Carol's Ferals: May 2007

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Tonto Sanchez

Hello Feral Friends-

This is Tonto Sanchez. I know, it's a funny name combination! But I think Tonto fits and he came from the colony of Linda Sanchez so that's his name! Tonto Goldstein would have been funny too! Or Tonto Lipshitz....that would have been a hoot! I digress......

Tonto is a very nice boy who was part of a TNR mission from February/March of this year. He's from the same "family" that brought me, Portia, Octavia, Quinn & Cheyenne and her children, Raleigh, Salem and Tulsa. I kept every one of the cats except for three that were to wild to be adoptable.

I usually TNR the friendlies if they have a caregiver, but this woman wasn't such a good caregiver. The cats were very, very, very sick with URIs and not doing well. I spayed one kitty against the advice of Gina who suggested I get it over it's illness first and the result was that the cat died after surgery. I learned a valuable lesson that day. From now on, I don't put sickly cats through surgery.

So with the sickly situation these cats were in, I dosed them with all sorts of antibiotics to get them healthy and adopted out. I used 13 bottles of Clavamox and one bottle of very expensive Zithromax. That was $200 in meds at COST!

I am happy that I was able to change the lives of these Sanchez cats. Portia and Quinn are living in a very loving home in the Detroit area. My foster sister, Cookie and her girl, Margie found them a home. Octavia is living with Wendy, a super cool gal from my homeopathy study group.

As you know, Cheyenne found a forever home with my dear, darling Marcia and her kittens have all found loving homes as well.

Tonto was taken into Crash's Landing before any of these cats found their homes. The volunteers loved him and he was sponsored by RC Kula and his wife, two cat lovers that Gina met on her postal route who have been great supporters of her rescue and Crash's.

Despite all the antibiotics I pumped into him, Tonto was a mess when I put him in Jen's hands. She did lots of work on him and he is now a very healthy boy. He does however have some bald patches on his body and tail. If you ever wondered what a cat's tail looks like without fur, now you know....just like a rat's tail!

Tonto, who seems like a very gentle soul, isn't so gentle when it comes to other cats. He is very aggressive and creates drama with other kitties. Because Crash's Landing is full of cats, and Tonto just couldn't keep his aggression under control (even with AMITRIPTYLINE), he was booted from the program!

So Jen asked me to take him back home with me. Of course, I said yes. And I basically traded Joe (who is now called Julian) for Tonto! So there goes the Kitten Room that I was hoping to have! Oh well, Tonto is a sweetheart and I'm happy to provide him a huge bedroom all to himself! I'd put a bunk mate in there with him, but since he doesn't "play well with others", I can't.

So....Tonto needs a home. Tonto needs a home where he can be the ONLY cat! He's super lovey and cuddly. He's just a dear!

If you know anyone who would like a slightly patchy furred DLH black boy, please let me know. I believe him to be the father of Raleigh, Salem and Tulsa! Those days are over for him. He has been neutered. Also, gone are the days of scratching things as he was declawed at Crash's Landing. So he is fully vaccinated, neutered and front paw declawed. A perfect cat for a fussy person who doesn't want their furniture torn up!

UPDATE: Jen Petrovich read the blog and wanted to clarify a little something about Tonto Sanchez. Her words:

You may want to say that he plays rough and that is how his aggression starts - it is not that he outwardly attacks viciously...more like, I see you sleeping, you are MINE and then lets all hell break loose. His roughness got the others around him going and in turn more fights started that way, so it was snowball effect. I don't want the public to think he is evil, as we know he isn't. He looks great at your house- very happy!

Tonto Sanchez on his window perch!

Me and Tonto Sanchez!
I'm the one on the left.

That's MR. RAT TAIL to you!

A little patchiness on the elbow too!
What, you don't know anyone with male patterned baldness?

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Pizza Hut Benefit - UPDATE

I was overwhelmed....but this time, in a good way! The Pizza Hut benefit was a great success. I made a realistic goal and a lofty goal. My realistic goal was $200. My lofty goal was $500. Being the restaurant was in Jenison and I hadn't done too much in the way of promotion prior to the week of the thing, I was really just hoping for the realistic goal to be met!

Before going any further, I must first thank Julie, the manager of the Pizza Hut for taking an interest in my rescue and asking to do the benefit for us. Also thanks to Josh, Courtney, Jennifer, Candace and the other employees of the Jenison Pizza Hut who helped me and my team of volunteers service our customers! Also, a big thank you to Julie's sister, Kelly who has done this before and helped guide those of us who were pretty much clueless and had no idea
what we were doing!

I didn't wait on tables. I hustled money from my wonderful captive audience. I sold Pizza Hut coupon books and raised $40 profit from that! I sold 50/50 raffle tickets which raised $106. Dale Baxter (my wonderful friend and husband to Pat, my kitten foster) won the raffle but donated his $53 back to my rescue! Thanks Dale...you are a prince among men! The take from the buffet was $56. My volunteers raised $91 in tips and misc. donations.

Just before leaving the house, I had a brainstorm which was spurred by Pat Baxter who said
"I don't have to eat any mushrooms do I?" This lead me to come up with my own version of Fear Factor. I should have called it Feral Factor, but I just titled the money collection jar as "Make Carol eat something she hates for money". When the pot grew to $25, I would eat a mushroom. When it reached $50, I'd eat an olive. And if it hit $250, then I'd eat a god-awful anchovy. Despite being 100% Greek and having olive oil coursing through my veins, I'm disgusted by olives. When I was a little girl, I knew a lovely woman named Joan who actually died of mushroom poisoning which understandably turned me off of fungus. And I have NEVER eaten fish in my life. Once I bit into some crab meat thingy at a party and nearly puked! So this was not easy, but I thought....what all us rescue girls think...ANYTHING FOR CATS!

I hauled my raffle buckets and donation jars around and sold coupon books and talked about TNR. Most everyone in the restaurant were people who came for the benefit. We had a nice crowd from Crash's Landing! And Janet Meana from Cats & Dog's Magazine showed up to support us. And I had lots of doll collector friends and old neighbors join us as well. Even Dr. Langlois came!!!

I was getting money in the Feral Factor bucket and when it reached about $75, I knew I had to dig into the mushroom and olive. Julie was happy to serve them up in little cups! The raw mushroom wasn't all that bad. It tasted kinda "nutty". But the olives (one piece of a black and one of a green) were disgusting to say the least! BUT THIS WASN'T OVER...not by a long shot!

My dear friend Stu Mackenzie decided it would be (in his words)...."GOOD THEATER" to put in the extra $200 to get me to eat the MOST VILE AND HIDEOUS, anchovy!

So I did. Stu took great delight in feeding it to me and everyone seemed to enjoy watching me gag and wretch and nearly throw up in the middle of the dining room. The son of one of the Crash's Landing volunteers tried to offer support but he wasn't all that comforting as I pictured myself ruining everyone's meal by tossing my cookies! But thankfully, I kept it down...by some miracle of God, and everyone applauded and I washed the salty little #%&*$@ down with Diet Coke.

Before Dale Baxter learned that he won the 50/50 and donated his $53 back to the rescue, I tallied the profits and it hit $500 to the penny!!! Isn't that amazing? I was blown away. With Dale's $53 donation, we went over the top. Yesterday I paid my Langlois bill and today I'm going to Walmart to buy $100 worth of cat food and litter scoops!

Gina Marvin generously gave her portion of the proceeds to my rescue. She was going to do this EVEN before I ate the disgusting stuff. She's awesome! However, had we been splitting the pot, I wouldn't have shared that Feral Factor part with her! NO WAY! If I ever eat something as rank as that again, all money will be mine! You are a goddess G, Thank you!

A special THANK YOU to my friends who volunteered to schlep drinks, bus tables and put up with this craziness so I could raise some dough for my rescue!

Thanks: Stu Mackenzie, Erin Wilson, Pat Baxter, Erica Carranco, Gina Marvin & Barb Olson.

If anyone would like to buy a Pizza Hut Coupon Book. I have them available for a couple more weeks. They are $10 and I'll send them to you. If interested, contact me and I'll tell you were to send the money. Paypal is also accepted!

: ) Thanks for your support!
C

Yes, I'm a whore for cat rescue money!
That's $200 in Stu's hand!
Now I have to eat an anchovy!

But first.....the dreaded mushroom and olive!

Here's my buddy Stu enjoying putting the disgusting anchovy into my mouth!

Thankful that I didn't send bits of mushroom, olive and anchovy

across the dining room, I take a drink of Diet Coke to wash it all down!

Rest Peacefully Sweet Prince

Yesterday I got word that one of my very first Cedar Springs rescues passed away. Nathaniel came to me by way of a mislaid trap on the night I ventured into Cedar Springs Mobile Estates to get that huge orange cat....who became known as Angus.

Cheryl McCloud of Lake Haven Rescue asked me to go into the park to get the big orange tomcat who she was convinced was afflicted with feline leukemia. The addresses in the park are all screwy and I was on the complete wrong side of the circle drive when I set two mackeral baited traps and got a handsome black tabby and a disheveled lite point Siamese.

This was my first trapping outside of the Burger King in Cuttlerville. I wasn't sure WHAT to do! The original mission to get the big orange boy included a death march to the shelter. I was sick. I didn't want any part of this, but Amy Pietras convinced me to do it because if big orange had FELV, then it would be best for him to be "put down". But what was I going to do with two cats that weren't for sure FELV positive?

My answer came via email the next morning. I awoke thinking I'd be taking all the cats to the shelter, but Jen Petrovich of Crash's Landing and Big Sid's Sanctuary got to me first (thank you Jesus) and told me to bring the big orange cat in to her clinic. I rushed all three cats there. She didn't expect me to be bringing three cats, but she did look them over and told me that she would take them all. I was elated. I knew about Big Sids and if any of the boys were FIV or FELV positive, they would be able to live out their lives in a comfortable, wonderful place.

Turned out that big orange didn't have FELV and went over to Crash's Landing where Jen named him Angus (after Angus Young of AC/DC, because he had "Big Balls"....actually the biggest she'd ever seen.....and she's seen a lot of them")!!!

Sadly, the other two kitties were positive for FELV, were renamed Omar and Nathaniel and taken to live their lives out at Big Sid's Sanctuary.

1 1/2 year old Nathaniel and 3 1/2 year old Omar were given a second chance!! Had it not been for Jen taking them into Big Sid's, they surely would have died slowly and painfully under some god-awful trailer in that hell hole of a mobile home park. But they didn't! They were lavished in love and comfort and when Jen and the faithful volunteers at Big Sid's noticed them sliding health-wise, they were humanely put to sleep.

Nathaniel passed away on May 23rd. I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to see him at the Big Sid's open house a couple of weeks ago. He looked wonderful and was happily sleeping on top of a comfy cat tree. Apparently, just recently he became anemic and his body just wasn't able to fight anymore so Jen allowed him to join Omar on the big windowsill in the sky.

We are blessed to have people like Dr. Jenny and her team of dedicated volunteers in our community. They sacrifice their time to care for not only Crash Cats, but also these special needs boys and girls who would have otherwise no place to go.

Today, I'm taking Joe, the huge FIV+ Siamese tomcat from Agnes' farm, to Big Sids. Nathaniel's exit opened a place for him. I've had Joe since late January, so I'm having a little separation anxiety, but I know he will be adored by the kind volunteers and that's going to be better for him than just hanging out in my extra bedroom. And now, I'll have room for all the kittens I'm amassing!

Details of the rescue of Nathaniel can be found in the March 2006 archives in an entry titled "Horror, Hope and a Second Chance".

Monday, May 21, 2007

Pizza Hut Buffet - To BENEFIT ME & GINA - TONIGHT

Hello Feral Friends-

This Monday, come to the Pizza Hut in Jenison and help support Carol's Ferals & Focus on Ferals.

Besides all the pizza you can eat for $6.99, I promise it will be a good time. It's the one time I'll wait on you and fetch drinks and you can hassle me all you want and I'll have to be nice so that I can get a tip to put in my rescue purse. Yeah, we get to keep the tips! So if nothing else, you can come and watch me strut my stuff to get more money for my rescue. Warning....I've never waited tables before so you might wear your Diet Coke home, but that is your risk!

So, come by and support us. We'll have a 50/50 raffle and there will be coupon books available for $10 that are good at any area Pizza Hut and can save you bunches of money! Truly, I've used my book 3 times and saved $27 so far! And in a strange coincidence, my butt is getting bigger too! Hmmm.

If you can't make it to the event but would still like a coupon book, contact me and I'll send one to you! We make $5 for each book sold!

Here are the details:

Pizza Hut - Cat Rescue

Benefit Buffet

Monday, May 21st

5:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Jenison Pizza Hut

7628 Georgetown Center
OFF BALDWIN

Jenison, MI

616 457-9100

Here's the mapquest map link:

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?formtype=address&addtohistory=&address=7628%20Georgetown%20Center%20Dr&city=Jenison&state=MI&zipcode=49428%2d8101&country=US&geodiff=1

Thanks for supporting me!

Carol

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Kitten Chaos in Wyoming

OK, so I'm getting ready to relax yesterday. It was Saturday afternoon. I just finished up working at Brooknelle for three hours. The place was clean, thanks in part to my wonderful Erin. And I was looking forward to sleeping on the deck and getting some sun on my thighs. I'm hopeful that the suntan will help them look smaller and thinner. You know...how wearing dark colors is sliming...well that's what I feel about sun tans. And since I'm too busy to work out, I will get my slimming in another way....by coupling it with rest!

Make God laugh! Tell him your plans for tomorrow (or the next hour, in this case).

I checked my answering machine. I always dread checking my home machine. The number is only used for cat calls. So when the number on the display changes from 8 to 9, I know I'm in trouble. There's a new call. I hold my breath and press play!

"Hello Carol, this is Katie C____. I have three kittens that I pulled out from under my deck. I've been tying to feed them milk by dripping it in their mouths with a towel, but it's not going so well. Help! I live at ______ Dawes, near 32nd and Kalamazoo".

SHIT! So much for my tan and my rest. Now I have fatter looking thighs and my eyes are so tired and droopy, they look like two pee holes in the snow!

I rush over with a carrier, trap and some KMR (Kitten Milk Replacer). I show Katie and her sister how to feed the babies and teach them the art of expressing a kitten. Meaning to make them urinate and defecate. Something typically done with the tongue of the mother cat, but we used paper towels instead. Katie and her sister were devoted to helping the kittens, but they weren't willing to go quite that far! : )

Three adorable babies, one a gray tabby, one an orange tabby and the other a pure buff short hair. All eating and peeing and having a fun time screaming their heads off and unnerving Katie's dog, Carrie.

We put kittens in a carrier and butted it up to a trap in hopes that mama would come back. Katie was to feed and express the kittens every 2-3 hours. I told her I'd be back in the evening.

I went back around 11:00pm and still, there was no mama in the trap! Bummer! And to top it off, when she checked the traps, she heard another kitten under the deck. But this one was really weak and obviously the runt and not coaxible in the least. So I set out with a hammer, a flash light and kitchen tongs. I ripped the skirting from the deck and reached in with the kitchen tongs, got baby by the head and dragged it out. Once in Katie's loving arms, the baby was taken into the house and put on top of a bottle of hot tap water to warm up. Then she started to feed the little imp.

I asked her to keep the three original kittens inside overnight and feed them every 2-3 hours while traps were set in the yard to catch mama. She said yes. What else could she say! Then I took the tiny imp back to Brooknelle in hopes of getting Jason's cat (see previous blog) to take her onto her 6th and only available nipple.

Immediately she did! Whew! What a relief! I slept well in the knowledge that we had them all! God, that would have been horrible to have only gotten three and not known that there was a fourth until too late! This is something that makes Gina and I shudder every time we trap. Do we have all the kittens? Or was Mom in the process of moving them?

Today, Sunday morning, I get a call from Katie. The mama was trapped! And so was another orange kitty.

Yeah! Victory! Or so I thought! When I arrived on the scene, I found out that there were kittens under the neighbors deck as well. And that the cat we thought might be the mama was actually the mother of the 4 kittens under their deck. Oh boy!

So now, there were two litters! I checked the undercarriage of both girls and determined that they were indeed nursing moms. After talking to Kathy, the neighbor, we figured that the red tipped tail tortie was the mother to Kathy's kittens, and the orange girl was the mother to Katie's deck dwellers.

Now all we had to do was coax the kittens out from under Kathy's deck! Not as easy as you would think!

Finally though, one walked into the trap that was butted up to the trap that held Mama. Just exactly reverse of how we do it when we find the kittens first!

Then I grabbed the second and got bit and scratched while putting it into a carrier.

I left a trap with a hair trigger setting that would hopefully spring when a kitten got into it.
And within a couple of hours, I received a call from Kathy, that the two kittens were in! Whew!

I went to pick up the kittens and found two more cats in traps. One was another tortie girl who appeared to be nursing and the other a black male tabby.

Now, the dilema! Three mothers.....only two litters! Where is the third litter? Do I have the right mamas with the right kittens? Not sure. A trip to Brooknelle with the moms and kittens would tell. After placing them in cages we could see how they got along. As far as I can tell, I have them paired up right. But then again, the mom's just may be exceptional baby sitters!

If I don't have them paired right, then there is a cat in a trap at Katie's house who I'm going to have to release in a bit who might be the mother to one of the sets of kittens in my possession.
Not horrible for the kittens I have since both mom's are feeding the kittens they are caged with. But really horrible for the kittens at large who might belong to the orange girl. If they are out there and orange girl is just being a good babysitter, then it's not likely that even letting Tortie girl go will do any good for them. She wouldn't know where they are. But I have to keep optimistic. There is a 33% chance that the kittens at large belong to her. So with the advice and counseling of Gina, I have pretty much decided to release her. I'm praying that if there are kittens out there that are NOT hers, that she will do the right thing and take them under her paw!

Time will tell how this all works out! I know the last couple paragraphs are confusing. You should be in the middle of this mess.....I'll show you confusing.

Another unfortunate twist to this mess is that Kathy's husband who doesn't want the cats back at all, actually went as far as to get a live trap and trap one cat and take it out to a farm in Lowell. BAD IDEA! Now there is a cat that has been dumped at the farm of a friend. Friend will have 7 cats by the end of kitten season, and 35 by next year. And there is no telling if the cat that was taken was a nursing mother and kittens were left to starve to death.

Unfortunately many people don't have any clue what peril they put cats in by just trapping and dumping them. I wish they would think of the ramifications first, but often times, they don't.

This is a very stressful time of year. Trapping nursing mothers is not what we want to do. We'd so much rather get them before they give birth, or better still, before they get pg. But it's late Spring, so everyone is delivering kittens. If I have any hair left once summer is over, it will be a miracle!

I have 16 kittens at Brooknelle right now. They are taking up 4 cages. That's 4 cages that I can't use for TNR. Anyone care to ask me what I think about kitten season?

Friday, May 18, 2007

Abandoned Kittens!!! And the happy ending to the story!

Help Abandoned Kittens!!! I'm hearing this a lot lately. Jeanine Buckner of Reuben's Room Cat Rescue called me yesterday to see if I could help a guy named Jason who found some kittens in the crawl space of his friend's basement. I had a million little nagging things to do yesterday and I've been bitching all week that I can't get a handle on them and it's driving me crazy!!!! But I dropped everything and met up with him.

What happened was this. The day prior, Jason was at his friend's house and found a kitten in the middle of the basement floor. The basement goes directly to the outside and the door is often left wide open, leaving a perfect opportunity for a pg cat to get in, nest and have birth her litter of 5 kittens. After listening closely, he discovered the other 4 kittens in the crawlspace extending from the basement. He fished the kittens out and took them to safety. He then saw the mama cat run away.

Now, I have to say this. No judgment or malice implied because without knowing better, I've done the same type of thing with regard to fallen-from-nest birds and other baby animals. But what would have been best is to leave the kittens, contact someone like Gina or I and let us get the mama cat at the same time as we get the kittens. But people wig out when they see kittens left unattended and don't even give any thought to the fact that mama is off hunting or scavenging for food to sustain herself and her new litter of kittens. And of course, even though we are doing all we can to get ourselves out to the public, not every single cat do-gooder knows about us.

Jason had been bottle feeding the kittens since getting them the prior afternoon. I asked him to bring them along with him and meet me at the home of his friend. Within 30 minutes we were setting the kittens up in a carrier butted up to a baited trap. I instructed him to wait till the mother was caught or till at least it got dark, feeding the kittens every two hours like he had been. Then I left. Gina and I have had good success trapping a mama cat this way. What made this situation tougher though, was the fact that the kittens had been removed nearly 24 hours prior and she might just give up and not come looking for them after seeing that they had disappeared.

And she didn't. Jason waited till 9pm. I came to get the kittens and take them to Amy Townsend who is just crazy enough to get up every two hours for the next 4 weeks till these two week old kittens are old enough to eat on their own. I couldn't to it. I would be a miserable wreck. When I had to wake in the middle of the night to take care of my dying parents, I was a mess. And that was only 2 times during the night at most. This would put me over the edge. I'm simply not cut out for it. Thankfully, Amy is! So kittens were taken to her home last night and traps were left baited for the hopeful return of mama.

This morning I received a call from Jason's friend, Lin with good news. A black and white cat who resembled the mama kitty was in one of the traps! I jumped out of bed and raced over. Sure enough, there was a black and white cat in the trap. And it was a nursing female. I was happy that she was friendly and let me poke at her belly from under the trap. I felt milk and the hair around the nipples was worn away so I felt confident that I had "my mama".

I woke up Amy from a dead sleep after being up several times during the night bottle feeding the kittens. She was happy to hear I'd found the mama. I'm sure nobody was as happy as Amy at that moment! She just bought herself some sleep for the next 4-6 weeks!!

Took the mama and squawling babies to Brooknelle and got them set up in a cage. Kittens were yelling their heads off and squirming all over. I put mom in the cage and she went directly to the litter box and tried to hide. I was getting a little nervous. What if I had the wrong girl? What if these weren't her kittens? On one hand, it would be OK, cuz I knew I at least had a nursing mother, but what if she had other kittens left out somewhere without care.? Parish the thought!! I got a little queasy feeling in my stomach. Then she went into the carrier with the kittens. I put each kitten up to her and within 60 seconds, all were attached to her nipples nursing and quiet as church mice.

Whew! I got the right girl. I can't imagine what was going through her mind. While I'm sure she never wanted to intentionally start a family, I bet she was frantic to return to a crawlspace and find it void of her precious kittens.

I'm sure she is at peace now. She's in a soft bed with her babies and she has all the food and water and clean litter she will need. I'll keep her for the next 6 weeks then work on finding homes for the kittens and her too! If you want to adopt her or one of her kittens, please get in touch with me. They should be ready to go the last week of June or 1st of July.

Kittens in a "pile on".

They get put in the cage first.
But they didn't hang out in the carrier,
they formed a mini-kitty mosh pit outside the carrier!

Mom is put in the cage with the kittens.
She's like "HELL NO".
"I'm just going to sit here in my litter box".

"Ok, I guess it's inevitable....
I'm going to take care of these kittens
till they are old enough to be weaned.
That's a lot of nipple biting for me!"
I'm sure that she's not thrilled about having to wash
their butts and eat their waste for a good two more weeks either!
So much for the joys of motherhood!

Help Needed with Dr. Langlois' Spay/Neuter Clinic

Hello Feral Friends-

As you know, without my rescue vet, Dr. Bruce Langlois, I wouldn't be doing T-N-R or any rescue work for that matter. He makes it all possible by being there for my cats and for offering services at reduced rates that are affordable. When his name was first mentioned to me, it went like this: "Contact Bruce Langlois....his heart is in rescue". And it was the absolute truth. My vet, Dr. Langlois and VPC are working together to head up a Free Spay/Neuter Clinic which will benefit pets of people who would not otherwise be able to afford such services.

He needs help with this undertaking. If you can help, please contact him directly at his email shown below.

Thanks much-
Carol

Now, a few words from Dr. Langlois:

Dear Friends,

I will be holding a free spay/neuter clinic in Grand Rapids, June 30th. I hope this to be the first of many, to help stem the pet overpopulation problem in Kent County. As you may be aware, I have performed this clinics in various places around the world, and now is my opportunity to do some in my own backyard. The clinic is a lot of work, and it takes a team of volunteers to make it successful. I am looking for volunteers for the clinic. No experience is necessary. If you feel you want to help, contact me, I will find a job for you. Even if you are busy the day of the clinic, I need your help. If you know someone who can donate lunch or supplies, or financially, please have them contact me. I promise it will be a very enjoyable and rewarding experience for all who get involved.

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Bruce

Bruce P. Langlois DVM

Hospital Director
Animal Hospital of Lowell
11610 East Fulton Street
Lowell, MI 49331
616-897-8484
www.lowellvet.com

Free Spay/Neuter Clinic for

Dogs and Cats

For Low Income Families

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Check It Out! The Eastwood Feral Cat Complex!

This is where two of Gina's lucky relocated cats get to live.
Dave and Melissa Eastwood are the quintessential feral caregivers.
I know people who don't have such a nice place to live!
Dave and Melissa YOU ROCK!

The cat house has a porch that was screened in
during the homing period
so that cats were able to get used
to their new surroundings before being released.

Of course, now they come back for food and shelter!

God, who wouldn't want to come back here!!!

Plenty of food and water available.

Elevated so that the raccoons and possum stay out!!!

Is this the tits or what???

Pizza Hut Benefit Buffet - To BENEFIT ME & GINA

Hello Feral Friends-

This Monday, come to the Pizza Hut in Jenison and help support Carol's Ferals & Focus on Ferals.

Here are the details:

Pizza Hut - Cat Rescue

Benefit Buffet

Monday, May 21st

5:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Jenison Pizza Hut

7628 Georgetown Center

Jenison, MI

616 457-9100

Thanks for supporting me!

Carol

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Rummage Sale to Benefit MY Cats!!!!

Hello Feral Friends-

Gina Marvin and I are teaming up with Vicky's Pet Connection to have a massive rummage sale in June. The money raised will go toward both Carol's Ferals and Focus On Ferals. We hope to raise some scratch to help keep us in Friskies and Fresh Step! .....and meds, and rent for Brookelle, and gas for running around, and more traps, etc.

We need donations and help running the sale.

Because VPC is a 501c3 organization, any donations will be tax deductible. Forms will be available that can be used for tax purposes.

Items of value can be dropped off at the site of the sale. We will hold it at the building just East of The Animal Hospital of Lowell, where Dr. Langlois practices. If you want to drop off items, contact me either via email at: dollmouse@aol.com or by calling my cell at 616 560-0555.

We will take anything except for clothing. Historically, clothing doesn't go so well at these types of sales. And we don't have means for hanging etc. So anything but clothing is super!

If you can have items in closed boxes that are easily stackable, that would be awesome.

Dig doing rummage sales? I can use your help! It's going to be a big job. I'll need help setting up the sale on Sunday - Wednesday, June 10-13 from 2:00 pm - 8:00 pm daily. Also, we can use your help running the sale on Thursday - Saturday, June 14-16 from 9:30 am - 2:30 pm.
If you can help anytime during those hours, please contact me via email.

Besides running cat rescue, running rummage sales is my favorite thing to do. I dig rooting through boxes of "junk" and turning it into money. Turning "junk" into money for my rescue melds together two things that I'm really good at. The only way it could be better is if there were hunky men dancing in the backround feeding me krispy kreme donuts! But I don't need donuts, and if there are hunky men around, we'll probably need them to move boxes more than dance, so let's just focus on the "junk" and the cats the money raised will help.

Back to business. Here are the details. Please either donate, or help set up, or run the sale with me, or just come and spend money!!!! If nothing else, tell everyone you know about the sale!

Thanks so much!
Carol

Rummage Sale to benefit
Carol's Ferals & Focus on Ferals
Sponsored & Supported by Vicky's Pet Connection

11650 E. Fulton
Lowell, MI 49331

Thursday - Saturday June 14-16 10:00 am - 2:00 pm
Early bird shopping Wednesday 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Early bird admission is $5

Something for everyone! Prices slashed daily!
Lots of everything including a large assortment of vintage/retro housewares.

****Donations of goods of value greatly appreciated.
Donations are tax deductible. (no clothing please)
Contact Carol for item drop off: 616 560-0555

Sunday, May 13, 2007

UN-Happy UN-Mother's Day

Hello Feral Friends

UN-Happy news. This morning, I checked in on Roger's Mama cat, the one who had kittens in the trap on Friday morning before being spayed. As you know, her third and fourth kittens were still born. And I'm sorry to report that I found kittens number 1 and 2 both dead in the carrier with her.

She hadn't moved them from under her, so I'm not sure how long she was sitting on dead babies, but I took them away and gave her some loving (which she accepted without much resistance) and I gave her some yummy soft food and kitten milk replacer.

I don't think this girl was cut out to be a mother. I'm sure the kittens would have died had they been born in the trap or at the farm. Well, I'd like to believe that at least. We will never know for sure. In any case, I'll keep her at Brooknelle for a day or so, then I'll take her in to be fixed.

Sorry for all the crappy news lately. It's been a rough end of the week.

But, on a happy note, my daughter Trixie (my 15 1/2 year old black tabby) and I celebrated our 13 year anniversary together today. I got Trixie and Socks on Mother's Day of 1994. I had recently lost my cat, Baby to hepatic lepadosis, a fatty liver disorder brought on by my career move from Detroit to Grand Rapids. Trixie and Socks brought much light into my life after that trying time, making every attempt possible to save Baby. Socks crossed over the Rainbow Bridge this past October, but Trixie continues to be Alpha Kitty at my house. Well, she's basically the only kitty, cuz Monkey, Morgan, Buzzby and Toby all stay downstairs where I spend most of my time. Trixie likes her solitude away from what she refers to as "The Brat Pack", so she stays upstairs.

Trixie and I spent the day outside on the deck. Me lying in the sun, and she....lying under my lawn chair in the warm shade. It ended up being quite a nice day, though it started off sadly.

Here is a photo of my girl Trixie!
Happy Anniversary T!

Saturday, May 12, 2007

C-SNIP Garden Sale TODAY!!! Come and see me!

Hello Feral Friends,

Please come out to
The C-SNIP Garden Sale

Saturday, May 12th
9am - 3pm
1675 Viewpond SE
Kentwood, MI 49508

Garage Sale Prices On:
Decorative pots and planters
Bird feeders/Bird houses
Indoor/Outdoor fertilizer
Gardening hand tools
Garden sculptures
Birdbath protector
Thermometers and much much more

AND....
-Pet microchipping $10
-Pet nail trimming $5
-Master Gardeners Bill Tripp and Sheryl Reamsma will answer your questions on gardening, lawncare and landscaping.
-Feral cat experts to provide information. <-----Yours truly!
-Canine training and behavior advice.
-Tour the C-SNIP facility.

All proceeds benefit C-SNIP
C-SNIP is a reduced cost spay/neuter clinic saving lives one spay at a time

Friday, May 11, 2007

Top This!

So yesterday, I'm driving to my homeopath's house for my monthly appointment and I see a cardinal flying South in front of my car while traveling West on Knapp. Then two more fly right in front of me going North. I can't do anything about it, it happened so fast. I clipped the second bird and when I looked through my rear view mirror I saw it on the ground.

I slammed my breaks, made a u-turn and went back to check on it. Four cars driving toward me nearly ran it over but thankfully I didn't have to witness that and their wheels straddled the little bird's body.

When the cars passed I picked him up and he was gone. I have never killed anything before. I don't even kill spiders. I have killed some centipedes because they really freak me out, but I try really hard to respect all life, even the small beings. So this was devastating.

My homeopath's husband offered to bury the little bird for me and after my appointment, thee of us went outside to pay final respects to the sweet male cardinal who was chasing after a pretty female one second and dead from the impact of my feral chariot the next.

Then today, I peeled the placenta off two dead kittens before wrapping them in paper towels to put in my freezer to take to the crematorium next week.

And to top off two days of handling dead animals, I stepped on a toad in my driveway while loading my car to go to Brooknelle to medicate my cats this evening. I did some serious damage to the little guy and I had to put him out of his misery. First thought...call Bruce. He can euthanize him for me. Then I decided that might not go over so well. Though Bruce is a kind veterinarian who loves animals, a call from the crazy cat girl at 9:30 pm on a Friday night might not be met with enthusiasm.

I took the poor baby into my kitchen to get a better look at him. He was bleeding in my hand and I placed him on a paper towel to see if he was still alive. Finally he stopped moving. I was happy that he was at peace. I wrapped him up in that paper towel and went outside to bury him in my flower bed. I did one last check to make sure he was gone for sure and he moved. He moved and I freaked out.

I called Erica because I knew she would either know what to do or be able to talk me out of my hysteria long enough for me to figure something out. Her solution was to smash him with a brick. I looked around my garage for something "brick like" and saw a dozen heavy things that would have worked but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Then she suggested that I run him over with my car. So I did. I screamed in to the phone the whole time I did it.

Afterwards, I buried him in the flower bed near the Mum plant that was given to me at my mother's funeral. Susan will watch over him now.

I hope none of you ever have to do anything like this. It has been an awful two days. I'm going to bed. I just had to share cuz if this blog is nothing else.....for me, it's cathartic!

God help me!
C

Misery

Well, yesterday I caught one more cat at Roger's Farm. To my knowledge as of last night, there is still one big gray cat at large. But I'd been trapping every day since Sunday and if he wasn't in by Thursday night, I'd have to let him be. Hopefully Roger will get him in a trap someday. But I had no choice but to release 14 cats last night. They were more than ready to go and I was completely out of space. Every cage at Brooknelle was full with at least one....if not two cats!

I was very happy to pick up the Siamese who I had been trying to get all week. I put my single catch of the day in the car and released the 14 cats singing born free as they took off like bats out of hell.

THEN...this morning....I got the dreaded call. Kathy called from Dr. Langlois' office. The cat had kittens during the night. This happened to Amy last spring. It's what makes kitten season so hard. Either you are trapping a pregnant cat, a nursing mother, or someone who is so close to being due that the stress of being trapped puts her into labor.

I think this is the case with this girl. She had two tiny "gerbils" in the trap when I arrived there at 11am. I took the ice cold kittens, put them in a carrier and transfered her into it from the trap. I hoped she would start to nurse them once she was in a more comfortable situation. I took her and the two kittens to Brooknelle and set her up in a nice big cage.

I left for a few hours and returned at 3pm with Erin who noticed one of the kittens in the middle of the cage below the one I set them up in. I can't figure out how this kitten 1) got itself out of the carrier (unless mama threw it out) and 2) survived the fall.

Erin cleaned off the baby and tied off it's umbilical cord with some floss supplied by Amy. She sucked kitten snot out of it's nose with an eye dropper and began to syringe feed it KMR (kitten milk replacer).

At the time kitten was discovered out of the cage, we found mama to have birthed two more kittens but both were still wrapped in placenta and dead. NICE! Two more for Noah's Garden.

With guidance from Gina, I took the mom and kittens home with me so I can keep a closer eye on them. If she isn't feeding them, I will have to myself until I can find a kitten foster.

What a misery!

Thank God I took some time to myself yesterday to lay in the sun with my neighbor Jonelle and recharged my batteries, cuz if I hadn't, I'm sure I'd have gone off the deep end by now!

Everyone, please say a little prayer that this mama turns on her mommy instincts and does right by these two remaining babies.

Thanks for reading-
C

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Cheyenne and Kittens UPDATE

On February 27th, I went to the home of Linda Sanchez and took a group of cats that she was feeding on her porch in to be fixed. These were some really sickly cats. They all had various stages of URIs which took 14 bottles of Clavamox and really expensive bottle of Zithromax to clear up.

I only returned 3 cats to her. Three black semi-feral cats went back. I found home for Portia, Octavia and Quinn, three 5 month old sisters. They all went to nice homes where they would not be declawed. I worked hard on that one. I could have adopted them out 15 times over but was very picky about the declaw thing. Octavia stayed in Grand Rapids, and Portia and Quinn went to a home on the East Side of the state, thanks to my big sister, Cookie and her girlfriend Margie.

Jen took Tonto Sanchez into Crash's Landing. Good thing, cuz that boy was a mess. He's all aces now!

That left me with Mama Cheyenne and her three surviving kittens, Raleigh, Salem and Tulsa.

I agonized over these adoptions because I wanted to get mama Cheyenne adopted along with them. I listed them early on Petfinder, even before they were ready to go to homes, in hopes of finding a home for mama too. Many people came by to meet the kittens and some actually considered her but once they saw how skittish she was, they reconsidered.

It was breaking my heart. I decided that I'd return her to Linda Sanchez and allow her to be an outdoor kitty. I started accepting the adoption applications for the kittens and was finding homes for them one by one.

Then last week I got a call from a dear woman named Marcia who wanted to give a home to a cat that nobody wanted. BINGO! Cheyenne! Oh my God. You can read more about this amazing day in a blog entry titled "Thank you Jesus....and Marcia".

Yesterday along with re-homing Tennessee and Piper, taking Pauley Dacktill to Jen, and meeting up with Raleigh's new mama, I took Cheyenne to Marcia's lovely home in West Olive.

Let me tell you....they don't get much better than Marcia. Her home is cat heaven. Lots of beds, scratching posts, food bowls, windows and love. And not only was this amazing woman willing to take Cheyenne into her home, she had tea and sandwiches waiting for me when I got there.
Yummy tea and sandwiches at that. AND a very generous check made out to me for my rescue and a jumbo sized Target gift card to buy whatever the kitties need to boot! She had me crying before I could get the egg salad sandwich in my mouth!

I have met some wonderful people through cat rescue and this darling woman is no exception. She is my new friend. I know Cheyenne will have a loving home, even if she never comes out from under the bed.

Thank you Marcia for taking her. It would have killed me to put her back outside after all the time I spent with her. My friend Shelly was very attached to her after only spending two nights here and so was my dear neighbor/cat care volunteer Arlene. They are so happy that she is in a good place. God Bless YOU!

Here are photos of the new adoptive parents and their happy kittens. A photo of me and my new friend Marcia will be posted soon!

Gloria & Alex McPherson and Tulsa.
They are also going to be adopting another black girl kitten
from VPC so Tulsa will have a playmate.
Gloria and Alex just recently lost their 19 year old cat.
This is the first kitten they have had in nearly two decades.
Boy oh boy, are they in for it!

Adam Hofley and Salem.
He has another young cat named Kitty who
Salem will have to chum around with.
Adam has a friend who brings their cat Rocky
over to have play dates too!
What a fun life Salem is going to have with Adam!

Brianne Umphrey and Raleigh.
After losing her kitty to the pet food poisoning,
Bree desperately wanted a kitten to
fill the void that he dear baby left behind.
Raleigh will do his best to do that!

This is me and Marcia, Cheyenne's Mommy.
This woman is AMAZING!
She took in Cheyenne and is loving her despite the fact
that she hasn't come out from under the bed.
She has donated a great deal of money to my cause.
And she's kind and loving and soooo supportive.
I was happy when I found Cheyenne a home.
And in the course of that, I found myself a friend!

Erin AKA Mini-Me

I ask Erin if she's offended that I call her Mini-Me. She says she isn't. Good, because the nickname is perfect for her. Actually my wonderful new volunteer/friend/confidant is really an interesting cross between me and Erica Carranco who volunteers for Gina and does all the behind the scenes and much in front of the scenes work for Focus on Ferals.

Erin called my house phone about a month ago looking to volunteer for Jandy's Home. Back last summer when Amy still didn't have a cell phone, she used my home number as the base for her rescue. My number is still tangled up with Jandy's Home and I get calls all the time with people wanting to volunteer or adopt kitties, or some such thing.

So, when the call came through from a girl with a really nice phone voice and personality, I did what I always do and gave her Amy's cell phone number. But THIS TIME I added "If you would rather get your hands dirty and do some TNR and make a real difference to the plight of stray and feral cats in the area, keep this number and call me back". About 30 minutes later the phone rang and it was Erin ready to get dirty!

And oh boy, has she. I have dragged Erin to trapping missions, release missions, re-homing missions and the heaviest dutiest.....operation clean out my garage so I can hopefully get my car back in there some day!

There is nothing that Erin won't do for cats. She's absolutely amazing. I just simply adore her and not sure how I'll manage when she starts doing missions on her own and isn't riding shot gun with me. I enjoy her company that much.

She's like me in a lot of ways which I won't go into great detail on, but she' s also a lot like Erica with all of her more progressive beliefs. She reads great books and has a lot of wisdom for someone who is only a quarter of a century old. We see eye to eye on nearly everything so of course, I love her for that too!

Last Saturday she offered to foster Dizzy Gillespie. That really made my day because keeping Dizzy in the garage was making me feel really bad. While my garage is the Tah Mahal compared to that horrible barn he came from, I hated having to shut the door on him when I walked back into the house. He couldn't hear me say "I'll be back Dizzy....just wait". Cuz, he's deaf!!!! So it was hard having him in the garage. Lucky boy now gets to be loved on by Erin and live in a room with birds and a bearded dragon lizard named Sidney. He has toys and a cushy bed and he keeps Erin up all night by making noise (he's deaf ..... not mute) and walking all over her.

Yesterday Erin got a full time job which will enable her to get her own place someday soon so she adopted Dizzy. YEAH! Dizzy has a forever home. With a girl that I just adore! What could be better than that.

Right now, I have a house with my five cats and one big old FIV positive Siamese Tom Cat named Joe. This is really good since before Brooknelle and the re-homing and such, I once had a total of 32 overnight residents.

Erin, you rock. Thank you for all your help. You make everything so easy. You catch on to all the subtleties of how I like things done and you aren't offended when I bark out commands. Probably cuz you used to raise dogs. Whatever....God keep you well and helping me because with you I feel I can do soooo much more to benefit the cats of this area. I love you!

This is Mini-Me, or Erin as everyone else calls her.
She's my lovely and amazing trapping buddy.
And dear friend and trusted confidant!

Operation Agnes Update

Good God! It's been nearly 4 months since I stepped foot onto Agnes' property. Mike Welch had contacted me about the plight of the 20 cats left behind after her death. Gina Marvin went out with me on Day ONE and we got most of them. Over the course of two more weeks, I got them all and I've finally gotten all but Joe to new homes.

Many went through the adoption services at The Humane Society of Kent County. Some I found homes for myself. Mike & Rosa Welch took the 20 year old Siamese matriarch into their loving home. And the rest that were left were unadoptable, so I had to find barn homes for them.

Nothing was happening for weeks and weeks and I was getting really antsy to get these cats out of my house. Not that I mind hosting cats in my home, but with them being unadoptable, I was worried that I'd sit on them forever. Gina Marvin kept reassuring me that it would all work out...that we had the universe on our side because we did good work for animals, but I was still skeptical. Then within one week, Gina found a couple willing to take two of the cats. Tara and Dan live in Middleville and they took semi-friendly but still very skittish Sigsbee and Fry. They had originally met Dizzy Gillespie at her adoption event and wanted him, but he would have been the absolute worst candidate for an outdoor mouser. So after a phone call, they agreed to take two sturdy, straight walking, non-hearing impaired cats instead.

Then while working at the Taste of Greece Dinner at my church a couple of weeks ago, I talked to Marcia Liberski who turned me on to Paul Mol who loves cats and just lost one of hers to the pet food poisoning. Yesterday, Erin and I took big old Tennessee and Piper to her. She has a colony of black and whites, so they fit in perfectly.

Marcia Liberski wanted cats to mouse and mole her backyard so she took my most feral two, Bender and Felicity who she renamed Shadow and Ghost. Her son, Sam is a cat lover and helping to care for them during the re-homing period.

So within a week, I had the remaining 6 cats from Agnes' farm spoken for. Glad I went to work at that church dinner. I nearly didn't cuz I'd been so busy with cats and I wanted the night off. But I didn't and it paid off. See, do good work and things will WORK out for YOU! Gina was right!!!

So, now it's just FIV positive Joe the Siamese TomCat in my cat room. Last night was the first night he was alone. He seemed fine when I checked on him before bed. This morning when I went in to visit, he meowed at me. He has never meowed at me before. It tickled me. I love that old boy. He lets me kiss him and handle him. I hope to clean out the room this week, get it all nice and straightened up and put some sort of a chair in there so I can sit with him on my lap and get him a little more social. Maybe I'll take some time each day to sit down and read a book. YEAH RIGHT! I haven't even turned my TV on for a week!

Pauley Dacktill

This is Pauley Dacktill. He is a black and while polydactyl. A polydactly is a cat that has extra toes on either front, back or both sets of paws. This guy just has way too many toes on the front paws.

I trapped him last week while camping out in the backyard of Dorine Stevens on the SW side. Remember, I sat there all day with the drop trap. He was limping badly and when I took him in to be neutered, Bruce removed one of his ingrowing claws. But poor Pauley was still a mess. He needed more work done and lots of TLC. Lucky he turned out to be very friendly so he was easy to work with.

But Pauley had needs that I'd not be able to address and with such problems, he wouldn't be a good candidate for release, so I made an appeal to Jen to take him into Crash's Landing. She said she would take him in lieu of Joe. This worked out well, cuz ONE....I love Joe and TWO....I could use more time to make sure he is social enough with other cats so that he would be a good fit at Big Sid's Sanctuary. Who, by the way had their first ever open house last Sunday. The place looked great and about 90 very lucky cats live there in peace and harmony and cushy beds and lots of soft food and loving from volunteers. I got to see my Nathaniel. He was one of the three cats that I trapped on the first night I entered the trailer park from hell in Cedar Springs back last Spring. He turned out to have Feline Leukemia and Jen took him into her program along with Omar and Angus. Angus has been adopted, and Omar crossed over the Rainbow Bridge, but Nathaniel is still there and it was wonderful to see him a year later, happy and relatively healthy for a guy with FELV. He was laying on top of a cat tree, enjoying all the love being lavished on him by the visitors. Did my heart good to see him. Surely, he would have died a slow painful death under a trailer by now had he not gotten into my mackeral baited trap.

But back to Pauley. I took him to Jen yesterday. She examined him, tested him and gave him a bath. Later she emailed me and reported that she took out the other paw's ingrowing claw and found him to be FIV positive, so instead of going to Crash's, he will be going to Big Sid's.

Lucky Pauley to have been accepted into her program! Jen will be changing his name because she already has a Pauley or had a Pauley and she doesn't repeat names, but he will live his life out in the comfy coziness of Big Sid's Sanctuary.

Thank you Jen for all you do for the special needs kitties. You are a blessing to them and ME!

Here are some pictures of handsome Pauley.

Operation Roger's Farm Cats

Dr. Langlois put a client of his named Roger in touch with me last week. By Sunday afternoon, Erin (Mini-Me) and I were on the scene. I will tell you more about my wonderful Erin soon.

Roger is a kind man who has been feeding cats on his huge piece of property in Lowell. The cats had gotten out of hand and he wanted to get them fixed. He went to the right man to find help.

When we got there, we set 16 traps and explored the barn where Roger said he had seen kittens. Surely enough, we found 3 little gray fluff balls behind an old toboggan. We put the kittens in a carrier and butted a trap up to it, hoping mama cat would get in it while trying to get closer to her babies. This is a very good technique for trapping mama when you find seemingly abandoned kittens.

Mama never got into the trap by the kittens, but we did manage to trap 11 adult cats and one gray girl was a nursing mother so we assumed she was the matriarchal unit, so after taking the 10 other cats to Bruce's office for next day surgeries, we took the three fluff balls and nursing mama to Brooknelle and set them up in a cage. BINGO! We had it right. Mama went into the carrier and started nursing her kittens! WHEW! I'll keep them till the kittens are old enough to be fixed, then I'll get them all TNR'd.

On day 2, Erin and I wised up wore our bathing suits under our clothes, took blankets and a radio and made a "day in the sun" out of a trapping mission. I feared I'd not get any sun this summer and I was happy to bake a little while out getting cats asses in traps!

We only got two more cats during the day. But later in the evening, I went back for three more!

Yesterday, we returned for day three. I had Roger set traps in the morning and we ran over there after an extremely LLLLLOOOONNNNNGGGG day and got two more. There are still two very trap-wise souls out there. One is a gorgeous Siamese and the other a DSH gray. I am betting they are both males.

Speaking of Siamese males....FIV positive Joe is all alone in my cat room now. I have homed the last 6 Agnes' Farm House Cats and this morning he actually meowed at me. I've never heard him meow. What a trip. I'm finally able to get a fecal on him (now that he's alone) and I'm taking it in for testing today. Need to determine why this poor guy has blood in his stool. Jen will be taking him into her program at Big Sid's Sanctuary, but she didn't this week cuz she took Pauley Dacktill instead. See the next blog entry about Pauley!

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

My ferals are eating on my porch!

Hello Feral Friends-

As most of you know, last summer I was called by a neighbor my condo complex to do something about a mama cat and kittens. Boy, he sure knew who to call. I TNR'd the family and have been feeding them ever since. I've had to keep their winter shelter and feeding station at the front of the complex as that is where they were found and usually stayed. The plan is to (when the office building project is completed next door), ask if we can put the shelter and feeding station on the office property and see if a kind office worker might like to take over the feeding. The cats used to live in an old pole barn left behind after the landscaping company moved out. But when the office building went in, their home was torn down. So you can bet I'll be using this as leverage when I ask for them to host my feral cats on their property.

But in the mean time, I have been putting food out on my porch as well. I have trapped another cat and feed the big strapping lad there. Well, the other night I saw three of my feral kittens from last summer eating there too! What a joy.

Here are some pictures shot through my filthy dirty window.

Boy, it sure does my heart good to see these guys. I have spotted them running around in the evenings when coming home from trapping missions, but to see them on my front porch, eating from my smorgasboard, really shows me the fruits of my labor. I release lots of cats and never see them again. I get to see these kids! Not sure what happened to mama kitty and the others, but I'll just have to put them in God's hands. I'm just happy to see my babies, healthy and taken care of!

C-SNIP Garden Sale - This Saturday!!