kittens

When I began to think about writing this newsletter it felt there was little to say. The last 6 weeks have been consumed by our long awaited building work so its kind of felt like that’s all that’s happened.

However, scrolling back through posts over the first 3 months of this year I find the picture is more complicated than that – Henderson for example.

Henderson arrived in January, during that period when we’d resolved to not take in any more cats. When we heard that he’d been found half dead at the side of the road though, we went racing over to get him. After causing a lot of worry in his early couple of weeks with us he’s emerged as an adorable purry elderly gentleman.   His only (ONLY?!) fault is a tendency to pee everywhere. He’s been neutered of course and can use the litter tray some of the time. He even appears to have understood that we tend to frown on this behaviour …. but sometimes its just too tempting …. or maybe he forgets and is only reminded when I leap up squealing HENNNNNNNNderSONNNNNNNNNNNN!!!.   Fortunately for him we love him anyway and he’s slotted in happily with the other residents. Given his age and health / behaviour issues will probably stay here for the rest of his life.

Henderson (right) with Rufus

in igloo with Jango & Rufus

& jenson too

Speaking of Hendo …. reminds me to tell you about our ….

Cards

Our fabulous fundraiser Jenny has been creating and selling some lovely cards for a while now and making some welcome money for 8 Lives.   Card sales have gone to a whole new level since Christmas though with a few talented supporters.  First Victoria Butterell a local artist approached us with the offer of one of her designs to sell to support 8 Lives.   We arranged a launch at our favourite Rileys & Co  and a friend of theirs Christopher Carter  came to take the photographs.

Jenny Victoria Rufus & Me

Our very own Rufus attended the event as he rarely passes up an opportunity to go to Rileys.  The next thing I know, he’s arranging his own personal photo shoot with Chris.   A lot of the photos made us say “awwww” but this is the one ultimately chosen to go on a card.   In the background is the chair I used to sit in to give him his bottle when he was tiny,

We had another addition to our collection from Gale, one of friends at Rileys.    She drew and painted this gorgeous picture and donated it to us for fundraising.

These are all available at Rileys & Co and Pet Company pet shop on Abbeydale Road …. and a few other places.

We’ve had heart break and heart warming stories …..

Poor old Tippy our stray visitor only allowed himself to be caught when it was too late to help him.   A frantic dash to Vets Now one Sunday afternoon only led to a night time / nightmare call requesting our permission to put him to sleep as he continued to deteriorate and was in distress.   The heartbreak was eased a little by the amazing care from Pet Cremation Services .  Jody who manages the service is tremendously kind and respectful of the animals who come to her.   The fact that Tippy was a grubby old tom cat was irrelevant …. he got all the love and tenderness that our precious Sooty got almost exactly a year previously.   Here he is in happier times in the garden with our Flipper.

Our heart warming story is of Daisy Mae who came to us just before Christmas, and was mentioned in our Xmas newsletter.   She’s an older girl who unlike Tippy was very healthy .. but had been threatened with being put to sleep because she was being made homeless.  She moved out of here into foster care as the building work started.   This more or less coincided with half term and grandmother coming to visit in her foster home.  One thing led to another …. and at the end of the holiday she packed her bags and left with grandmother for her furever home.    Nice one Daisy Mae.

And the BIG NEWS  almost at the end ….

Because we got it after we’d written most of the newsletter …  Our second attempt to register as a charity has been successful !!

Obviously it has to be a stringent process, but its proved to be a bit of a nightmare getting all the ducks in a row to satisfy the charity commission.    Our previous attempt failed when they didn’t like the layout of our accounts (but couldn’t quite tell us why), we had one part of the document naming us 8 Lives and another 8 Lives Cat Rescue, and a date missed off one of the multitude of signatures required.   It felt infuriating and petty at the time, but now its all gone through it feels like we won it fair and square 🙂

And Finally …..

We have another fundraiser planned ….. Friday 9 June at Rileys & Co.  at  7.30pm .  It’s mainly about music and fun.  We have the amazing Peter Fagerlind on piano and the wonderful Octogenesis  It was well set to be a fabulous evening to start with  ….. but now we’re celebrating our Charity Status too ……. just WOW ….. don’t miss it!    For more details keep an eye on our facebook fundraising page , drop in to Rileys  Co  or email us at eightlives@outlook.com

Henderson

Henderson has rather overdone it with the celebrations … but who can blame him. Without 8 Lives he wouldn’t be here.

Had a lovely Mother’s Day with flowers and a card from the furry ones. It’s an odd sort of feeling to receive something like this for the first time at my time of life.

The notion of our pets being our children is something that is fiercely and often unkindly debated elsewhere, and not something I want to stray into here. One thing I’m clear about is that my cats are not child substitutes in the sense of being second best to having human children. Yet as we go about our lives together in the same house they feel like family, and evoke the maternal care (and frustration) that may have been given to children had life been different.

They’ve certainly pulled me into baby things that I’d never expected. Sleepless nights and kitten formula …..

max after his 2am feed

Juggling work with fur care

rufus & rosy ready for work

at work

packing to go to childminder

having to take them everywhere

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bathing

indie

lucy

And then the arrival of Henderson sent us into the nappy aisles in the supermarket. A desperate (and ultimately flawed) attempt to manage his confusion and weak bladder led to us trying nappies, secured by baby vest.

It’s hard to convey in just one photo just how he felt about the suggestion …. but his face pretty much sums it up.

In some ways it should be easier around here at the moment.  We’re down to only 7 cats, and all of them get along with each other … more or less.   There is the small matter of the building work though …… and a few other things …..

Flipper ….. just being Flipper

Day 1 of building work, the day after we brought Tippy’s ashes home, we were kind of ready for it and it was exciting.  By Day 2 I wanted to call it off.  I’d anticipated that the cats wouldn’t want to be in the kitchen right next to the noise and disruption, but hadn’t anticipated that the back door would be open much of the time, that it would be impossible to sneak between kitchen and lounge without cats getting through the door and hence outside under the diggers etc..  So then realised they would have to spend the time whilst the builders were here upstairs!  It’s not easy posting them all through the door at the bottom of the stairs without all the previously posted ones avalanching back down!  Even less easy doing it first thing in a morning with only one mug of caffeine on board.   The biggest challenge though is Amber, our semi feral cat.

Amber

Amber is loved to bits and has been settled here for years, but she’s not someone you can approach or touch … and most definitely not someone to be posted through the door at the bottom of the stairs.  I’ve learned to keep a look out for her and avoid walking towards her.   On the rare occasions I fail she goes into panic mode and cries pitifully with fear.  Rather than put  her through this I’ve taken to getting up in the middle of the night whilst she’s sleeping in my bedroom and  close the door at the bottom of the stairs so that she won’t go down.   We’re into week 3 of 7 with the building work now and so far so good with that one.

Honey the building inspector

It helps that the nights are getting lighter and there’s a little time to go outside after the builders have left and before it goes dark.  I’m not entirely sure how the builder’s would manage without Honey checking that everything is straight and in order.

Meanwhile the decorating indoors chugs along.  The little front bedroom is finished

and the back bedroom started.  It’s not great to have disruption indoors as well as outdoors but I’m anxious to get it all over in one fell swoop …. and it will be kitten season by the time the builders are finished so the rooms will be desperately needed.   It’s rare to have an opportunity to be able to move freely from one room to another without needing to keep cats behind each door.

I’d hoped after Tippy the worry and upset would be over for a while.  Sadly it isn’t.  I spent most of last weekend with an old friend and her very poorly cat, trying hard to make things better for him but eventually having to say goodbye to him early this week.   At the same time persuading Jenson to pooh into a pot in the hope of getting to the bottom (lol) of his tummy upset.   He’s managed to combine this with sending me out to check a family he thought he’d like to live with.   I’m delighted that he’s found the people he wants to spend furever with …. we just need to get his tummy fixed first.

Jenson has a home!

Then Jasper messaged us to say that life in his new home wasn’t working out for him and could he come back. It’s the first time this has happened and we’ve needed to take a cat back. I’m sure if he’d known how things were around here he’d never have asked! Thankfully though, since Daisy Mae had struck gold within a few days of being in her foster home, and gone off to her happy ever after, there was a foster space.

jasper

Then …. and on a selfish level so much worse than anything else …… our little Rufus is poorly. He’d been a bit hissy and growly and I’d put it down to stress of building work and of Jenson being a bit hyper and annoying with his random pouncing on people. Then realised Ru was growling at nothing in particular and his ears were hot. So off to the vets to find he has a raging temperature, sore gums and we don’t quite know what’s wrong. He’s had antibiotics and is on daily metacam. I’m managing to get him to eat and he’s alert. However he’s spending most of his time in bed at the moment and when he gets up he’s growling and hissing again. Clearly something is hurting.

jango & rufus

At the moment he’s happiest with his uncle Jango (thanks Jag)

Just to add that extra frisson of excitement …. Henderson (now as well as we could have hoped he could be) is plodding around the house randomly peeing/spraying. Sometimes we confine him to his crate to stop it, sometimes he follow him around escalating the tension, sometimes we just give up and go with with the flow (ahem). There’s no escaping the fact that he’s a lovely old boy.

henderson

Our building work started on Wednesday so the plan last weekend and early this week was to take things steady, gradually moving furniture, acclimatising the cats to a new routine and bracing ourselves for the onslaught.   We were proud of having finally managed to say no to new arrivals …. leaving us with just 9 cats.

Daisy Mae managed to get herself a foster space with Xin & Xavier’s family, packed her bags and was evacuated on Saturday.   Jojo had bagged herself a nice new home and I took her there on Sunday.

So that left us with just 7 cats ….  the fewest we’ve had in I can’t remember how long.  Not only the fewest . … but 7 cats who all get along reasonably well, so none of them need to be in a separate room.  That got us to thinking …. what better time to attempt to decorate the ‘cat’ rooms.   Hmmm … you may say ….. a better time might be a time when there aren’t builders demolishing the back of the house, a time when everything else isn’t in chaos.  However, when the building is finished we’ll be coming into kitten season and need to have rescue spaces to offer.   So we completely emptied one of the rooms and piled everything in the other, cleaned and sanded and then  went to B&Q (other DIY stores are available)  to buy paint  ……

As I returned with said paint and pulled onto the drive anticipating late Sunday afternoon and evening decorating  my phone went PING ……

To understand this we need to back track to last Thursday.  In fact to really understand it we need to go further back .. and will do in another post.   Anyway ….. Thursday teatime I’m in the kitchen and Flipper shouts that there’s someone at the cat flap.  I go to see and its a sad little black and white face that I’ve not seen for months.  It’s Tippy …. a stray we’ve known and fed whenever he’s visited …. though his visits have been a bit random

Tippy & Flipper last summer

I rushed out to feed him and he quickly ploughed through a couple of pouches and a man sized helping of chicken. He’s never looked well but now he looked really poorly. He’d lost weight and his breathing sounded awful. I was desperate to get hold of him, get him indoors and safe, get him to the vets … but as ever …. when I went nearer to him he backed off. I didn’t want to try to grab him, fail and end up just depriving him of a much needed meal / scare him off from coming here again.

thursday night

I messaged another woman who feeds him to say how worried I was about him … but she said she’d not seen him for weeks. I kept looking for him over the next few days but no sign ….. until the phone pinged on Sunday.

He’d gone to see the other feeder and was even more poorly …… to the extent that she’d just picked him up and carried him indoors … and then messaged me.

Sunday tea time is not a great time to have a poorly cat. I phoned Vets Now and rushed down there with him. They were pleasant and professional but its not like having your own vet in a crisis.  Tippy was put on oxygen and a drip because he was so dehydrated.   It was explained that we had the option of him being put to sleep straight away ….. or £700+ for his care overnight, then pick him up at 7.30am to take him to our own vets and start tests to find out what was wrong and treat him.

Gulp ….. we had to give him a chance ……. but that’s 6 months fundraising blown in one night.

Oh ,…. and yes … that’s the days decorating time blown too …. though in the scheme of it ….. priorities and all that. ….

Towards bedtime the dreaded phone call came.  He’s not getting any better with the treatment they’re giving and is starting to suffer.  I can appreciate the policy … but it was agonising to have to go through this conversation with the vet, and then have to confirm it all over again with the nurse.   I was surprised / shocked / heartbroken that having given consent they put him to sleep and he died whilst I was still on the phone.   Needless to say ….. I didn’t sleep that night.

I’d planned to crack on with the decorating after work on Monday ….. but instead had to go back to Vets Now to collect Tippy’s body.  And instead of painting on my day off on Tuesday I went over to the crematorium in Doncaster.   It’s not the place you’d want to need to go to …. but having had the worst happen to a loved animal, its the best place to be.   Jody is so kind and understanding, and the fact that he’s a grubby stray cat made no difference to the care and concern she offered.

He’s home now … in a little black cat casket like our Sooty’s.  At some point while I’m decorating I’ll paint the tip of the tail white.

We have two good news stories for you this weekend, each involving different Hendersons.

The first is about our very own Henderson who has been back to the vet for a review this evening.   He’s looking much better and we’re pleased to find he’s put on 200g in weight.   Having feared a couple of weeks ago that we were about to lose him, we’re delighted and amazed that we’re now having him microchipped and he’s started his vaccinations.  We’re being realistic – he’s an elderly cat, with arthritis and underlying medical issues …. but for now he has the chance of a period of care and happiness.

The other Hendersons is the one you all know ….

“What does that have to do with cats?”  I hear you ask.   Well …. local artist Victoria Butterell got in touch with us a few weeks ago to offer help with our fundraising through a lovely card she designed.

It was produced originally to help a friend of hers who runs a cat rescue in Montenegro.   Cat rescue is hard enough here in the UK but we were horrified to hear of the conditions of cats over there, especially how hard it is for this poor woman to offer care.  We’ve had verbal abuse at times but the woman who runs this rescue has been attacked in the street for simply feeding and trying to help.   We were asked if we’d like to be part of the card project so that local cats could be helped too.

We met to talk about the practicalities of paying for the printing of cards and how to share publicity and profits with the Montenegro rescue.   We were so moved by the struggle of our fellow rescue overseas that we agreed to fund the printing of all the cards, but share the profits.   We’re proud to be a tiny rescue with international connections.

If you’ve been to Sunday School you’ll know what they say about casting your bread on the water.  We’ve certainly got it back in kindness of others.   We arranged a launch event for the card at Rileys & Co …… where else?   Excellent pies …. with Hendos of course.  Their friend Chris Carter  the photographer came and took some lovely photos.   Our Rufus   came too … he”s been a regular at Rileys since he was 2 weeks old.

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The cards are available priced £2 from Rileys & co, Pet Company, Rounds News, Bessies, and Carterknowle Methodist Church Cafe

We’re building up to having some work done on the house, and last week were given a start date for late February.  Very sensibly we immediately declared that there would be no further arrivals until the work was finished.    Half an hour later we were making arrangements to  pick up Jensen.    He’s an older kitten who had been rescued from someone who wasn’t caring for him months ago .. but dogs and a new human baby whom Jensen was over enthusiastic about meant that he was in trouble again.   Nothing really that he was doing wrong, just no respecter of anyone’s personal space.

jensen before rescue

Yet another Leeds based cat, though thankfully this time his family were happy to meet me part way. Woolley Edge Services on the M1 seemed a good half way point … though not exactly ideal as I waited on Northbound while Jensen waited at Southbound. He was in the most amazing packaging …. a crisp box with all his worldly possessions strapped to it.

It was ingenious and creative …. but in the interests of safety we had a bit of a back seat manoeuvre to transfer him to a proper carrier that could be hooked up to the seat belt.

Although he’d been a confident kit in his previous home, he was shaken up by the change and quite overwhelmed by all the other cats here.  He ran off to hide and we spent several hours poking around the hidden dark corners of the house with a torch looking for him.   Eventually it was Flipper who sniffed him out, wedged behind the cabinet that the printer stands on.

Each day since then, things have got a bit better. By Sunday he was hiding on the window sill behind the curtain, where he could peek out and see what was going on. By Tuesday he’d staked out the conservatory as his domain, still hiding behind plant pots, but amenable to coming out for treats and had started playing a little with Rufus. On Wednesday he came into the lounge looking at the TV and happy to settle near the toys, so long as no one moved.

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On Friday I started to be able to coax him to come to me, and he’d have lots of enthusiastic strokes, but still would scuttle away shortly after. He was playing more with Rufus who is very confident so I hoped they’d have some kitten to kitten chats. It looked hopeful as rather than hiding, I’d walk into a room and he’d be lounging in a hammock or comfy bed, though he’d soon move when he saw me.  He’d come to eat with the other cats at meal times, and  was clearly interested in me …. sneaking a look at me when he thought I hadn’t noticed.

So this afternoon it was disappointing to find he seemed to have hidden again. To be fair though … I’d been quite caught up in “tail 2” ….. and had had the vacuum cleaner out.   However this evening it was like a switch had been flicked.   I sat in the chair and he came running to climb on my lap.  I tentatively stroked him, not wanting to scare him.  He threw himself at me wanting all the cuddles and snuggles he could get ….. at least a weeks worth to make up for having lost bless him.

Caturday x

We were lucky enough to find Mike & Milo and Ivy & Robyn new homes immediately after Xmas … well we found the homes before Xmas but they didn’t go until after all the upheaval of festivities was over.  I’ve always liked to see myself as someone who doesn’t stereotype according to gender.   However, the two girls climbed out of their carriers and immediately set about chewing the house plants … and then disappearing behind / under the kitchen units …. and then switched their interest to the Xmas tree.   Milo & Mike on the other hand, came out their carriers, had a potter around, found the food, and then a comfy spot to snuggle down and snooze.

milo & mike

robyn & ivy

By the time it came to photos they all look innocent as doves, and all of them very happy in their new homes.

Rob & Ivy leaving meant that Tomte could move upstairs into their bedroom rather than being stuck in a crate in the conservatory. That was the start of him settling and feeling much happier.

Once he could stretch his legs he made it clear that his main interest was having cuddles. He was a big hit with the vet nurses when he went to be neutered ….. and loved having them all doting on him.

In fact he’s becoming a real snuggle bug

Once the lads had gone Daisy Mae was able to come out of her crate and have the back bedroom to herself.   So she’s also stopped hissing and grumbling about “the youth of today”.     She’s  shown herself to be an adorable little cat too  …  still very playful … she’s only 8! (despite her having been under threat of PTS because she was ‘old’ and homeless)  …….  and loving cuddles.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Dot & Bessie are moving into a happy furever life. Being kittens they’ve had many more adoption enquiries than Tom & Daisy. This evening they’ve sealed a deal with a lovely little family. Well done girls! The future looks bright x