Early mark

 Sharon trained a group of new vollies this morning. They did Better Row.

There were plenty of our regular vollies to do the rest. Only one border who came in today and a few empty condos. And in view of our possible move, condos are remaining empty. So far this month we have adopted 33 cats and kittens, according to Sue. Goosey was adopted over the weekend! 

Her condo is occupied by Elly who has been in the back corner of Isolation for months. She went to the vet. Is on meds. And is not eating. I hope Goosey's good vibes revive her.

Elly

I moved Marmalade and Cookie from Isolation to Incoming today. They will stay in C14 for a while to confirm that they don't have any ringworm lesions.

Valentina has been adopted too. And her stand alone is occupied by a pretty calico with a cloudy right eye also. She seems to be just as hungry as Valentina was.

Lina

It was strange that nobody adopted Harlow and Hobson. But it does make it easier for the cleaners not to have four kittens erupting from that condo. 

Hobson and Harlow

That joy has been taken over by Ruby's kittens. It is a good way to get a cuddle. They got plenty today and had an afternoon nap to recover.

 4 Kittens in a hammock: Front to Back: Piper, Bruce, Frankie, Freddy (I think). The boys are all available.

There is an older pair, Zena and Tiger in Prue and Trude's enclosure. Don't know who is who.

Zena/Tiger

I got a very early mark because Sue had to attend an on line lecture at 6pm and she wouldn't have got home in time for that anyway. So Aslan got his dinner early for a Wednesday. Sue took Ravyn for a walk (or vice versa).

 

Bare balcony

 Again today! But, of course it was pouring down rain. So I put the second drying rack that never gets used underneath the usual clothes drying rack to try to keep the towels from trailing in the puddles on the surface of the balcony.

It might work   . . . . if the rain doesn't pour out of the sky as it did this afternoon. While I was out on the balcony I heard lots of noise from below. A large truck was parked outside the garage and a man was throwing bits of engines into the truck. He gave each bit a good look before tossing it in. 

Two cats were adopted. One from foster. And Valentina's Phoebe! The nice older couple from last week returned. She did the paperwork. He waited in the car downstairs because they didn't have the right wheelchair for him to come up. (He is a patient man. It takes ages to adopt from us). I carried Phoebe in her carrier (bought from us along with lots of toys and extras) and held her up to his window. Phoebe started talking to him. He answered her. I think they are going to be very happy together.

PC got another grooming session from me before that adoption. He didn't really enjoy it but he is a very tolerant cat.

A large pile of cotted tags.

At the end of the day David "socialized" the G kittens. If you remember what fraidy cats they were when they first arrived on Better Row, this is a huge improvement.

Gruff, Gideon, David

And Grayson climbs as well as a 4 legged cat. . . . .  when he is awake.

Grayson

Kitty let me pat her this afternoon. (Thanks to the efforts put in by a Friday vollie who stays back to socialize the more difficult cats.)

Kitty and me

And Miley shows her face more in the afternoon (when any visitor has left Safe.)

Miley

Check out the kitchen. There are fruity goodies. (Minus the mango that came home with me today.)

 Now, there's a good name for a cat!

 

 

No Lunch

 I wasted spent a lot of time this afternoon updating the vollie's name tags. The wee box that they live in has become very tight and most of the names in it are of vollies who have "retired". So I asked Rosanna for an updated list of vollies names and went through the box pulling out the uncurrent names and writing the new current names. It is amazing what a difference that has made to the number of cards that are current. But, if you can't find your name in the alphabetical sorting, go through the stack of cards at the back of the box. You may well still be there!

One adoption today to the woman who confessed to having visited 10 times before deciding whom she wanted to take home with her. David did the deed. They all went home happy. . . . see multiple social media posts. 

Pippa adopted

 Another visitor couple were looking for a kitten even though they are older. He is mostly in a wheelchair and she is lively. They liked Phoebe (Valentina's last wobbly kitten). Unfortunately they have a scheduled "away" time until Wednesday. But the probability of Phoebe still being available when they return is 95%.

Irene anticipates that 5 kittens will be adopted tomorrow. (Not including Phoebe.)

Georgie, the female G, went to be desexed today but did not survive the anaesthetic.  . . . something congenital. Rather like Grayson's missing back leg. The rest of the family is getting more relaxed and friendlier by the day.

Gideon (tabby with white on face), Gaia (Black & White), Gruff (brown tabby)

Including Grayson who can be picked up and cuddled medicated. 

 While on G kittens: I tried to clean up Gary who gets drops put into his ear twice a day. Of course, he shakes them out onto his divine ginger coat. I gave that coat a good wipe with damp paper towel this afternoon. It didn't do much good.

Gary

 Late this afternoon (when I checked that everybody had enough water to drink overnight) Lilli came out of her bed box. She is such a pretty cat with GREEN eyes.

Lilli

 And the new kittens who arrived on Wednesday are Caramel: tabby & white paws, Cheetah: tabby with white nose, Fluffy: DMH and, our named, Panther: black.

I have made two more hammocks to replace the ones that were thrown out from Nutmeg's enclosure.

 Bright enough?

 

No touch

 No sign of the lizard today. The junk room was piled with boxes which Sue wrestled open. They contained one cat carrier each. So much packing!

I was on condo sterilizing first thing this morning because it has been discovered that some of the Spice Girls have ring worm lesions. They have gone together in the up and down condo pair in Isolation and their mum is under Australis and co. Bugger. No more playing with kittens in Welfare.

And Rory is back on a special diet so no more giving him lots of treats in exchange for love. 

Rory

Peaches has settled down into her foster home very well, according to her new mum. And I moved Freya into her condo below Rory because Freya's condo in Incoming was needed for four kittens who arrived this afternoon. That condo was signposted for Mike who is gorgeous enough for folk to go to the end of the row to meet him. Freya is very pretty too so as soon as her collar is off she will be adopted. 

And the kittens who arrived are pretty tame and quite big enough to be desexed. They are Panther (the black one who we named) and Fluffy, Cheeta and ? 

Savannah's collar is off and the lump on her right cheek has gone. The whiskers on that side are growing back as well. 

Savannah

 One of Valentina's kitten was adopted. . . the boy. Her girl is desperate for attention/affection.

Another who also wants attention is Wolfgang. He still pongs a bit but has got his loving ways back.

Wolfgang

 Thanks for the photos Joy.

Suspect discovered

 This afternoon Irene mentioned that the rather chewed scratchy poles in the entry that I had thought were for sale on Wednesday, were in fact, for our cats. So I moved them out the back. And discovered a large lizard sheltering behind them. Lola was sitting on her favoured "for sale" scratchy pole a little further down the entry. She didn't move when the lizard wiggled. While I went for a box to catch it in to move it downstairs (I was worried that "lizard meat" might not be on her dietary approved list) it scurried into the Conference/Junk room. I would have Buckley's of catching it there. So if you notice her watching somewhere "catchable" do take the lizard down to the garden. Whatever does it have to eat in a cattery?

On Wednesday I moved Garry into Lola's old small stand alone. He has been moved back to Incoming because he is on meds. Silly me.  

Garry's one day of freedom

And today I took pity on Grayson, the three legged kitten of the "five kittens" now in Enclosure 2. He is always on the floor and his siblings hang out on the upper shelves and the hammocks. I decided to install a hammock at floor level for him. This freeked him out so much that he climbed, with 3 legs only, up to the top shelf. 

Grayson is the grey blob on the right

 I just hope that he can get down to the litter tray, water bowl and his low slung hammock.

Please remember to put the litter trays at the front of the enclosures. Otherwise the litter gets dug out at the back of the enclosures and can't be cleaned easily.

David brought a friend with him this afternoon who played with the kittens. Valentina's Danny was worn out. They had a lovely time.

Danny

And Mouse's Gerry (was Jerry until we discovered that she is short for Geraldine not Jerald) has amazing whiskers and furnishings (ear hairs.)

 

Diet time

 This morning I fed Aslan slightly less than usual (about 12 crunchies less) then put my breakfast bread into the cold toaster before going for an early walk. This is what greeted me on the kitchen bench when I got returned.

Not bad for a cat with no teeth

He was curled up on his morning sofa either playing the innocent bystander or ashamed of his cubby self.

Chubby Aslan

I would love to get PC to that degree of chubby-ness.

We had a couple of visitor pairs this afternoon. One mother and daughter who fell in love with multiple, not yet available kittens. They will return. And a pair of scantily clad girls (on their way home from the beach) who did the same. They will come back with mum to make the final decision. 

 Mike still is not feeling very well. He might have a gigantic fur ball in his tummy as he is a hairy fellow and perhaps in his former life he got brushed regularly.

Mike

 

I had to take Svarte to the Collaroy Vets (as arranged last night during dinner but delayed due to dual organizations). She has a swollen hysterectomy site. The vet (who did the op) prescribed antibiotics. Svarte didn't make a peep on the way, in the clinic or on the way home. 

Valentina has settled well into a stand alone all by herself. Her wobbly kittens seem to be coping well without her.

 

Grayson, one of the G kittens on Better Row went to the vet today. And came back whole and hearty but without one back leg. . . . just the same as when he went. It seems to be a congenital fault. Our first three-legged kitten.

 Perhaps we should change his name to Jake. And change the rest of the G names we made up on Wednesday to J names.

Archie Adopted

 When I saw on the Safe website this morning that he had been adopted, I assumed it was the woman who came and smooched with him on Wednesday afternoon. But it was a couple, much younger, who took him home yesterday. Heavens to Betsy! I hope they have patience because he will disappear for a quite a while. I wonder if we can get Geoff to make him another Archie's Bar box to settle him into his new home?

 The only other thing missing when I arrived at Safe this noontime, was vollies. All but 4 called in sick. But those 4 plus the ADM's did sterling work and everybody was happy, clean and fed. The vollies were rewarded by the six kittens in Amie's old condo. (Amie wasn't feeling too good today). These kittens are to go with Irene to an adoption day at the Collaroy vets tomorrow. But they aren't ready for adoption even though they have been desexed. They are all boys which makes it easier and not so weight dependent as with girls. (It is the anesthetic which is hard for vets to calculate). And there are 4 tabbies (plus 1 ginger and one tuxedo) who are hard to tell apart.

Here is a photo of Moo to lighten Joy's heart.

Moo

She has been booked into the vet next week to see if she is pregnant or not. She is getting fat but that is because she is on pregnant cat rations.

For the first time Valentina's kittens were out at dinner time. 

I think she will have to fight for her share as they grow.

The new cat in Incoming has a warning on his condo:

But he is a pussy cat:

Binx

In contrast to Dory in Welfare who does not want to be with us or to be seen or to be looked at:

He is in Dawson's condo. I hope that some of D's vibe will rub off on Dory.

Dory

 

Not busy

17 vollies came today. So they were all finished and mostly gone by the time I arrived just before noon! A couple stayed longer to give Dawson his lap time. The young man who spent lots of time with Goldie and thereby eased her way to being adopted, has changed his attention to Dawson. . . . fingers crossed it will work for Dawson.

The only visitor we had was a young woman who brought a lot of brand new toys for our cats. (I said "No" to a telephone question about if we needed any towels). She stayed for ages taking her phone friend around the cattery and talking to her and the cats. ? Another customer.

Of course, because I wasn't frantically busy I forgot all about taking any photos! So back to Joy's which are a delight.

Buzz is a new boy in Incoming. He has settled down since Joy's photo but I get the feeling that he would much rather be in a bigger space with a better view. (He is below Valentina who is desperate for human company and still sniffling.)

Buzz

 Rory is another boy who is desperate for more interaction. It will be a relief when his "under observation" card is removed and we can give him the interaction he needs.

Rory

Lilly is one of those cats who hides most of the time. She "just vants to be alone" to quote Greta Garbo.

Lilly

Chai is a bit like that too. She is still on wet food only.  She must have had a lot of teeth removed.

Chai

 Which reminds me: this morning when I didn't get up early enough for his breakfast time, Aslan jumped onto my bed and I patted him. He gently took my hand in his mouth. He has no teeth. It was a very nice "bite." 

PS Giovanni has been chosen and will be picked up/processed on Monday. He didn't even make it to the website. . . . oh! the irresistible-ness of being a Ragdoll!

Another mouth

 I seem to feed critters all day long on Wednesdays. When I got home Aslan was STARVING. And a crimson rosella was too:

I haven't met this bird before. He has a strange upstanding tuft of feathers on top of his beak. They must talk amongst themselves and tell where to go to get 4 almonds each.

Aslan is only interested in the birds when the rainbow lorikeets (up to 15 of them) come to pick up the bits that the bigger parrots drop on the tiles. Otherwise his favourite place is:

Aslan

 Leo was adopted over the weekend by Dr Kim next door. At one stage we took him there for her to check him out and she said "I want this cat!" 

And somebody came in and adopted Cody. Which proves that having a beautiful face, fur and furnishings will get you far.

Joy took photos of some of our mums and bubs today. Autumn has lost her hissy-ness. Motherhood has calmed her down.

Autumn

Or else, having 5 kittens to feed has worn her out.

Autumn's 5 . . .. seasonal names please.

Valentina is doing well with her two but I think she'd rather spend time with people than kittens. Her ginger kitten is behind her.

 Moo doesn't have any kittens yet and is looking pretty slim.

Moo

 Talking of cats with bovine names: The visitor of Heffer was very disappointed that he couldn't have his loving time with her because she was adopted last week. He was encouraged to transfer his attentions to Dawson who lapped them up. 

And we have another Moo Moo on Better Row who is stunning.

Moo Moo

She shares a condo with Humphrey. He looks stunned.

Humphrey