THE COUNTDOWN IS ON

THE COUNTDOWN IS ON! Our community day is just 1 MONTH AWAY! 
We are also again chatting with our carer Marie,  and sharing some more about the kitties & what goes on behind the scenes. We also have winners for our code word competition that we are again doing in this episode. Hope you enjoy and we will chat again soon x 

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:04

No matter the story, we'll get them through. We can save it, no matter the story, that's what we do. We rescue, rehabilitate, and rehome vulnerable cats and kittens at risk of euthanasia. Text us on 0422-928-492 to find out more. Hannah's Haven. Hey everyone, welcome back. Episode three is here. Can't quite believe it. Apologies that it is a little bit later than I anticipated. You might have seen if you're following along on the page that we've got some little neonates at the moment. They're doing very well. But every year I say, I love doing this, but I forget how hard it is, you know, the two two and a half hourly feeds. Anyway, we will get there. So if you only hear any little squeaks in the background, it's just them. We also have a very special announcement. Very excited. We have our winners for the code word with episode one and two. So episode one's winner is Michelle. She sent through the name Dax as we were speaking about his story and how he came to be within the haven. So congratulations, Michelle. Your t-shirt is in the post and on its way to you. And for episode two, the winner was Laurie. She sent us through a text saying that she'd had a listen and she came up with Lonnie, our little tuxedo boy. So congratulations, ladies. Your t-shirts should arrive in the next few days. We'd love to see photos, so send them in to us. Okay, now it's time to get started with the first part of the episode. Going back, we're talking with our care Marie and giving a bit more insight into what goes on behind the scenes that you might not be aware of. There's a whole misconception of us in general as humans that we're the elite species. But I always come back to we can't survive without animals, but animals can survive without us. And they've been doing it for years before we came along. And it's so frustrating because people don't understand and they don't see cats, especially the same way as people do with dogs. Like if I put a post up and I had anything to do with dogs and I was asking for dog donations, it would be insane. I wouldn't have enough room in my house. Which is fine. But I don't do dogs because there are enough dog rescues out there to take care of that. But the cats, mm-mm, no, not at all. And yeah, having people such as yourself helping with the cases that you know we don't have the right environment for them otherwise, and they're just gonna stay in care for that much longer because we don't have that hands-on time and the experience, I guess, that we need to be able to move them to the next part of life, but that's what you've been able to do. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

So so circling back, I take the long-term cases, yes, so um kind of quite easy to let them go. Um because you get a family, you can have a great life here with this uh family, and you've always got more that I can take, you know. So it's it's nice to actually just have that revolving door happening. Yes, I've done my bit for you, you go live your best life now, and we'll take the next one.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

And you start again, yes. And that's that takes a lot out of some people. Like you've had to take a break right now, I can totally get that because you're done back to back to back. I have, yes. So, yes, and that's fine, you have that break. And again, that's something that a lot of carers don't recognise, they just want to keep going because they get into that. Oh my god, I want to save everyone. I was there when I first started, I was like, I want to save every single cat, and I'm gonna say yes to every single call. And that just it's not sustainable, I couldn't keep going. I mean, this year I've had to take um a step back for you know, there's personal reasons, I've got family sick and stuff like that, and I didn't realise until I took that step back and that bit of a break how hard I'd been going for the last five years. It has been go, go, go, go, go, go, go, you know, because I always had in my head that if I have space, I need I must fill it. No, and then that goes back to the whole quarantine versus intake, you know, it's not as easy as that.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

We did just briefly touch on uh Kahlua and I can't I can't anchor. Anchor. And he fixed his name because he's a massive beast. Yes, he is, he's his one as his mum. But uh they came to me. Uh I've just and the reason why I don't know their names is I've just always called them Mama Bubba. Exactly, and that's usually what we do too.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

And this is what we say a name is just on the paperwork so that we can keep track of who they are after they get adopted.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

Most of them go and get different names, don't they? When they uh as soon as they've been adopted, they get a different name handed over.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

But imagine if we kept every Luna and Bella and Max that came in. We'd have people bringing up saying, Oh, I adopted Luna. Which one? Luna one, five or a thousand. So we just try and keep different names that we can keep track. Yes. What I'm wanting people to understand is that being a foster carer isn't always about the easy cases, it's not about the cute fluffy kittens in and out really quick. Sometimes that's a good thing, sometimes it's not. I started doing rescue when my youngest was like five, and I used to think, oh my god, he's gonna be so upset. But I think it's actually taught both of them, you know, how special what we do is because you can love them, but you can let them go. Because there's a lot of people that get into that thing of oh, I love them so much I can't let them go, but they also can't give them the life that they deserve, you know. They might be in a home where they're fighting there's another cat that fights with them, but they go, I love them so much. But it's like it takes a big person to be able to go, you know what? I really, really love this cat, and I really want them to have the best life, and I know that I can't give that to them, so I can let them go. And I think that's a really special thing to be able to do for a cat because, yeah, we do, we love them all, but you have to be able to let them go and move them on. Now, on to the second part of the episode, we're going to talk a little bit more about how Kahlua came into our care and how you can help change the life of an animal by becoming a foster carer. So we've been asked to help out with who is now Mama Kahlua. Um, but at the time we actually had no space. HQ was full with quarantine. Um because there is a process, you can't just say yes, you've got to make sure that there's the space, there's the availability of that space for at least a two-week period, you've got to keep them away from the other cats, all of that stuff. And because she was a street cat, the chances of her having something are pretty high. So we have to make sure that she's away from everybody else. When we finally were able to manage her, she was heavily pregnant, like she was very, very, very pregnant. So I think we got her probably the second or third week of no the second week of January. She was in care for a week and she popped out four babies. Right. Um, because the babies before had been taken by a fox because they were on the street. So Mama Kalua had had very little interaction, like she'd had people feeding her and stuff, and she's friendly enough that you can pat her, but we're still getting to know her. But then she bonded with Anchor, and it's like a mini me. So her, yeah, and we called him Anchor because he was the biggest of the bunch, he knew it was Mum's favourite, and then as the siblings were getting adopted one by one, whenever they couldn't see each other, Anka would just start screaming, Blue Murder. So we're like, uh oh, here we go. Uh-oh. So um, we know very little other than she was a street cat, so we don't know if she's been previously owned. Obviously, she wasn't de-sexed and she wasn't microchipped, but she could have been belonged to somebody, we don't know. Yeah, so it's cases like that, it's really hard because you there's a part that goes, I just want to go hard and fast and love them and smother them with love and make them love it, and then there's that part that's like, Oh, you could do some damage here if you wanted to hurt me.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

Yeah, so I got mama, uh I actually looked after Riggs, one of her babies, who went to uh a new home, and then I got mama and anchor, mama Kalua and Anchor. Uh, but I've had them for three or four months. Look, they're very happy, they're really happy living with me. But what normally happens uh is I start them off in my ensuite and wardrobe. The wardrobe is excellent because there's lots of hidey holes for them, and uh you know it doesn't matter who it is, um everyone goes and hides, even the most friendliest cats kind of uh just need a little bit of a um uh a customization process. Yeah, then they the door gets opened and they get added on to my bedroom, uh, and then when they're ready, I just open the door to the rest of the house. Now these have uh informants, they've made it into my bedroom, and the door is open to the rest of the house, but they are not interested in going out into the rest of the house. Uh, they're quite happy in their little area, but the the downside of that is I don't spend much time in my bedroom, so I'm not putting any time and effort into them um other than when I go to bed um and you know, uh if I pop in there for a few minutes during the day, you know, um and I just didn't feel that I was giving them the time that they needed. Had they come out into the house, they would have been interacting with everyone, but um they were just kind of quite happy, they had everything they needed.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

See, this is I was about to say, so in Kalua's life, she was safe, she didn't have to protect herself from any predators, she didn't have to look for food, she didn't have to find shelter when it was a shit day. Yeah, she had a mansion, so in her book, she's safe. Her job as a stray cat is gone. So she in her little life that was it. So for her, she didn't need to go and explore the rest of the house because for her, she had everything she needed, yeah. And that's I guess that's what's hard for some carers to understand. It's like you might not ever get that aha moment, it might just be you get them to the next stage that the only place that they're gonna improve is in a forever home, yeah, with that long-term stability, yeah. Um, not saying that you know it's never gonna happen, it's just right now we've had to put pause because we need to sort out where the best place for them to go is. Yes. So that's just we've hit pause on that one. Yeah, that's fine. We do want to remind you we have one month before we have our very first ever community day at Cat Lovers Veterinary Clinic in Frankston. Again, big thank you to them for letting us use their space and expertise from the vets that will be there available on the day. We've got lots of spaces left. If you'd like to come along, bring your animal. It doesn't have to be a haven animal, it could be any, um, for a free health check, get their nails trimmed. If you've got any friends that have got cats that haven't had any vet work done and you encourage them to come along, we've got free microchipping on the day. We can provide that for you. Come and bring them, get their nails cut, have a health check, have a chat with the team. Also come along because we're gonna have a sausage sizzle, we're gonna have some cold drinks, there's coffee and tea available. And just recently, we've been gifted some items that we're going to auction. You come along, give us a little bid on what you think it's worth, and the person with the highest bid gets the product, and all of the sales and all the money on that day come back to the haven to help support the animals in care. So any and all money that we make will be uh greatly appreciated. Love to come along, meet you, meet the team, and there's gonna be some kitty cats for you to meet, little Alfie and Gabe. You would have seen photos of them too on the page. Little Ginger and White Fluffy and a little grey and white fluffy, they're brothers, they're not bonded, so when the time comes, they'd be able to go to a home by themselves. But yes, it's very exciting. Um, getting a bit anxious about it all. I hope that you tell all of your friends to come along, even if you just come along to say hi and you come for five minutes. Five minutes is all it's gonna take. We're gonna give everybody a raffle ticket, gonna have some spot prizes too, cute little uh cat-related items that we've got to give out to people. As our way of saying thank you for taking time out of your busy weekends to come and see us. If you would like to come along or even find out a little bit more information and book your own animal in for a free nail clip or a health check, you need to register. We have a few spots available. You can do it two ways. You can email us on info at hannashaven.com.au. That's info at hannershaven.com.au, or you can text us on 042 928492. That's 042 928492. It will be from 1030 a.m. until 1.30 p.m. If you have a preference of a time, also tell us that in your text. We will do our very best to accommodate that for you, but we would absolutely love to see you there. Thanks everybody for listening. We do have a code word again for you this episode, and it is can you tell us what one of the kittens names of Mama Kalua's babies were? Send that through to 0422 928 492, and we'll announce that next episode. If you haven't already, come and find us on Facebook and follow along for updates on the littles and for any new ones that we take in. Until next time, take care and we'll see you soon. Bye!