ADELE'S CATS AND KITTENS

Adele is a cat cuddler turned cat and kitten fosterer. She took in four kittens (currently 11 weeks old) from her upstairs neighbour's cat and two cats I brought to her from Ryhope (see recent posts). Buster, the flufflyish black and white 11 week old kitten below was Animal Krackers 100th adoption of the year earlier today.

As you'll see, Chocolate (who, along with her shyer tabby sister Charlie, was spayed last Tuesday) has adopted the kittens who are suckling on her despite the fact she probably doesn't have milk, though she was in the early stages of pregnancy when she was done.

The first five photos were taken by Adele.

NEW CAT & KITTEN ARRIVALS AT CAROLE'S

For those of you who don't know, Carole O'Brien is an independent cat rescuer in Sunderland who we support with cat food and donations towards her litter and vets bills. These are just some of her recent arrivals. If you're interested in adopting any, contact her on 079777 69109.

LOST CAT, LOST KITTEN

I've finally managed to take a couple of acceptable, but still not remotely near anything approaching good, photos of the young tortoiseshell female I took in last Wednesday. So far no response to the notices I put in the Animal Krackers and Post Office shop windows. No response to those for the four month old kitten I took in ten days ago and who is now up for re-homing. 

The torty is absolutely delightful. She loves cuddles and responds by rubbing her wet nose against my face. She's fine with other cats and likes her food. I'll try and get her properly checked out at the vets on Thursday by which time I'm legally responsible for her, though I won't put her up for adoption for another week just in case her owners are on holiday and haven't seen either of the notices. She's another one I'd love to keep but I won't because it's not fair on the other cats to have too many in the house.

Don't know what it is about tortys but it's very difficult to get a decent photo of them and I'm not saying that because I'm a rude word awful photographer. Something about their colouration. All bar one of the photos below were taken within minutes of each other (and not that many minutes ago either) and all with my phone but one of the cats is photogenic and the other isn't.

The stray (abandoned?) kitten I can now reveal as ginger and white. He's fitted in perfectly with the others, with Jeff, and with my cats. He's lively, playful, and friendly, just like all the other kittens. I suppose it's still possible that his owners are on holiday which is why I'll leave the notices in the shops up another week, but if anyone wants him before then....

And that, unless something unexpected happens, is the last post of the month.

4 LITTLE KITTENS DON'T NEED MITTENS AND NEVER WOULD. WHO COMES UP WITH THESE STUPID RHYMES?

Right, Old Grumpy's got that off his chest. Stupid rhymes and stupid titles like in da house make me think he should be quietly put out to pasture especially when he starts talking about himself in the third person. Jeez, man, he's turning seriously weird.

So I've had the four new kittens for about eighteen hours now and they seem to have stopped hissing at me. I can pick them up and they'll stay moderately still as I stroke them. They're still nervous and need to get used to me but I don't think it's going to be as hard as I once feared.

Here's a bunch of photos I took just a few minutes ago. You'll notice in some of them they've got new bedding -a covered in soft bed where they can huddle together and feel secure. I bought it while I was out shopping this morning.

Oh, and I've already had an expression of interest in the grey one so he's provisionally reserved. I'm not sure but I think they may all be boys.

4 LITTLE KITTENS HAVE LOST THEIR MITTENS

And I now have eight kittens in the house.Half an hour ago it was four and now it's eight.

They've been living with a deaf lady who hasn't been able to find homes for them. They are used to a very quiet house and just to her and a good neighbour and as a result are nervous. Not feral or anything like that, just a bit nervous. I've put them in a large cage for now so they can settle down in a new environment and hopefully, in a day or two, I might be able to put them in with Jeff and her kittens.

I have been able to pick them up and stroke them without any aggression or escape attempts so that's a good sign.

Here are some photos taken minutes ago. There'll be more to come over the next few days.

Post Script.

One quiet cat adopted from the re-homing centre this lunch time. First of the month, hopefully not the last.

A HOUSEFUL OF KITTENS

Well, maybe not a houseful. I might just be exaggerating there.

I know and I know you know that I would never exaggerate. It just isn't in my bones. I can hardly conceive of even exaggerating a little. And if you believe that then you might like to invest in this sure-fire scheme to make us all lots of money with absolutely no risk at all. Email me for further information and include all your financial details including passwords.

But getting back to kittens. It may not be a houseful but it certainly feels like it even if there are actually only four of them. They've spent the last hour in the living room while I sat watching Holby City. You'll see where they were in a moment. Except I couldn't take a photo, for obvious reasons of little Belle the tortoiseshell -oh I like that phrase "little Belle the tortoiseshell", go on, say it out loud- who was snuggled into the crook of my elbow with eyes tight shut.

So it's kitten season again. You know what that means? Well, if it's anything like last year it means my chest, arms, legs and the backs of my hands will be covered with a mass of thin red lines which looks, to anyone who doesn't know my circumstances, as if I'm into self harming. Who knows, maybe I would give it a try except I don't need to when I've got kittens to do it for me. But it's not it's caused by kitten attack, just kittens climbing up and all over me for a cuddle and drawing blood in the process. I swear that one of these days I'm going to have to have a blood transfusion.

Who would want one of these things anyway? They are a literal pain. Plus they're destructive. A year ago when I moved into my nice clean done-up house everything was perfect. Within weeks of getting kittens they'd ruined my vertical blinds, crapped on my bedroom carpet, knocked most of my small British Bird Collection figurines that I'd bought specially for the house (and, just as well, cheaply too) off mantlepieces, windowsills, and any other convenient high flat surfaces I'd put them on, destroyed the backs and fronts of a settee and armchairs with their tiny little sharp claws, do a smelly poo just as the TV programme I'm watching is coming to its climax, jump on the keyboard while you're typing and then cuddle up in your arms when you move them (which has just happened), used any wooden upright (like table legs) as a scratching post, all but demolished any wicker furnishings, knocked books, CDs, and DVDs off shelves (and there are a lot of them in this house), chewed any thin cable like those for my Ipod and Ipad, electric shavers, phones -ah, sorry, no that wasn't them, that was Fifi (see photo in the sidebar), but it if hadn't been her getting there first they'd probably have had a go.

Kittens, I must be bloody mad. Alas I have no choice as our re-homing centre isn't really suitable for them and there's only one person who can take them in and is stupid enough to do so. At least they tend not to stay very long. One of them might not even be here this time tomorrow and another may be gone by the weekend. That being the case I took a few photos while they were all together in the living room.

Just as a reminder as I'm putting them in no particular order: Belle is the tortoiseshell, Shadowcat is black, Emma is black and white, and Gerald the Ginger Kitten is ginger. Plus there's a guest appearance from Aelfric who hates to miss out on anything.

If you want to know which cats and kittens have been re-homed, check out the bottom of the page of Animal Krackers: Cats Needing Homes site -see sidebar.

Kittens, it's only because they're the cutest thing in the world and I hate cute. Really I do. And kittens.

GOODBYE, RUSTY!

Rusty the five month old kitten-cat settled in at my house very quickly. He soon developed into a very loving and friendly cat, often jumping on my lap and sprawling across my chest to go to sleep. He was spotted on my blog by a nice couple who came this morning to look at him and took him home. I thought, being all black, he might be hard to re-home. I do so love being wrong.

(Side note: Even though Emma, the 11-week old black and white kitten, is officially up for adoption I have fears for her long-term health. She's just recovering from diarrhoea and has been diagnosed with the corona virus and I've just got a feeling she isn't going to have a long life. So unless someone comes who fully understands and accepts that, then I'm keeping her.)

But he isn't the only cat to be homed this weekend. On Friday I picked up the six cats from Seaham (see a previous post) to take to the vets for their second and final flu jab and then take them off to the re-homing centre. But the two ginger boys never got there. As pre-arranged I met a lovely young woman, who has two young adopted daughters, at the vets to be picked up and taken home. I've just received an email from her describing the boys as being wonderful, which is a good start.

That same person also almost adopted Tigger the ginger boy a couple of weeks back but was taken with the photos of the others. However, a lady and her mother came to Ferry Farm this morning an hour after I'd said goodbye to Rusty and adopted Tigger.

I looked in on the four girls and found them cuddled up together and wanting someone to make a fuss of them so I did.

A four-cat weekend. Just what I needed after two weeks without a single re-homing to raise my spirits.

2013: A YEAR OF CHANGE

I don't normally do an overview of a year but this one is special. It's special because, well, my life is a lot different to what it was 12 months ago and probably about as many cats and kittens have lived with me during that period than in my entire life before that.

So, if you're new to this blog, then this is a very good place to start. If you're interested in finding out more, or simply want to look at photos of cats and kittens, just check out previous posts. 

Thirteen months ago we opened our purpose-built cat re-homing centre at Ferry Farm Kennels at South Hylton, Sunderland, in partnership with its owners Mark and Dawn. Since then we've probably re-homed about 60 adult cats from there. Obviously more would have been better but I don't think it's a bad start at all. It's been a learning process all round. I think you can also add around another 20 cats and kittens re-homed from our fosterers which also includes me. I'm not counting those re-homed by Carole O'Brien who, while we still support her with food, litter, and contributions towards vets bills, is no longer under the Animal Krackers banner and we aren't responsible for any cats she re-homes.

In late February I moved out of the home I shared with AK's soul and inspiration Susan Hardy and into a new one on my own apart from two cats I brought with me. Sadly both died during the course of the year of heart and lung problems. But before that I'd begun fostering. It started with Fifi,a  young friendly black and white around 2 who was shortly joined by Aelfric, a pedigree British short hair handed in at our Grangetown shop. Nine months later they're still here and aren't going anywhere. Then Aoife turned up with her tiny kittens that it turned out she was fostering and four weeks later they were joined by two of her own. And the cats and kittens kept on coming. I've re-homed several of the kittens and two cats went to the re-homing centre. Currently I have the three I've just named, three of Aoife's now young adult kittens, Tiger, a massive long-haired tabby who might have a touch of Norwegian Forest Cat about him, and Max a black ten year old thinnish short haired boy. Aoife and her kittens, plus Max are available for re-homing but the other three aren't going anywhere. They're all lovely cats in their own ways but they and the others that I've fostered have done severe damage to a house I spend around ten grand doing up. So I tell myself, no more kittens next year.

Yeah, sure.

Now I can't say this often enough, and don't, but none of the re-homing would be possible without the work of our volunteers at our two shops, the cat cuddlers, the staff of Ferry Farm Kennels, the committee, Wendy and her super staff at King's Road Vets, the people who donate so much to our shops, the customers who buy it, the management of Asda, Morrison's, and Sainsburys who allow us to have bins for donated pet food in their stores, the support of Pets At Home and the Sunderland Echo. Thank you all, so so much.

And please don't stop. 

Here are some of my favourite photos that I've taken this year.

My Cat Of The Year.

I shouldn't have favourites because I love them all but I can't help it. He's beautiful, he's affectionate, he's good with the other cats and kittens, he has a lovely purr, he's playful, he's Aelfric.