Sparky, now Sparkle
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Sparky |
Lucy & Junior, now Pepper & Ginger
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Lucy now Pepper |
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Junior now Ginger |
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Pepper and Ginger |
Max
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Max |
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Sparky |
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Lucy now Pepper |
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Junior now Ginger |
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Pepper and Ginger |
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Max |
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 |
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 |
Josie plus 1 |
Josie plus 2 |
Bubbles |
Eric |
At 3:15 she was OK. But by 4 pm there were 2 big vomits and 2 skinny poos. Plus the kittens bedding was wet. So I changed it all. There was a little chicken left for her tummy.
One of Pickles kittens was adopted today: Caper, the champagne medium haired one. Sue did the adoption. . . .. and had the same problem with the program that I often have. I call on Tim to "fix" it which he invariably does by pressing "reset". Sue did the same, twice, and it worked. Cranky computers!
So now Pickles only has 4 kittens. I changed the signs on her condo in Isolation just in case somebody, over the weekend got into a panic about a missing kitten. These are the four left. Their names are Brine, Cucumber and some other picklish names.
I don't know who is who. And am not prepared to open the door to take a photo because they are all crazy to get out.
Tinkerbell is on the website. Has been all day without being adopted. What is wrong with them out there!
I was a bit late and all the work had been done. I had to go home at lunch time to see to my cat who has a urinary blockage problem which is not uncommon in boy cats. He had surgery yesterday and I wanted him at home to recover so I borrowed a cat cage from Bronwen. She reports that Max is fine. I didn't get to see him although he was just outside. His favourite sleeping place in hot weather is in their basin in the en suite. Thelma and Louise were hiding so the only critters I saw were the two madly barking alsatian dogs. I might get to see Max when I return the cat cage.
Max adopted to one of our members who have another Safe cat. Cleo adopted from foster care.
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Max and his new family |
As I drove to Safe this morning, I remembered that my camera was sitting beside the charger getting its battery recharged. "Never mind, I can use my iPhone to take photos".
In the meantime, three Friday morning vollies set up photo shoots to get Christmas photos of any cat who would cooperate. Dexter was a star. He sat in the fluffy bed (for sale at $60) and flashed his green eyes against a Xmas background. Mollie cooperated and posed with an elf toy although she didn't get out of her tee-pee. (The bulldog clips are keeping it together).
Max was a reluctant star. His top shelf was decorated with red crepe paper, yellow streamers, Xmas stockings and he sat solidly allowing himself to be photographed.
I think these photos will appear on various platforms to advertise Safe.
Pickles hasn't had her kittens yet.
There is a mum and 4 kittens in the stand alone in Incoming who is very hungry and prepared to be friendly for food.
Here are a couple of photos that have hung around my desktop for quite a while
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Hanna |
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Hermione |
And above is the dog that I knitted for the next door grandson who will visit this year for Xmas from Denmark.
Mia is the only cat left on Better Row since Hugo has moved to the Main room (despite still being somewhat stinky). So let's change the name, again. Christmas week only has one single and one double condo available for boarders.
Blossom only has 2 kittens left in the Palace. The black and white ones were adopted over the weekend. One of the little ones has a DIRTY nose. Don't know how that happened.
Later Ted came out. He had to pass Lola, the office manager cat
Ted moving fast past Lola |
The three kittens who were by the front door are in the play place because they couldn't be put back into their stand alone yesterday. The stand alone is blocked in by those boxes now so they will probably stay in the play place. And Sunset got adopted this afternoon so it is just the two boys, Angus and Logan.
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Logan and Angus |
Eight cats were adopted over the weekend: Astra and Zaria, Arlo and Annie, Roman, Sparky, Trixie and Mabel. And one was adopted today from foster by the fosterer before it even was posted. And Kat has been posted as available so with any luck, she will go tomorrow!
Or course, there has been lots of rearrangement because of this. Mia and Hugo are the only cats out on Better Row. She demonstrated how much better it is there by staying in her condo even though the door was wide open for at least half an hour!
Ted has moved to Arlo and Annie's stand alone.
Ted |
Max |
Dexter |
Isolation has "new" condos donated to us from Mona Vale Vet. They have a distressing tendency to stain when poo'd on and the doors are a bit tricky to close. But Gracie and her kittens have the run of the upper layer of the one that has been put together.
The bottom layer is marked for Sabrina and her kittens and across the way is another set to be installed for Elsa and her lot. We might have to rename this room the Nursery. Elsa and her kittens are on medication and have to be separated into a cat carrier to eat their dose. Only two of the six ate voluntarily. Sue and I had to spoon feed the others. Made me feel as though I was force feeding suffragettes.
Lola got back into her stand alone with the encouragement of soft food. (Thank you Paris)
Lola |
Oh, and I forgot to mention. The mop died. It fell into two pieces. It is an ex-mop.
Time for somebody to go to Bunnings to buy a new one.
This morning half a dozen Chinese young women arrived with cameras, tripods and other equipment. They are learning how to make documentaries, I gather. One was the director. There were a pair of cameras that the others operated. The cats and us were the actors. Tim got interviewed. Jade brought in a "cat" to board and I did the paperwork. We even did a mock adoption of Arlo and Annie. Let's hope that it was a warm up for the real thing tomorrow!
Of course with all that excitement and the distribution of chicken, I didn't even think of taking any photos so will use Joy's from Wednesday.
Kittah and Tosca were surrendered from the same family. They are not in a condo together because they didn't really like each other at home even though their eyebrows look sisterly. They both had dental work yesterday and are on soft food for a while. They got chicken juice.
Kenzie who used to be on soft food after dental work is back on crunchies. I think she prefers the soft stuff.![]() |
Zenzie |
I put up the Top Cat for Maggie. I think it was her first opportunity and she had a lovely time. She even relaxed in the hammock. Billy is having the overnight go.
Jagger is in the play place. He hid in a box most of the day. When it came to chicken time I wheeled in his stand alone. But he was too canny to jump in while I was close by. So he is still there.
It doesn't matter because the space where his stand alone was, by the filing cabinet, has another empty stand alone there. It was moved from Isolation because new condos have arrived (thank you, Geoff) from Mona Vale vets who don't use them any more. They will be set up in Isolation and the Royal Cannin monster will be dismantled and discarded. Hurrah! It was originally built as a temporary display place for cats at shows. It is very hard to clean properly. And we will get more wire enclosures to take the place of the small AWL condos which will move into Incoming.
Max is thrilled at the prospect:
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Max says "Oh, really" |
I had to take the husband to the eye doc for another injection today. And the traffic was terrible so the regular staff/vollies arrived late. But we made it in time and he is having a lie down now.
Just like Trude and Prue after their early breakfast.
tortie Trude and Prue |
Raven |
Raya |
Rocky |
I thought they were all girls. But Rocky is a boy.
And Maggie's kids much prefered their old digs in the play place to the Palace.
Astra, Zaria in foreground. Roman lurking on the top shelf (just a pair of ears) |
Max and Ted have settled down. They are both in dire need of a good hair brushing.
Max |
Ted of the Tail |
For Max!
Max |
He will love living in her backyard in a spacious shed with lots of windows and a screened porch. The kids will play in the yard and pool. There are lots of ibis and other birds to watch as they live on the water. They have a new German Shepherd to play with their older German Shepherd. And I will be able to see him when I walk past on my morning walk!
I wonder how long it will be before he is living in the house with them, just supervising. . . . everything.
A young couple came to look for a friendly kitten as first time cat owners. Don't know why they didn't fall for Pixie who relaxed in their arms. She is the only available single at Safe (apart from Lyra and I don't like the look of the spot by her right eye). I suspect that they had looked at the web page and spotted Marguerite who is grey. So I gave them Irene's addy and they will visit foster homes.
I could have suggested Jagger but he was hiding out in Rosie's carry cage. As soon as his condo door was opened to let him wander this afternoon, he shot next door to Rosie and Callie's condo and went straight into the carrier. I think he misses Ronnie. I think Callie misses being number one kitten in Rosie's life.
Rosie sheltering Jagger |
Callie |
At about ten to four, as I was starting the evening feeds out back, I could hear cooing coming from the main cat room. A young, female in biking gear complete with a helmet was cooing at the cats. No other people around. She was talking simultaneously with her mum by phone (in Cantonese). They are about to move somewhere where they can have a cat. They want a really friendly cat. Just one. Most of our cats are paired at the moment (except Pixie. But I decided that Terry needs Pixie to keep his adoption numbers up for tomorrow). Besides she didn't notice Pixie. I introduced her to the friendly kittens from the fabulous fosterer who have yet to be desexed and she will return when they are ready. If I hadn't hustled her out the door she would still be there, cooing at cats.
Last week when I moved Gingi/y into Incoming from Boarding I noticed that not only was his bedding very wet, it smelled funny. I told Tim that he should take it to Dr Chris because the smell might be diagnostic. I don't know if Tim took the wet bedding (I wouldn't want that smell in my car!) or if Gingi/y provided another sample at the vets. But it seems that he has diabetes which is why he pees voluminously and why he has lost half his body weight ( 7 to 3.5 Kg). Now he is off the steroids and will have to go back to VetO to get his insulin dosage figured out.
Gingi/y |
Max |
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Jordan |
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Aslan |
Tim has organised a new rubbish collection for a twice weekly pick up of the garbage: 2 bins for this. And one bin for cardboard waste. Hurrah. Except that the bins didn't arrive as promised yesterday, or today. Perhaps tomorrow!
We comforted ourselves by adopting cats.
A couple arrived at 5 to 11 to adopt Delilah who was in a foster home in Hornsby. She arrived at 5 past 11.
Then a lady arrived to look for a cat to replace her older cat who recently died. She had picked out Libby, Ginger George and Max from the web page. She met them all but didn't click until she met Maeve who was delighted to meet somebody who was prepared to give her all the attention that she wants.
At that stage another couple (mother and daughter) arrived looking for a pair of cats. I showed them the usual suspects and they fell under the spell of Tibby and Tabby. The mum said that her daughter really needed somebody to love. Perfect! And the mum is a doctor. Perfecter! And they live in a small apartment with no stairs. Perfectest! Done deal.
Then my friend Liz arrived to get a pair of cats. She wanted somebody that she could pick up.
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Ginger George likes to be picked up |
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Calvin and Vivienne |
Meanwhile the lady who loved Maeve, moved on to Maisy and fell deeper in love with her. She will be back on Saturday to adopt her. So much for wanting an older cat! It was mutual and irresistible.
Maisy |
It was you |