Continuous visitors and enquires

Before we had finished cleaning up a woman arrived to check out Floyd. But on further chat she indicated that she would prefer a pair. So after lots of cuddling she chose a boy and girl from the N kittens who got 50 kisses each a day from their fosterer. . . . . Nancy and Nigel will continue with their luxury lifestyle. Poor Nero is left behind to be handed to any visitor who wants to cuddle a kitten. By the end of the day even he had had enough cuddles. Then somebody came to see if we had any kittens. I showed her the availables and she chose the grey tabby. . . either Charles or Christopher who are not available. She will keep her eye on our website. Another woman came to check out Elona who was having none of this being looked at business. She stuck firmly to the inside of her igloo. In the meantime, Nero got cuddled, Luna performed beautifully, I got the history of her previous cat who was adopted from Ingleside AWL 8 years ago. The cat's name was Calico. . . we did have a few of those. . . . She was incompletely desexed so kept coming into heat. She was a stress eater because of problems before AWL days. So she developed diabetes. She didn't like to sit on her person's lap unless there was a cushion there ready for her. She was a much loved cat. This woman brought in her son because he is a good cat picker. He cuddled Nero. In the meantime, she enquired about the birth dates of all the available, and unavailable cats. She liked Octavia. And Lily. She will return. One of my jobs for the day was to find out the sex of each of Silky's kittens who now live in the play place. Silky is in glorious isolation below Windsor. She gets to eat all the food all by herself. I sat with her kittens and played with them. They were not enthusiastic.

Being their mother's children, the only time I could try to determine their sex was when they were lined up with their heads in their food bowls. I quickly lifted their tails and made a guess. . . boy, girl, boy, girl. Four little kittens were dropped off yesterday. They were lively this morning but by the afternoon they were not happy. Could be worms. Could be they miss their mum.

Zelda adopted: Liz reports

Zelda was taken by a middle aged woman whose elderly mother lives with her. She wanted a calm friendly cat so Zelda was the perfect choice.

Prue comments: Over the weekend Jack was adopted by mistake. He wasn't on the website as available but his paperwork was in the available file. The telling clue to his readiness should have been a pink or blue condo card with his name, age and price. But the condo cards we have are rather pale pink or blue. I will try to find some more eyecatching paper to laminate. Nevertheless, a man rang on Friday wanting to come and have a cat choose him. Evidently, Jack chose him. They are happy together. Tim has spoken to the man. All is good. And Pearl can now relax. They came from a hoarder so were not necessarily "bonded" but they did like each other.

Also over the weekend Leaf persisted on the website. I was worried that he had been returned as a failed Chinese New Year special. But he is still with his new family. He was just slow at getting off the webpage. . . cutie that he is, he looked good there.

Happy Year of the Ox

Unfortunately we don't have any oxen ready to adopt. But the lass who came in on Wednesday brought her mother to choose a "special something for Chinese New Year". We introduced mum to all the cats but she, reluctantly, admitted that black cats are unlucky for Chinese. Mum fancied Sapphire. . . . . the smallest kitten. But daughter settled on Leaf. By next Chinese New Year, he should have grown into a beautiful TIGER. He pulled out all the cute stops to engage them both. I think they will be happy together. I asked about favourable names for cats in Chinese families and they said that anything to do with good luck or money is irrestible. So expect names like Euro, Billion, Dollar, Megabucks, Jackpot. If anybody can come up with a list send it to us before the next kitten season which we hope will be an all tabby season (unlike this years mostly black and white season). We have a new mum parked in boarding. As she is our 500'th cat I decided that she should be called D, or something starting with a D. (I admit that we had to Google which letter was Latin for 500, but I knew that there was one). Tim decided on Daphne after rejecting my suggestions of Darling, Dearest, Dearsley. . . . Either way, she is a honey. And her kittens know a beam of sun to lie in when they find one.

Last thing Robyn brought in (Isa)belle and her kittens. Can you believe that she has had them for almost 6 weeks! The kittens had such a lovely time exploring their new digs while Belle relaxed upstairs.

Second to last thing, a family came in to surrender their two cats. Don't know why. . . yet. They are Bud and ?

They are in Luna's old condo out back. She is up front and ready to go now that I patted her so hard that most of her hair fell out. I brushed out the rest.

And Salam is where Dobby used to be

Because Dobby is in the Palace

From whence he can breathe fresh air and sneeze snot on Irene in the morning from several yards. In the afternoon his nose was much better/clearer. So we hope that Florence Nightingale's method of fresh air will cure what ails him. In the meantime, he got to watch Irene clean the play place.

Well done Irene.

Seasoning adoptions

Visitors ask why we have so many kittens. "Because spring is when there is lots of game around" I reply which usually stuns the city folk who come to us. But today our seasoning kittens have left the building. Pepper went yesterday and Salt went today with a lovely couple who were sooo pleased. And will change his name.

A trio of women arrived because one of them had adopted a kitten from us some months ago and it is such a successful addition to her family that she talked her friend into getting a pet for the first time ever. YES! She chose Jones. When I spoke to Tim yesterday he said that he would prefer Quincy and Jones to go together. So I told her to check the web site and when they are posted to get back to us. An hour later she rang to say that Jones was available as an "optional" pair so could she come and pick him up? She paid cash! He has gone despite some confusion with the microchip number on his adoption paperwork. It was correct on the official registration form and that is the only one that really counts so, he has gone. And Quincy lingers on.

We have some beautiful, friendly kittens like the F's whose mother is a spitting fiend,

And Bronwen's kittens, Coco, Cola and Pepsi whose paperwork I might just pick up tomorrow form the Avalon Vet if Irene's telephone diplomacy worked.

And our three, nameless kittens across from the front desk should find a home while they are stll small.

Meanwhile, Billy is still Joy's favourite.

Money from the bank: Liz reports

Two women from Bendigo bank came in a with a $500 donation. They told me that the bank always returns a percentage of it’s profits to their customers as they are a community bank. A lot of photos were taken that they will post on their Facebook page. They loved all the cats. Then a young couple came in and adopted the kitten Salt (one of the below) whom they will pick up tomorrow.

Prue: And Tim tells me that Pepper (one of the above) has been adopted this afternoon. I will discover which is whom tomorrow.

And Irene told me that Rosie (doing her hair worked a treat) and the last two of Star's kittens were adopted over the weekend.

A stream of unmasked visitors

First Dr Kim came by to talk to Tim about the rent. I didn't listen because I was busy brushing the great pile of hair out of Rosie's rear.

I had noticed on Wednesday that she had hard, tufty spots over her hip bones. Today I got a comb and got them all out. She is now half of her original size. Dr Kim toured our cats looking for one suitable for a friend who's Himalayan-type has died. She rather liked Rosie, for a change, thinking that he would want an older cat. Then a young woman arrived to meet Mimi and Macy. Tim attended to her. They took their time, and proceeded with the adoption. Hurrah. While that was happening the woman who raised the three tuxedo's closest to the front door arrived to spend time with her "babies". Tim shut her in the play place with them. It was the kitten's first time there and they had a fabulous time. . . . hardly noticed her at all. It didn't stop her sitting and chatting with a kitten clutched to her breast. (She named the boy with most white on his face "Fiesty.") The vet students from Dr Kim's arrived to check us out, I thought. I did the tour, introducing each cat. Eventually the girl vet student confessed that she was interested in a companion to the male adult that she adopted from Sydney Dogs and Cats ("who don't have as many cats as we do"). He sleeps all day long. . . . as you do if you are a cat. She loved Zelda. By this time Tim was packing up Mini and Mia to take them to Dr Chris while he picked up Snow Pea. Mini has a suspicious bard spot on her tail that Dr Chris decided is not ring worm. Hurrah! Mini has a sore paw which we have been treating with antisceptic. Dr Chris says that it is probably chronic and not dangerous. Get her a home that doesn't have a hard floor and she will be fine. Hurrah! While Tim was away I offered to feed everybody. Working from out back to up front, I got to Star's condo. They all rushed out, as usual. When I put their food in their condo, they rushed back, as usual. But there were only two kittens. The sign on the condo said Star + 3. I looked under every thing that had a kitten sized slot. Watched the cats to see where they were focused which is usually a sure fire way of finding a kitten where it should not be. No third kitten. I checked the diary to see if a Star kitten had been adopted. There wasn't anything there. I chewed my fingernails until Tim arrived back to be told that another one of Star's kittens has been adopted. I really don't like this no name system. Dr Kim arrived with her two students and the client who wants another cat. She steared him towards Star (because she is fluffy). The girl student didn't point out that Zelda was fluffy too. But he decided that he is not ready for another cat yet. And the girl student muttered that Dr Kim said that if you have one cat who is happy in your home you should think twice about getting a second cat. . . . . REALLY

Lillian's kitten who I encouraged to play with thetoy.

C kittens:

The only girl below Salt and Pepper who spent some time this afternoon grooming her collar.

Dobby who doesn't have upstairs neighbours any more.

So/unny who would rather not hide with his mum, Sally.

Six de sex ed

I packaged up six kittens at 8:30 am to be whisked off (by Terry) to various vets to be desexed this morning. There was the beautiful bengal-ish kitten of Lillian,

the three H kittens below Salt and Pepper, Leaf (the luscious lone kitty) and Sunny of Mum + 1 out back whom we named Sunny because we didn't know whether it was a boy or a girl. Turns out he is a boy so can perhaps be renamed Sonny. Irene delivered them back shorty before 6 pm. They were all hungry except for Su/onny. At that stage of the day I wasn't prepared for him to decide to eat in his carrier. I put him back in with his food and his mum. And his mum ate his food. She is a bit of a bossy boots. While I did that, Irene took the opportunity to give Peggy some love.

Earlier in the day, Peggy thought that I was Irene and smooched up to my hand. She then realised her mistake and backed off smartly. I was prepared to be friendly but Peggy has definite preferences. Not like Salam who is anybody's friend. See how much better his eye looks.

The woman who rescued the kittens closest to the door rang to ask after them. They have been desexed and should be ready to adopt sooner. She said that she "kissed them 50 times each day, gave them baths, played with them, loved them". They certainly replay her love to anybody who opens their door.

As opposed to Tara who was adopted over the weekend. Went to her new home. And would not eat. She was returned yesterday. And did not eat overnight. But she did eat something today after I cooed to her and she purred back to me. Some cats need a "no return until 1 month of trying" clause.