Back from Colorado

I was in Colorado for the Colorado Animal Welfare Conference Conference. The previous times I've been sent to Colorado, I've been parked in Denver, where I had access to excellent food, but not much scenery. This time I was out in Black Hawk. What a beautiful drive between Black Hawk and Golden, CO.

How much work goes into a rescue

This video is about two rescued dogs, not cats, but it shows how much time and patience has to go into rescuing friendly, but scared, animals. It's a great, heartwarming video--perfect for a Sunday morning.

Join the Tuxedo Party!

Here's 15 minutes of fame that I hope spay/neuter advocates take advantage of. Tuxedo Stan is running for mayor of Halifax Canada on the slogan "Because neglect isn't working."

So go...If you are on Facebook say thanks on their FB page. Share a successful TNR story. Share a link to a resource. Forward the story onto your local online paper.

What happens when people shoot at feral cats?

So far, three very bad things. They shoot their grandchildren instead.

They shoot their neighbor instead.

They shoot a pet cat instead (and this cat was confined to a trap!)

This is why "just shoot them" can't be recommended as a public policy.

So let's just file that "shoot 'em up" advice away for good, as dangerous and irresponsible, along with cruel and illegal.

Adopt-A-Less-Adoptable-Pet Week is coming up

Need a document converter that doesn't require downloading?

Here you go! Docupub.com I'm creating .pdfs of my cat posters that I can email to friends to post on their driver's side back seat window to help get my long-termers out of here. All I had to do was upload my .jpg of the poster and then save the .pdf it returned to me in my browser. They also have an email version. I have not tried that.

PeTAs Lethal Gift Basket

Are you giving money to PeTA? When Shelby County announced they were overfull and might have to kill shelter pets, PeTA sent them a GIFT BASKET thanking them for making "the right decision" -- and it would appear they didn't mean "good for you for reaching out to the community to prevent having to kill the pets." PeTA meant "good for you for killing pets." This is the video Shelby County advocates created in response, comparing the Shelby County shelter's intake and adoption success to PeTA's (PeTA killed all but 6% of the pets in their shelter in 2011). There's a photo of PeTA's lethal thank you gift, as well. You might want to "pause" to read the stats they post, because the video moves on a little too quickly to read it all.

Shelby County No Kill Mission vs. PETA from No Kill Advocacy Center on Vimeo.

Here's Nathan Winograd's blog post on the issue.

Kitten-fix link-love

You haven't been seeing many kittens here, but you can see a bunch here at Love and Hisses.

A Street Cat Named Bob

I always feel more relaxed after disconnecting my brain from work (and life in general) by reading a book. I've done less and less reading over the years, simply due to a perceived lack of time.

When Friday ebbed away, launching a three-day weekend, I resolved to head out to the local diner for a cheap dinner with a book on my Kindle. I posted on Facebook for suggestions (thanks everyone!). I now have a list of books to read in the future. When I logged into Amazon.com, there was this auto-generated suggestion for me, based on things I'd looked at in the past, online:

Photo from the online ChinaDaily

A Street Cat Named Bob was a great little book (and in large type via Kindle!). For anyone who has read Jackson Galaxy's bio, "Cat Daddy," the story will sound similar. However, in "A Street Cat Named Bob" the tale has been boiled down to simpler elements. The first thing I did upon finishing the book was to jump online and go look for the YouTube videos it mentioned.

Here is a UK media article about James and Bob. And here are a couple YouTube videos of the pair. A post-book video

And a pre-book video

While James did know that travelers had taken photos and videos of the two of them on the street, he only learned Bob was a bit of an internet sensation until passersby mentioned that they had learned of him via YouTube.

When you see the difference between James' hungry and drug-ravaged face in his pre-book video, and his relaxed and filled-out body at the book signing, it's clear how having Bob, a few dollars in his pocket, a little food, and the taming of two huge devils in his life (separation from his family, and drug recovery), have improved his health. Let's hope he continues to "keep it simple" and doesn't let the larger media monsters (the suggested movie) destroy his life, and his story.

Kudos and blessings to the literary agent and publisher of the British version of "Marley and Me," who stopped and talked to him, and helped to continue to change his life, by encouraging him to write his small book. Certainly The Big Issue, which gave him an legit street job deserves a shout out.

I think the word "inspiring" is overused, sadly. Let me just say that I felt, in all the online hype about cats, both bashing by the negative/cat haters, and the gushing by the promoters of the "overcute" online kitty videos and photos, it was heart-mending to read a story that so clearly illustrated what probably many hundreds of thousands of people have experienced but can't articulate: that indescribable contentment we experience when a cat shows, by the little things he does, that he loves us back.

Finn (Thai) checks in!

Judy, who adopted Finn (formerly Thai) came by with her granddaughter Kate a few weeks ago. It looks like they may be regular visitors, which will make the facility cats very happy! Judy sent us a photo of Finn, and you can tell he's very happy.

Shout out to Christy---here's your boy!

Gracie

Because I have so many senior cats who need homes, I've been keeping my head low on the kitten front. There is, however, nothing you can do about the abandoned ones. A few weeks ago, one of my neighbors knocked on the door (or rather, Molly sounded the alarm when she walked up the path), because the French exchange students she was hosting had gone for a walk, and a kitten had attached herself to them, in the area of my farm.

The neighbor is allergic, so the kitten was not brought into her house, although they were feeding her. I stopped by later that day, and the sweet little thing was hiding under a car.

No problem finding this cutie a home, right?

Sigh.

Gracie has diarrhea. I figured "no big deal" but a standard worming did not clear it up. While I was traveling, she stayed with Ellen, a vet tech, who ran a fecal on her (negative), put her on a bland diet (no change), tried the kitty Pepto route (no change) and sent me home with FortiFlora. I have her on a chicken and rice diet with FortiFlora, and while there is some small improvement, it's still not a good stool. So if I don't get her straightened out soon, I won't have a kitten for adoption. I'll have a teenager.

Simple things are never simple, it seems.

She is a cutie, though, and Ellen fostered her twice to keep her own shy foster kitten company and help him come out of his shell. It's nice when I can shove animals off on other people, and it's actually not a burden, but a help.

I think I'll have her stool checked for giardia. I'm not sure that was done.

Take Your Cat To The Vet Week

Aug. 18-25, 2012, is Take Your Cat to the Vet Week. Jane at Petfinder ran a a blog post about it awhile ago, and it's our work signature message for the month, so it was kind of hard for me to ignore!

Curious, I went leafing through Ivan's medical records and was shocked to see it has been over five full years since his 2007 urinary tract disaster. Actually--horrified. My two veterinarians had performed that surgery on a Sunday when they were closed, for a huge discount (less than $600 for surgery and at least 6 visits) because I could not afford the university hospital. I hadn't even gone back for a "it's been a year, let's check everything out" visit? I felt like a very ungrateful client and a bad cat mom.

I discovered why when I packed Ivan up for his vet visit today at Cornerstone Veterinary Hospital. I forgot he gets desperately car sick. I think he found the veterinarian's poking and palpating and blood-drawing easier to bear than the drive up and back.

He's safely home and happily sleeping in the sun in the catio. His long-expired rabies vaccination has been updated (1-year Purevax, because after all of this I'd hate to lose him to a vaccinate-site sarcoma), and a vial of his blood is being shipped off for testing, just because he's getting to be an old boy. He had a small nodule on his thyroid, and the blood panel will help see if that could be a problem down the road. Heart: great! Teeth: gorgeous! Weight: very good! His urethrostomy looks great as well, and he seems to have good control over urine flow. My veterinarian was pretty much beaming about how well he was doing. She certainly saved his life, and it can also be a touchy surgery.

So there is one less thing for me to worry about. I've been watching my grand old man become a senior cat, feeling guilty that he was not getting the care he deserved. Now I can look at him and just...love him.

Cat rescuers, blogging

Elsa on her first day in her new home outside of Cortland. She has since made friends with the house bunnies, and the resident cat has decided to tolerate her, so she will be staying!

I recently attended the No Kill Conference in Washington D.C. and had the privilege of hearing bloggers Peter Wolf from Vox Felina and John Sibley from In Dog We Trust speak. I've already been reading "Platform: Get noticed in a noisy world". As a speaker in social networking myself, I already know that pretty much everything I do as a blogger is wrong. Hilarious!

I began blogging twelve years ago with my Cat Out Loud blog (which I forever regret deleting, thinking somehow my "new job" would have concerns about my maverick ways). My flame burned out long ago, and I'd like to revive it. I blog in my head all day long. Clearly that's not a productive way to communicate.

My current job involves long hours on the computer. I cannot emphasize "long," enough. I often roll out of bed, start the coffee, take care of the cats, pour the coffee and crawl onto my chaise lounge with my phone beside me, around 5-7 am (depending on when I made it to bed the night before), and may not get back to my own life until 8pm. Eating dinner, caring for the cats, and then returning to the computer to blog...well, it makes blogging a chore, rather than the a joy.

I'm sure any number of readers have that same experience. Technological access is both a blessing and a curse.

However, I'm very happy when I am blogging regularly. It's like yard work, or exercise. You swear you can't fit it in, and it can't be leisurely or enjoyable because you have to fit in so much work in way too short a time. But when you look around, you are happy with what you see.

I plan on posting at least three times a week from here on out. If you have been clicking forlornly each day, only to find the same old post, you can follow me by email by submitting your address via the "follow by email" box I've added at the top of the right-side column.

If you use G-mail, Twitter, Yahoo mail, AIM, Netlog, or Open ID, you can click the "Google Friends" button at the right, and you'll be notified when there is a new post.

No more apologies! You all have been great friends and supporters. Thanks for hanging in there.

Quick sprint to Jekyll Island

Last week I made a quick sprint to the Southeastern Animal Control Conference on Jekyll Island, which at the moment counts as my favorite place to decompress. I've visited there three times: once when I was wandering up the coast from Florida, wasting time (who gets to do that, anymore?) between my grandmother's funeral (and transport of her belongings back to my family in NY) and the No More Homeless Pets Conference in Virginia Beach. It didn't make sense to drive all the way up to NY and then back down to VA, so my truck full of antiques and my camping gear puttered from one place to another. My Uncle Ron suggested Jekyll Island, as we talked at the gathering of my grandmother's friends and family.

Horse back riding on the beach is now priced out of my range, but I managed to fit it in that first year (when it was $35). I camped and wandered. The last two trips have been for work--just happy chance that SACA likes to hold their conference on that island in high hot summer when no one else cares to go.

I don't mind baking in the sun one week a year. I always find two hours to rent a bike to ride on the hard beach. This year I ended up pushing the bike, because I misjudged the tide. It had just let out and the sand was too soft to ride on. But it was beautiful nonetheless.

I met this cat two years ago and lamented that I hadn't saved him a treat from the restaurant. This time I wrapped up a few shrimp and fed him bits. He's getting old. I hope he's here again next year.

When you see a cat, you feel compelled to rescue it.

I've been feeding my fuel tank with kerosene to keep the hot water heater running this summer, rather than paying continued high fuel oil bills. On a trip to Van Etten to buy kerosene, I found this skinny, nearly furless cat sitting by the dumpsters of the gas station. I bought her a can of food.

I noted there is a shed nearby, with a white cat sitting by the gaps that go beneath it.

I don't want to get involved in Van Etten when I can't even afford to get involved with my own village (Spencer), but it's hard to look at this poor furless thing when I might easily be able to get her fixed and treated for whatever ails her, if someone nearby is feeding them.

No one at the gas station knew of a local feeder. Checking with the liquor store was a mistake. They told me of two other cats who hang out at their own dumpsters across the road. The church nearby didn't have a name on the notice board. I guess I'll have to go back on one of my days off to see what's up.

On a more positive note, this gentleman was out walking his dog AND his cat. I did stop and ask him if that was his cat taking a stroll with them. The cat looked far too well fed to be another stray, but I felt compelled to ask. He confirmed his cat takes an evening stroll with them when he walks his dog, and called the cat their bodyguard.

Returning Gray Kitty

Grey Kitty showed up at the Hagadorn Hill colony awhile ago, and with the appearance of the abandoned Fern and her two kittens, I dropped off a trap so that they could catch Grey Kitty and we could get him neutered.

They felt that he had gotten skinny, but it appears in fact he's a medium furred cat who gets fluffy in winter, and strips down to guard hairs in the summer. I treated him with Revolution for his fleas, and during his stay, his tom cat scabs were all combed off. He likes to be scritched but doesn't think much of being picked up, and growls and hisses when I come in. However, the way to his heart is through his stomach. How many cats would bury their face in a plate of wet food when the door to freedom is about to be opened?

Grey Kitty is back home again, and now that he's a neutered boy, perhaps he'll show up with fewer scars and a nicer coat this fall.

Rose

So many cats, so little time. Rose is the cat who was abandoned here in the cold this early spring. For awhile she tolerated being kept in one of the boarding rooms I have upstairs in my house, but soon she discovered if she howled, yes HOWLED, out her front window, I would come up to see her.

I had to let her loose into my house with my pet cats because I figured my neighbors would think I'd crossed the line to hoarder and the animals were screaming for freedom. There was a lot of hissing to start, but she seemed to fit in. I shut her up at night, but let her loose during the day.

However, Ivan, my own special friend-cat, is jealous, and today there was a genuine knock-down drag out fight when he felt Rose was spending too much time close to me. Luckily I was right there and I was able to yell an end to the fight and express my displeasure with both parties, vocally. Ivan has also pulled the hairy eyeball on Bear in the past, but they got over it, so I hope Ivan and Rose will work things out as well.

Rose is currently hanging out on the catio, while Ivan snoozes near me on the porch. Sweet Rose needs a home. She's quite talkative and affectionate, and very gentle with people. She is playful, and if you prefer not to have her sitting on her, she will relocate nicely to the chair beside you. I cannot help but wonder who loved her once, and what louse dropped her out here in the country.

The kittens did not make it.

The two little kittens did not survive.

They had more "ups" than "downs" so I thought they were out of the woods. They both had good appetites. The littlest one suddenly seemed uncoordinated and stopped eating. Sometimes you can just push a kitten through one of these low points by syringe feeding until they get their appetite back, but the little kitten began crying in pain when any attempt to syringe feed her was made. I took her to the veterinarian, where they tentatively diagnosed distemper, and we chose to put her down. The second kitten happily ate a big breakfast from his bottle. He was a loud boy, and I saw no problems with him. When I came back from the vet, he was sound asleep, so I let him sleep a bit more. When I woke him up, he started bashing around the box, without making a sound. I thought at first I had startled him, but it continued, and it was clear he was suffering neurologically. So it was back to the vet, where heads were shaken sadly, and he was put down as well. The veterinary staff felt they should be tested for rabies, even though their mom was acting normally, since there isn't much research on how rabies is passed in utero. Perhaps mom had rabies but was not clinical yet, and the kittens contracted it before they were born, and is progressed more quickly in them than in the mom. It was unlikely, but couldn't be ruled out without pulling a lot of books off the shelves, so I went ahead and called the health department. They were extremely helpful (this was 4:30 pm on July 3rd, right before the holiday), and by Friday morning the results were back: Negative.

It's always sad to lose kittens, and even sadder to tell the people who rescued them, and even though I knew Valarie and Craig would be understanding, I put it off almost a week. And failed to blog as well. I finally called to let them know, and then I was off for travel for work, and the blog was neglected.

Mom cat is doing great and will go off to be spayed this week. She still looks like a kitten herself. She is no longer emaciated. She doesn't much like to be picked up, and I plan to work on that once she's upstairs with the other cats.

Raven goes home

Little Raven is spay/neutered, microchipped, and treated for her problem with lice. She probably could have gone back for her soft-release in her home barn before now, but I had to travel for work so the timeline didn't mesh very well.

She now has glossy black fur now that the lice are gone, and is a wee tiny spitfire without a friendly hair on her. See her originally shabby, skinny, lice ridden photo here. She'll stay in her cage in Donna and Tim's barn to get used to "home" before the door is quietly opened early one evening. Hopefully she will stay, since she was hanging around here for quite awhile before she was caught.

The cage is a ferret cage (around $225 at Petsmart) with the floor hole cut larger (hacksaw required) and I really like it. All four doors open individually, and the extra shelf is sturdy enough for a cat. I got this one at a church sale for $100, but would gladly pay full price down the road to replace some of my other cages. My only complaint would be that the wheels are cheap and will break.

Send good vibes for Raven that she "sticks" when she is released. She will have a good home here with Donna and Tim.

"Oh, the places you will go..."

I travel for work. This sometimes mean kittens, or Molly, sometimes go with me. This weekend I was off to an event in NJ at St. Huberts Animal Welfare Center to celebrate 20 Million Petfinder adoptions...with the Cake Boss. Yes, I know I don't have TV and that I've never seen Cake Boss, however my mother likes it, so I was optimistic about the experience.

Molly's kennel was overbooked, and I had the two bottle babies. While dogs were welcome at the event, I was supposed to be helping set it up, so towing Molly around wasn't really an option. At the eleventh hour, Nancy and Steve said they would pup-sit her. Whew!

The kittens came along, because they have been having issues, and I don't like leaving kittens with issues in a foster home. Not because the fosterer can't handle it, but because sometimes all the stay-in-touch phone calls take up more time than actually bringing the kittens along.

I have a regular travel set-up for kittens. It's a medium Rubbermaid tote with a largish hole cut in the top so air can get in, but the kittens can't crawl out (which will happen if you leave the top off). I have two Snuggle Safes, a small cooler for KMR, and a LL Bean bag for towels, etc.

The hotel I found was pet-friendly, with only a $25 pet fee, which is incredibly low. The room was only about $100, (which is pretty low in Jersey), and it was very nearly an apartment, with a full refrigerator, sink, microwave, and even dishes, complete with coffee mugs and wine glasses. If you ever need a hotel in Morristown, NJ, you need look no further than the Hyatt House.

The kittens found the mirror in the bathroom fascinating. I realize it is probably wrong to laugh when a tiny kitten bonks into a mirror to visit that other mirror-kitten, but I'm afraid I could not help it. They still look shabby, primary because they get the eye ointment on their fur. I could give them more full-body baths, but kittens do not find the Blow-Dryer Monster very reassuring.

I can not say enough nice things about the Cake Boss production staff. Seriously. That's one "reality" show you can watch and feel certain they really are trying to help out the organizations for whom they build and reveal a cake. You'll have to stayed tuned this fall for the actual episode (I'll be sure to give some warning here when it gets close), however I would assume they take all of their cake-adventures with the same seriousness, realizing that most celebrations have a message behind it, and trying hard to get that message across to their viewers...not just reveal the cake. I was impressed. And I am very hard to impress.

The St. Hubert's office staff babysat my kittens while I went out to lunch with my co-workers, whom I normally only see in Internet Land. This is where the tote comes in handy, because my kittens wouldn't be spreading their eye germies to another shelter, like they might in an open-door crate. Obviously, leaving them in the car on a 95 degree day was not an option. My co-workers were absolutely willing to fry on a patio so I could bring the kittens along, but thankfully St. Huberts watched over them so we could commune in the blessed comfort of an air-conditioned restaurant. Then I said goodbye, fetched my kittens, and headed on back to rural NY, where it was in the 80s, thank goodness.

I shall do a blog post on my travel set-up later. Maybe others will find it useful, or can share their own kitten-carrying devices.

I'm off to go fetch Molly from Nancy and Steve's place, where she is likely having much more fun that she will have back here!