Foster Fail!

So, we were going to foster Rosie, a little cat from Romania in general poor health and with a damaged eye, weighing in, on her arrival at just 2.5 kg, at two and a half years old.

Well, when she started putting her arms round our necks, and wrapping herself like a living zibellino around necks and launching herself into our arms, that kind of went out of the window.  And generous Denise, who had been going to adopt her, suggested we might keep her if she helped with her upkeep.

And so we are seven... having already pledged on Gypsy, who will arrive later this month.  And Worrals has really taken Rosie under her wing and has been washing her and sitting beside her.  Mackie vewed the new arrival with some horror and declared that She Was So Small, She Might Get Lost In His Fur!  The others have, however, taken to Rosie in a quite unprecedented way, as though they had always known her.  And perhaps, as she has so many little ways that are a reminder of Pixie, like those neck hugs and big face smooches, they have been given some orders from Elsewhere...

Endings and Beginnings

Pebbles bless her is on her last legs, but her eyes still say she wants to live so we haven't carted her to the vet.  We had very extravagant teas of fish 'n' chips several times because all she would eat was battered cod or fishfingers - so fishfingers for lunch - but her appetite is now dwindled again.  She did however get a new lease of life when the new kitty arrived, one-eyed mackerel tabby Dora [originally Holly but she's A-Dora-ble as well as being very much Dora the Explorer] who has no respect for age but Pebbles has enjoyed watching her play - and has let Dora curl up beside her, and even joined Dora on a chair.

My dear kind friend Lucinda sent Pebbles a heated bed for her poor old bones and she has been willing to share it with little Dora, who arrived after travel in awful conditions, she was frozen and ravenous.  Not a cat transport we'll be using again. 

Dora is so friendly she gets on with all the others, though Worrals is not always enamoured - poor Worrals resents any new cat for not being Merlin I think.  Dora and Pixie are special friends and I will be posting pics of them wrestling and playing together. 

The only time Dora is still is when she's asleep which happens suddenly and in the most floppy positions.

Worrals does tolerate a stripy little sister as you can see...

Jogging along...and some real news

Pebbles having been told she can eat what she likes is taking this fairly literally and insisted for several days on eating nothing but Gourmet Gold salmon [I think it's marketed as Fancy Feast in America].  She has deigned to eat other strongly fishy things too, and has developed expensive tastes.  She likes what expensive tastes like.
She's lost some weight and her fur isn't in such good condition but she's enjoying pottering about from window to window to swear at the birds, then climb onto her daddy's chest for a sleep, and spend the night in his dressing gown. 

She has taken over some of my bales of fabric which she has emptied to sleep on for the early morning excitements of the view out of the side window.

Pixie meanwhile is still going from strength to strength and likes to perch on the mantelpiece over the range like an ornament.

Isn't she pretty next to the vase of  kniphofia and senecio! 

Biff has a new toy; I made the cats a nip mouse as a prototype before making more to sell in Anya's auction for various Romanian cats. Biff has been stoned ever since and has been ridiculously kittenish.

Worrals got very excited too, and I had to take the other mice out of the house to sew at the Knit and Natter club I go to so I didn't have any 'help'!

Well now the real news...
You may recall I featured 3 Romanian kittens in an earlier post; Norocel and Sonia have homes, and so does Holly.  Holly is coming to us.  We will be - until dear Pebbles throws in the towel - a 7 cat family. This is the latest picture we have been sent of her...

As Pixie runs Worrals and Rebel ragged, wanting to play with them, it is to be hoped that she and Holly will enjoy playing together...
Pixie is in the habit of pouncing on dangling tails, and Biff was most disconcerted to be 'pommed' from below when he was on the wood box; and getting up to make a dignified exit to have her arms around his neck to give him a big kiss!  Biff checked that nobody was looking, licked her nose, and stalked off, pretending indifference. 
What Biff, Jasper and Pebbles will make of a kitten is anyone's guess!  But Jasper likes kitties, and Biff is a lot more laid back these days, and Pebbles doesn't like any cats very much anyway!
Rebel has become very much a lap cat in the colder weather and I get a cuddle from my girlies on the sofa in the evenings.  Worrals likes to help in the garden on fine days, and she and Rebel enjoy being outside where they can be kittenish without having to entertain Pixie, who is only allowed out on the best days on the harness while her paw is still bear.  However great news on that front - she was 'making puddings' on me a couple of days ago and I noticed that one of the claws on her bad foot was able to move and make puddings on that foot!

Some bad news

Just been to the vet today, and Pebbles is not doing as well as we hoped; in fact she's dying.  We don't know how long she has, but then with kidney disease I guess you never do.
This is a pic of her 2 days ago, perching on her daddy's shoulder like a parrot.  What a sweetheart she is! all we can do is love her to bits for as long as she has.  Today she has been acting OLD.

Pixie on the other hand is lively and playful and loves all the world.  Here she is with her big black brother and her little black sister all sharing a chair, Pixie is on the back of the chair, Biff is asleep trying to pretend that he isn't noticing Rebel lying partly on top of him

Our lovely cats from Romania, doua dragosti pisici Romani

Pixie and Pufa arrived last night and Pufa is being known as Pufa-Pebbles while she gets used to a name change to Pebbles.  Pufa means, I think, fluffy, but it's a bit inexpedient in English.  They are settling in and far from being disabled, Pixie managed to climb onto the high shelves that I thought were cat proof... though she still has a bandage on her bad paw and favours it slightly.  She is tiny!

She likes the climbing tree we made and quickly found her way to the top of it.

Pebbles is a chunkier lady and has a practical outlook on life and her first act was to check out the facilities!

Both cats can purr for Romania however and are delighted to be given attention!

So am I insane?

I joined a group on facebook which is rescuing cats from, among other places, Romania, with a team of wonderful Romanian rescuers and vets, who are fighting hard for the feral cats there.  And there was one who stole my heart.
She had had her feet tied up so tightly together, and by 10-year-old CHILDREN for goodness sake that she was gangrenous.  Will she lose one or more legs?  as yet unknown .  But if I'm permitted to have her, however many legs she ends up with, she's going to have a home here.  Black cats are not popular in Romania. 
Her name is PIXIE and I named her in memory of Leprechaun, the tabby cat caught in a trap whose story I was following online. 
This is the group Anya's blind cats and dogs which is mostly set up for special needs animals... there's an auction set up there, so do go take a look, if you're in Europe especially the UK!  here for auction
Cute isn't she, so alert despite the pain..

Anyone who does not want to see graphic, don't go own any further as there's a picture of her leg

I'll keep everyone posted!