CataBlog

Man Cat Monday on tuesday - Buster

Sorry, going to cheat and copy straight from CPL website. cos at 42, gotta get ready to vote for Suzanne against the talented, but very annoying Megan!

Buster has lived his life with an elderly couple who totally adored him. Sadly the wife and died and the husband has recently gone into care and was unable to take Buster with him. All their daughters had 2-3 cats of their own and so were also unable to provide a home for him.

Buster's a great cat. Pretty laid back and used to lots of love and affection. I asked his previous owner's daughter how he'd get on with another cat and with children and got this reply:

“As long as I've known Buster, he has always been pretty laid back and un-flappable so I don't think there'd be a problem with him being introduced to a younger female cat, he just sort of takes everything in his stride.

As far as young kids are concerned, my Son (now 17) always played with Buster and not always games Buster liked - like dressing him up, putting him in boxes and taking him for rides in the carrier of his bike - but never once did Buster scratch or bite or do anything to hurt my Son, so I am quite confident that he'd be fine with a small child.

FemCat Friday - Gypsy

Gypsy really is a special needs girl, who's going to require a very special sort of person to adopt her.

She was trapped about 2 years ago as a 6 mth old feral when we were trying to trap her 5 small half brothers and sisters and get them out to David and Emma - our feral kitten tamers extraordinaire. David and Emma decided that they'd be willing to take Gypsy on as well, even tho she was a gauntlet job for months. Fortunately she does love other cats, so that was of some help. Also that David and Emma are quite fearless and every time she hissed at them, they simply scruffed her and patted her into submission. They manged to get her sitting on their laps and sleeping on their bed.

Sadly after a year or so, the dynamics in the house with the other cats were making it difficult for them to keep Gypsy and rehome her from there, so she had to come into the shelter.

This is not the best environment for her, as she really needs the consistency of people that you just don't get with different shifts of volunteers every day. She's also very good at intimidating people, so it's only the bravest of the brave that will attempt to scruff and handle her, so she's not getting a lot of human physical interaction.

A usual conversation with Gypsy goes something like:

"Good morning Gypsy, here's your breakfast"

"Hiss"

"And lovely to see you too dear"

"Hiss"

We've got her in our timid's section, which is certainly better for her than the old shelter was. She likes to curl up with other cats, and is quite relaxed with them. There's also usually less people in that area, so she finds it less scary than the main shelter area.

Gypsy is going to need another David and Emma (oh - if only we could clone them!). Someone who's not intimidated or scared by her and will give her the attention whether she likes it or not. And honestly, once you do manage to get her and start patting her, she'll purr and purr and really enjoy it.

So - any cat whisperers out there who want to take on a cat that we're going to find very hard to home, but that I think will be incredibly rewarding if you can make that breakthrough, come on up to our Kingston shelter and meet our Gypsy.

And just to prove it is possible, here's Gypsy at the shelter in Emma's arms purring her wee head off.

Douggie sends his new person into a Panic!

Got this email from Douggie's (aka Panic's) new person today.

Hi Kris and all the gang at CPL!

Just to let you know how Douggie ('Panic') is doing. I have had a very
traumatic night! I was out for the evening, but I arrived home to two
worried daughters. The cat door was unlocked (not sure how that happened,
Toby headbutting it must have loosened it up maybe) and Douggie was gone. I
went out and called him for a while to no avail. Needless to say I had a
very restless night, tossing and turning and worrying about where he was in
the rain, and how I had let him down. Also planning what to do the next day
- ringing the SPCA, vets, you guys, making flyers etc etc.

Then at about 5.30am I heard a by now familiar thump thump thump (he thinks
he's slinking along with great stealth, I don't like to disillusion him) and
then PLONK onto my bed. I was so happy to have his dribbling purring lump
next to me again! (he's all but given up with the gulping, when he's happy
he dribbles so much he looks rabid, I think there's just too much drool to
keep up with the swallowing!) And I needn't have spent so many restless
hours worrying, when I went to wake up my girls to tell them he was back, my
eldest told me she already knew as he had spent most of the night snuggled
up next to her.

So, drama over, and no bad news to report, thank goodness. And we're very
happy that obviously Douggie knows that this is his home now, and how to get
back to it after being outside.

That's it from me for now! :-)

J.

PS He is at present hiding under the bed which he still does all day for
some reason. But in the evening he slinks out to the lounge and snuggles up
on the sofa with whoever is offering cuddles, to watch TV with us. And on
the weekend I spotted all three cats curled up with each other on my
daughter's bed, I really must try to get a photo for you!

ManCat Monday - Chicken

Chicken is an approximately 5 year old tabby lad that turned up as a stray in Stokes Valley. The person he tried to adopt already had 2 cats and didn't feel able to take in another, so Chicken came to us.

He's finding the multicat environment in the shelter a little difficult so we've got him in our timid cats area, where he spends a lot of time buddying up with Ciaran.

If you're expecting the cat of your dreams to come rushing up to you, Chicken's not your man. The shelter environment hasn't been great for him and to be honest he has gone backwards since coming in to us.

In what's passed as a home environment for him, Chicken has been great with adults and has been fine with older children, so would do well in a number of different environments. However you'll need to be prepared for him to take a bit of time to settle in. So if you've got a bit of patience and can see the potential in this basically lovely cat, he could be the guy for you.

Weekend homing update

As expected, little Eva didn't last long. She has a hold on her and will be going to her new home next Sunday.

And Garfield is also settling in well to his new home, tho formal introductions to the resident cat have yet to occur!

Our yard gang continue to hold possession of the coveted backet on top of Daisy's cage....

But thanks to Anne's brilliant idea of the high sided basket on "her" couch, Winnie has a safe spot where she can't see and get stressed by the other cats!

Welcome to all the new cats that came in last week

Hi all. I'd like to introduce you to the heap of new cats who came into our Kingston shelter last week.

1 year old ball of cuddles, Garfield
2 year old snugglepuss, Chevy
2 year old somewhat traumatised Jinxie
2 year old tiny bundle of love, Eva
And 2 year old little love of a cat, Mimi

Welcome everyone. We hope you'll settle in the shelter without too much difficulty and that none of you will be with us for very long before you find your new homes!

FemCat Friday - Bella and Milly

Bella

and her mate Milly

came to us when their person decided that she was travelling too much to properly give them the love and care they need.

They're both accustomed to living outside, but I suspect would be only too happy to curl up on front of a warm fire, as long as they had the ability to come and go at will.

They're very good with adults and other cats, and pretty good with children and dogs. They seem pretty close, so we'd prefer to home them together if at all possible.

Bella's definately the braver of the two, venturing out of her cage and exploring the shelter. Milly on the other hand is currently spending most of her time curled up in an igloo in their cage. She's definately finding the shelter environment a bit overwhelming.

And just to add a little bit of extra cuteness and pathos....Anne brought in a basket that she put on top of Daisy III's cage to see if it would give our Winnie a bit more security, as she'd gotten a bit upset since we put Daisy's cage next to her couch. Well, she just loved it.

Until our yard gang decided to gang up and take it over!

Winnie now has a large sided basket on "her" couch which means she can't see the other cats, so is a bit happier. We're all hoping that when Shyla brings her in amazing new cat house, Jonah, Ella and Sasha will decide that's more desirable than Winnie's basket and will move house and leave it back to her.

More pictures as the story develops.....

Oh - and just a side note. We've got Daisy in a holding cage as she's pretty old and wobbly, so not having to negotiate shelves is a big plus for her! She'd been fostered for about 4 years by a lovely guy who's had to go to Auckland for 6 mths for work. When he gets back, he definately wants his lovely, wobbly, slightly prone to epileptic seizures wee girl back!

Panic no more! Arise Sir Douglas

Or why we volunter at the CPL!

About a year and a half ago we took in 4 cats from a woman who'd rescued all of them as kittens at various stages and found herself with 7 cats and 7 dogs. She sadly developed cancer and wasn't able to physically or financially look after that many animals. Sooty and Oliver were homed a while ago, leaving the 2 more timid boys Lucky and Panic still with us. Lucky's really come out of his shell, but Panic, well, as the name suggests, remained very very timid.

http://www.cpl-wellington.org.nz/ResidentDetail.aspx?id=315

Last Sunday I adopted Panic to a lovely woman who'd been up to the shelter 3 times previously wanting to take on one of our more needy cats. She finally decided on Panic, so off he went to his new home. Ensuing phone calls indicated that all is going extremely well. Got this email update today. It's well worth a read if you need something to make you smile :o)


Hi Kris, and everybody at CPL!

Just a note to let you know how Panic is settling in to his new home. His
name is 'Douglas' now, 'Douggie' to his friends :-)

As you know he came home with us on Sunday. I put him into my bedroom to let him settle down for a few days before letting him out to the rest of the
apartment. He had a cuddle for a little while, and then met my young blind
cat Pixie (she's about 4), who immediately took over as Mother and gave him
a clean up, starting at his ears and finishing with his tail, making little
'mewling' noises all the while. She is quite fascinated with his munted
little ears, and cleans then as often as he will let her. I have a friend
who is a vet, and he says that he must have had some injury to his ears at
some time, which caused haematomas which have caused the cauliflower ears.
So it wasn't rugby or boxing! I didn't think he looked the sporting type!

Pixie has also taken it upon herself to inspect the litter tray after every
visit by Douggie, and she spends quite a long time covering everything up to
her satisfaction. Men! If only they would clean up after themselves!
She's really such a sweetie, when I bought Toby home ( he was a little 7
week old kitten at the time) he took one sniff of her, and immediately dived
into her belly and started suckling. Poor Pix had no milk of course, but
she took all this in her stride and suckled him for months after that. It
got a bit embarrassing actually by the time Toby grew bigger than her! Big
baby.

Douglas (aka Panic) spent the rest of Sunday under the bed, but came out at
night to sleep cuddled up with me and Pix. I did hear the keyboard being
hammered at some stage, but the computer wasn't plugged in so his attempts
to communicate with someone were unsuccessful. A lot of my things from the
top of the dresser were swpet to the floor by morning as well, he obviously
isn't impressed with my level of clutter.

Monday was another day under the bed, and I am happy that the walls to our
apartment are reasonably soundproof, so the neighbours didn't have to listen
to a days worth of " Who's a bootiful boy, then? Mmmmm? Who's a bootiful
boy? Who's a bootiful, wootiful boy?" . It was quite muffled anyway being
directed under the bed. I realised I had spent too long lying on my side on
the carpet when a guy came to look at a window that was leaking, and when I
glanced at myself in the mirror after he left I realised my hair was
flattened on one side of my head, and the skin on that side of my face was
pock-marked with carpet indentations :-)

Anyway the repeated 'bootiful boy' torture worked in the end, and he came
out in the evening in sheer desperation to see if there was anybody else
that might have more intelligent conversation. A lot of the time my young
tabby boy Toby ( short for 'Toblerone Kingston Junior') has been sitting at
the side of the bed purring loudly, obviously pleased that a potential
playmate was in residence.

Monday night was spent once again cuddled up against me in bed, with no
forays onto desks or dressers this time. He has a loud rumbling purr, which
I think you heard on the phone, Kris, but he produces a lot of saliva when
he purrs so it's kind of " purrrrrr, gulp, purrrrr, gulp, purrrrr, gulp".
He's also a great head-butter if he thinks he has been ignored for too long.

Tuesday, I am pleased to say, saw him confident enough not to fly under the
bed whenever anyone came into the room. I am really pleased with how
quickly he seems to have settled, I thought it would be weeks before he came
out from under the bed, and was quite prepared for that. Today ( Wednesday)
I have opened the bedroom door, so he can come out and explore if he wants,
but so far he has stayed in the bedroom where he feels safe.

I'll keep you up to date on his progress! And thank you for such a
wonderful boy, he is an absolute honey and we all love him to bits,
including Pixie and Toby! :-)

kind regards

Julia

Awwwww.

And hey - would have posted this bit last night but problems with my webmail (again! Orcon you suk!) meant I couldn't get at the photos.

Dear Daisy, who came to us when her elderly owner went into care and the relatives just stopped paying the woman who was caring for her at a cattery, is settling in really well in her new home.

As her new people said "As you can see she is settling in very well and
has made herself at home on A.'s lap, the only problem is getting her off
again!!"

ManCat Monday - Ratty

Ratty is one heck of a cat. We're assuming he didn't get his name from his rat catching abilities, but he has started to mellow out. He's lived his life so far as an indoor cat, but we're betting he'd just love a garden. (And a bit of exercise wouldn't hurt either!)

Recently we started to wonder if his grouchy disposition was due to pain, as he seemed to be increasingly uncomfortable when walking. So, one trip to the vet later, and the x-rays have shown that he's got degenerative spinal disease in his neck and back, which is causing him quite a lot of pain. That's now being managed well by metacam, and he's perked up no end.

However the other problem is that the last visit showed he'd put on an entire kilo in the month since his previous vet visit! All of which is putting strain on his joints and making it harder for him to walk! Now as you can probably imagine, controlling his diet in the shelter environment is extremely difficult. Unless we confine him to his cage 24 hrs a day he's able to wander about and poach biscuits and food from other cages. Our current attempt to manage this is to move him to a holding cage in the timid's area and to place their food on one of the higher shelves where he hopefully won't be able to reach. However he's pretty determined when it comes to obtaining food, so we're having limited success with this.

Ratty really needs a home of his own with a very understanding person who could monitor and control his food intake. Because of his on-going health problems he'd certainly be a candidate for our fostering program, where CPL takes care of all the vet bills and the fosterer provides the love and stability for as long as the cat has left.

Degenerative spinal disease is a tricky thing, as I know only too well from experience with my Jonny. He may be able to live with it happily for quite some time, as long as we can keep the pain controlled. Or he may deteriorate quite quickly in which case euthanasia would have to be the option if he's constantly in pain.

So if there's anyone out there who's prepared to help this quirky, smart, enormous hunk of ManCat live out his days in a loving home rather than a cat shelter, please get in touch. We (and Ratty) would love to hear from you.

In other exciting news from the shelter this weekend, Sarah, Panic and Daisy all found new homes!

When I rang Panic's new person last night, he was under the bed, having hung around around for cuddles, met her little 2 year old blind female cat, who thoroughly washed him from tip to tail, and was being purred at by her 18 mth old very laid back boy. So a nice welcome to the family for Panic!

Daisy was also settling in fine, as is Sarah. And Sky is doing brilliantly, tho we're hoping for his new folks' sake that he decides daytime is the best time to play like a lunatic, rather than the middle of the night! ;o)

FemCat Friday - Strawberry

Today we've got a lovely 10 yr old pedigree British Blue girl called Strawberry.

Strawberry came to us when her person was required to move to Christchurch to care for his terminally ill mother. He's naturally unsure how long this process will take, and wanted to give Strawberry the change at a stable new home. It's been a tough decision to make, as while Strawberry was originally his daughter's cat, he's been caring for her for most of her life and loves her very much.

He thinks Strawberry would be good with a retired man or couple who can give her the attention and time she wants. Does not recommend her for a family with small children or loud teenagers, and definately no other cats or dogs!

Strawberry is on daily prednosone tablets for respritory tract scarring, but is very easy to medicate. Just be aware there would be a small on-going cost there. Other than that, she's in very good health.

Strawberry is available for adoption from our Kingston shelter, so why not pop in (between 12 and 4pm, Saturdays and Sundays) and meet her?

ManCat Monday - Ringo

Ringo has belonged to an elderly person his whole life, and by all accounts was the apple of her eye. Sadly for both of them, she's had to go into care and was unable to take her beloved Ringo with her.

He's been cared for by a neighbour for the past 2 years, however her daughter and granddaughters are allergic to our lovely lad. So Ringo's come in to our Kingston shelter where he hopes to meet that special someone who'll give him a loving home of his own once again.

He's a wee bit shy til he gets to know you, and wouldn't cope too well with a household of children. But if you've got a nice quiet adult house, and a lot of love to spare, Ringo would love to meet you!

And in other news, Baloo's person managed to find him a home, so he won't need to come to us.

Cleo and Rosa were adopted on the weekend, and young Mr Sky has a hold on him and will be going next weekend. Cleo and Rosa are both settling in well, and fingers crossed Sky will do the same in his new home in a week's time.

Which will actually be a big relief to Ringo, who, for some strange reason, has taken a real dislike to Sky. Kinda odd really, as he's so laid back with all the other cats. But anyhow, it'll be good for both of them to be separated. Now, if only Ringo could find his own home.....

FemCat Friday - Jade

Ok, we have lots of "normal" cats in the shelter, but right now I'm going to focus on the ones that either have special needs or have been with us for far too long.

So, Jade. Well, she's got 3 legs, and arthritis in her one remaining back leg and hip. She struggles with litterbox management, due to not being able to squat properly, and needs carpet not wooden floors to get around.

So for Jade to find a new home it's going to take a very special someone who's not going to mind cleaning up a bit of a mess when she doesn't quite manage to hit the litter tray. She's a loving, chatty wonderful cat, but does need a bit of help. So if you think you might be able to give this fabulous girl a loving home, please get in touch. Just wanted to add that we're having more success with ordinary tea trays with low sides than an conventional litterbox. I think it hurts her less to climb into so she's more inclined to use it.