ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER CAT. NO, IT'S A KITTEN, NO, IT'S A YOUNG CAT.

Whatever, just get to the point.

So it's Wednesday morning when I go to Starbucks for an Americano Grande with hot milk to drink in please, thank you. To have coffee with my retired friends from work who are both cat lovers and don't complain that I'm boring them to death talking about cats. I was halfway there (and halfway from the bus station, which is logical I suppose given that was my walking starting point) when Susan rings to ask if I can take in a single kitten. Just one. Four weeks old. Oh ***!@@@!!! (That's rude words in gibberish.) But what the hell. I told her to give me the address later.

Much later and numerous calls before I got an answer I finally get the address and phone number. I rang the person to say I'd be half an hour later than the agreed time. I was told the kitten was about 9 weeks. The location was Murton, a place I'd only driven through. Frankly it's a place most people only drive through. (Just a joke, dear readers from Murton, sorry.) But, armed with my trusty A-Z and with only one relatively minor detour I found the place twenty minutes after setting off. The kitten, of course, was nowhere near nine weeks old. More like six months, five at the youngest and is either female or a recently neutered male, probably the former.

She's now in my conservatory, sitting on the windowsill, staring at either me or one of the cats. She's very friendly, likes being stroked, purrs easily. I'm taking her to the vets tomorrow to get her first cat flu vaccination and generally checked out. You can check her out first below.

Mitzy is a new arrival at our re-homing centre. She's a youngish friendly and  pretty cat who came with veterinary documentation and a letter to her new owner. I doubt if she'll be there for long. The photos were taken with my phone which explains the poor quality.

Post Script.

Poo update.

I took the kittens and two poo samples to the vets. Their condition was declared fine and the poo samples sent off for testing.

Yesterday I had the rest of my downstairs floors laminated which makes it so much easier to clean up the loose poo and the smell doesn't linger either. That still leaves my bedroom which is becoming a favourite location for everyone except Fifi. 

WORMS

1. Worms.

No, this isn't a review of the old the computer game (which I used to have) but then you wouldn't have expected it to be. It is a sequel to the previous post which should have been called, if I'd been honest, POO.

Don't worry, there are no photographs, not of worms (or poo) anyway.

Last week I almost homed the Tabby Twins but alas it fell through. Then I got a call from a lady who lived locally and wanted a kitten. I thought Tiny (the last of Aoife's not-litter) might be suitable and invited her to call in and she did indeed like her. Arrangements were made and I took Tiny over. Next morning I got a call. Tiny had done a very loose poo (I can't spell diarrhea) and not in the litter tray. It might be a different diet -Whiskas instead of Felix- and a different cat litter -gravel instead of wood chippings. I brought both round. I also gave her a de-worming pill. Later that day, more loose poo and almost in the tray. The lady's cat had done a runner and was refusing to come in. The smell was more than the lady was used to. (Doesn't bother me as I have it all hours of the day and night. I spend almost more energy cleaning up poo than I do when I go swimming.) So Tiny came home.

And a couple of hours later she did another poo -in the litter tray and with dead worms in it. That was it. I wormed the Tabby Twins and the larger of the two young kittens. Next morning, three lots of poo with worms in them. I've since wormed every other cat and last kitten earlier this afternoon and am awaiting the smelly results.

Incidentally, getting cats and kittens to swallow pills is no easy matter and is distressing and painful to cat, kitten, and human being. Very few take the attitude of, "Oh, you want me to swallow this thing. Okay boss, no probs." It's more a case of, "Help he's ramming this thing down my throat! He's trying to poison me! It tastes horrible! I'm going to vomit!" Accompanied by much squirming, wriggling and active use of teeth and claws.

To lighten the mood, here are two kitten photos. No poo guaranteed.

2. Abandoned Kittens.

A story about Animal Krackers was on page 3 of the Sunderland Echo last week, plus an editorial comment. It was followed up by Sky who did a video piece on their local Sky News webpage; here's the link-

 http://tyneandwear.sky.com/news/article/79601/two-just-born-kittens-dumped-in-sunderland-skip-and-left-to

Basically a refuse worker at the council tip found two day-old kittens in a box. We were contacted and a fosterer, Lynn, took them in. She'll be nursing them and hand-feeding them for the next few weeks as she did the kittens in the last photo below.