Sunday at Shelter 1-12-13

There are a number of kittens in desperate need of homes at the moment.

In Room 4 we have Alfie and Archie who need to go to a new home together.  They are 3-4 months old.

Alfie

Last time I met them it was when they had a mini break while their foster parents had a weekend away :) Here they are with their Mum Fluff when they visited us.

Fluff and her kittens

Fluff was originally left on a doorstep when she was heavily pregnant.  Thankfully the Shelter had room for her as the kittens were born the very next day. 

Dora and Daloris are around four months old and were born outside.   They are very close as you can see.

Dora & Daloris

Their Mum, Doris, has now been adopted.  You might remember she was the one who had a horrible collar injury.

Mum Doris

Next we have Badger, Panda and Squirrel. Their siblings Bear and Rabbit have already been adopted. These little cuties were born outside to a Mum who was a stray.  They are also around 4-5 months old.

Panda (photo Courtesy of the Shelter)

Badger  (photo Courtesy of the Shelter)

The next 'batch' of kittens were in Room 3.  I met these little ones when they originally arrived at the Shelter in September.  They were suffering terribly with flu and had the dirtiest ears I've ever seen!!  They were all named after American States and Cities.

Here they are on that first day.

 

Poorly eyes

Now they are all grown up and ready to find their forever homes.

Sadly Michigan's eyes were damaged by the Flu and will always look sore, even though they aren't.  He seems to be able to see without any problems, but it's likely he could suffer from more eye infections than a 'normal' cat.

 
Marmaduke has been pre-adopted and is just waiting for some dental treatment before he goes to his new home.  

Marmaduke

But the BIG story this week has to be Crystal.  At the Shelter for 8 long months, prospective adopters have come and gone, but sadly Crystal remained.  

 

Crystal

Until this week!  It seems Crystal bestowed her approval on a lovely couple and they felt she was the one for them too.  The staff will really miss Crystal as she'd become such a familiar sight 'holding court' in the yard,  waiting to share everyone's lunch.  Now in her new home, updates on Facebook seem to confirm this was a perfect match, and you can't get better than that :)

Sunday at the Shelter 13-10-13

Holding was full today, but thankfully Libby was with me to help out.

First out was Lily.  She was previously adopted through the Shelter, but sadly didn't settle in her new home.  It won't be long before she is back in one of the main rooms.  She's a lively little girl, who's happy for some attention.

Lilly

Ruby is currently the Star for 7 Days.  She's still waiting for the right person to come along

Ruby

Next is Tia who I first met a couple of weeks ago.  She had just been admitted and the team needed to get her to take thyroid medication.  

Tia when she was admitted

Trying to give tablets directly was far too stressful for her so medication was instead put into her food.  Unfortunately, the downside to this was the tablet coating broke down within the food rather than in her stomach.  This lead to her getting an 'instant hit' of medicine rather than a slow release as intended.

Given the situation it was decided the best solution was to have her thyroid removed.  The operation was carried out and she is now recovering well. An operation like this costs the Shelter around £300, but it means Tia will no longer need medication, so hopefully she will start to become much more settled.  It just shows you that, regardless of the cost, the Shelter always do what is needed.

Here she is today, enjoying a brush :)

Tia, showing her 'war' wounds

The next little Lady was Doris.  Regular readers may remember her story.  She was living outside with a terrible injury due to her leg being through her collar.  Here's a reminder of the damage.

Doris and her collar wound

Doris is slowly becoming more trusting and her sores are gradually healing. Unfortunately, due to the location of the wound, it can't be stitched so it could take months to heal fully. 

Doris having a little cuddle

Flash has lost his slight limp and after having treatment for ticks there shouldn't be anymore problems, which is good news as he was pre-adopted today!

Flash

Finally to Gordon who was also a stray and thought to be a sibling of Flash. However, once at the shelter, he was obviously bigger so it's likely he's from a previous litter.  He's a little shy, but very sweet.

Gordon

I took the opportunity to visit Maternity where Texas and her kittens, Ohio and Vegas, are doing really well.  

Texas

The kittens are now 7-8 weeks old and are fully weaned. 

Vegas

Ohio

This means that at last Texas can concentrate on feeding herself as Ohio has only just started eating solids!

Ohio playing in the room

Kittens Alice and Archie are also in here.  They were brought in after being found in a box on someone's drive.  They are such lovely little souls.  Look at Alice's little pink nose!

Alice

My final visit today was to see Marmaduke.  He was a stray suffering with very bad teeth and a terribly matted coat.  He's a lot happier now a number of teeth have been removed.  

Marmaduke

Unfortunately, his fur was so badly matted in places, no amount of brushing was going to make a difference.  Instead the worst area's were shaved.  He reminds me of a lion with that tail!  At least this way he has the chance to groom himself and hopefully it won't take too long for the fur to start growing back.

Lions tail?

Marmaduke is isolated from other cats as he has Calicivirus.  The means he is a flu carrier. In times of stress or if he's unwell, flu symptoms are likely to appear and can also be spread to non vaccinated cats.

Just another example of the Shelter doing all they can to help all cats who are admitted no matter what it takes.

Don't forget, if you want to support the fantastic work of the Shelter visit the Donate and Support page to find out how.

Sunday at the Shelter 08-09-2013

I was working in Infirmary again today.

I was part way through cleaning out Texas and her kittens when she started to feed, so I left her alone for a while and finished the rest off later.

Texas and her kittens

And here's a little video I took of them.  There was such a lot of purring going on, its a real shame the mic on my phone didn't pick it up!

While Texas took care of her babies I tackled a nice mess left behind by Lego and Cuebec who were moved into another room.

What a mucky mess!

The Shelter were expecting to admit 6 kittens during the afternoon, so I was to set up cages ready to receive them.  Normally, depending on their age, they would go into Holding or Maternity, but these 2 rooms are still trying to fully get rid of the last of the flu.

Next up was Amy, a 3 month old kitten.  The Shelter were desperate to find her a home as quickly as possible as she was now all on her own.  She's a lovely playful little girl.

Amy

Back to Texas and her babies, here are their close ups!

Texas

 Here are her 2 week old kittens.

If you read the blog last week you'll remember Percy who came in full of fleas.  He spent a couple of days in foster care gaining weight and then took a turn for the worse.

Percy in foster care

He was so poorly he ended up receiving IV fluids at the vets and staying there during the day.  He returned to his foster home with his little bandage.

Percy with his little bandage

Sadly he then started with diarrhoea and keeping his weight stable became a real issue.  At the moment he is back in the Vet Hospital receiving 24 hour care.  The Shelter regularly post updates on their Twitter page. You can follow them @CatsShelter


I met two people today of whom I'd heard lots of good things!  The first was Maggie of Friends of Ferals she is a real unsung hero.  This is the lady who gives up her own time to feed feral cats and trap strays and ferals.  She is so modest about what she does!  I'd love to go and spend some time out trapping or feeding with her so I can bring you the full story behind this amazing lady.

The second person I met today was Miki.  She's the lady you have to thank for all the amazing photos displayed by the Cats Shelter. I really don't know how she manages it!  Beautiful photos :)

Pixie - Photo by Miki

My morning was almost at a close.  Then the 6 expected kittens arrived, but they came with an unexpected problem.  They all had terrible cat flu.

The staff put their heads together to work out how to accommodate the new arrivals and not risk any other cats or rooms in the Shelter.  The kittens couldn't go in rooms with a current infection as there is a chance that the flu strain could be different.  This could result in re-infecting those cats almost over the flu.

The decision was made and everyone was moved out of infirmary.  The 6 kittens were brought down and I helped to get them settled.


To begin with all 6 needed health checks.  These are done for every cat or kitten when they first arrive at the shelter.  Their sex is checked, their weight is recorded and then it's eyes, ears, nose, mouth, fleas and visual check to see if there is anything to be concerned about.

Out of the 6 kittens 3 had their eyes stuck shut with puss, several had crusty noses and all had filthy ears as a result of mites.

Such sore eyes

Each kitten was given a name, these were Boston, Houston, Phoenix, Georgia, Dakota and Michigan.  It's possible they are from two litters as some weigh more than others.


We got them settled into two cages and encouraged them to eat.

Tucking into some food

It was so upsetting to see how sore their little eyes were.  Yet another reminder to make sure cats and kittens are vaccinated as soon as possible.  The ears were no better, cleaning these loosened huge chunks of dirt.

They will all have a visit to the vets tomorrow and I hope they will soon be looking and feeling much better.

Good news by the end of visiting time.  Little Amy left with her new family and so did Tilly, who'd been at the Shelter for a number of months.

The lovely pair, Charlie and Luke were pre- adopted and will go to their new home once they've had their second vaccination. 

Sunday at the Shelter 1-09-13

It was great to see how many volunteers were at the Shelter this morning, it meant jobs got completed much quicker.

As you can see, there are still some rooms struggling to fully overcome flu but, all in all, the situation is much improved.

Libby and I worked in Infirmary.  Here, 3 cats have been admitted under strict quarantine.

Mike is a sweet boy, but a little timid at the moment.  He was keen to be back in his little house as soon as possible.

Mike

We also met too adorable boys who came in together and really are best friends.  They enjoyed rubbing round our legs and each others faces!

Luke

Charlie

Later we were also lucky enough to meet Womble as she was being adopted.

Many cats have a story, but hers is one that sadly, the Shelter hear all the time. Womble was first seen at the Shelter when she was around 7 weeks old. She was suffering from such terrible diarrhoea it was actually dripping out of her. The cardboard box she was in was soaked through.

Malnourished and dehydrated she spent several days in the Vet hospital at a cost of approximately £100 per day for care and fluids. Medication costs are on top of this.

You may think that this poor mite had been found abandoned somewhere, but this wasn't the case.

Her owner bought her after seeing an ad on the internet. She was just 5 weeks old.  The Shelter were told she'd had diarrhoea from the start and no medical advice had been sought. 
The owner lived in rented accommodation and didn't have permission from the landlord to have a cat in the house.  Once the landlord became aware, the owner was told to 'get rid' of the kitten immediately.  

The Sheffield Cats Shelter were left to pick up the pieces for this poorly little girl.  As you can see from the photo below, the Vets, the Shelter Staff and her Foster mum rose to the challenge. :)

Womble in her foster home, fit and healthy

There are a number of lessons to learn from this.  It's frightening to see how many tiny kittens are advertised online.  When they are so young, they need to be with mum and if there is no mum, they need to be with someone who knows how to care for them.

Then there is the issue of tenancy agreements.  If you want to give a cat or kitten a home, check with your landlord first.  

Back to today:-  It got a little busy at visiting time, so I helped out showing a lovely lady around some of the available cats.  She had recently lost her previous cat to illness and was missing having a feline friend in her home.  I really enjoyed chatting to her and hopefully she'll be back with her husband to make a choice.

Whilst I was showing cats, Libby was helping Emma and Ray with 7 cats that had been given up for adoption.  All from the same home, they are a mix of ages, but are all beautiful.

This pretty girl is around 6 months old.

Here's Patrick, thought to be the Daddy to some of the others, he's very handsome and was balancing on top of the open window.

Patrick balancing on the open window

The others are young adults except for Percy who is about 4-5 weeks old.  Sadly he's malnourished, dehydrated, subdued and crawling with fleas. His gums and pads were so pale due to anaemia caused by his flea infestation.

Percy, covered in fleas

Emma had no option but to spray Percy to try and kill the fleas.  We then attempted to use a flea comb to remove as many as possible.  Left untreated, a serious flea infestation can kill. 

Libby holds Percy as Emma sprays on flea treatment

This was my first experience of such a bad infestation.  He was covered in them :(  Libby and I helped Emma and you can see an example of how many we managed to get off him below.

Dead fleas

Makes you itch doesn't it?   It was obvious that he was getting cold so despite him not yet being fully clear of fleas, Emma wanted to warm him up and dry his fur.  Bring on the hairdryer...

Unhappy with his hydration levels he was given some milk with a hydration solution mixed in. I had him sandwiched between my body and a heat pad for some time to try and get his little body warmer.

Percy sandwich

It did seem to make a difference, as you can see he did perk up.

Perky Percy

This evening he's at home with Emma and hopefully when he's flea free he'll be able to play with Spud and Ernest who are a similar age.

In the meantime, he'll be getting regular food and hydration through the night and will then be off to the Vets in the morning.

Fingers and paws crossed.