Tangerine Routine

Hope you can help us. Missing him so much.

Hello “Tangeriners”! A very happy (and belated) New Year to you all. I have not forgotten you but, on a personal basis, have had a rotten few months and have not been in the right frame of mind to produce my usual light hearted update. I was just getting my act together in early December and thinking about Xmas cards etc. (seems years ago) when I managed to break 2 toes on 19th (ouch, ouch, ouch and ouch – much nicer that what I actually said at the time), luckily for busi...
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TAZ HAS FOUND A NEW HOME Just to let you all know that Taz has found a new home. His owner put a message on our local discussion group and a lady who lives alone and so sadly lost her own tabby cat 6 months ago saw Taz on there and decided he was for her. He has been with his new owner about 2 weeks and the last update I had from Paula is that he is settling well, not hiding so much and enjoying games and fuss with his new owner. Lovely for Taz, who deserves nothing less and his new owner, who has a wonderful cat.

Now a few words from Paula, Taz’s owner… Taz is a fantastic cat, we love him and are gutted to leave him behind. He is very gentle and likes to play, he likes lots of fuss and he's great company. We took him in when he was 8 weeks old, he was very shy - still is - and our relationship had to be built up on trust and lots of love. Eventually the house became his and he was in a great routine, then we had the baby. The first reaction was not great but we thought Taz would get u...sed to the baby as he would grow, however this was the exact opposite. The more our son grows, the more Taz hides. Taz needs a relatively quiet environment to be a confident and happy cat, otherwise he'll hide from noise and confusion. When our son goes to bed he comes down straight away for food, fuss and play with us (adults), its the best time of the day for him and we can see it in his eyes. We now have to move back to Portugal and can't take him with us which has been difficult to accept. We are looking for someone who would like to rehome a loving and fantastic cat, but also someone that is aware that he needs to build up trust before he is able to become a happy cat.
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Unfortunately, part of our last our last visit together was over shadowed by considerable suspicion from Taz. His people live in rented accommodation and agreed the letting agents could show people around while they were away so poor old Taz was hiding away from everyone who came in and I had to hunt around to find him and prove I was who I said I was luckily, I knew where to look and how to speak to him. However, the agents only came twice (as they had the wrong key and I h...ad to let them in) so all was well after a few days – normal service was resumed. It is because of the way Taz behaved when the agents came around that I am telling you about him. Because he is so timid he will not do well in a rehoming situation. He will be the one hiding under his cover and no one will be able to see the lovely boy that Taz really is. Taz lives with 2 adults and a young child. In an ideal world Taz would not live with children as they make him nervous, as they do most cats actually. He will need patience from any new owner as he has spent all of his life with his current people (and me twice a year or so) and will need to overcome his natural timidity but, given time, the cat that will emerge will be worth waiting for. I have always had a very soft spot for tabby’s. My first cat when I left home was a tabby and I adored him. If I did not already share my home with a 15½ year old Birman with chronic kidney disease and dementia and 2 manic Siamese, I myself would take Taz. However, whilst I believe he would eventually adjust to my busy and generally noisy home I do not think he could cope with my three and Birni & Georgie would not cope with him, Georgie particularly would make his life miserable. I know his current owner is very upset about having to leave Taz but circumstances are forcing her into doing so and because I care about Taz I agreed to let you all know about his plight, to see if anyone was able to help him. Just in case there are any misunderstandings about this, I have agreed to tell you about Taz only and take no responsibility at all for Taz now, or at any later date.
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Taz cont...... As I have already said it took a while for Taz to accept me and before he did it was a different story. Once the chores were complete I spent the rest of the visit sitting on the floor waggling a piece of twisted willow under the settee and chatting away - to the settee. The first sign was the paw poking out from under the settee after the twisted willow. Once he had decided I was ok and he “came out” as it were, we were fine with the fuss, tickles and play a...nd he spent all of the visit time around me. On future visits, after the initial suspicion all cats greet me with, Taz was happy to spend his visit time with me. He very quickly became accustomed to the times of me calling once or twice a day as needed. Taz likes to play with his rats (IKEA) and he has 2, a white and a grey. Whenever I go in the rats are always positioned by the patio door – no thanks to me I might add as I distribute them about the house so that Taz comes across them when he is wondering around. He gets really annoyed if I sit them up by the futon so that they are looking right at him when he comes downstairs, so guess where I put them! I can tell he is annoyed by the look on his face and the sort of sigh he gives me when he sees what I am doing. He also quite likes a ball to play with, again I position these around the house and they are rarely where I left them when I come back. I have also played with a cat teaser with him but he was not used to this so it took a while – me leaving it lying around on the floor for him to investigate when I was not there – for him to get used to it.
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My Dealings with Taz... As with all of “my” cats they never have just the one name, when I call on Taz I usually announce my arrival with “Hi Tazman, (or Taztabby or Tazzywazz or Beautiful boy) it’s me, Sheila with the food”. Given a decent interval (after all he is a cat) he appears from upstairs and starts to wind himself around the futon, table legs, chair legs, my legs until the food is available then he eats a fairly small amount. We then have a lovely fuss – both of u...s on the floor as Taz tends to get all unnecessary and slide around a lot. Every time he moves out of my reach I get a look as if to say “Come on then – follow me”. He has a lovely purr, always a bonus I think in a cat! I have never written about Taz as he is a reasonably well-adjusted cat (well, once he gets to know you) and does not give me any trouble – I am pleased to say there really is one! He is probably one of the easiest cats I care for. The “chores” (bowl washing, feeding, watering, litter tray cleaning) only take me 5 – 10 mins and we have the rest of the visit for fun. He is very tidy with his litter tray, dutifully covering up and usually does not make too much mess with his litter, it is only the odd visit when I think he has been throwing the stuff around with gay abandon.
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TAZ NEEDS A NEW HOME Can you help him out? I have never done this before and have no plans to do it again, but Taz needs a new home as his people are returning to Portugal in early December and cannot take him with them. I will give the full gen on Taz as I know him, in my usual update way, as well as a message from his current owner, but for now just be aware of the facts. He is a beautiful neutered Tabby boy, born on 18th January 2013, so not yet 5 years old. Taz is microc...hipped. He is very gentle and really loves a fuss. He loves to play. He is very timid, for my first year caring for him (2 – 3 weeks in real time) I never saw him as he was hidden under the settee, now he comes to me when I arrive and call him. He is primarily an indoor cat but does go out (garden only) when his people are home and the patio door is open. This means that a litter tray would be required, certainly until a new routine has been established with him. He is fed on dry food only and a measured quantity of 75g per day (half AM & half PM) is strictly adhered to. He drinks filtered or bottled water, although I am told by his owners that he will drink tap water when the filter runs out. (His people did not like the UK water and failed to see why he should have it if they did not!) So, you have the basic facts. My personal view of Taz will follow later. If you can help Taz please contact his owner, Paula, direct on 07788 253448. For Taz’s sake please only contact Paula if you are genuinely interested in him.
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Sometimes when I am on my way to/from visits I get a little bit of light relief from, believe it or not my Sat Nav. This is built into the car so, is effectively always on. My last car had one as it was an end of range “special” that they wanted to get rid of so when we decided to get me a smaller car (Focus to Fiesta) I insisted on having a Sat Nav built in as I never know when I am going to get lost (happens to me more than you would think as I have the most appalling sen...se of direction and I have “home” programmed in so I can just hit the button wherever I happen to be) and cannot be bothered with putting it on the windscreen every time I leave the house, arrive at visit etc. Anyway, back to the Sat Nav. I spend a great deal of time either heading towards, or away from the A329 & A329M (access to M4), in other words, Lower Earley to Woodley to Lower Earley. As I was off to Woodley the other day, crossing A329 and heading towards A329M but not actually going there, my Sat Nav piped up “M4 crash”, not accident or incident, no messing with my Sat Nav – crash! On another occasion, I had “Inquisitive drivers on M4”?! So, what did that mean, I can only assume they were slowing down to look at the crash! She is always telling me about the “traffic disruption on A329” – well I know this anyway, probably always best to avoid the Winnersh traffic lights at any time of day and gets really excited when I seem to be going towards the M4, junction 11 or to Shinfield, via the (still under construction) new system around the Blackboy roundabout/University Bridge. I can barely keep up with the “traffic disruption on A327” and “slow moving traffic on M4 - 3 miles an hour”. To really confuse me when I have programmed in a new call she will ask me if I want to take the “Eco, Short or Fast” route – how the hell do I know – “just get me there” isn’t an option so I usually pick the wrong one and then she starts off with “Route being calculated taking into account traffic disruption”. As you can imagine we have some quite interesting chats as I am driving along.
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This visit was a very hard, half an hours (usually more like 45 mins) work which is the main reason I always made it the last one. I was in dire need of coffee and breakfast after spending time with these cats and did not have much time for fuss/play – just chat as I was getting on with the job. I did play with Achilles a few times, old teaser stick with a lace tied to it, and he really enjoyed himself chasing after the lace, stalking from under the settee then running out ...to catch it, skidding across the laminate floor, and then finally, his body catching up with his feet, rushing back for more. Aura was extremely well behaved but she was so timid that, although she stayed in the same room as me this visit, would not let me close enough for a fuss. If more time had been available I would have adopted my usual ploy of sitting down, looking the other way and talking to her or the wall until she eventually decided I was safe enough. Next stop home. Thoroughly knackered but knowing I had done the best I could with all of “my” cats. Quick wrestle with my own 3 who made no apologies for wanting out as I was now 2 hours late for their usual “routine” and finally a much needed cup of coffee and sit. So, the morning in the life of a busy Pet (cat) Carer, all good fun, some visits more fun than others but each had their own charm.
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This is probably my fault as the last time I called they wanted a visit every other day (can you imagine) and I categorically refused to visit again unless it was one a day minimum because Arnell (or possible, Achilles as I learnt on this visit) played in the water and tended to tip it all over the floor. When I arrived for one of the visits the water bowl was upturned and water all over the floor – I had no idea when they had done this it could have been 5 mins before my ca...ll or 5 mins after my last one two days ago. Anyway, onto this year’s visits. My concerns about water had clearly been taken seriously as they now had 3 bowls, two of which were Pyrex deep lasagne type dishes and one a deep white bowl. I had to wash 3 bowls and replace all 3 with fresh water and clean up the spillages on the floor around the bowls. No problem at all, except as fast as I was putting them down both Achilles and Arnell were running over to “play” in them. They were really amusing to watch, drinking some then putting their paws in, one at a time, drinking some more – shame about the water everywhere again. Visit just about complete, just had to put more biscuits in the bowls before I could leave. Towards the end of the visits I was really upset about Arnell. After about the first 3 days he would not eat his tuna concoction and, bowels aside, because he had to have the antibiotic I had to find a way to get them into him. He really is a loving and gentle cat so I did not want to use the hard “force the mouth open and suffocate until you have swallowed routine” so resorted to Lik-e-lix again and, much to my surprise, he would not touch it as most cats who like fish can’t get enough of it. Regretfully, I had to use the hard way for him and I was so sorry that at the end of the visits, instead of coming to me when I came in the door and putting his head up for a tickle and fuss, he still came to me but when I put my hand down to him, turned quickly around and walked off as he had no intention of having another pill– so sad.
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I had this figured. I slid back into the kitchen to check that Arnell had eaten his tuna concoction and, if he had opened the door when Achilles shot in like a bullet from a gun and proceeded to case the kitchen looking for tuna. Arnell meanwhile had gracefully left the kitchen to polish off any food that the other two had left. So now I put a teaspoonful of tuna onto two bowls, one for Achilles and one for Aura (even though she had no intention of going outside I couldn’t... leave her the only one not to have a bit of tuna, could I?) It really was a case of grab the two tunas, try and get one on the kitchen floor with Achilles head banging the bowls and leave the kitchen as fast as he had entered to give a far more gracious Aura her ration of tuna. Now I could go outside to the dustbin. While out there I had to water the plants in the garden and pick any tomatoes and strawberries that were ripe. In fairness to the customers I was offered extra to “do the watering” but I had no idea of the true amount – another 15 mins doing this and that does not include the plants in the conservatory! (I watered outside one day and inside the second). Indoors again to let an irate Achilles out of the kitchen, he had finished his tuna and wanted to start on the biscuits again. Now onto the water bowls.
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I have honestly never seen such a large antibiotic for a cat, not sugar coated and not palatable and to make matters worse he had to have ¾ of a pill each day. The owners had left out a sharp knife to cut the pill up which I then crushed with the back of a spoon, mixed with tuna and lactulose before putting on the floor for Arnell. Now, Arnell is a very slow eater so I tended to put his food down, slide out of the kitchen past Achilles who was trying to get in to eat Arnell...’s tuna and start on the litter trough. Yes, thats right trough – this litter tray has to be seen to be believed. It is absolutely enormous, as of course you would expect for 3 cats, but even so…. An enormous plastic box (the type used for storing garden tools) about 3 to 4-foot-long and 2-foot-high acts as a sort of small house. Inside this is a storage crate about 2 feet by 18 inches that has had a section cut out of the side to allow cats in and out, this is the litter tray with about an 8 inch depth of cat litter in it and a small bin with a bag in it for the waste products. The base of the “house” is covered with a bin bag and 2 layers of kitchen roll placed just by the entrance to the actual litter tray (as Arnell tends to miss – how!!?) The design has been well thought through as you have no idea that a litter tray even exists, everything is stored on top of the crate, kitchen roll, disinfectant wipes, both types of plastic bags and a dustpan and brush. I am sure when the owners are there and can deal with it as used it is not a problem but on a daily basis it is a task of herculean effort. The litter used is a very good “clumping” litter which is extremely heavy and to “sift” through this requires an enormous amount of strength and effort. As for getting the bag out of the dustbin and onto the drive for collection…. This one task was taking me about 15 mins a day just to sift and then I had to replace the plastic bags and clean off any misses. Anyway, job done I now just needed to deposit the used litter in the dustbin without letting Achilles out.
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10.15 - 10.30. Arrive at final call of the day, just up the road from where I live which is just as well as this call really does wear me out! 3 cats live here and all are kept indoors. I have visited here before but only once for 2 weeks. Unfortunately, I have been unable to help out on two other holidays so felt duty bound to fit in this time they asked! Aura (gentle breeze) is a blue/grey tortie who is very timid, in fact the first time I visited I only saw her as a b...ump under the bedspread, which I had to lift to check she was even there! (The owners were having work done on the house and Aura didn’t like the disturbance. Arnell (The nobleman who is a gentle man), an elderly ginger and white who is indeed a very noble cat and exceedingly gentle and friendly. Finally, we have Achilles (swift) an exceedingly vocal and hungry tabby who was incredibly quick on his feet when I opened the door to go out to the dustbin! The owners wanted only one call per day in the morning, so as you can imagine the cats were starving when I arrived. Priority job therefore was to get them fed, before Achilles started on me. Collecting the three bowls wasn’t easy as I had both Achilles and Arnell following me – Aura had more sense and kept well away from the general scrum. Once collected the bowls had to be washed – another unnecessary delay as far as Achilles was concerned, who by this time was climbing all over me, the units and the sink just in case I wasn’t getting the message! Eventually 2 bowls of food were ready and I could put them down for Achilles and Aura, whilst shutting poor old Arnell in the kitchen with me. Arnell has to have drugs. A small scoop of lactulose to ensure regularity and this time was on antibiotics due to an infection. He is given his drugs in a small amount of tuna, firstly to try and disguise the taste and secondly as a treat to get him to take the drugs.
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I carry the wand bit of an old cat teaser with and a supply of shoe laces. The cats are only allowed to play with the toy when I am there and I hide it when I leave. The wand bit I keep but the lace stays with the cat when I complete the calls. Angharad enjoyed her game with the teaser and spent ages stalking the lace which, when caught, she proceeded to chew and get wrapped around her paws. As regular readers will know it is my policy to have a quick tickle when I arrive..., complete chores and then settle down for fuss and play. This worked fine for a couple of days then (“free from shame”) decided that literally just before I left, and after she had a nice clean litter tray, she had to have a wee! As she did this for a couple of visits I decided that I would do the tray last to get it all in one go, as it were. It didn’t matter how long I left it Angharad hung on until it was nice and clean before she had her wee. Of course, she wanted a clean litter tray to use (as cats do) so I went back to the previous system, cleaning the litter tray when I arrived and then again when I left! Hang on in their folks call number 5 is a real treat!
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09.30 – 09.45. Just up the road to take care of Angharad (free from shame – you’ll find out why later). Angharad is a female tabby and not “one of mine”, this is the favour I am doing for a colleague. I was told by her owner that she is an indoors cat, sleeps a lot and does not like strangers. No problem – I get a fair few like that. So, on my first visit I was somewhat surprised to find Angharad hanging around me, clearly wanting some affection, and wandering off towards ...the patio door as if it was a perfectly natural thing for her to go out. Well, I couldn’t let her out so after chores I sat down on the settee and, after waiting a few minutes and calling to her, she hopped up onto the settee and settled beside me for some fuss. This was very nice and completely unexpected. Thereafter at each visit she was waiting by the front door and I had to use the bag to stop her slipping past me. I decided she was a bit bored as she did not seem too interested in playing with her two balls and the treat ball, which she expected me to roll around with her so that she could get at the treats. I decided to see if she would play with me.
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I have to say that Alana accidently, although I do wonder, got their own back on poor old Alarice this morning. I was fiddling about with bowls, food etc when I heard a thud from behind me and looked around to see a whole pile of cookery books on the floor about 1 inch from Alarice. Alana had knocked them off of the shelf where they are stored, next to her feeding stool. I picked them up and put them on the kitchen unit suggesting she should be more careful in future as sh...e nearly brained Alarice with them, turned back to the food and heard a second thud. Turned around again and Alana had knocked them from the unit to the floor – she was using them to tickle under her ear. Alarice, who was waiting for her food, had not moved so was again in the direct firing line – so what do you think accident or not! Why should they not sit on the trampoline? It is black, so very warm in the sunshine. It drains well so if we do have rain is unlikely to be soaking wet. It has a nice protective net around it. It is nice and bouncy when two young cats have a rough and tumble on it and more importantly – Alarice does not go on it!! Sort of “off-piste” now. When we had a trampoline, Ddiddyboy used to quite happily sit in it and was equally happy to be bounced, gently, from the edges. It occurred to me, as it could only occur to me, that if I crawled underneath I could see what a cat looks like from underneath when they are sitting pretty, you know on back feet and front paws arranged neatly in front of them. Did I do it – you bet I did! So, a farewell to the two opposing sides and on to my 4th call.
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The patio door causes its own problems. Alarice can now be heard issuing her threats from the table, or more worryingly for Alana and Adara issuing threats but they cannot see her. I was outside with Alana yesterday afternoon and having convinced her to come in for her tea (before one of the others ate it) was as astonished as she was when the table cloth suddenly jerked out towards her and Alarice shot out telling Alana exactly where she could go. Needless to say, Alana sho...t back outside followed by me to try and convince her I had no idea what Alarice was planning. My helpless laughter did not help the situation. So, I now have to check under the table before I can get the others in. A couple of evenings ago I was watching all 3 of them from the window. Alana was on the trampoline and Adara was very intently investigating the contents of a flower pot when Alarice suddenly shot towards her and attacked her botty – poor Adara she had no idea that Alarice was there.
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