It’s taking a while to write this post, not just that its busy around here, but it needs some time and perspective.  Regular readers of our facebook page will know that we had to help little Sparkle to Rainbow Bridge just  over three weeks ago.   It was the outcome we had always feared, hoped would never come, but somehow … deep down … sort of knew was inevitable.

Sparkle 21 (ish) April 2017 – 26 July 2017

If you’ve read our other blog posts you’ll know it was up and down throughout her time with us.   There were highs where we dared to hope … not that her neurological issues would go away, we weren’t expecting miracles, but that she’d grow stronger and find ways of adapting to her disabilities.   Our dream was that she’d find a furever home along with her able bodied friend Karis and they’d make a happy life for themselves.   And there seriously were times when that looked like it could be a possibility.  Then there were the lows when she was unsettled and it wasn’t clear how much pain or distress she was in.

karis & sparkle

Apart from around the time she had an epileptic fit (about 3 weeks into her 6 week stay with us)  the good and bad days seemed a bit random.   Things would improve and I’d be hopeful, only to find her suddenly worse than ever.  I’d despair and she’d bounce back playing.   I think this was the happiest time …shortly after she arrived here. – playing football in the kitchen with Karis whilst I was cooking tea.

Watching the video I realise  that despite the ups and downs, things were never the same after her fit.   Just a few days before she died she seemed to be doing really well compared to how she’d been recently but if you look at the two videos together she’s nowhere near as mobile in the second as the first.

Spark was very loved but also very hard work.  She needed hand feeding, bathing, help using her litter tray, very regular supervision to check she was ok … and increasingly she’d loudly demand this attention …. or was she expressing her distress? … hard to know just what was going on.  It went on loudly and persistently enough though for the other cats to be pushed to one side most of the time.  The most frequent phrase was variations on “just a minute sweetheart I’m just feeding/bathing/something else Sparkle”.   On days I wasn’t working it was more or less manageable so long as I didn’t want to do anything else … on work days it was a nightmare.   I was getting closer and closer to breaking point.  She needed to be better enough to go to a special foster or adoptive home, or be poorly enough to say goodbye … I hated myself for thinking that.

It brought us to a difficult place where we had to think about how much you needed to be able to “cat” to have a quality of life and what level of needs we could realistically manage.   The vet reminded us that kittens her age were normally little hooligans – tbh we didn’t really need reminding 😉   Spark didn’t have a hope of trashing the curtains.  She couldn’t even eat by herself though she clearly wanted to and joined the other cats at the foodbowl.

She couldn’t pick the food up without help, but if it was gently pressed into her mouth she could chew and swallow .. and if the food happened to be chicken she’d purr …. lots.  We learned how best to feed her, what shapes and sizes of food she could manage, how she’d refuse her bottle after food but accept it 20 minutes later.   That part of the challenge was a success and she pretty much doubled her weight, and grew well whilst she was here.   We learned how to tell when she needed the litter tray and what help to give her with that.

It’s impossible without endless resources to know just what was wrong.  We were offered a referral to a neurologist and MRI scan which would have emptied our funds and beyond, but which we might have accepted …. had the proviso not been that it was unlikely that anything found would have been treatable.  Then there’s the Star Trek dilemma about the needs of the one and the needs of the many … those funds could have vaccinated, chipped and rehomed multiple future cats.  Despite the Spock logic our human impulse was to care for her.

So many things seemed to be wrong though.  Sparkle didn’t seem to be able to quite see properly. We  don’t know  whether it was her eyes, or the bit that connected her eyes to her brain, or her brain that wasn’t quite processing things properly.  However when she laid on her back on my lap and we played  at “fingers” she’d dab at them and enjoy playing.  She saw enough, a shadow at least, to chase a ball …. or Karis’ tail … and that was clearly fun and brought her some pleasure.

There were times when the games went a little bit wrong.  Unlike Sparkle, her friend Karis was still well capable of being a hooligan and we responded to Spark’s cries one evening to find this:

We were caught in a kind of twilight / grey area world that hundreds of thousands of humans with loved animals are in each day … Asking how much life was good enough and fearing what may happen next.  Most of the time when she cried we could soothe her, either with food, milk, cleaning or cuddling.   Often the cuddling meant carrying her around in a sling as she’d start crying again the moment I popped her in her bed.

snug in the sling

Sometimes we just couldn’t seem to find a way to comfort her, and that was hell.   There were desperate thoughts about emergency vets and saying goodbye.  Then a few hours later she’d been pottering around and enjoying some chicken.

sparkle

On good days she was happy to settle with Mr Ed her teddy bear. Apart from being nice to cuddle, sitting between his legs stopped her falling over or rolling down into the middle of the settee.

Then came the awful night. Home from work and she was crying, and nothing but nothing could soothe her. Bathed, cleaned, dry, cuddled and still crying. Refused bottle, chicken, food. Neither straight cuddles or the sling would work. Time with Mr Ed or just in her bed made no difference. I don’t know if she was distressed because she knew what was about to happen next or if the distress caused it …. but she had another fit. That was the thing we’d said would make the difference for her future, and her distress confirmed it. We made a final journey to the emergency vets. The people who thought I was incredibly calm and logical about it didn’t know I’d wept most days for weeks already.

One of the most weirdly painful things when she was put to sleep was the way her body relaxed. Her tiny body had been so stiff and tense though all the time I’d been caring for her.  It was precious and heartbreaking to feel it finally relaxed.  Very grateful to Jody at the crem for taking care of both of us the following day.   

Life doesn’t gain meaning simply by the length of it .. but by the love that is shared within it.

Caring for little Sparkle, our special needs kitten, has been a bit of a challenge these last few weeks.  She’s very loved and utterly adorable.  She’s also caused a lot of anxiety and set us on another steep learning curve.

adorable

stress

Pictured above is her at her cutest, alongside the scales and our record of her weight. She gained nicely, then levelled out, then plummeted, then up again, and down again. We think she’s about 11 weeks now, but about the weight of a 7 week old. Her ability to eat and eat independently seems to vary by the day.  We move between syringe, bottle, spoon and hand feeding her.   Sometimes she seems able to lap milk and even eat a little solid food from the dish … other days she can’t.   As with her walking it appears to be about muscle co ordination.  She can chew a bit, and can swallow, but can’t seem to manipulate the food into her mouth.  We’ve hopefully packed feeding bottles and formula away several times only to unpack them again in desperation.

karis mentoring sparkle in the art of dining well

Just over a week ago it was starting to look as though we were getting there.  She’d eaten well without much help and had put on some weight. She was even moving around more confidently and had attempted to jump onto the sofa.  I starting thinking ahead to getting her vaccinations done, advertising for that special adopter … maybe to take her and her friend Karis too.

Sparkle & Karis

A couple of hours later she was snoozing gently against me on the sofa whilst I worked on the lap top. Suddenly there’s movement against my leg and life goes into slow motion. I turn to look and her legs are paddling, mouth foaming, she starts crying and then her bladder empties. All the cats in hearing distance rush to see what’s happening. I realise it’s an epileptic fit. I want to gather her up and comfort her but she’s somewhere else and oblivious. I put her on the floor on a blanket so she won’t fall or hurt herself and comfort the other worried cats instead. It lasts an eternity that is all of 2 minutes in non-panic time.

Jango babysitting

On one level she seemed to recover quite quickly.  The fit was over within a couple of minutes, and within a few more minutes she was moving around and eating.  On another level though, it was a bit of a game changer.    It  wasn’t entirely unexpected.  We had second hand info when she came into rescue that she may have had a fit a few days previously.  I’d hoped it was a mistake though and someone had just confused her tremor with a fit.  There was no doubt about this one though.   The provisional diagnosis had been cerebellar hypoplasia (CH) which isn’t the best thing to have  but we’d read a bit and it seemed that with care, and albeit an unusual gait, these cats can get along fine.   We joined a facebook group for CH cats which was supportive and  hopeful.   However then we read that CH cats don’t normally have epilepsy 😦

Mr Ed the ted helps support her

Did she get louder and more unsettled after the fit, or was it just me who was more anxious and interpreting things differently?  For a kitten with weakness in almost every other aspect, I can testify that there is nothing at all weak about her voice.  She can yell as loud and long as 6 other kittens put together.  It’s as well really since she needs to summon help for most things – if she’s hungry/thirsty, needs help getting into the litter tray, or moving around.    Working out what she needs isn’t easy.  After we’ve checked she’s not trapped somewhere, bottom is clean, doesn’t want food /bottle, put her on the litter tray, its seems she just wants company / cuddles / comfort.   Thankfully some of the other cats have helped with this, but in the end, I made a sling out of an XXL size T shirt so she could still cuddle but I could get on with things.

snug in the sling

Before the fit we’d made an appointment for her to start her vaccinations, and still took her for it.  It was obvious that wasn’t going to happen though.  She wasn’t well enough or big enough, and what was worse, appeared quite a bit less well than at her previous appointment.   The picture was made worse by the fact that I’d had about 5 minutes turn around time between getting in from work and setting off to the vets for her appointment … and when I got home she’d done a pooh and then sat down in it 😦  There was just time to giver her a quick bath but not time to dry her.  Even the healthiest kitten looks like a sick gremlin when it’s wet.

The conclusion from the vets is that we’re in a bit of a grey area.  It doesn’t look hopeful that things will improve.   At the same time Sparkle doesn’t really meet my criteria to help on her way to rainbow bridge.   She’s growing but to some extent that’s artificial because we’re having to hand feed her.    I came home from the appointment feeling sad but determined that we would do our absolute best to help her to live her life to the full, for however long she was able to live it.

Sparkle seemed to embrace this idea, and despite appearing on death’s door at the vets,  launched into a game with Karis chasing a ping pong ball and each other’s tails as soon as we got home.

sparkle playing with karis

and rufus

It’s frustrating and upsetting that her abilities seem to change.  What works well one day doesn’t the next, but might the following day.  Having said that I do think that there’s been some learning on both sides, and a bit of a sense of my getting the hang of what works with her.   It’s complicated by the other cats.  I put her food down to wipe her face, turn back to the dish and someone else has their head in it.  I take her out of her bath (washing up bowl) to dry her and while I’m getting the towel round her someone else is tipping the bowl up on the floor.  We’ve had some days where she’s crying persistently and falling over a lot.  Nothing but cuddles will make it right, and one nightmare evening  even cuddles wouldn’t work.  The last few days she’s eaten well (with help), walked as well as I’ve seen her walk with few fallings over, done her best to use the litter tray (determined to try to throw herself like a high jumper into the adult ones, and refusing the kitten sized ones), played with her mouse, interacted with the other cats, laid on my lap purring and washing her hands (she can’t really co ordinate the wash the rest of herself).

Sparkle has given a lot of cause for reflection on life, quality and quantity of life.  She’s taken a huge amount of physical, mental and emotional energy over the last few weeks.  She’s also given a lot of love.  We’re doing our best to live in the moment with her without too much hope or fear for the future.

Is it my age or does time just race by these days?  It doesn’t seem 5 minutes since we were putting the Spring Newsletter together.   The building work is thankfully finished …. though the decorating is still ongoing ….. and we’re pretty much back to what passes for “normal” around here.

“Normal” at this time of year means a house full of kittens, and that’s pretty much what we have.  It’s all a little complicated …. however,  reflecting on the things I want to tell you about I realise there’s a bit of a theme of blended families …. mixing and matching and unlikely pairings over the last 3 months.

First there was young Jenson who came to us early this year.  Absolutely gorgeous young man and otherwise healthy, but with  food allergies that were difficult to resolve.   Being black and white and prone to tummy upsets, rehoming him was a challenge. … but then his purrfect home came along.  A fabulous loving family who were first time cat slaves, but experienced with bunnies and took Jen’s digestive issues into their stride.   Jenson in turn appears to have taken the rabbits in his stride and realised that at the end of the day they have more in common than otherwise.   He’s also settled on a food that suits him and his tummy has been fine.

first meeting

getting to know you

Our next arrival was little Basil, a part persian kitten who’s family had found themselves to be allergic to.  He certainly knows how to make an entrance!

basil arrives

And then poor old Jasper came back into rescue through no fault of his own. Since Daisy Mae had dropped lucky with grandma (see Spring Newsletter) there was a foster space he could slip into.

Lets put those two on hold for a minute because the next arrivals were Caramel and her three kittens after they’d been kicked out of the house onto some waste land to fend for themselves.   They’re a lovely little family and happy to be safe in rescue.

caramel & cherrie

clarre

charlie

cherrie clarrie & charlie

As there are only 3 kittens and we like to home in pairs, we were happy to respond to a request to take in a single kitten just a wee bit older than them.

karis

We called her Karis because I went to collect her on the evening of our fundraiser to celebrate our charity status, missing half the event in the process.  Since she had ear mites we kept her separate from the other kits initially.

We’ll pop them back on hold too now, and return to Basil and Jasper.  If this feels complicated and confusing ….. well that’s what rescue for you – constantly back and forth between different cats.   Actually, lets not go straight back to Basil & Jasper,  lets scroll right back to almost a  year ago and the seriously blended family of Tabbytha & Mowse … you’ll see why in a minute.  You many remember that they were farm cats who came to us, both very pregnant,  gave birth together in the same bed within a week of each other, brought up their kittens as a single family, and then adopted young Simon (a kitten found alone in a garden) too.

tab & mowse

with their own kits

& adopting simon

If you’ve followed our stories you may recall that they found the most fantastic home in North Yorkshire at a small stable with a couple of horses and a few sheep.  It’s been perfect for them and they’re really thriving.  Sadly their mum’s domestic cat went to rainbow bridge just around the time that Basil & Jasper arrived in rescue, and she asked about adopting them both.  Not the most obvious match with Bas being a kitten and Jas being a mature/senior cat but their adoptive mum knew the different charms of both age groups and was keen to give them both a chance.   As with Jenson and his bunnies, introductions were careful and gradual and its going very well.   I understand it’s  been a little edgy when it comes to discussions about football, but we’re hopeful that that can be worked through 😉

Taking them up to North Yorkshire to their new home also meant that I got an unexpected and very welcome opportunity to revisit Tab & Mowse.  “Welcome” from my point of view that is …. I doubt the girls were impressed.  If they were, they hid it well.

Heartbreakingly lovely to see how they’ve settled.  They very clearly are at home there and are living life  to the full.  They’ll spend time in the stable with the horses, and chat to the sheep.   As rodent control executives they take their employment seriously.  They work hard and make sure that humans are escorted to their food bowls to pay their wages.  The pair of them are very obviously deeply attached to each other still.   I’m sure they’re also attached to their humans.   They’ll never be lap cats but the affection is plain to see.

Coming back to the kittens here.  Are you keeping up?  We have Caramel and her 3 kittens and then Karis to introduce to them once her ear mites are sorted. However before we have chance to make those introductions another 4 kittens arrive.   These are from two mums who are sisters.  The three kits from one litter were fine, the other little family had been less fortunate with most of the litter dying, just leaving one kit who wasn’t well.

silas

silas & summer

sparkle

samson

We got back from Wakefield where we collected them from just in time to take Caramel and her kittens to their vet appointment to start vaccinations.  A quick call to our long suffering vet, and poorly little one was added into the appointment.   The vet  felt it was something neurological and talked about chances of survival in kits like this being linked to how much spark they showed.  The vet nurse and I immediately named her Sparkle and she began living up to the name.

As Sparkle needed some extra care she ended up separated from her cousins and living downstairs with the residents, Karis …. and any remaining ear mites.   The three healthy kittens were introduced to Caramel and family …  and seem to have integrated very happily …. Caramel isn’t much more than a kitten herself but has cared for her triplets well … and then just taken on board that there are twice as many of the little horrors.

They’re all perfectly capable of eating solid food …. but will try it on with her.   We’re not absolutely certain but strongly suspect that Caramel has become pregnant again prior to coming into rescue.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Karis & Sparkle have become firm friends.

karis & sparkle

Karis has been very maternal with Spark, washing her, cuddling her, playing gently.   What has been even more amazing is the kindness of several of the residents towards her.  I don’t know whether its her condition or her age that make Spark cry if she suddenly realises there’s no one there, but  Jango, Honey and Rufus have helped by spending lots of time sitting with her to give Karis a break.  I’m especially impressed by Jango who is normally quite frightened of little ankle biters.   Linking this back to the start of the newsletter …. you can see the painty dustsheets on the sofa as we’re still decorating.

jango & spark

honey & spark

rufus & spark

Caramel’s kittens and Sparkle’s cousins are ready for adoption now.   Caramel will be fully advertised after she’s been spayed .. which will either be after we’re sure she’s not pregnant or after her second litter of kits are grown.   Hopefully Karis & Sparkle will be able to be advertised to be homed together when we’re a little more clear about Sparkle’s health issues.  You can find our adoption adverts here

So we’re pretty much back to what counts as normal for us following the building work.   Even whilst still decorating and covered in dust sheets the gang had moved in.

The race was on to get the house straight again before my lovely friend J visited from Singapore.  Despite putting every spare minute into cleaning and tidying and swearing there would be no more cats until after her visit,  I ended up racing over to Doncaster to pick up little Karis and missing half of our Charity Status Celebration fundraiser a few days before J arrived.

karis

I’m glad I did it now, but after a full day at work, in Friday tea time traffic when I should have been at the event it seemed a little crazy.  It had to be that Friday night because the following day was D Day with Albie.  He was booked in for his second vaccs and then off back to his garden to live.  All I needed to do was get him in the carrier …. ahem.

After a lot of fretting I’d come up with not only a Plan B but also C.   In the end it was more cunning than courage that got him.  A one in a million chance proved successful.  He’d been hunkered down in the cave in his cat tree every time I went near his room for a couple of weeks and I’d worried about how to get him out of it when the time came.  By a fluke on D Day -1 I went into his room and he was up on a high shelf.  I took my chance, removed the cat tree from his room, and replaced it with a covered over cat carrier in the same place.  There was no way he was just going to go into that to hide instead …. was there?

albie in his cave

I went into his room Saturday morning and to my amazement that’s exactly where he was.  I gently slid the carrier towards the wall and slotted the door into place.  Couldn’t believe it!  Called the back up troops to cancel, brought his vet appointment forward and off we went.

He was gone in a flash

in a flash

he was gone

The good news is that he’s settling happily back into his garden.  Hopefully with him now being neutered he’ll be less at risk of straying and fights.

Then J arrived.  Don’t get me wrong, we had a lovely time and had a couple of full day trips out … however ……

It made me realise how ‘not normal’ we are.   When you live ‘alone’ its easy to just go from cat to cat to kitten, constantly watching them, responding to their needs, not even realising the extent of it.   When you have a visitor it all becomes more apparent: “just a tick, I think Rufus wants to come in and he can’t use the flap”, “sorry, just need to check Amber has enough food”, “hang on … think Henderson is about to pee up the wall” … “ah … sorry … need to reply to this cat rescue email”.    Not to mention the multiple eye and ear drops that needed to be administered in addition to normal care.

The minute J left I was shuffling rooms around and within half an hour off to collect the next gang of kittens.   Wakefield this time … a bit of a change from endless Doncaster runs.  As I’d had company I’d not fully read the info about them … other than there were 4 of them, at risk of being handed out to strangers to rehome.  It was only as they were going into the carrier I started to register it. Not that it would have changed our decision to take them.

S Team

before they

came into rescue

On the journey home one of them wailed a loud West Yorkshire lament pretty much the whole way.  When I picked the carrier off the back seat once we were home three of them were messing around as young kittens do, whilst the fourth was lying on the floor fairly lifeless.  We were home just in time to take Caramel and her kits for their vet appointment so called our long suffering vet and arranged to take collapsed little one in along with the C Team.

The collapsed one stumbled out of her carrier.   Nothing physiologically wrong.  Vet thought neurological ….. probably cerebellar hypoplasia (CH).  He not very optimistic but talked about the main factor being whether cats like this had a spark.  She went back in her carrier whilst the little Cs had their first vaccs and chips.   The W Yorks lament kicked off again and I realised it had been her yelling all the way down the M1.   She kicked at the side of the carrier, as though to demonstrate that she did indeed have the necessary spark the vet mentioned.    The nurse who had come in to help examine Caramel (we think she may be pregnant with another litter) suggested we name her Sparkle.  Purrfect

That was a couple of weeks ago today.  It’s not been the easiest couple of weeks.   We’ve been learning what she can and can”t do and trying to help her manage it.   She can run (in a fashion) and play football, but her right arm turns in on itself and she has a general tremor.  She can’t jump but compensates by climbing.   She’s very efficient at climbing up my leg, digging her claws in as she goes.  I’m proud to have completed an official call to the bank about our rescue account without screaming as she shinned her way up from my toes to my shoulder.  More concerning than her mobility is her ability to eat. I realised after a couple of days that although she’s good at giving the illusion of eating she struggles to get food into her mouth.  We’ve had numerous stressed experiments with everything from kitten formula bottle feeds, through syringe feeding liquidised food, spoon feeding mousse /pate textured food, and hand feeding tiny bits of chicken.  Most successful have been the bottles and very carefully  torn pieces of chicken (eek … as a veggie I shrink from touching the stuff but needs must).  It’s like threading a needle …. the pieces have to be not too wide to go easily into her mouth, but not so narrow that the end flops over.  We now have it pretty much down to an art form …… kittipoultrigami?

pretending to eat

bottle feed

Despite her challenges she’s managed learn to use the litter tray (Henderson take note!).  The big saving grace has been her relationship with little Karis.  I could cry when I see how kind Karis is to her …. she’s only about 16 weeks old herself but is taking on some mothering of Sparkle.   She plays with her in a way that appears adjusted to not be too rough, cuddles her, and washes her.   They make a very sweet pair.

karis & sparkle

The seemingly endless building work is within a cat’s whisker of completion.  I’d sort of envisaged a completion date, a pause and then beginning to think about admitting cats again.  Of course it didn’t work quite like that.   Three weeks ago we got a message asking if we could take one small kitten in, and Basil became our first admission since the start of the building work.

He was clearly a character from the start.  Very sweet, very loving, very keen to be friends with the other cats.  The other cats were nowhere near so keen to reciprocate. Jenson, being a very kind boy went to play with him and played carefully, allowing for the fact he was smaller, whereas Rufus rolled him around the floor like a rat he’d just caught.  After a bit of a family argument in which Honey complained bitterly about being expected to care for all the kittens every time  just because she’s the only one who  has actually had kittens …. Henderson grudgingly stepped in.

jenson goes to say hello

and then plays nicely

slightly grudging hendo cuddles

We mentioned the chance arrival of Albie in our last blog. His entrance was as different from Basil’s as it could possibly be.

Terrified and wanting nothing to do with nobody.  Which made the vet run a few days later quite interesting. [As an aside, I’m reflecting on the way in which the passage of time renders/condenses the event into this single adjective. The sleepless nights beforehand, planning, worrying, making a plan B and C …. and D. The tension of the day which coincided with Uncle Alan coming to install the webcam. The frantic wall of death /window of pee scene and his eventual capture. Congratulations go to Alan who has installed far more cameras than he could ever count … but never one quite like this.]

Very grateful to our vets for keeping Albie overnight to neuter in the morning rather than our having to face trying to catch him again for another vet trip.  Not neutered, not chipped, coat full of matts, and enough passengers on board to start a small zoo.  We hoped he’d settle a bit when he came home from the vets but he’s determinedly hiding in his cat tree when there’s any sound of people around.   We only know he comes out thanks to Uncle Alan and his brilliant webcam.    Within the house we can watch a live stream of what’s happening in his room.  Everyone else can see a still shot taken every few minutes on our website here: http://www.8livescatrescue.org/content.php?page=cam

We stepped up another gear again when Caramel and her kittens arrived. Again not really ready to start taking more cats in but when a rescue friend pinged me and asked if we could somehow squeeze them in ….. well …..

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Lovely little family but they’d been living outside and not cared for. Caramel had ear mites and kittens had eye infections. Off to vets and back with eye drops, ear drops etc. Poor kittens it feels like every time I see them I’m inflicting some medication on them. First the frontline spray, then 3 days of panacur paste to worm them, then 6 days of twice a day eye drops and its almost time to start worming them again.

They’re certainly looking better for it though.

caramel

carrie

cherrie

charlie

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.