with Maisie. The small furry grey mouse is theirs.

Max shielding Maisie

We have a boarder called Josie who needs eye treatment. As well as our Josie's kittens who both have gummy eyes that need treatment. Confusion!

Josie plus 1

Josie plus 2

And Bubbles needs ointment in her eyes too. She hates it. But loves any kind of attention so is prepared to put up with it if she gets a cuddle as well.

Bubbles

Eric was delivered from his foster home. He had been getting on well with the fosterer's two girl cats but recently has started to try to take over the dominant position which entails urinating on their couch and standing over the girls. So let's see if he can get adopted from us quickly. He is in the stand alone beside Mouse who is a good draw card.

Eric

Ants

 I came home today to find ants in Cody's quarter full bag (4Kgm) of crunchies. It has been a very bad summer for ants here in Sydney and I had not sealed the zip seal properly last time I scooped out a jam jar of crunchies. Be warned. And hope that ants don't discover the Safe crunchy shelves!

I moved Pickles from Isolation (aka Maternity) into Dancer's enclosure. No, Dancer hasn't been adopted. She has been moved next to Angel and Rory and Little have moved to the condo below Virgo.

Pickles and co love their new space. They were acrobatic when exploring the possibilities when they first moved in. There are 3 hammocks. Top two have one kitten each, bottom one has two kittens. Mum gets to sleep on the floor.

Salt and Brine

Dill

Cucumber

Penelope and Dot were brought in by their foster carers. And left them with us accompanied by tears. They are quite young so should settle down well (both cats and people). [Dot is a boy and has a spot above his right eye].

Josie's kittens are doing very well. They are plump and adventurous. A grand advertisement for not having 7 kittens at one time like Betty did. Her lot have gummy eyes and empty tummies because she has quit feeding them.

Josie and her ginger

PC had time out today and got to meet Michelle. She was not impressed. He was much more interested in being groomed with the strange blue cylindrical toy-thing.

Michelle and PC

Double chicken

 I took two bags of chicken to Safe today knowing that Betty would want lots and have some left overs for the weekend. She still is not eating tinned food or mother and baby cat crunchies. But if you put chicken or chicken juice on top she will. I was handing out chicken to the rest of the cats when a representative from Royal Canin arrived to chat to Tim and meet the cats. The cats were all awake and interested (in chicken but don't tell her that). Let us hope that we will get more donations from them.

Mystery of Tommy's shed was explained by Geoff who made the shed for him when he moved Tommy from Incoming to Better Row. We are to work on him by degrees to make him a perfectly friendly cat. It may take some time.

Josie, diagonally above him is overfeeding her kittens. They are little tubs of lard!

Josie plus 2

They probably weigh almost as much as Pickles' brood. They were all vaccinated and microchipped today. The kittens were a pleasure to hold for Tim to do the injecting. Pickles knew what it was all about and wriggled/fought, but good naturedly, as she does. She forgave me when I gave them afternoon tea. And Geoff's dinner was a treat. The kittens have names related to pickling: Brine (which sounds like a Queenslander pronouncing Brian so should be changed to Briney as she is a girl; Caper, Salt, etc)

Pickles and makings

There was a drama in Incoming when Sebastian was discovered underneath the condo in which he and Pebbles are housed:

He is hiding under their condo in the far, deepest corner on the right

I suggested that food be put in a trap and left there overnight. He was not going to venture out to the food bowl beside the dirty clothing bin during the daytime busy-ness. Pebbles is missing him. . .  perhaps.

Pebbles

Let us hope that the weekend does its magic and cats get adopted. Martin and Gemma are ready to go.

Martin, the pass around kitten

Gemma whose eyes say "please"

And Angel whose previous "buyer" visited to day and signed up to be a vollie. Perhaps her landlord renegged on allowing her to have a kitten.

Quiet Friday

 There were enough vollies and I got there early and coped with the poo bags. When you open the door to the verandah there are none left of the great pile that took up almost all of the floor space. But, that is deceptive. There are poo bags behind the door. They are the oldest ones from the bottom of the pile and should be taken away first, please.

We didn't have any visitors. Angel's person came yesterday to adopt her and will pick her up on Sunday as planned.

So I had time to let cats wander and to take photos of Katie's cats. . . . just in case Katie would like to see their happy faces.

Luna has the celestial condo where she happily hides

Nala is below her where she can chat to all passers-by

Frank is at knee level so when he looks up you can see he amazing blue eyes

Dolly and

Zane are next door

Mali used to have a boarding Burmese upstairs. It is quieter without the boarder.

Kimmy doesn't mind the noise. She makes enough of her own.

Cleo is regally quiet.

But Sundae is anybody's for a pat.

Josie's 2 kittens are fine. She is an attentive mum and has learned very quickly that mums get more food.

Sabrina's kittens were in the play place. The tabbies/white ones are friendly and playful.

Sabrina's tabbys

But the black and white ones are hiding. And in the Nursery/isolation they were the ones (or one of them was the one) who always screamed "FEED ME" at the window whenever somebody looked at him/her. Now look at them!

hiding

Sabrina has been separated from them to wean them. They are out of ringworm quarantine. 

Betty is struggling along with her seven and lack of appetite. Chicken helped this afternoon. So I left a bunch for her and some cats missed out (but not Lola who follows me around).

Betty polishing off chicken while her line of kittens snoozes