House guests this week have left me feeling muddled. I thought I had taken socks with me to tennis but couldn't find them when I got there, borrowed a pair, went to put on my new (purple) tennis shoes and found the ones I had brought after all. They had fallen between the seat and the car door.
When I got to Safe Haven, I discovered that the camera battery is still being charged, at home. So I pulled out my phone and took lots of photos. Now I can't figure how to get the photos from the phone to the computer. Never mind, they are just photos of new kittens after all. (I may be able to add some later.)
When I arrived the former owner of Blink and Gypsie was visiting. She tried to volunteer when they were still with us but was overcome by tears at the sight of them in condos. Now that they have both been adopted she is willing to try again. In the meantime she adopted a puppy who hasn't lost his milk teeth (so has two sets of teeth like a shark) and neither of his testicles has descended. So the dog will be "top and tailed" soon leaving her free to volunteer with us.
First I fed the boarders grass and Barb's catmint. There was a condo with two names but only one cat apparent. It gave me a fright. I wondered if it was a very flat cat asleep underneath the cat in the bed. But Tim told me that it was next door being groomed.
While "grassing" the boarders, I noticed Charlie trying to get into one of the clean beds in the linen storage area. He was easily enticed back to his condo with a handful of grass. The sliding catch on his door is misaligned. So he has often taken himself off for wanders. Once, he made it to the front door, which was open at the time. But, being a wary cat, he turned about and came back inside.
After telling him what a clever cat he was, Tim asked me to attend to Jimmy's teeth. The vet says that he has plaque and has provided beef flavoured toothpaste and a "toothbrush" that fits onto a person's finger. Said person is to put her/his finger into the mouth of the cat and brush! It might work if you had a vet nurse with bandages at the ready! Tim volunteered me to try it. Jimmy now has clean canines. He wasn't going to open his mouth for me. . . . and I don't blame him. I suggested some nice chicken necks. Tim said that it would be his next owner's problem.
Then I, as instructed, socialized the new kittens. Hard job but somebody has to do it.
There is a pair of ginger boys who have seen the vet and named (by the vet &/or nurse) Mango and Mandarin. Tim took them home last night because the smaller one (Mango) was cold and not interested in food. He was better this afternoon but had a very dirty face. So I wrapped him up in flannel and washed his face. Then I felt a lump at the base of his tail, investigated it and found that it was solid flea dirt.
The vet gave both of them the flea treatment yesterday. I think we should put the treatment in the water of the western suburbs. (These two and the other litter came from Blacktown pound).
Suddenly Jimmy appeared and was interested in what I was doing with that scrap of ginger. The work experience girls where back from lunch by then and perhaps he talked them into letting him stretch his legs. Jimmy behaved well. And jumped, in a spectacular fashion from the back of a guest chair to the top of the adjacent condos. We forgot about him, until suddenly we couldn't find him. We looked high and low until he jumped down from a scratchy pole, calmly. Such a cool cat.
I combed and combed a pile of shit from both of the ginter kittens who are too small to clean themselves properly. Tim tried to put them in with Candace. She was interested and willing but one of her kittens was jealous of the attention she gave to them.
So you have missed photos of piles of flea dirt.
Next I sorted through the other "litter" that came from Bankstown. The quotation marks are because these kittens are probably not from the same mother. Their weights are too widely spread. And their personalities vary more than you would expect from siblings. There is a grey and white boy (big) and five girls: three torties including one fluffy tortie who is a luv bug, a tabby and . . . . I was relying on my photos but I think I missed one or two. Told you I was muddled.
None of this "litter" had flea dirt. But all of them have eye grunge. So they probably have cat flu, the symptoms of which will appear in a day or two. With that in mind, I threw the rest of the grass and catmint at the other cats with gloved hands and took myself off.
(A thousand words for every picture?)
Mango
Milly
Charlie
