mog

I started to write a very anxious and sad post about Mog about half an hour ago.  She’s one of my resident cats, and I’d not seen her since Friday tea time.  She lived rough in a garden for months before she came to me to be fostered and then I adopted her.  And she’s continued to spend a lot of time out of the house at the allottments across the road.  Its not that unusual to not see her for hours at a time.  We’re not used to her going AWOL for this long though.

It’s always been a joke around our house that we pay twice as much in insurance for our boys “because tom cats tend to stray” as we do for Mog.  So while our supposedly home loving girl clears off for long days of hunting and getting into trouble with gardeners, the lads indulge in the high risk activities of sunbathing on the lawn and lounging on the patio.

We’d already got a plan for search and rescue had she not come home tonight.  Offers of help from TC and Biff, and I was going to be off to get access to the allottments and take them apart looking for her.  I really wasn’t looking forward to it after the sleepless night I was anticipating.

………….. And then whilst I was typing there was the longed for beep of the cat flap ………. and there she was, looking for her supper, oblivious to the anxiety she’d caused to me and Biff and TC, and my lovely neighbours.  Gosh I love that cat.

feliway & fingers crossed

It’s not exactly an ideal picture of feline harmony here at the moment, and poor Rosie seems to be the centre of all the arugments.  Poor love – she’s had to be a feisty mummy to protect her kits when they were born whilst she was living rough – but its not going down well now she’s in foster care.  She just can’t let it drop and grumbles and growls whenever she has a whiff or whisper of Coco and her family.  Sadly she’s taking it out on her own kits and lashing out at them, and I doubt that is doing their slowly developing confidence a deal of good.

Coco is gritting her teeth and trying to make the best of it.  At least she doesn’t have to worry about her kits falling into a canal any more.  We’ve named them Crumble, Crotchet and Cwaver (because they’re little black dots).  Not that we have any idea which is which 🙂

However the feeling all round is that it will be good when Rosie finds a home of her own.  I honestly believe than under all this she’s a lovely little puss.  She’s never ever shown any sign of aggression towards humans, and I think will settle down happily once she has a place to call her own.

Meanwhile we have the feliway plugged in ………….

new arrivals

TC popped in whilst I was at work today and left me the most awwwwwwwwwwwwsome start to the weekend.  Three adorable little bits of black fluff and a lovely purry black mummy. 

The story is that they were found by a canal.  The person who brought them into rescue gathered them up because she was afraid they would come to harm if left alone there.  Mummy cat then appeared and chased after her car screaming for her kits and was then also brought into rescue.  They’ve spent a little while in kennels at Rain before coming into foster care.

I’ve spent the day counting the minutes until I could get home to see them.  I knew they’d be gorgeous – black kittens invariably are.  However, I’d not expected them to be so tiny and utterly completely adorable.  Mummy is a real lovely too.

settling down

The little Rosie family are making some progress.  I think Pepper helped quite a lot – his confidence and love of cuddles was a good example to them.  The little saucer eyes watched as he was picked up and cuddled and snuggled and purred away with a purr that is still several sizes too big for him.  Hopefully the small furry brains are wondering now if they might like some of that too.  They’ve played a few times at daring each other to run up and touch my hand.

They’ve all spent time playing with me with their toys now.  Rocket more regularly joins Radish and Rabbit in the games.  Robin is still the most timid but joins in occasionally.  It can feel like slow progress sometimes, even no progress at all.  But then the lovely couple who brought the family into rescue came to visit again yesterday and it was very obvious how much they’d come on since the last visit.  For one thing they could actually SEE the kits.  Three of us in the room with them and all kits visible.  Fair enough … the more timid two were watching from under the desk ……… but they were just sitting watching rather than frantically trying to disappear.

Once again the house is filled with that familiar noise that sounds from downstairs like wildebeest migrating as kittens chase each other and their toys upstairs.

postcards home

One of the nicest things about fostering is hearing from the cats when they’re settling into their new homes.  We’ve had some lovely emails and photos in the last few weeks of gorgeous happy puss cats proudly showing off their new scratch posts, and beds and humans.

Tigger and Pixie have been watching wimbledon on their new TV, while Primrose and Tim learn some computer skills.  Tippex has been getting to know her new doggie brother.  I expect it won’t be long before the poor doggie knows who is boss around there.   Polly is learning slowly that her reflection in her new kitchen cupboards isn’t another cat.  Thomas has ended up having quite a big move and is living down south now.   Parsley is generally chasing around and being admired by everyone who meets him.  So far Tink has been a little too aloof to deign to have her photo taken …. but I’ve no doubt she’ll be in there soon.

Little Pepper has been such a help this week, playing with the timid new set of kits and bringing them out of their shells a little.  Such a gorgeous little fella.  I’m tempted to say that we’ve saved the best to the last – but they’ve all been lovely.  He’s off to his new home tomorrow.

Thank you so much to all you lovely people who have given safe and loving homes to these little ones, and been kind enough to send me updates and photos of them.

leaving party

We don’t always have a leaving party when furry people are going to their new homes.  But when Tink and Tim and Primrose were all going and Pepper was to be staying another week until his new humans come back from their holiday it seemed important to mark the occasion. 

It feels like the end of an era.  When this little lot arrived they were so little they didn’t even have their eyes open.  We’ve been through the worry that Polly wasn’t feeding her little family, and that Pixie’s eye wasn’t opening, and Tim’s tummy button was still attached and Tink was such a grumpy little madam.   The kittens have all grown into lovely furry people and the mummies have been gorgeous.

And now its time to say goodbye.  We cracked open a few beers and a healthy sprinkle of cat nip and played rough and tumble on the floor of the room formerly known as my study 🙂

slow progress

Things are moving on a bit with the new little family.  Radish and Rabbit are growing in confidence and are well ahead of the other two kits.  Rocket and Robin have put in the occasional appearance at breakfast time .. only to scuttle away again the minute I move a muscle.  However I’ve noticed them watching keenly from a safe distance in their hidey hole when I’ve been playing with more confident two.  And this evening Rocket decided he couldn’t hold back any longer and joined in the game.  They look like the penguin brothers all rolling around together with their black jackets and white bibs.  Robin made a brief appearance and touched the toy a few times, but mostly kept her distance.

Mummy Rosie has been to the vet for a health check this evening.  She’s generally fine, the vet reckons she’s about 18 months to two years old.  However she still has the remains of the infection she had before she came into foster care so she’s on antibiotics for a week.  Once she’s finished that she should be able to be speyed. 

busy doing something

A lot can change in a couple of days.  Radish and Rabbit the kits we trapped on Monday evening are steadily coming on with confidence.  Radish particularly is getting more confident and had been playing a bit and chatting to the older kittens.

Then late on Thurday night we had some unexpected arrivals.  The family whose garden the kits have been living in have found themselves to be first class cat trappers and managed to catch the remaining two kits and their mummy ……….. (and a hedgehog too but they let him go on his way). 

The new kits immediately dived for cover when they came out the trap into the bedroom, while Radish and Rabbit came racing up to their mummy for sniffs and licks and cuddles.  Since they were all set up with food and litter trays and it was late I just closed the door and let them get on with it.  Had to get up a couple of times in the night to them because Rosie was growling on and off for hours.  I feared that maybe after a few days separation she no longer recognised her kits and was at risk of hurting them.  However when I went into the room, she was growling away at the kits whilst washing them and they seemed quite unbothered by the growls.  They seem to all be happy together now.  I wonder if it was a feline version of “where the hell have you been .. don’t you think i’ve been worried sick about you … what did you think you were doing just wandering off like that …. etc etc “