Sheffield

It’s been a busy few weeks here getting all the little Ts to their new homes, and slowly coming to terms with the death of their mum. Unfortunately … or fortunately ….. depending on how you look at it …. there’s little time to grieve for the dead when the living make so many demands.

The kittens all seem to be settling into their new homes, and even timid little Truffle is making progress.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Once the little ones had gone, Domino and Edward went off to the vet for neutering. Ed was completely fine as all our lads have been, but things weren’t quite that straightforward for Domino. Being a stray when she came to us we didn’t know whether Dom was spayed or not. As she wasn’t pregnant, as most stray females are, if they’re not caring for tiny ones, we thought perhaps she’d been spayed already. However she very vocally came into season a few weeks after arriving and we booked her in for her op. It turned out that she had cysts on her ovaries which made it a slightly bigger op than normal. Although this wasn’t great news, perhaps it’s what saved her from pregnancy. Unfortunately she came home and started removing her stitches. We went back to the vets and she was stapled and glued together and strongly advised to wear her buster collar. She grudgingly complied with this for a few days, until one night she managed to remove the collar ….. and shortly afterwards remove the staples! A very stressful period ensued where the collar was very firmly fastened, and (heartbreakingly) no concessions were made for the collar to be removed for her to eat or wash herself …. as the minute it was off she’d dive for her wound. Poor love, when the collar finally came off she washed herself (still under careful supervision) for a full 45 minutes.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

She’s such a little sweetie …….. all she wants for Christmas is a lap of her own to snuggle on ….. such a little cuddle monster.

The T team leaving do this evening has been a bit of a sober affair, partly because Dizzie and Edward found the box of cat nip earlier this week, ripped it open and scattered it all over the stairs.

However the main reason is much more sad …. within days of all her kittens being officially reserved, and Tilly starting to be able to have some “me time” and look for the purrfect home where she could be loved and pampered, she had a completely unexpected medical emergency.  Despite rushing her to the vets and it initially looking hopeful, surgery showed that the situation was much worse than any of us had feared, and Tilly was helped to Rainbow Bridge before she woke from the anaesthetic.    It’s been utterly heartbreaking to lose her like this …. one of the sweetest cats we’ve had in rescue, so deserving of a better new life for herself, and so close to having it.   Never expected her furever home to be at the bottom of our garden.

It’s difficult to know what the little Ts make of it.  They’re growing up, getting ready for independence and hopefully haven’t noticed too much.  If the whole thing wasn’t painful enough though …. looking up from digging Tilly’s grave to see a row of little kits on their bedroom windowsill watching me was one of the most painful moments in 8 Lives history.

The comfort is that Tilly has been very loved whilst she’s been with us.  She surprised us by being pregnant and worried us by being due whilst we were on holiday.  However she was cared for during that time by a lovely cat mad friend who reminded me how excited Tilly had been to show her her kittens when they were new born, calling at the door when she heard my friend go past and running to show her the little ones.

Such a sweet and loving mum even when they became a complete handful for both of us.

So wish she could have been here for the leaving do.  We played with toys and talked about new homes, and did our best to be brave but I think you’ll see a few sad faces amongst the photos.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Run free at the bridge lovely Tilly …. and go grab life by all four paws little guys!

Well …. not exactly … but this is the riddle this week has reminded us of: http://riddleshub.com/fox-goose-corn/ for those of you who don’t know it.

rather too many cats

After four years of rescue cats and kits trashing the carpets in their rooms we decided to arrange to have some laminate flooring laid in those two rooms.   When we ordered the laminate. things were busy bit not overly so.  Between booking it all, Domino and then Eddie & Dizzie arrived.  With a house full, 3 additional cats might not sound much, but Dom needs to be separate from all of them, and Ed n Dizz need their own space together too.

So here we are with 18 cats in the house, in 4 separate groups who need to not mix.   There’s 5 rooms in the house if you include the conservatory which is liable to extremes of temperature and a tiny bathroom which doesn’t have room to swing even the smallest kitten – you’ll need to trust me that this is worked out by mathematical hypothesis rather than practical demonstration.

With me so far?  The joiner needs access to both cat rooms one of which contains Ed and Dizz, the other with Tilly, her 6 kittens and the remaining 3 little Fs.   The 5 permanent residents need access to the cat flap/outdoors, Ed needs to not leave his unneutered tom cat scent in my bedroom, the lounge or the dining room which are the main rooms the residents hang out in, Honey and Jango must not be stuck in a room together as they hate each other, rescue cats must not be a) in any room the joiner needs access to or b) any room with an outside door/cat flap opening on to it, Domino mustn’t share with anyone because she hates them all, but particularly not with Ed who hasn’t yet been neutered because we don’t know if Dom has been spayed or not.  Jango mustn’t be able to get anywhere near the joiner as he cornered the poor guy on the landing last time he did some work on the house and its not been forgotten.   Ideally whilst we’re out at work the joiner needs to be able to use the bathroom and kitchen to make a drink if he needs to without fear of being attacked, or having escapees.

Oh … and there needs to be no furniture on the floor in either of the rooms which the laminate needs to go down in.

You have a few sleepless nights to figure it out … starting now!

We know we’re full and that things are getting tricky when there are several nights in the week where we lay awake at 2am trying to work out how things can fit together …… and are still awake at 5am but without any clear solutions. Holding down a full time job, running a home, and organising 18 cats is tricky. It’s more tricky when currently 10 of those cats need sorting out with primary course of vaccinations, 2 of them need to be neutered (requiring a day of arriving late at work and leaving early), and 3 of them need microchipping. Thirteen of them need rehoming, requiring home checks, people coming to visit and ultimately cats need to be taken to their new homes. All the time new requests to take cats and kittens are coming in.

If things had gone to plan / expectations many of our cats wouldn’t be with us:

Take poor Domino for example: we were clear that we simply couldn’t take in any more adults and then we had a phone call from the vets to see if we could take in a pregnant cat. It was getting cold outside and we’re very fond of our vets, so we caved in and agreed. When the finders finally got her to the vets they discovered it wasn’t a pregnancy but a bloated tum from eating goodness knows what whilst she was a stray. At that stage we couldn’t say no and put her back on the street. So here she is:

And she’s gorgeous … but struggling in the cold conservatory as it was the only place to put her. Hence her huge fur hat. We’ve advertised her everywhere hoping someone will recognise her and claim her – but so far the only response we’ve had is from someone who told us that she’d been straying in the centre of town for a while, hanging our around the markets to beg for food. So she’s now getting herself sorted ready for finding a new home.

Then there’s Tilly and her kits. We responded to a plea to take an adult and a 12 week old kit into rescue. We said we’d take the kit but at the time didn’t have space for an adult. Someone else was going to take the adult but somehow we ended up with both, and then Tilly turned out to be pregnant again ….. and had 6 kittens! So that’s 7 more cats we didn’t plan for.

We’re glad now that we didn’t say “no” because they’re gorgeous ….. all of them.

Then last weekend, full to bursting and we had a desperate plea to take another couple of adults who were about to end up homeless. For a while it seemed like we had found them a space in another rescue – but somehow they’re here with us. Saying “no” days before bonfire night just didn’t seem an option though we know many poor souls will have been out there through it. So the Fs bunked up with the Ts and the adults have the Fs bedroom.

They’re sweet boys but quite confused about why their lives have suddenly changed.

It’s chaos of course but then we get photos back from kits in their new homes and it all seems worthwhile. Lovely Bosca is getting …. I was going to say “her feet under the table” in her new home – but it’s more like “over the table”

Our timid little Floyd has given us regular excited updates about settling into his new home and making friends with his new step brothers and sisters. His confidence has clearly come on in leaps and bounds:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Next week’s challenge is to work out how to juggle them around so that our long-suffering joiner can lay laminate in both of the main rescue cat rooms without: a) mixing the separated groups of cats, b) allowing un neutered tom cats into our bedroom (as it upsets the residents), c) letting any of the non-residents outdoors d) losing anyone e) anyone getting stood on and f) allowing Jango anywhere near the joiner (as he squared up to him last time he came and cornered him in the bathroom).

It’s been an exciting and scary week for Floyd. He started off being full of himself that he’d bagged a home with the human that he liked … but as time has gone on, its begun to look a bit scary. Leaving his little cousins and starting out in his new home isn’t going to be easy for such a nervous young man. It’s such a good job that he’s got a kind and understanding new human to take care of him.

The hurdle of going to the vets for his second vaccination is over, he was calm and brave throughout, though we saw him holding Fern’s hand some of the time.

This evening has been his leaving do. Perhaps laying on a “Drugs and Dreamies” party wasn’t that well advised. He’s not normally been used to doing drugs … and the cat nip high blew him away a bit

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Inevitably it started to get a bit out of hand

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

In the end Tilly had to step in ….

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

As she explained, it wasn’t just that the older kits were drunk and disorderly, it was that they were encouraging her little ones to get high on it too …….. and at less than 8 weeks old she felt this just wasn’t acceptable

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Let’s start at the beginning of last week. We’d had lots of requests to take cats in, and sadly had had to say no to them. Just too full with all the little Fs and Ts, and of course Bosca. Monday afternoon I had a serious talk with myself, after yet another request to take in a young man who was desperate to get in out of the cold. The only thing that was going to make us let anyone else in was if it was a pregnant cat, and even then. only if she was local (trying to remember we were set up for S8 cats) or had some other connection to us. Twenty minutes later there was a phone call from our vets – someone had found a pregnant cat in Sheffield city centre, RSPCA and Cat Protection had said “no” … could we help? Gulp …. she fitted both the connection criteria (our vets are wonderful and we’d do anything to help) ….. and she was pregnant. So we set up our bedroom as a maternity unit, moved our bedding downstairs and prepared to sleep on the floor until the as yet unborn kits had had their vaccinations and were ready to go to their new homes.

Arrived at the vets to collect puss …. to the news that once she’d arrived with them the ‘pregnancy’ had been diagnosed as ‘wind’ … with a prognosis (as she gently deflated in the consulting room) of a severe bout of diarrhea later in the day. Um …. we’d only agreed to take her because she was supposedly pregnant, but somehow just couldn’t say “no” to the sad little face poking out the top of her cardboard box. It felt a little like she’d stuffed a cushion up her jumper to get to the top of the housing queue .. but seriously …. would you just put her back out on the street?

We’re not being mean – but giving up our bedroom to a pregnant lady is one thing …. giving it up to a cat forecast to have a serious gut explosion in the next 24 hours is something else. The maternity suite was collapsed and temporary quarters established in the conservatory. ‘Windy’ settled in gratefully …. ate plain fish for a few days and slowly decompressed. She’s a sweet purry cat, who doesn’t seem to like the residents very much when they’ve seen each other. Then again, the residents are a funny lot and a bit of an acquired taste. We’ve advertised her as “found” and searched the “lost” adverts … but nothing has come up. She can’t stay here much longer as “lost” … so later next week will start the process of health checks, vaccinations, contraception and chipping.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The good news last weekend is that Bosca, who has been with us since May, went to her new home. We didn’t try too hard with rehoming her over the summer because everyone was happy being out in the garden in the sunshine. However once the lovely weather ended and the nights started to draw in, the cracks in the relationship between Bosca and the residents started to appear. We had a few enquiries about her, but then the perfect home came up for her, and Bossy is now settling down to enjoy the rest of her life.

And here”s our second surprise. A lovely young woman came this weekend to meet Fuzzie – from the adverts he looked like he was just the right young man to fit into her family. We had little concern – he’s a confident young man who could easily charm almost any visitor into adopting him. When she arrived Fuzzie was snuggled in a bed with Floyd. All seemed well. We started talking to them and playing, expecting Fuzz to run to join in, and Floyd to run away. The strangest thing happened. Fuzzie went and hid in a cardboard box, whilst Floyd (the timid lad whom we have to chase around the room to be able to stroke) was clearly transfixed. He ran up to her, licking her arm, enjoying her strokes, and even let her rub the Floydy tum. [We’ve never been allowed to touch the Floydy tum!] Freddie and Fern played around as normal but Fuzz took himself out of the picture.

Floyd excelled himself in charming her, and has won himself a home. He’s chuffed to bits and not only wants to announce it .. he wants to shout it from the rooftops

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Discussions afterwards with them suggested that Fuzz had also really liked the lady, but he was aware that his timid cousin would find it hard to find someone he felt comfortable with. So when Floyd said that he liked her, Fuzzie tactfully hid himself away so that Floyd had a chance to woo her. Good boy Fuzzie, such a sweet thing to do. And congratulations to Floyd!

The little Fs are growing nicely now. All vaccinated and micro chipped, and Flossie spayed. Flossie and Fudge took the big step of moving to their new home last weekend and are settling down nicely. Little Floyd whom we were worried about because he was so tiny when he arrived with us is growing into a size-able healthy young man. He was chuffed today when he went to be chipped because the lady said he looked like he was going to be a really big cat when he grew up. To be honest, we were pretty chuffed too – a few weeks ago it seemed impossible that he would be a big cat, and pretty unlikely he’d live to grow up. But now look at him – what a handsome young fellow too:

Floyd

Meanwhile Freddie has been experimenting with taking selfies:

The T tribe are 6 weeks old tomorrow, something which seems unbelievable to Tilly who feels like they’ve been around for at least 6 months ! Poor puss, two litters of kittens in such close succession, and 6 of them this time! She’s looking forward to chatting to the vet about her contraceptive options next week, and then starting to look to make a life of her own. She thinks, and I’m inclined to agree with her, that 6 is just too many. When they come to feed now, all put together they’re well bigger than her, and are obviously starting to be uncomfortable and a nuisance:

Difficult to say whether its better or worse when they’re not feeding. When they’re all off doing their own thing, you need more than just eyes in the back of your head. I was with her the other night when Tess was starting to learn to run up the curtains, Tug was meowing for attention on the litter tray, Toby was squealing under the door to the F team, another kitten was crying because he was ‘lost’ at the back of the desk and the remaining two were squabbling and trying to push each other into the water bowl. Neither of us could quite work out who to attend to first.

They’ve been a very mixed little group. A couple of kittens had their heads in the food dish when they were less than 4 weeks old, it was over a week before any of the others showed any interest, and only in the last day or two at nearly 6 weeks old has the last one started to take any notice of the food bowls. Table manners leave a lot to be desired. Have a look at these pics taken last weekend and see if you can identify the ones who have started on solids 🙂

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It was our official first anniversary last week. Rather like the queen we have two dates to celebrate – we kind of unofficially started in April 2013, gradually establishing ourselves as an independent rescue. However it was 23 September 2013 when we had our first official meeting, agreed our constitution and 8 Lives was formally born. So last weekend saw our AGM. It was a good meeting, with plenty of refreshments, the sound of kittens clattering in the bedroom overhead, and plenty to celebrate. Sooty grumbled bitterly about being asked to move off the table while we had the meeting … so of course he had his own way and stayed put:

Just in the year since September 2013 we’ve taken in 28 cats. The vision of focusing in our own postcode area hasn’t really worked out. We’ve had a few from S8, and tend to give priority to local cats, however, fate and other connections have intervened and we’ve taken in cats mainly from Sheffield and Chesterfield, a few from Rotherham and Doncaster, and (special cases for very special cats) Leo from Birmingham and Bosca from Leeds.

Bosca

Leo

Four of the cats we’ve taken in have been pregnant females – with two of them we knew they were pregnant before coming into rescue, the other two broke the news of their pregnancies a little while after they arrived. One of them arrived with what we think might have been the daddy cat in tow … they were certainly in love, and to some extent shared the parenting. Between them they’ve had 20 kittens born here. For three of them that’s been a complete delight … mums and kittens all fine. Tilly’s kittens are still only tiny, but the other little families have all gone off to their new homes: everyone vaccinated and chipped, adults neutered (and confirmation from adoptive parents that kittens now neutered if theyr’re old enough). Chi’s story is still painful to tell even thought it was back in February. It broke our hearts and our bank account and if ever there was a good case to get your female cat spayed this has to be it A beautiful sweet mummy died and so did 3 of her 5 kittens.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We’ve taken 37 cats and kittens to their new homes, several of them in pairs, a few as single cats. It’s amazing and wonderful how many lovely people there are out there who are looking to share their homes with awkward bits of fur. It’s been a delight to get to know them as they visit to get to know their adoptive felines, and to stay in touch and hear how the little ones have settled and made themselves part of their new families. There are some seriously lucky kitties out there 🙂    Hard to choose our favourite photos but here are a few of them in their new homes:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It’s tricky to add up, but we estimate that we’ve done about 48 vet runs in the year (excluding our permanent resident’s appointments) sometimes with just one cat, but often with two three four … and maximum 9 at one point for vaccinations. We’re fortunate that not only do Vets4Pets offer us ‘frequent flyer’ rates, they don’t charge us rent for use of their waiting room, despite it feeling like we live there a lot of the time.

So apart from Bosca who seems to be getting her paws well and truly under the table, the house was empty of rescue cats over the holiday. My lovely friend Kath had had taken care of Tilly while I was away, and been there for her when she had her little ones. She was there for me when I arrived back jet lagged and hysterical about Sooty’s disappearance, and hung on to Tilly and family for me until the following weekend when I was sorted out and ready to take them home. So they arrived back here a couple of weeks ago, aged just 7 days old.

freshly unpacked

one week old

The plan had been to take Tilly and family back but not take any others in for a while, so things would be a bit more relaxed for a few weeks. However a rescue friend posted asking for urgent home for mum and three kits and the following day we were off to collect them. When I first saw mum I thought she was one of the kittens, she’s little bigger than Pippin who went to her new home before the holiday. It’s a bit complicated so I’ll spare you the details, but we ended up coming home with mum, her three kittens and their older two cousins.

It didn’t take long to discover they were full of worms and fleas. Complete sweethearts none the less. The littlest ones were happy to lie on their backs on my lap whilst I bathed eyes and picked fleas off their tummies. They love to be on laps and climb up the minute I sit down. Mum was a little more wary but once settled is a complete love, so gentle, such a baby herself.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The cousins were a little more timid, and more of a concern as one of them was half the size of the other.

Little Floyd, as we called him, sat quite listless in the carrier while the others charged around. Thankfully when they were tired they kept him company.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We took him to the vets the next day. Only 500g at 12 weeks old, but nothing obvious we could find to be wrong with him. He came home with convalescent food full of good stuff and we set about handfeeding him 3 times a day. Yesterday (so 11 days after the first vet visit) we went back to the vet with him – still very quiet but 910g! An ongoing mystery and concern as to what is going on with him. Educated guesses range between just not feeding well when younger and then not coping with fleas and worms on top of it, to some congenital illness which would be difficult to treat. This evening we went in to feed them, and took Floyd off for his exclusive (pouches cost more than £1 each!) meal

He ate a little, not a huge amount. The usual pattern is that when taken back to their room he scuttles off to hide and sleep again. However this evening it was different. He got into a basket, but then when the other kittens were playing, started to get interested and eventually joined in. He didn’t take part in the mad game of tearing up and downstairs that the others were absorbed in, but look at this …. seen playing for the first time

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

He got very excited – running around, tapping things, chattering to himself, like he was suddenly trying all the things he’d thought of trying, but didn’t feel quite up to it before. Go for it Floyd … be well little kitten ……. please …. x

Unfortunately its now Sooty’s turn to be “home and away”. After the relief of Moggy Maid finding him at the end of the holiday, it emerged that there is a more ongoing issue. He was missing again the following day, but was found again round on the next street … and carefully carried home. Lots of anxiety about whether old age was encroaching and he was becoming confused and easily lost. He was grounded for a few days.

The very next day that he was allowed out he was missing again, and found more or less in the same place. However this time, rather than being on the street he was in a front garden .. and this time the discovery was observed. A retired lady … lets call her “Dora” to save the embarrassment of identifying her … came out of the house and informed us that Sooty had been hanging out round her house for about two weeks, singing up to her at her bedroom window (poor woman … the voice of a deaf cat is tuneless to say the least) and she’d been concerned that he was a stray. However he had then disappeared for a few days (yeah … grounded!) and she’d hoped he’d found his way home. Whilst explaining that she didn’t have a cat of her own, the last one had sadly died some time ago, a group of felines assembled around her feet. It seems these are the latch key kits of our neighbouring street. Whilst their humans are out earning money for pouches, these guys gather and are seduced by tins of evaporated milk. She assured me though that she’d not fed Sooty, and we walked slowly home.

It was the weekend and Soots was missing again. I bumped into Dora on my way to find him … she confided that she’d given Mr Tabby some evap milk, she hadn’t fed Sooty, but thought he might be finishing off what Mr Tabs left. She was off out but I was welcome to go round to the back of her house if needs be to find Sooty. It’s not great being deaf. I walked round the side of the house, clocked an empty bowl with a rim of evaporated milk around it, and an elderly black and deaf cat sitting by it cleaning his whiskers. All very contented. His face when he turned and saw me was priceless .. but sadly not captured on camera.

This infidelity is manageable on a weekend. It’s easy to allow an hour or so, and then nip over to collect a besotted black cat. Not so easy in the week. Each day its been a dilemma of whether to lock the cat flap and confine everyone to barracks, or let everyone out. Majority vote has meant that mostly its been an open flap regime. So each evening this week we’ve collected Sooty from Dora’s front garden. Initially this was done by arriving home, realizing Soot was absent, and walking round to the next street to find him. It’s not far if you’re able to push through hedges, but if you have to walk round on the road its a bit of a trek, particularly if its raining or you’re late home from work. So, the last few nights we’ve dropped by in the car on the way home to collect him.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It’s not the end of the world, we know where he is, and he’s fine. However, milk is not good for cats and tends to upset their tummies. Evaporated milk appears to be even worse. If we lock the cat flap, 6 cats who are used to being about to use the outside toilet have to start using the lit trays. If one those cats has a lactose intolerance and gets an upset tum, the other 5 complain strongly (and understandably) about hygiene and their concern about where they can safely put their feet if they go into the tray “for convenience”.