Category Archives: Cat Protection Society

Make pet friendly accommodation the norm!

June 14, 2012 By in Cat Protection Society, Cats Tags: , , , , , , 2 Comments

Over a year ago I wrote a blog post called “Beauty in Cat Poo“, in which I had a rather long rant about pet-unfriendly rental and strata accommodation.

So it is with happiness that I write 18 months later that the NSW government is calling for submissions asking whether people support a review of the barriers to cat and dog ownership in relation to residential tenancy laws.

I will be submitting my opinion with a resounding yes. I only wish I could tick a double yes, or a yes plus, a yes on steroids, a yes the size of a mammoth! A yes which is big cat sized!

While some may not go as far as to say that pet ownership is a right (I think it should be), I’m sure there are plenty of like-minded people out there who are unaware that the government is even considering the issue. I think it would be terribly sad if the opportunity to make some headway on this issue was lost.

So I’m making as much noise as possible about it. I’ve put it on my facebook. I’ve emailed almost my entire address book, and now I’m blogging about it. (I find myself at this moment wishing I had more friends so I could help make a bigger wave of support).

Here’s a snippet of what got me so hot under the collar 18 months ago:

The invisible rulemakers

…To be honest I often think of the body corporate and strata managers as figments of someone’s imagination. I acknowledge that one frequently hears of the body corporate. However have you ever seen one?

There’s no office with ‘body corporate’ signage. There’s no letterbox.

Forget the invisible man of politics the true mystery of today is the body corporate. Really, think about it… what does a body corporate look like? What makes a body look corporate? Is it the human figure which has been processed, streamlined, structured, and programmed to function off finance rather than more natural fuel?

However I will put aside for a moment the mysterious-ness of the body corporate or the strata management company and move on to the critical question at hand.

Why do these people get to decide whether you have a pet? In some situations, your landlord may be quite happy for your to own a pet, but this body with the corporate look has decided you cannot. Ah, I hear you all cry out… but of course they can decide this. Pets can be messy. True. However so can children and I’ve yet to see a complex advertised as ‘no children allowed’. (I suspect retirement villages are generally without children, although with the age of childbirth creeping ever higher who knows what may happen in the future).

In 2011, with more and more people remaining single, I believe pets should start to have the same rights as children – at least in the home. I get mad when I read on the cat protection society website that a cat was surrendered because of “unfriendly accommodation”.  

My home was ‘pet friendly’ when I moved in four years ago… Recently the strata management company issued new strata laws which said only fish and birds (in a cage) were permissable. I checked with the real estate agent regarding a grandfather clause. Surely if you have moved into pet friendly accommodation, they cannot suddenly become unfriendly and expect you to give up your pets? The answer I received was – as much as they knew – it was fine to continue as before. So while that’s good news for Licorice, Saffron and myself, I do feel for anyone new moving in who may be denied the chance to have a pet.

And why did they change their minds? Because some people had some dogs and they were irresponsible owners and the dogs made such a mess of the carpet that it had to be replaced. To this day I’m still puzzled how they went from ‘dog causes mess’ to ‘cat not allowed’.

Such a situation would be aided if the laws were changed as currently proposed. New South Wales would adopt the same laws as the ACT where

“the default position is that pets are allowed, with the onus on the owners corporation to not unreasonably withhold permission.”

Oh, what a delight if that were to occur. Had the strata remained resolute that no pets were allowed, I would have moved back to mum’s place rather than surrender Licorice and Saffron, yet I know that some people don’t have that option up their sleeve. According to Cat Protection NSW, up to 20% of adult cats they take in are victims of pet-unfriendly rental and strata accommodation.

That’s 20% too many.

Please take a few minutes to answer the survey and please, vote yes in question 18.

For more information see: www.dlg.gov.au/CATaskforce or contact Cat Protection Society.

I thank you all for your support in advance and the kitties thank you too!

Who’s afraid of the wheelchair wolf?

January 12, 2012 By in Cat Protection Society, Cats, Disability Tags: , , , , , 9 Comments

Gesso the parrotI know it’s hard to believe with photos such as the one on the left but sometimes cats are afraid of wheelchairs. Or so the people at Cat Protection Society tell me. It sounds plausible. I’ve seen dogs look timid around Andrew; four-legged friends who won’t get close.

As I’ve said before, Pickle and Gesso have no such issues. Gesso’s latest trick is to climb the back of the wheelchair. If Andrew hasn’t wiggled in to properly, he needs to be careful as Gesso seems to leap into the chair, trying to beat him to it; causing a white furry lump between Andrew and the backrest.

Last night, when Gesso climbed up the chair and was at the back of Andrew’s neck, I immediately reached for my phone.

Don’t take a picture, help me get him off!

As I was determined to get my picture before I performed any rescue, Andrew tried to ‘shake’ him off on his own by leaning forward. This strategy didn’t work. Gesso didn’t move!

So there you have it – Gesso the parrot. (He’ll have a degree in piracy before too long. He already frequently engages in trespassing and petty theft; it’s not too much of a step up.)

Another one of Gesso’s personalities, is Gesso the placid. It’s best described in this video (I apologise for the poor quality). It takes a special kind of cat; a chilled cat; one cool cat to let you hold them upsidedown like a baby. Both Gesso and Pickle like to do this. I’ve tried it on Licorice and Saffron. It doesn’t work for more than 5 seconds.

If you are unable to view the video, try here on the direct link to flickr.

Lastly, I had to share a third aspect of Gesso’s personality. It’s the ‘Kate’ impersonation. (Named after Kate Winslet riding on the front of the titanic). This isn’t the best video as he moves quite a bit in it (often he doesn’t move at all). Nevertheless you get the idea.

So here is Gesso the mobile.

Again, if you have difficulty seeing the video, you can view through flickr directly.

Gesso’s rite of passage

January 4, 2012 By in Art, Cat Protection Society, Cats, Disability, Life Tags: , , , , , , 10 Comments
I is cute

Gesso, I would never do anything naughty, Grant

I’m trying to imagine the scene. My partner has set himself up for a relaxing night of painting. He’s squeezed out a little of all the colours he needs onto his palette. He starts to paint.

Who knows how far he got into the painting zone before the 5 month old white kitten decided to leap onto the paint palette.

I think someone must have told Gesso that it’s customary to get your paws wet from time to time. Chilli, Licorice, Saffron and Pickle have all done it before him.

Unlike his brothers and sisters in crime, Gesso chooses a nice muddy earth pigment to squish his paw in. This is good news for the cleaner-upper-er. Previous kitty cats have chosen something high staining like phthalo blue or quin crimson.

So, white paw goes into raw umber. Andrew has to quickly catch him before he leaps off and takes that glob of brown paint with him onto the carpet. Catch him he does. Well done. Perhaps I can get Andrew into a cricket team and he can cover the Silly Point position.

Slippery cat in hand, now what?

I’m trying to picture how he managed to wheel anywhere while still trying to hold on to Gesso. I’m guessing he tried one handed, which is a good way to direct oneself quickly into the wall. Trying to move the wheelchair with one hand reminds me of playing Wii Canoe – frequent side swapping required if you don’t want to go in circles!

Of course it wasn’t that simple. The little white rascal, now proudly sporting one brown paw, escaped. He took off, running the length of the house.

Somewhere in the ensuing moments Andrew got red oil paint on his hands; when he caught the little white devil, he was now a white and red devil.

More laughable than a guy trying to hold on to a cat covered in paint and push a wheelchair is the idea of him giving same cat a bath in the laundry tub! Would pandemonium adequately describe the scene?

It’s like one of those bad jokes:

What’s worse than bathing a cat?

Bathing a cat covered in red oil paint.

Gesso's new colour This is the result.

Gesso in a pretty shade of pink neckwear.

While part of me wants to have been witness to havoc and lawlessness Gesso imposed on the house for the briefest of moments, the other part is happy to be in my own little unit, with my own furry friends who have never got quite so dirty in paint that they have required more than a sponge-off.

I know that the Cat Protection Society (where Licorice, Saffron, Pickle and Gesso all came from) has an ‘art’ auction annually and gets their residents of the day to do some of the artwork. I think Andrew and I could save them the effort and just collate Gesso’s work through the next year. This is the second time in less than a month that he’s made contact with wet paint. It won’t take long to get an exhibition worth!

My 2011 in photographs

December 30, 2011 By in 1940s, Art, Cat Protection Society, Cats, Disability, Dressmaking, Fashion, Life, Photography, Vintage Clothing Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

It’s only natural to reflect on the year as it comes to a close. So here’s some highlights – and lowlights – of 2011.

New Cats

It’s hard to believe that Andrew has only had Pickle a year! He arrived in mid-January 2011 and was a playful and bitey kitten.

Bitey pickle

Now look at him… all grown up!

I can see you!

Then came Gesso! Much smaller than Pickle had ever been and far more sooky from day one.

His deafness has brought a few new challenges. Getting Pickle to steer clear of walksticks and wheelchairs was difficult enough. Gesso has taken ‘challenge’ to a whole new dimension; culminating on Christmas Day when he got too close to Andrew while he was standing and ended up being trod on. He sunk his teeth in to Andrew’s foot in protest. Fortunately, Gesso was unharmed and although left with a nasty bite, Andrew’s foot is healing. I’m hoping that after that experience, Gesso will learn to dodge feet, walking sticks and wheelchairs as well as Pickle does.

My girls, Licorice and Saffron, continued to be good company; for me and for each other:

Licorice and Saffron kisses

The learnt how to get food from their new three-tiered cat toy; how to get nibbles from the treat ball; plus basic targeting skills using clicker training. (Short videos hyperlinked)

New Art

There were few surprises in the artistic area. I continued my pattern of putting things in paintings and then removing them. (The daschund below first had a skateboard; later replaced by stilts.)

Daschund issues

I rediscovered an old canvas and turned it from this:

textured background

to this:

Self portrait (unfinished) 23.5.2011

Andrew started art school (of which I am more than a little jealous). I don’t have many photographs of his work… I wish I had more. Here’s just three from this year:

These two oil paintings are still in progress:

New Sewing projects

Some things never change. Saffron continued her dressmaking assistance into 2011. Her favourite habit is sitting on the fabric one is trying to sew!

Saffron doesn't want me to sew

I embarked on some heirloom work for a white cotton sateen slip:

Heirloom work

and completed a thoroughly indulgent silk slip.

Silk bias cut slip

Somehow I quickly forgot how difficult it is working with slippery and lightweight fabrics, for I moved on to this 1940 pattern:

2 dresses in one

which, as at the time of writing, remains incomplete (needs sleeves, facings and a hem!)

1940 dress in progress

New places

I explored some other parts of Sydney in 2011 and we ventured a little further afield. First to Fitzroy Falls (reasonable disabled access):

2011-02-25 Fitzroy Falls Gardens

then to Mogo Zoo: (access was a bit dodgy due to uneven and steep paths combined with recent rain!)

2011-02-26 Mogo Zoo Giraffe

Tiger eats his chop!

To Balls Point Reserve in Sydney: (inaccessible!)

View from Balls Point Reserve of Sydney

Of course, I couldn’t forget the Dubbo trip! (Dubbo Zoo is wonderfully accessible and we had such great experiences photographing countryside on the way there and back).

Between Wellington & Orange

Near Dubbo

La Perouse was not new but offered up some beautiful sunsets for us.

2011-01-29 Kite Ship and Sun

New Wheelchair

Looking back on this, I have to laugh. Below is a cake I made to celebrate receiving news that Andrew would get a new wheelchair.

Celebratory cake!

We received confirmation we would get a chair back in April. Naively, I made this cake in May thinking the chair would arrive any day! We finally took delivery in September!

For anyone wondering why the mm’s on this cake are lime green and orange… well that was the colour choice being debated. The triffid, as I like to call it, brought much needed relief in the form of a more lightweight chair. It also caused a crisis by being too wide to fit through the bathroom door.

New home

Once it became clear that the bathroom door could not be widened, after much drama, it was time to move house! Now I can only be thankful that Andrew has nowhere near as much crap in his place as I do in mine. Even so, packing was not easy. Pickle helped by packing himself in a crate.

PIckle packed himself

New family

Not content with expanding our feline family, my brother and sister-in-law, gave me a niece as well!

Io I

Lysh & Io I

New job

A minor little thing that happened this year!

New ‘disabilities’

This is one ‘new’ thing 2011 brought that my family could have done without. However, we don’t get to choose these things, so I went about learning what I could about MS and being as supportive as possible.

———————————

Well, put like that, it was one hell of a year. Here’s to 2012.

Introducing Gesso

October 31, 2011 By in Cat Protection Society, Disability Tags: , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Pickle now has a friend. The family is complete. Introducing little Gesso.

Andrew and I have discussed over a number of months the pros and cons of getting a second cat for pickle. On the ‘cons’ side were space, cat boarding while away and the risk they wouldn’t get on.

Space resolved itself as an issue with the recent move. The place is now certainly large enough for two, with access to the litter trays still off the ground. With the bathroom the way it is, the trays can be emptied from the wheelchair or standing.

With regard to cat boarding, while I think putting saffron and licorice in boarding would stress Saff out no end, both Pickle and Gesso are relaxed enough to cope.

This left the last problem – the risk they wouldn’t get on. Well, I guess that’s a risk anytime you put two cats together. Since Saffron and Licorice were adopted as a pair, it was never a concern. However, this time it was. I’m happy to say that while Pickle is somewhat put out, the signs are encouraging.

Our intention – based on advice from Cat Protection Society – was to get a second cat of a similar age to Pickle and similar personality. Finding another cat who was confident enough to just sit in a chair as it moved across a room was going to be a challenge. For a time, it seemed like it was a challenge too great. We have both been reading the facebook profiles Cat Protection Society put up each week and both been shaking our heads – too old, too shy, wants outdoors, doesn’t like other cats, the list went on.

Finally on Sunday we met Gesso. We were intending to look at a 1 year old female however upon arriving at Cat Protection Society we discovered she was no longer available. There was 1 other option – another 1 year old girl. As we went out to look at her, we passed this little guy.

‘He’s sweet’ says Andrew.

‘Oh, he must be homed with another cat or someone who is home all the time. He’s deaf.’

I’m not sure whether it’s the lack of hearing but he is pretty calm! He was unphased by the wheelchair and happy to be held up, down, upsidedown and sideways.

We had a raft of questions – what if they don’t get on? what about the size difference? what about them being two boys? if he was deaf did any other health problems go with that? As always, the girls at Cat Protection Society were more than happy to answer our questions. Part way through an adult cat leapt out of her cage unexpectedly and hissed upon seeing Gesso. This little white boy was unphased. That was all the proof we needed that he wasn’t going to be super stressed if Pickle was initially grumpy.

As it turns out, naming him was a lot harder than choosing him. The list was long. Early suggestions followed the deaf and ear theme. Cochlea, Shepherd, Drum, Beethoven, Van Gogh and more medical terms like atresia. For a time, Andrew really wanted Jeebus. The Cleaver. Sebastian. Marc Antony. Caesar. We then moved on to anything engine related given this little boy was found filthy and oily (possibly from hiding in an engine). We had sparkplugs, carburetor and castrol… which I quite liked. We then turned to facebook friends and they suggested the typical ‘white’ names – marshmallow, snowdrop and the like. In the end, I started reading websites. I had got up to L and still not found anything fitting when gesso popped into my head. (For those who aren’t familiar with it, it’s pronounced jesso and it is a white paint which has been used for centuries as a ground for paintings. It often has quite a chalky look). I think it suits him perfectly.

Condiment cats

September 10, 2011 By in Cat Protection Society, Cats, Waffle and Nonsense Tags: , , , , 1 Comment

Awwww Pickle is a ball of energy and I’ve considered whether a second cat would wear him out. I was at Cat Protection Society talking to them about the idea and one of the girls said they had a very social cat at the moment named Cous Cous. Now social or not, I simply couldn’t adopt a cat called cous cous. That would mean we would have Licorice, Saffron, Pickle and Cous Cous. People would start to think I was food obsessed… that I’d developed some bizarre condition of only adopting cats if they could be a condiment! Add Chilli to the mix and it’s already a little ‘food heavy’. Of course, chilli’s real name is kecil (pronounced like the ke in ketchup and the c as a ch). It is the Indonesian word for small (given Chil was dumped at 2 weeks and hand reared she has always been very petite).
As far as cat names go, I think Cous Cous is rather cool. In my family, no cat can ever be given a human name. It appears this must be a family oddity because many people give their cats human names. Cat Protection Society at the moment have Max, Gibson, Franklin, Quinn, Frida, Claire… human names abound! Of the non-human names (cous cous aside), I think a pair called ‘fortune and cookie’ is pretty cute. When I first got my girls I thought of all sorts of ‘pairings’. I remember contemplating ‘krispy and kreme‘ for quite a while. As neither of them has the personality of a krispy it was perhaps a lucky escape. Today Andrew told me ‘we should have called Pickle Bart Simpson… he’s as irritating as Bart sometimes. But oh no, we couldn’t give him a human name!’

While my family avoids human first names, surnames are quite acceptable. The cats of my parents and my childhood include: (don’t think we have very shortlived cats… we generally have had 3 at once)

  • Russell – oh yes, that was a human name. But we didn’t name him. Mum and dad bought the house and the cat came as part of the package.
  • Streisand – she had a weird nose
  • Piewackit – of bednobs and broomsticks fame; all black and a beautiful temperament
  • Miss Piggy – well she owned the place. She was well named!
  • Jingle – a little black kitten we adopted a couple of days before Christmas
  • Fizgig – I think it’s a Dark Crystal character?
  • Holmes – originally named Homeless… the pathetic attempt of my brother and I (aged about 10) of trying to get dad to allow us to keep ‘homeless’. After dad finally succumbed we changed it to Homes… and well Holmes had more finesse!
  • Poirot – named for being exceptionally inquisitive I don’t think we had considered we already had a detective in the household
  • Chilli (formerly kecil). I never use her full name at a vet after someone wanted to treat a cat which rhymed with heckle. Clearly not an Indonesian speaking vet).
  • Pippin – what can I say… mum was obsessed with Lord of the Rings
  • and lastly the food gang… Licorice, Saffron and Pickle.
See, cat names are better when they aren’t human ones!

Saffron

10 reasons to consider a pair

June 4, 2011 By in Cat Protection Society, Cats Tags: , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Two-headed cat?
I get Cat Protection Society Updates on my facebook. I saw a pic today of a ‘pair’ of cats looking for a home together. It got me thinking about the advantages of adopting a pair.

Why consider two?

  1. You get twice as much love
  2. They put twice as much cat hair on your clothes. One cat deposits just enough for you to look messy. Two leave enough cat hair to make the fabric look textured – it was meant to be that way.
  3. You can justify purchasing more cat toys!
  4. When used as a lap warmer they cover twice the surface area of just one.
  5. If you are ever in doubt regarding a bump or a bubble, you have another cat for comparison. You may think I joke but I did ‘use’ my second cat for this reason recently. Saffron has a pinkish-purple lower lip. (Saffron is on the left in this photo): Sharing the washing basket IPeriodically I think Saffy’s aubergine lip is overly large. That’s when I scoop up Licorice (as much as one can scoop a 7 kilo cat) and check the size of her lip. I find it reassuring to find they are the same size. It’s just that Licorice’s lip is black. This pigmentation is consistent in her pallette whereas Saffron has a ‘tortie’ mouth as well
  6. If you buy cat food that one doesn’t like hopefully the other will eat it and it isn’t wasted.
  7. If you can’t decide on boy or girl, long-haired or short, fat or thin, dark or light – a two cat solution is the perfect antidote to your indecision.
  8. When you have two cats to lift you can exercise BOTH you arms
  9. Purchase two at the same time the second one is discounted! and lastly,
  10. They’ve got each other.

Cuddles

Cards to celebrate 88th birthday

October 3, 2010 By in Cat Protection Society, Cats Tags: Leave a comment

My grandmother had her 88th birthday yesterday. I am giving her cat greeting cards (she likes to send cards to overseas friends). This may not sound like such a great present until I throw in that I took all the photos for the cards and her own cat has a starring role!

My thanks to Cat Protection Society of NSW who allowed me to take pictures freely. I had intended to do a calendar. Unfortunately I fell short of the required 13 photos in the timeframe I had, so greeting cards it is. While it was originally done so I could make prints for my grandmother, I’ve publicly listed these items on red bubble so anyone may purchase a card. I will be giving 50% of any proceeds to Cat Protection Society. All cats featured have benefited from the great service CPS offers – including my two girls: Licorice and Saffron and grandma’s tiggy (the one with the big yawn!).

I do hope you enjoy.
http://www.redbubble.com/swf/redbubble.swf

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