Monday 25 March 2013

CATS WANTING HOMES

This morning I went up to Ferry Farm to take photographs of all the cats currently waiting to be re-homed from our re-homing centre there. They are in order of closest to the entrance.

Except the first one. This an eight week old kitten staying at Kings Road Practice Vets. He suffered particularly virulent diarrhea when younger and still may have the bug in his system so he can't be re-homed with any other cats. He's bright, lively, and friendly -contact number 0191 5493535 if you're interested.



The two cats are best friends who have to be re-homed together and have been with us for a while. Don't know why as they are really friendly. As is Jack who is is just a big fluffy softy who arrived last week. The other black and white below is Phoebe, another softy.


These are Amy and Annabelle, mother and daughter, and with us since the beginning. I really don't know why as they are beautiful and friendly. Annabelle the long haired daughter needs regular grooming or her fur quickly develops tats. We had her shorn recently.



Precious the tabby and white would make an ideal house cat, she's lovely. But then so are the two close friends below her whose names escape me because I didn't write them down and I've a rotten memory.

Another black and white cutie whose name I've forgotten.


This is Tigger. His fosterer said he was a lovely friendly cat but he's having a hard time adapting to being in the centre and he cries and growls constantly. He can be stroked and even picked up but it always feels as if he's going to attack you any second. I keep telling him he's not giving a good impression if he wants a new home. But will he listen?


Mother and daughter. Mother is very friendly. Daughter is very scared; she's not aggressive at all and can easily be stroked but feels stressed while it's happening. They need a quiet home and an owner with a lot of patience.



Our last two. Both nice friendly cats wanting a good home. That's it.

Oh, and just a quick word of thanks to our new three volunteer cat cuddlers who are doing so much to relax the cats and keep them socialised.


Thursday 21 March 2013

LOTUS

Lotus is the cat on the right.

One of two cats which came with me when I moved, Lotus was both our oldest and newest cat. She'd been owned by the son of a friend of Susan's late father. He booked her into Westhall Kennels and then himself into a hospice. Susan only found out about Lotus after his death, we went to the kennels and brought her home where she quickly settled in. It soon became obvious that she preferred me -Susan thinks it's because I approximately physically resemble her late owner- so it became natural for her to come with me.

Lotus has had arthritis since we got her and I believed it had been getting much worse of late and verified by Louise the vet who gave her a steroid injection. I suspected she wouldn't last out the year.

Yesterday evening she was sitting next to me on the settee when she began to cough, throw back her head and cry out before slumping down. Her breathing increased rapidly then slowed down again. This went on for a couple of hours during which she soiled herself. I stroked and comforted her the whole time. Her pupils had dilated to fill her eyes. I thought at one point that she'd gone blind, though I was wrong about that. I was also convinced that she was having a stroke as had Lucy, the first cat Susan and adopted together.

To say it was distressing to watch is an understatement and I kept whispering to her to go to sleep (and not wake up). After some internal debate, I rang Susan to tell her because I knew that, alive or dead, she want to come with me to the vets next morning.

Eventually and to my surprise, Lotus began to calm down. She slid off the settee so I put a blanket on the floor and made her as comfortable as I could. I also gave her a couple of syringes of water.

I woke up at four, went downstairs and found Lotus actually standing up, albeit very wobbly. She managed to make her way to the water dish, falling over a couple of times in the process. Then I picked her up and nursed her for over half an hour, with her purring the whole time, before I went back to bed. When I got up again a couple of hours later, Lotus had recovered enough strength to go into the kitchen and eat food I put down for her. she'd been sick during the night but not much had come up. Eventually the time came round to put her in the car, collect Susan and go and see Wendy the vet.

I was wrong about the stroke. Wendy believed it was a blood clot which was affecting the nerves in her back end. She cried whenever her hind legs were moved. Lotus was not going to get better and to take her home would just be cruel. Her head slumped down even before the full amount of fluid in the needle got into her system.

Lotus was around sixteen and she'd been with us for the last two years of her life. We think they'd been happy ones for her.



Tuesday 19 March 2013

NOTHING TO REPORT

This is the I haven't gone away or been ill posting. I haven't posted simply because nothing out of the ordinary has been happening.

Basically it's the usual run of:

Trips to the vets.
Collecting cats for re-homing.
Collection of donated food at bins in Asda, Sainsburys, and Morrisons.
Buying cat food.
Delivering cat food.
Collecting donations to shop/ delivering large items from shop.
Tip runs to council tip.
Visits to the cat re-homing centre.

Ah, there's one new thing. We now have three volunteers who visit our re-homing centre to give the cats there lots of cuddles. Or, to be technical: maintaining the socialisation process. My sincerest thanks to all three ladies.

And then there's the perfect kitten-cat from the previous post. He had his second flu jab on Monday which makes him eligible for re-homing. Except he's now called Jack and it would have to be a bloody fantastic home before I'd let him leave this one!

So there you are, folks.

That's it.

Thanks for reading.

Bye.