Miz Liz's Foster Cat House

14/04/2025

🎉 Cecil and Lionel have been adopted together! 🎉
It took a minute, but their people finally found them.
❤️❤️
I was more than ready for some good news. Losing Sydney and Rick was rough, and the last 3 missing cats -- Lois, Susie, and Tim -- are still missing. No sightings in over a week. That's 5 cats lost in just over a month.
💔💔
Realized that April 7th marked the 1 year anniversary of the start of the crowded house project. I started bringing Magnusons in shortly before that, I think. I can't believe it's only been a year, it seems like forever! I'm getting used to the idea that it's all starting to wind down. No idea what I'll do next, but I've still got 19 cats to place, so I have time to figure it out.

07/04/2025

**WANTED!**
Three cats still have not returned to the fold: Lois Magnuson, Susie Crowded House, and Tim Magnuson. I forgot to look at my last post to see how long it's been, but it has to be at least 10 days. I'm just sick over it.
😞
The cats have gotten out maybe 3-4 times over the past year, and until now, I
got them all back within a few days. The only variable I can think of is that they probably got the sh*te scared out of them and it broke their trust.
💔
I set a trap the other night and caught myself a lovely possum. Fortunately, it was more scared of me than I was of it. I didn't know there were possums around but it makes me even more worried about the stragglers - possums will kick your ass!
😭
I had sightings of Lois and Susie several days ago, but nothing since. Tim hates me, always has, so I don't expect him to show himself. I've tried all the tricks I can think of to lure them into the play yard, but that involves shutting the rest of the cats inside, which they hate. I'm hoping I can come up with another plan for tonight.
🙏🏻
I hate this! This, along with the loss of Rick and Sydney, has reinforced my determination to start bringing the friendliest ones inside for house pet training and get them out for adoption. They will be much safer in permanent homes.

01/04/2025

Remembering Rick Magnuson
💔
GODDAMNIT! This one is hitting hard. Eight* cats got out overnight last Saturday. I am pretty sure a raccoon opened up their play yard g*te because I am certain it is cat-proof. Greg was waiting to be let in right away in the morning, but I didn't see anyone else, which is odd. Usually they hang around the yard until dinnertime. This seemed to confirm my suspicion that something scary happened.
😳
Later, I walked the yard hoping to catch a glimpse of some of the escapees. I saw the corner of a black and white something on the hill behind the shed that leads into the ravine. It only took a second for me to realize what it was.
💔
I guess Rick probably tussled with a raccoon. I didn't see any wounds, but he might have had a broken neck. I am thankful his eyes were closed. He looked like he had laid down for a nap.
😭
As you can see from his pics, Rick was always front and center, curious about whatever I was doing. He didn't much like to be pet, but he always greeted me, and even watched me when I was working with power tools inside the shed. Even in the very last pic (shown with Pam) taken a year ago, before he was brought here, he would always come up to see what we were doing.
❤️
He probably never would have been a housecat, but he would have made a lovely outside friend.
🥲
It's only been a few days and I'm still missing him terribly.

* As of Tuesday morning, Greg and Bob are back inside, and Pam and Julie have been spotted. That leaves three cats unaccounted for: Lois, Tim, and Susie. They are very trap-savvy and will bolt if I approach. There isn't much I can do other than try to lure them into the play yard while staying out of sight. I just hope they're still in my yard somewhere. The rest of the cats are out of sorts, as am I.

21/03/2025

🥳 Margaret has been adopted!!🥳
It was a long road for this floofy girl. She arrived in Sept. and took her sweet time warming up. By early Jan. she was ready to go to , where she once again took her sweet time settling in. But she did it!
🥲
There are still 3 crowded house boys waiting there for their real homes.
🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻
Unfortunately, I have a growing sense that all the adult males that have arrived since aren't going to be interested in joining the Housecat Club. They're not mean, but they'd prefer it if humans weren't part of the deal.
😮‍💨

05/03/2025

🥳 Charles was adopted! 🥳 
Such great news for such a wonderful boy! He was one of the few cats I had considered keeping if he didn't find a home. (pic 1,2)
🥲❤️
While we're here, let's catch up with some of our other recent students: 
- Charles arrived in Nov. with Marshall (adopted) and Claude, who is in the colony shed. (hiding behind Patti in pic 3)
- In Dec., we got Cecil, Lionel, Silas, and Samuel. (pics 4-7) Samuel is here in the living room condo, the others are at
- Albert, Eugene, Gerald, and Willem arrived in Jan. (pics 8-10) Albert is here in the foster bedroom and the other 3 chose the colony shed. 

The last female was Margaret (not pictured, now at ) way back in Sept. The remaining 10-14 unfixed cats are adult males, probably ±2 yrs old. Most of those guys eschew the pet life. Regardless, getting all of the cats out of the house is the goal. I'll figure out the rest later!

26/02/2025

❤️ Remembering Sydney ❤️
(You know a grayscale pic of a cat is not going to be good news.)
I had to have Sydney from the crowded house euthanized last week. Short version is that she suddenly looked and acted very ill. I knew it was significant when, not only did she not bolt when I approached her, she let me touch her for the first time.
💔
Took her to my vet for some tests to determine whether or not it was contagious (it wasn't, thankfully!) It looked like kidney failure, which was a shock because she was maybe only 2 years old. I brought her home and set her up inside while I figured out what to do. After much agonizing, I was able to get her in to for euthanasia within a couple of days.
😭
Sydney had been with me since early last May. She was one of the first two crowded house cats to join the Magnusons in the colony shed, and she never, ever wavered in her complete mistrust of me. Some of the crowded house cats in the shed will now sniff my finger, but not that girl! Every time she looked at me, she had the exact same expression on her face! (2, 3) Unrepentantly feral, much like the fictional heroine* she was named after.
🥲
This was one of those moments where the harsh reality of TNR and rescue hit me. As beautiful as she was, she wasn't a pet, she wasn't "handleable", I would not be able to feed her special food or medicate her, and at best, she was looking at life as a working cat. I knew it intellectually, but it's different to face it emotionally.
😔
All told, it cost me around $750 for the vet visit and the euthanasia, plus a trip to urgent care for me, compete with two injections in the butt along with 10 days of oral antibiotics (she bit me as I tried to get her into the carrier.) No regrets! I couldn't save her, but I did care for her the best I could. She lived here warm and fed, with her friends.

*'s kick-ass Sydney Rye series. 👍🏻💯🔥

23/02/2025

Marshall/Slim has been adopted!! He'd been waiting at for his new people to arrive, and they finally did.
😻
His teammates Charles (2), Margaret (3,4), Lionel (5), Cecil (6), and Silas (7) are still there, although I don't think the last 3 have been posted yet. Time to update the score board:

CROWDED HOUSE STATS 2/23/25
41 adopted
9 colony shed
5 at PAWS
4 in socialization (inside my house)
3 returned to owner
--------------
62 cats rescued/fixed!
🙀
What's next? Rumor has it that there are 7 friendlies and maybe 7 ferals left at the house. Hoping to get some of the friendlies up here soon, but still figuring out a plan for the ferals. My shed and my hand are full! I can at least make sure they get fixed. My grant from will cover one more surgery, then it's back to paying out-of-pocket. So glad we're approaching the end!

22/02/2025

(this is a screenshot of their post)

Spread the word, local peeps! The surgery starts at $80, with additional services like vaccines, microchips, flea control, dewormer, and nail trims available for reasonable prices. I haven't checked the signup page today to see how many are left, but you'll want to get on it ASAP!

DM me if you need help signing up. Also, If you're in Kitsap Co. (or could meet me in Kitsap) I might be able to help with transportation, if that's an issue for you.

24/01/2025

Oh, Albert. These 3 moments made me SO HAPPY today!
🥳
After a week of watching him pick at kibble and scoff at all wet food, I started to panic. He isn't tame enough to syringe feed, at least by myself. What to do?
🤔
Fortunately I had Rebound and Pedialyte. Mixed some together and he drank it! Blended up some cooked rice with baby food chicken, added some Pedialyte and Rebound to that (YUM) and he drank that too. He even ventured out of his nest to observe and even groomed himself! (pics 1-2)
🥲
Last night I made it thicker, and he ate most that too! (pic 3) Well, he licked up the "sauce" but I'm counting it. I put out some prescription gastrointestinal (easy to digest) kibble out and I think he ate a few as well.
🙌🏻
But the larger issue is that he is the 3rd adult male from the crowded house to end up on Inappetence Row. I ended up taking Jimmie and then Charles to the vet, but I couldn't get Albert an appointment, and I wasn't panicking enough to go to the $$emergency vet$$. Been trying to figure out why this happens, and maybe even how to prevent it. All 3 males are at least semi-social, and all 3 are "low-valiance" (non-dominant, cautious, shy, possibly anxious.) It's typical for cats to not eat for a day or so once they get here, but if they are still too freaked out to eat before they go into surgery, and are still too freaked out to eat the night after surgery, by the next morning they start to feel crappy from the empty stomach and the cycle has started.
🤢
But how to forestall it? The only way I can think of is to (try to) get some sort of calming supplement into them when they get here; or, even better, right before they're trapped. I thought about gabapentin or trazodone, but mass-dosing cats of unknown size is problematic....
(Stick with me, conclusion in comments!)

13/01/2025

Four more join the party!
🥳
Albert, Gerald, Eugene, and Willem from the crowded house enjoyed(?) their freedom ride from the crowded house to join us yesterday! (And by "us", I mean me and 31 other cats.)
😹😳
The names may sound familiar to long-time readers; these guys are named after my last fosters of 2021, a mama + newborns named Trixie and the Victorians. One of my favorite family groups of all time.
❤️
These guys will have surgery tomorrow, courtesy of , then they'll come back to rest, relax, recuperate, and ruminate on how much they like human companionship. I don't think this group is as tame as the last group (Cecil and Co.) I guess we'll find out soon enough!

10/01/2025

The boys are at the stage where they forget that they like me in between visits.
😹
The group dynamic is interesting. Cecil (top) is the alpha, no doubt. He's significantly larger, always chittering at the others, almost like a mama cat. Samuel is completely avoidant. Last night I heard some growling and yowling - maybe Samuel came out to eat and someone went after him. Hard to imagine, since they've all huddled up with him at one point or another. I may pull him out to the living room. Small steps, but I'm confident it won't take long to be sure they know their manners.

07/01/2025

It's been a minute since we've had a
🎉 Graduation Day! 🎉
Charles, Margaret, and Marshall (aka Slim) from the crowded house were welcomed by yesterday. Margaret had been here since Sept. 22, Charles and Marshall since Nov. 18. You've seen Margaret before, she took her sweet time warming up, then holiday madness set in so her graduation was delayed. Not that she minded! Charles had a rough start - he came in with a bad case of flea allergy dermatitis, then he decided to stop eating after surgery, then he decided to keep itching and scratching after the fleas were long gone, so he enjoyed *cough* a couple of extra trips to the vet during his stay. Marshall was a late addition to the graduation roster. His owner originally wanted him returned, but recently decided rehoming was the best path for him. He was already pet-quality, so off he went! All three of these furbabies will be wonderful pets, and I'm grateful to Bainbridge Isl. PAWS, (as always), and everyone who participated in my 65th birthday GoFundMe for keeping this party going.
❤️❤️❤️
Bonus pic: Margaret and Charles transfixed by the mousies on the teevee
😹😻😹
Samuel, Cecil, Silas, and Lionel are next on the socialization docket. I don't think it'll take these boys long at all to complete the graduation requirements. They're already allowing real pets!
🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻
And don't look now, but I'm hoping for as many as *FIVE* more boys -- first members of the class of 2025 -- arriving in the next week or so! We're down to less than a dozen cats in the crowded house, and the goal is to get everyone out by the end of Feb. So close!!!!

16/12/2024

*Name update: Lionel, Samuel, Cecil, and Silas*

And 4 more make 58 total! This is Leonard, Samuel, Cecil, and Giles (or Percy, haven't decided.) They arrived yesterday and will be snipped and tipped this week, once again thanks to . I can't wait to meet these guys once the testosterone levels drop. They are all reported to be at least a little friendly, which is very encouraging.
😻
Dropped another couple hundred bucks on cat food today, still need to stock up on litter. Recently bought a ton of Revolution, which should arrive shortly.
💸💸💸
If you have, say, $6.50 to spare, would you consider donating to my 65th Birthday GoFundMe? We're almost a third of the way to my goal and every bit helps! We plan to g*t half of the remaining cats in January and finish in February. Then, at least, the catching part will be done.
❤️
https://gofund.me/635472be

14/12/2024

Can you help us finish this thing, already? We're so close! Feel free to share with all your cat-loving pals, too.

I'm helping a family rescue and re-home their many, many cats -- essen… Liz Thayer needs your support for Rescue and re-home the last dozen Crowded House cats

18/11/2024

🎶Let's hear it for the boys!🎶
Got 3 new crowded house cats today; Claude, Charles, and Slim. They are completely freaked out, but none of them has *actually* freaked out. That's encouraging! Rumor has it we have 15 more males to go...

16/11/2024

I've written this post three times and keep fat-fingering the buttons and deleting it!
😭
This is Ryan (top) and Margaret, probable littermates from the crowded house colony. Ryan arrived in mid-June, Margaret came in mid-Sept. This is their first time free-roaming in the living room together. Just noticed a few mins ago that they both have right ear tips, making them almost identical except for a slight size difference!
👯‍♀️
Ryan is wary and cautious but I think he remembers being here before. Margaret is curious but Ryan won't let her approach. Send bonding vibes - I'd love to put these two beauties up for adoption together!
😻😻
(Both were fixed courtesy of my grant from and will go to for adoption.)
🤞🏻🤞🏻

28/10/2024

Mac was adopted the day after I took him in! No big surprise -- he's an exceptional cat, plus gave him an unbeatable write-up. (1,2)
🥰🥰
While I was there, I finally got to stop by 's tranquility garden (3,4). It's so lovely! I would have loved to sit awhile if everything wasn't sopping wet. Welcome to October in the PNW, right?
😹🌧️😹
I'm down to just one inside student now, Margaret. (5) I'm pretty sure she's Ryan's and Liam's sib. Speaking of Ryan, he's with a foster for some advanced coursework, but he'll be back to see how he and Margaret get along. They're a matched set.
😻😻
And then there's Jimmie (6), who came in mid-June with Luther, Georgie, Bill, Ben, Ryan, and Liam. Jimmie decided he lives here now, so he's officially my #7 cat. Bill is in the colony shed, Ryan's in foster, and everyone else has been adopted!
🙌🏻👍🏻👏🏻🤜🏻🤛🏻
Best part is every cat shown and mentioned in this post was fixed courtesy of my grant. Still some more to go, but all the females have been taken care of so we can relax a little.

24/10/2024

Mac, my handsome boyfriend, graduates today. He'll be ready for adoption at in a couple of days. He's the cat I would have if I was having only one. Big reformed-tomcat-main-character energy! He actually does ok with other cats, as long as they're chill and smaller than him and don't run or flip him any salt. Typical alpha male! 😹 He really just wants to be with his person. ❤️ I'll miss him, but he needs his own home!

P.s. Another cat fixed by my grant from 🙌🏻