Merry Christmas. Kindness to cats and their keeper

Is Christmas over already? Nonsense. Christmas extends from Christmas Eve to New Year's Eve. It takes that long for me to get my Christmas cards all in the mail.

In the week before Christmas, we had trekkers who came to the door bearing gifts for the cats. When Mary arrived, I had been pulling a marathon email stint and was still in what passes as jammies for me. The cats were thrilled at the bagsful of toys. A few days later, Lisa showed up with toys as well, and dropped off donated towels and some low-cal food as well. You'd think some of our cats were pudgy or something... (Yes, they are).

Cricket, getting up there in years, preferred the empty boxes (which is just as well, since she's not homeless and technically the toys weren't hers--but the pet cats have to give their seal of approval).

I tossed all the old toys in the cat facility, and we moved onto Bright, Shiny and New. Away boredom!

On Christmas morning it was Fancy Feast for everyone, from the boarding cats, to house cats, to rescue cats. I had gotten the facility cats some soft "fur" throws that look like they may survive the wash and not hold accumulated cat hair. We'll see. At least they will be cuddly and warm for awhile.

On Christmas Eve, Christy and Gordan invited me for dinner. Because there was chicken on the table, Jelli and Phillip (who forget they slept with me when they were kittens, and normally play shy when I visit) were absolutely charming.

Remember when Jelli was Cheeto? I find it funny that his name went from silly Cheeto, to distinguished Justin, but morphed to a silly sweet name once again.

Christy and Gorden sent home yet another bag of toys (the red sparkly ball with Arthur is one of theirs), so the cats are very distracted and very happy.

The cats received other gifts as well, but they deserve posts of their own, so I'll just pause to relay some profound feline gratitude, and wish you all a wonderful holiday!

Feral relocation/soft-release cage

Is this not the coolest thing? Finding a cage that is easy to transport and set up to relocate or return feral cats has been a huge issues for feral cat managers. The one thing I would like to see would be smaller wire, so common barn predators like mink and weasels could not get in:



From Ultra Lite Products, here:

http://www.mypetcages.com/product.asp?specific=156

I have two of their larger cages in by cat facility, which have stood up very well. Maybe around spring I'll invest in one of these. They are a huge improvement over a standard wire dog crate.

Emmi gets "Elfed"

Emmi can boogie with the best of them.

Here she is in a more traditional post.

Thomas, now Tommy, returns.

Tommy's caretaker, the father of a close friend of mine, has passed away unexpected. Tommy was adopted back in 2007 and was his caretaker's constant companion. Cary, his daughter, gladly would have taken him, but she has already adopted Simon and Hope from us, and has other cats and dogs of her own.

Tommy got the run of our great room while he got used to being in a new place. He is now running around the house, and has an appointment at the vet's next Thursday, along with Jewel and Arthur. He has always had weepy eyes and a snuffle in his sinuses. This has gotten a bit worse with age, so we'll have the vet check that out.

Tommy is looking for a new home with someone who wants a playful, affectionate older cat, and who doesn't mind wiping his eyes with special eye wipes to keep his white little face white.

In the meantime, we'll enjoy him here.

Here is Tommy and his Dad, who had only one request when he was in the hospital, and that was to see his Tommy

Faith heads off to foster-to-adopt

Tonight I delivered Faith to her new home for the next two weeks, and maybe for the rest of her life. I hope she's a match, because she would be a lucky cat to score a lovely quiet home with a caregiver who is home most of the time, and dedicated family who come visit.

Keep your paws crossed for her! She did great on arrival. She's clearly nervous, but she didn't disappear under the couch.

When you bring these cats to a real home, you realize how stunted their lives are in a shelter, where everything is chilly and impersonal.

You go, girl! It's "Foster a Lonely Pet for the Holidays" with Petfinder.com. I'm glad she's getting out of here and gets to experience warmth and love. She has been here since March 2009, and before that she was on the streets of Ithaca since at least August 2008.

Here are some links to earlier posts involving Faith.

We find Hope, Faith's kitten"

Finding homes on Craigslist

Some people are rabidly against posting on Craigslist. I figure if I get bad responses, I can just say "No." I've received some very nice adoptions by way of Craigslist and eBay (the classifieds, not the auction). People from more distant cities (Syracuse, etc.) often find my posts when they expand their search to check other nearby Craigslist postings. I find that I get a better quality of response if I post a photo that is cut and pasted from my Petfinder listing. People realize they we are not just someone with kittens from the backyard, and scammers also tend to stay away.

Tortellini, Beans, and Bounder just HAVE to get homes soon. They are far too active for my senior cats, but I don't want to put them in the cat facility. I'm just lucky that I have the boarding rooms to keep them in at night so my personal cats get a break from the playful activity that goes on, and on, and on. The kittens also want to cuddle up on my lap, bless them, which puts Ivan and Cricket's noses out of joint.

So keep your fingers crossed that these three beautiful young cats get their own homes for Christmas.

Christmas profile photos

It's time to get these three new homes!

Bounder

Bounder

Tortellini

Tortellini - "Get it off!"

Tortellini

Beans

TigerTom photo

...snitched from georg's Facebook page.

A new blog to add, and Feral wallpaper

I ran a search for "feral cat blogs" this morning and found The Feral Cat Rescue Project.

There is a calendar feral photo available to set as wallpaper on your computer. I like having a calendar in easy view, so I added it to my computer.

Right-click on the photo to save it.
The go to Control Panel on your computer
Click on Display
Click on Desktop
Click on Browse to find and choose the photo file.
Click Apply, then OK

There you go!