expect the unexpected!

That seems to be the lesson from the last couple of weekends anyway.  Last weekend it looked as though I’d soon have no foster kits.  I only had Amara and Obi and someone had said very definitely that they wanted to adopt them and take them this weekend. 

Then with a few hours notice Smudge arrived last weekend – all grumbly and growly and not sure what on earth was happening in her little world.  She’s settled very well and is a lovely cat.  She doesn’t like other cats very much but I’ve got on well with her.

Obi and Amara’s “I can’t wait to get them” adoptive human has disappeared into thin air so they’re back to the start again. 

And then today Honey has arrived, and hopefully will be bringing her daughter to join her soon.  Honey, and the other kits she lives with are temporarily in a difficult space because their human has broken her hip and is unable to care for them for a few weeks.  Poor loves – what on earth do they make of being uprooted, moved to emergency overnight accommodation and then split up and moved on to foster care.

Wishing their human well and a speedy recovery!  She’ll be loved and cared for here.

mac revisited

I was delighted to be able to go to Sheffield Animal Centre today to see Mac – the stray my cats brough home with them just before Xmas.  The RSPCA have been brilliant with him.  His infection is cleared up, he’s out of isolation and looks so much better in himself.   His dermatitis is proving a bit more of a problem.  Having eczema myself I really empathise with the lad.  He’s having his sore bits of skin bathed every day and is about to start on a low dose of steroid so hopefully he’ll be lots better very soon. So glad we were able to get him away from living rough so he can get this sorted out.

I’d thought when he was in my garden that he seemed a bit of a sweetie.  I was wrong.  He’s utterly adorable!  Such a friendly soft boy.  He’s not ready for rehoming yet – but I recommend you go now and camp outside.  Be the head of the queue to adopt him.

comings and goings

Its been another catty sort of weekend.  [Yesterday someone came to meet Obi and Amara, and I think this is going to be the right person for them, so they’ll be off soon.  It’s time the little monkeys had their own home to trash.  Sadly having taken up time with home check and visit to the kittens and plans to take them home this weekend the person has not been back in touch 😦 and the kits have been let down.]  They’ve learned all the naughty tricks they can from my residents.  Sooty has taught Obi to listen for the fridge door and rush into the kitchen when he hears it.  Obi has taken it one step further ;  leaps into the fridge when the door is opened, and has to be hauled off the cheese shelf.  Amara has learned from Mog how to open all the kitchen cupboards, however her main love is the the fish tank.  I’m not sure how to break it to her that she can’t take it with her.  She’s a real water baby – loves to play in the wash basin with dripping taps, or in the remains of bath foam after I’ve had my bath.

Biff and I have had a lovely afternoon visiting Radish and Rabbit in their new home.  They’ve been there nearly 3 months now and have grown into lovely sleek healthy looking young cats.   Radish mainly sat watching the football and being a little aloof, but Rabbit was his usual adorable lovable self.  It’s a complete delight to see them looking settled and happy and with the most lovely humans who clearly adore them.  Who knows where they’d be now if an elderly chap hadn’t noticed them in his garden whilst he was feeding the hedgehog over the summer. 

We’ve also welcomed Smudge into our house this afternoon.  She’s a beautiful mature lady with a sad story.  It seems her human rescued her some time ago when a neighbour wasn’t able to keep her, but now her human has become too poorly to be able to care for her any longer.  Smudge thought she’d found a new home but then couldn’t get on with the resident cat so has found herself in rescue.  Poor girl.  I wonder what sense she can possibly be making of all the upheavals in her life recently.  Hopefully its all very temporary and she’ll be settled and happy in a new home again soon.

residents

The frantic period around Christmas seems to have settled a little and for now we just have the three residents and Obi & Amara here. 

Jango is off to see Dr James on Monday for his well man check and booster.  He was somewhat alarmed when listening to Today on Radio 4 to hear that an NHS Forum has advised that health professionals should talk more to their patients about diet, exercise, smoking and drinking habits.  He’s in the clear when it comes to smoking but there’s some tough talking to be done in other areas.

I’m still getting used to seeing Sooty in a collar.  It kind of changes the shape of them doesn’t it?  So when I pulled up in the car having fetched the twins home from the vets I saw this black cat just down the road from the house – collar on, sitting two feet out into the road, intently watching whatever was shuffling around in the grass verge.  I gave him a good telling off, majoring mainly on the dangers of sitting in the middle of the road, but also straying into the territory of bad manners and not looking at me when I’m speaking to him, and how if I’d told him once I’d told him a thousand times etc.  Sooty may be deaf, but he can hear the fridge door open from several gardens away, and could at least make an effort to lip read.   As I closed in on him to emphasise my point and remove him from the road I noticed that his collar was red. 

Um ……. Sooty (in his blue collar) was sitting on the lounge windowsill sniggering.

rehomings

I‘ve heard this evening that Victoria, Violet and Vic have gone off to their new homes today.  Vic and Violet have gone together, and Victoria has gone to a home with an older cat.  Perfect!  Thanks so much to Sheffield Cat Shelter who have found them homes.  Vic and Violet will be as pleased as punch to be together ….. and Victoria, ever off on her own planet should be great with her own home and an older cat as mentor when she needs.

Biff and I went to look at a potential new home for Obi and Amara this afternoon.  I’m used to fostering but not to “home checking”.  How on earth do you decide what is “good enough” for a permanent home for your foster babies?  How do you see things from a cat’s eye view, and from a foster carer’s view at the same time.  I do hope we’ve made the right decision for you babes.

Duke has gone to his new home.  Fingers crossed that its third time lucky for him in finding a permanent home.  It certainly looked good when we took him there.  Luxurious bed by the fire side, everything he could wish for. 

black cats

I love black cats but they can’t half be a challenge some days.  No, I’m not still grumbling about it having been Sooty ultimately who did for the poor old Xmas tree.   Well, go on then, this is still partly about Sooty.  Why must he insist on sitting in the middle of my drive to wait for me to come home at night?  My other two cats who have a healthy smattering of white don’t do it – just him.  And so we hold the traffic up whilst I crawl across the pavement, straining my eyes for him lurking in the shadows (and more often than not end up having to get out the car to remove him before I can park).  

I’m not over fond of collars since I realised the dangers of them (and got a microchip operated cat flap so my cats didn’t need to carry their magnetic ‘door keys’ around on them.)  But we decided on balance it would be good for Soot to start wearing a reflective one so he could be visible at night.  A carefully staged ‘casual’ conversation with Biff over tea got his interest.  How collars can look really sophisticated on the right cat though they’re only for those who have those special distinguished features.  Soots was virtually tearing the thing out of the packet by the time we’d finished.  I know I’m biased but he really does look sooooooooooo handsome in it.

And then there’s my other little black cat Obi, fostered along with his sister Amara.  Amara is a very pretty little girl, tortoiseshell and white with just the right amount of white to really set off her pretty little features.  And you can tell that from the photographs.  Obi on the other hand is sleek, jet black, gorgeous little face, handsome to perfection, but on his photographs he looks like something Mog has trailed in from the allotments.  

happy new year to you … and you …. and you … and you …. and you

It’s been a bit hectic around here over Christmas.  

Fans of the Xmas tree will be pleased to know that it survived, albeit somewhat dishevelled and denuded, until Xmas morning.  At that point my old Sooty boy could resist no longer.  Ever one to want to overcome his arthritis and copy the kittens, he finally started fiddling with some of the toys and then having showing amazing restraint over the last couple of weeks decided to try to climb it like Obi was doing.  That was one challenge too many for the poor tree and it folded itself up, shuffled out of its final fairy lights and begged to be returned to the loft for a little peace and quiet.

Gabriel, the craziest angel of them all, and his long suffering friend Star moved to a different foster home after Christmas and my lovely Duke came ‘home’.  We were gutted to see Duke again, though his company is a delight.  His new home had fallen apart after family disagreements over Xmas and he found himself back in rescue yet again.  Poor boy – back into his basket under the window and stoically trying to make the best of it.  The lad must think that this is how the world is …….. continually moving from pillar to post.  

Then we have a couple of guests who were rather more planned.  When my ex foster twins’ new human showed them the holiday brochure with the glittering lights of America they asked if they might come to stay with me instead – not for them the airport lounges and strategic nightmares of airline meals.  And so we’ve welcomed the kitties “formerly known as Willow and Aspen” for a holiday.  They first arrived with me over a year ago as little hissy spitty things, who had been born at a Timber Specialists down at Hillsborough.  This was a rare little family who had dropped lucky.  Mum and four kittens had been spotted living rough by the guys who worked there, and they had cared for them until they could be found a rescue place.  They left me just before last Xmas, much more confident but still at that kind of leggy adolescent stage.  If I’d not had updates from their new human I’d never have recognised the two big tabby beauties who arrived as house guests last week.  What a delight  – to see them as grown ups, loved to bits by their new human, and happy with their lives.