THE CAT IN CELL 9

It started out as an ordinary Tuesday morning as I went to pick up cat food from Asda and Sainsburys. It differed a little after that as I had to call in at a friend's house to feed her cat and change the litter and then keep it company for a while as she was on holiday. She actually got the cat from me as it had been found locally, had recently given birth, and had a damaged (discovered to be broken) leg. I'd kept the cat in a cage in the garage, spending some time with it each day until it was ready to be re-homed which, obviously, she was and very successfully.

About an hour after getting home, Susan and I set off in the van to visit Westhall Kennels which acts as a dumping ground for stray cats and dogs which have ended up being the responsibility of Sunderland City Council. It's basically a converted farm and is a dark and depressing place to visit. I'm sure the staff do their very best for the animals in their care but it isn't the sort of place I'd want any of my cats to go to. The reason for our visit is that Susan had just learned of the death of a family friend -it had happened some months earlier but for complicated reasons (not unsavoury I should emphasise) it had been kept quite. He was only in his 40's and as a result his mother with whom he lived had immediately gone into care and their cat into Westhall.

What we found is in the top picture. I could tell she was an oldish cat even before I looked at her teeth and she was clearly stressed. She'd stopped looking after herself and her coat was peppered white with dandruff and thick with loose hairs. She hadn't licked her bottom very well either. As I was due to take a cat to Stray Aid (see several previous posts), I rang up them to see if they would take this one -she'd been named Lotus- which they would. In the meantime, we'd look after her for a couple of days and, suspecting this might happen, I'd brought a cat carrier with me.

That sorted, our next stop was at Carole's with the weekly delivery of food. One cat which had arrived a couple of days ago had just finished giving birth to her last kitten not long before we got there. She'd had six in all. I took a few photos of them and some other cats.

 

While we were there, Carole suggested we take Lotus to Roker Park vets to be checked out as they'd probably fit us in now. So we did. Wendy, who took the ginger kitten a couple of weeks ago, checked her out and reckoned her to be about 10-12 years old and in reasonable health, coat  condition excepted. So we took her home and she took up residence under the settee.

I was back at Carole's in the afternoon to take one cat and a kitten to the vets. The cat, Ossie (otherwise known, to me anyway, as Psycho-cat) and one of Carole's had recently decided to start peeing all over the place. The three-week old kitten, on the other hand, had developed eye trouble. Here they are.

Thursday morning dawned mild and sunny and, after paying a visit to the cat, it was off to Stray Aid. The first cat was located upstairs above the shop. A stray, it had arrived yesterday. Now I was originally going to take Lotus but, for reasons I'll explain later, it was going to be this friendly young tabby (sorry, no pictures of it) instead. Then I picked up Phil who, with Andrea, does the dog-running. Over to Red House Estate on the north side of the city to pick up a one year old neutered male as the couple didn't have to look after him properly because they had a new baby. Yeah, right, like a cat takes that much looking after. But into the box it went.

About a mile to the west and it's a one year old German Shepherd which has been neither trained nor socialised with the result is that he's wildly friendly with people, can't be allowed near other dogs and a tight grip needs to be kept on his leader at all times. He can be trained but it will need someone with a lot of experience and patience to do it.

Stray Aid were hugely busy that morning due to an influx of several stray dogs and it took a while for them to check ours out. The cats were no problem, both young, friendly, neutered, and healthy and very re-homeable. The dog might have to go to the Blue Cross animal charity for special training.

It's now Monday and Lotus, the cat in cell 9 (actually a reasonable size cage with an outside run) is still with us and looks like being our Cat No.9. In the time she's been with us, I've given several intensive brushes which she actually loved and would let me pretty do anything to her to get at the fur. I gave her a dry shampoo with a special mousse like stuff which got rid of most of the kennel smell but replaced it with a smell that Susan hated. So we gave her a bath and Susan shampooed her with Head & Shoulders. I held Lotus by her front paws against the edge of the bath and, while she clearly wasn't happy, put up with it all.

She actually looks better than this now and the dandruff has mostly gone. While mainly staying in the living room, she occasionally venture into the kitchen or upstairs. She doesn't react to the other cats even when one of them hisses at her, though they most keep out of her way. She likes being cuddled and will happily stay on your knee or slumped against your chest for as long as you'll let her, purring loudly all the while. 

In the last couple of days she's started climbing on my knee without waiting to be picked up. Although Wendy the vet put her at 12 at the oldest, she acts like an older cat. I've never seen her move quickly at all. Susan doesn't think we'll have her long, though she may surprise us. Me, I just feel so sorry for the poor old thing and also pleased that she's begun to respond to us. But what we are doing is giving an old cat a loving home for her last few years which I'm sure would have pleased her late owner.

ONE WEEK

Started off fairly quietly with nothing much happening. The little ginger cat was settled in the cage in our garage and I'd begun getting into a routing of visiting him four times a day and feeding him twice. Every time I let him out, the first thing he did, before running around the garage, was to rub up against me so I'd stroke him. 

Tuesday morning and I'd thought about taking him through to StrayAid at Coxhoe where I was due to drop off a load of dog bedding and dog food that morning. Susan suggested ringing the Sunderland Echo with the story about how he was found tied to a gatepost with a shoelace. The Echo are always favourable to animal stories but they have to have a hook on which to peg the story to get the reader's attention, which this did. Susan called them, told them the piece over the phone and they agreed to send a photographer that afternoon.

Not surprisingly, the photographer was over an hour late, though she had a good excuse. She took several shots of me holding the ginger cat and more of Andrea and Susan standing next to each other holding a couple of bunnies -two brothers which had been given into our care. The piece didn't appear until Friday and, as far as text goes, it was fine. The photos were amusing from our point of view. All that appeared of me was a portion of my right hand. Susan had been completely cropped out so only Andrea was shown, but she'd been misidentified as Susan.

By this time, I'd been letting the ginger cat, now provisionally called Tim, have the runaround of our house for a couple of hours each afternoon. He immediately showed that he was extremely fast, darting around all over the place, extremely destructive, as he attacked carpets and chairs and anything else vaguely soft including a cloth mousy. He and Little Bob played chasey with each other, though Tom got spat at by a couple of my other cats. Little Bob, however, pretty much likes every cat and person he meets.  

 

And here's a couple of snaps I took at Carol's, one of the new arrival who turned up the same day as Tim.

Wednesday was a busy morning. After my usual early morning swim, I dropped Tim off at the vet's for neutering. From there I went to my doctor's to give a blood sample for testing. Home and a quick bit to eat as I'd had to fast since ten the previous evening. Then down town for coffee with my ex-work colleagues and show them cat photos I'd taken -two of the three are big cat fans. And from there to the dentist's, yet again, to decide whether to keep the filling I'd had put in the week before or have the tooth removed. Although it was still sensitive to temperature, I opted to keep the tooth and only have it removed if the filling dropped out again, which has happened several times recently. In the afternoon, and after picking up Tim who was fine, I had to pick up some furniture for the shop.

Now I'm sure I did something on Thursday but I haven't listed it in my diary and I can't remember what I did at all that day. Friday I did some running around after cats, took some dried cat food over to Carol, and the piece appeared in the Echo and the phone started ringing.

First thing Saturday morning, after the usual routine of feed cats, let them in and out depending when they're stayed out all night or not, see to to Tim, etc, was to drive to Hetton on the outskirts of greater Sunderland to drop off a cat cage. A young woman who'd had dealings with us before had opened her front door earlier this to have a cat run in, run upstairs and hide in a fitted wardrobe where it proceeded to have four kittens. As her cat took exception to this, she asked us for a loan of the cage until the kittens were old enough to be re-homed. The house next door to hers was boarded up which concerned me a bit but hers was well looked after. She also had her sister and sister's 2 year old son there. The boy was bright, chatty and friendly, and really rather cute and I'm not a great fan of kids at the best of times. The photos below can speak for themselves.

On the way home, I picked up some cat food for Carol, who has several growing kittens with large appetites, and took it over. A little later and just tucking into my lunch, I got a call from Andrea at the shop who had an elderly lady she knew who was interested in taking on a cat. I rang Carol and arranged to go there and then so I picked up the lady from the shop and took her over. After much deliberation, she selected a quiet 5 year old tortoiseshell female which I'll drop off on Monday once she's got all the cat stuff. At teatime I took Tim to his new home not far from where Andrea lives. It looks pretty good but as he is very lively I suggested a two-week trial after which I'll do the formal adoption procedure. I'm quite hopeful.

STRAY AID

This isn't intended to be a weekly post but it seems to be have been going that way for a while now. Sometimes I might manage a couple in a week but not often.

Anyway, this post is mostly about Stray Aid. I've mentioned them several times in previous posts and you can check out their website in the newly added sidebar of favourite websites. And if you live in the North East of England I strongly recommend that you do. In the past we've helped out their charity shop at Seaham and very recently helped them set up a new shop at Easington Colliery (grand opening tomorrow) by providing stock and with Bernice, one of our helpers who lives there, getting the shop organised. We also send food and bedding to their base at Coxhoe. I did that on Monday of this week but, as I found out later, not all of the bedding we had for them so we scheduled another trip for today. There are photos of Stray Aid scattered around in several posts with the best, perhaps, being the recent Snow Dogs entry.

Stray Aid also sometimes take dogs from us for re-homing -they are primarily a dog rescue- but also occasionally cats. Earlier this week at young cat was handed in at the unopened shop at Easington and Andrea and Susan brought it through to stay temporarily in the office of Animal Krackers shop. He's a youngish un-neutered male with a quiet and very friendly nature. Susan even asked me if we could take him in. This, after frequently telling me off for bringing home Daisy and then Little Bob a few months ago. Here he is.

He's not the most prepossessing of cats but he has a vulnerable appealing charm.

A lady from Washington has been in touch with us about handing over four of her seven cats as they're too much for her. One is only six months old so we can her as she'll be rehomed in five minutes. I had hoped that Stray Aid would take the other three but when I rang they only had space for two. Now someone locally had been pestering us to take her cat -she's pregnant, a common reason for dumping animals, cats in particular- so that was the two.

However Cat One above was fostered out but too late for me to arrange for another cat so this morning I loaded up with bedding and went to pick up the cat. This heavily pregnant woman opened the door holding a cigarette in one hand. To say this annoyed me, and for more than one reason, was an understatement but I said nothing. She was pleasant enough and, apart from being overweight, the cat was quietly friendly and placid and in good condition.

So off we went to Stray Aid where Sue the vet checked her out and, as I'd forgotten to ask her name, called her Carmel. Here's Carmel.

Although not as heavy as she looks, Carmel still weighed in at 6kg. She was fine on the examination table, letting herself be poked and prodded without too much complaint and no real struggle.

Sue put her in a carrier and while we were talking brought out a kitten, which had just been handed in, for examination. I helped hold the little thing while it went through the same procedure Carmel had. Its bottom was a little mucky so Sue snipped away a few clumps of matted fur. Wherever it had come from, it had been handled regularly was quite happy to held and stroked and purred loudly in appreciation. John, Sue's husband and partner in Stray Aid, came in and we chatted about the problems animal rescues faced -mainly from people who had no understanding of the limitations small local charities like ours face in terms of resources. I'd have quite happily talked all day as long as I was holding the kitten but we all had places to be and things to do. So here's the kitten.

When I got home I brought in with me a piece of cat furniture I'd picked up on my travels. It smelled somewhat of smoke so I gave it a going over with a catnip spray, got out my camera and sat back to watch.

Normally the only place you'd find six of our cats together is in the kitchen at feeding time, and there's another one out of shot.