Cuddle time

The Friday morning crew finished up early and had left by the time I arrived at 12:30. Or perhaps it was the smell that drove them away. I talked Tim into turning on the fan. The worst smell might have come from the A kittens. I replaced the dirty white sheet that "protects" the dreaded painting.

Angelo and Annabelle 

(who deny that anything was going on)

I decided to spend time with the shy cats.

Bonnie loved her pats especially if I stroked her with her small mouse.

Bonnie

Milly wasn't keen to be touched but was soft eyed and blinky. And she was very interested in what was going on with the other cats she could see with her doors open. Kit Kat and Maggie demanded, and got, extra food. I always thought that they were both girls. But KitKat is a boy. He has the straight line of white up his nose. Her line wobbles.

KItKat

Penny was keen. She looked heartbroken when I stopped. Olivia did not want to be touched. Or even looked at, thank you.

While I was stroking Candace, who loves it, Elsa managed to knock her food bowl from her ledge. It must have given her a surprise as well as everybody else. She was probably leaning forward watching me pet Candace. I fed the escapee crunchies to her sisters who appreciated them (having eaten their own HOURS ago). And gave Samantha a box which she immediately got into. Tim suggested that she might like it better than sitting in her litter tray. She is not easy to see in the box.

Samantha

Taylor seems settled in a condo away from Buffy (who loves her venison soft or crunchie). But Taylor hadn't eaten any of her crunchies. She ate them when I put them under her nose, one by one. But not out of the bowl. . . . cats!

Taylor

Another whisker

While I was giving Blossom some attention this afternoon I noticed that she has a short whisker on her jaw bone, below her ear. She has one on each side which match. I had not noticed these back whiskers before. Tim hadn't noticed them either. Then he looked at other cats and some have them and others don't.
Caramel doesn't have them.
Candace has very visible white ones. (I gave her a corrugated scratchy pole for something to do). And I stood beside Evie and unravelled the feather toys to entertain her.)

Candace

I gave Samantha a scratchy pole. She was not impressed.

Samantha

Buffy's skin is looking much better and less itchy. The hair is growing back on the shaved areas.

Buffy.

 I decided that the tiny kittens should be called Fred(a) and Ginger as they play footsies. Tim says that they hope to have a naming competition for them as a fund raiser, if they can figure out how to do it.
I washed their feet which were much better than on Wednesday. Apart from a footprint on the back of Ginger's neck, he was quite clean and excessively wiggly. Freda's feet were the usual skate board of hardened poo. But she purred loudly while I soaked her feet and picked turds from between her toenails. They were rewarded by food. No wonder their tummy's are so round.

Ginger and Freda

New instructions and a new vollie

Sue indoctrinated us and Robin (new vollie willing to do Joy's other Wednesday plus some other day/s. . . brilliant) on the new protocol. I mentioned that we should use the red buckets for the dirty scoops. That will be added to the protocol as it got a big tick. Let us hope that no vollies are colour blind. Because of that and that Robin is new, it took rather longer than it should have. Nevertheless, the garbo's hadn't come by when we left at 2pm so we dumped our trash bags locally which is a big win for the atmosphere in the car especially on a hot day like today.

Sue asked me to take photos of the following cats because they are all now available and can be posted on various platforms. If you have a better photo, please send it to Sue.

Wendell

Penny

Olivia

Peanut

Elsa

Melody

Evie

Blossom

Samantha

Enough excitement for one day

It started quietly enough with Joy wrangling kittens out the back and me cleaning the welfare cats. 

We had finished all but the three wild ones who Tim brought from Lauren's. They were supposed to be "sweet" when given to us, but either the process has been upsetting for them or the donors lied. Or perhaps they didn't like the names chosed for them: Winston (ginger), Wesley and Tammy. They were in the condo below Scarlett as a hissing, spitting trio. Tim decided that they should be separated to give them a chance to be socialized. We set up sheets as barriers to make a straight path to the condo where Shivers was. Tim donned his gauntlets. Tim grabbed the cat he wanted but Tammy hightailed it to freedom.

Silly girl chose to bolt behind the condo block adjacent to the ghastly wall art. Sienna had tried that before so Tim had a method involving a broom. We again set up "barriers" of blankets and sheets to direct her to the nearest condo. The broom was inserted and the cat shot straight out and up the huge climbing tree. Luckily I was standing beside it and grabbed her and threw her into the condo. It was over in two seconds. No blood was drawn. My heart beat fast for five minutes. 

So the ferals are sorted. They will soon be tamed by tender words, food and love.

Next door (below Kimmy) are four little kittens and their mother who hides under the bed. The kittens are friendly. Charlie was prepared to play footsies with one of them.

Charlie

Joy played with another

 Smokey was surrendered this morning. She walked out of her carry case into the condo but would not say goodbye nicely  to her person. There was a clash with a dog at home. I doubt she will be with us for long.

Smokey

Samantha was very keen to be patted so I decided to wipe the gunk from her eyes. She didn't like my choice of cloth so I had to do it with my fingers which I washed three times and F10'd throughly. Candace is full of flu. But her kittens don't seem to be infected.

Four kittens came and went

I am not sure where they came from but when I arrived this afternoon to a wonderfully cleaned Safe Haven (thank you morning crew) there were two tiny kittens and two slightly bigger kittens looking for a mama. They had been to the vet earlier in the day and given subcutaneous fluids. The two tinyest ones may not make it. They are "mouth breathing". The bigger ones were trying their best to keep their little sibs warm.
 I tried to give them some formula but most of it ended up on their chest rather than in their tummies. Three out of four were successfully toileted. .. . so I haven't lost that knack.

Tim took them to a fosterer in Dee Why who has a mother cat whose kittens have been recently weaned in the hope that she would take to this little family. And she did. . . immediately. Such a relief. Even if the tiny ones don't make it, at least their last days will be under the loving tongue of a mama cat. This fosterer has families of kittens in almost every room of her house.

The SH cats know that I bring grass on Friday afternoon and set up a feeding frenzy noise as soon as they see me. I have to throw grass into their condos quickly to quieten them down. I then go back later to each condo to help them eat it. They prefer their grass to point upwards rather than to lie flat. I am happy to hold it for them while telling them how beautiful they are.

Tilly

Tilly has worn an Elizabethan collar this week. So I stuck her grass in her spiral toy. When I came back to "help" her eat it, I expected her to hiss at me. But she almost threw herself at me with purrs and wiggles. What a change of personality! Eventually I felt sorry that she couldn't eat easily (food left in bowl) or drink with that great collar on, so I took it off. And she reverted, somewhat, to her usual hissy personality. But she was more interested in cleaning herself. So when she had done that and her tongue (and teeth) arrived to her stitched tummy, I put the collar back on her. And she became smoochy again. Go figure!

Samantha has become a smoochie cat too. Tim says that her eyes aren't as mucky since he started to pat her. Is it the power of touch or coincidence? She was more interested in having me pat her than eating her grass upright or lying down. (Her sister, Elsa, was so horrified when Tim took her, in her square bed to the vet earlier in the week, that she has reverted to hiding on her upper, inaccessible shelf).

Tortie

Tortie has always been a SMOOCHER. It is such a pity that she caught the flu. Her vocalisations are "varied", to say the least. Whereas, Pepi just hisses, still.

Pepi

Photos curtesy of Joy because I forgot my camera today.

Bailey's story

Sandy did a sterling job this morning. All that was left was a few dishes, etc to wash. Thank you.

So I had time to fit the washed bedding back into the shelves and feed the cats grass.

There are only two condo's of boarders on the back row. It was full last Friday. But there are 6 or 8 boarders on the front row. And Blossom who doesn't feel as though she has put on any weight despite being on double rations. She enjoyed the grass.

Charlie waited patiently for his turn. It is a pity that he is so far down the list.

The grass helped me make friends with Diva who has a wonderful purr and Little Ginj even let me pat him, for a while. And then he decided he wanted to play handsies, so I stopped playing before it got bloody.

Diva and Little Ginj

At least their sister Samantha comes out to watch the action. I haven't set eyes on their other sister Elsa who lives on the very top shelf behind her bed. The food disappears and the litter tray gets used but not while there are people about.

Samantha

Bailey belonged to an old lady who died. The family came and emptied out the house and left the cat behind. The nice neighbour man looked after Bailey for 4 years before asking the vet for help because he felt that his time was near (the man not the cat: Bailey is only 7 years old). He is a lovely boy. Wasn't the least bit interested in the grass but wanted more cuddles.

Bailey

Tortie needs cuddles more than grass too. I left her to last because she has the most flu and gave her a good body rub. Don't you love her white whiskers: one on each side, straight out like a villain's moustache.

Tortie

Curtains away

Some of the cats who had modesty curtains last week have had their curtains dropped. Diva and Little Gins for example. They are some of the first litter of the queen (still without a label). Diva is a friendly dark tortie and her brother (I assume) is a shy ginger but I don't think he will hide for much longer.

Diva

Their sisters Samantha and Elsa may not have a curtain to hide behind but they keep well out of reach. As does their mother.

ElsaSamantha

But her kittens are at the stage that they need to be handled by a few people. Tim said that they hissed at him initially. . . . quite hard to look as though you mean it when you don't have teeth. But they were friendly with me. There are two gingers and two dark tabbys.

Foxy has found a foster home. She will be happy snoozing there. And Annabelle might be taken home on Friday. So I tried to comb around her head. There was a huge lump under her chin that we cut half off. She must have been a well loved and frequently groomed cat earlier in her life because she put up with the pulling and tugging while on my knee out in the open.

Annabelle

The plan is to move this blog to the Safer website. I will run it here as will until things internet settle down.

First day

This morning I did my first volunteer stint at Safe Haven in Chatswood.
Tim was glad to have somebody else to do the work so that he could catch up on the paperwork, I think. He was finishing up feeding when I arrived at 10am.
It wasn't too onerous for one person as there are not too many cats, the space is small and protocols minimal.

There are only two boarders. I didn't get photos. One is still cross at being abandoned.

Shivers has the flu so I did him last. He had it when he arrived covered in something gunky which has mostly been hacked off.

Shivers

Other cats have strange names too:


Zero, a calico.

Zero

Dotty, a tortie without spots. Maybe it is her personality

Dotty

Foxy, is anything but at 15 years old

Foxy

Blink, who stares.

Blink

Hidden behind privacy towels are Milly, Tilly, Elsa, Diva and Little Gins who are the first family of a very young mum who has five (?) newborns.  Then, across the way, Samantha is also shrouded.