CataBlog

ManCat Monday - Crookshanks

Crookshanks came to us for rehoming when his person's mother became pregnant and was concerned that Crookshanks wouldn't be any good with a baby.

I'm going to cheat a little bit and repost the email that his 12 yr old person sent to us that I've got up on the CPL website, as quite frankly, I don't think I could say it any better than this:

"Dear cats protection league,

I am Crookshanks’s previous owner my name is libby and i am almost twelve. I am most upset about my family cat going i have been crying alot, so i feel it is best for me to tell you a bit about him.

Crookie had a tough up bringing, he was found in the lower hutt river with the rest of his litter and his mother in a sack filled with stones. So his is reaaly scared of plastic bags!! I know my mum said he didn’t like to be cuddled but he really does. He doesn’t like it when people flinch when he rubs against them, and he likes having a snuggly warm bed. He is fed 2 or 3 times a day and is very alert of loud noises. My cat is a bit of a roaming cat he likes to roam whereever he likes. I must admit he doesn’t like to be over patted though and whatever you do don’t rub his tummy he wont thank you for that.

I love hm dearly, and i think it would be best for him to go to a loving home without small children. Please look after him as i can no longer have him because of my mum being heavily pregnant.

thankyou cats protection league,
yours extra sincerely libby"

Enough to bring a tear to the eye isn't it? Since he's been with us, we've had no problems with him biting or scratching, and he seems very keen on getting as much pats and attention as he can. So if there's someone out there without small children (and no intention of having any!) that likes a cat with real character, do come meet our Crookshanks.

CPL Website updated with our newest cats

I'm feeling extremely pleased with my efficiency today. Got the CPL residents section up to date on friday.

Joining us in the last few weeks have been:

4 year old Bella
Her buddy, 5 year old Milly
The lovely 10 year old Buster
The gorgeous 2 year old Cleo
And the fantastic 10 year old Strawberry
And 5 1/2 year old Baloo has been added to our waiting list

So we have some lovely new cats who have jointed our current residents and are available for adoption at our Kingston shelter.

And some wonderful news - little NuNu who we were looking after until it became clear if she was going to be able to rejoin her elderly owner when she moved into a rest home has been able to go and live with her mum. Here's hoping they both settle in well.

FemCat Friday - Winnie

We don't know much about Winnie I'm afraid. She was left outside our gate in a carry cage in early June 2005, where she was found soaked through and very very frightened.

She's taken a long time to adjust. For the first 12 months she flinched when anyone put her hand towards her. Which is why we think her first home was less than ideal. She's getting a lot better with that and is actually sometimes asking for cuddles. However she's really not keen on the other cats, so is pretty much constantly tense and on the lookout for other cats that offend her.

Winnie needs a home where she's the only cat, with a person who will be patient with her, while she works through her issues. If there's somone out there who can give this cat the love she deserves, please get in touch.

Now, I know that ManCat monday was earlier in the week, but gotta boast - cos my Monty feature on another ManCat Monday. Check out the handsome man here. If you read the Purrs, he's getting quite the following :o)

Quick updates on Andy and Dax (Molly)

Got an email update from Heather about Andy yesterday. He's settling in beautifully to his new home in New Plymouth:

"Talking to C. again this morning and Andy has settled in as if he's lived with them for years. Sleeps with them everynight, enjoys lots of cuddles and attention and yesterday she let him out to enjoy the sunshine and he pottered around, sorted out their property and the next door neighbours garden and met their 2 cats.

He bobs in and out the whole time and always comes when she calls him. He was out lying on the deck in the sun sound asleep while we were talking. What a lucky boy he is."

And this from Dax's people (was Molly) on Sunday:

"we let her out yesterday... she disappeared down into the back garden for a few hours, and came back just after dark... ever since then she's been much much MUCH calmer... she didn't hide at all today... just chilled out on the couch in the sunroom...

we let her out, and she came back... so i guess she's ours now... it's official..."

Followed by this yesterday:

"she's settling in fine... she spent yesterday hanging out in the back garden, making clear to the neighbours cats that they could no longer cross our property with impunity... (her tail puffs out like a bottlebrush when she's posturing... it's a hell of a sight...)... having made her presence felt out there, she's now spending more time inside... a balance has been struck...

odd cat though... very demanding... this morning, she sat on my lap while i was reading the news on the internet and wouldn't move... when i tried to move her to go get a shower, she bit me... when i tried again, she clawed me... basically she threatened me into staying still and scratching her behind the ears... and it worked... i had to wait until she was ready to leave of her own accord if i wanted to escape unscathed... bizarre...

but no... everything is fine... life is normalising around here now... we've adjusted to the cat, and she to us... all is good..."

And for your viewing pleasure, here's some pics of our new shelter.

First, the main room.

The main outside run:

3 of the cages in the room set aside for our more timid cats:

And looking back towards the timid's room from their run:

We've still got to build climbing frames for the runs, but hey, it's a start!

Man Cat Monday - Sooty

This week on Man Cat Monday, I'd like to introduce you to Sooty (or Sooty I as he was known as for the period we had 3 Sooty's in the shelter).

Sooty's about 12 years old and has been with us since the 22nd of July, 2006. He came to us when his people arranged to shift house and were unable to take him with them.

He'd turned up as a stray about 7 years ago and was adopted by a friend who then moved to Auckland a year later. So Sooty went to live with his last family and thought that was just fine.

He's a lovely lad, but has become quite depressed in the shelter environment. He's not all that keen on the other cats, and often has to be let into the kitchen to eat where he feels a bit more comfortable.

By nature he's a very affectionate cat, but because he's not feeling all that good about his environment, he does tend to spend most of his time sleeping, so is not all that responsive when visitors come to look at adopting a cat. So time and time again, this fabulous guy gets overlooked.

He'd do really really well in a home where he'd be an only cat and get lots of attention, as that's really what he's craving. He's got no isues with young children - just give him a lap to sit on and lots of cuddles and he'll be as happy as Larry. (Not keen on dogs 'tho).

So if you know of anyone who'd be happy to adopt a mature gentleman, could you send them on up to us at our Kingston shelter to meet Sooty? Please?

You can see a few more photos of Sooty here.

I just couldn't have my first Man Cat Monday without showing you my boy! I adopted Monty from the CPL over 2 years ago. He's about 7 years old, and had an abusive kittenhood, which has left him with some residual anger management issues (that we're still dealing with) and a pathological hatred of children.

He moved out of his first home when he was about 2 years old, and moved in with a childless couple down the street. They absolutely adored him, despite his unpredicability. When his eyes turned from green to yellow (which I've dubbed "The yellow eyed stare of death") they learned to step AWAY from the cat. Apparently at dinner parties it was like the parting of the red sea when the Monty Man walked into the room. He's also incredibly loyal, intelligent and needy - a real walking, purring, rending contradiction in cat form.

Anyhow, they ended up having a wee kiddie and all went reasonably well until she turned 3, and they had another baby. Now who knows if it was the addition of the baby, or if the wee girl had gotten old enough to trigger memories of the children that abused him in his first home, but one day....

Dad and wee girl were walking home from the kindy. Usually Monty would walk down and back with them, but not that day. Instead, as they were walking along the footpath close to their home, he leapt out friom behind a bush onto the wee girl's back, clawed the h*ll out of it, wrapped himself around her stomach and clawed his way up to her throat before Dad managed to get him off. Understandably they decided they couldn't keep him after that, so he came to us.

In the shelter he went through the cycle that a lot of cats do when they first come in. First he was pretty good. Then he got very aggressive (even opened up Heather's vein when she put him back in his cage for the night). Then he got really depressed and wouldn't leave his cage.

For some reason I'm a sucker for complicated cats, so fell in love with the mad sod, and brought him home. The first 6-8 months involved rather a lot of blood loss (all mine), but he's gradually gotten better and better and doesn't bite me that often these days.

Our relationship is always "interesting" - in his first home he grew up with dogs, and his last person told me she thinks he thinks he is a dog. Which does explain a lot! He's the first cat I've ever had to try and dominate. Usually they say "Meow", I say "How high?", but with this boy I've had to try to convince him that I'm top dog-cat-person, cos if he thinks he's got the upper paw, he'll get quite aggressive. On the other hand, he utterly adores me, gets anxious if I'm out after dark, and will sit by the letter box (in the pouring rain) waiting for me to come home. Winter is a very hard time to be a Monty.

He's taken to sitting on my chest and thoroughly washing my face (ears, nose, neck), then curling up and purring like a mad thing. This was a little disconcerting the first time, as the lickey bits are very close to the bitey bits, but he's only bitten my nose once, and that was pretty early on.

So - you ready to see my handsome (mostly) green-eyed psycho-boy???

Sorry girls (and guys) - this gorgeous hunk of cat is taken. He's mine! All mine! And I wouldn't trade him for the world! :o)

Fem Cat Friday (on a Saturday)

Hi all. I've been inspired by the Famous Fives' Man Cat Monday (in turn inspired by this site) to start Fem Cat Friday and Man Cat Monday on CataBlog. Can't promise these will happen weekly, and in fact am off to a bad start by not posting Fem Cat Friday til today. However, the idea is that each week on a monday I'll feature one of the boys from the shelter currently available for adoption, and on fridays to do the same for one of the girls.

So - for CataBlog's inaugural Fem Cat Friday, I bring you the one, the only, Miss Moppett!

La Moppett has been with us since the 12th of December 2005, which I for one find unbelievable! She came to us when her owners moved to Australia, and for a long time had a real problem adjusting to the shelter. She got over stimulated very quickly when being patted and had a tendency to bite you if you weren't quick enough.

Usual conversation between visitor to the shelter and CPL Committee member on homing duty follows"

Visitor: Oh, what a lovely looking cat!

CPL: Be a bit caref...

Visitor: Ow!

Visitor moves on to look at other cats :o(

Over the last 6-8 mths, and especially since the move to our new shelter, La Moppett has chilled out considerably. She's much more affectionate, and able to tolerate affection for longer periods of time. She'll also tend to growl or move off when it gets too much rather than bite, which has been a rather pleasant change.

She's even started to try out laps! This is me and the marvellous Moppett at the old shelter (who, by the way, if I thought there was a snowball's chance in hell of her getting on with my Monty would be at home living with me!)

Our lovely Moppett simply needs someone who will dote on her and her alone, and give her the love and attention she so richly deserves. When she wants it of course!

You can check out some fabulous photos of Miss Moppett taken by Reb on flickr.com here.

In other news, our Andy has finally been adopted!

The lovely people who took such good care of our diabetic Kitty have moved to New Plymouth and Andy has recently flown up to join them. From the reports I've had via Heather, all is going brilliantly! Andy's following C. around, sleeping on the bed between her and R. and generally having a ball. About time we got a happy home for this wonderful lad. :o)

And Molly (now Dax) continues to make progress, 'tho has caused her new people a few heart attacks!:

"well... since we last spoke we have had not one, not two, not three, but FOUR suspected breakouts...

each time, we'd not see her for hours and hours... (14 hours in one case)... so we'd tear the place apart... top to bottom... and find nothing... and each time we'd be convinced that THIS TIME was different... THIS TIME she was really gone... and each time we'd end up being proved wrong... at first, she hid under the house, in the crawlspace... but we had to put a stop to that, as she preferred it down there to her litterbox, if you catch my drift... so i blocked off the door... oh boy, she did not like that... she howled a lot... eventually,
when this diplomacy failed, she managed to worry at a loose panel on the laundry wall until it gave way, giving her access under the house again... so we waited (a long while) until she came out again and blocked that off too, for similar reasons... now she has even fewer places to hide... but she is STILL managing it... damned if i know how... or where... not that it matters, i guess... as long as she's not filling up the crawlspace with cat poop, she can do as she pleases...

overall however, she is much calmer... (when we see her... which is mostly only in the evenings)... she sleeps on Anna's bed every night".

OK - that's if from me tonight. Shelter and homing duty tomorrow, so hopefully we'll see lots of visitors and home some of our amazing cats.

Try and catch you all monday night for Man Cat Monday.

Love it when I get to go visit!

Had two lovely visits today. First, for those of you who don't remember Whisky (or never met him). He belonged to an elderly person who died, and was very very timid when he came to us. I rehomed him 2 years ago this month to an elderly woman who absolutely adores him, and vice versa. However anytime anyone came to visit, he'd scarper as quick as possible. Well, they've both been adjusting since Christmas to a move to a retirement village. I'm sure you can imagine that for a cat as timid as Whisky, it was a bit of a shock to the system.

It's taken a few months, but the boy is now much much braver. He's still a bit wary of me (as I'm the horrible woman that takes him to the vet, or out to the cattery when required, and gives him his flea treatment), but he will now stay in the same room when people come to visit his mum!

Then called in to see Le Roy and Stumpy. I'm sure they still associate me with the shelter as they were pretty standoffish, tho Le Roy did deign to let me rub his ears. Stumpy pretty much didn't want to know me :o(

But as you can see from these, the boys are well relaxed and happy with their people!

And finally, don't forget folks, you've got til wednesday to place a bid for this wonderful fundraising quilt!

And you thought your cat was smart?

Well, OK - s/he no doubt is. But check this out:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=447527&in_page_id=1770&in_page_id=1770&expand=true

Thanks to Eleanor for sending me the link.

Molly the PolyDACTyl

Molly (who is now Dax, which is short for PolyDACTyl, as well as alluding to both Star Trek and my favourite obscure goth singer, Danielle Dax) is doing well. She spent her first day with us hiding with such prodigious talent that Anna and I were utterly convinced she had escaped. We immediately got down to the serious business of looking everywhere we could think of and worrying ourselves ill, only to have her saunter out around 6, looking for food. At that moment, I considered naming her Steve McQueen, but decided that would be too much like tempting fate.

She's improved markedly since then, but is still very very nervous, jumping at any sudden movement or strange sound. She's not so nervous however, that she won't jump on anything sitting still (or even moving slowly) and headbutt it until it pats her. She's eating like a horse, has played Cat Tetris with every nook and cranny of the house, and is sleeping soundly on Anna's bed every night. All in all, she's settling in well, and we're very happy with her. She has thumbs (seriously, she can pick up and grip her cat toys if they're the right
shape), she has a great "kill all humans" stare, and she's as smart as a whip. Evolution in action, my friends. Fortunately for the continued ascendancy of the human race, she's neutered."

Fundraising quilt for auction on TradeMe

As you can probably imagine, building the new shelter hasn't been cheap, so the Cats Protection League is looking a ways to rebuild our finances.

Lynn (adoptive mother of wee Gemma) has made this fabulous hand made 1.10 meter square quilt to help us raise funds. We thought we'd try auctioning it on TradeMe rather than the usual stall raffle to see if we can get a better price for it.

So if you'd like a gorgeous quilt, and like to help the Cats Protection League, why not check out this auction http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=95671818&ed=true and place your bid now?

Blackie the jet setter

Hi again everyone. Heather's sent through another update on our lovely Blackie, now happily ensconced in his new home in Germany!

"Enclosed some pictures from Blacky in his new home, my sister made this pictures. I hope you can open this files. In the third picture I play with Blacky and he loves this very much.

Next week we want to go to our veterinarian to introduce Blacky and to ask him, when we can try to let him go outside in our garden. We have wonderful spring-weather, but we must be sure, that Blacky don't go away. So we are looking forward, what the veterinarian says.

Please say many greetings to Carol, your president. I will write her in the next day and send her another pictures from Blacky from my own camera.

Kind regards from Germany
Anneliese"

And our Bobbi, now renamed Caesar is also doing just brilliantly in his new home:

"This is a picture taken of Caesar yesterday showing he is a lapcat and he doesn't mind who. This was first time our friends and their preschoolers had come over since we got Caesar. He stayed awhile inside lying under the dinning chairs just out of accessability of a crawling 1year old. He went away and came back once baby was in bed and promptly sat our friends lap! He's been sitting on our laps tonight for past few hours.

Both cats slept on same bed all afternoon. He's vocalising around meal times and when first person comes home when house has been empty. He is continually showing he's perfect for our household and well settled and happy. Cleo still gives him the odd growl but he submits to her which is good but he defends their territory where as she tends to back away. So we laugh at the fact he does the mucho thing and defends the property but she is queen on the property and he is the softy."

Let's hear it for Easter!

Except for the fact that everyone in Wellington seems to have gone away, so no homings on Saturday or Sunday this week.

Molly did go to her new home on friday night tho. We had a bit of a panic when I got a call on Saturday to say they thought she'd somehow managed a breakout, but turned out she had just gotten a fright and was hiding. So, so far, so good there. And no signs of any allergies! Looks like in that case it was white Meowff fur that was the problem.

And Meri - in answer to your question, Meowff/Daisy is doing just brilliantly! She's got the dog totally terrified of her (as it should be), and her new family thoroughly adore her. If ever a cat should belong to a vet, it's that little girl. Her eyes are looking great, and she's an extremely happy, very well loved cat. I'll see if I can get some new photos of her to post soon.

The cats are settling in really well to the new shelter, with only one or two exceptions. Poor Madeline is pretty freaked and keeps taking herself into any vacant cage she can find. The rest of them are loving the extra space and sun.

Sparky is doing great in his foster home. He's put on weight, has learnt all about the great outdoors, and is playing with the other cats.

Tammy is also settling well into her new home - seems totally relaxed and comfortable in the new surroundings. Ahi is taking a little more time, but that's to be expected with a lad that shy. He's making good progress tho.

And last but certainly not least, an update on Le Roy and Bryan (Stumpy):

"We have had 3 lots of visitors in the last 2 months, and so alot of new people but the boys have coped really well, Leroy spat his dummy a bit at first and did lots of hiding away and jumping when anyone moved, but Stumpy was a royal tart even showing his belly to some and he talked to everyone, that boy is so vocal, however Leroy must have figured that he was missing out, and became alot braver and more interactive as time went on, he's such a lovely gentle boy, not to mention handsome.... : ) Just maybe they figured out that no one will hurt them here (except for those nasty vet visits of course!)

Their personalities have really come out now, and they are so different, still very boisterous at night, have let Leroy out a couple of times, but have to pick our moments ,as he usually seems to opt for the long haul outing, so a case of being able to leave the garage door open for him little sod, still got no idea where he goes.... but clearly he knows how to get back ok, Stumpy never goes out for all that long,he is a really lazy boy, he reminds me alot of Garfield I have to say.

Well thats about it for now, let us know when and if you have time for a visit, and will have to send you some more piccies, (we have loads, we cant help it!!)"