Long Friday

 My tennis on Friday is off for Christmas holidays (because the courts are used for tennis camps for kids whose parents work during the day). So I spent all day at Safe instead of just the afternoon. 

It was nice to spend time with the Friday morning volunteers. And to meet Edward who usually works on Tuesday but volunteered for an extra shift today. (Silly me, I didn't get to tell him about this blog.)

The woman who fostered Ebony brought her in. She says that she can tickle Ebony's tummy. I believe her but there was no way Ebony was offering her tummy to me. Not Happy!

Ebony is back

The fosterer used to have Diego so I took her out back to say hello. She saw Diego and wept. . . But we think that Diego has come on well recently. Here are Joy's photos of him from Wednesday.

Diego

Imogene's kittens line up nicely. (The one who shed her collar was redressed after breakfast). They will be just right for Xmas.

Imogene's lot

In contrast to Max and Gus whom I tipped out of their box on Wednesday and gave them a new, clean box with windows. They don't much like the exposure. They wouldn't take chicken from my spoon this afternoon.

Max/Gus

For a dog

Remember Alice who volunteered with us and raised a litter of kittens? She adopted one of her kittens, Gia. She came in this morning to adopt Tinker to go with her. Gia needs a friend and Tinker is just a couple of months younger than she is so they should have a wonderful life together.  

I quickly cleaned Tinker's wheely cage and moved in Darcy and Figgie. They had spent all night playing together with Aster and River in the play place. They were exhausted and slept all day long.

River and Aster always share a hammock

Darcy and Figgie sleep separately

The Palace is full of Imogene's kittens. There are 3 boys and two girls. One of the boys has one blue and one yellow eye. We should auction him off to the highest bidder.

Imogene's blue/yellow

At this point, my Mac mouse stopped working. Husband Jo's Mac mouse downstairs went berserk. I turned off my computer and Jo was able to continue working on his epidemological analysis of the Covid situation in Portugal. . . . as you do. He has now turned off his computer as I am cook this week and dinner is ready. I will try mine again after I have cleaned up after dinner. This didn't happen last week when he was cook/washer upper.

 

Later: my mouse seems to be talking to my computer now rather than Jo's. Which reminded me that I had a call from rabbit Coco's foster father. The meet and bond with their bunny doesn't seem to be working out. I hope Tim has some brilliant ideas tomorrow.

And I can add a photo of Maxwell who has made a miraculous leap into loving people since being moved from Incoming. These days he would rather have cuddles than food. Here I am tickling his tummy!

Maxwell

And then I F10-'d my hand because he is recovering from flu. . . . . as are all of the cats who caught it.

This afternoon a family arrived to look for one of our cats who would be happy to live with a 10year old dog who hasn't lived with a cat before. I suggested a pair of kittens would be less stress on the dog because we don't have an adult cat available who is known to get along with dogs. They seemed like a family who would try hard to make it work but a sole kitten would be such an effort for an old dog. They went away promising to keep an eye on our website.

Time to relax

 The (middle aged) woman who rescued Charlie came to visit him this afternoon. So he got enough pats and chats to satisfy even him.

Charlie

She enjoyed meeting everybody else and would have happily taken home a few if she had space for more cats at home.

Look who is getting more friendly (within the scent of chicken). . . 

Remi

Or perhaps she was looking for another pot of grass to rip up and shower all through her condo. Rosanna left a note on her condo to "PLEASE not give her a pot of grass" because she made a disgusting mess with it. I will just give her stalks of grass . . . and see what she does with them.

The flu'y cats all seem much better. Even Casper has stopped sneezing. She loves chicken. Perhaps that blanket should be changed.

Casper

And while I had lunch at the desk I could hear somebody playing. It was Gracie who had a fine time with her balls on elastic.

Gracie

No adoptions this week. But I think we can rest on our laurels for the rest of the year. I counted 280 adoptions so far this year.

Adoption tails: Miranda Purr

 The previous owner of Miranda Puss rang yesterday to find out how she is getting along. Unfortunately I couldn't check the calendar where that information was because the internet was not connected. I told her that somebody would let her know and texted Irene.

Miranda Purr 773 adopted Oct 14, 2021

Miranda Purr

1 day: Miranda is doing well. She is not scared at all. She has been prancing around her new place getting cuddles from her owner’s sisters.
1 week: Miranda is very affectionate and talkative. She happily sat on her owner’s back the other night.
1 month: Her owner said "Thank you for giving me the opportunity to adopt this bossy girl"  followed by a very cute photo of the two of them.

Bodhi and Tara were adopted the week after her. Theirs is a different story but, we hope, will have a similar outcome eventually.

Bodhi

1 day: Bodhi and Tara are settling in slowly. They hid away for quite a long time but then came out and wandered around in the evening and were happy to be patted and scratched. They are eating and using the litter box.
1 month: The owner finally managed to register Bodhi and Tara in person. They are getting more settled every day. Bodhi is pretty happy but Tara is still very skittish.

Tara

No bunny

There were 69 cats in residence today and no rabbit. Coco has gone to a foster home and will be adopted if she gets on well with the resident bunny. And Sandy had brought some home-grown spinach leaves especially for her! 

Sandy also wanted to complete the adoption papers for Ashleigh who loves her cats. Ashleigh is not so fond of the people in the house but finds them useful to supply food, clean litter trays and let her out. . . . she comes back in time for food. But I couldn't find the paperwork which was a great disappointment because there haven't been any adoptions (unless you count the rabbit) since last Friday. Nipper is not happy in her condo.

Nipper

In compensation our Wall E came in to board. He is a hefty cat these days. He wasn't happy to be back with us but got over it by dinner time.

Wall E

Dinner was fun for some cats. Darcy and Figgie have a touch of the flu. They played all morning but lay around all afternoon until I gave them dinner. Darcy was so pleased to see food that he did an gymnastic double flip out of the door into the dish in my hand that flew over the floor. I grabbed the kitten and put him back in the condo and put down the other dish in front of Figgie. There was no way Figgie was going to let Darcy waste his food or get anywhere near his bowl.

Figgie

Darcy had to wait until I fixed him another.

Darcy

In contrast, the other two kittens of the same litter who are "bonded" shared their food: one bowl at a time.

River and Aster

Charlie beats on his window when he wants attention or food. Which is a pretty clever balancing act when you only have one front leg.

Charlie

And why does Tori's tongue keep growing?

Tori

Not enough players

At tennis this morning we were one player short. So some of us had to play cutthroat. After a follow on set of doubles, I and two others had had it on this, the first hot morning of summer. So I went to Safe Haven early to find that there were not enough vollies there either. Helen stepped in, a new vollie had a trial by hard work and Geoff came to save the day. I did Incoming.

While there I overheard Tim arranging a foster carer for Coco . . . . . if the partner agrees. I got Cococ a lovely Liquid amber log to chew on but she is more interested in the Chinese greens. All the grass pots have been chewed down to stubble.

I had lunch with Finn who is in the play pen. I tried to wash off the accumulated ointment on his shoulder. Don't think it worked but he liked the attention.

Finn

Tinker is back. It was claimed that he put too much emotional stress on the adopter. She wants her money back. Really! 

Tinker

He is back on the adoption list along with Aster and River who were in Boarding with their brothers who will be adopted by their fosterer on Nov 27 (?) 

Aster and River: a bonded pair

 They will all probably get adopted this weekend. I had a call asking for a kitten. . . any kitten.

At five to four a family arrived to adopt Hercules. Their preteen son had chosen him and was determined. They have not owned a cat before. I tried to talk them into Tinker. I even taught  Dad to hold him (he had never held a cat before). Then the boy who held him while Tinker purred. But the boy's mind was made up. He wanted Hercules. So I explained that it would take a long time before Hercules would settle in with them. But he wanted Hercules. They took him home.

We now have two resident Max's:

Max of the too big bed

 

 

Max and Gus, of the too small box

From their reaction to chicken, they should be called Max and Guts. Don't know who is whom.

Sniffle, sneeze, snuffle, cough. . . repeat

We have lots of flu-full cats and kittens. Some are so stuffed up they cannot eat (like Nada). Others wouldn't miss a meal if you paid them (like Goldie). 

Goldie

 I made some FLU signs to help the vollies know which cats they need to leave until last and which ones they should not pat and then go on to pat other cats. . . . no matter how much they beg for attention (like Goldie).

Charlie has been moved to the naughty row. Let 's hope that his good behaviour will affect his neighbours'. Somebody there was wailing "I am a lost cat" this afternoon. I think it was Taylor. And there was sneezing perhaps from the kittens. 

Charlie

I noticed that Coco eats her bedding. Make sure you don't put anything undigestable in with her.

bunny nibbled towel

A lovely family with two teenaged sons came to adopt a kitten and went home with Fawny. Lucky them!