Adoption Tails: Rhapsody, Florence, Dan and Coco

  It was very nice to get this message about Rhapsody on the day that Finn was adopted. Rhapsody came with Mia and four kittens (one of whom is Finn). We couldn't decide if Rhapsody was the kittens granny or aunt. She was the shyest of them all, initially. Not now:

Rhapsody

Rhapsody

1 day: The kids have renamed Rhapsody to Silky. She is settling in well and is definitely a lap cat. She loves her cuddles and is super chill!
1 week: Silky is getting more and more confident and is still super cuddly. The owner is surprised at how trusting she is, considering she was a street cat. She also thinks Silky is ready to explore more of the house! Silky currently spends short periods in the kid's bedroom. She gets time to explore and will get up on the bed for a cuddle. She is taking the lead with the exploration.

A bit chubbier Silky

1 month: Silky has settled in really well. Hew new big sister is still making it known that she's the boss but Silky knows her place and they have not had any bad run-ins. Silky uses a pillow like humans, actually seeking out pillows and laying her head on it. She also will stick her entire leg into her water bowl to clean her paws.

Florence 

1 day: She’s used the litter tray and has been both eating and drinking. “Very happy and so are we”. They’re keeping her name.

1 week: “Florence is flourishing.” She is going to all rooms in the main part of the house. It’s quite at home with a three-generation household. Now likes being picked up so she can get a better view of what’s going on. She goes to her safe room when she’s tired.

1 month: Florence is doing very well. She runs the house and is allowed outside for some of the day. She comes inside by herself and prefers someone in the garden. She has also been registered with the council.

Dan

1 day: He seems to be settling in well. He is mostly comfortable under the bed but has some social times and wanders around when unattended. So far he hasn't used the litter tray, and hasn't gone anywhere else. He's eating and drinking all ok. They’re undecided about renaming him at the moment.
1 week: He is a lot more sociable and is hiding under the bed less.
1 month: No response.

Coco

1 day: Coco has settled into the bottom shelf of her owner’s wardrobe. 

[with the insecticide!]

She is quite affectionate and is happy for them to pat and stroke her. She has had a little bit to eat and has used the litter tray. She purrs when her owner is near and stroking her. She has not made any attempt to pick Coco up. She seems OK. When she put Coco into the safe room, she didn’t seem happy so she left the door open and was looking at her owner from the wardrobe shelf this morning. She’s all cozy amongst the pyjamas. She has stayed there today. Her owner thinks she prefers to be in her room. She moved the litter and food into her bedroom for her.

I week setup

1 week: Coco has moved to the other room. She seems happy to be stroked and patted. Coco pushes her head towards her owner's hand as her owner approaches.

Happy Coco

1 month: It’s going really well! She has bonded with her owner and is very happy.

John made us laugh

 He came in from Dr Kim's next door and demanded who was parked in his car space in the basement. He said "Who owns a BMW?" . . . . . None of us!

Honey had a lovely time in the Top Cat while Guilia sat beside it and played with her. When Guilia left, she started to look for the escape holes. She would run a ping pong ball at all the cracks to test them.

Honey

I put Mogu and Kishu in the play place and she was interested in them (mostly him because he was running around). Not in an undesexed way . . . . just in the "I would like somebody to play with" way. One of the Supermodels was watching her. I really must learn who is who.

Supermodel

But I couldn't rely on a supermodel to tell me if Honey found a gap wide enough to escape through so I put her back into her condo and took down the Top Cat.

Later I put Opey in the Play Place. He was so happy looking out the window. His stand alone is in there with him so if his dinner is put in there he will hop back in to be wheeled out again to his corner. By the way, the paper rolls have arrived. Unfortunately they are super large toilet paper rolls ordered by mistake. We stashed them behind Opey's stand alone in the bookshelf there.

Opie

Cleo's kittens are growing like weeds. There are more kittens in Incoming. They arrived with a possibly tick bitten mother who didn't survive. And one of the litter didn't either. They are quite small, especially compared to Cleo's chubby foursome.

Cleo + 4

And Sara a vollie came with her parents to adopt Finn, the largest of Mia's kittens. He is already bigger and heavier than she is. He will share his new owners with two other cats. They might have to watch out that he doesn't steal all their food!

Finn's new servants

 

 

What happened to Linda's whiskers

 I put Linda and Yoko into the play place today. I wanted to give them a good brush. It worked last week when I brushed Bubbles (but not Cheena). They got adopted over the weekend. So I am hopeful that the brush will work its magic on L & K. Sammy and Cypher were adopted over the weekend too without any help from me. On one side of her face, Linda has a crop of short whiskers. The other side's whiskers are long and graceful. What happened?

Short ones with a few long ones

We tried Kiki in the Top Cat. She finally figured out how to get down, after I leaned the stratchy pole against her condo but wasn't very happy. She was much happier this morning playing soccer with a ping pong ball while lying in her carrier.

Long way down Kiki

Mia was happy as long as she was being cuddled. There are plenty of volunteers for that job. Mia is where Pluto was. Pluto has been adopted.

Mia with Sandy

Taylor also played soccer with his ping pong ball but he was bouncing about behind his igloo. I've never seen him so active in all the time he has been with us.

Taylor

Wanda has got over her horrors at being back in the institution and is the sweet mum cat who adopted two stray kittens along with her own and then had Midsummer added to the litter later.

Wanda

Lobster was adopted today to a family who missed out on Duke. They will probably change his name to Charles. He will come back as a boarder to delight his fans at Safe Haven.

Big gun Dora

 I'm told that the Germans invented an enormous gun called Dora in WWII. Our Dora was being the big girl about Safe this afternoon. She and Diego had the run of the place and Sooty was in the Top Cat. Eventually Dora spied some of Sooty's crunchies near the edge of the Top Cat and helped herself. Sooty was delighted to have a visitor and rolled on her back, stuck her paws towards Dora and generally acted like a tart. Rosanna took a photo. Sooty even approached my finger for a sniff.

Sooty making friends with Dora

With the help of some strong, young vollies we now have a store room rather than a junk room. Thank you.

They put Yin and Yan into the play place. Yan stayed in the igloo. So he was easy to get back into his condo. Yin went into the high rise hidey holes and it took Tim quite some time to extract him from the top most tier. When it came to chicken time, he was in his bed box. If he could have swung the trap door closed, he would have. Yan sniffed at his chicken.

Toby went home early. He has become everybody's favourite. What is not to love of 7.1 Kg of cat! His owner expected him to jump from his condo into his carry cage. I lifted him down. . . being strong. He was very happy to see his person and chirruped like a kitten.

Talking of kittens: Sammy and Cypher are no long kittens. It was their first birthday today. And Pluto purred on command for a potential vollie who came to check us out with her partner. They were so charmed, we might get him as well as her.

The new kitten Mary had her face cleaned (ugh), got some milk to drink (yum) and some chicken (heaven) which stimulated her appetite for her breakfast and enticed her to leave her bed box. 

I brushed Cheena and the bedding. (Bubbles declined the brush). Got enough fur for an extra cat.

Cheena (below) and Bubbles

Wanda is back. She is very unhappy. Her adopter
was using a spray bottle of water to control her "bad" behaviour under instruction from her vet. I don't blame Wanda for biting her when she was asleep.

Wanda

Adoption Tails: Solar family

 I will gather the stories of Star and her kittens in this blog post. I will let you know when I add to it.

Saturn (adopted early September, 2022)

 1 day: The owners will be keeping the name Saturn for her. She is settling in lovely, eating all of her meals, using the litter tray and drinking water. She approaches the owners when they go in the room and rubs her head against them for pats. They got her a scratching post with a dangly toy and she has played with it all night. Saturn gets a little shy after some time so the owners have been giving her space but so far, she has been very lovely and affectionate. Saturn's right eye is quite squinty and has some dark yellow discharge that comes out of it. They are not too concerned as it seems to get better as her energy increases and she spends more time out of hiding.

Saturn, Sept 4

1 week: no response

 

1 month: Saturn's eye has completely recovered! She is very happy and playful. She and the resident cat have been introduced and they love to play together all day (and night). She absolutely loves her food and loves lots of cuddles.

Mars (adopted at the end of August)

 1 day: Toffee (formally known as Mars) is great. She was a little nervous coming home yesterday and stayed in her box for some hours. She came out at night though and was sniffing around the room. This morning, Toffee is very happy, tail up and wants cuddles all the time. She is eating and drinking well, having done a wee in her new litter box. All is good so far and the owners are very happy with the new addition to their family. The owner's daughter and Toffee are getting along very well also and are happy playing together. All in all, it has gone really well in this short period of time.

1 week: Everything is well. Toffee is getting more confident by the minute and she is already out and about in the house. The "little escape artist" does not want to stay in the same place very long. She is eating and drinking a lot too and going to the bathroom just fine, so everything seems fine with her and she is settling in nicely. She loves being around the owners and follow them around the house like a little puppy. They find it quite amusing. They are very happy to have a very social cat. They are continuing to monitor her as well as due to an eye that is still leaking and that she is still scratching a bit more than usual. Toffee seems happy and they hope it recedes over time. Other than this, Toffee is happy, engaged and confident!

1 month: The owner's family loves having Toffee around. It is nice for them to have a cat in the home again. Toffee is doing well and has put on half a kilo in the last 3 weeks, having been weighed at the vet. She is healthy and happy (and evidently hungry)!

 

 

Adoption Tails: Remi

Remi (now Remii)

When we first bought Remii home she was very extremely scared, hissing and spitting and launching herself at anyone who tried to make contact with her. She was so hard to get in the cat carrier. It took her a couple weeks to be comfortable enough to eat in front of us. We moved her into a smaller room 3 weeks in, and it made such a difference. She began trusting us and would come out of her little hidey corner to eat, and would meow at us from behind her little towel barrier. 

 After more interactions she became very comfortable with me. She started playing with her toys when I was in the room and would come all the way out and rub herself against my legs, constantly wanting attention. From then on she’s become such a lap cat, always wanting to be around me, will fall asleep on my tummy and is very needy. But only with me. She’s still very wary of other people but she won’t hiss or scratch or do anything. She just hides like a little scaredy cat. She is so lovely now and I can’t imagine my life without her.

Fresh air at last and Bye Bye Baby

 Somebody came on Sunday to install the ducting to force air into the AWL condos. It comes out of the gap around the glass fronts so the cats don't live under any extra air pressure. They just get good air circulation. The block of double condo's against the wall of Palace condos has been moved across the aisle to be beside the long double condo block. The block of single condos in Welfare will go into Incoming, eventually. They don't have the extra air yet. But the ones who do, look happier. Nada was sitting at the front of her downstairs this afternoon.

The stand alones which were behind the desk were moved across the aisle. I rearranged them so that Yoko and Linda are no longer in the major traffic way by the door. That space is taken by the cleaning trolley. They have been moved to beside the Palace condos where the double AWL condos used to be. And the other stand alone, which used to house Courtney but now has Dexter, is where the trolley used to be . . . opposite where Beauty was and where Macy is now. 

Macy

Opey was moved to Rosie and Callie's condo. (They were adopted!) As soon as I opened his door to feed him this morning he bolted out of the condo, ran around the room once and stopped in front of this old stand alone and cried to be let in. I could not entice him back to his new condo. So I moved all his stuff to his old stand alone where he grumbled and whinged but settled down by lunch time. There is a new ginger boy above where Rosie and Cally were whose name is Lobster. He is very friendly.

Lobster

 A kitten was delivered by a good Samaritan who rescued her from the middle of the road. She has 60 cats of her own at home so couldn't fit another. This kitten, Mary, is 3-4 months old, has flu, mucky eyes and the dirtiest feet that I have ever seen on a cat. She was rather overwhelmed but is friendly.

Mary

Then a nice lady came again. And chose Baby. She wants a cat who won't sit on her all the time. She was a little worried about the amount of hair that Baby was shedding. So I got a brush to see if Baby likes being brushed. Baby loves it. Sold! She had a cat carrier in the car but no litter so planned to stop at a shop on the way home. I gave her the opened bag of paper litter that we left for a vollie to take which has been on the shelf in the junk room for months. Bargain!

Whitney had a busy Sunday. She came in pregnant but her teats were not ready for kittens. Nevertheless kittens came. The smallest one, 60 gm, died but the 70 and 90 gram ones survived. But Whitney wasn't producing any milk or colostrum so it was decided that they should go to a fosterer willing to feed them every 2 hours. On Monday another mother cat in a foster home went into labour. It was obvious that she was struggling so she was taken to the vet. They discovered that she had a broken hip. Imagine the pain trying to give birth with that! Two kittens were born by Cesarean but the mother could not be help and was euthanised. These two kittens were added to the feeding foster mother. They are bigger than Whitney's. But we hope that by feeding Whitney like a lactating mum, we will be able to put all four into her capable paws soon.

Whitney