Shelter News

We pulled up to the shelter for our weekly shift of cleaning and loving on everyone to see someone using our driveway to turn around, so I had to wait a moment to park. That was a good thing, because it gave me time to see Clint in the front window. Now I wouldn't have to go looking for him in the big room, as I don't leave the shelter without putting my eyes on every cat, and he hides.

The first thing I noticed was a note over our sign in sheet that said, as near as I could read the scribble, that there were someone's kittens in the bathroom. We could also tell someone else was in the building, and in fact Penny was in the bathroom with her kittens.

The second thing I noticed was a very annoying hum. I got Bigger Girl, who can hear a fly land on a wall in the next room, to track it down to one of the ceiling fans, turned on but not rotating. I climbed up the handy step stool we keep so we can reach the top shelves of the rooms and shut it off, end of annoying hum.

Penny and I talked a moment. She works only a 3 minute drive up the road, and so leaves her just weaned kittens in the bathroom at the shelter during the day, stopping by to feed them wet food and give them fresh water, then going back to work. She was taking them home for the evening.

Apparently she weans on to canned food. She wanted tips on getting them on dry. They are good kittens, falling asleep in the car and only waking when they get home, and volubly telling her they are big kitties and don't need a bottle any more, thank you. I told her to mix the wet and dry, mostly wet at first, and change the proportions over a couple of weeks. I also pointed her to buying Baby Cat, a kibble for just weaned babies that is very, very small.

Penny also apparently has a German shepherd that thinks it is a mama cat! It cleans the kittens for her. Good thing, because the adult cats in the house either hiss at them, or give her very clear "Don't expect me to take care of them" looks.

When I went in the bathroom after Penny left, I saw the signs of kitten occupancy, including a small litter box, a heating pad, and the extension cord/surge protector for the heating pad still plugged in and the business end of it in the sink. Well, heaven knows that's not dangerous!

There was so much to deal with on this particular night, it took us almost twice as long to do everything.

Miss W called to talk to me about a few things, including asking me to shut down the computer and turn it back on. Zen computer repair. If you can't figure out what is wrong, turn it off, let it get over itself for a few minutes, turn it back on. After all, every IT problem is an on/off problem. Something, hardware or software, won't come on, or won't go off.

So I went in with Frieda, and found her very happily being petted by Little Girl. She was doing well, and so I turned off the computer and left to do the other work.

I headed in to look for the 5 in the big room. I had already seen Clint through the window, as noted, so I only had to find Prissy, Grady, Candy, and Ginnie. I found them all, and also found cat hack, not on the concrete floor, of course, but on the only piece of fabric in the entire huge room. Natch. Also, it was the typical "I ate this really really fast and then tossed it right away so I could go scarf more" variety of undigested food. Nutty animals, if they wouldn't pig out like that, they could hold the stuff down.

I also had to go back in that room to put the lid on the food that someone left off, and turn out the lights. I sneaked out from there back into the office, remembered to turn the computer back on, and shut the office lights. We leave the bathroom light on for Frieda, but shut the overhead so she can sleep.

Then there was the room with Squirt, Heathcliff, and Dora. There was blood on the floor, which is our main concern. All 3 hide on the shelves or in the kitty cube in their room, and no one has been able to figure out who bled and why. Also, there is concern about whether or not they are eating right now, so some kind person had given them canned food. On a shelf. Which they had spilled all over the litter box below the shelf, as well as on the floor. Thanks, friends.

Little Girl swept the floor in there after I got the wet food up, and then I cleaned the dried blood. I also fed them. Miss W had also asked me to get some Purina Indoor Delights someone had donated, and give them that with the wet food, to see if we could determine whether they are, in fact, even eating. The bag had a hole already chewed in it. Thank you, Baby.

Ah, Miss Baby. She is still hissing and spitting and trying to tear the arm off of anyone who comes too close. She cannot be put in a cage or room, you can't clean the cage and we can't spare her a room to herself for as long as it is going to take to calm her down. Heaven only knows what those adopters did to her to make her this way. She has her bowls and box in the kitchen, and is allowed to just stay out. She spends most of her time hiding under things, growling.

She had indeed chewed a hole in the bag, so I put that bag, and another I didn't want her to chew, into an unused carrier, with a note. This was after I poured some from the bag into a large bowl for the room. I put a note on it, and a note on the door of that room as well, noting how to feed and where the food was and why.

By this time the children were clipping through the rooms, so I started medicating. Piper and Lulu are both on Tresaderm in their ears. I insisted on looking at Nacho, who politely posed so I could see his neck. No improvement, but he isn't any worse, and no one has figured out how to take care of that sore spot anyway. If it gets a bit better, he scratches it back. Maybe he just likes it that way, who knows.

Then there was Sebastian. He and Cali are still there, and he is being treated. Diuretics and an antibiotic, and he seems happy and ate and purred. I hope he gets better, and I'm glad they decided to at least try.

Dusty and Angel are both well, neither is having eye problems right now. Mamie, Maggie, and Maisie, the M room, are no longer sneezing at all, so no quarantine. JuJu still doesn't like much at all, but is not hissing as much. Everyone else, Muffin, Sofia, Roxanne, Felix, Devon, Bowie, Corrie, Sandy, and Gidget are all happy and healthy.

Candy is there, also, but has been adopted, and will be picked up in a few days.

By the time I had medicated and cleaned and done the head count, I was even too tired to fuss at the people who didn't recycle the cat food tins. I got to a few, but didn't sweat the ones I missed. I did note that someone has finally marked the recycle bin outside to distinguish it more easily from the garbage can. I'm glad, I used to take the time to check and make sure I had them right, but apparently others didn't, and now they can tell.

Best news of the week: Rory has a home! Our golden boy, rescued from the jaws of a Greyhound, is now called Stretch(!) and has a mom with no other pets to distract her from giving him the quiet attention he needs. She says he is adapting well, and even let himself be brought out to greet some of her friends. He may always be a bit shy, but he will know he is loved.


Today is:

Angelitos Visit -- Chan Kom, Mexico (visit from the spirits of children who have died)

Bodybuilder's Day

Buy-A-Doughnut Day

Create a Great Funeral Day

Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repressions -- most former Soviet Republics

Great Pumpkin Carve

Look in the Back of Your Refrigerator Day (And hope the old hamburger isn't grazing on the moldy salad.)

Mischief Night, a/k/a Goosey Night, Devil's Night, Cabbage Night -- US

National Basketball Coaches Day

National Candy Corn Day

St. Dorothy of Montau's Day

The Rhyne Toll -- Chetwode Manor, UK (through Nov 7) -- the Lord of the Manor may tax any cattle he finds on his Liberty (free pasture) on these days


Birthdays Today:

Gavin Rossdale, 1967
Diego Armando Maradona, 1960
Harry Hamlin, 1951
Henry Winkler, 1945
Grace Slick, 1939
Claude Lelouch, 1937
Robert Caro, 1935
Louis Malle, 1932
Ruth Gordon, 1896
Charles Atlas, 1893
Ezra Pound, 1885
Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1821
John Adams, 1735


Today in History:

Antioch surrenders to Rashidun Caliphate and his Muslim forces after the Battle of the Iron Bridge, 637
End of the 8th Crusade, 1270
King Henry VII, Tudor, crowned, 1485
Queen Isabella bans violence against Indians, 1503
The first Methodist church in the US is initiated (Wesley Chapel, NYC), 1768
Dr. Richard Gatling patents the machine gun, 1862
Founding of Helena, Montana (capital city), 1864
John Willis Menard, of Louisiana, becomes the first black elected to the US Congress (by special election, he was challenged by the loser, but was allowed to address Congress from the lectern), 1868
Daniel Cooper patents the time clock, 1894
Martha Hughes Cannon of Utah becomes the first woman US Senator, 1896
The first US Automobile Show opens in Madison Square Garden, NYC, 1900
Czar Nicholas II of Russia grants Russia's first constitution, creating a legislative assembly, 1905
Benito Mussolini is made Prime Minister of Italy, 1922
John Logie Baird creates Britain's first television transmitter, 1925
Orson Welles broadcasts his radio play of H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds, causing anxiety in some of the audience in the United States, 1938
Anne Frank and sister Margot Frank are deported from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, 1944
Jackie Robinson of the Kansas City Monarchs signs a contract for the Brooklyn Dodgers to break the baseball color barrier, 1945
Michael Woodruff performs the first successful kidney transplant in the United Kingdom at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, 1960
The Soviet Union detonates the hydrogen bomb Tsar Bomba over Novaya Zemlya; at 58 megatons of yield, it is still the largest explosive device ever detonated, nuclear or otherwise, 1961
The Bosporus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey is completed, connecting the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosporus for the first time, 1973
The Rumble in the Jungle boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman takes place in Kinshasa, Zaire, 1974
Prince Juan Carlos becomes Spain's acting head of state, taking over for the country's ailing dictator, Gen. Francisco Franco, 1975
In Japan, NEC releases the first 16-bit home entertainment system, the TurboGrafx-16, known as PC Engine, 1987
Quebec sovereignists narrowly lose a referendum for a mandate to negotiate independence from Canada (vote is 50.6% to 49.4%), 1995
The last Multics Multiplexed Information and Computing Service) early time-sharing operating system is shut down at the Canadian Department of National Defense in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, 2000