We had a good run of adoptions in past weeks with lots of kittens and mums being adopted.
In some respects its quieter around here now .. . we don’t have the thunderous clatter of kittens playing football echoing down from their bedrooms. [Why is it that kittens always sound like they’re wearing clogs?] Although visitors are often startled by the bangs and thuds as the little ones experiment with the law of gravity, I’ve pretty much learned to screen it out of consciousness. It’s a happy sound of play and so long as there isn’t the sound of breaking glass or a large crash followed by an ominous silence, I just let them get on with it.
gang of rowdy kittens
In other respects it isn’t quiet. We have just two cats available for adoption at the moment …… both black and white, both adult and neither happy with the company of other cats. The noise has changed from the happy playful clatter of delinquent kittens, to the sad and agitated lament of frustrated adults …. and that is much much harder to ignore. Although they have all the necessary care they need, and I spend what time I can with them for cuddles and play …….. it’s limited …. and they cry out because they’re lonely and bored and unhappy at being cooped up in one room.
sad Puddy ….. waiting
I can’t explain to them that its only temporary ….. though for poor old Mr Puddy temporary seems to be going on for a long long time. I doubt that they can reason that they’re better off safe here than living rough on the streets ….. especially as they don’t understand that this isn’t going to be their life furever.
nellie trying to be patient
They’re both lovely cats …… with lots of love to give to someone who is able to look beyond the colour of their fur and the fact that they’re no longer kittens. They’re also, between them, taking up the whole of the rescue space we have here with their requests for single rooms 😉 Praying that they’ll both be able to celebrate Xmas in their furever homes.
As Summer fades and we slip into the season of mist and mellow fruitfulness, the cats here abandon the sunny patio in favour of warm radiators. The nightly arguments about coming in as the summer light fades give way to a welcome committee, already home and waiting for their tea when I get in from work. Much as I love the long summer days, snuggling down and getting cosy with them is a delight too.
Still full but with fewer cats!
I think the main thing about the Summer was that it was “Full” as we said in the previous newsletter. We had Tabbytha & Mowse with their kits, plus little Simon whom they adopted, and Xin and her kits. Despite there being a lot of black and black & white kittens we were reasonably confident most of them would get lovely homes …….. and they have!
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Phew! The ones we were most concerned about though were Tabbytha & Mowse – the farm cat mummies. For a little while there was some hope that they may settle enough to become house cats. Mowse accepted some strokes, Tabbytha was happy to take chicken from my hands. It wasn’t enough though for them to move into the realm of ‘pets’ though. The other option was to look for a safe outdoor home. There are some fab people who help with feral cats: they’re rescued from dangerous inner city areas, transport is arranged and they’re taken across the country to farm homes where people offer some shelter and food as a wage for rodent control duties. For an anonymous feral – trapped, neutered and released into a safe space with some ongoing care its wonderful. Not quite so easy to accept this as the best option for Tabbytha & Mowse who were named and known …. and loved …… despite their fears around people.
We looked at a few possibilities but they fell through, and then a miracle happened. Quite by chance we found the perfect option for them. A lovely caring woman and her father …. up in North Yorkshire, their home county ….. offered a space. It’s not a big anonymous farm ….. but a small stable with rescue horses and where the animals are very well cared for. I could weep for joy and relief when I see the updates from them. They’re loved and fed, but free to do as they please.
Hand rears
These little ones didn’t take up much room ….. but oh boy did they take up time!! They arrived over August bank holiday … apparently two weeks old but only a little bigger than the size of newborns and full of fleas.
The little boy quickly became the model hand rear kitten … he guzzled his bottle down, burped when I winded him, wee’ed when I washed his bottom and started to grow at the pace kittens should. His little sister Rosy flicked her head back and forth when trying to get the nipple in her mouth, and scampered off if not held tightly. It would take 10 times as long to feed her as her brother, but the milk went in and she wee’d and poohed and was active so we were hopeful.
rosy & rufus: little & large
rosy ready to resist her feed
rufus …. the model patient
One awful Wednesday night just over a week after she arrived, Rosy stopped fighting her bottle. I dripped the milk into her mouth and it ran back out again. Over the next few hours she became floppier until she passed away. I was heartbroken, though if I’m honest I didn’t think she’d make it. It was awful to watch little Rufus trying to pat her back into life. It looked like he was trying CPR at one point. Poor little man.
rufus trying
We wrapped her gently ready for a funeral once it was light. She’s buried in a little patch of garden that holds baby Max and his still born sister Minim.
Max’s memorial
I’d have cried all day, but there was Rufus to take care of. I’d arranged to go out to a weekly lunch date / craft group. It had seemed ok when I planned it to just nip out and leave the pair of them between feeds for a couple of hours. Now Rufy was on his own it all seemed wrong. I’m not sure quite how I decided on the compromise …. but ended up packing Rufy up in his carrier with a bottle, lots of baby wipes and spare blankets and taking him off to Rileys & Co for lunch with me. I hoped they wouldn’t mind too much since he was so tiny and in a carrier. To my amazement, not only did they not mind, they really welcomed us and took care of us. It helped a lot with the pain of losing Rosy.
in the parlour at rileys … feeding rufy
That began the weekly tradition of Rufus going to Rileys for lunch and having cuddles with everyone there. He doesn’t need to come with me any longer, he was weaned weeks ago ….. but ……. well ….. he has friends to catch up with.
His besties are aunty Jenny and uncle Rog though …… without them having him (and his sister) whilst I was at work and over some long hard nights early on we’d never have made it.
jenny with rufus
jenny with rosy
roger with rufus
Still full?
Yes …. though in a different way …. We have two adult cats taking up single occupancy of the two rescue rooms which previously held 3 adult cats and 12 kittens between them:
Puddy arrived 6 months ago now: an older lad who should have been big given his frame, but was well underweight, matted jacket and a very very sore mouth. His teeth are sorted out now, his jacket is glossy and lovely, and he’s put on nearly 2kg since he arrived. He’s got on fine with some of the cats here … but not others ….. so we think he’d be best being the king of his own domain.
Nellie holds the other room. She’s about 4-5 years old and played the “possibly pregnant” card to get her rescue space. She wasn’t . … but we don’t begrudge her doing what she needed to do to get to safety. She’s a sweet little cat, but anxious if she leaves her bedroom and starts to hear and smell the other cats.
We’re keen to get them both into homes as they’re fed up and lonely locked away in separate rooms here … and while ever they’re here we’re unable to admit any more cats. Please if you have a minute and a place you can share their adverts … facebook, work noticeboard / intranet we’d really appreciate it. Their ads are under the “looking for new homes” tab here on the blog or on our cat chat page: http://www.catchat.org/eightlives
Fundraising
We had a fabulous night last Saturday at Rileys & Co . Scrumptious Rileys pizza and other tasty bites. The amazing Break a Leg played for us. We had quizzes and the legendary stand up sit down bingo. The best bit of it was seeing so many lovely lovely 8 Lives supporters there, lots of friends we’ve made along the way. The worst bit was when Jenny our amazing fundraiser (yes its the same Jenny that’s Rufus’ aunty Jenny) said what a brilliant job I do and thrust the microphone at me for comment. People who know me through rescue often think I’m confident as I’m happy to chat at length …. serious length! …. about cats. People who know me well know I’m desperately shy. I closed my eyes and waited for the floor to open up and swallow me. It didn’t. I waited a while longer, eyes closed, trying to just keep breathing. All things will pass. I’m hoping we’re now agreed that when it comes to rescue work I’ll just do the cats 🙂
Break a Leg at Rileys & Co
We have our Christmas event on Saturday 3 December. Only about 50 tickets will be available so please book early for a fab evening.
At least that is, its the end of the tails in terms of 8 Lives input to these stories …….. its just the start of several other tails to be told by loving new families.
It’s a tail that for us started almost exactly 6 months ago with a long drive up to North Yorkshire to collect two terrified farm cats, both heavily pregnant. They and multiple other cats had been cared for by someone who sadly was no longer well enough to keep feeding them.
The Richmond 2
I can’t pretend there wasn’t a period of shock and anxiety when we realised how feral they were. Some communication issues had led to us believing they were friendly house cats when we offered the rescue space. When we learned they were in fact farm cats who had never been indoors we didn’t want to lose face by saying no. When we learned that one of them (I never clarified which) had bitten through the hand of the young man who caught her on the morning I collected them I worked hard to compose my face into an expression of someone who knew what they were doing.
For a while the three of us stared at each other in horror whilst we tried to weigh up who was more afraid of whom. After a little while we settled into an relatively easy truce …… I fed them, they didn’t bite me. What happened next was one of the most lovely experiences I’ve had in cat rescue. They gave birth within a week of each other, cared for each other during the births and then looked after both litters of kittens together.
Tabbytha & Mowse with kits
Whilst remaining very wary of me, they didn’t stand in the way of their kittens making friends and having cuddles. I think they appreciated the care that they got and the safe space they had for raising their babies. In return, when we took in Simon, a very young kitten who had been found wandering outdoors on his own, they agreed to adopt him into their little family.
that’s simon, chewing mowse’s ear
There was something quite heartbreakingly beautiful about their vulnerability and caution with humans, their bond with each other, yet their willingness to let their kittens socialise with the humans.
The time came to look for homes: Tomas and Tobias went off first
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Amazingly the mummies were the next to find a home. By chance it was back up in North Yorkshire though some distance from where they’d come from.
Then the rest of the kittens paired themselves off and left for pastures new. Simon & Minnie got themselves a lovely home in S6. Curiously, Simon, the most confident of the whole lot hid behind the sofa whilst Minnie – feisty but more shy normally – scoped the place out. Happily it wasn’t long before they were having cuddles together.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
It was a bit of a while before the remaining four found homes, but when they did it all happened at the same time. Two home checks on the same day, followed by two families coming to visit afterwards, and two rehomings the same day the following week.
Mickey & Millie went first …… and despite their arrival coinciding with hedge trimming outdoors …. they soon settled in
day one
and then started stealing the human’s seat
day 6
and last but not least …… Timothy & Mocha went to their furever home
day one
They’ve all got lovely homes. I’ve had little doubt that the kits would settle happily but I was anxious about Tabbytha & Mowse. Absolutely no doubt that they’d found one of the most lovely caring outdoor homes it could be possible to find … but what if they didn’t see it that way and took off as soon as they were given their freedom? It’s an anxiety I shared with their new humans, and my heart was in my mouth a couple of weeks ago when I was told that the stable door would be opened.
tabbytha
tab & mowse
Clearly we needn’t have worried.
I’ve played this video over and over again …….. can’t quite put into words what it means to have seen them through this journey and know they’re happy and settled now.
8 Lives: Sheffield 8 Cat Rescue 