IAN'S MICRO-CATTERY

(I wasn't sure if this blog was still going as I seem to spend my writing time posting stuff on Facebook but, even if this is the last post here I do, it will go out on, I hope, an interesting note.)

I made a proposal to the committee that, if Animal Krackers would pay for the flagstones to be put down then I would pay for a single unit cat shed in my garden. This wasn't entirely altruistic on my part as, since I pretty much moved into this house about two and a bit years ago, the conservatory has been used solely by cats I've fostering as, because it's the only safe way into my garden, my cats -a total of seven accumulated by mid-2014- have been house cats. As a result the few visitors I have arrive with a peg on their nose.

Things had got better recently as, having decided to go ahead, when the cat I was currently fostering had her section vaccination and went to our re-homing centre, I didn't replace her. And, for the first time since I moved in, I let the cats out.

They quickly learned how to use the cat flap and equally quickly decided that -hey, this outside isn't bad  at all, and that green stuff looks good to eat, and to throw up. I got a fright when one of them didn't come back and ended up staying away for three days but since then no problems and I hope it stays that way if only because the amount of litter tray cleaning I have to do has drastically decreased. I don't think they go too far and the garden next door on my left is cat friendly except when their, actually cat  friendly, dog (his best friend is a cat they got from me at Christmas) is out and about. So it's all working out very nicely and it's nice to turn my head and see cats in the garden, though the large bunny who used to visit hasn't been back for a while.

Right: the cat shed.

I looked on Ebay to see what there was, downloaded images of something which seemed suitable and went to a pet suppliers just up the road to see if they could do something similar and cheaper. The answer was yes and no, sort of. They could build it for the same price but that also included erection (no cheap jokes please) plus there was the advantage of being able to make changes if I needed to. Three weeks later and there it was. Total cost: £585.00 which isn't bad really as it's exactly what  I wanted, although with hindsight it might have been another 6 inches or foot higher.

What you don't see are a couple of boards which can be easily fixed on to either side to stop the rain, snow and/or hail coming in. The tarpaulin on the top will hang down over the door. Some insulation has been added to the bedroom (green in the photo below) and several sheets on underlay for laminate flooring which I had left over add some more as well as giving a soft surface for the cat to sit. There's a cat bed of course and I've got a microwavable hot water bottle for when it gets cold.

If that makes all sound nice and easy, it wasn't. Not that it was difficult either but... I'd originally decided to have it on the other side on a rectangle covered with stone chippings (and weeds). I measured it (several times because I don't trust my own accuracy) then worked out how many paving stones I need (several times as even with a calculator I'm still not good at maths) and how much it would cost -that bit I could manage. I was all set to order the paving stones when it suddenly occurred to me that it would save money, time and a shed-load of effort if it went on the lower decking area where there was only some weather-worn cheap plastic chairs and a garden table which I've never used in the two and half years I've been here. It also turned out to look a lot better and doesn't alter the view of my garden through the conservatory windows.

About five hours after it was complete -took an hour to put up- it had its first resident and here she is. Cassie, abandoned by her owner who moved and left her behind. She's eight years old, has been declared in good health by the vet and received her first vaccination, adapted easily to life in the shed, eats, drinks, and uses the litter tray dropping nice solid stools in the process. She is also friendly and doesn't seem to mind being picked up; she certainly likes being stroked. Shame she's so odd looking but oddly beautiful at the same time. She'll be with me for about three weeks until she get her second vaxx when she'll be transferred to our re-homing centre and I'll be getting, if the plan comes together, two jet black young brothers.

RESCUING CATS AND KITTENS

1.

I got a call earlier this week from a lady I'd helped a while ago. She regularly feeds strays where she lives but because she's elderly and lives in a small flat, she doesn't feel up to actually taking them in, but she does what she can. A cat she feeds had been injured in a fight and she was worried about it so I agreed to call round and, if she could get it inside, I'd take it to the vets. This she did and it turned out to be a fairly placid animal despite having been on the streets for at least two years -the period she'd be feeding him.

I got him to King's Road Vets where he was seen by chief vet Wendy. She bathed the wound and gave him a couple of vaccinations which he endured without complaint of any kind. He's about 6, hadn't been neutered and the lady -let's call her Ms A- didn't want him done because she felt he would lose his edge if he was. By the time I got him back I'd had an idea and I told her: if she'd keep feeding him I'd arrange for him to be vaccinated and then neutered and take him our Ferry Farm Re-homing Centre. This changed slightly as I had a cat in my conservatory -more about whom later- bound for there (today as it happens) and when he went, I'd take her cat in. And so, to shorten a longer story, that is what has happened and he's here now and will be for three weeks. I've also decided to apply my original plan to another cat Ms A is feeding.

I'm a little concerned about him as, before he could go in the conservatory I had to put him in a cage for a few hours. When I moved him I noticed he'd emptied bowels and bladder where he sat. He's also not eating and just sitting on the window. It's probably just nerves. Some cats take a while settling in to a new place and not eating is one of the main symptoms.

2.

I agreed to take in two 12 week old kittens (sisters) which arrived yesterday and are living in my bedroom. They'll go to the vets on Monday for a check up and first vaccination at the same time as I pick up a ginger cat which is hanging about an old people's home and which I'll also get checked and vaccinated. Incidentally, both reek of cigarette smoke. I've often wondered about the effects of passive smoking on animals but that's a subject for another time.

The grey tabby is very friendly and confident coming to me for cuddles while  her sister is extremely nervous and runs away from me. Give it time.

3.

Quite a few photos below and all taken at independent local rescuer Carole O'Brien's house. In this case I'm just the transport and always happy to help her.

The first kitten is only 5 weeks old and was founded and handed in to the local PDSA hospital where they did what they could for it and contacted Carole to ask if she'd take it. Not having transport, she asked me if I could collect it. I was going to nearby Kings Road Vets (see 1. above) to collect the cat in the photo anyway.

Once at Carole's she put it in a mother cat, the cat's sister, and mother cat's kittens which are about the same age as the new one in the hopes that MC would nurse him and kittens would accept him. It was a little awkward while I was there but I've since heard from Carole that all is well. There are no guarantees but the kitten now has a good chance thanks to the PDSA and Carole without whom he'd be dead by now.

4.

Houdini is the cat who went to Ferry Farm today. I gave him that name because he is a feline escapologist. Basically he's never seen an open door he won't run through whether you want him to or not and he combines speed with sheer determination. He's also a incredibly friendly cat who likes people but does intimidate other cats with his sheer ebullience. Anyone who takes him on should like a cat with a lot of personality and also possess fast reactions and an airlock to stop him getting outside when they want him to stay in.

By coincidence he also came via the PDSA (who removed the tip of an infect tail), then on to Carole (I collected him with her) who later begged me to take him because he needed space that he didn't have in one of her cages.

LOTSASTUFF: IN WHICH YOUR HUMBLE BLOGGER ENDEAVOURS TO RELATE FELINE-INVOLVING INCIDENTS WHICHAVE OCCURRED IN THE FIRST FIVE DAYS OF THE YEAR OF OUR LORD, ANNO DOMINI 2015.

Part the First: adoptions.

On New Years Day, Joanna homed the kitten Frazzle and on Jan 2nd she homed the kitten Sherry. Also on 2nd Jan, three adult cats were adopted at Ferry Farm: Timmy, Minnie, and Ted, all graduates of the Ian Williams School of Feline Deportment. So, five in the first two days of 2015, a good start with promises of more to come (or go) his week.

Part the Second: arrivals.

Some come. some go.

Arrived are: Albert & Victoria, Lightning, Gemma, and Bettie. Only one of them is one I've been fostering.

Part the Third: Rikki and His Friends

Rikki is one of my cats and he's gone through the wars a bit. He's had an operation on his eyelids because of ingrowing hairs. He was pining on his own Ferry Farm so I brought him here. He's got into a habit of over-grooming so he's on his second lot of different pills. Despite this, he's a friendly loveable boy.

Another cat I'm having a problem with his Arya. Now she's a lovely affectionate young girl but... She has a flea allergy and at one time had several large scabs over her body. All of these are gone now and she's flea-free. Well, all but one scab. This keeps healing only for her to scratch it open again. At one time it had completely healed leaving healthy bare skin. Which, a couple of days later, she raked open again. So I took her to the vets again about this where she had a couple of injections and Wendy the vet came some cream for her. This is what the scab looks like.

And then there's Tomas. He's actually a nice boy. With a quirk. This afternoon while I was on the phone after making a fuss of him, he climbed on top of my shoulder so I could continue what I'd started. He is getting quite friendly and isn't as nervous as he used to be. But he doesn't half howl a lot, loudly, and long. I may be imagining it (I hope not) but it didn't seem quite so long a session late this afternoon. I live in hopes.

And here's a photo of Fifi.

Part the Fourth: Animal Krackers on Facebook.

I've been a member of Facebook for a little while but only recently joined the Animal Krackers Facebook page and once there I realised what a good thing it is and wished I'd joined sooner. A perfect example of why it's a good thin happened a couple of days ago.

I got a call from a woman who lived just around the corner from me about a cat which had been hanging around for a week so, as I'd decided Tomas could manage without being in the conservatory, I went round to have a look. I found a big ginger and white intact male sitting on op of the plastic rubbish bin outside her house. It let me stroke it and pick it up so I took it home, took a photo and put it and what details I had up on the AK Facebook page, quickly receiving a number of helpful replies. One reply linked to a post of a missing cat which looked very like this one. Not long after, a guy knocked on my door and said it was his sister's and he'd be round in the morning. I asked him to come in and look at it but he didn't. After that the person who posted the lost similar cat got in touch, sent me a photo, and, to cut a long story short, I took it round that same evening and there was no question that this was her cat. He went into into a small living room where several people came and made a fuss of him without him being phased. This was his home from which he'd been missing for six weeks. Result!

His name is Toffy.

Part the Fifth: There is no Part the Fifth. 

That's yer lot for now.

NEW YEAR'S DAY 2015, NEW CAT PHOTOS

Tomas, age 2, foster cat, available,

Squeak (mine); Eva, foster cat (reserved).

Rikki, (mine) in his favourite place.

Fifi,  my first foster cat who never left.

Lightning, 8 months, available.

Mickey, foster cat (reserved).

THE CASE OF THE ERRONEOUS CHIHUAHUA

It didn't take long for Xmas to be over. Christmas Day itself was spent with my exes -with my ex-wife at my ex-brother-in-law's house for Xmas dinner with my ex-sister-in-law, my ex-niece, my ex-nephew, and their (my ex-) auntie, and then tea at my ex-wife (the same one)'s house for tea with my ex- but we've already been there. 

Boxing Day was a genuinely lazy day which is all that needs to be said about it.

On Saturday things picked up again. Out relatively early to the wilds beyond the boundaries of the mighty metropolis of Sunderland and into places where plants grow wild -it think it's called the country- (well, not really wild as it's pretty much all farms and villages and small towns- to a place called Great Lumley, which has a castle, to do a home check which was very satisfactory apart from my satnav trying to guide me into a car park in Houghton-le-Spring.

Then on to Ferry Farm to meet a nice family who selected Tina the unusually marked tortoiseshell I'd fostered. In the very short time she's been with them Tina has clearly decided she's landed on her feet and is making the most of it to the delight of her new family. A little later I'd just had my lunch when I got a call from people wanting to visit the same day. Right now, I suggested forgoing the coffee I'd just started to drink and delaying the nap I'd been anticipating. Right now it was and Annabelle, a cute torty who lived in the pen next to Tina, went to live with a lady, just a little younger than myself, and her husband.

So when is this erroneous chihuahua going to get here? you're wondering. Right now, I answer.

I arrived at a house in Castletown (a district of Sunderland which has the remains of a castle -there are castles all over the place around here) where S, who has a chihuahua, was fostering Tinker a cat (who, for some, reason, I misremembered as Rosie, well, sort of) and had a chihuahua I'd met and liked a week ago. S was surprised to see me and hadn't exchanged emails with me. The cat was settling in albeit avoiding the little friendly dog. I was making a fuss of it as I had the week before but made the mistake of assuming a familiarity not shared by the little dog which sank its teeth into the base of thumb when I tried to pick it up. Silly me. Oh well. Still bleeding, I said goodbye, and headed off to Ferry Farm to meet three groups of people (one of which didn't turn up so it was only two).

One family was already there, mum, dad, with future daughter in law who had decided she wanted to take Ember and Smudge, two young black cats, and take them she did. Which was when I got a phone call from A who was wondering where I'd got to having expected me an hour earlier to pick up Rosie (or, as I knew her, Fluffy). A, who also has a chihuahua, was expecting me to collect Fluffy as, sadly, it wasn't working out. |I'd got the two chihuahuas mixed up. Rather than delay things any longer, A brought Fluffy back to Ferry Farm and I apologised. I should have known better and I have a lot of excuses but basically I made erroneous assumptions. The family from Great Lumley also arrived and picked the young white and tabby Maisie the star (with her kittens) of several posts earlier this year.

And I'm back again tomorrow to meet another couple who are interested in adopting a cat. It's a busy end to a busy year and I wouldn't have it any other way. Next post will be the official Animal Krackers New Year's Message probably on New Year's Eve or New Years Day, unless anything interesting happens in the meantime.

Here's Beverley, a fluffy and likeable new arrival at our re-homing centre.

HAPPY XMAS 2014

It's been quite a busy December for me and the Animal Krackers team. Not sure about non-cats but for cats it's been a goodish month. To date (5.30pm 24th Dec) this month we've re-homed 14 cats and kittens compared to none in same period last year and there are hopes for at least another couple going before the end of the month.

I've been running around all over the place (well, all over Sunderland) doing home checks, meeting people at the re-homing centre to adopt cats, picking up donated pet food from supermarkets, distributing pet food, taking cats and kittens to the vets, spending hours on the phone trying to help people who need to re-home their cats or who've found one -some I've been able to accept, more not because the numbers needing new homes seem to increase in December, but really it's a matter of luck if they call when a space has been freed up with a fosterer (like me, or Adele), taking in cats to foster (see previous posts), updating the cats needing homes web page and the the archive of cats re-homed, writing blog posts, contributing posts to the Facebook pages of Animal Krackers and Kings Road Vets (mostly the same posts shared TBH) plus my own Facebook (less of an overlap), plus looking after my own seven little monsters and a varying number of foster cats, countless cat-related emails including keeping AK people in the loop of what I'm up to, and in between trying to squeeze in some life of my own. I'm not complaining, I love doing what I'm doing and wouldn't do it if I didn't. And please don't think I'm the only who does a lot of this work because I'm not, not by a long way.

Tomorrow, however, the only cativities I'm doing are looking after my own. Otherwise it's Christmas Day and Christmas dinner with my ex and ex-brother and ex-sister in law and my ex-niece and ex-nephew. Looking forward to it. Hope you all have a good one.

Here are some photos.

GUEST POST BY JOANNA RODGERS

Apart from being Animal Krackers' fantastic secretary, this year Joanna has been fostering and re-homing lots of kittens for us. And rabbits. And guinea pigs.

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There’s no room at the Inn!!

2014 has been a massive eye opener for me about working in animal rescue.  Volunteers at Animal Krackers don’t stroll about stroking the occasional purring cat and taking a dog for a walk in the sunshine; they work really hard, like 'slog your guts out until midnight' hard. And it’s not all about those who help with the animals, there are lots of people behind the scenes tirelessly raising money so Animal Krackers can continue its work.

I’ve been seriously involved with the charity for over a year and not only does it take over your life, it takes over your house! This Christmas I will have 12 kittens (7 of which are semi-feral), 5 cats, 12 rabbits and 2 guinea pigs in residence.

I thought I’d just pay tribute to some of the special little lives that have come through our doors this year.

Winnie who was handed in at Animal Krackers shop and was one of the most loving rabbits I’ve ever known. This is her licking the bars of her cage (one of her favourite past-times!)

Scrappy, the kitten who was motherless and had such severe neurological damage that he had to be put to sleep. A thousand tears were cried for this little one!

Evelyn, a giant bunny, who had been used as a breeding doe her whole life and had never known anything else other than her small hutch. She is now living free in Andrea’s garden.

Grace, a beautiful cat, who was living in a wendy house with her 3 kittens at a women’s refuge after her owner had run from a situation of horrific domestic abuse. Grace has found a wonderful home where she is treated like a queen.

Rita, one of 4 giant bunnies, rescued from a terrible situation in Gateshead. Pledges of help from rabbit lovers came from all over the UK for this poor bunny family. Rita is now living in luxury near Ferry Farm in South Hylton.

Lily, who with her two brothers was rehomed to a happy home in Essex (after being driven the hundreds of miles by an AK volunteer, of course!)

Nigel and Boris, who were terrified when they arrived and, after having Laura, a dedicated fosterer, working with them every day, have now found a forever home where they are enjoying lots of attention.

5 sweet kittens whose mother, Dorothy, died of lymphoma while they were still tiny. They have all found loving homes and the black one Dot, is the image of her mother. Although we couldn't save Dorothy she lives on through her little daughter.

Simon, the rabbit who thinks he’s a cat. This bunny sleeps, plays and chases his fosterer’s kittens everywhere. We’re still waiting for him to purr!

Annabel, who is currently at Ferry Farm waiting for a new owner. She can’t stand other cats but was one of the sweetest, most protective mothers we’ve ever seen.

And finally 3 of my own, all adopted from Animal Krackers and adored beyond all things!!