Adoption Tails: Jagger, Kate & Helena

Jagger, Kate & Helena, now Jagger, Peaches & Honey

1 day: They have yet to eat since Friday morning. The owner has cleaned out 1 poo and 1 wee from the trays ("never been so excited to clean out a litter tray"). The owner's brother mentioned that it was a little noisy overnight, scratching at the flyscreen and playing. The toys put into the room during the day were in different places the next morning. The owner suspects it is Jagger. Kate and Helena will be called Peaches and Honey, not sure which will be which until she sees them.

Peaches

1 week: The owner thinks the cats are going well. She does not think they are going to the toilet as much as they should be. It's hard to tell who is eating as she is not in the room with them but Jagger definitely is. He has used the litter tray in front of the owner and so has one of the girls. Jagger purrs a lot, he won't allow touches yet. All three cats do like to play and all three have been out playing. Jagger will roll on the floor and one of the girls rolls round on the cat scratcher. The owners will prop the door open overnight and see if any of the cats want to come out and explore the house whilst it is quiet and dark. They've got crimesafe screens in place and the hall door closed so the cats will only have access to their existing safe room, the owner's room and the main bedroom.

Jagger

1 month: The owner has worked out who is who after checking against the photos in the Shelterbuddy system - Kate (Peaches) and Helena (Honey). Jagger is a food monster and he will try to take Peaches' treats from her but she gives him a smack. The cats haven't come out to the rest of the house during the day yet. Peach is quite happy to walk past the owner to leave the room when she wants. "She is quite sassy." The owner is also sure Peach has walked over her in bed at night, doesn't stay but it's really positive. Jagger lets the owner stroke his feet gently while he is dozing and doesn't recoil as long as the stroking is kept short and sweet. He is getting more tolerant each time. He even came out and got up on the desk to sit by the window this morning while the owner sat on the floor. "I am very happy with their progress, it has been very quick in the last 3 days." Their room door is left open for them at night and if the owners are sitting on the lounge quietly, they come out and start running around, up and down the stairs, chasing balls, running through tunnels and generally making a racket all night. Jagger loves sitting on the cat seat on the balcony at night. Peaches is out there a lot too. The owner is pretty sure Honey comes out at night. She actually came out of hiding when breakfast was put out this morning while the owner was still in the room. The owner thinks all the hard work is really starting to pay off, she was worried but can see now Honey will be her sweet little girl and Peaches & Jagger are going to be challenging as "the ship has sailed for the two of them! They are already partners in crime, Jagger follows her lead."

Honey or Peaches

Jagger and Peaches

 

I missed it

 This morning a nice lady came in and adopted Helena, Kate and Jagger!

 

How is that for a brilliant end to a brilliant week!

Later this afternoon a lovely young woman from DY came to adopt Bear from foster. He will be a happy cat.

 Timmi and Hugo went to be desexed today. I am not usually at Safe when the fixed ones come back. Timmi was off her face with the happy drugs that they gave her. She is on Better Row and easily levited to the high shelf, and shedded an Elizabethan collar on the way. After dinner she will sleep like a log.

Hugo is to be moved to the main room (to Kate and Helena's) but his condo wasn't quite ready so he went back into Better Row. Good thing until his pong evaporates. I took home his dirty bedding and had to drive with all my windows open.

Photo pairs

Joy spent time today trying to get good photos of our paired cats. The new website only has one photo per cat or pair of cats. So it is important to have a good photo.

Thelma and Louise

Mable and Tori

The R cats in the Palace

Kate and Helena

It is impossible to get a good photo of Arlo and Annie. He is either sitting on top of her or she is behind him or squashed on the self below. Vicky took videos of me giving him a good cuddle to prove that he is an affectionate cat. All I can say is that he has very sharp claws. This was after a worm was discovered in their litter box and before they got a worming pill each. He is 5.2 Kg. Check the FB page.

I got a photo of Venus and Muffin who both came out into the Top Cat eventually.  Not up to Joy's standard!

Muffin and Venus

The bolder of the two came out first and was interested to meet Jagger (who kept looking up to his old condo as though he wanted to jump back there but he went into the supermodels condo instead.)

Paired off

 We have lots of pairs of cats.

Jack and Luna, the kittens with the long, will be fluffy tails will be picked up on Monday. They will go home with a vollie and never made it to the Adoption list.

Below them are Charlie and Champ who are settling back into the condo after being in foster home.

Charlie and Champ

They entertained Jagger this afternoon. He hid under their bed. Then he moved on to Rosie and Callie's condo and into their carry cage. Which made it easy for me to get him back into his condo for his share of chicken. . . . . he forgives anything for chicken.

On the other side of Kate and Helena are Trixie and Roxy.

Roxy (left) and Trixie,

And beyond them is Mabel and Tori. Very hard to get Tori to stay still for a photo.

Mable and Tori (the tortie)

They are below Virgo who has had her second curtain removed. She was very keen for chicken.

Not to mention Donatella and McQueen. Arlo was sitting on top of Annie today. Usually he pushes her to the front of the hammock. She is the shy one. He loves cuddles. Go figure.

Arlo behind Annie

Still tidy

 The laundry shelves. I added to the stacks in a colour coordinated manner and went to get my camera to take a photo. On the way I noticed all the torties having their time out:

Donatella and McQueen nibbling a pot of grass

Callie watching from her condo (earlier she was in  Ginger George's stand alone)

Lyra sat in her condo with the door open all afternoon just watching

Helena up close to the barrier and Kate hanging back (as usual).

And I forgot to take a photo of the laundry shelves. And then got too busy to take any other photos.

Cookie was adopted late this afternoon. Her test came back negative so her person is happy. Her sisters are in the Lucky condo and are quite shy. Virgo has moved to were Maeve was. And Chia has moved to under Belle. (Shadow looks moth eaten around his rear). And two pairs of cats from Better Row have moved into their double condos below Libby.

Maggie and her crew may have ringworm but they are full of beans. They manage to squeeze out of the Royal Cannin standalone in the narrowest of door opening spaces. They can get through a gap that I can't get my hand through. Adele's lot are angels by comparison.

She came

As promised to adopt Tiger and Maxwell. She brought her partner who had to sit on a stool because Tiger was on the guest chair! It will be interesting to see how they get on together. 

A woman arrived earlier to adopt Venus. But Venus hid in her carrier. Her condo mates/sisters were friendly enough but they aren't up for adoption. So I showed all the other available cats and the lovely lady feel for Lucky boy. I am sure they will be happy together as she is an experienced cat owner.

Robyn came to entertain the cats who were out. Helena usually runs around and plays but today Kate came out too. The toy was irresistible. Jagger needed it.

Jagger and Helena watch Kate play

Simon now jumps over the low barrier. He disappeared behind Opie's stand alone and pulled down his cover sheet. . . . just to annoy Opie.

Opie ignores Simon

 

While he was busy, his mum Ruby got head rubs from Robyn and was sent into a state of bliss

Happy Ruby

 

 

 

How many canines does Ginger George have?

I finished putting pockets for nametags on all of the aprons. It really helps to know names of vollies.

Grass is greener

 When it is on the other side of the fence.

Simon

Notice that he is outside the area that usually contains him. To get him back to where he belonged, I lifted the tray of well chewed grass over the fence.

Kate and Simon

And Kate came out of her condo to try some. She usually stays inside while Helena roves around looking for any dishes that might have some left over breakfast in the open condos.

Helena, I think

Virgo has moved to where Coco and her sisters were, next door to Chia. Coco and one of her sisters (Muffin) were adopted over the weekend. The last sister, the shyest one, Venice, is above Thelma and Louise on Better Row. She spent the entire day in her litter box. No way was she moving out of it to let us clean it, or to eat breakfast, or dinner. She is Miserable without her siblings.

Venice

Maggie and her five have moved into the play place. They like it and are masters of the big, ring thing already. While I cleaned their area, Maggie forgot herself and rubbed up against my legs. And at early dinnertime her fluffy tuxedo was so jealously guarding a small toy, growling away his brothers and sisters, that he missed out on dinner. I told Tim who offered to give them a second dinner later.

A recurring pattern?

Today Marmalade and Duke went to be desexed. 

Duke and Marmalade

They are both ginger,  have been with us since they were tiny kittens and it was just assumed that they were both boys. They came back Marmalade and Duchess! They had a lovely trip to the vet on a sunny morning. They haven’t, perhaps, ever seen or felt sunshine. They pressed their bodies against the door of their carry cage to absorb the warmth.

And we are not quite sure if Saffron is a boy or a girl. His/her tummy has the typical, desexed female sag/spare handbag. We did manage to remove the remaining clumped bits of fur from his/her side this afternoon with the rechargeable trimmer.

The fluffy pair of the C kittens originally named Clementine, Claudius, Cornelius and Cordelia and all tortie, to a greater or lesser degree, went to be desexed and came back to their sisters all with Elizabethan collars this weekend. (The vast majority of torties are girls and if they are boys they are XXY and sterile which would save us money.) A group of young folk who are about to move into a flat where they have permission to have a cat came to look at some of our older cats. Then they saw the C kittens and fell for them. They will watch the website like demons and come in at the first listing to claim one.

There was lots of mixing of cats in the Top Cat in spread out mode. . . ie rather than just being the extension of one condo, you can stretch the Top Cat so that is creates a ”fenced” area in Welfare. Most cats don’t seem to realize that they can scale the mesh sides of the condos and climb up to the top where they can hide amongst the carriers (which is a great relief. Even though Opie often clambers up there to lord it over everybody else). So we mixed Tibby, Tabby, Alfredo, Helena and Kate who all got on well. After we put them away, we wheeled in Lola and let her out. She hissed at some cats but eventually agreed to play with a fluffy wand toy. She put herself back into her stand alone after 20 minuets so I wheeled her out and rewarded her with the chicken remnants. She licked the spoon clean.
Outside the Top Cat, Tiger, Ginger George and Maxwell all enjoyed separate, stretchy walks to entertain the confined cats in that area. Opie disported himself in Incoming.

Opie on (Katie's) his desk

Maxwell is a very handsome boy. His squinty right eye is because that eyelid has had surgery to correct  an inward roll which made his eyelashes scratch his retina. It doesn't stop him talking. . . as long as there is someone  to talk back to  him.

Maxwell

At Last

 The verandah is empty. When I arrived at 10am the garbage men had not yet come. So I rushed to get the last bags from the verandah out to the bins. But there weren't any there. Helen came yesterday and took away a car full. When I went out at 1pm to collect our bins, they hadn't been emptied yet. So I rushed back to get all the morning's full bags to add to the bins. So the verandah and both bins were still empty when I left! (The bins were emptied some time in the afternoon). How good it that! And a car load of litter was delivered.

Empty

Jolene has been moved to the main cattery. We let her out for a bit of exercise this afternoon. She mostly hid under the shelves at the end but when Tabby and Tibby were let out too, she couldn't resist investigating their condo. Tabby was more interested in getting food out of Vicky. But Tibby inspected the visitor.

Jolene meets Tibby

This was all watched with interest by the other cats especially the supermodels who are getting to be big girls.

Helena and Kate

Also new in the Welfare area is Leon. I will find out why he isn't in Incoming on Friday. He certainly looks older than 2 years old or he has had a very rough time so far.

Leon

On Sunday there will be a big fuss made of Midnight because he was our 1000th adoption. Don't know if Pumpkin was 999 or 1001. Neither do I know if she is coming with her son and person to have photos taken, etc for posterity.

Biggest donation ever

 When I arrived at half past noon, it was not the usual state of mayhem. Two of the trainees didn't come at the last minute: one had covid (thanks for staying away) and the other had a house inspection (good idea to stay home). A woman looked lost so I asked if I could help. She explained that she came to look at Archie whom she might foster from next weekend if he doesn't get adopted in the meantime.

Archie

She has to set up things at home. She might bring in her housemate to meet him during the week. I said that we would put a carrier in his condo that he can hide in and make the transition easier.

Then a man came to adopt a kitten from a foster home. This is the second cat he has had from us so he was in the system and he knows the routine. It was the quickest, smoothest adoption that I have done. 

Then a woman came in with a humongous donation. Arc had to go down to get a trolley-load of stuff three times. There is a teetering tower of clumping litter in the junk room. If you use it, please take a box. Or tell your fosterers to come and get a box or two. There was lashings of food in boxes and bags. I got so confused trying to find space for it all that I added a pair of boarders food to the general pile. Luckily Tim sorted that out. The lady benefactor was shown around by Tim and Katie.

Then a woman came in, scantily clad, to adopt a kitten from a fosterer. She had the kitten with her because it needed a shot. Tim attended to her. (It seemed to take much longer than my adoption earlier.)

Rosanna has devised a new way of using the Top Cat. Geoff approves. Tabby and Tibby had a lovely time playing there with Amber. Later Helena and Kate wandered around. In the meantime Ginger George had been let out to wander and his condo door was left open. H & K both went in and rolled on his bedding. Won't he have a surprise when he is put back!

Open top Top Cat

George loves to plop in front of me

Christmas thanks and mood

 Earlier in the week a 6 year old boy came with a donation. He asked his friends to give money to Safe rather than to buy him a present. He gave us $350. What an entrepreneur!

And the Eleanora Heights Vets had a donation drive for us over the weekend. I picked up their Safe money box and it held $202.85. 

And thanks to all the vollies who are pulling extra shifts over the holidays.

Joy brought in some deco/toys to get the cats in a festive mood for her photo shoot.

Phantom took it lying down.

Pumpkin and Midnight have heard that he is to go to the vet  tomorrow.

Margot was at the vet today. She is to go into Wanda's condo because somebody has taken Wanda home for foster care.

Kate and Helena were not impressed

Winnie/Demi was more interested in getting out of the condo for a little wander.

Tiger was not enthusiastic.

But he did like a little wander. While he sat on the chair that gave him access to his upper condo, Ying who lives below him, got up to see what was going on. He doesn't usually bother to unwrap himself until almost dinner time. I think he needs a buddy.

And Mariko bought one fluffy tail with a bell and a hook to attach to a stick for every cat. They are laced with catnip so there was frolicking.

Suki died on Saturday. She lived at least 27 lives . . . . at full volume. She will be much missed.

Suki

 

The quiet before December

I hope we have a deluge of customers in December. Nobody got adopted over the weekend. But Taylor did die, unexpectedly. He has never looked a healthy cat but last week he happily played with his ping pong ball. 

There are more kittens in Incoming. Guess what colour. . . . black and white of course. The mum (Toni, I think) hides and hisses in a carrier in crate but the 4 kittens happily rush out to greet you. I bundled them into a carry cage (on top of Margot's crate) to clean their crate which is under Margot's crate. Margot, incidentally is just over 1 Kg. And Midnight is 0.95 Kg: not far behind although considerably younger. There will be kittens in Xmas stockings.

Midnight

Joy took some lovely photos:

Demi and Winnie are getting friendlier and more photogenic.

Demi and Winnie

Sydney is getting bold enough to come out in the morning to do his Diego imitation.

Sydney

Kate and Helena are getting to be grown up supermodels.

Helena and Kate

And Phantom is still everybody's bestie.

Phantom

Except for Pluto who has devoted slaves.

Pluto

Nada nada

 Jacqui's cats have gone home so the play place is available for our cats as none of the boarders are inclined to move. I put Tiger in after Diego and Dora had a play. He liked it. Strolled about and did a big, smelly poo. Then Opie went back in overnight,

Tiger

There have been adoptions. Sampson and Kit Kat have "adopted" on their condos but are still with us. Luigi has gone. He didn't even make it to the "for adoption" list! One of Mia's and Cindy of the Supermodels have also gone. So has Betty White from foster.  And SOOTY has gone to a family whose previous cat hid for 9 years. They like a quiet cat. So Helena and Kate have moved into Sooty's condo. They were not happy but they will get used to it. 

Whitney and Mary will be next to go as soon as they recover from being desexed. Whitney tried the Top Cat this afternoon. She was not keen. And went back to bed.

Whitney

Later I set it up next to Nada. And she wasn't impressed (while I was watching). I hope she comes out overnight.

No Nada

But Yin did unroll himself this afternoon and posed for Robyn.

Yin

And I gently held Tibby still while he ate his dinner. He pecks at the food like a bird rather than hoovering it up as most kittens do.

Tibby

There is a new mum, Ruby in Incoming. She has 5 jewel named kittens about 2 weeks old. One of them has a eye that hasn't opened correctly. It needs to be bathed and anointed 3 times a day. This kitten will get very used to being handled. The mum is completely friendly. Don't know her story. 

We will have to inspect all volunteers who wear black tops as they leave to make sure that they are not trying to smuggle Margot out with them.

Margot gets first prize in the Cuteness Class