Purrs In Our Hearts - Cat Forum UK
Cat General => General Cat Chat => Topic started by: Gillian Harvey on May 28, 2010, 20:42:32 PM
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Yes, its official, I'm now a fosterer for the Cats Action Trust N&W Wilts - this has been a while in the planning, before mum had her falls and went into hospt, and its a bit unfortunate that it all came to fruition just as hospit decided to discharge her today with not much notice!
Anyway, the charity were desperate for fosterers and so we planned a pen for the garden, and it was built Wed and Thurs this week - OMG its huge!! I mean, I knew the measurements and stuff, but it just looks so ginormous in the garden (my garden slopes, so the base had to be built up on the downard slope - making it rather an imposing building - just looking at this photo of it - it looks like a darn great caravan in me garden :shocked: Still, get some plants in should make it sit in its enviornment a bit better - I hope! There are two pens with a central safety area joining them both, all insulated and lined.
So, today, my pens are full!! I picked one little black cat up from local vets this morning - quite young, female, no name yet (they were calling her Minx at the vets - wonder why :rofl: ) - and then this afternoon (should have been lunchtime, but they didnt arrive till 3.30 :shocked: - 3 older cats all from the same household. They came with one cardboard carrying box and i was looking around for the other two, when I realised they were all 3 in the same box!! Will post pics soon - so I suppose I should post in the Rescue section now should I? now I'm official! ;)
(http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb234/scruffyjoe/Garden/IMG_5644.jpg)
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Wow thats an impressive shelter....maybe some of us could move in there :rofl: :rofl:
Yes you should post somethings in the rescue section now and cant wait to see the inmates ;D
3 cats in a cardboard carrier................poor kittys,
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I'm not going to show Pepsi this is she'll pack her bags and go and move in :rofl: Congratulations anyway, what a lovely thing to do :) What a turn of good luck for the 3 poor kitties going from a cardboard box to luxury 5 star cat accommodation!
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Well done Gillian, can't wait to see pics of your first charges ;D ;D
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Gillian congratulatioons = when are you doing holiday let! ;D
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:1st place: Gillian
That pen looks amazing, I think the word pen is a bit of an understatement though :evillaugh:
Those poor babies, all 3 crammed into one miserable cardboard box :( Looking forward to seeing them bloom in your care :) You'll have to get Tan to make you green now ;D
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I can do that ;D
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Congratulations Gillian ;D ;D Wow that pen is huge! What size is it? :Crazy:
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Mutter mutter it didnt work.................try again time!
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Bingo ;D
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What a cracking pen....wish my garden was big enough for that! ;) Congrats, Gillian. :hug:
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So that was your secret project, you little hugger :Luv2:
So, FAILED fosterer has now come good ;) ;)
So Gillian you have the Persian Palace and the Moggie Madhouse you need another name for the foster cats now - all I can think of is Foster Cat Farm :rofl: :Luv2: :hug:
Mary
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Wow that's some amazing puddie accommodation Gillian ;D. Hope you are going to get some support to settle the puds in bearing in mind your mom being discharged so unexpectedly quickly.
I'm amazed it's even possible to get 3 fully grown cats into one cardboard box and imagine they are really enjoying their new spacious surroundings. Well done you :hug:
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Thanks :thanks:
Oh cool, I'm green! ;)
I must admit I didnt realise it was going to tower about everything in the graden like that LOL! Its 18 ft long in total by 4 ft 6 ins deep - and the height? I don't want to think about the height LOL! :scared: . It was only after the builders had gone that I realised they'd put bolts on all the outside of the doors, but none on the inside - so effectively no way of securing the door to the safety area once you are inside, nor securing the run areas from inside there either :doh: - I had to fix something up pretty quick for the outside door as a temporary measure! No electricity yet either - so I'm the 'lady with the lamp' for the nighttime check!
Little Minnie the Minx ;) grumbles at me every time I set foot in her pen, little madam!
The three older girlies are in a pretty sorry state, they are mum and daughters, the two daughters are very nervous and I havent seen them get down from their beds to eat yet - I think their mum is eating for them LOL! she's polishing off everything! They look underweight and from the smell when I opened the box they are going to need their teeth seeing to. The owner isnt well and it was his daughter who brought them - she thought that they'd were being fed the dogs' food and their living conditions were quite poor. :(
Holiday lets Liz? - sorry No Vacancies at the mo LOL!
Hmmm, Foster Cat Farm? not sure.....needs work I think! :evillaugh:
I'm not sure about the colour now - you see I went for the cream because I wanted it to nice and light in the garden, but I think that might have been a mistake - maybe a darker (normal dark fence colour maybe) would have been better?
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Wow that's some amazing puddie accommodation Gillian ;D. Hope you are going to get some support to settle the puds in bearing in mind your mom being discharged so unexpectedly quickly.
I'm amazed it's even possible to get 3 fully grown cats into one cardboard box and imagine they are really enjoying their new spacious surroundings. Well done you :hug:
Yep, and all my careful arrangements i.e. all cats in and settled before lunctime, then the afternoon to concentrate on mum, went right out the window, because of waiting for phone calls and waiting for people to arrive, I did a lot of pacing today!
I was shocked at the 3 cats in one box too, good job they are all small!
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Well done Gillian :)
It is quite imposing - I hope you don't have problems with neighbours :scared:
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Can't think of anyone better to be a foster mum - well done you! :hug: :hug:
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Wow thats some shed!!
Well done on the fosters I hope it goes well
love
Tab
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Its 18 ft long in total by 4 ft 6 ins deep
Ahhh now I see why our neighbours faces looked like they did when a 13ft x 16ft cat house and pen went up in our garden the other week :-[ The guy who built ours was the same with the bolts and just put metal twist things on the utside of each door so we ended up spending a small fortune at B&Q on bolts and locks for the inside and outside of each gate and door. Solar shed lights might work quite nicely to provide light or Costco were doing LED strip lights that you can mount on wall or just have on the floor that run off batteries that have 2 light level settings and the batteries last ages.
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Fab accommodation!
Good luck with theh fostering.
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How about "The Foster Farmhouse"
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Wow thats some shed!!
Well done on the fosters I hope it goes well
love
Tab
ditto - I'm green :sick: (with envy though :rofl:) and have to sit down when I think how much it must have cost!
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wow that is fabulous, land ucky cats to have found you. Good luck with the fostering
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Well done Gillian! What a brilliant 'pen'! I think the colour's great! Hope you have many happy years fostering and hope the two little ones soon come round :hug: :hug:
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I like the Foster Farmhouse ;D
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Thats fab news , you will make a great fosterer (until a persian comes in and then you may be a failed fosterer temporarily :rofl: :rofl: )
Love the big " Pen" - would like one in my garden -its great and some very lucky cats to be in there . ;D
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How about "The Foster Farmhouse"
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Yer, that's good - all I could think of with F was Farm.
Mind you there's gonna be a very long list of names knowing you Gillian. ;) :Luv2: :hug:
Mary
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I think the light colour will be a lovely background for some climbing plants. :wow:
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Wow, that is an impressive pen. Good on you for fostering, I didn't think you would have done with your last attempt!! What do the cats think of having part of the garden taken away?
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Thanks :thanks:
Cats don't seem that bothered about it, although Joe is already looking for ways to climb it LOL!
The cost? - well lets just say I'm glad I wasnt paying for it! Hence why I havent got electircity yet - the Trust needed to recover from paying the bill for the pens ;)
I did tell the neighbours what I was doing - but I think they were a bit shocked by the size :-[ I did take some flowers and choccies round after it was finished - for having to put up with all the banging etc for 2 days! Definitely gonna plant up round it - still not convinced about the colour, think it would blend into the backgroun a bit more with a dark wood colour.
Wow Lottie 16x13? :wow: We havent got a Costco here - those LED lights sound quite good, are they a Costco brand?
The inmates are settling in - just gonna post piccies in Rescue ;)
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Dark wood would look a little more imposing, though I think. Definitely needs some hanging baskets and such like, but I think it's ace!
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Wow Lottie 16x13? :wow: We havent got a Costco here - those LED lights sound quite good, are they a Costco brand?
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Our neighbours knew what size it would be but when it was built it looks a lot more imposing than I had realised it would :-[
I'm not sure if the lights we have at the mo are Costcos own make or not but I'm sure Maplin, B&Q etc will sell similar. I don't know if it would be a viable option cost wise or not for you/the trust but we plan to get a solar panel for the roof of Orion's house and a caravan leisure battery to connect it to and then buy 12v lights, radio, etc have the stud house self sufficient for power.
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Dark wood would look a little more imposing, though I think.
Do you think? I thought perhaps a dark colour would look a bit more natural in its surroundings - oh hec, I don't know now, maybe I'll try a bit on the side cos if I don't like it once I've done it, it would be darn near impossible to get it light again!
Our neighbours knew what size it would be but when it was built it looks a lot more imposing than I had realised it would :-[
I'm not sure if the lights we have at the mo are Costcos own make or not but I'm sure Maplin, B&Q etc will sell similar. I don't know if it would be a viable option cost wise or not for you/the trust but we plan to get a solar panel for the roof of Orion's house and a caravan leisure battery to connect it to and then buy 12v lights, radio, etc have the stud house self sufficient for power.
I like the idea of the solar panel, I might look into that, would you be able to run heaters as well? I'll need heaters for the winter.
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No matter, I'll take it off your hands. Don't want you to have an eyesore in your garden. :briggin:
No need to thank me.
I'm sure some trellis and a couple of clemantis or passion flowers would help soften it - even some sweet peas.
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I think Gypsys Cat Caravan would be a good name! ;D
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No matter, I'll take it off your hands. Don't want you to have an eyesore in your garden. :briggin:
No need to thank me.
I'm sure some trellis and a couple of clemantis or passion flowers would help soften it - even some sweet peas.
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Hands off Angie - you must fight for it fare and square :rofl:...................
If you don't like the colour you could always put it in the Purrs Christmas Auction :evillaugh: :naughty: :rofl:
Mary
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I think Gypsys Cat Caravan would be a good name! ;D
or Coventry Cat Group :shify:
Amber's Arc?
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I'm not sure if the lights we have at the mo are Costcos own make or not but I'm sure Maplin, B&Q etc will sell similar. I don't know if it would be a viable option cost wise or not for you/the trust but we plan to get a solar panel for the roof of Orion's house and a caravan leisure battery to connect it to and then buy 12v lights, radio, etc have the stud house self sufficient for power.
I like the idea of the solar panel, I might look into that, would you be able to run heaters as well? I'll need heaters for the winter.
I've just had a quick look (as we won't be having any heating in ours) and it looks like you can get heaters that run off 12v
http://www.roadpro.co.uk/retail/product_detail.aspx?prod=CERAMIC+12V+HEATER+WITH+TIMER&id=1262
I'm a bad girl and have been checking the availability of 12v tvs for Orion :evillaugh:
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I got a panel heater from morgan hope, a servitherm one
http://www.morganhope.com/heating.html (http://www.morganhope.com/heating.html)
I started off with an IR bulb (the type for chicks) but when it arc'ed and i actually read up about them, the fire risk is far greater than i could live with. I'd never forgive myself if my pen went up with resident(s) inside :scared:
Fan and oil heaters use more electricity which i assume will go on your bill
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I got a panel heater from morgan hope, a servitherm one
http://www.morganhope.com/heating.html (http://www.morganhope.com/heating.html)
I can't see any prices on that site MM - was it very expensive?
No matter, I'll take it off your hands. Don't want you to have an eyesore in your garden. :briggin:
No need to thank me.
I'm sure some trellis and a couple of clemantis or passion flowers would help soften it - even some sweet peas.
LOL! :evillaugh:
Liking the suggestions for names - theres no prizes for the best one by the way! ;)
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I cant remember gillian so it couldnt have been too bad lol i can have a rummage through my cat receipts, im sure iv kept it ;)