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.

First the good news

Which is of Billy Bigmouth. His new owner Valda reports that he gives lots of kisses, no rough stuff and Sam and Billy sleep together on the sofa at nighttime.

Then the not so good news that Suki was very flat today. She had an ultrasound yesterday and has various shaved areas around her legs and tummy. All too much for an old girl.

Then the "Oh Really!" news. Yesterday I phoned Tim to get the running orders for today. He told me that he had Silky's boys booked in to be desexed but nobody had volunteered to get them to the vet. Irene was going to bring them home in the afternoon. We had a bit more discussion about them being off ringworm treatment so that they could be moved across the aisle in quarrantine to the flu section. I said it would be easier to change their wheely with just Silky's girl in residence. So I this morning, I decided I had time to get the boys to the vet as I had got to SH good and early and there weren't too many crap bags to schlepp out to the bins. I got them there before the Pet O shop opened. Good thing I knew that there is a back door to the vets. I arrived with three black kittens to be told that they were expecting two ginger boys. . . . . Daphne's boys. Bugger. I had already fed them so it wasn't a matter of going back to SH to swap them over. It all comes of not giving the kittens proper names as soon as possible so that we all know who we are talking about . . . I say! Meanwhile there were lots of volunteers. Even Catsie visited. I put her in the play place with Mia and Belle. Belle cooperated and played a bit. Mia just wants cuddles. We have a new "mum +4". And Mini is back in the cattery where Christopher was.

Buttons, the smallest of Belle's kittens is on a pill, twice a day. I tried to pill her but she has 20 very sharp reasons why I did not succeed. I crushed the spat out pill and mixed it with her breakfast and put her food and her into a carrier. She ate some of it. Come time for the afternoon pill, I did the same. She ate about a third of her dinner. Eventually I moved her and her dish back into the condo with the other two siblings. I stopped them from eating her food and encouraged her by adding a crunchie at a time to her wet/pilled food. Baxter was very happy to be patted. He purred and purred, not at all interested in the soft or hard food. Whereas Bonnie was just interested in eating her share of crunchies. I think the purring encouraged Buttons to eat almost all of her soft, pilled food. Success! Belle is putting on weight again.

At the end of the day all the cats curl up in their beds and wait for the lights to be turned off. Here is Freya, Celeste and Peggy who had had enough human entertainment for the day.

And the bad news is that Starmoon who was adopted on Sunday escaped from her new home. They will try to set a trap for her.

As is drinking

In his excitement to get a bit of BBQ chicken this afternoon, Magnus knocked over his (full) water bowl. Perhaps he was trying to wash the salty-ness of BBQ chicken down. His downstairs floor was flooded. I don't think it diminshed his enthusiasm for chicken. The bandage on the end of his tail is off. He went to Dr Chris to have it looked at. All is well. The eye needs a specialist appointment. But before that, when I arrived, before touching any fluey cats, I wanted to give Tara lots of love. She hasn't been eating her crunchies and only eats her wet food slowly. So I took the brush to her which she thoroughly enjoyed. She even let me brush her tail (which had knots) and purred throughout. We had a lovely time. She wouldn't eat a bit of chicken that I gave to her as a "thanks for the cuddle" but, I noticed that she had eaten it when I came back later. I came back because a young, red headed couple came in looking for a kitten. They work from home so want somebody to be a lap cat and play thing. We have a lot of cats available at the moment. Olsen/Olsanne is available as are Candy and Collette (but not on the website yet).

I can't get a photo of them together because Candy doesn't like Collette and Collette is more interested in running than people. Starmoon is available. And Amber, Opal and Jet will be up soon. I think they need to be separated to be "humanised".

Bridie isn't, yet. But she is prepared to have pats, and chicken.

The young couple looked at everybody. They liked Christopher until we got to Tara who turned on her purr and charmed them. They think that she sounds like a frog. Of course, they have to get permission from the strata body to have a cat. The landlord is willing. They know that Tara will sulk for weeks, if not months, at the change of venue. But it looks good to me. I put Mia and Bella in the play place. They rather liked it. . . Mia more than Bella. But the liking was associated with chicken and cat milk. Mia was easy to take back to her newly redecorated wheely but Belle had to be extracted somewhat forcefully from her hidey hole. They are to go as a bonded pair. Perhaps a dependent pair would be a better description.