Adoption Tails: Rory and Little, Martin and Aston

 

Rory & Little, now Biggie & Little

1 day: They are going great, eating well and using the litter box. The owners have changed one of their names to Biggie.

 

1 week: They are going great, definitely have settled into the home and the family more.

 

Rory and Little

No 1 month response. 

Aston

1 day: Aston is settling in very well. He has been eating and drinking well. Very cuddly and affectionate. Sometimes when the owner strokes him, he will bite her a little bit, not too hard.

Aston

1 week: Aston is really good.

1 month: Aston is doing really well. He is very curious and energetic. He is loved by all family members.

Martin, now Marvin

1 day: Marvin is doing amazing. He is so sweet and loves to play. Loves his food and drinking and using the litter. The 4 year old resident cat Tiger is getting on well with Marvin now, play-chasing each other.

Martin with Tiger

1 week: Marvin is doing great, so sweet and cuddly. He loves his cat tree and share the litterbox together with his big sister Tiger already.

Marvin

1 month: Marvin's a bundle of joy!

Useful blog

 Charley was surprised when Martin was missing this morning. And Callie. I said to myself "You should read the blog".

Then later she asked if I knew who was Little and who was Rory. This time I said it out loud. And brought up the blog on the computer so that I could be reminded who is who. Little has the white on the right cheek and Tory has white on his left cheek. Charley took a photo of the blog url so now can keep up.

The other way I keep up is by making a list of all the cats available on our web site and crossing them off when they get adopted. It gets pretty chaotic by the end of the month.

January 2024

 

March 2024 so far

 Why is Angel still with us?

I had to leave at 1pm just when a former vollie had finally decided to adopt Tinkerbelle rather than Gemma. Tinkerbelle's name will be changed. Her new owner stopped being a vollie because she kept bursting into tears. But now she wants a cat of her own and came to us to choose. Tinkerbelle was in Martin's stand alone and Gemma was happy having her next door. Michelle moved into Callie's stand alone by the front door.

Tinkerbelle

 Tim had to do the adoption because I had to leave after feeding lunches. And Sandy's adopter was due in at 1:30 to pick her up, at last. Poor Tim wasn't looking forward to the mystic mumbo jumbo.

Magic has gone home with her fosterer.

When I arrived one of the boarder's condo door's was open. It didn't take me long to find Oscar. He was under the food shelves bellowing. I don't think he could get out even though he got in. So I removed the laundry bins, food bags, etc, etc and lifted up the shelf. He stood up and stepped out, into my embrace so I could carry him back to his condo. 

Sorry for the old photos but I never think about taking any until 4pm.

Finally!

 Cass was adopted this morning along with Talia. The folk came at 10am to do the adoption. Certainly not the best time to do an adoption especially when you haven't done one for a while. But they were out of there by the time I arrived at noon. Poor Michelle is all alone in her big enclosure. 

A man whose cat has recently died came with a trolley load of food, carrier, meds, dishes, etc. He was "happy to have found us" and on the way out met all the cats including Mia who positively fawned over him. If she could have, she would have licked his hand! He was taken with her too. So perhaps he will be back.

Then a woman arrived to look at our cats because her boy cat had recently died and her girl cat is feeling lonely. She fell in love with Martin who is the same colour as her previous boy cat. Seemed to be preordained. She entertained herself during the adoption by texting all her friends, getting their opinions, getting offers of a Uber back home to Bondi Junction and offers of kitty sitting forever.

A woman rang with a sad story of her friend having found 5 kittens in a rubbish bin. The friend was bottle feeding them but Tim and Helen think they are older than needing that. So they agreed to take them in. And then their photos showed gooey eyes. So they probably have the flu, at least. Tim was waiting for them to arrive when I left.

He was also doing the adoption of a foster cat with the couple who came last week to collect some special food. Plus he was having trouble with the computer . . . . as I usually do. So I had to sign on so that he could complete the adoption. In the meantime the couple played with Callie who is now available. They had chosen a toy from the merch shelves while waiting for Tim to sort his computer problems and played with it. They noticed Callie's fascination with the toy and I gave them permission to let her play with it. She was having a fine time when I left. (I didn't sign out just in case I crashed the computer).

Didn't get around to taking any photos either so will use Joy's from Wednesday

Rory or Little

Sue says that there is more white on Little's feet than on Rory's. But when you look at their faces, One has a white left cheek and the other has a white right cheek. Little above, Rory below.

Freya's kittens have ventured out of their bed chamber. They are charming lumps of plump. Not quite so plump as Josie's though. And Betty and her kittens are looking less squinty than in this photo taken on Wednesday.

Betty's bundle of B's

squinty Betty

Mickey is getting more confidence and is Pistachio. We will have some pretty kittens for Easter.

Mickey above, Pistachio below

Boarding sparkles

 Coco came in to board this morning. I think it is this Coco, https://safehavencats.blogspot.com/2022/06/adoption-tails-coco-again.html

When she was brought in Boarding Row was being scrubbed, bleached and F10'd because Katie's cats all went home last night. It required two vollies. . . one short and one tall. And took ages. 

Only Ashley left in Boarding.

So I popped Coco into D4 which is on Better Row beside the fridge. It should be nice and quiet there. 

Should be but:

Dancer escaped during the cleaning and ended up under the far end of the food shelves. A bowl of milk placed outside the shelves on the floor didn't entice her out. So I put some smelly food in a bowl up the feeding table end and she migrated there. I blocked off her escape back to the far corner with towels and gradually narrowed the gap. I put a cat carrier in her escape path out from under the shelves and put the food in there. Eventually she came out. Not into the carrier unfortunately. But to a place where I could grab her and take her back to her home.

Pretty entertaining for Coco to see me crawling around on the floor.

Stevie, one of Sabrina's kittens from the play place has an infected tummy wound and has been moved to the condo next to Tommy. She spends her time screaming for attention when any person appears. I thought it was just Sabrina's black and white boy who screamed. But now there is a chorus!

Stevie

Poor Coco.

Shortly thereafter, Sue said "Why did you let Callie out?" .. . . . . I was on my tummy in Better Row! Somebody else didn't shut her door. Callie, of course, was under the merch shelves. In the very area that Sandy and I blocked off with cardboard after fighting to get out a pair of very frightened cats during their adoption last year some time. The cardboard has gone. Callie is much friendlier than those kittens were but she is still too canny to let herself be caught after only one mouthful of lovely wet food. Eventually I dismantled the corner shelf and grabbed her. She forgave me. The wet food helped.

Callie

Tinkerbelle appeared on the For Adoption list on the Safe website briefly over the weekend. We thought that she had been adopted. A family came very ready to adopt her but she wasn't microchipped and didn't have any paperwork so they will have to come back. Tinkerbelle isn't in a hurry.

Tinkerbelle

And a lovely family came to check out our cats. They have just moved back to Oz from Shanghai/Taipei and have moved into a pet friendly apartment block. It will be a couple of weeks before they are ready for a pet. But the boy loved Martin and the girl loved Gemma. (I didn't show them Tinkerbell). They will be back.

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.

PC rearranged

 It struck me this morning when I had fed the cats that the stand alone beside the filing cabinet and the cleaning trolley might change positions to make the hand disinfectant accessible and make the cleaning stuff more central for the enclosure cleaning. So I moved Gemma across. Then I had another thought, Martin would prefer watching the comings and goings through the door while Gemma would rather be in a quiet corner. So I swapped them around. I think it works well. But will be interested to see if it is still so arranged by Friday. 

Later in the afternoon PC came out for a wander. Sue cleaned his eyes and I gave him a good brush which he LOVED. He looks so much better than he did when he arrived.

PC

Ms Claws only has one kitten unadopted. Dasher was picked up today. She and Dancer were in the play place together overnight. I put Dancer back in with her mum, disinfected the play place and put Henry there. He keeps saying what a big boy he is, so I thought he would like it. He hid most of the time.

"Thought I'd got rid of them" said Ms Claws

Mariko came. . . a little late because her bus from Chatswood station didn't arrive. She asks how long does it take to walk? I don't know. But she noticed the Freya's tummy is hard. I noticed that her nipples are becoming bald. Sue said that she was thought to be pregnant when she arrived. Not very then, but quite noticably now. But remember how long it takes some mums to drop their bubs.

Freya

Betty had seven kittens by Saturday morning last week. They are doing well and tend to lie beside each other in a row. 

Joy took some photos. Her brief it to take a photo of each cat in the cattery so that there is a good one to upload when they become available. Tough job, but somebody . . . . . 

She had a cat named Misty. Wonder if she looked like this Misty.

Misty

Joy noticed that Rory and Little have symmetrical face markings. Merged they would have a white nose and two white cheeks.

Rory and Little

Tinkerbelle has been desexed. The collar is too big and has to be folded back for her to eat.

Tinkerbelle

Shortest stay at the Safe cattery

 I arrived around noon and Chewy, Joda, Leia and Luke just beat me. They came from a foster home. By 4pm Leia had been adopted! The lady who met her in her foster home decided that she was needed in her home.

Luke and Leia

Chewy and Joda

They are next door to Lily and Patches who do not like to be able to see their neighbours. New or otherwise.

Lily and Patches

The kittens got a scratchy pole inserted into their condo when Geoff arrived. So we had to move them into the play place. Inserting a stratchy pole means that the whole enclosure needs to be moved, rescrewed, re curtained, and replaced. I imagine that the kittens will stay in the play place overnight. 

Martin had a turn there and was really happy running around and sitting with/on any visitors. He is a real sweety when out of the stand alone.

But the best news of the day is that Molly was adopted. A young woman came to meet our cats. We spent time saying hello to everybody. I thought that she was just doing a recee but after talking to Irene and getting Molly's background, she called her partner and said "I WANT HER". FIV, no teeth and all. Mind you, Molly behaved beautifully with her so it must have been a match made in heaven.

And late this afternoon Betty gave birth. When I left there were perhaps 5 wee slugs. There may be more by morning. I didn't like to disturb her so she missed out on afternoon tea but I imagine that Geoff gave her a good dinner.

Betty plus ?5

Hammock havoc

 On Wednesday I wondered why Mia's top shelf was on the balcony and her hammocks were gone. Tim told me today that she seemed to be stuck on the top shelf and couldn't get down. Subsequently, she had pee'd and poo'd up there. That is why it was drying out on the balcony.

Also on Wednesday, Robyn brought in a cat igloo that her Charlie had jumped on the top of and collapsed. We decided that if it was that frail it wouldn't cope with our cats, flattened it and put it in the recycle paper bin. Today it was still there so I re-erected it and gave it to Mia. It took her about a minute to settle into her pineapple.

Mia well camouflaged on a black blankie

I also reinstalled her top shelf lower down.

Mrs Claws and co are all desexed and ready to go. They love their hammocks so I gave them more.

Still not enough hammocks but some kittens should get adopted this weekend.

Patches uses her hammock. I knew that because it is covered in hair. I managed to grab their black igloo while they were both out if it and got another two kitten's worth of fur from inside it. Later, Lily was on the top shelf looking longingly at Patches in the rectangular hammock. When I placed her on the triangular one, she stepped, regally, back onto the shelf.

Patches

Cassie is slowly coming around to being away from her foster home. She is said to love cuddles, but she is a bit hard to reach.

Cassie

And Martin has come in from a foster home and is upset too.

Martin