Monday 30 April 2012

BIRD, RABBIT, KITTENS

Not a lot of note been happening recently so here are a few photos with brief explanations.

I took a couple of bunnies up to Tracy's at Burnhope as she thought she knew someone who'd take them. Last year I brought a cockerel through which for some reason couldn't be left with the others so instead it lives in a stable and is best friends with a rabbit.



A friend of Carole's has been taking excess mothers and kittens to foster. Needless to say she he has several cats of her own including a gorgeous but disabled persian.





A few weeks ago I picked up a stray three-legged cat and took it straight to Wendy the vet. She liked it so much she kept it as the practice cat. What she didn't realise was that it was pregnant and a week ago gave birth to four ginger kittens and a tortoiseshell. She has it set up so that there's a video camera which relays the image to a small screen on the counter. But I got in to see them.




The Saturday before last, our local Asda kindly allowed us to have a tombola stall in the foyer and we raised over three hundred pounds. I was there to help set up but after that I was off, though Susan had no shortage of people to help so I wasn't needed. Well, that's my excuse.




Saturday 14 April 2012

THE CRUEL CLAWS OF THE CAT

Don't pay too much attention to the title, it's in part semi-ironic and in part to get your attention. This is a catch up piece again containing several items which I'll relate in more or less reverse chronological order.


We took these cats in on successive days and for the same reason -we were told they had attacked or threatened a baby. The black one, who's about 2, came from somewhere in Durham and was brought to my house. From there I took her our fosterer Elizabeth at Dalton le Dale. The cat seemed nervous and,  when she retreated behind a chair, hissed and spat when I tried to touch her. Elizabeth will be letting me know soon how well she's settling in and what her nature's like.

I found out about the other when Carole called me. Apparently she'd been handed in at the PDSA just round the corner from Heworth Metro and her owner wanted her put to sleep despite being only 8 months old. Lisa the local pet taxi person got involved and contacted Carole who asked me if I'd get her. Which I did. It was rush hour but the traffic wasn't too bad. You can't tell from the photo but she's really pretty. The staff told me she'd been quite aggressive during her brief stay but, as they said, we didn't know how she'd been treated. Once in the cat carrier she settle down and seemed quite happy for me to touch her. Back at Carole's though and with other cats sniffing around she started spitting. She's currently staying at the local vets while Carole gets something sorted out.


The tortoiseshell is another from the PDSA at Heworth who was rescued from certain death by me and Carole. She's a stray who'd been handed in and had been there a week and would shortly be put down because no-one had claimed her. Carole had been contacted about her and you know the rest of the story.

This lovely ginger cat came from a lady who couldn't look after him -she had another two but this was one cat too many for her resources. Her friend had contacted Animal Krackers who passed her on to me. Luckily Carole had a space. He's a lovely friendly young boy.



This is a case where I was called out on a consultation. The mother (above) had given birth to the litter a few days earlier. She's another sweet-natured cat and a good mother and she wasn't the problem. That was the black and white kitten. It was born without a tail and its hind legs are splayed abnormally apart. What the owner wanted was my advice on what to do. As the kitten was nursing, moving around as much as his litter-mates, and his mother hadn't rejected him, all I could say was just to leave things as they are and see how he developed over the next 2-3 weeks and then get back in touch. He wasn't in any distress. I did check with Carole who confirmed what I thought. So I should update this story in the next post.

What follows next is just a few recent cat photos. The first is of another stray which had recently decided to live in the house in the story above.
Wendy the vet with a kitten who turned out to have an ulcer in his eye.