Last Shelter Clean Before Vacation

It was time to clean up one more time before leaving for vacation. We pulled up and saw Ginny, Katy, and Grady in the window. Zoey was nowhere to be seen because she has been adopted! Also Tabitha, Tigerlily, and Rusty, who is in a cage and will be picked up on the weekend.

So the big room has fewer cats in it than i can remember, only 6. When i walked in there, five of the 6 came up to greet me, Candy and Sofia coming up with the 3 jumping out of the window. As usual i had to look for Clint, but he wasn't hiding! He was out, although not in direct view of the door, and as i worked in the room he even climbed a box near me. He won't let me touch him yet, but he isn't running in terror any more.

Angel and Dustie are doing so well! Everyone is cleaning their room with water only, as per orders, and no more trouble with Angel's paws.

Across the hall, Baby needed a pill. My first thought was oh, no! How am i supposed to do that? She takes Pill Pockets, that's how! Saved from being clawed to death trying to dose a cat by her own taste buds.

The only problem i can see in that room is that Baby hisses so much that poor Cali hides in her cozy box all of the time. She has to be coaxed out for the petting she wants, and runs back in as soon as she can.

Cami also needed a pill, and i knew when i saw that and a ladder in her room that she wouldn't be so easy. She wasn't. She didn't like the pill pocket, and Emmie, her room mate, was nosing around wanting it. Finally i took the pill out, gave Emmie the pocket to distract her, and grabbed Cami before she could climb the shelves. She got her pill the usual way, grasp cat firmly, pry mouth open, drop in pill, push it far back, hold mouth shut, stroke throat. Hope she forgives me, it was the only way.

Snazzie, Bobbie and Iggy are doing quite well. Then on to the next room where there was a note on the door. Joey, Sadie, Marky, and Jimmy, all from a house that had 20 cats, many near feral, must have really spooked someone. The note had a cute drawing of a UFO and read, "When the mother ship comes, it'll stop right over this room! (These are not cats, I tell ya'!)."

Big Red tried to escape the room he shares with Rosie and Devon, he was so avid to be petted. Tyler did the same in his room, while placid Pitty Pat just waited for her turn. She knows it will come, and doesn't have to jump down from her comfy perch.

Portia, Gulliver, and Ellen are getting along well, too.

In the cages, Dooley and Donovan had just come back from surgery, and still had no food or water from being fasted beforehand. They were quite ravenous, and glad to get their rations. Clare escaped her cage, Frisco and Mitzi wanted to play like crazy, and Rusty, as noted earlier, is just biding his time.

Poor Lucky's litter box was empty, and no wonder, someone had turned the opening to the wall! Poor guy, i couldn't find where he had gone anywhere else, but there are a couple of spare boxes around, for when cats are let out to exercise. Let's hope he used one of those and no one finds a nasty surprise i missed. He ate his pill in the Pill Pocket as usual, and begged for his can of Fancy Feast.

As for Frieda, the office cat. she has been alone for a couple of days. Bob the Executive Director is moving his family to town now that he has found a permanent place for everyone to live. She was welcoming of petting because she has had much less company than usual.

So everyone is doing well as we get ready to travel. Lee already has a substitute for us for next week, and someone was looking at adopting Ming as we were cleaning. Miss W. called and told me that. If Gladys goes this weekend, none of our babies will have to be held at the shelter while we are gone. Sweet news indeed.


Today is:

Charter Day -- Pennsylvania, US

Charter Day -- St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada

Courageous Follower Day

Employee Appreciation Day

Feast of Ra in His Barge at Heliopolis -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar

Holy Experiment Day -- try something religious today

Hug a GI Day (A good idea any day! I always did have a soft spot for a guy in a uniform.)

International Scrapbooking Industry Day

Kaziukas Fair -- Vilnius, Lithuania, through the 6th (traditional craft fair dates back to the 17th century)

March Dryads' Festival -- Fairy Calendar

March Forth - Do Something Day

National Grammar Day

National Poundcake Day

National Salesperson Day

Shabbat Across America/Canada

St. Casmir's Day (patron of Lithuania and Poland)

Tavern Day

This Way To the Egress Day

Toy Soldier Day

World Day of Prayer -- a day for Informed Prayer and Prayerful Action


Anniversaries Today:

Vermont becomes the 14th US state, 1791


Birthdays Today:

Patsy Kensit, 1968
Jason Curtis Newsted, 1963
Patricia Heaton, 1958
Chris Squire, 1948
Paula Prentiss, 1938
Miriam Makeba, 1932
Charles Rudolph Walgreen, Jr., 1906
Knute Rockne, 1888
Garrett Morgan, 1877
Antonio Vivaldi, 1678
Prince Henry the Navigator, 1394


Today in History:

Croatian Duke Trpimir I issued a statute, a document with the first known written mention of the Croats name in Croatian sources, 852
Ramathibodi becomes King of Siam, 1351
Christopher Columbus arrives back in Lisbon, Portugal, from his first voyage, 1493
Hernan Cortez arrives in Mexico in search of Aztec gold, 1519
The Massachusetts Bay Colony is granted a royal charter, 1629
John Flamsteed is appointed the first Astronomer Royal of England, 1675
France is divided into 83 départements, which cut across the former provinces in an attempt to dislodge regional loyalties based on noble ownership of land, 1790
The first Jewish member of the US Congress, Israel Jacobs of Pennsylvania, takes office, 1791
A Constitutional Act is introduced by the British House of Commons in London which envisages the separation of Canada into Lower Canada (Quebec) and Upper Canada (Ontario), 1791
In the first ever peaceful transfer of power between elected leaders in modern times, John Adams is sworn in as President of the United States, succeeding George Washington, 1797
In the Castle Hills Rebellion, in New South Wales, Australia, Irish convicts (some of whom had been involved in Ireland’s Battle of Vinegar Hill in 1798) lead the colony’s only significant convict uprising, 1804
Carlo Alberto di Savoia signs the Statuto Albertino that will later represent the first constitution of the Regno d'Italia, 1848
The day without a US president -- Zachary Taylor refuses to be sworn in on the Sabbath (Sunday), so there is, technically, no president on this day, 1849
The longest bridge in the Great Britain, the Forth Bridge (railway) (1,710 ft) in Scotland is opened, 1890
The great fire of Shanghai damages over 1,000 buildings, 1894
Victor Berger of Wisconsin becomes the first socialist congressman in the U.S., 1911
Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first female member of the United States House of Representatives, 1917
Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia's renunciation of the throne is made public, and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia publicly issues his abdication manifesto, 1917
Frances Perkins becomes the United States Secretary of Labor, the first female member of the United States Cabinet, 1933
Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, announces the first successful kidney transplant, 1954
The S&P 500 stock market index is introduced, replacing the S&P 90, 1957
The United States Atomic Energy Commission announces that the first atomic power plant at McMurdo Station in Antarctica is in operation, 1962
The first Cray-1 supercomputer is shipped to the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico, 1976
Nationalist leader Robert Mugabe wins a sweeping election victory to become Zimbabwe's first black prime minister, 1980
Bertha Wilson is appointed the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court of Canada, 1983
The Soviet Vega 1 begins returning images of Comet Halley and the first images ever of its nucleus, 1986
The Supreme Court of the United States rules that federal laws banning on-the-job sexual harassment also apply when both parties are the same sex, 1998
No response is received in the final attempt to contact Pioneer 10 by the Deep Space Network, 2006
Approximately 30,000 voters take advantage of electronic voting in Estonia, the world's first nationwide voting where part of the votecasting is allowed in the form of remote electronic voting via the Internet, 2007