Remember remember....
Firstly I lower my hat to the passing of a Purrs pal. RIP Molly, darling. x
Bonfire month
seems to have concluded... it was raging here Friday and Saturday nights, tonight too but thankfully it has subsided to the odd pathetic pop and sqweeeee. I used to adore fireworks but now... sheesh does it ever stop?
This week has had a few surprises...
Firstly we discovered our first "phantom" pregnancy! Well, its appears to have been wind... or at least an incredibly exaggerated case of IBD. Anyway Penelope is out of the maternity ward and, grab your hankies girls and boys...
In the vets picking up the kittens Basil, Charlie Chaplin and Tristram after their castration I spy a weeping couple. I avoid eye contact as I'm in uniform and don't want to appear mercenary.
10 minutes later the receptionist calls me aside...they've brought in their neighbours cat, an old, severely ill girl who needs to leave this earth without delay. The neighbour is agrophobic, elderly and possibly suicidal now his only companion is leaving him.
Can I help?
Of COURSE I CAN BLOODY WELL HELP!
In my cache I have Penelope, just this week released from the binds of maternity and in need of a home. She's needy, an uber-affectionate lap cat who has been pushing out kittens as long as she or anyone else can remember.
ISNT HE TOO OLD TO ADOPT?
No, the CP Cat Guardian Scheme will guarantee her safety if she outlives her new slave, or if he is taken into long term care.
They're so impressed the pair of them break down and need to compose themselves. These are heaven's neighbours.
This man is not a relative, nor a particular friend but they care, deeply, and understand his plight and his need. This is their religion and they will find their cloud for this act, I'm sure.
We exchange details and Penelope's future, and "Colin's" is assured. Her spay and medical all-clear are all that stand between them now.
My faith in human nature is again bolstered by yet another kind soul. Atlanta didn't adapt to life indoors, in fact she has prove herself to be positively averse to my attentions, so she needs to go back. Now spayed and her manky tooth removed, the infection cleared and microchip inserted, the lovely chap who has been her feeder and guardian of her kittens through the autumn months agrees so take her into his care where she will be safe, fed, warm and loved, albeit not restrained by pesky walls, pens or cages.
Our amazing fosterers deserve a nod too. Marina, Ana and Ruth have gone above and beyond to help their various and changing charges, Marina especially turned around her maternity ward into a play den in record time so that LillyBet, Troy and little Marina namesake could move in.
Ruth coped brilliantly with bed wetting (Atlanta, not Ruth!)
and Ana fended off the dreaded Herpes Simplex virus amongst the foxed kittens at considerable personal cost
as we discover she's sensitive to Hibiscrub and her hands are now red raw and sticky from the Manuka Honey she has employed to resolve them.
Tad, Mark, Kat, Marina and I attended a training event on infectious diseases and flined origins at Paradise Park. A most interesting and valuable day, we're all now paranoid about cleanliness and employ our blue shoe covers at every feasible occasion.
Great team building too, it was the first time we had all been together and we missed poor Ruth who has been stricken with back and leg injuies topped off with the mother of all colds. Mixed feelings about the animals we saw in captivity from the magnificent white lions and tigers to the enormous boa constrictors, that there must be a better way of preserving these amazing creatures.
So, back to business, return for Atlanta, adoptions completed for Basil, Tris, Midnight and Darcey, with confirmed reservations on Esme, Charlie Chaplin, Matilda and Penelope. Return arranged for LillyBet who has decided she quite likes being feral, so that should leave us with a more manageable cohort of just seven.
This is appropriate
I need the team rested, fully stocked and raring to go in the run up to Christmas. We all know the dreaded peak of demands for kittens in the preceding weeks followed by the sickening tidal wave of abandonments and bad decisions shortly after 11am on Christmas morning.
We will shut down operations in relation to rehoming a couple of weeks before Christmas to try and minimise the impact, but we saw it last year and no doubt will catch the tail of it again this time around.
I hope I've built enough bridges through the year to make this season surviveable. For all.
So, Sunday evening passes, Penelope on my knee, Esme and Charlie ripping holes in their cardboard box, Betty now loving her new softer, cuddly personality sitting with her Dad, Pursely (yes, i know!) teaching all the little ones how to ignore the pops and bangs (well she is deaf but they don't know it!), Lilley and Georgia waiting for their operations in the summerhouse and the Tuftyclub getting cosy in the bedroom.
We like the early light here, the clocks going back help us get going. Tomorrow will bring new surprises, of that there is no doubt.
Sweet dreams, my friends, whichever side of the Bridge you are dreaming on tonight.
