Hills dry m/d food on recall & new list

Hello Feral Friends-

The first DRY cat food was added to the recall list. It's Hills m/d. It's a diabetic diet food I believe. My Trixie is diabetic but thankfully I have her on the Purina d/m diet for the simple reason that she prefers it to the other. Whew!

Here's the press on it:
http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Mar31/0,4670,PetFoodRecall,00.html

Here's the updated listing of foods in the recall:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,260784,00.html

Thank you my sweet and wonderful Gabby for sending this information to me!

On a good note, Portia and Quinn went to their new home this week. Larry and his family love the girls. The 7 year old son gets up early in the morning to play with them. They have adjusted well and are not afraid of the canine who shares the house. Quinn is still Quinn but Portia had her name changed to Sammie.

Tonto Sanchez got into Crash's Landing. Now I only have 24 rescue cats to care for this weekend!

: ) Carol

PS The new issue of Cats and Dogs magazine is out. Gina wrote a beautiful tribute to feral kittens. The editor published my views which were pretty hard core and should be an eye opener to those out there who are not familiar with the hardship that kitten season brings. You all know my position. Now, so will the rest of the folks who the magazine reaches.

My kinda story - Thanks Gina for sending it to me!

A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead.

He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.

After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.

When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as He got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side.

When he was close enough, he called out, "Excuse me, where are we?"

"This is Heaven, sir," the man answered.

"Wow! Would you happen to have some water?" the man asked.

"Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up."

The man gestured, and the gate began to open.

"Can my friend," gesturing toward his dog, "come in, too?" the traveler asked.

"I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets."

The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.

After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence.

As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.

"Excuse me!" he called to the man. "Do you have any water?"

"Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there, come on in."

"How about my friend here?" the traveler gestured to the dog.

"There should be a bowl by the pump."

They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it.

The traveler filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog.

When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree.

"What do you call this place?" the traveler asked.

"This is Heaven," he answered.

"Well, that's confusing," the traveler said. "The man down the road said that was Heaven, too."

"Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's hell."

"Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?"

"No, we're just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind."

Operation "Sick Cats Locked In A Barn"

I got the call two weeks ago. Pat Bamford said, "My brother has a barn full of sick, inbreed cats who need to be euthanized." She said there were 30-40 of them. I lost it and started crying on the phone. I explained that I didn't want to have anything to do with a death march and that she would have to find someone else. Amy who turned me on to this horrible situation said she would take care of it in May when she had time, but I couldn't allow that cuz there would be hundreds of kittens by then!

Then I talked to Gina Marvin who said "Honey we have to take care of these cats. To do nothing is the worst thing, it would be better to take them in and have them euthanized than to let them suffer if they were so bad off". So Gina convinced me to call Pat back up and tackle the situation.

I swear, without Gina, I would loose my mind! Seriously...she has been the calm, patient, helpful, level head that I need. Without her, I probably would be in an asylum and not doing any TNR or cat rescue at all. I'd be happily passing the days in my padded cell...which might be nicer actually!

So I called Pat and learned that there weren't 30-40 but more like 15 cats AND they were being held captive in a barn. Wow, I thought...easy pickings! I instructed her to have the caregiver not feed them for a day, and Gina and I would come in with mackeral baited traps and get them in no time at all.

We set the traps and left for lunch, quite sure that they would all be in traps when we returned. Not the case. Only 3 cats got into traps. Gina suggested we return the next day with a drop trap. A drop trap is a huge wooden monstrosity that is covered with strong plastic mesche and works like an old box/stick pull trap. But when we returned with it on Thursday, we had no takers. Seems the URIs were so bad that the cats lost their appetites. I can relate cuz my butt kicker of a cold in February had me the same way...no appetite! That since has changed...unfortunately!

So Gina got busy moving huge sick bales of hay to uncover the remaining hiding cats. These cats have been locked in this barn for god only knows why. The owner of the farm is elderly and must have thought he was protecting them. In reality, he was making them sick because there is no ventilation and the cats are breathing in putrid stale air. But it was easier to catch them all so I'm not complaining.

We took 11 cats total. Some are so sick that we have to wait to have them fixed. They are all on zithromax which costs a small fortune. Luckily they are only semi-feral and I can shoot the meds directly in their mouths while they hiss at me as I approach them with my gloved hand.

Because they are so sick, I have had to move my mom and kittens and Ocatvia, Portia and Quinn into my upstairs bathroom...leaving Trixie's litter box in the hallway. NICE!

So my garage is a disease ridden mess and I can't do any TNR rehab till they are out of there and I can power wash everything that they have touched. Which is EVERYTHING.

Thankfully Gina has room at her place to rehab any TNR that does come my way this week. But I'm stopped of taking in any new projects till I get these cats better.

The home health aide of the elderly farm owning couple is having the barn cleared of all the sick old hay and putting some fresh stuff down. She is going to take off the board blocking the cat door and the cats will be allowed to roam freely (as any barn cat should be) once I get them returned...which will hopefully be sometime next week.

Thank you Gina for talking me off the ledge once again. I feel I can accomplish anything with your wisdom, help and guidance.

: ) Carol

The Sanchez Cats and $120 in Meds

Hello Feral Friends-

For those of you who are new to reading my blog....I want you to know that I do more than attend Feral Cat Benefits and gripe about people who won't fix their family pets.

I've been super busy taking care of some really sick cats. I affectionately call them THE SUPER EXPENSIVE SANCHEZ CATS!

At the end of January, I got a call from a woman on the SW side of GR. I managed to get my hands on several cats that she has been feeding. She is a well meaning woman, but just feeding cats is NOT ENOUGH. And while I commend her for getting them fixed, I wonder why she did nothing to help them with their horrible URIs.

I had a mother with newborn kittens who was a sneezing, congested mess. I took her home with me expecting to get her better and take her and the kittens to HS. Well, here it is, a whole month later and two kittens died. But I'm left with three adorable little black fluff balls. All are doing much better now, but Mama is semi-feral so I can't take her to HS...so looks like I'll have her till kittens are ready for adoption and spay/return her.

Then there were three adorable 5 month old girls who were also sick as dogs. It's been a month of clavamox, cefa drops and now zithromax. This week, Portia and Quinn are going to be adopted by a couple on the East side of the state and the Octavia will go to a home here in GR.

In addition to these cats, I fixed three other semi ferals for her and returned them after they were better. And I also grabbed the friendly neighbor cat and had him snipped too!

THEN...she called me with Tonto Sanchez....a black long haired boy who was so sick that Gina urged me to medicate him before taking him to be fixed cuz she feared he wouldn't make it through surgery due to his illness. Really bad URI....go figure! Tonto Sanchez is well on the mend after being caged and medicated for three weeks. Thursday.....he goes to Crash's Landing.

There have been several other TNR cats in the midst of these Sanchez cats. It's been busy and it's only going to get busier as we dive headlong into kitten season.

Erica and I are going on a call tomorrow to trap up a feral mom who just gave birth to kittens on a porch on the NE side. OH JOY!

Tonto Sanchez -
a matted up mess with a horrible URI and awful bite wounds
that he incurred cuz some fool let him outside intact
and he was more of a lover, not a fighter!

Portia, Octavia and Quinn....from front to back!



Mom Cheyenne (on right) with Salem and Tulsa.
Raleigh is nursing on mama and not visible in the photo.

60 Million Containers of Pet Food Recalled After Dog and Cat Deaths

Go here to learn more:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,259223,00.html

For listing of cat foods affected go here:

http://www.menufoods.com/recall/product_cat.html

For listing of dog foods affected go here:

http://www.menufoods.com/recall/product_dog.html

The Most Ridiculous Items Of The Day

Well, actually there are two. First mine. Got a message on my answering machine. This is how it went.

Hi my name is _____ and I was looking at this magazine Cats and Dogs. And I'm interested in adopting a cat that I see in here on page 11. His name is Tommie. He's on the page with Penelope and Sigsbee. But I'm only interested in Tommie. But the main thing I need to know is if he's fixed. Because I'm looking for a house cat to BREED WITH MY OTHER KITTEN because my male ran away. My phone number is ______. If you can give me a call please.

OK, at first, I thought someone was playing a joke on me. Like I thought I was being PUNKED.
Then I realized that this lady was for real. I called her back, educated her on the statistics of how many cats are killed at the shelters daily etc, etc. Then she told me that she wanted cats cuz she would be getting some property and would have barns. So I suggested that she fix her girl cat, adopt a neutered male to fill the void her male cat left and let me give her healthy, sterilized barn cats when she gets her stables.

THEN, Gina gets a call from a woman who has some stray cats that she'd like fixed. This woman then proceeded to tell her about the pregnant stray cat that she and her neighbor allowed to have kittens last year BECAUSE THE NEIGHBOR HAD BEEN GOING THROUGH SOME ROUGH TIMES AND THEY THOUGHT THAT SEEING THE KITTENS BEING BORN WOULD BE THERAPEUTIC! They then took the cat and her kittens to a shelter. Gina wanted to say (but didn't as she didn't want to offend this woman who she wants to help) "Perhaps it would have been therapeutic for your neighbor friend to go and witness them all being euthanized". I give her a lot of credit. It's hard to bite your tongue.

And a side note: These ladies are catholic and don't believe in abortion.

Loved that part the best.
God help us!
C

News From Agnes' Daughter

Hello Feral Friends-

I received a beautiful card from Anita, Agnes' daughter. It made me cry....which isn't a hard thing to do these days being that I've been an emotional wreck for weeks now. But this was a good cry.

I'm not sure if I spoke much of Agnes' daughter in previous blogs. But Anita is an adult who is mentally challenged in some capacity. I don't know the details but suffice it to say, now that Agnes has passed away, Anita is living in a group home situation.

I'm assuming she had an aide write the card and letter to me. I'd like to share it with you because you have all been with me through this whole thing, and it's very heartwarming.

She also contributed $20 toward the care of the cats....which made me cry even more....cuz this sweet girl doesn't have any real money.

The card reads: Thank You. Your thoughtfulness meant so much. (inside it reads). I know this won't cover the cost, but I want to contribute. My friend Janet and I walked to the dollar store to get this card. Thank you, Sincerely, Anita.

(I'll put my own words in parenthesis so you know it's me taking).

Dear Gina & Carol,

Thank you so much for taking care of our cats. We had 21 cats plus one I forgot, and you got all 21 cats. Thank you for spaying and neutering them. I have a paper I wrote out which ones were spayed or neutered and what their names were.

I realize their names were changed. To think of the kindness you have shown.

Thank you,
Anita

(OK here's the listing of cats)

Meenah - 22 year old siamese, spayed. Mike and Rosa got her. (This is the old girl that Mike and Rosa adopted. I thought she was 20. I guess it was their favorite. I named her Mama).

Macy - large neutered black and white male (This is the cat I call Tux or Tennessee).

Nelson - large black neutered male (This cat was taken early to HS and has already been adopted. I think they named him Cloud. Funny since he was all black).

Nellie - gray tiger spayed female (I think this is Tammie who was also taken to HS early and has since been adopted).

Naomi- black and white large spayed female (This is my precious ambassador to the cat room, Penelope).

Pickaninny - large gray tiger neutered male (I'm not sure who this is, but I think he went to HS early too - not the most PC name chosen...but they're farm folks...what can I say).

Patsy - skinny siamese not spayed (This is Mimsie who was adopted through HS).

Marty - thin unspayed black and white female (This is Piper who is still with me).

Black Kitty - large black female with crooked tail, not spayed (This is Sadie who is still available for adoption at HS....but I think they have her at PETCO right now).

Elsa - pretty blue/gray solid cat spayed (I'm not sure that this one was around at the time we were trapping. We did only get 20 cats, not 21 however...BUT the neighbor across the street talked about having a gray cat so she might have gone to live in his dairy barn).

Rommi - pretty spayed siamese (This is Lila who was adopted quickly).

Misty - pretty black and white cat with long hair, mostly black who stayed outside most of the time (This is Lois and she's currently adoptable at Chowhound on Northland Drive through HS).

Jillian - a large siamese male not neutered (Well this is my FIV positive Joe).

Bunny - large male solid gray and solid white, not neutered - I guess he died. (This was my dear Schmedley who I had Bruce euthanize after learning he had horrible mouth ulcerations and was FIV positive. Mike Welch must have told her about him).

Babette - beautiful black and tan with just a little white female, not spayed (This is Felicity, the torti who is not so friendly but will come out to eat and even let me pet her a little so long as her face is buried in a plate of stinky canned food.

Ebony - a small black female kitten, very friendly (This is Renee the kitten who had me crying at Bruce's office. He knew I was on edge trying to get her over her URI so he kept her for me. Lucky too cuz his cleaning lady fell in love with her and adopted her within three days. Yeah Renee!)

Fidaleus - a beautiful white and gray - not tiger gray or sold gray, kind of heather or mottled, long hair, stayed outside male, not neutered - stayed outside - I used to watch him eat supper every night and make sure he got it (This is Fry, my shy guy)

His friend Louie - a solid gray slim male not neutered (This is Sigsbee...and both he and Fry were trapped within seconds of each other...so he fits the picture).

Teddy - was about 7 months old, not neutered, older now (I'm assuming this is Lenny).

Tracy - he brother, orange, 7 months, older now, not neutered (This is Reggie, he has since had his huge balls removed and has been adopted through HS).

Metta - a solid gray and solid white pretty male who liked the back porch, we didn't have him too long (Bender....this is Bender).

I don't know who of you chose to read all this, but if you did, you shared some of my joy in learning the actual names of these cats that I rescued. It did my heart good. They were loved. Not that being loved or not makes a difference in cat rescue, but it does give me a warm fuzzy to know that I rescued cats that ARE being missed by Anita and were loved by her mother Agnes.

: ) Carol

If you missed the FOF Benefit last night.....

Well, then...you missed a really great time. The bands were amazing. People were flowing through the door and we all had a blast! If you would like to still support Focus on Ferals, check these art pieces by Erica Carranco on ebay. Proceeds from the sale of her art will go to benefit the rescue.

Hurry, the auctions end on Tuesday!!!

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZedelynnQQhtZ-1QQfrppZ50QQfsopZ1QQfsooZ1QQrdZ0

Here's some of the pieces:

I AM AN ANIMAL RESCUER

I AM AN ANIMAL RESCUER

My job is to assist God's creatures
I was born with the need to fulfill their needs
I take in new family members without plan, thought or selection
I have bought cat food with my last dime
I have patted a mangy head with a bare hand
I have hugged someone vicious and afraid
I have fallen in love a thousand times
and I have cried into the fur of a lifeless body
I have Animal Friends and friends who have Animal Friends
I don't often use the word "pet"
I notice those lost at the road side … And my heart aches
I will hand raise a field mouse, And make friends with a vulture
I know of no creature unworthy of my time
I want to live forever if there aren't animals in Heaven
But I believe there are!
Why would God make something so perfect and leave it behind?
We may be master of the animals,
But the animals have mastered themselves
Something people still haven't learned
War and abuse make me hurt for the world
But a rescue that makes the news gives me hope for humankind
We are a quiet but determined army, And making a difference every day
There is nothing more necessary than warming an orphan
Nothing more rewarding than saving a life
No higher recognition than watching them thrive
There is no greater joy than seeing a baby play
who only days ago, was too weak to eat
I am an Animal Rescuer
My work is never done
My home is never quiet
My wallet is always empty
But my heart is always full
In the game of life, I have already won!

Thank you Laura Wertenberger for sending this to me.

I hadn't cried yet today! : ) Carol

See you at the Focus on Ferals Benefit...This Saturday Nite!

Hello Feral Friends-

Please come by Rocky's Bar and Grill on Saturday, March 10th and support Gina Marvin's Focus on Ferals Cat Rescue. Four really talented local bands will perform. The music will be great and you will have an opportunity to view art by Erica Carranco which will be auctioned on ebay the following week to benefit the charity. Here's a chance to have a great evening out and help feral cats too! I mean....truly....what can be better than that?

See you all there!
Carol