CRANK IT!

I posted this on Facebook, but I just have to share it with my blog friends and family, in case you haven't seen it yet. Turn up the volume!

When I'm too tired to post...

...you just get kittens.

It was a long but productive work day. I don't think I'll ever take a week of vacation, followed by a short holiday week, followed by a travel week again. It's just tooooo hard to catch up. Nonetheless, when you kick out a ton of work, it feels good.

So here you are. Kittens!

Cuteness...

If you didn't realize we live in "puppy mill land..."

Surprise!

We so like to believe that we central New Yorkers live in a green utopia of care and concern. Because of that, we tend to be blind to cruelty of the economy around us. Puppy mills? Here? Yes, people. Right here.

The breeder, David Yoder of Romulus, New York, took a whelping box that he fitted with a metal door with a hole in it. He put the exhaust pipe of a 3 horse power engine and pumped carbon monoxide gas into the box filled with dogs. He killed 78 adult dogs and 15 puppies in this way. He killed dogs in groups of 5-6, all carried out in front of the other dogs in his kennel.

As for himself, Yoder left the dogs alone some of the time because the fumes gave him a headache.

One day I was at Petsmart and there was a young man with a bichon puppy. I asked him where he got it and he said "Oh, a wonderful farm up the lake."

When you say to a kind, young, optimistic person something like "I'm sorry, but those farms are puppy mills, didn't you know?" they simply don't believe you. "Oh no, it was a FARM!" (i.e. "farms are good.") "They had cows and gardens and things."

People don't realize that dogs are raised like livestock. They are born in pens and raised in pens. Those that aren't shipped off to petstores are brought out to those beautiful farm stands and sold along with the pumpkins and veggies. It looks quaint, but it isn't.

And just like rotted fruit, if you can't sell it, you get rid of it. And you throw it away.

Here's another link to a post on Philly Dog.

3 of 4 cats will wear a collar

Linda Lord, Brenda Griffin, Margaret Slater, and Julie Levy are probably the best friends cats have. They continue to churn out research to give us real information about cats, rather than myths.

Three out of four cats will wear a collar (for the six months of the duration of the research project).

And not just indoor/outdoor cats should wear collars.

And indoor-only cats can get lost. Lord’s recommendations from this study are informed in part by her previous research, which has found, for example, that 40 percent of lost cats in one community were indoor-only cats, or that free-roaming cats without collars are very likely to either be fed by strangers – reducing the likelihood that they will return home – or to be ignored as strays.

“The return-to-owner rate is abysmal for cats. Fewer than 2 percent of lost cats are returned to their owners,” she said. “If we could get cat owners to try using a collar with identification, it would be a big deal.”

As far as the dangers of collars go (getting the collar caught in the mouth, getting a leg through the collar, the collar snagging on branches, and the cost of replacement collars for Houdini cats), I stopped buying commercial collars long ago.

Instead I buy the soft blue aquarium hose and straight connectors, and Jiffy Tags (although currently Bear has a real tag). Cut a piece of hose, trim to the appropriate length, slide the tag ring on, and fasten around the cat's neck with the connector. The cat can chew through it if they get it caught in the mouth, and the hose will pull off the connector if the cat gets hung up or puts a leg through. And these collars are cheap cheap cheap. They also don't rub a collar mark on the cat's neck.

Dude checks in!

Debra shared some photos of Dude on her Facebook page, so I took the liberty of snitching some of his handsome gator face.








I'm sure there are a lot of Wildrun folks happy to see that Dude is doing well.

Coffee and Kittens - Three kittens get homes so far this weekend

I'm sorry I kept the very sad post about Buttons up for so long. Buttons has left us at Wildrun. He continued on his rapid decline, so I once again made a decision about euthanasia (and I don't wanna talk about it no more).

On a brighter note, lots of new kittens are finding homes. Tyler, Jeeves, and Jazz were adopted this weekend. We had lots of other visitors as well who came just to socialize -- Karlene and (oh, I've forgotten her name!) on Friday afternoon, and Audrey, Christy, and Gordon today. I think that's the first time we've had two men in the place on a single day in a long while! Christy took all of the photos you see here.

Faith ALMOST squirmed her way into Mark's home and heart, but Tyler won the lottery. It's hard to choose just one!

Gordon and Christy are already full-up with Wildrun cats, plus the cats they have rescued themselves, so although Jasmine (below) gave Gordon's nose a good wash, she's still here with us tonight.

We could see the positive influence so many visitors had on the kittens (stiff and scared yesterday, far more relaxed by the end of today). If you want to visit (no need to adopt!) just let me know!