This old thing Vol. 2

 Every now and again my phone tells me that I have too many pictures in it. So I have to go through them and make my heart into a stone and start deleting the million duplicates I have in there. Of course, it also takes me on long trips down memory lane. And one of my most recent clean-up jobs brought this old thing back to mind again - I noticed that even today, over two years on from the original 'thank you' post, almost every single cat in our foster home ends up photographed on the cat stand. You know, this one:

Eden sizing it up

And never have I had to make any of them pose on the stand - they all volunteer, so to speak. Because they just love it.

So I realised that this one object would allow me to chronicle almost all of their stories!

I did a spot of counting - since the Bin Babies, we've had another 40+ cats enjoy the cat stand. Plus, of course, our first cat Vader, who is almost 9 years old, weighs almost 6 kg and can barely fit on the stand, but loves it anyway:)

Fun fact: recently we had Vader's young self staying with us! It was truly uncanny - not only did the little 'Vader' resemble the big one in appearance, he even had similar mannerisms and temperament. He too, just like his older lookalike, liked to spread himself out on the floor, or anywhere really, every chance he got, he also loved the 'hairy snake' toy that no other cats in our house ever use besides Vader. Spooky coincidences, for sure! Yes, it was a weird time for us. So, here's the little version of our colossal beast:

Oh, and I forgot to mention that Fluffy (name the vets gave him) was a total poser, seen here asking 'How cute am I?' for the millionth time:)

Fluffy comes face to face with his future:)

Fluffy was adopted very quickly, as you can imagine - it was bound to happen to someone fluffy by name and nature. But the very good news about his adoption is that he was adopted as a couple, together with Snoopy, an absolutely gorgeous creature, a really beautiful animal. And as a more modest character, a great pairing for a poser like Fluffy:)

Fluffy's forever buddy Snoopy

Recently we marked a rather significant milestone - we fostered our 100th cat for the charity! And her name was Sanna. She was a bit of a wild one and never really became friends with me, but we got through our time together without any big problems (she has her own post here in this blog, where I get into more detail about our experience), and at the end she moved to a farm, freshly neutered:) So, a happy ending to that story, too:)

Sanna was utterly gorgeous, as you can see. The fact that she's crouching under the cat stand is actually quite fitting, as she wasn't a great fan of human interaction, always preferring to stay at a safe distance.

But she didn't come to us alone, no! She came with 6 newborn babies, who were 5 days old when they arrived at our place. And here they all are, snuggled up on the cat stand:

Well, this picture was taken quite a few weeks after they arrived:)
They were called Petal, Suzi, Ozzy, Basil, Frankie and Timmy. And they were all adopted in pairs - it's always such a joy to observe them forming special bonds with certain littermates and when they then get to spend the rest of their lives together with that special friend, it's a total cockle warmer!

Of course, it is universally accepted that cats are gorgeous, very photogenic, very Instagrammable, etc., but every now and again a cat comes along that is almost like an epitome of that. A cat that is completely, breathtakingly, almost unbelievably beautiful. Goes without saying that we've seen a few of those in our time as cat fosterers, and one of them was actually Sanna's baby, Timmy. Unfortunately, he's hiding under Petal (you can just about see his ears) in the picture above, so I'll post one here of just him, so you'll get the idea:

See what I mean?

And another of those happens to be our Tiger (a former foster, who came back to us in a roundabout way), but he was already mentioned in the first This Old Thing post, so I'll move swiftly on here.

So, one of our most recent 'Oh my word I can't believe my eyes' kinda cute cats we hosted was Gretta:

I'm sorry to say that these pictures don't do her justice. But I promise, she's one of those cats you just can't but admire for her sheer beauty. It's the kind of beauty before which we can feel almost powerless, yet elated. If living creatures could give you symptoms of Stendhal syndrome, she probably would:)

I actually really like this picture of her. It encapsulates her character rather well - she had great whimsy about her, so she was not just a beauty but also a remarkable personality.

And while in foster care, Gretta met Munchkin. They really hit it off like cats and dogs😉 This is to say that they were not the greatest fans of one another at first. However, with some light guidance they started to see each other's good sides, and after a short while they became almost inseparable. Here they are:

And so they were not separated but got adopted together! I know I keep banging on about how much I love seeing our little feline friends make their very own special friends in foster care, especially if they get to continue to be together for the rest of their lives, but it truly is something to be cherished. And encouraged, I think.

One day a lovely woman contacted the charity to let us know that there's a mama cat with 4 babies living in her dog house, and a few days later we set up a neonate pen for the 4 babies in our kitten room (the mama ran away, but we managed to catch her later, we also caught the father, to get them neutered and send them to live in a nice farm). And here are the babies:

Well, it's just three of the foursome in this picture - Yum-Yum, Ronnie and Mia. Ronnie and Mia were adopted together by a wonderful family with two brothers, who now got two feline sisters to play and grow up with:)

Here's Pippi on her ownsome. She was the last of the group to leave for her forever home. And she was definitely yet another one of the cute to the bone creatures - as soon as her picture was posted, she was snapped up:) A real chocolate box kitten.

And now we come to some of the more mature cats/kittens, who have probably given a lot more grief to the cat stand than any of the tiny kittens we've had:) Indeed, sometimes when a more weighty cat mounts the stand, it seems to groan a little😉

Straight after the Bin Babies, we had two drop-dead gorgeous sisters staying with us. They stayed with us for over 3 months. Their 'problem'? Their age. Yep, it's a hundred times harder to find homes for adult or almost adult cats than it is for the little ones. And it doesn't matter how great their personalities are or how completely irresistible their looks are. Maybe it's to do with people viewing pets as fur babies and maybe an older one doesn't seem like a baby any more, I don't know. But whatever the reason, it seems a bit superficial, to be honest. Not to mention utterly and despicably ageist:) But, anyway here they are:

Eden and Ellen

Ellen one her own - again, one of the intrinsically beautiful ones

This is Eden with Meg, one of their fellow foster cats, who got adopted a lot earlier due to her relative youthfulness. Eden was very motherly; to all of her younger fellow fosters, actually.

Such as Jake - a most unfortunate creature, who had all kinds of health issues to deal with. But he landed really well on his feet, getting adopted by some rather cool peeps.

And here's Meg with Ellen. I guess that must've been her thing - to seek out the motherly ones in their midst. (Meg was also struggling with some serious health issues at first, so looking for comfort was probably her self-preservation instinct at play)

And now, last but most certainly not least I have to mention our most recent fan of the cat stand, the 3-year-old Garfield. He had a few things in common with Eden - he's gorgeous, ginger, with a fabulous personality, and he's also only partially sighted in his left eye. He was with us for 9 months. His 'problem'? Age, of course; but on top of that he was diagnosed with FIV (Feline Immunodeficiency Virus). This diagnosis was actually very helpful - it explained a lot of his health issues, and why some of it was so hard to 'cure'. But his condition is very manageable. And his personality is really something. He lights up rooms and faces, he makes you wanna be a better human, to paraphrase a great quote from a great film:)

Garfield - one of the friendliest fellas you'll ever meet:)
And when he jumped on the cat stand, I'd say it really felt it. Yes, Garfield was a barrel, a barrel of fun😊 

So, this is it for this time. A selection of some new fans of the cat stand, the gift that just keeps giving. Nothing left now but to wish it strength for another couple of dozen kitties:)