A quiet Friday

 Thank goodness, After last week.

The only visitor we had was a cat rescuer/hoarder who came from the Western Suburbs to check us out. She was rather strident. Luckily Irene was there and dealt with her. Her friend bought lots of merch.

Lani came too with her magic UV torch to show up ringworm. She found quite a bit of it. There may be more residents in Isolation if Tim confirms her diagnoses.

Spook and Spell seemed to be free of it but their mum definitely has a nose full.

Spook & Spell

 Ginger Meggs came in to board. His person is quite frail after repeated spinal surgeries. I had to carry Megsie in from his car. The cat was, as usual, not impressed but he will remember us and become friendly and sweet, as usual.

"This is what I think of your chicken"

 I rearranged Sparrow's hammocks to a higher level. He loves it. And it proves that cats can see better with half an eye than humans can with two.

Sparrow

 Irene made cats available for adoption this weekend:

Itchy and Scratchy are a bonded pair.

Pickles is available for adoption and is a great favourite with the vollies because she is friendly, furry and funny.

Mango and Truffle who used to be Garrett and Jean upstairs. They have reverted to their original names and are a bonded pair. 

Mango and Truffle

 Also Artemis and Aura are  available.

All available cats have moved to the main floor. The Transit Lounge is now Quarantine where cats are to be "parked" for a fortnight to make sure that they don't have any nasty diseases (like ringworm) before being moved to the main floor for adoption. While in Quarantine they are "not to be handled". This was a great disappointment to the vollies today who were all ready to gather in a circle with a tiny kitten each on their lap. The kittens missed it too. 

 

New faces

 Of cats. The vollies are fairly stable now. But 13 cats were adopted last week so there are new ones and ones who have moved. Like Rosie who has moved, at last, from Transit Lane to Phoenix's stand along. She sneezed frequently today. (Her usual reaction to change).

Rosie

 Across the aisle below Mia, is Pickles who had splatters on her glass. Perhaps she has the same sneeze reaction to movement.

Pickles

Mia has dark (?bloody) splatters on her condo walls and glass which look old and dried blood. This changing weather makes for sniffles.

Next to Rosie are a new pair of kittens (only one black this time) who were left by Vivienne who was very sad to leave them with us. They are Freckles and Speckles. The black one is Freckles. Speckles has tiny clusters of black hairs in the white.

Freckles and Speckles

 Johnny is where Chanel was. She lasted less than a week in "the" stand-alone.

Johnny (Joy's photo. . . can't you tell!)

 Out the back are the S big kittens one of whom has some kind of crusty lesion on his nose. Irene suspects ringworm so we moved the litter into Isolation. The nose has a condo of her own. The other two are together. They are all black and very fluffy. Their names got confused: they are Spelt, Spirit and Spook.

 

 

Second time a sticker?

 The perfect adopters came in for Eleanor this morning. They saw her on the website and decided she was for them. So she was adopted, again.

Later another couple came in with a blue eyed dachshund strapped to her chest. They looked at everyone but stopped dead when they came to Pickles. They'd seen him on the web too. And I think had decided before they came. Because of the dog-cat situation, I involved Irene and eventually she asked enough leading questions to confirm that they are suitable owners of a short dachshund and a shy kitten. So that adoption was successful. We have saved the original, white, standalone that Pishi and her kittens were in for Pishi when she recovers from having had 4 kittens. She is being feed up with constant crunchies and wet food three times a day. And is still skinny.

Later in the afternoon, when David had arrived and could look after feeds, etc, I was again assistant cat washer. This time it was Fay's kittens who had a medicated bath to make sure that the ring worm treatment was complete. They were easier to get wet than Bonny was and were just as wiggly. They are now in the Transit Lounge and have lost faith in human beings.

Frankie and Floyd

Their mum, Fay is still in Isolation but should be moved out sooner rather than later. (I think she is on heat from the conversations she was trying to start today.)

We got 5 kittens (biggish, I think) from a couple who were devastated at having to hand them over. They seem very shy. And there was much discussion about what their names should be.

Bonny came home from the vet. Didn't hear whether or not they detected any lesions but she won't be available for adoption until her stitches are out in about 10 days. So get your Bonnie cuddles in.
 

An excess of ginger

A ginger mum and her six ginger kittens were brought in today by Sheridan. Irene asked me to give them names. She thought the mum's name of Ginger was too obvious.

Ginger Rogers with Bread, Snap, Pickles, TurmeRick, GingerBee(r), and Meg

I don't expect my names will stick but it was fun thinking about them. Sheridan wants to foster them as soon as her current litter is off her hands. Ginger Rogers was very stressed by the capture and transport procedure and poo'd herself and a couple of the kittens so it was a bit stinky there for a while.

Sheridan also picked up a pair of kittens en route. One is fluffy and the other is a DSH. So obvious names are

Fluff

and

Duff

 

They seem friendly but a bit overwhelmed by their day. . . . perhaps because of the smell in the car.

They are all in Incoming. Where Dusky has decided that she is a friendly cat.

Dusky

I moved Missy into the stand alone by the Welcome Door. . . . the stand alone that gets overlooked by adopters. She settled down nicely, after a while.

Missy

Consequences

 Because Jake and Josh got adopted their condo became available for Liam. 

Because Liam moved away from his "mother",  she promptly dropped another kitten in Incoming! I didn't get a photo. The kitten is too small and mum looks plump enough to have other kittens still to come.

Because Ryan and Luna got adopted (separately), Hansel and Derek moved into the front door stand alone and had a wonderful time in a space 6 times, at least, as big as their condo in Incoming.

Because Queen Victoria got adopted, Pickles was moved into her condo. He wasn't really pleased but I think he will enjoy watching other cats more than watching food.

So that means there are 3 empty condos on Better Row. Irene won't be able to resist that for long. She has 11 cats/kittens at her house.

And because a previous adopter dropped by few weeks ago to visit the cats and admire the hammocks I have two big bags of fabric scraps to make into hammocks. She was in the business of making face masks during Covid and has lots of left-overs.

And because an ex-vollie was collecting bedding for charity, she thought of us and rang to ask if we needed any fitted sheets. . . . no, thank you; blankets. . . . . no thank you; towels. . .. yes! please!

And, because we were busy I didn't get out my camera so here is an old photo of Dexter who made a dash for freedom during his condo cleaning. His cleaner was too wary of getting bitten to pick him up. But he is very good for me. . . . famous last words?

Dexter

And a photo of my Cody who is a Safe adoption. Sharon picked up her Leo this afternoon. He was very pleased to see her after being abandoned with us for 5 WHOLE DAYS!

Cody

Fingers crossed

 I was a bit early today. . . for a change. But I still didn't get to eat my lunch until a quarter to three. There were adoptions.

Salt was adopted, perhaps in the morning. Pickles is delighted to be all alone in a double condo. 

A couple came in to adopt Salt whom they had chosen from the website. So I showed them the other availables and they chose Little and Rory. I told them that it is a much better idea to get two kittens because they can play with each other at 4am without waking up their people. They believed me. I was so pleased that I gave them a litter tray (the green, wobbly one with curved edges that is a pain) and loaned them a carry cage to take the boys home in. Rowen will be devastated next Friday. They were his favourite cats being so easy to cuddle.

Then a woman came in to adopt Jade from foster. We filled in the paperwork. It is to be a holiday thrill for her children but she agreed that Jade should be in her own room so that she can have time away from the kids.

Then another woman came in, having been sent to us from Jiji's (the cat cafe on Eastern Valley Way). She checked the website and came to see Jade! Mostly because she wants a "tabby". So I showed her our tabbies. . . which come in ginger, grey and brown. She rather liked Eric who was being his shy, retiring self. She said she would think about it. 

Misty is a tabby

 So I feed the cats their chicken.

Lola has appointed herself the doorcat. Maybe she saw Marissa take her Azlan out to walk the corridor.

Lola

The new cats on Better Row, Miz and Riley seem more comfortable. What is their story?

Miz and Riley

Josie's kittens are getting big and bold.

Josie is the lowest face

While I cleaned up Sebastian and Peebles condo (they had knocked their water bowl into their litter tray in the excitement of seeing me with dinner coming towards them) Irene answered the phone. The woman who came in and met Eric wanted more details. She found the right person to ask. Irene could give her details that I had never heard. They chatted for ages, eventually in German! So I hope Eric has found his forever person.

Camera fail

 I took some quick photos late this afternoon to remind myself of new names. And the camera is on the blink. I will have to use my iPhone, I suppose. Or rely on Joy's photos which are much better than mine anyway.

Was delighted to find that Magic has disappeared. She has gone back to her foster home. Strangely enough, Willow, who is in the next door condo to where Magic was, was much more outgoing (or outcoming as she has consistently hidden in her cat carrier in her condo until today). She must have got some "keep away" vibes from Magic.

Magic's condo was occupied by four pretty kittens that I drove to a foster home in Avalon on my way home this evening. The fosterer lost her Burmese beloved over the New Year and is pining for more kitty love. These four should do it. The calico is reluctant but the others were friendly.

Stevie has been declared recovered from her desex wound (or from the treatment of iodine and honey). She is back with her brothers. Sabrina, their mother has disappeared from the Adoption list as well as from her condo so she must have been adopted!

And Gemma got adopted.

And Dexter got adopted. 

    But Tim was a bit dubious about that adoption. With good reason it transpired because Dexter came home to a beautifully spring cleaned condo this afternoon. The bloke who adopted him said that his flat mate really wanted a dog not a cat! 

And we got new cats as well as the 4 kittens for foster. There is Mouse, a small, 3 month old, all black boy. He adapted quickly to his new spacious digs in Gemma's stand alone.

Mouse

And Violet who is wearing one of our collars. Which is strange because I can't find them and Elsa has been desexed and doesn't have one on. (She would have had to be under anaesthetic for me to attempt to put one on her!) Likewise Gracie in Isolation has a new desex certificate and no collar.

Violet

And today two of Pickles kittens, Brine and Dill were adopted . . . to two separate families with (not too) young children. They are lovely kittens. But perhaps it is their catchy names that appeal. Geoff came this afternoon and installed a scratchy pole in their enclosure. Which meant that they had to be taken out of it, put into a carrier, entertained with bits of my lunch, until all the screws were tightened, the enclosure was reclad with cloth and put back in its cleaned position such that the litter tray fits. . . . Geoff is a treasure.

Pickles in the before enclosure

 AND, there was a telephone enquiry about Yang! . . .. or Ying

Ants

 I came home today to find ants in Cody's quarter full bag (4Kgm) of crunchies. It has been a very bad summer for ants here in Sydney and I had not sealed the zip seal properly last time I scooped out a jam jar of crunchies. Be warned. And hope that ants don't discover the Safe crunchy shelves!

I moved Pickles from Isolation (aka Maternity) into Dancer's enclosure. No, Dancer hasn't been adopted. She has been moved next to Angel and Rory and Little have moved to the condo below Virgo.

Pickles and co love their new space. They were acrobatic when exploring the possibilities when they first moved in. There are 3 hammocks. Top two have one kitten each, bottom one has two kittens. Mum gets to sleep on the floor.

Salt and Brine

Dill

Cucumber

Penelope and Dot were brought in by their foster carers. And left them with us accompanied by tears. They are quite young so should settle down well (both cats and people). [Dot is a boy and has a spot above his right eye].

Josie's kittens are doing very well. They are plump and adventurous. A grand advertisement for not having 7 kittens at one time like Betty did. Her lot have gummy eyes and empty tummies because she has quit feeding them.

Josie and her ginger

PC had time out today and got to meet Michelle. She was not impressed. He was much more interested in being groomed with the strange blue cylindrical toy-thing.

Michelle and PC

An Odd Day

 At 10am a woman arrived to choose one of Sabrina's kittens. They are not available yet. But she has been "told" by spirits that a Sabrina kitten is fated to be in her life and she must come to be chosen by the kitten or her world will . . . .. goodness knows what. Tim said "They are in Isolation and you can't go in there". "Come back when Prue has moved Pickles and her lot out of the play place, cleaned and sterilized it and put Sabrina's kittens in there". 

She was happy with that. And I got on with cleaning up Pickle's mess. She came back when the kittens were just exploring their new digs so were somewhat distracted. I shut her in with them. She phoned her medium to discuss the situation. After half an hour she had decided which kitten had "chosen" her with the help of the phone medium. 

So I said, when that kitten comes up on our web site, come and get her. "But I want her NOW". Sorry, she isn't on the web site. Besides. Her tummy looks a bit red and she can't get adopted until her surgery wound is all healed. 

Eventually she went away with our assurances that we wouldn't adopt "HER" kitten to anybody else.

In a effort to get normality, I gave PC and Dexter a run this afternoon (after Aslan had his). They decided that they are office cats. PC chose the guest chair and loved being groomed by Charlie. He has gloop in his left eye. Tim gave him some ointment.

PC loves to be groomed

PC's grooming tool

Dexter took over the office chair. It matches his eyes.

Dexter

Then we had a call from the emergency vets at Terry Hills. Last night man jumped from his balcony down four stories to his death. He had his small dog in his arms. The dog is only slightly injured. It is more shocked and is missing the other dog that was left in the apartment. The vets wanted to know if we would deal with the dogs. I said we don't have any dog fosterers. They are all foster fails. She said their staff would happily foster the dogs if we would do the adoption process. Tim was on the phone so while she was waiting to talk to him she said she would try the "pound". With success. Somebody else is taking the two dogs. 

I have a sore finger from playing tennis. My physio sister gave me a pair of gloves to ease the pain. Catsie came in to work with a sore hand. She is left handed so I gave her the glove that I don't need. It helped. I will try the right glove at tennis on Friday.

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.

No lunch

 I usually eat my lunch in the car on the way from tennis to the cats. I came from home today a bit earlier than usual and didn't think to eat. I had a vague passing lunch thought at 2pm when I let Lola out so that she could share some with me. But that thought was swamped by yet another visitor.

Visitors ranged from a pair of primary girls and their mum having a treat away from their iPads to interact with some kittens. Good for the kittens and a good opportunity to teach a kid how to hold a kitten. (With any luck the parent is taking on the instructions as well). They stayed for ages.

Then a couple came for a companion to their boy cat. Kind of looking for a girl but rather liked the pair below Aslan for their fluffy tails, Luna and Jack. But they are moving within the month. So they will keep an eye on the website to see when J & L become available. They considered Pippa who trilled at them. Nice young couple.

Then some litter and food was dropped by a couple who didn't stay. (Thank goodness because everybody else did!)

Then an ?Japanese woman arrive with some donations. I think she is Japanese because she kept stopping herself from bowing to me and happily sat on the floor to admire the cats. She came with gifts. . . . items from first class airplane travel. I rejected the polyester comforters, the toothbrushes in paper packages but accepted the towel, baggie full of sugar, coffee, etc and the $50 note! She stayed until I threw her out at 4pm. She held the bowl of chicken while I handed it out. I wonder how she found us.

Japanese visitor with Dexter

Then another young couple came in to find a companion for their teenaged rescue boy kitten. They looked at and loved everybody, especially Pippa. I gave my usual advice to take photos of the ones they really liked (all of them) and keep an eye on the web page. They went home to think. They live on Victoria Ave in Chatswood. How do I know that? They were back within half an hour with a carry cage to adopt Cherry (who will get along fine with an older kitten if she remembers her big brothers). Poor Peanut is all alone (with his mum who is coming into heat, again.)

Peanut

I tried to get a photo of Pickle's kittens who are getting more adventurous.

a pile of Pickles kittens

And of Cindy's slugs.

Cindy's babies

At four I still hadn't unpacked the clean washing. But Geoff came to take over the afternoon feed. So I did that and remembered that I hadn't eaten lunch.

Geoff rearranging Elsa's condo

Pre Christmas Chaos

 Katie's cats have all gone home so their condos needed to be cleaned. And more boarders have come and gone, so their condos needed to be cleaned. The bin of bowls and litter trays from Better Row were missed (sorry tomorrow's crew). PC and Pippa the kitten have been moved to Welfare area so more condos needed to be cleaned.

Boarding is about 70% full. We have Geoff's Anya who is not particularly happy but is interested in what is going on.

Anya

In the Nursery, two of Gracie's kittens went to the vet. The boy was absolutely fine but the girl could not get the feel of her Elizabethan collar. When put into the condo she immediately rolled over and played dead!

By dinner time she had recovered enough to eat and I couldn't tell which boy had been to the vet because he was fed before he left the vet.

Pickles kittens are charming the vollies.

I think two of them are all black so don't photograph well.

At dinner time, three of Elsa's had escaped when there was nobody around except a vollie who stayed for the afternoon to play with the cats and think about practicing her English. Luckily she was in the kitchen to shut the door of the Nursery. When I came with food, it was easy enough to catch the kittens and pop them back with their mum. I don't like my chances of doing so well if Elsa escaped!

 

 

Furnishing the new enclosures

 Two cats need two hammocks. So I added one to Logan and Angus's condo.

Slow adopters

And to Trude and Prue's enclosure.

Trude and Prue understand "one each"

Blossom and her kittens didn't have one. So far, they don't know what to do with it.

Cherry and Peanut prefer the bench (Mum Blossom on floor)

And I wasn't quite brave enough to put one in Mia's enclosure. She'd had enough of this changing houses malarky.

Mia

 I also moved all the litter trays to the front of the enclosures because when the cats dig, with enthusiasm, the litter goes everywhere including out of the enclosures. If the litter tray is at the back, that means there is litter behind them which is difficult to clean up.

Pickles had her babies (5, I think) over the weekend. I installed a hammock for her to give her a roof to her box bed. She must have had the babies in her previous hammock because it is in the box.

Pickles plus newborns

 We left Lola in charge when the storm drove us home.

Lola

She can visit with Thelma and Louise who will have a night in the Top Cat (sounds like a glamorous club)

Thelma and Louise