Low Lola

 Irene was horrified to find the "new" stratchy pole that Lola loved to loiter on was covered with her hair and her upchucks. Irene moved it into the corridor to give it a good cleaning in the hope that somebody will buy it. Lola wandered around looking lost. She climbed into the bookshelf and sat with the Safe hats for a while but eventually retreated to ground level. No nose bumps there.

Lola

It was a very quiet afternoon. The most exciting thing was when the wooden, crate-like carrier was picked up, at last. And a pair of boarders were transferred to a fosterer to take home. 

Although when I was handing out chicken (thank you Catsie, the cats loved your crispy chicken skin) I noticed a black cat waiting for me in the Welfare area . . . . not confined. On investigation it turned out to be Mia. How did she get out? With chicken in my hand she was easy enough to get back in. 

Sesame is settling in but doesn't like us yet (or my chicken).

Sesame

Cuddlepie declined to venture into the Top Cat.

Cuddlepie

Mickey prefers to be in his bed box.

Mickey

There is an new cat come in from foster in Rebecca's condo. He is Simba and is confused.

Simba

Mums and bubs are doing well except that Whitney prefers to spend most of her time in her upper bed box where the little suckers can't get at her. They happily eat baby food. We think she must come down to feed them when she is ready.

Whitney upstairs

Little Ws downstairs

 

Adoption Tails: Schmoo, Benny, Sesame, Agnetha and Bjorn

Schmoo = Nefertiti

 1 day: She is going great. She has been renamed Nefertiti, or Nefi for short. She’s eating, drinking, pooping, peeing, and sleeping well. When her owner checks on her in the safe room, she comes over for pets and rolls onto her back for belly rubs.
1 week: Nefi is going well and has been exploring. She loves her food and playing with her toys. It’s getting hard to keep her in the safe room as she wants to get out but their resident cat is not quite ready to meet her yet. Her owner will try site swapping for short periods of time. Otherwise, she is settling in wonderfully.

1 week

1 month: Nefi is going well. She is much more confident now, runs around like crazy and is more willing for cuddles. Their resident cat isn’t sure about Nefi’s enthusiasm but is getting used to her. “Nefi is such a beautiful little one and we love having her in our family.”

Schmoo/Nefi 1 month

 Benny = Mango

1 day: He’s doing great! Very much settled in, and is eating, drinking and pooping. He does long meows at night but they usually pet him to console him and then he stops. 

1 week: Benny has been renamed Mango. He’s been great and started exploring outside of his safe room on the second day. He’s very inquisitive and friendly. He settled in immediately, cuddles up to his owners when he’s sleepy, plays well, poops every day and is always after their food when they’re eating. He no longer meows during the night. “We can't believe our luck, he's been absolutely adorable and lovable!”

Benny/Mango 1 week

Sesame

1 day: She is eating, drinking and using the litter tray. “She’s settling in very well! She’s perfect.”

Sesame 1 day

1 week: She is doing well! She has explored the whole apartment now. She is comfortable being out in the lounge room and has made the place her own. Her appetite has improved massively and she is now eating very well. 

1 month: She’s doing great. She’s fully at home now and has a good eating schedule. She’s super playful, independent, and sleeps fine. “We’re a happy family”

Sesame 1 month

Agnetha = Maggie Mae and Bjorn = Freddie

1 day: Everything is going well. They both seem as happy and playful as when they were at SAFE and are finding their way around their room. They are both eating, drinking and using the litter tray.

Bjorn: day 1

Agnetha: day 1

1 week: They’re doing brilliantly! Agnetha is now Maggie Mae and Bjorn is now Freddie (Mercury). They’re currently both gobbling down their meals super quickly. They are happy, active and growing. Their owner has been occasionally opening the door to let them explore outside of their safe room. Freddie is braver than Maggie who meows every time Freddie disappears. Their owner says they are hilarious and they clumsily prance around each other. 

1 month: Both are doing well. Maggie is getting increasingly confident.

Freddy and Maggie Mae: 1 month

 

Cat watching

 There were some adoptions over the weekend: Benny, Earl, Gia, Schmo, Scout, Sesame and Smudge.

Our cats have been moved back from next door. Their condos have been cleaned. Our cats have been rearranged on Better Row. They all seemed subdued this afternoon.

Lucy, sporting new multicoloured hair tackled the dry food shelves. They are now neatly labelled and perfectly organised. I didn't take a photo. I will take one on Friday when she has installed the proper, typed labels. I didn't take a photo of the great wall of poo bags on the back deck either. . . . too disgusting.

Tiger and Phantom parallel played this afternoon.

Phantom and Tiger

But Tiger is really a desk cat.

Tiger

And Phantom is a chick magnet. Yin and Yang can't resist watching him

Yin, Yang, Phantom

Talking about being watched. Tibby was inspected by Ginger George and Max (who she must think of as dirty old men)

Ginger, Tibby, Max

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Goodbye Sesame

I was worried when I realized that Sesame was not in her condo and it had the "please clean" sign. She wasn't in the Available for Adoption file, on the website as having been adopted. I worried that she had taken a turn for the very worst. But Irenne rang in the afternoon to check on the flu cases and told me that Dr Kim came in on Sunday to teach her how to give vaccinations and spotted Sesame. When Sesame first arrived it was via Dr Kim for a checkup. Dr Kim fancied her then. She fancied her even more on Sunday. So on Monday, she came to adopt her. She will have expert, constant veterinary care and we hope she does not get as fat as Angus.

Below Christopher are four more Stephanie kittens. These are not so over-the-top friendly as the previous bunch. In the photo they are, starting from 1 o'clock, clockwise: Hank, Jean, Logan and Anna Marie.

Charles has been returned "because he was too playful".

And Nori was returned because he sneezed.

Another woman came in with a donation of weird shaped litter boxes. She adopted Paco and Ethan in the early days. She, and the family, love them. They have made being house-bound very enjoyable (although she suspects that the cats prefered to have the house to themselves). She has a teenaged son who drops his dirty clothes on the floor. One of the cats adds his smell to the pile. What to do? [I told her to call Tim]. The annex has been rearranged and has lines on the floor that the germs are not allowed to cross.

Belle was looking better today. She has her appetite back.

Marigold's flu seems a bit better but Lily is miserable (but she still managed to purr at the vollies).

No phone peacefullness

I was all organised for a busy morning with lots of vollies but it turned out quiet. The main reason for the quiet was that the phone wasn't working properly and the internet wasn't working at all. Irene spent ages trying to sort out the phones. Occasionally a call would come through. It was very strange. And quietly un-stressy. Sandy didn't come. I didn't think to check my phone until I was driving home. There will probably be a load of "sorry" messages when it is all working again. But Catsie dropped by and was put to work washing up and meeting cats. She distracted Sesame while I Gumptioned her condo. That cat has the filthy-est paws and the flirty-est manner. Even Lily was delighted to meet Catsie.

One of Rosie's six newborns died this morning . . . a ginger male. I took him next door and Dr Kim could only count 3 heart beats. Later she took time out beside her litter box and I got a photo of her pile of kittens snuggled up on a heat pad.

I was worried about Belle because she didn't eat her breakfast until dinner time. Then she ate her dinner as well and wanted a look around.

Suki threw up her dinner last night so had to have a complete redecoration of her condo. It was probably a hair ball. I took a flicker to her and got a pile of hair as tall as her.

Daphne is doing really well as are her kittens. On Wednesday I had to encourage the boys to eat and the girl ate happily. Today, the boys gobbled down everything and until her nose cleared in the afternoon, the girl had to be helped to eat. After that it was a matter of keeping the boys away from her food until she had time to eat it. [Suggested names: Dianthus, Douglas (fir) and Dandelion]

The nice couple who adopted Salt dropped by at 4.10pm after their appointment with Dr Kim to tell us how well he is doing, how much they love him and how happy they are to have got him from us.

Rosie news

Remember Rosie whose face we didn't see for weeks because she hid in her bed mourining her surrender. Eventually she turned around to see what was happening in her new environment.

Then she decided that we were alright, after all. And shortly afterwards she was adopted. The woman who adopted her came by this afternoon to buy her a scratchy pole. She got Rosie because her previous pair of cats died (one after the other) and she grieved for 2 years before being ready to jump back into the pool of cat loving. She is soooooo happy with Rosie. Rosie has her own room, with en suite, that she will return to when her mum has had enough tummy time. Rosie talks to her and anybody who comes to visit. She poses for paintings (the owner is an artist). They are very happy together. But the owner is concerned at how she bereft she will be if Rosie dies and leaves her catless. Easy solution! When Rosie is completely relaxed, come get a big boy kitten from us! If you always have two cats you will never be catless. Cabbie and his big sisters Uber and Taxi were picked up by their Cabramatta family. They now have unpronouncable Russian names. The mother cat has been desexed. The kittens have been microchipped. The family is happy to have them back again. Short, sweet stay. The soft drink kids were in the play place this afternoon. Irene had a great cuddle with them all but they were wary of me, even though I fed them milk.

I tidied up out the back to make litter trays more accessible. And then distributed treats. Belle needs more treats. She is growing splendid white whiskers.

Sesame is an easy cat to give love to after Octavia who is very suspicious still.

And Christopher has come on leaps and bounds since his brother was adopted.

Talking of adoptions. Star was adopted. Don't expect her back. Her person has been waiting for her for ages. Her condo has been filled by the mum and kittens that Amy was supposed to pick up on Wednesday but they never arrived. They came this afternoon at 4:30pm. And Zelda has been adopted. Let's hope it sticks this time.

SH is good for your heart

It gives it exercise in all different ways. For example, when I arrived this morning I quickly went around to check on each cat and to count them (85 but I think I may have missed Octavia and other stand alones). Everybody was in their place. So I took the (17) trash bags out to the garbage bins because Wednesday is the day when the garbos come and there are lots of half empty bins along the street. When I got back the last time the Japanese kittens were running all over the place. They had forced their way through the hole in their screen door that I mended last Friday. I quickly rounded them up and popped them back with a temporary bit of cardboard. That is when I discovered that their mum wasn't there. Wasabi could have been anywhere. Under the food shelves, on top of the condos, over the balcony. . . . Terry arrived and started the search. After about 5 minutes he stopped and said "But Wasabi went home on Saturday". Such a relief for my poor overworked heart. You have got to love Terry. The day proceeded. The vollies arrived and found that we have very few gloves. I asked them to spray their hands with F10, put on gloves, clean cat 1, take off gloves, respray with F10, do cat 2 without gloves, spray hands, put on gloves, clean cat 3, etc, etc. It cuts the glove usage in half. And the cats prefer skin to plastic. Billy positively stroked himself against my hand. He was all about the pats today. Last week he was all over Joy as well.

Amber has two room mates. They are probably her siblings. They are shy as she was when she arrived but I can pat her now.

Sesame has always been all about the pats. She doesn't have any canines so has trouble keeping her tongue in her mouth when she is happy.

Zelda is back and available. Third time lucky, we hope. Especially since I cut an old, dry turd from the tip of her tail!

Windsor is not happy in his new digs. . . . same hidey hole but not as willing to come out for strokes.

Mattie and Maddie have been moved away from Marigold. None of them are happy about it, yet.

But Peggy was happy to have a gloveless pat.

At the final feeding of the day, I gave Marmalade his portion of crunchies and he looked at me with a hurt expression on his face. "Where is my cuddle?" it seemed to be saying. So I reached out and he happily got the caress that Tim gives him every day. Good exercise for the heart. (Plus I walked 9.92 K there today.)

Puddle of Purs

The traffic was dreadful this morning. It took twice as long as it should for me to get to Chatswood. Luckily Terry was caught up in it too so the kittens that he was to take to be desexed were ready by the time he arrived. They were the second pair of boys that Steph has been fostering. The first pair were desexed yesterday and I can only assume that the vet first demonstrated how to shave the bum of a kitten on one of them and let the student do the second. The poor ginger has a shocker of a shave job! He is bare to the hips. But the second pair of boys came back early (the vet gave them lunch) and while I finally got around to sorting out the laundry shelves, there was a puddle of purs coming from their condo. Soooo happy to be back together again.

Further down the Boarding block, Marigold and her kittens are not quite so chilled.

We have a new Japanese family who tend to stack one upon the other.

Wasabi, the mother, is on the right with the large, wary eyes. Her kittens are quite happy to be handled. Wasabi and Inari were desexed yesterday so I had to separate them from the boys to have pain meds. The boys were quite happy to be picked up to check their bald balls. And I put a collar on Inari to make it easier tomorrow. Didn't like my chances of getting a collar on Wasabi. We have a new Peanut-level grubby cat called Sesame. She has problems with her teeth and probably a wounded foot that leeks blood and perhaps a gut full of worms. But she is super friendly. If you try to take a photo of her, she immediately lies down for more cuddles.

Last thing this evening I had a Celeste sighting. Small steps.