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.

CHECKING OUT CATS

I often get contacted four or five times a day by people wanting us to take one or more cats they can no longer keep or that have already been abandoned. That's around 30 cats a week. In a good week we can re-home maybe 3 or 4 so it's pretty obvious that I have to turn most people away. Or at least suggest other rescues or the website Cat Chat Tyne & Wear which lists local cat rescues. People forget or don't realise or just  plain don't understand that we are just a small local charity with very limited resources and we do the best we can but the simple fact is that we can't help every cat which comes our way and nowhere near it.

Around teatime this afternoon I got a call from a guy who'd been feeding two cats which, from conversations  with neighbours, he believed to have been abandoned by people who moved and left their cats behind to fend for themselves -a sadly all too common story. He'd been feeding these two but couldn't take them because he had two dogs who did not like cats. More recently his neighbours had been complaining that his feeding the cats was resulting in the cats messing in their gardens. I did say I might be able to take them if I could catch them and get the vet to give them the first flu jab but he would then have to keep feeding them for another three weeks before they could have their second and I could then take them to our re-homing centre but this wasn't really satisfactory. As he didn't live far away, I offered to come round and check them out. Which I did and this is what I found.

Two young (around 2-3 years old was my guess; I'd be surprised if they're much older) and very pretty females who seemed in good health and were very friendly. Both came up to me to be stroked and purred when I did. They are what I consider to be very re-homable indeed. If I didn't have so many cats already in my house I'd have taken them without a second thought.

What I am trying to do is find temporary accommodation for them and have put out feelers. If I can move Ted the battered smelly stray upstairs I might even just squeeze them in here for three weeks. As it is, all I can do for the moment is put them on the cats needing homes webpage and see if my feelers get felt. 

I'll let you know.

DROWNING IN...

(Warning: poo is mentioned several times in the next paragraph.)

First post for two weeks. Not that I haven't been busy. The first thing I do when I get up is clean up cat and kitten poo, then I feed the cats and kittens, eat my my breakfast  and by the time I've done that there's usually some more smelly kitten poo to clean up. Adult cats aren't so bad; they go once, maybe twice a day. Kittens seem to go all the time and when you've got five that's an awful lot of smelly poo and not all of it goes in the litter trays. I love these kittens but if three of them aren't re-homed in the next three weeks then they're off to the re-homing centre. Here are two of them.

Yes, it's Tam and Tom the Fabulous Tabby Twins (one of whom just jumped on the keyboard and deleted the phrase as I was highlighting it) and possibly the most adorable kittens you've ever met in your life. Okay, they're just bog standard tabbies but they are bog standard tabbies who love curling up on my knee together, who'll climb up my legs when I'm typing, play happily with the other kittens, sleep next to me, play with children, like the 7-year old daughter of Martyn the other van driver, purr loudly and love company. Leave me alone, you little monsters, I'm busy!

Re-homed two cats in the last two days at the re-homing centre. Alfie the shy pretty grey tabby and Princess the soft furred black and white who loves people, children and other animals.

And, of course, two more have arrived. This time it's two black kittens, the last of those which were kept in the shop. Both are quite shy but then their mother(s) were feral.

I've also heard from some of the nice people who've taken in some of our cats and kittens.



This is the grey and white kitten now called Tammy (or Brian, depending on who you ask) sleeping with her two new older friends.

Below is Bombino, now Arthur, sleeping next to his new best friend and it isn't a cat!



Norris and Jimmy happily share the same house but aren't friends and have their own spaces.

It's always nice to hear how our re-homed animals are doing, especially when their kind owners send photos as well so thanks to everyone who took those above.

Hopefully another cat, who was reserved weeks ago while her prospective owners went on their holidays, will be collected tomorrow. That will make three in three days. If only it was one every day all the time, but hell, I'd be really happy if it was just two a week -one is the current average. 

You'll have to excuse me as I've now got to clean up more smelly stinky messy kitten poo!