Which began on Monday.
There's a lady who lives at Washington with 7 cats and has decided that's four too many and she wants to re-home the youngest, these being three about a year old and one aged six months. We don't have any room at present but we could take the kitten, as these are easy to re-home, and did so on Monday morning. Here it is plus another one we hope to take on later.
Later that afternoon I received a call at home from a representative of Gentoo.
(Gentoo used to known as something like Sunderland Housing Group and is responsible for what used to be Sunderland council housing. It changed its name not many years ago to Gentoo, also the name of a species of penguin, a name which, like Sunderland's new football stadium The Stadium of Light, was received with raucous laughter but, like the SOL, is now just accepted. I thought it was also a reasonable pun on Generation 2 but that might be giving them more credit than they deserve.)
Anyway, the guy had rang to find out when we were going to collect an abandoned cat from one of its properties. Which was news to me. Apparently they had called the shop on Saturday and a certain someone there had acquiesced to their request but never bothered to tell me. I won't embarass the person by naming her; suffice to say she's been known to complain about my snoring. The guy mentioned he'd been asked for a donation. I wondered if it would come out of his pocket which would be unfair but he assured me he could claim it back as long I gave him an official receipt.
Having no room anywhere, the cat would have to go in a cage in my garage which isn't a great option but better than any alternatives so I duly turned up the next morning with a cat carrier. The flat was a pig sty, (I've seen worse though) rubbish piled up down one side of bed with the cat hiding underneath it. When I lifted the bed I was surprised the cat could fit underneath as more rubbish was piled under it. We caught the cat and I put it in the carrier, being assured that it was friendly. The man and woman who were dealing with the case were very appreciative. Apparently the cat's owner was supposed to collect it the previous Friday but hadn't turned up. she'd also broken in over the weekend but left the cat.
It is indeed friendly and here it is.
Prior to collecting the cat on Tuesday morning, at 8.15am I was picking up four cats to go to the vets for neutering, including Monday's kitten. Usually they go to Williams & Cummings but Roker Park Practice was having 25% discount for a couple of months and their new charges would save us a bit of money, so no contest. Mid afternoon and I was buying cat food from Asda and collecting cat bedding and donated food from the shop and then picking up the four now-neutered cats.
And so to Wednesday.
Mid-morning I got a call from a lady who had been feeding a stray for over a week but was unwilling to keep on doing it. Luckily the shop office now had a space and, as the cat fit into the at risk category, I agreed to pick it up. Another friendly but nervous black and white female. The lady who'd been looking after it gave me a decent donation which was appreciated.
The cat, like I said, was friendly but nervous and hid behind the office couch. When I got her out and put her on my knee she was happy to stay there and rubbed against my knuckles.
By chance while I was in the shop, there were people actually wanting cats and both came upstairs to look at this one. I didn't really want to let her go as she hasn't been lost long and I'm going to put a small ad in the local paper about her.
What did happen was that I showed off some photographs I had in my camera with the result that one lady went to pick up the Washington kitten and was also impressed with the mother of the cute fluffy kittens (see earlier post) but she's waiting to see how the kitten gets on with her older cat first.
A couple (a little younger than me, I think) with the husband in a motorised wheelchair liked the look of the garage cat, came up to see it, liked it and agreed to have it for a week's fostering with a view to keeping it permanently. Once they got home, I brought the cat down in the van. It's nice and cosy and I think the three of them will be very happy. They're both born-again Christians and were surprised to learn that I'm an atheist. After some polite conversation, rather than risk saying anything which might offend them (and my views on religion are offensive to profoundly religious people), I said my goodbyes. I'll say goodbye to this topic too as it's more suited to my Freethinking blog.
Anyway, a good day. Two recently acquired cats re-homed with a third being a distinct possibility. A good day.
Thursday found me in the company of a long-haired 20-ish student called Andrew. Susan knows him and his family and that he's doing a course in photography and thought it would be a good idea if he took a bunch of photographs of our cats in need of re-homing. You've all seen my amateurish photos, so his had to be better. In the next day or so I'll be arranging to have them placed on the Sunderland Animal Adoption website so you can see for yourself. There are, however, two I want to show you because...
This one turned out to have a temperature so I took it, with another, to Roker Park after I'd dropped off Andrew in town. The vet checked her out, gave her an injection and she went easily into the box, whereupon she turned round and swiped at my left thumb with a sharp claw and drew blood.
This boy is very friendly. Demandingly so and will use his claws to make sure he gets your attention. Using his claws, he will climb up your clothes and your flesh until you notice him and make a fuss of him. Or, as in my case, scream, "I'm bleeding all over the cuff of my jacket you little sod!"
Understand, I'm used to being scratched by cats. I'm used to the brief pain. I'm used to the brightly flowing blood. I'm used to constantly having scabs on the backs of my hands, on my legs, and on my chest. I just get annoyed when it gets on my clothes, that's all.
Still, apart from the massive blood loss, it's been quite a good, busy week on the whole.
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