Ginger Express

There was a superfluity of day managers this afternoon: Tim, Irene, Katy and me. I busied myself filling the laundry shelves. They are full. I might have to relocate the feeding puzzles on the bottom shelf under the handtowels. . . . next week. Belle's kittens are no longer in quarantine. They are back where they were, above Ashleigh. While I fed Ashleigh some chicken, they tried to pat my hair with their paws. The idea is to get Ashleigh comfortable enough to take the food from my fingers, so I have to lean in to the back of her sleeping shelf because she backs herself into a corner. Which puts my head at the perfect patting place for Belle's kittens. They don't need to be enticed to be patted. Since Wednesday Skylar and Scooter have been adopted (the littlest kittens). We cleaned their condo and moved the Japanese family in there. They, being grey, will probably go over the weekend. Mimi won't have noisy downstairs neighbours for long.

Then I cleaned the quarantine condos, again. I really will put my headlamp into my glovebox for next time. Finished that job, I started to hand out chicken. Daisy wouldn't eat it. Mako wanted cuddles before chicken. Romeo ate it out of the bowl. I still haven't seen Juliet (or is it vice versa). I got around the corner and had a lovely head scrunching with Silky (!) and a stand off with Ebony (as usual) when Tim declared that he was off to collect cats. I'll go, says I. You have more important stuff to do. I picked up Magnus who has had his eyelid stitches removed.

He made a few comments on the way home. And Caesar who had three teeth removed including a canine. He will be on soft food for a few days. While I was gone, Daisy got adopted by the perfect woman for her. They will snuggle and love each other forever. Katy did the adoption. Daisy and her new owner are both camera shy.

Tomorrow will be a beaut

People keep ringing or emailing about adopting this or the other kitten and making a date to come tomorrow. Tim will be busy. I pottered happily on my "animal behaviour" duties this afternoon. I cleaned empty carriers, refilled empty spray bottles, fed the littles, handed out cooked chook. Then my lovely Chinese couple who want a companion for Salt arrived. They had a good cuddle with Douglas who was relaxed in their arms. We almost got his paperwork out when I remembered that she wanted a fluffy kitten. When they were at Safe on Wednesday, Skylar's fluffy brothers were at the vet being desexed. (She was sent back, unfixed because she was less than 1Kg in weight. Long haired kittens put more energy into growing hair than putting on weight). I mentioned these boys. They looked. She fell in love. We then had to figure out who was boy and who was Skylar which wasn't very difficult because the boys had shaved nether regions and she didn't. They chose Socks whom we only identified by his michrochip number.

Instead of bits of BBQ'd chook I had given them cat milk earlier which they had all enjoyed.

The adoption was done. I hope Salt enjoys his new brother. While I was busy cuddling kittens with them (such a hard job!) Tim dealt with a bloke who wanted an older long haired cat also. I think he wants a pedigreed cat at our price! There are new cats including Sabrina, Oscar, Luna (another one!) and Rosie (yet, another one) who seem quite tame. They are where Tara was. Tara is doing well. She ate the meat that was bought especially for her.

The three big kittens under Gracie (the grouch) are quite shy. They wouldn't each chicken but did lap a littl milk. Cooper and Chloe are the grey tuxedos and Lily is the tabby. But should she be called Cily instead? Her stripes are very dramatic in good light.

An L of an Day

Two lots of cat schleppers: Terry arrived first, at 7:30am to take Daphne, Lillian and Skylar to Mona Vale Vets. Daphne was easy to pop into a carrier. Lily needed some coordination. Terry tried with the gauntlets while I held the carrier over the door to her bed chamber. She went into the darker space. And Skylar, who is one of Steph's latest litters, the one girl of a litter of 5 who had a collar. But she is fluffy and the collar was not easy to see in the scramble of hungry kittens. So we microchipped everybody and found her last of all. Then Tim arrived to take the rest of the boys to Pet O. Then Mona Vale vets rang to say that Skylar didn't weight 1Kg (should have used a heavier collar!) so wouldn't be desexed today. And thus it continued. Tim came back and showed around/entertained a pair of women from Pet Love. They raise money for good charities, I gather. We qualify. The vollies tried to work around them. We wouldn't wnat to get their pretty, high healed shoes dirty. Eventually a nice lady from Bayview came to replace her beloved cat who died quite some time ago. She had spotted Mixa on our website and wanted a boy cat. I showed her all the availables. She liked Marmalade, because he is a red head like she is. Then I introduced her to Lily and Lily liked her, curled around her hand, purred loud enough to hear across the room and generally acted like a bit of a slut. It worked. The nice lady changed her mind and took Lily. Hurrah! She is an experienced cat owner. I told her all about Lily's frustration at not getting her share while she had kittens. She stays at home, plays music and wants a loving cat companion. Purfect. I took this photo of Lily just before moving her into the carry cage to get out from behind bars forever.

A little later another older couple came in. They have always had cats. She is allergic to rats so wants somebody who will deal with them. He is happy if she is happy. They both rather fancied Peggy who would probably have been perfect for them. But, they chose Luna who was very affectionate with them. (Irene tells me that she was loving to the previous folk who adopted her but then hid for a month when they took her home). I hope that this couple will have lots of patience with her. Or that she will realise that she is being given a second life at a spoiled, comfortable life outside a cage. We have another Luna, whom I have dubbed Luna II (after the lander). She came with a group of 3 other large kittens but doesn't get on well with them. So she is where Starmoon was. (Incidently, Starmoon has been trapped by her owners). And we have a new big boy, called Sprinkles who was found with a colony but does not behave like an urban stray.

And a man surrendered the cats of his deceased parent. They are Caesar, Anthony and Cleopatra. They share the condo below Ebony, peacefully, at the moment. But I hope they can be moved to the palace when Coco and Mason go home.

The Mum of Mum+4 was given the name Kendra.

We promptly named her two boys and two girls. Let's see if those names stick.

The couple who adopted Salt came in to find a friend for him. He loves one of them more than the other except at 1am when he NEEDs somebody to play with NOW. She thinks that if there was another kitten around Salt would let her sleep. I suggested a girl kitten and showed her Danielle (Daphne's). Danielle played up splendidly, of course. She is such a loving handful. But they rather liked Douglas who sat, calmly against their chests and teared up. Of course, it might be that he still has a bit of flu and his calmness is lethargy and his tears of joy are gooey eyes. We decided that they should call Tim tomorrow to see what his advice is. They live locally so are happy to come back.