AAIEE! CHIHUAHUA!

Trying to fill in a form for my accountant so she can do my tax and frequently getting interrupted by phone calls from people wanting to know if I'm really stuck in Spain, wanting to re-home cats -sorry, we're full, wanting to re-home a chihuahua -sorry, we're-

What was that?

A chihuahua. Four years old. Chipped. Owner about to go on a rig tomorrow and is thinking of having it put to sleep. His mother is just out of hospital and is recovering from cancer and can't cope with it. I call Phil on my mobile who tells me we can take it which I tell the guy on the land line. He's at Westhall kennels who've given them my number. I tried and explain where Ferryfarm kennels are but gave up and told him to bring the dog to my house. And here he is.

He's actually bigger than I expected, still a small dog but not tiny. I brought him in the house and put him in the living room where I'd been watching TV with Lotus, though to be honest I don't think she was really interested in Terra Nova, which I'd recorded from last night, though I quite liked the first two episodes. What Lotus didn't like was the little dog and, to my complete astonishment, she jumped off her chair and attacked him. The most she's done with the other cats was a half-hearted hiss. So I put him in the garden but he didn't like being left alone and barked a lot. He was also frightened of our short-haired grey cat Lily even though she kept well away from him.  Eventually I gave up and took him for a walk down to the shop where I was able to leave him in the care of Andrea. 

I've just heard from Susan that someone is coming this afternoon to foster him. Goodbye little dog.

But not forgetting cats. First off are two feral kittens which Carole hopes to tame, then an adult feral female I'd taken to the vets for spaying. How does a cat like that get to be feral?

Then there's the three-month old black kitten I picked up for re-homing. He looks sad, but he isn't. He's a lively, friendly, playful little thing.

Lastly here are a few garden photos of  Lotus, whom we know now to be 14 years old because her late owner took out an insurance policy to pay for any care she needed.

YOU CAN'T HAVE TOO MANY PHOTOGRAPHS OF KITTENS

It's been a quiet week with nothing of note worth mentioning. I've only been to the vets once and that was a routine visit this morning to have a cat's stitches removed. First off, a picture of the back of the van taken while I was unloading a whole bunch of cat food, some bought, some donated. I have to say that Sainburys store is way the best for donated cat food. If Morrisons and Asda were as good it would cut our food bills considerably. There are also photos of two feral kittens and more of the mother with her now eleven-day old kittens.

 

 

FAIRY TALE FOR A FELINE

This afternoon I took two young cats to Roker Park to be neutered, leaving them there overnight. I also brought with me a newly arrived 12 week old kitten just to be checked out. 

I never managed to return him to Carole's. This is his short story.

It started out as just a normal food run. However, as I started unloading at Carole's after arriving just before mid-day, she came out and told me a kitten had been handed in at Pets At Home shop on the North Hylton Trading Estate so off I went to pick it up. When I got there I found three young girls waiting for me with one of them holding it. Apparently they'd found it in a box at Castletown. I thanked them and popped it into the cat carrier. It seemed a nice little kitten with a loud purr and thick ginger fur.

On the way back while driving along the Wessington Way dual carriageway I spotted a stationary lorry with a car parked at an angle in the same lane as me. I slowed down to overtake it and when I did saw a man and a woman out of there vehicles looking at a motionless young fox standing in the middle of the lane. I couldn't stop because of other traffic and didn't have anything to contain the animal, plus it would have taken at least five minutes to get back there and anything could have happened by then. Rather reluctantly I took the kitten to Carole's and went home.

Next day -today, as I've said- I picked it up and the other two young cats.

 

In the surgery I took some more photos of the ginger kitten.

 

Both receptionists were quite taken with him and so was Wendy the vet. In the examination room, Wendy checked him out, spotting the conjunctivitis immediately, but he was otherwise fine. I mentioned my soft spot for ginger cats which, it turned out, Wendy shared. She had also lost a cat recently and was waiting for a special one to come along. She picked him up and stroked him commenting on his loud purr. 

"Well," I said, "if you might be interested I'd make a decision quickly as he won't be at Carole's for long. Wendy replied that she couldn't unless she wanted to risk a divorce. I thought Wendy was smitten. She asked, "Can I bring him back if he doesn't get on with my other cat?"

And that is why I didn't take the ginger kitten back to Carole's. The little kitten, abandoned one day, has found the best home possible the next -with a kind and loving vet (as long as he plays his cards right.)

Now you tell me that isn't a fairy tale ending.

And just to finish, a mother with kittens.

KITTEN PHOTOS

More from the same three litters with Fluffy the foster-mother.

Below is the kitten Carole called Ugly Betty. She is the second and weakest kitten to survive from a litter of five. Despite her tiny size, she is six weeks old and will be coming up for re-homing soon.

Finally, a few cats who are looking for homes, starting with Jasper a big friendly tabby about 3 years old.

 Above are Poppy and Swea'pea, around 4 months, a bit nervous and in need of intensive TLC to bring them around.


I don't know who this one is as he hasn't told me. Just another youngish black and white cat in need of a home and a lot of love.

AND THE KITTENS KEEP ON COMING

When I left Carol's yesterday afternoon, I took away with me a flea spray and de-wormer for Misty the fluffy grey kitten. About 7.30 that evening, I got a call from Carol wanting the flea spray back as she'd just been landed with five kittens. Seven actually, but the rescuer who brought them was keeping two for herself. I also found myself landed with the job of getting the three parents -two female, one male- neutered.

So here are some photos of the new batch, starting with a group picture.

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.

MORE ABOUT KITTENS AND CATS

Carol is full up with cats so Tracy, who runs a cattery/rescue up at Burnhope (see earlier post), offered to take our excess. One was a friendly short-haired tortoiseshell which had been handed in at the shop and left there overnight. Then there were two pregnant cats handed in to Carol, one of which had a litter within hours. Here they are. The first phot is a little misleading as their colour is black.

Burhope is up in the hills some seven miles west of Durham and about twenty from Sunderland, but psychologically it feels quite an isolated place surrounded by farmland and large wind-farms. Tracy runs the cattery to fund the rescue. Apart from a couple of her own cats and dogs, she also keeps chickens, donkeys and horses. and three FIV-infected ferals which have the run of the cattery grounds and live quite happily with the birds.

This feral, but actually friendly, cat decided to claim my bag which I'd left on the ground. It contains a pad of neutering vouchers from Cats Protection and I was going to fill out four for Tracy.

This young brother and sister have been hand-reared by Tracy from two weeks old and are incredibly friendly, purring as soon as they are touched and happy to jump on you. Why they, and several others, haven't been re-homed by now is beyond me.

This young kitten was so lively I could only get a photo of him by having Tracy pick him up because it was the only way to stop him moving.

This morning I took three cats to the vets in Sunderland. You can see a photo of them being held by Susan in the previous post. for the third cat, this was the second attempt to take him. Last time, as mentioned in a prior post of a couple of weeks ago, he broke out of his carrying case and sped off down the street but was trapped a couple of days later. When I introduced him to the staff of Williams & Cummings, I called him The Escapist. Well, when I pick him up in about half an hour The Escapist will be missing his balls.