Baby and Bangles

The Moore House is unfamiliar to many of our Sunday visitors because it’s off-limits to them – many of the inhabitants do much better with the people they know, rather than strangers. But it’s home from home for many of the Kitty Comforters.

Bangles - BC

The KCs’ primary task is working with the cats who are caged for medical reasons, or with the ones who are very new or very shy. But almost all of them end their shift in the Moore House. Cuddles with Chanel and Shaggy, with Rufus and Tikki and Earl, are a pleasant way to end the day. But the Moore House isn’t all sweetness and light. Cranky Smoky is very clear that she is at the top of the feline hierarchy here. And we have two newer females who have their own diva-like tendencies.

Baby - BC

Orange Baby arrived first. She’s a large girl who suffers from arthritis – as usual, with that condition, it’s a vicious circle – you hurt, so you don’t move, so you don’t get enough exercise, so you put on weight, so you don’t want to move.....  When she came to us, Baby had a hard job reaching the shelf in her cage, and need a half-way step to get higher.

Baby - IM

Once out of her cage, Baby took over Lou’s favourite place by the heater in the small room, and made herself comfortable, holding court with visitors. She’s not actually that cranky, but occasionally she must hurt, and is more reactive with humans.  She has to be encouraged to get up and move elsewhere – we have found that Moore House peace is best maintained by giving the cats their own individual dishes of wet food, but at least for crunchies and water, she has to leave her comfy spot and move a bit.

Sitting pretty - LP

Shelter Manager Lisa says “My favourite story about Baby is when we realized she preferred not to move and it became essential to get her going.  Walking would help out her stiffness and arthritis and inevitably it would become easier. I would pick her up, put her on her feet and lightly tap her butt from behind to get her to walk. She would walk - but she would yell at me and tell me off the whole time. And as soon as she could, she would flop onto the ground to lay down again wherever she was. I would pick her up again and put her on her feet and we would start all over again. Me poking her butt and her telling me off - lol. We did this every day for a while. And Karen helped keep it up when she was in there. I can't help but laugh at all the "swear" words she muttered at me .”

Can I come out? - LL

Baby’s initial cage space was taken over by Bangles, who is a most beautiful long-haired dark calico. In many ways she’s a tortie rather than a calico – the white that makes her calico is just her front bib and paws; her attitude is all tortitude!  Bangles was not happy about coming to us, and who can blame her? she was dropped off in a big taped-up box with the words "please look after her, I can't look after her anymore".

Acting coy - BC

We don’t know the rest of her back story- whether her behaviour got too much for her owner, or whether whatever happened has created her behaviour. Whatever, there was a steady string of complains about the service in this hotel – noisy neighbours, wrong food, limited space, etc. etc. Now the cage door’s open for her, and she’s starting to explore a bit. If you encounter her in a good mood, it’s quite possible to get in a pet or two, but her usual greeting is a growl. She reminds me of a senior home resident whose family insists she has to be in care, and she Doesn’t Want It, and wants everyone to know she’s here under duress.  I hope that, like many of her human equivalents, she will discover that it’s really not so bad, and that the care staff want her to be happy and comfortable.

Bangles - JK

Neither girl is particularly sociable with other cats – but then, it’s really only Shaggy and Chanel who spend much time together; all the others maintain social separation from each other.  We just hope that neither Baby nor Bangles gets any ideas from Smoky on how to interact with humans!

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Brigid Coult, Jennine Kariya, Leslie Landa, Ish Manji, Louise Parris