Tag Archives: Siamese

Volunteering Again

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The SPCA announced recently that they were allowing the volunteers to come back. I took that opportunity to trade my 4-7 shift on Thursdays for a 1-4 shift on Fridays. This means that I will be volunteering at the same time I am on call at the Red Cross but I have gone on two calls in six months so I thoght it would be no problem.

When I walked into the cat room I noticed that all of the pods were empty, at least all that I could see.

I thought maybe they moved the cats and didn’t tell me but as I continued I saw a pod with four cats in it. I was pleasantly surprised to find seven of the eight cat pods empty. The next room has the smaller cages where cats are kept in isolation, either because they are recovering from surgery, they have a special diet, or the don’t play well with others.

There were four cats in that room, including a very friendly black cat named Sassy who had a skin condition from a flea allergy. I took her photo but it is too blurry to post.

There were also six kittens in the room in three separate cages, probably separated by litter. There were two black kittens that I failed to get pictures of. There was also a single gold and white kitten who was curious but shy.

Then there was three kittens together in one cage, a ginger boy and two females including one tabby and one tortie.

The ginger kitten was the most outgoing of the three and would come down from the shelf for attention.

The four cats inside the pod were pretty shy except for a white and gold cat named Max.

When Max wasn’t busy catching some rays he was busy looking for attention

While I was there, a man and his two boys came in shortly before a woman. All of them decided they wanted to adopt the ginger kitten but the woman recognized that the man was first and let him take the kitten. Perhaps if he didn’t have two young boys who wanted the kitten, he might have let her have him. Unfortunately, the woman left without a cat.

Another woman, who had been in earlier, decided to adopt an eight year old male Siamese cat named Sage. He was hiding under their homemade cat tree so I had to pull him out and put him in a carrier. I’m sure he wasn’t happy about it then but today he is living the good life.

While I was there I spoke with someone about doing animal transports. It is an on call position that I know almost nothing about yet but she did ask if I would be comfortable handling wildlife and mentioned birds of prey and a few others that I don’t remember. My guess is these are animals that are injured and need medical attention but I don’t know. I have an appointment to meet with her at 7:00 am this morning where I will learn more about the job. I think it will be interesting.

Floki’s Fourth Birthday

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Yesterday our little boy turned four and we missed it because I made a stupid mistake. We actually don’t know his exact birthday but I was told that Floki and his brother were left in a carrier at Walmart on Memorial day and they were about six weeks old at the time so I did the math and came up with April 18th. I then had Alexa remind me of that date but for some reason thought Saturday was the 16th and I had made a mistake. It reminds me of the old joke, “I thought I was wrong once but I was mistaken.” This time being wrong about being wrong was a mistake.

I’m four years old? What is that in dog years?

In either case, my wife wanted to celebrate “early” with a cake. I told her it would have to be a tuna cake but she din’t like that idea but she wanted me to pick up some tuna for him as a treat. Since I had to get cat food anyway, I looked for something special and found something called Churu that were squeeze tubes of different flavors of treats. I chose the chicken recipe.

I opened two of the four tubes and squirted it on paper plates for the cats. They all loved it.

Rose decided since it was Floki’s birthday I should open up the other two packages and give that to them too. I did and they gobbled that up as eagerly as the first two. Hopefully, next year I will get the date right.

If you want to read more about Floki’s early days, check out the links below.

We Came, We Saw, We Left With No Kitten

Meet Floki, Our Newest Addition

Meet Floki, Part 2

Growing Cat Grass

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At the end of March I was in my least favorite store that may or may not start with a “W.” Anyway, I noticed a package of cat grass as I was heading toward the register and I thought it was something I should get for the cats.

My past experience with cat grass has not been good, mostly because the cats would tip it over and make a big mess. It also was expensive and wouldn’t last long. My plan this time was to buy a pot that would be the right size and difficult to tip over. I found that in the same store as well as a small bag of potting soil. I don’t remember what I paid but I think it was all under $20.

Six days after planting the seeds the grass was coming up quite nicely.

Two days later Chris was outside and he stumbled upon the cat grass. I let him eat a little but encouraged him to leave after a minute or two because the grass wasn’t ready yet.

Three days later I thought it was long enough to bring it in the house.

All the cats seemed to enjoy the grass, especially Chris and Frankie. I left it out for them for a few hours and then brought it back outside. After a few days I brought it inside for a few more hours and then put it back outside again. I think I will repeat that cycle about twice a week and see how long this lasts. Hopefully I can keep it indefinitely.

What do you think? Have you had success with cat grass?

Floki Versus the Turbo Scratcher

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I think the one cat toy in our house that has really stood the test of time is the Turbo Scratcher. The one we have now is one of two that we bought well over fifteen years ago (I don’t know what happened to the other one). It has not only lasted for years, it has also remained one of the most played with toys in the house.

Not all of our cats have been interested in it. Some have ignored it completely while others played with it occasionally, but there has always been one cat that goes back to it again and again. When Chris was young, he was the one. Then it was Puck and now Floki loves the Turbo Scratcher.

I often hear the sound of Floki playing with it but I never have a camera around. When I do go and get my camera or phone, as soon as I come back he is done playing. I was lucky to get the above video before Christmas and then promply forgot I had it until now.

Do you have any pet toys that have stood the test of time? I would love to hear about them.