Mr Monochrome Finds New Home

Mr Monochrome (or McLeod as he is now known) is settling into his new home very well. He is especially fond of his new brother Cruze. Below is a picture of them on McLeods first night there.

I am promised some photo updates soon.

New Cats in Mt Roskill

ALA has been asked to help out with a small cat colony in Mt Roskill. The colony is currently living in someones back yard and once was just one cat but due to the female cat not being desexed this one cat has now turned into seven cats. Surprisingly she had two litters this kitten season with two kittens being six months old and four being about five weeks old.

The four young kittens have not been seen for a weeks or so. The property owner is asking his neighbours if they have seen them but sadly they may have perished in the recent cold wether. Fortunatley for the other three cats the property owners are happy to keep them they just need help de-sexing the cats. If the young kittens are still alive they will be easy to catch and rehome as they are still very tamable.

Vet and Rehoming Update

Hi All,

Last night Mr Monochrome went to his new home. It was strange because he is usually really out going and bouncy but when I dropped him off at his new home he was really shy and did not really do anything. The young boy who he is now living with, Cruze, loves him and was very good with him. I have a very cute picture of them together which I will post soon.

Now for the vet updates; and this time it is all good news (expect for for our bank balance but who cares about that).

Moose successfully had all her teeth out yesterday :) and we are collecting her today. I can't wiat to see what she is like.

And little Splotches too is doing well. The vet said that the toxins in her body have come down significantly and she is eating on her own now. She will stay at the vets until Saturday when she can come home. The vet said that she will need to be administered fuilds every few days under the skin so that will be a learning curve for us but if will help her it will be find.

I will see Splotches today when I collect Moose so I will update you on how she is going tonight.

Love Jasmine

Wonderful Splotches

Things are sadly not looking good for Splotches. Three weeks ago Splotch went to the vet and was diagnosed with Chronic Renal Failure. This basically means that her kidneys are not functioning very well at all and this will eventually lead to her body becoming toxic at which point she will become very unwell. She was given two types of medicine and a special diet to manage this problem. We decided that we would keep her rather than rehoming her as our girl Misty (below) is 14 years old and she also has Renal Failure so we know how to manage it. Though Misty’s is not yet as bad as we got on to it much earlier.

Over the last two days Splotches has not really been eating or doing anything other than sleeping. We took her to the vet last night and he said that things were not looking very well. She stayed at the vet hospital over night and was given fluids today to de-toxify her body. The vet also carried out blood test which confirmed that the toxins in her body have been building up. This has been making her feel sick and made her not want to eat. As a result she has lost nearly 600grams since her vet visit just three weeks ago.

She will stay in the vet hospital for a few days on fluids to see if that can de-toxify her body and stabilize her. If this does not work she will not have long with us.

Moose and Her Teeth

Moose has now been to the vet twice and has been diagnosed with gingivitis. As I type she is sleeping at the vets and in the morning will be tested for kidney function and FIV as well as a general blood test. On Thursday she will have ALL of her teeth removed. The vet assures me that she will still be able to eat.

She really is such a lovely girl with a very friendly nature despite being a pain because of her teeth. Over the last day or so she has been sleeping more than normal and has not really been eating so now is definitely time for her dental work. After that she should be back to normal.

Meet Herbert the Hedgehog

Last week Kelsie and Brendan found a little hedgehog on the side of the road who did not seem quite right so they bought him home. He came known as Herbert and he turned out to be a little boy.

We quickly read our little Hedgehog Rescue book and fixed him a bed with a hot water bottle and towel as was recommended. We also gave him lots of water and cat food.

He ate lots of food and then had a long nap. The next day he seemed better and was running around the room when we let him out to play however after this he seemed to go into a deep sleep that he never came out of. Unfortunately we found him dead the following morning in his bed.

It was very sad that he did not make it but we are happy we could give him a feed, warm bed and love in his final days.

Backyard Catz: Scratches, Homes and Collars

The Grey Lynn cats are all fixed now bar one tortoiseshell female (below) who still continues to evade us.

The week before last we had Bumblebee (below) at home after being desexed. She is very very cute and friendly; we at least I think so. Kelsie would disagree; she did not find Bumblebee that nice after she tried to scratch her, but with me she was fine.

Over the last week I have been re-trapping three of the cats (Tangelo, Pumpkin and Mr Monochrome Senior) because I put collars on them after they were desexed and these were proving problematic. Many colony cats have their left ear tipped (meaning the vet takes a small clip out of the ear) so that they can be identified as having been de-sexed but I thought that this would be better achieved with collars however I now know why this is not actually a good idea. Collars are all well and good on cats who you know and that you can easily pick up should the collar need to be loosened or the cats get stuck on it.

Collars on cats who are not that used to being handled is a different matter entirely. Mr Monochrome Senior somehow got his caught around his stomach and both Tangelo and Pumpkin needed to have theirs loosened. I caught Tangelo by hand but she scratched the shit out of my arm and I had to let her go.

A few days later I went back with the trap and caught Mr Monochrome Senior and Pumpkin and sorted them out. Tangelo however was too smart for me and I will have to try her again this week. Needless to say the collars have been permanently removed.

It is interesting how I have found all the cats handleable when they were at home however as soon as they are returned to outside they revert back to being a bit more ‘wild’.

Good news on the rehoming front though; Mr Monochrome has found a home with a lovely family in West Auckland and he will be going there this week and Mr Monochrome Senior has won over the hearts of Rosilina and her family and he will stay with them when the others have been rehomed.

If anyone reading this is interested in rehoming one of these cats please see our Animal Adoption Page.