Adoption Tails: Fiona, Billy, Pebbles

Fiona

1 day: Fiona is doing very well. She's ate, drank and used her litter tray already. She's also already daring enough to venture outside of her safe room (despite the owner's attempt at stopping her) and explore the rest of the house. She looks less bothered than the resident cat!

1 week: Fiona and the resident cat are getting along great now! They're chasing each other around the house and grooming each other already.

1 month: Fiona and the resident cat are getting along great, the owner thinks they're good friends now. "Thank you and the SAFE team for being so accommodating and having taken such good care of her!"

Billy

1 day: Once the owners got home with Billy yesterday, he hid under the bed throughout the rest of the day. Once the sun set, he came out, explored the apartment and even allowed the owners to pet him. He even sat on the floor near them to watch TV for a fair bit. He ate, drank and used the litter tray after dark (the owners could hear him shuffling around all night) but retreated back under the bed when the sun came up and hasn't come out since. The owners have been giving him his own space and leaving him to it.

 1 week: Billy is doing well and is starting to get a bit cheeky. He is comfortable roaming around his new home and likes playing with the family. Very happy to sit with them for pats and scratches. Billy doesn't hesitate to meow for things he wants, even at 4am. He is still adjusting to the toddler but they have been keeping a respectful distance with each other -- they just stare at each other for the most part. The owners won't rush the adjustment.

1 month: Can't believe it has been a month already. Billy is definitely a lot more comfortable at home and is showing more of his character! He likes having his fur brushed, playing with the cat toys and perching on the armchair to look out the window. Their toddler loves Billy though Billy is still a bit cautious around smaller humans -- he is happy to be in the same room as the toddler. The parents haven't forced Billy to accept pats from little hands yet, they're letting Billy take his time with this! "Thanks again for looking after Billy before we brought him home with us!"

Pebbles

5 days: “I absolutely love her to bits, she is the perfect little companion (as well as my soul mate). We're like 2 peas in a pod! She's doing amazing & loves her new home”. She’s such a beautiful, affectionate girl." Her owner is keeping her name as it’s cute and suits her. She loves the dressing gown and is currently snuggling on it. “She’s the best”

1 month: “She's doing amazing!! Love my girl so much”

Joy's Wednesday

Billy in main cattery

Hilda and white kitten in Incoming

Gracie on Better Row

Pebbles just inside the door

Valentina in Boarding

New boy LeClerk in Cat Palace

lookalikes. . Mum and son: Heidi and Axel

Terry Tidys up

 Terry came today on his day off to replace Dexter's mesh. I remembered to bring my needle and thread and luckily by the time I arrived (late because of DH's doc visit) he had already removed the screws, located the mesh and was on the job. Meatball was delighted that his new condo (he is now available so out of Incoming) because he got to roam around while the vollies were working so could make mad dashes out the front or back door then get chased, picked up, cuddled and settled onto another lap. 

After Terry finished his mesh, he started to repairing all the cat carriers that adorn the top of the condos. Many of them didn't have doors that fitted, or tops that stayed with bottoms, etc, etc. By the end of the day there were only 4 left that couldn't be repaired. All the rest are neatly stacked on top of the condos or in the area where goods are for sale because they are almost new. THANK YOU Terry.

And Joy was back from her eventful holiday in the UK. She tested the National Health and was delighted by the service. And for friends and relatives who made her mum's fall bearable. We will celebrate with some of her photos from today.

Lion and Enoki are in Oscar's enclosure.

Lion (calico) and Enoki

And Sebastian and Pebbles are in Yin and Yang's enclosure. I made new hammocks for them out of the mask fabric brought in a couple of weeks ago by a visitor.

There seems to be a wine theme going on with names. Merlot and Jerry are where Sebastian and Pebbles used to be in the corner.

Merlot and Jerry

And Gino Grigio and Pino Nero are in the stand alone next to Julie and Bassuria where. . . . used to be. (Having a senior moment). I installed two hammocks (old ones) for them.

Gino Grigio & Pinot Nero

Amelia is where Annabelle and Abagail used to be. That has fine alliteration.

Amelia

Movement in photos

 Is not as desirable as movement in adoptions. But is inevitable. Trude and Prue were sitting at attention this afternoon, waiting for chicken. But as soon as I pulled out my camera one or the other moved.

 Miz and Riley have a "bonded pair" sign but they really don't act like a pair. Only one ever comes out for a wander when the door is open. Charlie likes them because they don't eat all of their crunchies and they let him come into their condo.

Riley and Miz

The folk who were going to come to adopt Yang either didn't come or got talked out of it. The sisters are both still here. Yang tends to hang out on a top shelf and Yin stays in a hidey hole. Both accept pats happily enough.

While Billy and Harley are not in the same condo (Billy is above Harley) they seem to have the one still/one moving vibe going:

Billy

Harley

I gave Harley a cuddle this afternoon and almost had to wash my face afterwards. She is very enthusiastic.

A bloke rang up about Cooper. He regularly looks after other folk's cats and wants one of his own because the hole in the house when the cat goes home is just too hard to live with. If he takes Cooper, he will be able to have other folk's cats visit because today Cooper, PC, Harry and Charlie all shared the front desk while Meatball frolicked in the corridor. Harry has been moved from Better Row to Betty's stand alone. I am not surprised that he preferred his bed on the desk: the stand alone was uncovered and hammock-less. It is habitable now.

Muffin and Venice were the last ones out in the Top Cat. (Sebastian and Pebbles had a fine ping pong ball game, Sparkle surveyed his domain and Abigail and Annabelle had a lovely time there too). I hope it is not too hard for Irene to take it down in the morning.

Muffin and Venice

Happy Harry

 Sorry I am late. Geoff usually does the night feed on Fridays but he has gone off to WA to swim with the whales and enjoy the big skies. For three weeks. . . . 

But Irene came today to catch up the paperwork on the cats who are ready for adoption. There should be new faces on our website soon. Hansel and Derek are ready to go. They want out of their stand alone. They wiggle so much it is difficult to get a good photo of them. Sod's law says that after all the efforts to get photos of them together and separate today by Irene and others, Terry will find them a home tomorrow.

Somebody was handing out clean cat beds. I don't know how Harry came to have his put on the front desk. He was happy and stayed there most of the afternoon while Cooper was on the poof under the computer.

Harry is happy

Later Charlie took up his preferred place on the visitors chair. (Lola spends her days on the conference table on Cass's hoodie in a cat bed in Opies room). Champ was tucked into a stratchy pole box.

Charlie

I agreed with Sebastian and Pebbles that they NEEDED time out in the Top Cat.

And Miz actually got up to visit them. 

Riley was not going anywhere, thank you!

Theresa's four are only three these days. The little one has gone to foster. The remainders are getting bolder. There are two white ones and one tortie. We need names beginning with T.

Amelia has been desexed and moved to Boarding. She was quite confused this afternoon. But quite needy. As was Mira. And Epsilon. Maybe it was a bit chilly back there.

Cat fight

 Well, after the weekend we know which one is Harley and which is Quin. Quin has been adopted so it is Harley who is still with us. I can't tell if she is the friendlier tortie or has become friendlier since her sister left her.

Harley

My camera was playing up today so it is still difficult to tell who is who.

One of our earlier vollies, Monica brought in her cat. Molly whom she adopted from us, to board while she goes to Canada for a holiday. Somebody had left instructions about the eardrops to be applied to a boarding cat called Epsilon. Turns out they changed her name. She might be the same Molly who might have been adopted on the blog of September 1, 2023. Her name has been changed to Epsilon. (Google definition: Epsilon: the fifth letter of the Greek alphabet (E, ε). the consonant sound represented by this letter. Mathematics: an arbitrarily small quantity, used to indicate that a given quantity is small, or close to zero. 

She will be with us for three weeks. She is not close to zero.

Epsilon

Later, after letting Seb and Pebbles out into the Top Cat (which they love), I noticed that Dexter's window was covered in snot. So, as he had been happy out wandering with other cats before, I let him out and cleaned his perspex. Then the screaming started. He went for Cooper. I went for him. Used my foot to separate them. Shepherded Dexter back into his condo with the rubbish tin lid and retired for bandaging.

Cooper afterwards just wanted cuddles

Dexter afterwards (when my camera went on the blink)

Ignore the blood smears on the floor. They are either mine or Adrians who got smacked by Billy earlier in the morning or Azar's who got chomped on by Betty yesterday.

Lily and Patches gone

 The nice couple came yesterday to adopt them. Even Tim agreed that they are nice people. But he didn't give them the round hidey hole that Lily lived in for the first month that she was with us. It is worn to tatters now and would hardly have been a pleasant gift to get. But Lily would have been comforted by its familiarity. 

I cut off the worst of the shredded covering cloth, cleaned it, gave it a good spray and put it into their Enclosure, in memorium, so to speak.

A woman and her wheelchair pusher came to visit some cats because Jiji's, the cat cafe on Eastern Valley Way, area for wheelchairs is in the open and the weather was not conducive to sitting outside today. They wheeled out the back and I immediately put Harry on her lap. They were both delighted and had a good pat and cuddle. He is such a tolerant cat.

But later, when he wanted food, he showed his loud side. And when he got out of his condo and wanted into the main cattery, he showed his determined side. Such a character.

Talking of which, Betty has been in the stand alone by the door. She tries to engage every person who walks through the door. I thought perhaps she wanted to play rather than just wanting more food. So I put up the Top Cat straight-wise, wheeled her stand alone into that area and had a vollie try to entice her out with a wand toy. No way was Betty going to go out of her stand alone, thank you. She might have for food, though. I gave up eventually and pushed her back to where Cooper was. She can watch other cats wander around and play. And Cooper can be the door warden when he is not sitting on his poof under the computer desk.

Later I let Pebbles and Sebastian into the Top Cat. On Wednesday they were very reluctant to venture out of their condo. This afternoon they came straight out and started to play.

Pebbles and Sebastian

The only other photo I took was of Barry and Blaze. They looked so comfy on a newly warmed up hot water bottle. Wonder what happened to the hotty cover?

Barry behind Blaze

A family (Mum, Dad and teenaged daughter) came to look at kittens. Luckily they rather fancied champagne kittens. They wanted to compare Ryan's colouration with Josh's. So we let Ryan walk in front of their condo. . . in the gutter. They all enjoyed that. The family has gone home to think about it and check out the foster kittens. Irene says that we have even more champagne kittens almost ready to be uploaded.

Movements

 You will have noticed that there are more cats on the for Adoption web page. Irene came in today and helped Tim make some decisions. 

Consequently, Josh and Jake have left Josie on Better Row and moved into Bonny's condo. They trashed it within 5 minutes. So Josie must have been exerting some discipline on them when they shared a condo. With any luck, Terry will do his magic tomorrow and they will be gone.

There were also cats moved to foster homes. The three kittens who came in on Wednesday have gone to another foster home. Elsa has gone to a foster home (good luck with that wild child!) As has Tiger and the two little tabbies from Incoming.

Now in a foster home

Plus, this afternoon Annabelle was adopted by a vollie.

And Fleur was adopted by a woman who adopted another of our kittens a few months ago. He is pining for a playmate so Fleur is a lucky kitten. Florence and Freya were in a mourning ball after she left.

I have solved the problem of Barry eating Blaze's food. Put down their dishes in separate corners of their stand alone. When Barry has gobbled most of his meal, he rushes over to gobble Blaze's. Pick him up and put him back in front of his dish. Repeat this procedure until Blaze has finished most of his meal. Then when Barry rushes over, move his dish to the spot where Blaze's was and vice versa. And move Blaze to the other side of the condo in front of his dish. Barry will settle down and demolish the final few scraps that he left in his dish. I don't suppose that this will work for long. But it might work for long enough for Blaze to put on a bit of weight.

Too busy to take any photos this afternoon. I even forgot to eat my lunch. Some photos from Wednesday.

Cooper got a little walk this afternoon

One of the Wednesday vollies wants Bubbles. Today I learned that one of the Friday vollies wants her too.

Bubbles

Sebastian and Pebbles are on the for adoption list. We must get them out of the corner.

Pebbles and Sebastian in Incoming

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.