LIGHTNING STRIKES

Lightning is the seven month old and very nervous kitten-cat I took in three days ago. But before I get onto him here's a progress report on Timmy and Minnie, both very nervous, who arrived a couple of weeks earlier.

It didn't take long for one year old Timmy to settle in. He has the run of the house, goes where he wants, isn't bothered by the other cats, and will sit on my knee if he feels like it. I found him upstairs in the book room when I went to take photos of Lightning. He's big and beautiful and needs a more appropriate name than (Timid) Timmy.

Minnie, however, doesn't want to leave the conservatory. she's happy enough for me to come in and make a fuss of her but hisses at the sight of any of the other cats.

Meanwhile, back in the book room, here's Emma, a nice gentle girl who's one of my permanent residents.

And finally back to Lightning who I was really quite worried about. He hated being in the cage, but when I let him out, he'd disappear and was very good at hiding. Luckily he found a place behind a large flattened storage box propped up against a cupboard door which made it easy for me get hold of him/stroke him and harder for him to get away. After a couple of sessions this afternoon, he's now used to me and actively rubs against my hand He doesn't, unlike Minnie, seem to be bothered by the other cats.

If there's one thing I've learned about fostering cats, it's that even the most nervous will, given space and time, come around. They may not all become socialised with other cats but they will with people.

THREE INTO ONE

I'd been booked to go to Ferry Farm on Saturday morning at eleven to induct a couple of new cat cuddlers -a mother and adult daughter. The day before I got a call from a gentleman who was interested in adopting a cat and he'd been given our details by a friend who'd got one from us earlier this year and who would be bringing him up. I suggested that he come at eleven as that would kill two birds with one stone and save me a trip and also petrol (which I claim from AK). Great.

And all went well. He picked a nice young girl about a year old, though I tried to get him to take Aoife who is a nice quiet 5 year old but to no avail. The new cuddlers were both very nice and seemed to enjoy themselves so hopefully they'll be back. 

And while I was dealing with all this I got a call from a lady who lives in South Shields. She'd rung me earlier in the week but called again as she was really desperate. Always a sucker for a sob story plus an assurance that the cat was really really really friendly, I reluctantly agreed. I did warn her that if the cat wasn't friendly I wouldn't take it. People have tried  and (very rarely) succeeded to lumber us with an unrehomeable cat and I was determined not to get conned again. I finished sorting out business and also learned that Sansa, a rather diffident cat when I was fostering her, had blossomed into a lovely cuddle and lap-loving girl.

I typed the post code into my car's satnav and put my trust in it and it did indeed get me there safely, to a nice small modern estate which, like Moorside, is very safe for cats. The story was that her youngest son had developed a severe allergy to the cat but matters were further complicated by the fact that she'd split up with her partner and the house had to sold and she and her two sons were moving into council accommodation which is all very traumatic. 

Her description of the cat proved to be accurate. I've had her for just over 24 hours and she is as friendly as she is pretty. I'm keeping her in the cat cage until Tuesday when Amy Farrah Fowler and Marcy May are going for their second flu jabs and then on to Ferry Farm where they'll share a pen together.

Needless to say I forgot the name of the cat and didn't think to ask its previous owner when she woke me from a nap an hour ago to ask how the cat was doing. For the time being I'm calling her Rizzoli (though she's more like Isles) and if you don't know where that name came from you're missing one of the best American buddy-buddy crime TV shows.

On another matter entirely, Joanna, Animal Krackers' secretary has re-homed five kittens this weekend.

GO, JO!

 

TOTAL CATS AND KITTENS RE-HOMED TO DATE: 121.

IT'S OFFICIAL: I'M A COMPLETE IDIOT

Of course you all knew that anyway, yeah, yeah, it's not news to anyone but me or rather not that I'd have admitted it but now I can't deny it any longer.

Let me tell you a story.

For the last day and a half I have been enjoying the sheer blissful of tranquillity of living in a house with only four cats who all get on together. I can wake up in bed and find at least three curled up next to me, all comfortable in each others' company. They have me to themselves (I'm not counting Jeff and her kittens in the conservatory) and aren't being terrorised by cats who don't like other cats. Wonderful.

Then this morning I went swimming as usual (well, as usual if I wake up in time or if I decide not to go back to bed, the latter happening on Tuesday). When I swim my mind wanders as I think about things like writing a blog post, doing a draft in my head, or reflecting on something else. Today my mind went to Rikki the cat who had to have an operation on his eyes because eyelid hairs were growing into the eyeball. Such a sad looking thing. I was due to take him to the vets again today but this time because he was losing patches of fur. His eyes still look messy but are healing well.

And I thought to myself (as opposed to thinking to someone else): maybe I could try fostering him and see how he gets on with my cats. He did come in with two others who have since been re-homed so might be quite sociable and mine want to be friends with newcomers. Then I thought about something else.

"It's stress," said Wendy the vet and asked if their was a socket in the pen so we could try Felway a herbal aromatic which had some success in calming cats. I rang Ferry Farm and Mark told me they could by using a long cable but there wasn't a socket as such.

"Oh socket," I said to Wendy, "I'll take him home and give him a try. He might be better in my house."

So I did and here he is on my bed. The Felway is plugged in next to it.

I'm quietly optimistic that this might just work.

And there you go. I just get the cat population down to what I wanted in my house and all is calm and I take in another bloody cat. Mind, he's on the fostering list. Anyone wants him they can have him.

Hello?

GOODBYE AND GOODBYE AND GOODBYE

I'll be honest, I live in a small house. The garden is about twice the size. Don't get me wrong though, I like living here. The location is convenient and the house being compact makes it relatively easy to keep clean. Well it would if I wasn't such an idle rude word and I didn't have so many cats which makes the house smell. I can only open my bedroom windows when the door is closed and all cats ejected because the windows open from the bottom up. The living room isn't too bad because the bay window is divided into three with the opening windows at the top of each panel. Even then I can only open them a little so as to deter a persistent cat from forcing the gap wider and getting out as happened once.

So I decided to be ruthless and reduce the number of cats I'm looking after, specifically those I'm fostering. Two were easy to decide upon. The first was Frank, the people-friendly but cat-bullying black and white two year old I took in three weeks ago. Then Gilgamesh the beautiful ocicat who likes people but was even worse with cats than Frank. Every cat is the house was afraid of him. And lastly I decided to let Aoife go. I've had her for fifteen months, her and her three adopted kittens and two of her own -all but one has either been adopted or is at our re-homing centre.  But it wasn't an easy decision as she's very loving but doesn't like other cats and I've been changing my mind constantly, but in the end...  In the end as of a few hours ago, all three have taken up residence at our re-homing centre at Ferry Farm kennels.

Now I'm reduced to Aelfric and Fifi, the first two cats I fostered here, who will never leave. I nearly sent Emma, a nine month old black and white, and Tilly, Aoife's fifteen month old grey daughter, to Ferry Farm together but they're both so affectionate and all four get on well together.

That still leaves Jeff and her kittens and the kittens I took in last week. Except that the student I got Jeff (as a stray) from has finished her course and is hoping to take Jeff home to Manchester. Three of the kittens have been re-homed and two are reserved to be collected in a week. So, not counting them, I'm down to a much more manageable four which will reduce the amount of time I spend cleaning the litter trays considerably as well as reducing the food bill. It also means that I can give more time and affection to the cats I do have. It feels almost like a holiday, except...

Except: I hate that word.

Except that I'm expecting a phone call any minute now about an abandoned 17 year old cat I've agreed to take in. And then there'll be the phone call about a cat that the circumstances are such that I can't help myself. And, and, and...

We really, really, really need more fosterers. Animal Krackers will pay any vets bills and help with the food so if you or someone you know... Get in touch, dammit!

AND THE KITS KEEP COMING!

Little (Lost?) Kitten.

I now have ten animals of the feline persuasion in my house which is at least five, maybe six, too many. The latest arrived last night following a phone call about a crying kitten, about six weeks old, which had followed the caller home and he couldn't keep it.  If it had been an adult cat I'd have had to refuse for several reasons but kittens are far more vulnerable.

It may belong to someone in a house near to the caller but it was shut up and dark. They may just have been out or they may have moved and left the kitten. This sort of thing happens upsettingly often. If I've still got her in a week's time I can legally re-home her which is what I'll try and do.

She was very scared and crying a lot. She was also very hungry. So I fed her and tried to settle her down in the conservatory with Growler (aka Tut) of whom more later. Once she got used to me and stopped hissing, she became friendly and purred loudly when I stroked her. This morning she was still hissing when I picked her up but not struggling to get away from me. Later on she became quite playful. She's a nice little thing and will make a good pet.

Here she is.

My Cats: An Update.

I can now stroke Growler (aka Tut) a little longer than when he first arrived. But not by much. He isn't aggressive either towards me or other cats or kittens as long as we keep our distance. But the problem remains: unless he settles down, he's going to be impossible to re-home and will have to go to the re-homing centre where he'll inevitably spend the rest of his life. 

Ellie the kitten-cat who was spayed and ripped her stitches out is fine. She isn't as affectionate as I first thought she was going to be though she is friendly. Mostly she sleeps on my bed and next to me if I'm on or in it. As she's re-homeable I'll book her in for the centre.

Fifi, the first cat I fostered when I moved to my current address, has, after months of only allowing Aelfric into her space, has turned motherly and adopted one of the kittens which is a big surprise and is rather cute.

Tilly, the grey kitten with the bug in her gut making her loose and poo all over the place so she's on pills and had to be isolated in the conservatory, is improving and back in with the general population mainly because she was desperate to play with her two siblings. If I can get her gut cleaned up permanently she'll make someone a lovely cat.

Tiger hasn't changed in any way unless it's to put on a little weight. He's easily the biggest cat in the house and also the one who is most intimidated by the others. He likes to come up to me on the bed to be stroked but not if another cat is within a couple of feet of me and he'll let the kittens steal his food (he gets chicken because he's so damn finicky but really prefers expensive dried food).

Not quite finally, the two older kittens who are almost identical apart from the placings of a few white hairs in a sea of black and are also almost identical in character, are coming up for a certain minor op. The female, who is a month older, is being spayed this week. The photo below is of one of them, just don't ask me which. It might be the one snuggled up to Fifi, it might not. 

Aelfric, no new photo, continues to be playful, loveable, friendly. Aoife (ditto), the kittens mother, remains quiet and quietly friendly, letting me know with an unsheathed claw when she wants affection.

KITS & PIECES

New arrivals update.

When Mollie's not on my computer chair, because I'm sitting in it, she's usually to be found just a few inches away sitting on top of my printer. Her feeding station is also next to the computer desk. She will roam around a bit more but only when Aelfric isn't as she's not keen on other cats and growls a lot. With me, she's very affectionate and will let me know when she wants attention and, truth to tell, I'm growing rather fond of her.

 

When Tiger ventures anywhere from behind the settee it's to sit in the sun  on the window.  To be honest, I'm worried about him. When I took a couple of a fosterer's cats to the vets for their first flu jabs on Tuesday I took him along because he's hardly eating. Wendy thought it was just the trauma of finding himself in a new place with other cats but two days later and his appetite still hasn't improved. I'm taking them both for their first flu jabs tomorrow and I'll get them both checked out. Mollie doesn't eat a lot either but it's more than Tiger.

Kittens.

Bombino and Tiny are, when they're not sleeping, racing around, chasing each other, destroying anything they can get their teeth and claws into, and climbing over me like a piece of furniture. I used to think that Tiny was the friendliest of the two but around ten last night Bombino climbed into my lap, stretched out and went to sleep. Whoever ends up with these two will get kittens which are well adjusted, socialised, and friendly. Tammy (aka Brian), the homed grey one, is already playing with her two new older friends and delighting her owners.

The younger kittens are now around four weeks old and taking an active interest in their surroundings, though they're still a little way off climbing furniture and are a bit wobbly on their feet. 

KITTENS AND CATS UPDATE

Carole took a small  grey kitten away to give it the special attention it needed. It's equally small black sister is still with me and noticeably smaller than the other two siblings who are thriving. I did take all three plus the mother to the vets for checking out. Twice in a week I noticed blood in the mother's stools. Wendy suggested adding a quarter teaspoonful of sugar to the reconstituted kitten milk I'm giving to the small kitten. The mother got a booster jab and the other two are fine.

I am, however, growing to hate feeding them as I have to hold one in a hand with a plastic milk-filled syringe in the other. As I'm slowly getting the milk into the mouth, the other two are usually clawing their way to try and get at it using their small but perfectly formed sharp claws and perfectly formed tiny but very pointed teeth. As a result the backs of my hands and fingers are pitted with small red dots and covered in somewhat longer scratches. After each feeding (like now as I'm typing) I end up washing my hands and dabbing away the still flowing blood. I'll be glad when they are old enough and have learned to lap. It's another week before I can try the larger two on solid kitten food. Can't come soon enough.

This one is spoken for.

There's another tiny black kitten in there somewhere.

One thing though, as soon as they see me they run straight at me to try and climb up my legs or any other body parts they can reach which sometimes includes my face. Whoever gets them will end up with kittens which are used to and actively seek out human contact.

Ziggy the timid black and white female is still timid and still runs from me, though she is a little more relaxed and will permit me to stroke her briefly before running off. She also spends more time out from under the armchair in my bedroom and when it's nearly feeding time will come looking for me to remind me with a miaow before haring off like the hounds of hell (me) are after her.

Maybe she's a ladies cat.

Then there's Daisy the tabby and white cat from hell whose reaction to me when she arrived two weeks ago was to hiss, spit, growl and attack. Now she won't leave me alone. As soon as I sit down, she's on my knee purring softly and making an odd sound that isn't a miaow but is much more than a purr. I can't see her right now but I can hear her. I used to think she was a horrible cat but she was just scared and showed it with aggression. Unfortunately she still asserts her dominance by peeing on newspaper, on carpets, on my kitchen workbench, my bed, etc. I'm sure, however, that she wouldn't do this if she was the only cat. She is a very pretty animal, lean with features which resemble her Egyptian ancestry, especially her large ears.

I'm sure there's a perfect home for these two somewhere, it just isn't mine.