Wee wars

If you've read my previous posts you'll probably know that Bertie has struggled to settle in.

Bertie in his room

He gets on with the humans in the house and he tolerates most of the cats, but he really doesn't seem to like Billy. 

Billy posing

I guess, from his point of view, Billy is the only male likely to challenge him.  George and Harry are over ten now and are quite happy, eating, sleeping and having the odd stroll outside.  Bertie does all of that in addition to his 'patrols'.  He can often be heard (all those extra claws on laminate floors) wandering through from the 'cat room', past the kitchen and over to the cat flap.  I'm not sure if he's defending the house from outsiders or he's just taking an innocent look out.  Billy, who is actually a timid cat, no longer comes in through the cat flap and won't come in the front door either, if Bertie is in view.

In reality it's the girls who rule in this house, but maybe Bertie isn't tough enough to take them on...

Princess Bella rules

Joking aside the situation is bringing out behaviour I'd rather not have and it shows me that two of my cats aren't happy.  Bertie has really gone after Billy on a few occasions and we've had to separate them. When this happens it's a while before Billy comes out of hiding.

We've also got a wee problem, literally. Bertie seems to leave me little patches and puddles and Billy has responded by spraying :(.

We have found wee in, on, or against a variety of places/items; my sons new PC tower, the front door, the back door, the living room door, the garage door, the cat tree, my laundry basket, my daughters laundry basket, the living room fire, the dining room cupboard, corners of various rooms, the bath mat, the downstairs toilet floor, my husbands sock drawer, the tumble dryer, my daughters art work....oh and my handbag.

Not only is it smelly, its damaging. 

I did a bit of online research and many sites suggest a trip to the vets, the idea being that your cat could have an illness which makes them urinate outside the litter tray.  I don't think this is the case for us, I know Bertie uses the trays.  To me this is all about marking to feel comfortable in the house.

During my 'travels' I came across a fab site in the US A house full of Cats  They basically run a sanctuary in their home and have multiple cats.

They give some great advice on multiple cat households and I was particularly interested in the Bach Flower remedies they go through. I'm currently giving Beech and Larch a try in the water bowls.  I'm also trying a plug in Feliway  in the living room.

I've also been trialing a number of cat litters to see if there are any preferences for owners or cats.  I'll be posting my findings shortly.

AWOL?

Oh my, has it really been nearly a month since I blogged?

I have a number of excuses reasons for having been a little AWOL recently.

Firstly preparing for, and exhibiting my art work at,  Derbyshire Open Arts.  This year I took inspiration from my foster family and created a series of water colour illustrations.  I had a lot of fun planning, sketching and painting them.  I enjoyed talking to visitors about the stories behind them too.  I'm going to get my thinking cap on and create an original for the Sheffield Cats Shelter to use in a future raffle, so watch this space!

Here's my display at the event:-

Curious Cat Creative - exhibiting

The second excuse is; getting to grips with being a cat mummy to 9.....yes you read that correctly, 9.....  

As you know, Wendy sadly returned to the shelter at the end of last month. Thankfully there was quickly a happy ending for her as she has now been adopted :)  

The kittens stayed with me and had their final injections and were also neutered.  I liked to let them spend as much time as possible in our main room.  This gave them the chance for supervised mixing with my cats and also the oportunity to play on the big cat tree.  It became evident that little William was not fond of The Tribe. He saw no problem with trying to warn off a cat ten times his size!!

In return, The Tribe were not overly keen on him.  In contrast the girls were facinated by the big cats, especially Billy.  They watched him and tried to creep up close to get a sniff!

The girls move in....

The third thing to impact on me recently was poor Billy.  First he went lame on his front paw.  He held it right up away from the floor and was obviously in serious discomfort.  A visit to the vets was in order.  She had a good feel around to check for broken bones, but there was nothing obvious.  The next stage was an x-ray to rule out a fracture completely.  The x-ray proved inconclusive.  He was given pain killers and perscribed cage rest.  Billy was not happy.

Caged up Billy - taunted by kittens....

After a week we were back at the vets, Billy was still lame. This time she spotted something new. It turned out that he must have been bitten at the top of his leg, By now the swelling was starting to show and the vet spotted the wound.  In a way this was good news as this would be quicker to heal than a potential strain.

Once the wound opened up and the new medication got to work, the swelling receded and he was able to start bearing weight again. Two weeks of keeping him inside was a bit depressing for him, so I'm very glad it didn't have to go on for much longer.

It wasn't long, however until he was giving me cause to worry again.  This time it was when he failed to come home one Friday evening.  I'd seen him in the garden during the afternoon, but when it came to feeding time later on, he was nowhere to be seen. He was still missing on Saturday morning and we starting asking neighbours to check their sheds etc. By Sunday morning there was still nothing. We were really worried and had slept really badly.  Thankfully, our upset was short lived as Billy appeared on the front windowsill, as if nothing had happened, on the Sunday afternoon. Phew.


That weekend was extra hard as the kittens were due to go back to the Shelter the following week.  We had pretty much made our mind up to try and keep Whisper, the smallest who we have renamed Millie. With all the upset over Billy, I just didn't want to give the kittens up at all.  Unfortunately, there was no way I could keep William.  He didn't like my cats and in return they didn't like having him around.  Sadly I returned William to the Shelter and filled out my adoption papers for Whisper and Willow.

So now William waits at the Shelter for his forever home

And so to the Shelter, for the last few times I've been working in Infirmary. One week Emma's kittens were in there temporarily while she was working. When it was their turn for cleaning they took full advantage of the freedom.

Let me out!!

Her previous kittens Grace and Gabrielle were quickly adopted and itwasn't long before little George found his home too.

In infirmary this week, I met Bob and Dave!  Fab names for cats!

Bob

Bob was constantly trying to get hold of me, my cloth or my gloves through his bars.  He managed on several occasions!  Once out of his compartment he was loving and affectionate, a lovely cat who shouldn't take long to find a home.

Dave

Dave looked like he'd had a rough time, he had stiches at the top of his leg and there was a definate thinning of his fur on his back.  The good news is that he is already pre-adopted so, as soon as he's ready, he'll be off to a new home.

Two pregnant white cats were brought in last week and have now given birth.  One of the cats had a rough time and sadly not all the kittens survived. I was amazed by the eyes!  One blue and one green, such a stunning cat!

Mums and their kittens

What a beauty!

This Saturday the shelter are holding one of their yard sales, so if you're able, why not go and have a look what is on offer?  I can highly recommend the cakes! 

Right I'm off, I've got to get a new banner for this page......

The great escape

With the help of the vets and encouraging the kittens to eat, my little foster family is back to good health.
I've found that different food containers can make a difference. When the kittens have been reluctant to eat I've used plates and even tried plastic place mats. At times Willow still wouldn't eat, until I put food on the back of my hand! Bizarre.

Princess Willow being served her food

When you open the door to the 'kitten room' it is now rather funny, but very exhausting! Mum has jumped over the hardboard barricade from the start, then William got in on the act. Now Whisper can also make it over and Willow is almost there. This makes opening and closing the door like a scene from a Benny Hill sketch. You catch one as another jumps and as you put one or two back, there is another waiting to take a chance. Nightmare? Yep. Hilarious? Most certainly!

Two local tom cats have been regular visitors to our garden.  They sit waiting patiently by the cat flap. One looks very sorry for himself, possibly a stray, the other looks well fed, but any wounds he has don't look like they get attention. We have no way of knowing if they have homes or not. We've called them 'Ginger' and Boe (As in 'face of' due to his big face...)  Boe has been very interested in waiting for Abbie to come out of the cat flap.

'Boe'

Ginger

Last weekend Abbie started behaving very oddly.  It seemed she was in season.  We've had her and her sister Bella for 18 months and they were thought to have been spayed.  However, with the howling and strange behaviour it seemed that maybe that wasn't the case.  Strange though that she hadn't shown this behaviour before.

Billy and Abbie holding paws...

I couldn't risk her going outside with two toms on the loose.  I spoke to the Vet and made an appointment for her to be spayed.  The Vets explained they would check for a scar first and would perform the op if there was nothing visible.  They were pretty sure from my description, that Abbie couldn't have been spayed.

In the meantime Bertie has turned guard dog.  He sat at the cat flap and grumbled warnings.  This last week his behaviour has definitely improved.  He now joins us in the living room a lot of the time and his problems with the other cats have been less of an issue. This is good news.

Bertie sits with Daddy :)

Abbie went in for her op on Thursday.  They did find a scar, but they felt it was in an unusual place so they opened her up to check.  She had been spayed so there is no chance of kittens.  They did say there could be something left that could produce hormones.  The only way to check this would be to open her fully all the way down her underside.  I don't want to put her through that.  It was bad enough seeing how wobbly she was when we got her home this time.  The Vet did say that having the toms around could have had an effect of her too.  She now has to stay in for 2 weeks, which she is very unhappy about.  Maybe this will be enough time for the tom cats to move on.

I've been trying to give my little foster family more chance to play.  This week they've been spending time in the living room and had great fun on our giant cat tree.  I love this tree and the cats do to.  I'll admit it is pretty huge and people point at it when they walk past my house, but who cares??

The Cat Tree :)

Here are a few photo's of them all having fun

Whisper

Willow

Whisper and William

Sisters

William

Mum watches her babies

Proper little monkeys!

Wendy went in for her op on Friday (its been a busy week!)  Whisper and Willow went along too so they could have their jabs.  In contrast to Abbie, Wendy was as bright as a button when I picked her back up.  You'd hardly know she'd had anything done.  The Vet suggested that the kittens shouldn't be feeding from her anymore as her nipples were sore again.  I think one of them must bite :(  With that advice, the only thing we could do was to put Wendy in the cat room and the kittens have stayed in their room.

Wendy will be going back to the Shelter tomorrow.  I think I will likely shed a tear or two.  She is an absolutely lovely cat, so affectionate.  I really hope she will get adopted quickly.

Here come the girls

It was a girl we needed, I was sure of it. A girl to get these boys organised and maybe one that would play with Billy to give George a break.  Billy was still so playful.  George could never keep his tail still and Billy couldn't help but pounce on it.

A young Billy goes 'Piggy fishing' when he's not chasing George's tail

My other half was less convinced telling me two cats were enough.  Even so we, my son and I, persuaded him to go to Thornberry Animal Sanctuary, 'just to look'.

Once there we went straight to the cattery, but it looked like there would be no suitable candidates for us. Almost ready to call it a day, I thought I'd just double check with the staff. It turned out they did have another girl we could look at, she was in the stable building with her sister. The problem was that they too were a pair and needed a home together.

We decided to go and meet them. As soon as the door opened a small black and white cat ran to us, tail up, rubbing round our legs and purring madly. Bella stole our hearts immediately. She was just so pretty and so affectionate. All we could see of her sister was a pair of bright orange eyes peering out from the back of a little fabric cat house.  You could almost hear Bella shouting 'pick me, ooh, pick me, pick me!' but her sister, Tinker, remained unmoved.

I looked at Andy, my son was asking if we could have them, I wanted them too. I could see Andy was finding saying no a struggle. Instead he suggested we have another walk around and think it over, so we did. We walked around and let him think it over.  I sent a text to my Daughter and told her all about the two girls.  Her response was 'If you don't bring them home, I'm not letting you in'. No doubt about her thoughts then! 

I knew we hadn't gone for two, but they would have each other for support when settling in. Bella was just lovely and Tinker just needed some tlc, which we were more than happy and capable of providing.
And so after 20 mins Andy's resolve finally crumbled and later that day the girls came home.

Abbie and Bella

Billy's room became the 'cat' room and the girls settled in quickly with toys and boxes to play with.  We were happy with the name Bella (My Daughters favourite films are Twilight) but Tinker didn't seem to fit.  A short discussion followed and we went for a name from a favourite TV show, this time Primeval, and so the two sisters became Bella and Abbie.  We gradually introduced them into the rest of the house.

At two years old they were still very playful.  They were a little hesitant around the boys for a while and regularly found the highest place in the house to look down from.

Bella and Abbie on top of a cupboard

 To begin with we started to call Bella Queen B as she definitely thought she was in charge.  Despite being very affectionate she wouldn't sit on your knee, unless you were sat on the toilet....Very odd.  She also had a strange habit of sitting upright, perfectly still and staring into space. 

Abbie on the other hand, went from a shy girl who spent a lot of time hiding, to a total sweetie who loves playing and lots of affection.  She is very often found on her Daddy's knee.

So did my plan work? Did the girls improve the relationship between Billy and George, well not straight away, but after a couple of months there was a definite change.  So much so I began thinking, maybe it would be nice to have another one...

Billy kitten

George had been an only child for some time, he loved to spend time with us. In or on the bed at night and on our knees whenever he could elsewhere in the house.

George sat on Daddy's knee

But we had to go to work and I began to wonder if he might be a little lonely.  I started to think that maybe he would like another cat for company.

Whilst I'd had a cat for some time by now I'd never had more than one at a time.  I have a number of friends who have a lot of experience with multi animal households, and so I asked out for advice on Facebook. Should I go boy or girl, cat or kitten?  I got lots of useful advice.

Within days a friend mentioned she knew of a black kitten looking for a home. I was told there was something special about this little boy and when I heard the kitten had extra toes, I was sold. I love black cats anyway, but if he had too many toes and George didn't have enough? Well that sounded perfectly balanced to me :)

And so Billy, the naughty kitten, arrived in May 2011 and we stared in wonder at his 'thumbs'

Billy's first look at his new home

I am very lucky that I have a back room in my house where Billy could become acquainted with his new home. It's really important, when introducing another animal, that you do it slowly. In 'Billy's' room he had toys, a scratch post, litter tray and his food.

Look at my thumbs!!

Kittens can be quite destructive at times. Most people need to leave the house at some point so its important that you don't leave them with your best furniture, designer curtains and priceless antiques.
They can also get into the smallest holes and gaps known to man. If you thought you didn't have any, you may find a new kitten will prove you wrong!  Under the sofa was a particular favourite for Billy.


He was full of energy and wanted to play all the time with George.  The older cat didn't dislike the kitten, but he did find him a bit annoying at times.  It was useful to be able to keep them apart for some of the day and give George a break.  We helped out too, playing with cats and kittens is always fun.

Billy and George share a rare moment together

As time went on there were days when I thought I'd made a big mistake.  Billy would chase George around, he just wanted to play.  Unfortunately, George didn't always want to and they often fell out over it.
Once Billy could go outside he was able to use up more energy and that helped their relationship.

Remember, if you have a kitten, you need to make sure they are vaccinated and neutered.   Follow your vets advice on how soon they can go outside.

The months passed and the two boys did bond, but Billy still wanted more from George than he wanted to give.

Spot the difference

By December that year I decided we needed a girl to come in and sort out the boys.