GINGER CATS AND TABBY CATS AND...

Busy week. wish I could tell you everything that happened but my memory is, as usual, very patchy.

The latest thing that's happened is that nervous boy Lightning is getting more and more confident in his dealings with me and just now he came downstairs and ate in the kitchen with the big boys and girls.

Fluffy the massive and massively lovable thick furred ginger cat has provisionally gone to a new home if he can get on with the friendly but noisy little chihuahua that also lives there. As he's already sleeping on the  his new owner's bed I don't think she's going to give him any choice.

Also re-homed only a couple of hours later was Bronia the three and half year old who lived with me for a while.

As expected it was a busy week for getting calls from people who had either found stray cats or wanted their own re-homing. Luckily for some of them, the way things worked out this week I did have space. I got two calls about strays and went over to Downhill to pick up one of them. However, after hanging round for a week there was no sign of it. In the case of another I was going to set out to pick it up but got a call in time to say it had disappeared. Four days later and I still haven't heard from either lady.

I did get contacted by a lady called Sonia offering to be a fosterer. I called round to do a homecheck and was very satisfied. That gave me a little more flexibility as it turned out.

Yesterday morning I got a call about two 13 week old kittens. Kittens the magic word. It wasn't far and I was round in half an hour. Brother and sister, ginger and tabby, went into my cat cage. Didn't seem too nervous. Anyway, this afternoon, I closed the bedroom door and let them out and then went for my nap -it had been a busy morning as you'll discover below. They were okay so I left them out of the cage when I opened the door and the others flooded in to no noticeable adverse reaction. The ginger boy ventured downstairs and, apart from Timmy who can be a pain with other cats but is going on Tuesday, ginger was quite curious and even came on to my computer desk while I was at it. The tabby remained upstairs. So, both promising. I haven't decided what to do with them yet but with Timmy and Minnie going to the re-homing centre on Tuesday there's no reason why I can't keep them here over Christmas. Adele has a couple of spaces so I've some reasonable flexibility.

Later that afternoon a cat which had been re-homed for a year came back because the dog she was living with suddenly started going for her. The owner was very upset to give it up as she had looked after the cat well, making sure it got regular flea and worm treatment and its vaccinations were up to date. It seemed a good starter cat for Sonia's fostering career so I kept it in a cage overnight and took it round later this morning. Her given name is Twinkle. There's no reason, apart from lack of spaces, that she shouldn't go to the re-homing centre but, assuming there's no problems with Sonia's loveable little chihuahua (whose best non-human friend is the neighbour's cat), I'll leave her at least till the New Year.

This morning I went to do a homecheck in Grindon and met a lovely family whom I took straight round to Ferry Farm where they ended up picking the first (and as it happens couldn't possibly be more suited for them) cat they saw which was 9 month old Tomtom who only been there a week after three with me. The lady's sister (who has four cats along with partner and young son) decided to come and do some cat cuddling. So: result!

After they'd gone, I moved Smudge, a three year old b/w female, in with Ember whom TomTom had left behind, which freed up another pen.

All things considered, not a bad week in the run-up to Christmas.

And Sunderland have just beaten Newcastle United at Newcastle's home ground.

And really one last thing, here's my new t-shirt. How could it be more appropriate for me?