CAT RESCUE: TRAVELS WITH CATS

Thursday, 1 October 2009

Spent a lot of time on the road this week. Today I've been into the hinterland of County Durham, up on the moors to the village of Burnhope where the deep green landscape is overshadowed, rather wonderfully, by those huge electricity-generating windmills. I'd have loved to have taken a shot of them towering over trees but I couldn't find a place to park without blocking the road so the one above will have to do.

I was there to deliver two cats (not shown) from Carol's and two kittens to Tracy's cattery (of which the black and white cat is a temporary resident) which doubles as a cat rescue. Earlier I'd picked up the kittens from their owner along with their mother which I then took to Vets4Pets for neutering (the mother, not the kittens). After that it was over to Carol's to pick up the other two cats and off on the road. I'd been told the roads were busy but apart from the minor slow crossing of Durham City, it was an easy relaxed drive.

It's been a fairly busy week for cats. On Monday I took one to be neutered and another to have her teeth checked. On Tuesday I took the same cat to have her teeth out. Then it was over to Hetton, a village on the very outskirts of the city several miles away to check out a skinny stray which was being fed by a few neighbours over the course of a few weeks. It was a calico cat,  nervous but friendly, skinny, and old, and I immediately took it to Carol's.  She reckons it's just old and underfed but I'm taking it to be checked out on Monday along with today's neutered cat and the cat I'd dropped to have teeth removed which ended up having all of them taken out.

Yesterday catless but then that was the Back on the Map day (see previous entry).

Tomorrow is no cats and none until Monday. Except for Lulu the kitten (see three earlier entries).

Lulu continues to make progress, albeit very slow progress. She rarely craps on the newspaper now, most of it going in the litter box and, while still loose, it's no longer loose. She is lively and is obviously frustrated being stuck on her own in one room for most of the time. Given the chance, she'll shoot upstairs with a speed surprising for such a small kitten. But most of the time when I'm with her she'll spend it on my chest or jumping around me. I no longer think she has anything infectious though I do believe she's been weakened by her poor start in life. I'm hoping that eventually our friend June will take her to be a companion to Grace and where she'll be safe as an indoor cat. But we'll see.