Humungous cat trees

 We were given (perhaps) three boxes containing "cat trees". The boxes are reasonably sized: about knee high, thigh long, forearm wide. But the constructed cat tree is tall. Thank goodness for Arch who   in put together his own cat's tree and knows how to read instructions even thought those instructions were very meager. Thank you Arch. 

Not completely erected cat tree

We decided to charge $175 for the erected one and $150 for the two still in their boxes.

 Soon after we started to put it together a customer arrived. A very nice young woman who hasn't had a cat before but her brother got one from us (renamed Remi) and she wanted her own, friendly, cuddly cat. Macy went onto the adopted list today. She was perfect for this woman. They will be very happy together.

And Geoff, who always forgets to clock on has devised the following icon for logging into Shelter Buddy. It is at the upper left corner of the main cat room computer screen.

As soon as I walked in this afternoon I was told that we had a new, adorable kitten in Incoming. Eventually I got around to her:

Not that much cuter than her next door neighbours in the stand alone: 

Cosmo, Duke, Freya, Olivia

Katie will know who is who. They lived with her for a while.

No boarders

 There weren't any this morning unless you count Jacqui's three cats in the play place. She had a problem with her roof which meant that she and the dog had to move to a B&B and the cats came to us. The roof is now fixed but the ceilings have to be dealt with. So we don't know how long her three will be with us. They were all hiding today.

And then Buffy came in to occupy the Palace. She stayed in her carry case all day. She will only be here until Friday afternoon. But the supermodels got kicked back to a double condo. 

Mia and Eric were adopted over the weekend. Mary has moved into Mia's small stand alone and has taken on her mantle of being the "cuddle cat". She just loves a good patting. 

Mary

Macy is not much better! We let her out for a wander and she enjoyed herself on the stratchy pole that Robyn bought in because she doesn't have a suitable place for it.

Macy

Earlier in the day, Opie shot out of his stand alone when I went to put his breakfast into it. He ran straight for the front door but detoured into the junk room. . . . thank goodness. I corralled him out of there after hastily shutting all the doors I could find. He decided not to hide under the merch shelves but popped into one of the cocoons in front. I covered the entry hole with a handy rug and carried him back to his stand alone. 

Which made Sandy and I think about the difficulty of the space below the merch shelves. First we thought that we could block it up with upturned litter trays. I tried it but it seemed to create more places to hide than less. Sandy came up with the brilliant idea of cutting cardboard to fit into the slots in the shelves at the top side and have an L-angle on the floor. We found suitable boxes to cut up (there is never a lack of cardboard boxes on Wednesdays!) and it looks like it works. When they get wet, we can easily replace the cardboard. We look forward to feedback.

There is a litter of kittens where Mia's used to be in Incoming. Don't know where they came from (their names are Earl, Cosmo, Freya and Olivia!) but I gave them a hammock to play in.

Mia's three have been moved to Eric's stand alone. There were only 2 hammocks so I added another so that they each have one which made them all happy.
 

Opie is a pussycat

 We have new cats.

Luigi is friendly but desperate to go somewhere else. He tells us that he doesn't belong here. He needs to go. He has burrs caught in his rather grubby fur.

Luigi

Tiger is a surrendered Ragdoll who is very thin. He is on a special hypoallergenic diet. We are feeding him often to try to build him up. He has lovely green eyes, no stripes and is quite chilled out. .  or is he just weak?

Tiger

Chester is new in Incoming. Don't know his story but he looks as though he might tell it.

Chester

And Michelle who has supplied us with cats before, brought in a cat who has recently joined the cat colony that she looks after. She finally managed to trap him last night after 6 days of not feeding the colony cats in order to get him hungry enough to go into the trap. Tuna did it today. He is black and was being picked on by the other cats in the colony. . . . probably because he is an entire male and the colony's dominant male saw him as a threat. He is a good looking black boy but didn't want his photo taken. I called him Mickey.

 

I pushed the Top Cat to Max's condo but he wouldn't get out of bed to come out. So I moved it to Lucky's condo. She stuck her head out but stayed in.

Lucky

 

 

We were more successful with the play place. Tried out Macy who didn't mind it but prefers to be paid homage to in her stand alone.

Macy

And Opie was wheeled in. He walked all around, looked out the window, and as soon as I appeared with some crunchies, hopped back into his stand alone so we wheeled him back to his corner. 

Later on he made a dash for freedom, shot out of the hall door with me in pursuit. While he was trying to decide whether to make a dash out the front door or to explore Incoming, I shoved him back through the hall door and closed him in. He investigated the desk. I walked around it and picked him up and popped him back into his stand alone. He is not such a bossy boy.

Opie

Fresh air at last and Bye Bye Baby

 Somebody came on Sunday to install the ducting to force air into the AWL condos. It comes out of the gap around the glass fronts so the cats don't live under any extra air pressure. They just get good air circulation. The block of double condo's against the wall of Palace condos has been moved across the aisle to be beside the long double condo block. The block of single condos in Welfare will go into Incoming, eventually. They don't have the extra air yet. But the ones who do, look happier. Nada was sitting at the front of her downstairs this afternoon.

The stand alones which were behind the desk were moved across the aisle. I rearranged them so that Yoko and Linda are no longer in the major traffic way by the door. That space is taken by the cleaning trolley. They have been moved to beside the Palace condos where the double AWL condos used to be. And the other stand alone, which used to house Courtney but now has Dexter, is where the trolley used to be . . . opposite where Beauty was and where Macy is now. 

Macy

Opey was moved to Rosie and Callie's condo. (They were adopted!) As soon as I opened his door to feed him this morning he bolted out of the condo, ran around the room once and stopped in front of this old stand alone and cried to be let in. I could not entice him back to his new condo. So I moved all his stuff to his old stand alone where he grumbled and whinged but settled down by lunch time. There is a new ginger boy above where Rosie and Cally were whose name is Lobster. He is very friendly.

Lobster

 A kitten was delivered by a good Samaritan who rescued her from the middle of the road. She has 60 cats of her own at home so couldn't fit another. This kitten, Mary, is 3-4 months old, has flu, mucky eyes and the dirtiest feet that I have ever seen on a cat. She was rather overwhelmed but is friendly.

Mary

Then a nice lady came again. And chose Baby. She wants a cat who won't sit on her all the time. She was a little worried about the amount of hair that Baby was shedding. So I got a brush to see if Baby likes being brushed. Baby loves it. Sold! She had a cat carrier in the car but no litter so planned to stop at a shop on the way home. I gave her the opened bag of paper litter that we left for a vollie to take which has been on the shelf in the junk room for months. Bargain!

Whitney had a busy Sunday. She came in pregnant but her teats were not ready for kittens. Nevertheless kittens came. The smallest one, 60 gm, died but the 70 and 90 gram ones survived. But Whitney wasn't producing any milk or colostrum so it was decided that they should go to a fosterer willing to feed them every 2 hours. On Monday another mother cat in a foster home went into labour. It was obvious that she was struggling so she was taken to the vet. They discovered that she had a broken hip. Imagine the pain trying to give birth with that! Two kittens were born by Cesarean but the mother could not be help and was euthanised. These two kittens were added to the feeding foster mother. They are bigger than Whitney's. But we hope that by feeding Whitney like a lactating mum, we will be able to put all four into her capable paws soon.

Whitney

A stream of unmasked visitors

First Dr Kim came by to talk to Tim about the rent. I didn't listen because I was busy brushing the great pile of hair out of Rosie's rear.

I had noticed on Wednesday that she had hard, tufty spots over her hip bones. Today I got a comb and got them all out. She is now half of her original size. Dr Kim toured our cats looking for one suitable for a friend who's Himalayan-type has died. She rather liked Rosie, for a change, thinking that he would want an older cat. Then a young woman arrived to meet Mimi and Macy. Tim attended to her. They took their time, and proceeded with the adoption. Hurrah. While that was happening the woman who raised the three tuxedo's closest to the front door arrived to spend time with her "babies". Tim shut her in the play place with them. It was the kitten's first time there and they had a fabulous time. . . . hardly noticed her at all. It didn't stop her sitting and chatting with a kitten clutched to her breast. (She named the boy with most white on his face "Fiesty.") The vet students from Dr Kim's arrived to check us out, I thought. I did the tour, introducing each cat. Eventually the girl vet student confessed that she was interested in a companion to the male adult that she adopted from Sydney Dogs and Cats ("who don't have as many cats as we do"). He sleeps all day long. . . . as you do if you are a cat. She loved Zelda. By this time Tim was packing up Mini and Mia to take them to Dr Chris while he picked up Snow Pea. Mini has a suspicious bard spot on her tail that Dr Chris decided is not ring worm. Hurrah! Mini has a sore paw which we have been treating with antisceptic. Dr Chris says that it is probably chronic and not dangerous. Get her a home that doesn't have a hard floor and she will be fine. Hurrah! While Tim was away I offered to feed everybody. Working from out back to up front, I got to Star's condo. They all rushed out, as usual. When I put their food in their condo, they rushed back, as usual. But there were only two kittens. The sign on the condo said Star + 3. I looked under every thing that had a kitten sized slot. Watched the cats to see where they were focused which is usually a sure fire way of finding a kitten where it should not be. No third kitten. I checked the diary to see if a Star kitten had been adopted. There wasn't anything there. I chewed my fingernails until Tim arrived back to be told that another one of Star's kittens has been adopted. I really don't like this no name system. Dr Kim arrived with her two students and the client who wants another cat. She steared him towards Star (because she is fluffy). The girl student didn't point out that Zelda was fluffy too. But he decided that he is not ready for another cat yet. And the girl student muttered that Dr Kim said that if you have one cat who is happy in your home you should think twice about getting a second cat. . . . . REALLY

Lillian's kitten who I encouraged to play with thetoy.

C kittens:

The only girl below Salt and Pepper who spent some time this afternoon grooming her collar.

Dobby who doesn't have upstairs neighbours any more.

So/unny who would rather not hide with his mum, Sally.

74

I just counted the number of cats we have at Safe Haven, from my memory. There are no boarders, unless you count Nom. It was a busy day with the new feeding schedule. I made myself a timetable which was much easier to follow than the previous cat type schedule. I left the copy there. . . it may well be changed by next week. While I was busy being anal, Joy took lovely photos. Of RubyG and her kittens:

We fed everybody chicken necks. The kittens were the most enthusiastic. . . and Rara, Mimi and Macy.

Luna and her kittens still pile on top of each other but Joy caught her and a kitten sitting up tall.

Mimi and Macy are so photogenic and mad about food but not frantic.

We have a new surrender called Rosie.

Star and her kittens had a lovely time in the new play place.

But Ollie didn't like it at all. He prefers life behind glass.

Chicken fingers

I took some BBQ chicken to do my cat behaviour routine this afternoon. Give me chicken, was Dolly's reaction.

But she says that to any food on offer. Other more circumspect cats were lured into more friendly behaviour by my chicken fingers. Even Windsor came out of his cave. (He had heard the fuss that Buddy and Petey were making: Buddy even let me pat him with my chicken fingers).

Silky was interested to eat chicken but not to make friends. She wears white stockings.

And Marmelade let me pat him. And Billy shut up while I tossed chicken at him. Gracie yelled for her share and Mimi and Macey fought over every piece. Macey got most of them because Mimi is a push over. The cat who REALLY LOVES CHICKEN is the new mum with four grey kittens. She still doesn't have a name. But, she is wearing a rather frayed collar. Her "rescuers" put the collar with a bell on her to stop her catching birds (to feed her kittens). She still doesn't have a name. I think we should call her Ruth, or RBG, or Rubygee because of the lace(y) collar. She was not going to give any of her chicken to her kittens . . . . she laid down the law. Then she followed me with her eyes as I distributed my inadequate stash to those other worthless cats.

Patchy and co have finished their ringworm treatment. To celebrate, I redecorated their wheely cage with new hammocks. And I swung it around to face the action. Tim is worried that they are not yet desexed so should not be on show. But I said that visitors won't see them until they are leaving and by then it will be too late. They have names. Meet Spotty, named for the spot on her nose/the end of her nose is black.

Tippy because she has a white tip on her tail.

And PJ who is the tortie.

They should be desexed and ready to go next week. Irene said that she would share photos of our cats who now live with other servants who take photos of them too.

Weight lifting

When I arrive in the morning I leave all the doors open so that the pong de chat can dissapate. Imagine my horror when I went through to the feeding station to see Buddy and Petey's door wide open, again. I rushed back to close the doors and then approached their condo. They were sitting together in their carry cage. Petey has learned to jump up to the higher level. My heart beat went back to normal.

Later when I was bathing the face of the dark tabby kitten (to the right of the desk) I heard Peggy hiss. I looked over my shoulder to see Macy stopped in her tracks on the gutter outside Peggy's condo. Perhaps Macy wanted to visit Rara. Mimi was watching from the open door of their condo with a worried expression on her face. I just turned Macy around with one hand (the other was holding the above kitten) and she walked back home. But it may be the eyebrow marking that makes Mimi look worried. Because later when I was washing the gummy eyes of some of Gracie's kittens, she watched with concern. I went to take a photo and my camera said "Charge the battery". Sue had three new volunteers to train this morning and Robyn is still nursing a very sore arm so took it gently. There were plenty of helpers. And then the men's shed arrived. They call themselves a community shed these days because there are women as well as men involved. They wanted to attach the brackets that will support the walls and top of the play place. And they the brought bits to fit.

We thought that they would be able to work around the stack of litter bags. But no, they had to be moved from where I put them yesterday. Luckily the community shedders did the moving, not me. I did it yesterday. And we had to move Hera, Diamond and Octavia because the litter bags are now behind Octavia where the scratchy poles used to be. They have been moved to the foyer beside the ones for sale. Really Octavia and Lily should change wheely cages. Octavia's only has three wheels and a peg leg. Lily's has 4 wheels. Maybe tomorrow. The community shedders will be back tomorrow or Friday to finish the job. By the way, I think Hera and Diamond are happier in separate areas rather that bunking in together. Patchy and her crew were happy when I rotated them so that I could mop their area.

We have a new, nameless, label-less mum with four grey kittens. She is a frightened, hissy mum. But she has a collar on. So she must just be really pissed off to be with us rather than a wild child. Later when It was quiet I noticed Star's tail hanging out of her condo. And when I looked at the photo there are two kitten tails hanging out as well. . . . cute.

Joy on Sunday

Lily quite enjoyed being photographed!

Also little Macy actually let me stroke her, maybe now she’s been desexed she’ll be less skittish.

Mimi decided to stay in her igloo.

Beautiful Rita still enjoying being a new Mum, her kittens look quite large considering they were born on Tuesday. She loves them.

Marmalade came and took a biscuit! Made Billy ‘bigmouth’ even more vocal.

Flash just enjoys company.

I ended up with the kittens again so quite familiar now and Cass came and helped after the welfare since there was enough of us. Lastly Luna's 3 tuxedo kittens.