Hi Folks,
As per our update in November I do apologise for not having updated sooner. Life at the Harbour has been as hectic as ever and it just seems we move from 1 drama to another.
Not helping either was that both Paul & I went down with the dreaded lergi over the Xmas break and so we have spent the last month playing catch up after I was off my feet for a month with a chest infection poor Paul has had to play catch up with everything.
We have had good and bad times and sadly lost our dear boy Scamps (brother to Charlie) to liver failure at just 3.5 yrs old and are keeping a close eye on Charlie boy for now who has done very well despite his brother leaving us though in some respects I also think he is enjoying not having to fight for cuddles! Scamps ashes have now been brought home and we plan to bury him with Joey, Monday and Colby when the weather dries up a tad so he will always be 'home'.
Scamps is on the left
The hoarder kittens have done really well and only 2 have real nervousness issues however we think part of this is down to brain development issues due to their malnutrition and close inter breeding. They have started to leave us to head to new homes and its lovely to see them settling in and being happy.
Numbers are still fluctuating between 40 - 50 and we are seeing a rise in the number of enquiries for adults which is good news although we still have Honey who is looking for a home after 15mths with us. But she is happy and loved and certainly enjoys keeping us on our toes.
Duchess our harbour feral from the colony who we decided to try to tame and rehome has done brilliantly. Even at a year old she has come round brilliantly and is a real lap cat and is now after 5 months of work at the harbour now living in her new home being a lap cat and little darling for her new mum and dad who love her to bits.
We had our usual 'dumps' over Xmas too with Ash who came to us via a vet after he was taken there 2 days before xmas to be PTS as he was being chased and stress urinating due to 2 large dogs. A sweeter little angel you could not wish to meet and we were thrilled when he found his new forever home in just a couple of weeks.
We have also had a couple of cats come from kitten farms - complicated story but they were in horrendous state when they arrived and are now thriving. This is a pic of our wee Simba who now has a wonderful zest for life after being a very scared, withdrawn and horrifically thin boy when he arrived.
We also had Purdy a gorgeous wee tabby girl brought to us as a stray however we believe her to be the cat of the man who brought her to us he just wouldn't admit it. She is an older cat who we have discovered has thyroid issues and possible further heart complications. We are currently getting her thyroid under control and hope that it will show no further heart issues - though not convinced and this may well be the reason she was effectively palmed off on rescue. That said, she is comfortable and very much loved she is such a sweetie and we will do what we can for her and give her a chance while we find out exactly what is going on with her.
We are still full of umpteen other cases some who are ready to look for homes and others still undergoing their TLC. 1 such lad is Frankie as he has now to be known as he doesn't stop singing.... who came to us terrified and completely wired as a result of a free ads sale on gumtree - we wholly believe he has been sold repeatedly and can only imagine what ordeal this wee guy has been through. Photos soon!
On a more personal note we also got some surprise news that we are to be parents of our own this summer so this will be an interesting time to say the least. We will obviously as the time approaches need to have numbers lower than they are now and reclaim some of our home for ourselves but it won't stop our rescue work - just be a bit of a juggling act for a whiley!
