wildrun

Happy National Feral Cat Day!

2011-10-16T11:13:00.000-04:00

Farewell to Wildrun. Good morning to The Owl House

Please reset your links to the new blog!

Time to winterize!

2011-10-12T12:47:00.005-04:00

If you have feral cat shelters (or need to build some), here is a great video on winterizing.

I've met Wheeler and I have to say it gives me faith in humanity to see an "adventure guy" holding and snuggling with a cat, and taking care of yard ferals. So often people who care about cats are stereotyped as ragged women who have nothing better to do with their lives. Wheeler has a LOT to do in his life, but he and Sara still take time out to make sure a living creature in his sphere is warm and fed.

Dumping cats

2011-10-11T21:41:00.001-04:00

I often guess that some of the fixed cats that show up on my doorstep, like Portia and Arthur, were trapped away from loving homes and dumped here

Remember Simon?

2011-10-09T14:06:00.000-04:00

Clearly he knows how to get in the spirit of Halloween:

Here's his original pet profile. Don't bother clicking on the video icon, as it doesn't work any longer.

Simon was one of those "I wish I could just keep him" cats.

Thank you, Cary!

A new Pauli photo from the home front

2011-10-02T23:15:00.000-04:00

"Enzo and Pauli seem to be getting along well. I wanted to share this picture with you. After a rough day of playing the boys were very tired! Here they are napping together!"

It has been a great week for pictures. This summer has been a blur, and it sort of grounds things for me when fall rolls around and so many of these summer foundlings are safe in homes for the winter.

New slings

2011-10-02T16:17:00.001-04:00

My mother and my sister Kathy visited a few weeks ago. They both have made tons of cat toys for the crew. Kathy took interest in the ferret hammocks that we've been using for the cats. I sent her an old one in the mail, and she sent back two "first issues."

One of them never even made it to a cage. An adopter saw them and ended up buying one. The second one I finally installed in Gawain's cage. I'm tracking how long it lasts, and whether there are any laundry issues, etc. so Kathy can improve on her design. I understand she as already made some changes.

I'll get a photo of Gawain in his hammock when he'll finally sit still.

Past Pauli photo I meant to post...

2011-10-02T16:13:00.000-04:00

Pauli winding his way through the guitar collection in his new home. I took this on the night he was adopted:

Faith sure misses him!

Kittens check in! Couldn't have done it without you.

2011-10-02T10:03:00.002-04:00

Awhile ago you endured my rant about a crate full of kittens that had been abandoned on my road. A number of you responded with donations large and small, and/or encouragement, to help get the cats fixed. I think you deserve the credit here! Five of the six are already altered (or in the case of one, scheduled to be altered) and in homes!

And not just "homes." They are the kind of good homes that send us back photos. Here's three!

"Frack" is now Mimi (a much-improved name)

Moses is Petie:

Orion is now Yoshie:

Thank you again. I just wanted you to see the goodness you have wrought. And thank you to their adopters. Welcome to the Wildrun family!

I don't want a dumpster.

2011-10-01T09:03:00.001-04:00

But I may have no option. The garbage is piling up. Thank goodness I have the chicken coop in the barn to lock it all up in. The Barton Transfer Station is closed after being totally wiped out by the Flood, and all other waste disposal sites are for flood debris. "Home pick-up continues" but I don't have home pickup. I can't justify paying for the disposal of heavy heavy trash (cat litter) than I can fit in my vehicle. If I were to have to pay for bag tags for every bag of garbage I generate, my trash would probably cost me hundreds of dollars a month. You can only put one cat-box worth of cat litter in a single bag, and I dump 14 boxes twice a week.

Also, dumpsters attract critters and flies. In my nice cool barn, the trash stays fairly non-offensive. But out in the sun in a metal dumpster...not a good thing. Baking cat litter? This is not something I want to smell and I'm sure no one else wants to, either.

Maybe it's something I can just do in the short term. I just have no clue where I would put a dumpster where it wouldn't be the focal point of anyone driving up my quiet country road.

At any rate, I've made the calls to local trash removal companies, and we'll see.

Last two kittens in the cat facility

2011-09-30T22:17:00.000-04:00

Smidge:

and Mariah!

However there are still three big kittens, and three tiny kittens, in the house. More of them tomorrow!

Orzo finds a home

2011-09-18T08:59:00.001-04:00

I failed to note last week that on Thursday Orzo was adopted. His adopter ended up on a back-road adventure trying to get here, because a bridge was out, but Orzo is now safely in his home in Vestal (above the flood line, thankfully)!

I'm not certain why most of my adoptions are coming from Owego/Binghamton. I don't mind, because the quality of homes has been great lately. I assume I no longer get inquiries from Ithaca because locals want to support their own Tompkins County SPCA (a good thing!). But it does mean I probably should shift my advertising and outreach to the south.

And for good measure, here is Orzo's brother, Beans.

2011-09-15T22:38:00.003-04:00

Lots of kitten inquiries, and here comes Autumn

2011-09-12T07:34:00.005-04:00

You know fall is here, when your adoptees are trying on their Halloween costumes. Apparently Henry didn't think too much of his cowboy hat (Photo snitched from Audrey's Facebook page)

I've been getting a flurry of adoption requests, and it's hard to answer them because some of them are far away (how far away is "too far away for me to manage?"). It's tough saying "no" to people who are over 2 hours away, because they feel it must be something in their application, when in fact it's just the nature of the beast. If something goes wrong, I have a hard time arranging to get that kitten back. If she gets sick right after adoption, I can't afford to reimburse a vet many states away. If the kitten isn't altered yet, I have to follow up on spay-neuter and, God forbid, what happens if this kitten gets loose, like Tyler did? I have one potential home that is on my way to my sister's recital in Clinton on Sunday. That works out OK because I could visit the home, drop the kitten off, they can spend the day with her, and I could pick her up on the way home if they decided she wasn't a match.

Some people are 5 or more hours away, and they would gladly drive all the way here. If the kitten were altered, I might feel comfortable enough to let them take the kitten that day, if I can speak with their veterinarian, etc. and it is a very friendly kitten. But if the kitten isn't fixed yet, even with the best of adopters, "anything can happen." Heck, the best cat owners I know have had cats get loose through no fault of their own.

And what if the person drove all that way, and I ended up saying "no?" I very rarely say no, but I have in the past when the person clearly is not taking the time to listen to me, is pooh-poohing everything I say ("Oh, I'm sure he doesn't need to be shut up in a separate room. Our dog LOVES cats") or if the person is alarmingly rough with the cat (I've had that happen only once). I know people sometimes don't follow my advice, but I want them to be the kind of person who will at least sit and listen to it respectfully. I can usually get a good sense of a person on the phone before meeting them in person, but that doesn't give me a good sense of their mate or their children.

The general public is also getting more and more used to the idea of "roadside adoptions" (making all arrangements via phone and internet, and taking possession of the pet at a halfway point). Except in very rare circumstances, I am uncomfortable with these. Even if the adoption seems excellent, I don't like promoting the idea that this is a good way to do adoption. It can be in exceptional circumstances, but I am uncomfortable with it as a general practice. I have heard from the local shelters who end up with some of those pets (usually puppies)when the rescue (in a far-off state) can't take the pup back when the adopter gives it up four months later because the cute little pup has grown up into a big boisterous teenager. This is less of an issue with cats but still...adoption is adoption.

What adopters also don't understand is that there is a new kitten market out there. I have had people inquire who want to adopt my cutest dirt-cheap $50 kittens---to "re-adopt" them for $275 in low-kitten areas. This means I end up being extra-careful with legitimate adopters who just want to kitten to adopt. Good adopters don't understand why I'm being cautious--because truly good people don't understand that there are not-so-good people out there.

(If you just thought "Oh my God, people actually do that?" then you know why good adopters are also bewildered).

I've also had people who seemed like good long-distance homes pull out the night before or the day of my drive to their location. "Oh, we found another kitten at our local shelter last night. We'll send a donation for your time and expense." In 100% of those cases, I've never received a donation, and with adult cats, that means I've invested in a follow-up vet exam and second FeLV/FIV test that the cat would not normally have needed. I'm always shocked when this happens, because the person seemed so nice, and so enthusiastic. How could anyone say "Oh, sorry" the morning of adoption. Why did they GO to another shelter if they had confirmed an adoption with me?

There is no point bringing up all these situations with the good adopter who doesn't understand why I'm asking 100 questions of them. They just say "But I wouldn't do that." And they probably wouldn't. But because people have in the past, I have to weigh the well-being of the kitten, any my emotional well-being, against my assessment of their personality via phone and email. It's a tough call.

But let's not get too dramatic. Most often the issue is just spay/neuter. Spay/neuter is the foundation stone of stopping euthanasia in shelters. If a kitten is fixed, I'll even gladly drive them 4-5 hours to an excellent new home, if time permits. But if the kitten isn't fixed, there are too many loose ends and extra worries, and I just don't have time for extra worries. I can adopt an unfixed kitten to a home ten miles from me and know I can pick her up for her spay/neuter appointment that Friday, help find her if she gets lost, or get her to the vet if she starts sneezing two days after adoption. I can't do that when someone is far away.

There are so many kittens out there. We are not yet at the point--as with puppies--where spay/neuter has succeeded so well that someone must reach out a few states to adopt a homeless pup. If there isn't a fluffy kitten on Petfinder this week, there will be a fluffy kitten on Petfinder next week. I really want it to be MY fluffy kitten that people end up adopting, but sometimes it may not happen.

Goodbye Facebook (sort of), Hello Again Blogger

2011-09-11T11:22:00.003-04:00

Last week I stumbled across this article that states Blogger is a dying web site.

I love my blog dearly, but have used it less often in favor of Facebook, which is more immediate. Until this week, that is, when Facebook shot itself in its foot by changing its format into this confusing mess that takes away all that was helpful about Facebook. They've split the news feed into "top stories" and "recent posts" and only people I visit frequently show up on the feed (I'm told I can change this, but it has not succeeded for me). They've added a ticker on the right, which means instead of getting all your info in a nice simple stream, you have two places to look.

I feel like the execs at Facebook enjoy herding their faithful users around like cattle every few months. "Let's see what they'll do if we make them go THIS way now..." "HAHAHAHA look at the hits on our help pages!"

Well, I'm not a cow, and cats are notoriously hard to herd. So I'm jumping ship, even though part of my paying job is promoting social media. Blogs are, after all, the very first child of the Social Media concept.

I will use Facebook to keep up on my friends and colleagues who are there. Facebook is still the best, most immediate tool for instant information (vital right now, with people trying to find resources to recover from the flood). But it is now more of a corporate community tool than a personal one, and I find my friends, family, and adopters enjoy the blog more, anyway.

So stuff it. Blogger is far from dead!

I also appreciate the original, simple format of Blogger. I find that the fancier a blog format gets (whether on Blogger or any other hosting service), the less likely I am to read it. I want to click and read. I don't want to have to search around on sidebars, or wade through crap on the top to see if there is an actual recent post.

To those of you who have faithfully clicked here to find nothing day after day, I am committed to posting here again, as well as linking to blogs with a similar focus.

Kitten monsters...but cute ones

2011-09-10T07:18:00.000-04:00

Today, Saturday, will be a day of getting things done. I need to get photos of all these kittens to update their Petfinder pages. Their current photos show them as little furballs. I need to follow-up with people who have been emailing about adopting. Things are getting so confusing that I think I need to build an Excel spreadsheet to keep track!

Sunday I plan to be open for adoptions for anyone crazy enough to come all this way to see a kitten they can't pick up yet (because they won't be fixed until next week). Local adopters can take a kitten on foster-to-adopt, and they need to relinquish the kitten when his or her spay/neuter appointment comes up.

Don't you want to have this little paper-shredder in your life?

Yes, Kathy, that is your envelope. Your slings arrived, and I'll post on them today!

Humane Society of Binghamton Needs Help!

2011-09-10T06:58:00.003-04:00

From the Humane Society:

The Flood of 2011 forced the Humane Society to evacuate our 2 Jackson Street Binghamton shelter and temporarily suspend operations. All the animals have been relocated and are safe. We are now working on the first phase of the recovery plan in an effort to return to full operations as soon as possible.

We are aware the shelter sustained damage and have received preliminary reports of 4 feet of water in the building. The extent of the damage cannot be assessed until we are able to return to the building.

When we evacuated we were unable to take food or supplies and are in need of the following:

Pedigree adult complete nutrition dog food
Canned dog food
Purina kitten chow
Purina cat chow
Canned cat food
Cat litter
Paper towels
Hand sanitizer
Laundry Soap
Dish Soap
Large heavy duty garbage bags
Towels and blankets
Monetary donations are also needed.

All supplies can be taken to 1946 NYS Rt.12, in the town of Chenango (Next to Allen Veterinary Hospital) where we are temporarily housing the animals. Allen Veterinary Hospital is assisting us with housing some of our animals which is allowing us to provide a more comfortable environment for all of them. We are grateful beyond words!

If you have any questions, please send an email to bhumanesoc@aol.com. We will respond as quickly as we can.

The Humane Society would like to thank everyone for their concern and generosity while we, likemuch of our community, rebound from this event.

Thank you.
Karen Matson
Executive Director

In Spencer, NY, Wildrun will accept donations to take this upcoming Thursday when I finally make a run to Schoharie to drop off their donations. I'll go by way of Chenango.

Pauli keeps a pup in line

2011-09-10T06:41:00.001-04:00

As I had mentioned earlier, Pauli went off to his new home...just in time to be surrounded by the flood of the century. His house was up on hill, so hopefully his family is safe. I'll send a message off to them today.

Their dog was just too much for small kittens, but Pauli let Enzo know he wasn't going to arch up, spit, and run away like a kitten.

The most perfect kittens in the world

2011-09-10T06:38:00.000-04:00

Yes, I have more kittens. A young woman and her mother contacted me with the same old sad story. Someone dumped a cat last year. They listened to the Hater Advice and "didn't feed her, but she stayed" (Hey, Haters, do you know anything about cats? If someone dumps a scared cat out in the country, she's going to stay where there's a roof, not wander off into the wilderness for some mythical food bowl). She had a litter of kittens this spring that survived, and then this second litter that clearly was not going to be able to.

The young woman rescued the kittens and bottle-fed them as best she could (which was pretty good!) and I took them on the condition they get mom and the other kittens fixed.

On the up side, these have been the easiest kittens I've ever raised. The practically feed themselves. They are LOOSE in my bathroom. They stay in their little box on it's side, and then toddle off to a cat box with paper towels in it and use it. The kitten with goopy eyes cleared up almost immediately with eye meds. They roll, purr, and play. If they test negative for FeLV/FIV they will have been the perfect kittens. Knock on wood.

Here is one, eating dinner:

Owego

2011-09-08T21:08:00.002-04:00

It's just totally overwhelming. I didn't even know that Candor (just eight miles from me) had gotten totally nailed. And Owego is just drowned.

Post Note: I am fine, and the cats are fine. Some past adopters have gotten flooded or near-flooded or are stuck in their villages due to flooding.

"You've Received An Award!"

2011-09-08T16:17:00.000-04:00

Maybe you've received an email like that, and you are pleased and surprised. You put their little html graphic and link on your web page to proudly display that you are a "great cat shelter" or "great cat rescue" or just a downright "great person" or "great blogger."

Sometimes these awards are legit. They will usually mention something about you--an exact blog post you wrote, or something special you did. But quite often they are just a way for you to become a free portal to a web site that hosts Google ads. They want visits to their site generated by your page, so that visitors (your readers) will click on a Google ad and get them money.

That's all. Sad, isn't it?

So the next time your are offered an "award"..go visit the page offering it. If it hosts lots of ads, like Google ads, and especially if the "award" code is on their page available for anyone to pick up...it's no honor. They don't mind if just anyone lifts the code and posts their "award" because all they want is more traffic. They don't want to honor you. They want to use you. You'll often find that these web sites haven't even screened out puppy-mill ads from their Google ads (an option they have), and that this web site that told you that you do such great work rescuing animals, is actually making money from puppy-mill and for-profit breeder ads.

Does that mean anyone hosting Google ads is bad? Absolutely not. Just make sure if you are directing traffic to a site with Google ads, that you are doing so knowingly, and the ads are those you would want your readers to visit.

Last weekend...

2011-09-08T14:13:00.003-04:00

I met Stephanie and georg here to get their donations for the Animal Shelter of Schoharie last Sunday. And now it's underwater.

credit Alicia Rieselman, Facebook.

The Take A Break next door must be completely covered.

Worst over for me; worst to come for Owego/Binghamton

2011-09-08T10:21:00.001-04:00

The sun started to come up and I went outside to discover what I'm glad I did NOT know last night. The creek had relocated to travel down the road, and dumped back in across my field, just barely flooding the bottom of the barn. I pushed some logs out of the road so traffic could get through, then later this morning went out and shoveled off all of the debris.

If I had seen all that water last night, I would have had a fit. I'm glad I was oblivious.

I had three kittens slated to be altered at Cornerstone today. I was sure I could not get out, but I took my cellphone to check. It was worse than I ever could have expected. I couldn't even make it to the usual "you can finally get a signal here" spot, but luckily I could get two bars right where the flooding took the road, so I could let them know I wouldn't make it.

This creek is normally so small you could travel down it in a kayak (if it were deep enough) and touch either side with your paddle. Seriously. Now it is filling the entire valley.

Time to turn around. I could get two bars here, so I made my calls, took photos, and chatted with the folks who got this far with me.

This is awful

2011-09-08T03:13:00.004-04:00

I'm standing outside, and all I can hear is water, water, water as my two creeks roar down my hill. The water churning down those creeks may be carving out bridges and flooding out my neighbors. My house is up on a hill, and water goes through one side of my basement wall and out the other, so I'm in no danger of flooding. But so many others are losing their homes tonight. It's insane and sad.

I've never heard such a roar. All I hear is water coming from the sky, and water coming down the hill. Donna and Tim moved with their animals, and their mom and her animals, into the second floor of their shop. I called my sister last night--she was at a rehearsal miles from home, and I hope she was able to make it back tonight, and that her house doesn't flood yet again.

All these people losing their homes to the water, with insurance that won't pay a dime because flooding isn't covered...

Facebook is a lifeline. It's the only way to find out what's going on, anymore.

Stay safe, everyone. Stay safe.

I loooove this photo

2011-09-06T22:29:00.001-04:00

I got some precious "human" time when I zipped over to Binghamton on Sunday for a donation pick-up at Pete's Legacy Diner. george (Tiger Tom's new mom) was waiting in the parking lot, and Stephanie (ZuZu and Jasper, in the photo) found me when my tiny Kia emerged from the shadow of george's SUV. We had breakfast and conversation, and then she sent me this photo of Z and J. Beautiful, isn't it?

In addition to supplies for the flood region, Stephanie also sent a window perch to replace the beat-up one in the cat facility.

I did not make it to Schoharie this weekend. My power was out at my house on Sunday, and Monday it poured. So I'm aiming for this coming weekend to drop donations at the Animal Shelter of Schoharie Valley.

Veterinary Practice News

2011-09-03T06:41:00.002-04:00

While this is a web page rather than a blog, it looks like they have daily updates, so I'm blogrolling it. I thought others might be interested. It's Veterinary Practice News at http://www.veterinarypracticenews.com/

2011-09-02T23:59:00.001-04:00

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

Pauli gets adopted!

2011-09-02T01:09:00.002-04:00

Pauli was dumped here back in March. Now he has a guitar collection, and I guarantee we'll be getting video of him playing tag with the yorkie he's sharing his new home with.

Everyone loves Pauli, and I want to let you know, you'd be happy to see him where he is now!

Photos from this weekend

2011-08-28T18:16:00.001-04:00

Christy took some great photos of the kittens and cats this weekend. These are my two favorites.

They kept their eyes open for Christy. :)

Kittens on the Catio

2011-08-19T21:33:00.000-04:00

There are not enough ways to say "thanks."

2011-08-17T12:39:00.001-04:00

Today Christy came by bearing cherry tomatoes, peaches, peach jam, flowers, and a check, and three people have sent vet bill money via Paypal after my rant over the six (cute, cute, cute!) kittens that were dumped here. I'm getting some sweet cat toys out to you all (made by my mother and sister!)--except maybe to Singapore. I'll have to ask the postmaster here whether I can ship dried catnip overseas.

Thank you all! I also need to point out that money is not the only thing that lifts my spirits. Just checking my stats on the blog and seeing the people who check in over and over again--even when I'm so poor at blogging regularly--that is a huge lift as well.

I took yesterday and today off from work. Yesterday, I went to the Glimmerglass Opera (now actually the Glimmerglass Festival), complements of my sister Linda and the opera (i.e. a comp ticket). She has played with them for over 20 years, and yes even so, I have never been to an opera, which really is a heinous sin. I'll blog more about it on my personal blog later today. Let's just say I was lucky enough to experience an incredible singer and actor--so incredible that I keep going over and over the opera in my mind.

I got to see Sylvester, who lived here for a few years before Linda adopted him (Note to friends of Wildrun--Sylvie is Storm's brother). I got a short glimpse of Harley, who is also a Wildrun kitten, but he disappeared as soon as Molly-the-dog started bouncing around the house.

I had planned on camping before I discovered I was in desperate need of a new sleeping bag. You just can't leave a cloth bag in a closet for four years unused. Too bad...the omnipresent clouds gave way around 1:00 pm yesterday just before the opera began, and central NY is now as glorious as only central NYS can be on a sunny cool summer day. This morning the sun rose in a cloudless sky and I can now take PICTURES OF KITTENS without a flash.

I'm also using the day to get paperwork in order, taking thank-yous to the post office, and paying bills, bills, bills. Kittens are romping in both the house and the cat facility. The lazy sunny day offsets their boundless energy. What normally would freak me out (too many kittens!) at the moment is amusing and happily distracting.

Musicians have been very kind to Wildrun. Our most recent adopter pulled up and noted the Syracuse Symphony magnet on my car (a great way to be immediately approved for adoption around here). She is of a musical background as well. There seems to be a great bond between musicians and cats, and the fact that several musicians have adopted us, is probably the one thing gives my life a periodic boost of the ethereal. I'm not sure how to explain it; again, I'll try a bit more on my personal blog, later. But just as an example, to go out on my porch and see the flowers, the sweet peaches, and then--on a more mercenarial note--discover I won't have to put more bills on the credit card when the mortgage comes due on Friday because I have some help with the vet costs of these kittens--is unexplainably wonderful. It is a great gift. At some point in my life, I want to raise flower, just so I can drive around and give them to everyone I love.

And on a perfect, perfect sunny day, such a gift even makes work enjoyable.

Kitten photos soon!

Eleven kittens in-house. Two are spoken for!

2011-08-14T23:50:00.002-04:00

What a devil of a time I had taking photos tonight. Every time the flash went off, little kittens squinched their eyes tightly closed. I'll need to go out at lunch tomorrow and try to get some more!

The new litter (6) and Mariah (the abandoned Manx) all tested negative for FeLV/FIV/Heartworm. A sister of one of the vet techs is looking for a kitten, so they were snapping photos and sending them off to Maine. Little Frack (brown tiger w/white female) has been chosen! Hopefully I can get her fattened up, fixed (and hernia repaired) and recovered before the end of August when she would make the trip north.

Then today we had a visitor, and the little black fuzz ball with extra toes was chosen! They are all still skinny, wormy, and the little black one decided to hack up some foam right then, but he ate and drank tonight, and seems fine. They have had two doses of worm medicine, and are now on FortiFlora to help their little guts recover. So I have three cats "adopted" and yet they are all still here. At least they are chosen!

I finally managed to get a good photo of Mariah, the fast-as-lightning Manx. It's good for her to have other kittens to play with, because she was getting bitey, as single kittens often do. Once everyone seems healthy, I probably will cage her up with the new kittens, but until then, I'm letting her romp with them, but put her back in her own cage alone.

They are pretty kittens.

The kittens in the house are extremely amusing, and were very sweet to their visitor today. If it weren't for the fact that the new black kitten is sporting extra toes, Noodles might have been adopted instead, because he did the old "let me gaze soulfully up directly into your eyes" routine.

Good boy! Keep it up!

Six, yes SIX kittens abandoned

2011-08-11T09:50:00.001-04:00

A neighbor came lugging a crate (no door!) up the path the day before yesterday. It contained SIX kittens that she had found at the intersection just before my house. Just out of sight of my door--where they could have brought them had they had guts to do so.

Thank you, someone, for taking another $1100 from me. $1100 that no one has, right now.

FeLV/FIV tests @ $30 each = $180
FVRCP @ $4 each = $24
Capstar @ $2 each = $12
Rabies (when old enough) @ $5 each =$30
3 pediatric neuters = $300
3 pediatric spays = $400
Hernia repair on 2 = $150

Total = $1096

That doesn't include food, litter, worming, and further flea treatment.

Just think. If you'd gotten your own cat fixed at your vet ($250) or local spay/neuter clinic ($50, or sometimes free) you wouldn't be stealing from me, and from the veterinarians who give a discount.

And, worse yet, your cat is going to have another litter. And another. And another.

Bless you, Carmen, for stopping when you saw something that didn't look right!

Curtains for the cat facility

2011-07-31T21:15:00.001-04:00

There are various piles of supplies for projects lying around my house, and the barn. There is a pile of boards in the upstairs hallway to finish off the window shelves in the boarding rooms. A pile of fleece next to the sewing machine in the kitchen for cat facility curtains; wood in the barn for trimming out the windows there; shutters for the house laying on the bench in the workshop waiting to be painted. This weekend I resolved that one pile would go away, and given the heat we've had, I chose curtains, so I could shut out the blazing sun for the first half of each day. My house, for some unknown reason, faces west and gets no real sun until late afternoon. The cat facility faces south east, and the sun smacks it straight on around 8:00 am each summers' day.

I am not a particularly patient person, and I had to stop myself from making one curtain, going out the facility to put it up; make another curtain...

I cut out a single pair and put that ONE pair up to make sure I hadn't made some hideous mistake in measurement, and then finished the rest. The material is so loud it was hard to get a photo of it that didn't make it look even louder, so I laid in next to the window trying to get some natural light

I got light alright. I also got a cat. Cricket found it quite a comfy spot to stretch out her aging single hind leg.

The curtains are up now. They probably should have been wider and longer to cover better in the winter, but they are better than nothing. Probably by winter these will need some replacements, anyway. Curtains and cats aren't known to get along all that well.

TigerTom gets another 15 minutes of fame on Life With Cats

2011-07-31T03:52:00.001-04:00

TigerTom's story is on Life With Cats!

Life With Cats is on Facebook, so if you are a FB fan, please "like" them to say thanks and see their other uplifting cat stories every day.

Thai gets a pledge of a new home

2011-07-30T14:17:00.001-04:00

Thai had visitors Friday, and they have pledged to give him a home, once some interior construction going on in their home is complete. Having had a adopted kitten get briefly lost in non-sheetrocked walls last year, I'm just as happy to have Thai here until everything is buttoned up at his new place. Plus he can keep little Mariah company until she's big enough to hold her own with the other kittens. They are very cat savvy folks, so he will have a great home!

He love to chase and leap over her. I'm sure tiny spitfire Mariah is looking for someone to wrestle with, but thankfully Thai realizes that would be an uneven match, and he is very gentle with her, confining their play to tag-and-chase.

That is FOUR adult adoptions within just three weeks, which is really incredible. The kittens are at the perfect age for adoption now, so I'm going to spend this weekend getting some decent photos of them, so I don't end up with teenagers instead of kittens this fall.

Good words continue to come in via Facebook about TigerTom. He seems to be hanging on with Georg and Jazz while they are working--at least, I see lots of photos of him on a desk!

TigerTom says "Tails Up!"

2011-07-28T21:55:00.000-04:00

This is what I like to see. He's still a night owl, though, hiding during the day. But at least he is exploring and being affectionate! Once he realizes life isn't as boring during the day in his new home as it is here, I expect he'll become more outgoing during the daylight hours as well.

So things are going well for TigerTom!

TigerTom in his new home

2011-07-26T22:32:00.002-04:00

On Sunday I delivered TigerTom to his new home with Georg and Jazz in Endicott. Georg promised me she would keep me updated via Facebook, and she has been true to her word. This is good, as otherwise I would likely be a basket case, since he is such a shy boy. Any one who knows TigerTom won't be surprised that he hid in his little box in a caterpillar ball.

Tonight, there was some very good news on Facebook!

I sat down next to Tiger Tom, while he was in the shower stall. Not only did he do serious rising butt syndrome, he rolled over and let me have the belly, and rubbed his face against me. Then he stood up and purred. And walked out of the shower stall. It was wonderful.

Then Jazz approached the door, and he ran back into the shower stall. So I left the bathroom and he repeated it all for Jazz. Progress!!!

They are going to let him graduate from the bathroom to their office tomorrow.

I'm so glad he is coming out of his shell--even faster than I would have expected.

On my way home, coming through Owego, I had to turn around to take a shot of a Shelter Pet Project billboard!

Tyler checks in! Lots of new posts today!

2011-07-24T11:21:00.003-04:00

...so be sure to scroll down!

Kim sent photos of Tyler! I knew he was doing OK because Portia's adopters said they had met him and he had even let them pet him. I'm pleased to see him in his classic "Tyler pose" with his paws stretched out in front of him (he loves windows!) Check out all those toys. Lucky cat!

Kim reports that Portia's new name, in her new home with the "other Kim", is "Alice." She definitely is an "Alice." :)

Great "find the kittens!" post

2011-07-24T10:52:00.003-04:00

At Covered in Cat Hair.

New Fast Food Feral

2011-07-24T09:42:00.001-04:00

Rumor has it there is a mom cat and kittens at the Fast Food Feral feeding station. I've only seen the mom and I sure wish those kittens would show themselves! At the "old" site, before Wicks was demolished, the kittens were all born under a pile of debris that was easy to trap at. Now there is nothing but woods and the gardens at Tompkins Co Solid Waste and I have no idea where their home base is.

Yesterday I went by to feed the cats, and mom cat was headed back, having checked the feeding station and found an empty bowl. She clearly understood that I was the "bringer of food" because she crouched down in the drive and waited for me to come back from filling it. By the time I turned my car around, she was trotting back to have dinner. No kittens in view.

She is a drop-dead beautiful gray, white and black tri-color. I have never seen such a thing in my life. This photo is too distant, but maybe you can make out what I mean.

"You can't see me if I lay flat...right here in the middle of the road."

I sure hope she's tame. I'd love to not have to bring her back once I catch her!

Jasper and ZuZu check in

2011-07-24T09:36:00.000-04:00

I always love getting photos of Jasper and ZuZu from Stephanie. They are the perfect balance of "Beautiful Lady" and "All-American Tuxedo-Boy."

Maestro checks in

2011-07-24T09:09:00.005-04:00

I'm behind in posting adopter photos from this week! Valarie took pictures of Maestro when she was visiting Ashley.

"The cute “little” fluffball has turned into big fluffball. He is still a little shy and won’t come out when there are a bunch of people at the house but he does come out when I go to visit… Probably because every time I go, Ashley brings out the treats for him. All she has to do is say, “Maestro, treats… Maestro, treats!!” and he comes running."

Maestro was rescued by Christy and Gordon. When I sent them this photo via Facebook, Christy sent back a kitten shot:

I don't need to gush over how gorgeous he is. His photos speak for themselves!

Can't keep a good kitten down

2011-07-23T01:37:00.001-04:00

Mariah (so named because she runs like the wind, i.e "They call the wind....") spent one day squalling, the next day in stunned silence, and she has finally blossomed into normal kittenhood. She is providing a proper diversion to Thai, who has been treating her like a self-ambulating cat toy. Mariah discovered Thai's twitching tail this evening.

Those few of you who are not living where it is 106 freaking degrees may not realize we are in the middle of a heat wave of undetermined end. My impression is that most of my readers are also staring at their thermometers in disbelief.

Some people may think a "heat wave" ends if the temperature drops below 95. I personally require a rainstorm and less than 85 F to qualify. While winter requires mere money to maintain legal and comfortable temperatures (and lots of it), summer requires strategy. Big window fans get turned on as soon as the outside temperature drops, which didn't happen tonight until 10:00 pm. Then all the cats get liberty, all the water gets replaced so flying fur doesn't lie on the surface. About 11:30 pm it has grown cool enough that kittens really wish to play. About 1:00 am everyone has been combed and petted, and I have taken a nap on the new vinyl floor. Then I come in to wash dishes and...blog!

I have small quiet fans for cats who are recovering from surgery in cages. Again: strategy. Some cats don't mind air hitting them directly. It annoys others, in which case fans need to be set to move the air without being pointed right at the cat. All of the cats get wet food in addition to their dry, and surgery cats get baby food mixed with water to be sure they are inspired to eat and get fluids.

In the morning, I'll get out to the facility before the sun hits the windows. Fans come down, windows get closed and curtained to bar the sun and heat, grumpy cats who love their windows are consoled. The facility is positively dark, and it will stay so until night falls again. This dance happens about once every three years when we have a nasty heat wave. The last two years we have been spared.

I'm loving the cool vinyl floor. The timing for that was perfect.

Tomorrow a.m. I get to sleep in. What bliss. The alarm is set for 7:30---right before the sun hits those windows.

Where are they now: Plato and Socrates

2011-07-21T01:32:00.003-04:00

I got photos of these handsome fellows, Casey and Austin, in my email today, and for a moment, I couldn't recall who they were:

Then I put two and two together. It was Plato and Socrates from way back in my West Danby days! They were captured as feral kittens from behind McDonalds on Elmira Road in Ithaca. One day I was in the line at Kmart, and there was a student-age woman in front of me with a box of kitten chow. I immediately put on my "holier than thou" education cap, thinking to engage her in conversation about the best way to take care of her new kitten. But when I said "Got a kitten?" she said "No, but I'm thinking about getting one, and I wanted to have everything on hand."

Well! Didn't that burst my holier-than-thou bubble! So I mentioned Wildrun rescued kittens, and I had some at that time, and didn't she start interviewing me, when I'd planned on interviewing her. I gave her my info, and she did come over. She decided she wanted two kittens. I was concerned because one of them was still quite shy, and insisted on hanging onto them another week. When a week passed, and one kitten was still quite shy, Janet assured me she could handle them, and with reservations I let them go.

She reassured me that all had turned out well a few months later by sending this great photo that I have cherished. It hangs on my wall by my computer:

There was no way I would have been able to get little scarves and hats on those kittens! It was clear they were doing very well.

As with most of my kittens, they faded off into time with their new owners. I mentally wished them well, enjoyed the photo, and figured I would never hear from them again.

Until today when I got an email labeled "Alumni of Wildrun"

11 years ago, I adopted two stray grey male kitties from your service. I wanted to send updated pictures and let you know they are doing wonderful, happy and healthy little boys (well, they aren’t that little). Casey weighs in at about 18.2 pounds and Austin at 15.5 pounds. Both are extremely healthy (always have annual blood work done and frequent teeth cleaning every few years), just big cats (more like tigers. LOL) Attached you will find a few pic’s of them.

Thank you for your service! These two little guys have brought so much love to my life and I am very grateful that 11 years ago, I met one of your workers in the Kmart and found out she had kittens available. Casey and Austin were found behind McDonalds with their two sisters.

This has just been a great week! So many nice things have happened (even with the 100 degree heat) that I haven't even had time to blog them all. I wrote back, and Janet sent the photo just above, and that will hang next to the Christmas photo.

What is really sweet to think back on is what I had for a cat facility back then. And boy, was I proud of it:

Tompkins County Trust actually let me take out a loan to buy that little cat shed. I dug a trench for legal electric, and traded cat trapping to an electrician friend to get it wired. I never did finish it off completely before we moved to the farm on Owl Creek.

And here are Casey and Austin--then Plato and Socrates--in the shed as kittens:

Did you adopt your pet from a shelter? Sent them a photo and a note and make their day, like Janet made mine.

Last weekend's ranking: "Very Good!"

2011-07-18T23:38:00.006-04:00

Note: names and links still need to be added, and you can be sure there's a typo or two.

At the very last minute, I decided to throw together an adoption event for Petfinder.com's 15th Birthday. I wimped out a bit, and did not put my address in the press release, because I really wanted people to RSVP. We have restrictions on adoptions --- indoor only homes, etc. -- and it can be awkward for folks to show up and then be told that no, that can't have that kitten if they plan to let her outdoors. If they email or call, I can send an application and they'll know ahead of time.

Indeed one person who inquired went to the Cortland County SPCA and adopted a cat instead. That's makes me as happy as if one of my own were adopted. A rescued cat is a rescued cat!

This event was going to be held downstairs, to show off the new vinyl that took so many four-letter words to lay down, that I did not blog about it. I am so happy with it. It has entirely changed the look of the downstairs. Here is the floor before the cats from the house were brought out to grace my electro-colored cages, as my mom looks on (thanks, sister Kathy, for taking the photos!).

Tyler had been adopted earlier by Kim, who had adopted Hope this winter. She visited with Portia while she was here, and shared Portia's story with friends who lived in an apartment that required that cats be declawed. They arrived sharply at 1:00 pm as soon as we were open to the public. Portia lobbied well, and left to a new life!

Then Georg and Jazz arrived, having emailed ahead that they wanted to adopt one our long-termers. Afternoon is a really bad time to visit the shy cats. They all sit like lumps, hoping everyone will go away. TigerTom was no exception, but they chose him anyway. They had met him before, on an earlier visit a few years ago. I took some video of him that night so they could see that he really was, after dark anyway, a sweet cat:

TigerTom needs a vet check and a microchip before he can go on to his new life!

Georg brought along a whole bag of catnip toys she had made, which we immediately passed out to the cats. I have a great video of Morgaine playing with one, however it's not yet uploaded to Youtube.

In addition to adopters, Nancy, Brigid, Marina, and Lori came to visit and help, and my mother and my sister came absolutely laden with more homemade cat toys, and even a great plastic jar to display them. I also had all sorts of Petfinder swag to give away. Here's the loot we got, and the loot we were giving away:

After the event, I set the bag of toys down on the floor and stepped outside.

Thai got into them and gave them his feline seal of approval:

So three adult cats were adopted, which is HUGE. Jane from work posted TigerTom on Petfinder's Facebook page and he got 843 "likes" and 83 comments! The day before the event, a guy showed up at my door--cash in hand-- and had the old trucks hauled away within a few hours. We all had a fun time with the cats and having some food and good conversation.

Alas, but the goddess of fate can never let things go unchallenged! I went out to tuck in the cats at dusk, and waaaaaaay down the road I heard something that no one wants to hear:

I could hear the kitten squalling as night fell, far from the house, so I grabbed a crate, flashlight, and can of cat food. I didn't need it. All I had to do was keep mewing, and the kitten kept squalling. And there she was, in the grass just a foot off the pavement--- a three and a half week old Manx kitten with a bloody nose from being thrown out of a car.

She still needs to be bottle fed, and she has finally calmed down a bit.

So, down three cats, up one kitten!

This is why I don't like publicizing that I have a cat facility. Immediately after putting in the press release, I began receiving email after email from nice people who had had cats and kittens dumped on them. I still haven't been able to answer them all. And obviously someone figured they'd just bring me one of their own.

Still, it was an A-plus weekend.

More photos to come. Now I really want to just go feed that kitten one more time and go to bed!

Except I have to do one more thing: Check out the adoption counter at Petfinder to see how the numbers are rolling in:

Three of those ten THOUSAND plus weekend adoptions are ours, out here in the middle of nowhere, at Wildrun.

Adoption event...so much to say, so few hours to sleep

2011-07-18T02:11:00.000-04:00

Tyler, Portia, and Tiger Tom were adopted!

Lots more to say...tomorrow....

4:00 am upgrade

2011-07-10T11:43:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I started the re-paint, re-floor project in the long-term room of the cat facility. It hurt to rip out and throw away the carpet I had been so proud of five years ago, but it was time to make the switch to vinyl, for health reasons. It also will be nice to cross vacuuming off the list of twice-daily tasks. I'm sure Donna and Tim will appreciate the break as well, when they care for the cats.

Last year I had started painting the room, and had chosen a pale lavender. That was a mistake. First of all, the walls needed to be primed. A yellow cast came through the paint, turning it a hideous blah gray. Second, the room has only one window, and really needed a brighter color to perk it up. So the project stalled, and there it sat.

Yesterday I dragged everything out of the room, painted while the carpet was down so I could feel free to make a mess, cut up and carried out the carpet, and laid out the vinyl. It's the flexible kind, so you can abuse the heck out of it without worrying about tears and creases. It costs more, but I would have destroyed a cheaper vinyl trying to lay it alone.

I also had to remove the old carpeting from the posts they use to climb up on the wall perches. That was a joy. And then put new carpeting on. I had a little left over from the carpet I put in the house last year.

So here is what it looked like before:

And here it is this morning:

Because I needed to get the cats back into the room, I had to keep working until it was useable again, so the cats and I were partying up there until 4:00 am. They are quite active at night! Then I had to herd them back in, since the new floor and the paint smell made them wary. But they seem quite content this morning.

It's a "Go!" Short notice adoption event next Saturday!

2011-07-09T11:32:00.005-04:00

Next weekend is Petfinder.com's 15th Birthday, and they are having a nationwide Big Birthday Adoption Weekend with a goal of adopting out 15,000 homeless pets. Wildrun is going to be open Saturday 1-4pm. We have KITTENS and lots of lovely friendly adult cats. We already have two "friends of Wildrun" who have indicated they would like to adopt next week, so we have a good start!

Our events are small, friendly, and low-key, but it sure helps to have other people. You never know--with the extra publicity, we could get a crowd! We need a few volunteers to:

Greet people

Assist with parking

Take photos

Freshen cages

Help paint this week!

Relax afterward!

SATURDAY, 7/16, 1PM-4PM

email info@americancat.net

SATURDAY, 7/16, 1PM - 4PM

WILDRUN - Neighbors Helping Neighbors

info@americancat.net

Purina One food recall

2011-07-07T23:13:00.002-04:00

PURINA ONE FOOD RECALL!

MDA issues consumer advisory for Purina One Vibrant Maturity 7+ Adult Premium Dry Cat Food ST. PAUL, Minn. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) is alerting consumers to avoid feeding or handling the lot identified below of Purina One Vibrant Maturity 7+ Adult Premium Dry Cat Food which was manufactured in November, 2010 by Nestlé Purina PetCare Company (NPPC), of St. Louis, Missouri. State agriculture department product sampling determined one bag of the finished product to be contaminated with Salmonella bacteria. The company is cooperating with MDA, and is investigating the matter. This advisory is limited to product bearing the following lot code information: Product Name: Purina One Vibrant Maturity 7+ Adult Premium Cat Food Bag Size 3.5 lb. "Best By" Date & Production Code*MAY 2012 03341084 1936L11 Bag UPC Code 17800 01885 *"Best By" Date and Production Code is found on the back or bottom of the bag. There are no reports of human or animal illnesses associated with consumption of this product. Consumers are asked to discard the product if they have any at home. For further information, please call NPPC toll-free at 1-800-982-6559.

Girl Bob is all grown up!

2011-07-07T07:18:00.001-04:00

Girl Bob is now Hope, and her family has sent us photos. They feel she needs a somewhat bouncier friend in addition to her cuddle buddy pictured here, and will be visiting next week to see if anyone we have here (Tyler perhaps?) might be a match! After all, they were pretty close friends when she was still here.

Kittens, laughter in fur

2011-07-03T08:09:00.001-04:00

I'm fond of telling people that it's best to get an adult cat, because then you can have some idea of what the cat's personality is like. Do you want a cat who will greet your visitors? A cat who prefers to sit next to you rather than on you? A cat that will remain overtly playful? A stoic cat? Then adopt an adult cat whose personality is already pretty clear.

I also like to say "kittenhood lasts only short while." Then you are stuck with what you get.

However, I can't blame people for wanting to enjoy that "short while." There is nothing as cute and as fun to have around as a kitten. They remind us of what it's like to live in the moment, when everything is new, and it's OK (and even preferable) to be slightly dumb, and surprised by everything we encounter.

I know I'm really enjoying these four I have now. I need to get them FeLV/FIV tested and out of here. Their ear mites now seem to be under control, and they are as friendly as can be. I wish I could say the same of their mother, who still hides in the closet.

There is a reason there are so many kitten videos on YouTube. People just want to take a moment and laugh.

Although there's no guarantee that your kitten will grow up to be Maru.

Cute stuff - "CattyStacks"

2011-07-03T05:46:00.000-04:00

They call them Catty Stacks. Cute,huh?

2:00 am feeding and fussy-kitten-sitting

2011-06-25T03:25:00.014-04:00

Lori,a friend of mine who is a vet tech asked if I could watch some bottle babies until Monday evening so she could go to a friend's graduation party. She was fostering the kittens for a shelter. So my bathroom is hosting a rubbermaid tub full of furballs this weekend.

She said they were tough feeders (scream! turn face away! scrabble madly with front paws! keep mouth shut!). Been there, done that. It used to distress me, but after about 20 years of it, you get over it. Lori is used to it, too.

You'd think a hungry kitten would want to open his mouth and eat, but oh no! Without mom to sooth them, they can get quite cranky and unhappy.

For basic kitten care, the Kitten Rescue page has good info.

Here is my recipe for turning cranky smelly kittens into happy well-fed purr buttons (if they are strong, wiggly and warm ONLY):

A: Get as much dinner down them as you can. This means taking advantage of every single kitten scream you can to poke that nipple in their mouths and get a little bit of formula in there. (Note: when I say "squirt" I mean just a bare mouthful) Tip the head back, gently open the mouth from the back corner (cut your nails), slide the nipple in, and give a tiny bit of forumla. Do not fight the kitten. If he is seriously fighting you, just give him a squirt, move onto the next kitten, and come back to him. If you fight the kitten, he may aspirate formula, and he will hate being fed. You need to be sure the hole in the nipple is just right so you won't drown them if you press on the bottle.

There are plenty of things you can do in a bathroom (clean your toilet; get a load of laundry going) to make this "not a waste of time." Just keep rotating between screaming kittens as you get set up for the....

B: BATHS! Kitten baths are pretty simple at my house. Dawn dish detergent (the plain kind), lots of clean warm towels (throw them in the dryer beforehand), a small plastic comb to get poop out of the fur, and a hair dryer. I just squirt a little Dawn on the kitten and put them under faucet with nice comfortable warm water running. I keep the kitten's face and head out of the water stream, suds her up, and rinse her off, rolling her back in forth in my hands, making sure the belly and private parts get lots of rinsing to reduce urine scald. The kitten is going to scream. The kitten may poop or pee. But the kitten will be clean! Right before the bath is over, I take a wet wash cloth and wash the kitten's face, chin and chest.

Towel dry (face first after that chin-wash) by rolling back and forth and tousling the kitten gentle in the towel to get as much water off as possible. Making it a nice gentle rubbing massage. You don't have to treat them like crystal but there is a balance between getting all the innards moving by rubbing and rolling gently, and not rubbing too hard. Don't break them!

Blow dry (carefully!). Dryers are noisy but they get the job done pretty quickly with neonates. You need to hold the dryer far enough away so as not the burn the kitten, and turn it off to towel the kitten periodically. Be sure your bare hands are on the kitten at all times. If the dryer is too warm on your hand, it is too warm on the kitten! The plastic comb or a soft baby brush will open up the fur so it dries faster.

C) As soon as a kitten is bathed and dried, give her another dose of food. You can even give a mouthful now and then while drying the kitten if you are fast. You don't want the kitten to sit wet and cold. As you bathe the rest of the kittens, give all of the fussy ones a mouthful of food when you put the next kitten back (in a nice clean bed with nice clean towels).

When all of the kittens are bathed, run the blow dryer over the kittens together in their tub because they are sure to be damp. Be sure the tub will be warm enough when you put a sheet over it for them to sleep. Almost always this will mean using a heating pad beneath it. During very hot weather, you may not need a pad. But it's important to be sure. I have a thermometer I can put right in with the kittens. It's easy to chill or fry kittens if you "make assumptions" about what you "think" the temperature is in an enclosed container--especially damp kittens.

Before you cover up the kittens, give everyone a mouthful of formula again so they go to sleep with the taste of good formula (not soap!) in their mouths. Fussy kittens should get as many drops as you can get in there. Kittens who have eaten well should not be forced to eat more. Wipe their mouths with a tissue or washcloth so formula does not cake and dry on them.

Basically what you want are clean, warm, full, well-massaged, TIRED OUT kittens.

D) LEAVE THEM ALONE in a quiet dark room. Do not jostle them. Do not let people look in on them. This is crucial. Check the temperature once you are sure they are asleep (usually about 20 minutes). Let them sleep absolutely undisturbed for 3 or four hours. (Note: if you have just set up their tub, you may need to quietly check on the temperature a few more times to be sure it's not getting too hot/cold).

E) Be sure you have a clean towel, a towel for your lap to feed the kittens, and kitty wipes (or a warm damp washcloth) before you sit down to feed the kittens next. Lift them out of the tub, current stinky towel and all. Put a new clean towel in, and replace the kittens. Get rid of the stinky towel so you can enjoy your feeding session. Sit each kitten on your lap to feed him or her. Sit them (one by one) on a hand towel or old t-shirt on your lap so they can grab on and feel warm and secure. I guarantee they will eat better than they did earlier. Feed the kitten, massage her with the towel, rub her all over (with special attention to the belly and bottom of course) with kitty wipes. If the kitten is still not sucking down formula in an uninterrupted manner, don't worry. Give her mouthfuls of food as you clean her. If the kitten fusses, just give a mouthful and stop. Again--don't try to fight the kitten. Just squirt, clean, squirt, massage, squirt, put back in the box, and go onto the next kitten. Each time you put a kitten back, give another bit of formula to the fussy ones.

Don't freak out if kittens won't suck on the bottle. Just keep calmly giving fussy kittens a mouthful each time you move to a new kitten. This way, they will all get enough.

The only time this is a pain is when you have a single kitten. You don't have lots of kittens to rotate with so it's easy to get bored and frustrated, and your single will be distressed because he is all alone. In that case you are going to spend more time giving him little bits of formula, and he should be gently stroked, massaged, and breathed on. You will have a very clean bathroom by the time he is full, keeping yourself busy. Which is good, because there is nothing stinkier than a bathroom with neonate kittens in it.

With this particular batch of kittens, only one would settle down and drink in an uninterrupted manner during their first feeding. During their second feeding, every single kitten took the bottle and sucked on it. The key is getting them through one session where they are full, clean, massaged (so the innards are moving) and tired (so they sleep soundly, ready to wake up and eat), and following up with regular meals, cuddling/massage, and a warm clean bed.

Happy days!

NOTE ON BATHS: Only strong, warm kittens should be bathed. If your kitten is cold, underfed, or flea ridden, the kitten must be warmed up in a gradual and controlled manner. Fleas should be combed off rather than washed off. If you take a cold kitten and stick him under warm water, the kitten can get shocked by warming up too fast. In dire situations (maggots, filth, etc.) where a bath is absolutely needed, at least take an hour to warm the kitten up in a dark box with a heating pad.

SECOND NOTE ON BATHS AND FEEDING: Absolutely every kitten rescuer has their own opinion on kitten feeding and kitten baths. If you are confused because you get conflicting information, don't worry about it. That's just how we are. Read as much as you can, and use your brain.

Kittens in the house

2011-06-23T22:14:00.001-04:00

I got a call from feral-cat-lovers up the hill (I won't share their name, lest someone dump cats on them) that a neighbor had been caring for a stray cat, who had been dumped with her sister the year before. The sister had been killed by a car. This little stray had survived, earning her keep as a mouser, and giving birth to four little munchkins. The neighbor couldn't afford to fix five cats, so mom and the kits are here. Mom will get spayed and go home, no longer a "stray," but owned, and the kittens will stay here, up for adoption.

There's something to be said about having them walk in the door at the "utter cuteness" stage: six weeks old.

This look on this gray tux kitten's face is the same look his owner will see when he is 20 years old and ruling the house as an old man.

If food doesn't work, drugs will

2011-06-23T22:10:00.001-04:00

So the kitty whose owner died, who was left to roam Shelter Valley, and who was rescued because neighbors were concerned about her, finally walked aaallll the way into my trap. She doesn't like wet food, and dry food is probably available on every other porch in the park, so she probably wasn't ravenous. What finally overcame her wariness? Fresh and dried catnip. I pulled a plant out of my yard, and brought along about two cups of dried catnip I had put up about six years ago. I poured the full two cups under the trap behind the pan, put in a plate of dry food, and crushed the fresh catnip on top. I then covered the trap with a pillowcase to hold the catnip smell in.

Bingo! I'm glad she went in, because I was beginning to despair that I would run out of gas money before payday. Luckily the very caring neighbor was willing to shut the empty trap at night to spare me a drive out.

She is very scared. The neighbors had heard a previous owner of the cat mention once that he wouldn't mind having her back, so they are checking to see.

Do you foster for a 501(c)(3) animal shelter or rescue?

2011-06-12T16:07:00.001-04:00

Some of your donated expenses may be tax deductible.

The evolution of t-shirts

2011-06-12T09:37:00.004-04:00

Maybe I should say "evolution of the middle-aged body" instead.

T-shirts are a staple for any woman who has to do any dirty work, but a few years ago when I caught a glimpse of myself in a standard t-shirt as I passed a mirror, it seemed quite obvious they didn't fit me like they did when I was 116 pounds and stick thin, rowing for crew in college.

The collar now looked harsh and tight. The shirt itself was now too long. It hit the hips (I didn't HAVE hips in college) and hitched around unevenly. The hemmed arms looked too square on a figure that was, quite frankly, square itself.

I discovered a pair of scissors easily turned a t-shirt into something I could wear comfortably again. I just cut a good four inches off the bottom, cut off the hem on the arms, and more carefully cut the ribbed trim off the neck.

The arms and bottom will roll up about another half inch in the wash, and will look even, even if you weren't exact in your trimming. The neck on most t-shirts has double-stitching, so if you just cut between the stitching, the neck will still look "finished" but will have a more relaxed and feminine look.

It's not a big change, but it's just enough.

It's still pouring out, so all my outdoor tasks are on hold. I have instead decided to clean house, take new photos of the adoptable cats, and get some email done as well. I may as well share as I go.

Catching up - Memorial Day

2011-06-08T08:18:00.000-04:00

Right before Memorial Day I picked up some mulch for my annual "mulch the monument" session at Nichols Pond in Spencer. Unfortunately the skies were turning threatening when I arrived, so it remained more mulching than weeding.

As I ripped open the bags to beat the rain, the orange cat from Donna's hairstyling came over to say "hi." He is a downtown cat who visits regularly by the door of the Parkview Restaurant and the school.

He's friendly without being obnoxiously affectionate. Someone told me his name, and I have forgotten it. Maybe someone local will read this and leave it in the comments.

He lounged around while I worked, but he, too, was casting an eye at the dark skies and rumblings of thunder. As I finished up, the thunder grew louder, and he wisely headed home.

This was the kicker. Instead of immediately crossing the road, or walking all the way down the sidewalk to the point across from his house and crossing there...he walked down to the painted crosswalk, stepped off the curb and stood quietly waiting until the cars stopped, and crossed between the lines to the other side.

I had my flip video camera. Did I think to take video of this? Of course not. Instead I stood there laughing saying "Is he really doing that? No. No, he is REALLY DOING THAT!"

I'm sure he's learned this from the kids coming home from school who always stop and cross there, and any number of other village folk he has accompanied during the day.

I wonder what the people in the cars thought?

What happens to the cat when a poor man dies...

2011-06-06T00:55:00.001-04:00

...and no one in his family wants a cat?

She gets left alone, outside, to fend for herself. She followed her man around outside like a faithful shadow, they say. She is spayed. I'm told there was a big feeder full of food inside the house, so she was well cared for. He didn't even have a winter coat, until a neighbor gave him one. It sounds like maybe all they had was one another. And now she doesn't even have him.

She is scared and growling. She scratched the neighbor who tried to get her into a carrier to take her to the TCSPCA. The SPCA set a trap for her but she did not go in.

She came down the steps and let me pet her head briefly, before lapsing into growls. She ate a bit of the wet food I gave her.

I've left a trap (with the back door removed) and a bowl of dry food. The neighbor will feed her in the trap each morning for a few days, until we get her used to it.

If worse comes to worse, I can net her. I hate doing that, because it freaks them out so badly. Hopefully she'll go in a trap, or come to trust me enough that I can give her a push into a crate. One way or another, since she let's me touch her, we'll get her caught.

Sun and cats...spring turns rapidly into summer

2011-06-06T00:33:00.001-04:00

The weather has still been, for the most part, dreary (when not stormy). A few days of sunshine did struggle through this spring, and Jack and the Leewit did some basking. I might have to make this photo my wallpaper on my computer to remind myself that yes, every now and then the sun DOES shine. Thanks, Mary, for sending it. I'll need it to banish more central NY gray skies.

Storms and being powerless

2011-05-27T14:07:00.002-04:00

From last night (not blogged--saved in MSWorks out of sheer boredom)

It’s a lonely place when the power goes off. Especially when you don’t dare light candles in case another tornado does actual whip up; and you have to take one cat of seven (Ivan, already crated, just in case) and your dog, into the basement, where a small river is flowing down the uphill wall, and out the drain in the floor on the downhill side. I realize I have no idea where the battery radio is…had Mark taken it, or had I kept it? Then I realized the radio headphones were in the house, so I just cranked those to listen for emergency tones.

Upstairs I can hear the battery backup for my arsenal of computers beeping every thirty seconds. I was powering down the computer when the lights went out, but the router and modem are still running off on battery power, mostly because I can’t recall how to turn them off. They haven’t been turned off in….oh….four years? I’m about to venture up now that the wind has died down to see if I can recall how to quiet their reassuringly blinking lights before the battery…a ten by twelve inch behemoth, finally limps toward powerlessness and dies.

How am I writing, still, with no power? Ah, the netbook with the eternal battery! The best $250 I ever spent.

The storm slowly fades off to the east. The trees are no longer whipping back and forth. They are surprisingly calm against the almost-black sky, like horses that spooked in a stall, kicking and rearing, then suddenly realizing there was nothing to fear, and go back to quietly munching hay.

Hmm. Then the thunder grows louder again and I remember being a kid in my bed in Earlville, praying and praying that each rumble of thunder would grow fainter and finally leave me in peace. Tornados didn’t even enter our conversation when I was kid, except when we visited friends in Indiana, or watched The Wizard of Oz. And now they seem to be everywhere.

I used to like thunderstorms, but these last few years, and especially this last month, calling people whose lives have been totally destroyed by tornados, and then having three drop down here in NY, two within 10 miles of me…well, it makes you appreciate blue skies and merely glum weather.

I also still have one tall pine that needs to come down before it serves as a lightening rod like it’s twin in the backyard that was splintered five years ago. Only my laptop survived that storm.

Then the traffic picks up. It’s locals climbing in their cars to see if anyone else has lights. “Is it just my house, or is everyone’s power out? There are two trucks idling in the road outside…two neighbors, driver’s side window to driver’s side window, swapping damage stories I imagine. Apparently questions were answered, because one is turning around in my driveway and heading home.

I supposed I should ring up NYSEG and listen to the little message that will tell me they know I have no power and they hope to have it on soon. And then I should climb in my own car and check my two roads, to see if any of “my” trees have fallen. Someone else will likely already be there with a chainsaw (good thing, because I don’t have one), but I at least should help pull branches out of the road.

Funny that I was just thinking of switching to digital phone service because I hadn’t experienced a power outage in years. Now here I sit in darkness, as my nice old fashioned phone still gives a reassuring dial tone.

The storm broke while I was in the cat facility, trying to get everyone tucked in, and to give a hug to the feralish gray cat named, oddly, Storm. “Oddly” named because she is terrified of thunder. It’s the only time I can actually hold her without being bitten. She was hiding in a cubby crying, so I pulled her out, cuddled and combed her, checked her teeth and ears…all the things I can only do when she finds me to be less terrifying than the weather. Sometimes she will even snuggle and purr. Not this time. The wind and rain began whirling loudly, thundering down on the metal roof, so I made sure only one window was open, grabbed a towel to cover my head, and sprinted for the house.

Morning:

I discovered why so many people are idling outside my house.

They have to turn around at the cones just past my driveway. There are cones because of this:

I woke to still no power, and no ETA on the NYSEG power outage site. After encountering three blocked roads, I managed to wind my way to Ithaca, where I worked remotely for half a day at Panera Bread. I had the afternoon off anyway, so I'm going to get the studs off my tires, buy a lot of water, and head home to cook some dinner over an open fire.

If I have no power by tomorrow, I'll be giving away a freezer full of organic meat, or having one very large party. I just bought meat for the year from a friend who is a local farmer. That's what I get for not staying vegetarian.

Ah, la. Such is life. The home phone still works, and I'm in the phone book if anyone has a chest freezer with space! I'll be sure to leave some bacon and roasts behind for you when my power is back up again.

There may not be blogging here again for a bit, but I've been so bad about it lately anyway...yes, NOW I'll miss it. :)

It's Maru's birthday

2011-05-24T22:16:00.002-04:00

Be sure to check out the video a little way down the post.

Why animals matter when humans are in peril

2011-05-24T21:19:00.005-04:00

One of the statements I most hate to hear is "why are you worried about cats when there are people who need help," or "why don't you spend your efforts on children in need, rather than cats." Above and beyond a belief that animals also suffer and deserve consideration, it is because of this:

Kind humans care, and kind humans need help, when they find a suffering animal. They need to be able to hand that animal to an animal person, so that they can get on with their business of helping people. The kind of man who is going to search all day and all night for a person trapped beneath the rubble of a tornado that has utterly destroyed half of a city, is not going to pass by a kitten--a tiny live thing in a field of death. And while one or two kittens might be taken home and named Twister, all the kittens, cats, injured and lost dogs, iguanas, parrots, and other displaced pets suddenly wandering with no place to go...need a place to go.

In Joplin, that is the Joplin Humane Society Animal Adoption & Resource Center. If you are on Facebook you can find them here, and you will see a community that is coming together to help the Society, and the other shelters and rescue groups who will be providing a safe place for the animals brought to them by residents and emergency personnel.

In every community there is a shelter that would need to step forward if hell struck your own home town tomorrow. If you stepped out of a pile of rubble, with everything in your life gone, and the first thing you found was your dead neighbor's beloved cat wandering aimlessly, you should be able to pick up that cat, cry over it, and hand her to someone who will keep her safe, so you aren't faced with the dilemma of trying to keep that animal safe, or worse--be forced to walk away to leave that one spark of life to possibly die alone after surviving such destruction.

Please help Joplin Humane if you can, and better yet, please look to your own local shelters. Remember the shelter you have in your community is the shelter your community builds. One day that shelter may need to be there for you...the way the Animal Adoption & Resource Center is there now, in an unimaginable role, for the PEOPLE of Joplin, Missouri.

Flickr photos, Lost/Found Tornado Pets in Joplin
Facebook, Lost/Found Tornado Pets in Joplin

Of bunnies and cats

2011-05-21T10:28:00.000-04:00

Three days ago I stepped outside to see Bear hovering over something. Usually it's a meadow mouse. This time it was a neonate bunny, already deceased. I took the bunny away and lamented the fact that it was so small. Bear obviously would know where the nest was, and he would sacrifice those bunnies one by one. Sure enough, later that day I heard a bunny squeaking, and I found Bear behind the woodpile, right next to my front door where the dog spends her day, standing over a bunny nest.

I expect mother rabbit built her nest while I was traveling, Molly was at the kennel, and Bear was safely inside. I put Bear in the house, tucked the bunny back in the nest with two others, covered the nest, and laid some sticks across it so I could see if mother rabbit returned to feed them. The next day the sticks were moved, and Bear was growing restless inside. The following day the sticks were moved again, but one of the bunnies was DOA next to the nest--probably the bunny that Bear had gotten a hold of. I removed the DOA bunny. By now, Bear was picking fights with cats in the house, so I took a trip to the Dollar General.

Mother rabbits only visit their nest around twice a day to feed the babes. So while Bear is outside for an hour or two, I've covered the nest. I'll take the basket off in late afternoon and keep Bear inside. Once the bunnies are hopping around, Bear will just have to deal with remaining in the house. If he gets pissy I'll just have to shut him in a boarding room. He immediately checked out the nest, but when he realized he couldn't get at it, he lost interest.

The later this morning I heard a loud THWACK and realized a bird had flown into one of my great room windows. I went outside and Tyler was chattering from the cat enclosure at something lying in the grass. I picked up the thrush and gently carried him over to the woodpile and set him there to recover, if recovering was in the stars for him. When the weather is cold, I put them in a paper bag some place warm and dark, but I figured it would be less stressful for this bird to remain outside. I was worrying about him when after an hour he had not moved and was quite fluffed up, but when I came out a little while later, he gave me a look and flitted away. Relief!

It amazes me that a breakable bird can fly head on full speed into a window and survive. I guess because they hit skull-first, and the skull is the strongest part of a bird, they manage not to break.

Hopefully that is enough wildlife adventure for the week! Now I need to relocate Ivan from my lap so I can get the bird book and see what bird this was. I thought he was a wood thrush, but I think they have more white.

Two feet back on the ground

2011-05-20T00:35:00.004-04:00

Blog posts run through my mind throughout the day, yet none of them make it here. Some of this is due to weariness. Some due to laziness. Some due to simply not being here.

Even now, so much is running through my mind that I want to write, but instead I just want to turn off the light and go to bed.

This weekend I was in Kentucky, which is a beautiful state. I can tell you it is beautiful because I got lost in it with a veterinarian as we tried to find our way to the venue for the workshop we were holding. I finally pulled over next to an old timer at a rural intersection and he pointed me toward a building I never would have realized was a store. A few gentleman and a woman were sitting at a table with coffee and I immediately wished I could just pour a mug myself and sit down with them. They pointed me to the road Mapquest said I wanted, but it turned out it was the wrong road entirely. More winding pavement, more lush green trees. Continued lack of cell service. I finally found a college student familiar with the conference center I wanted (not on North Campbell Road, but on Campbell Lane) and off we went.

On the way home, it was raining. The plane bounced its way heavenward, and burst so quickly out into the sunset, blue sky, and white plains of clouds, that everyone on board gasped. I grabbed my Flip at pointed it at the window.

And there you go.

So now that I am home, where it is, still and still, raining, I'll talk to you more about cats.

I swear.

But now I'm going to sleep.

The owl and the pussycat

2011-05-14T00:12:00.002-04:00

Great music, too!

Spring returns, and so do the Big Critters

2011-05-11T23:19:00.000-04:00

Spring has finally arrived, only three short weeks from June, and summer. I've been waiting for the bear to make an appearance. All has been quiet. I haven't been feeding the birds, so there may be nothing to draw them here.

Today I was picking up sticks in the yard so I could mow, and found a pile of poop that was too large for a raccoon or fox, but not large enough for a bear. Coyote, I wondered? But so close to the house? Nah...

Tonight Molly gave an alarm bark out on the porch, so I brought her in. I could hear something crashing in the brush along the gorge. Not as loud as a bear, but too sustained for a deer. Huh.

The the coyotes started yamming right by the barn...where I had been planning on going to tuck the cats in. Loudly! I yelled and stomped, and this had no effect whatsoever. They were in the field I had been mowing not three hours earlier, and that's where they were going to stay. Up until now I've heard them off on the hill, but not right in my yard. And frankly, it was creepy.

I'm afraid the cats will just have to sit tight until morning, because I'm not wandering out there into the darkness. I know the coyotes won't bother me, but I don't care. That's just too close for me! The cats are probably sound asleep anyway, and they won't mind waiting until morning. The cats who live in runs are at liberty during the day and won't mind having liberty all night as well. The cats who are normally at liberty at night live in a 12x14 cat room during the day, and will be perfectly happy there for 6.5 more hours until the sun rises.

From now on I'll just have to do their final tuck-in before 9:00 pm. Then I won't have to dodge bears, raccoons, skunks, and now coyotes.

Presents in the mail...

2011-05-04T22:14:00.001-04:00

I was recently in Portland, Maine, for the New England Federation of Humane Societies conference. My friend and former colleague Ann was there, from Texas. Unlike other long-distance friends who may never have a chance to see one another again, Ann and I bump into one another once or twice a year when we are sent to the same conferences.

I headed off for home by car, and Ann ended up stranded for another day when her flight home was delayed. Today I got a present in the mail, so now I know what she did with her extra day. She went shopping for cats toys, and sweet Portia was the first test kitty.

Thanks, Ann! They are cute. :) I'll take the rest out to the other homeless cats needing distraction, in the cat facility.

Portia

2011-04-26T21:37:00.001-04:00

Sweet Portia is all fattened and glossed up, ready for a home. I had one inquiry about her from someone who lost a declawed black cat this summer. I sent this video off to them. Another person saw the "found" post on Craigslist and emailed about adopting her. I sent them off our application. She doesn't like other cats so needs to go where she will be the one and only center of someones universe. I'm not sure how she does with dogs. Perhaps I should subject poor Molly as the dog test. We'll see! But she sure is an easy keeper. Uses the box, never makes a mess, eats up her dry food, no fuss at all. And she will cuddle with her back against your chest in bed, and purr and purr and purr....

Norfolk Botanical Garden eagle killed, struck by a jet

2011-04-26T19:21:00.002-04:00

Sadly, the female of the pair of eagles featured on the Norfolk Botanical Garden eagle cam was killed when struck by a jet at an airport. Countless people have been watching the eagles nest and raise their young. The eaglets are feathered out, but are prone to dehydration if they are not fed regularly. If the male is unable to care for them, they will be removed from the nest.

It is always sad when something so simple and beautiful turns into a tragedy. It reminds me of a person who rescues their first cat, only to discover the cat is ill with FeLV and what was going to be simple and sweet and beautiful is now difficult and perhaps heartbreaking. Life never proceeds according to plan.

I got an email today from a former colleague at Ithaca College who has had kittens dumped on her road nearby. I'm listening to the thunder roll, and am hoping so much that they brought the kittens in and they aren't still out there. I've emailed back to check. I really have no room for kittens, but it is so hard to listen to the rain pouring down and know they are out there, and someone has contacted us for help... How do you say no? Then what steps do you take to keep from become overloaded, and yet another one of a growing list of hoarders?

I would SO get these...

2011-04-26T19:05:00.001-04:00

...if there were not so many cats to fix in the world.

You can see them here

Poached from Pet Connection.

Ups and downs and ups

2011-04-25T02:02:00.001-04:00

Well, I thought there was a new home for Zootie, but they went home and thought it over and decided they would like an older cat. Poor little Zoot. Maybe three times will be the charm.

The cats in the cat facility have been a life-saver/life-charmer lately. They have been sweet and affectionate, and continue to keep me sane. Handsome hard-to-get Tiger Tom was actually photogenic tonight.

Christy called last week. A terribly thin grey cat had showed up at their door. Maeve is slowly putting on weight, and a little pyrantel seems to be clearing up her wormy digestive issues. She was the skinniest cat who had ever come my way. You can't really tell in the photo, but you can grab right around her middle. She's bright, active, and healthy. She was dehydrated when she arrived, but was plenty willing to eat and drink. I'll need to get her advertised in case there is someone out there looking for her.

Pauli the white and grey cat is neutered and FeLV/FIV negative, but has diarrhea that just won't quit. He has been wormed with everything I have without effect, so I'll take a stool sample in. I SO hate spending $40 just for parasites, but there is no sense stabbing in the dark, and I don't want him to give whatever he is carrying to my own cats. In fact, I'm moving him downstairs because I'm afraid he'll toss kitty litter out onto the floor where the healthy kids could pick it up. I would guess the issue is giardia.

Speaking of giardia ("beaver fever"), I was driving to Norwich, and there was a hit-by-car beaver right in Rt 13 in the middle of Ithaca. On the way home, on Rt 23 by Cincinnatus, I passed a new beaver dam, and pulled over to take some photos.

Beaver fascinate me. They are the most amazing animals. At a wildlife rehab center I actually got to go down a ladder into a man-made beaver lodge and pet and touch a rehabbed beaver who could not, by law, be released. I've live-captured them myself in Hancock cage traps. However I couldn't deal with the NYS requirement that they be killed, even if live-trapped, so I stopped doing beaver control. Mark and I put in a few flood control devices (so beaver can stay, with the pond level under control). It was an interesting few years.

You can see how close this dam is to the road. I'm guessing the highway department will be tearing it out soon, before the beaver get too well established.

So amazing, and so beautiful.

Look who's happy in his new home

2011-04-20T22:11:00.005-04:00

Sir Morgan looks so good now that he's just merely plump instead of overweight! And happy and relaxed. I miss him, but I'm so glad to see how he's settled into his new home.

I was having a bit of a crabby day yesterday...then I opened my personal email and found photos of Morgan peeking out. It turned my attitude right around and I was walking around the house beaming.

I would never have all these great people in my life if it weren't for the cats.

Enclosure is cat-ready

2011-04-03T18:05:00.007-04:00

There is still some staining that can't happen until the weather is warmer.

They seemed to enjoy being outside when I was there, but as soon as I came in the house, they all came in as well. I think it's still a bit cold out there, and perhaps somewhat overwhelming.

When I was in line at Home Depot with a cart full of lumber to finish the enclosure and the barn windows (not done yet), an older woman sweetly stopped me and said "are you a carpenter?" I thought maybe she wanted to hire me to do some work so I assured her that no, not really, I just did projects around my house. She smiled and said "I just think it's wonderful when women fix things on their own."

That made ME smile.

Record year for abandonment

2011-03-31T00:54:00.001-04:00

I stepped outside to let Molly in from her clip, and Bear in from the porch, and heard:

"Mow! Mow! Mow!" from under my truck by the road.

He's going to the vet in record time. I had an appointment for Cricket tomorrow, and Cornerstone fit this guy in as well. He's a sweet fellow, but moving..always moving. I had a devil of time getting a photo of him. I'm sure it's because he's scared and nervous. Who wouldn't be, after being tipped out in the road, quite likely.

He has earmites and fleas. Revolution and Capstar will take care of those. The vet likes to give me good-natured hell if a flea crosses the surgical site. My cats are flea free, so I always forget that strays are not.

All those blankies, and they love the bag

2011-03-24T03:19:00.001-04:00

I had blogged earlier about the great gift of handmade blankets we received. Both the foster cats in the house and in the facility are loving them.

However, nothing beats a bag! I saved one of the bags they were shipped in for the return address, and it's still going strong and is the favorite playtoy. So far, no one has sat on top of the bag to squish it. It's like they know that will wreck all the fun.

Zootie gives Tyler a poke (for adoption!)

Bear (pet cat) manages to fit inside.

Zootie takes a nap.

Stand Together -- Spreading the word about food recalls

2011-03-23T18:55:00.011-04:00

In 2009-2010 there was a lot of blog chatter about food recalls. I blogged a food recall last year, and one of my adopters wrote to say she herself was feeding that food to her cats and was glad of the alert.

This year there was a food recall for Wellness canned cat food that I did NOT blog. Sara did finally learn about the recall on Facebook, from someone else, about a week later.

Sara is my supervisor and friend, and while I was in NJ, I watched Daffodil struggle for her life last month, unable to walk, stubborn about eating, but regarding the world with determination, choosing the sunshine to lie in.

Daffodil did not make it.

Two years ago tomorrow a little orange cat was taped into a greasy cardboard box and left on the doorstep of a local animal shelter in the cold. The shelter cleaned her up and she spent a year waiting for a home. After Gretel passed away, Daffodil was adopted on 3/18 as my birthday present to myself last year.

She was a cute, odd little kitty with a strong personality – and voice. She’d hiss at us, Mr. Pickwick and furniture. Once she settled in, Daffodil became really affectionate and funny. She would sit and stare at you with her huge green eyes and if you spoke to her, she’d roll belly-up. Daffodil slept by my head every night, sometimes with her toothless head resting on my neck.

Sadly, Daffodil passed away earlier this week after suffering neurological complications resulting from eating recalled food. She spent a week with the neurologists at Animal Specialty Center in Yonkers where we visited her daily. We were lucky enough to have Daffodil home for nearly two weeks after her hospital stay. During that time she made attempts to walk and enjoyed sitting in the sun. Just like always, she started purring as soon as you got close to her. After making some progress, she stopped trying last week and we said goodbye to her on Monday.

Sara asked for donations to go to any of these shelters that rescued the cats in her life:

Homeless Animal Adoption League (Daffodil’s shelter): http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/NJ25.html
Friends of Homeless Animals (Gretel’s rescue): http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/FoHA
Angels of Animals (Mr. Pickwick’s rescue): http://www.angelsofanimals.org/
Montclair Township Animal Shelter (my local shelter): http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/NJ589.html

It is important that we CONTINUE TO SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT FOOD RECALLS in every way we can, to reach pet owners.

I understand Wellness has been responsive to messages and questions about sick cats, however I'm concerned that their recall page states there has only been one incident. Perhaps they mean only one incident confirmed by Wellness. But there are cats who have been eating the recalled Wellness food that have fallen ill, and Wellness has been notified of them.

Please check the dates on your food if you are feeding your cats Wellness, and regularly monitor and pass on recalls that you become aware of.

The lots involved in this voluntary recall are:

Wellness Canned Cat (all flavors and sizes) with best by dates from 14APR 13 through 30SEP13;

Wellness Canned Cat Chicken & Herring (all sizes) with best by date of 10NOV13 and 17NOV13.

If you have cat food from these lots, you should stop feeding it to your cats. You may call WellPet at 1-877-227-9587 to arrange for return of the product and reimbursement.

Yikes, and KITTEN FOOD, which we would not know were it not for Susan Thixton on Truthaboutpetfood.com.

Pet food recall pages:

The FDA at http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/newpetfoodrecalls/
AVMA at http://www.avma.org/petfoodsafety/recalls/default.asp

Please send me other comprehensive pet food recall pages that are still updating. There were a lot a few years ago, but many have disappeared.

Gawain

2011-03-20T17:53:00.001-04:00

Let's talk about adoptions. And let's talk about doing a poor job with them. I was looking at my pet list online, and realized someone was missing.

Gawain. Handsome. Sweet. Friendly. Loves other cats. And totally missing from any online promotion. Is it any surprise he's still here?

Some days the light is absolutely perfect for photos...for about twenty minutes. Today Gawain caught the twenty magic minutes.

Of course, it's always important to destroy any illusion of grandeur with a shot like this:

Spring at last

2011-03-20T16:27:00.002-04:00

It's maple weekend in New York State this first day of spring, and the best way to celebrate it is to find a pancake breakfast. Arnot Forest's maple weekend celebration was today, so I set my alarm, puttered around the house, and then headed out to Schuyler/Tompkins county Rt 13.

It takes a little skill to find a good place to sit where you'll have someone to talk to. The woman taking the money noticed Americancat.net on my coat and then proceeded to tell a great story about how she and her husband were building a new home with heated floors, and how they were nursing their 16 year-old cat along because they had planned those floors for her and they wanted her to survive to enjoy them. The woman in front of me had volunteered with the Chemung SPCA and was familiar with TNR. The table she and her husband sat at was also occupied by three gentleman my age and older who were out together...so that seemed like a good choice for conversation. And it was. The three men were all landowners so natural gas and woodlot management kept breakfast going through a couple of cups of coffee. Then I wandered down to the sugarhouse to pick up a jar of maple butter.

On my way to Ithaca to feed the cats, I swung down Chaffee Creek Road, which always has some bittersweet memories. This was my very first "non-apartment home"--a 14x70' mobile home that two colleagues at Ithaca College had set up in the side yard of the family farmhouse, with the idea that one day his mother would move into it. I rented it for a song until Mark and I bought our first house. The mother decided upon a more active city life in Ithaca, and the mobile home was sold. The entire farm was sold as well, I believe, and different people own it now.

There is now a horse living in what was once my front yard. I'm content with that.

At South Hill, I sang out loud for Gillian. I don't think I mentioned on this blog that Gillian lives! Almost six weeks after we decided she had been hit by a car, Mark noticed her in the bushes, waiting for dinner.

After filling her bowl today, I found her patiently waiting in the parking lot for me to leave.

I stepped quietly around the trash truck as she skirted me and managed to get a closer photo of her.

Someone put a sweatshirt in her feeding station. It was nice that someone cared that she should keep her feet warm and dry.

Then it was home again to salvage some of the afternoon to clean up the mess that winter left behind.

Feral Cat Coalition

2011-03-19T21:36:00.000-04:00

One of the oldest feral cat information web pages, the Feral Cat Coalition on the west coast has a web page worth reading, primarily because it is a local group providing resources for their own community, but in a manner that is helpful to other groups who are "on the streets" so to speak.

If you know of other great feral cat pages, please leave the URL and what you know about them in the comments, and I'll highlight them here!

Gearing up for kitten season

2011-03-19T10:09:00.001-04:00

The Tompkins County SPCA releases their resources for kitten foster homes, which is a good brush-up for anyone who reads it.

The CATalyst Council

2011-03-18T22:27:00.005-04:00

CATalyst Council is a non-profit organization that includes three distinct groups: Veterinary Medicine, Shelter/Animal Welfare, and related Industry entities such as Foundations and Cat Fanciers, the Media, and commercial companies. The Council "intends to make a difference in the way the United States sees and experiences cats." It will be interesting to see where this group takes their mission over time.

They have some great videos that I plan to incorporate in my work. I will be creating a series of email messages to send to new adopters (at, say, one, two, four, and six weeks post-adoption). I would like to include links to videos, and this site has excellent options. Because the Council is directing their information at a range of animal professional, they have done an excellent job of finding a balance in tone and language for their varied audiences. It leans towards more clinical language in some cases, but it is important for owners and rescuers to become familiar with this language.

For example, I think this video on handling a fearful cat at the vet is one every cat owner should see. It certainly is important for the veterinarian to know how to examine a fearful cat. However it is up to the cat owner to bring a crate whose top can be removed, and a towel that smells of home. The cat owner may take the video more seriously when they see it is aimed toward the veterinary community. They will feel (I think?) that they are being included in the exam room experience if they are invited to view these videos.

(Note: The only thing I would disagree with in this video is letting the cat on the floor. In a treatment room that may see many cats throughout the day, it is unlikely the floor is going to be disinfected after each visit. I do like how they have the bench where the owner and veterinarian can sit quietly to begin the exam with the cat).

There are a lot of other videos on the site, and more resources to come! Bookmark this site and join their email list, to check in now and then.

"Porch Kitty..."

2011-03-17T01:15:00.001-04:00

...is spayed and declawed!

Feral cat organizations: Neighborhood Cats.org

2011-03-16T22:54:00.003-04:00

I'm a huge fan of Neighborhood Cats, perhaps because I've seen Bryan Kortis speak so many times (and maybe because they put my two-door cat shelter in their first manual?). Their goal is to train every person who cares one whit about cats in how to do TNR simply and well, throughout New York City and beyond. When you come through one of Bryan's workshops, you leave wondering why you ever thought it might be complicated, because he stands there with his trap, tells it like it is, hands out his DVDs so you have the info when you leave, and you simply have no excuses.

They also have finally done what needs to be done, and that is design the perfect trap and make it affordable. One of their newly designed Tomahawk traps is only $55, and with a divider to help restrain the cat, it's only $69. Given that I spent $79 on a Tomahawk 15 years ago, this is an incredible value, and a great trap.

Their home page is jammed packed full of everything. You can tell from the home page exactly what is there. It is great! I send homeowners who want to help their cats directly to Neighborhood Cats, because it's very clear and straightforward.

I see they now have a news feed up at the very top of the home page. This addition will keep me coming back. They are also on Facebook

So go right now to http://neighborhoodcats.org and make sure you bookmark it for future visits. Their history is worth a read. The final paragraphs sum up the current status of TNR in the animal welfare movement.

When to socialize kittens

2011-03-16T08:17:00.002-04:00

It is amazing to look back on the last 15 years. Petfinder is fifteen but so are several other resources that provide us with options we did not have before.

For example, feral cat groups.

This morning when I opened my mail, there was a newsletter from Alley Cat Allies. (alleycat.org). In that newsletter was a link to their page of socializing kittens.

It provides all sorts of information that I had to figure out on my own in the past, for better or worse. Some of it wasn't an option back then. TNR, for example. It was socialization or death for feral kittens 20 years ago. Spay/neuter was rarer, and it was hard enough to get tame cats fixed, let alone wild ones.

ACA has grown up over the years (Well, so have I). I remember how offended I was when they released printed material that discouraged taming kittens, outright. Their understandable reasoning: if you have limited resources, spend it on TNR. If you have limited homes for shy cats (and all of us do), don't get stuck with unadoptable cats who were once shy kittens. They have since learned how to say the same thing without hitting you over the head with it. I have also changed. Twenty years ago, taming kittens was what I did. Nowadays, I don't have time. I can tame them up, but I don't have enough people coming and going to get them used to strangers. I don't have a husband around, getting them used to men. There are kittens I would TNR now, that I might not have 15 years ago, especially if they are in a safe location.

ACA now says that ultimately, the decision to tame or TNR is up to you, and then give you their tools for making that decision.

All groups will have vital resources that will benefit your work, and reading their web pages will help you remember there are other people out there who care about the same things you do.

If you haven't visited the Alley Cat Allies page in a long while, I would suggest a visit to remind yourself of what is there, and see what is new. For example, they have a great series of photos of kittens at various ages.

I'll be posting on other groups throughout this week--not so much to educate you about them, but to remind you they are there before kitten season rolls down upon us.

If it has not already.

On cats. On adoption.

2011-03-16T00:28:00.006-04:00

I meant to have a photo here of the very first cat I ever adopted. Unfortunately my printer/scanner/fax seems to feel that being out of ink is good enough reason not to scan electronically. Last I knew, scanning didn't require ink. That, my friends, is how the "Oh my God, it's only $99" printer/scanner companies keep themselves in business.

$27 ink cartridges.

I adopted my first "own cat," Rastus, during my post-graduate year in high school. Yes, you can take post-grad sessions in high school. My friends had all gone off to college. I'd stayed behind for a boyfriend, fool that I was. I got a job--miracle!--at Four Winds Animal Hospital. I had a apartment, HBO, and $60 bucks a week. I worked nights, and during the day, with nothing much to do, I took business classes at the high school--a two mile walk from the clinic. The vice-principal didn't much know what to do with me. They let me roam the halls and come in late. I had no homeroom and no study halls. I took typing, shorthand, and choir.

Working at the hospital, my apartment was sometimes designated as a place for homeless cats to stay. At the time, I was hosting Bernadette, a cat that had belonged to a fired staff member. I wanted, however, a black kitten to replace my family cat, Thomas. I would regularly visit the Chenango County SPCA, which at that time was in Polkville, about a mile from the school. I would walk over after school to check out the kittens. They had plenty of black female kittens. But no black male kittens like Tommy.

One day, I walked over from the school at midday. Once again, there were no black kittens, but there were plenty of other kittens to play with. I opened a cage with a mom cat and a pile of peachy gray kittens. They all came tumbling out, and I frantically pushed them back. One, a fuzzy gray tiger, refused to detach from my sweater.

And so, I had a kitten.

I still have the receipt. "$3. Gray Kitten." It was 1980. I won't share the name of the person in my family who nicknamed by black family cat "Thomas Rastus." The nickname was racist, and I had NO CLUE. I named my little gray kitten Rastus, after my old cat Tommy, and for at least five years I had no idea why people gave me odd looks when I introduced them to my gray tiger cat. I believe I had graduated from college before someone made a racist comment using that name, and the light went on.

Rastus lived with me at the animal hospital and followed me around as I cleaned the clinic. After I went to college, he stayed at the hospital during the college semester, and came with me in the summer. I sent money to Dr. Briggs for boarding him, and at Christmas he gave it all back to me. Rastus grew fatter and fatter in the care of my replacement, to a point of no return. He slimmed down some when he was in my care, but nothing was going to shrink that huge swagbelly back down to normal.

My senior year in college, I had an apartment on campus. I smuggled Rastus in. My roommate Leslie also adopted a kitten, and we had a wonderful year together.

It was after I graduated and took a position as an ACO with the Tompkins County SPCA that Rastus's long-suffering role as a foster dad began. The first month of my job I adopted a kitten, Bramble. She pestered Rastus so awfully that I adopted a second kitten, Spot, to keep her company.

My first rescue was a week-old kitten. A woman had found the kitten in the yard, and she had no money for KMR. I knew if I took the kitten to the SPCA, he would be euthanized, so I kept him to raise him to adoption age. I stopped at the pet store to pick up a can of KMR and emptied my wallet. It was $13. I made $125 a week. The next day I took my guitar to Ithaca Guitar Works and sold it to pay for more. When he was eight weeks old I took him into the SPCA and went out on the road to work so I wouldn't see who adopted him. What if they weren't "good enough?" It's not like I would have a say in the matter. I still have the little note, on a tiny sheet of memo paper, that the adopters left me, thanking me for saving his life.

I can't remember the name of that kitten. He was the last kitten I took to the SPCA. From then on, I found homes for them myself.

Rastus ministered to the kitten while we had him. He washed him. He slept with him. He smacked him. He suffered being crawled over. And so it began with a steady progression of kittens. Rastus didn't much like them, but he put up with them because I asked him to.

My photo album is full of photos of Rastus with kitten after kitten, from the early years when his fur was glossy, to his older years when it was dull. He helped me with at least fifty feral kittens rescued from Ithaca College when I began working there in 1988.

Rastus's passing from cancer is a story in itself, and a painful one, ending in the suicide (a half-year afterward) of the veterinarian who did not want to put him down---a woman who could not stand that she could not save every pet in her care.

When the house was quiet with his loss, I sat and thought about the seventeen years we had been together. I was no longer the person I had been when he stuck to my sweater like a burr. And now I am no longer the person I was back when Rastus died.

I measure the progression of myself in the lifespan of cats.

Now there is Ivan. Ivan, a kitten I rescued in a rainstorm on Bald Hill Road, who bit me and won himself a ten-day quarantine and a place in my home forever. He is himself starting to go dull in his fur at age twelve. In my historical heart, Ivan is Rastus. And after Ivan passes (hopefully many years from now) there will be another cat, who will also mesh in my memory into that first special friend I adopted from the Chenango County SPCA so very long ago.

The Chenango County SPCA as I knew it was bulldozed for highway improvements. They are now the Chenango SPCA. They now have a beautiful shelter and a gracious big cat room with a huge cat tree that is a map of Chenango County (you must visit it one day, if you have not). The Tompkins County SPCA now no longer euthanizes one-week-old kittens. Times change. We all learn. We all suffer. We all grow.

Time moves on. But the soul of an adopted or rescued pet remains a living memory. Sadly, their lives are shorter than ours. But there will always be another, and another, and there will always be love.

Free adoption tag on Adopt The Internet Day.

2011-03-15T09:34:00.002-04:00

Tell your friends. If they are one of the first 200 ADOPTERS to let Rockin Doggie know they adopted a pet today, they can get a great adoption charm free! I seriously want one, but alas, the last thing I need is to adopt another dog. Molly would love it. The cats would despair :)

Thank you, RockinDoggie!

(BTW my blog posts are Facebookable and Tweetable by clicking the icons below to share this easily).

Your homework and mine. Write about your adoption experience...

2011-03-15T08:29:00.002-04:00

Today is Adopt the Internet Day and the launch of Petfinder's fifteen birthday.

15 years ago, if you wanted to adopt a pet, you had to look up your shelter in the phone book, and find out what hours they happened to be open. Some people found the sheer number of pets, the sights, the sounds, the smells, overwhelming, and would not go--even though they knew it was the right thing to do. They "would want to take them all home"--and ended up saving none.

They would get their next pet from the newspaper classifieds, from folks who did not yet realize that not spaying and neutering their pets, and allowing them to have "just one litter," was killing lost and homeless pets in our shelters.

If you decide to add a pet to your life now, you can start looking right from your desk at work, or your laptop in the morning. Even if you don't mind visiting a shelter to "browse," you can find your shelter's hours easily, or the times when a local adoption group will have their pets at Petco or Petsmart for you to visit. This new exposure for homeless pets has helped save millions of lives. It has put one shelter in touch with another to move pets from overfull shelters to shelters with space. It has enabled foster groups to assist shelters as well. It has enabled new foster groups to start up, knowing they have a place to feature the pets they rescue and care for.

Even if you rescued your pet off "the street," you helped a shelter by keeping that pet out of the shelter system and giving them room for another pet in need.

To celebrate the changes yesterday and today, and the changes we may experience tomorrow, please post a story today about your adopted pet, so your readers will keep adoption in mind.

And I'd really love it if you would link to the Adopt The Internet day page! Let me know in the comments when you post!

Animals help, and need help, in Japan.

2011-03-14T00:55:00.007-04:00

AP Photo

Post Note: Serbian Animals In Need blog has a very comprehensive list of links to assist animals in this triple disaster in Japan.

Also, The Daily Tail

In the aftermath of the incredible multiple disasters in Japan, animals are both helping, and need help there. Canine search teams are prepared to head out..Unfortunately, existing restrictions on import of animals to Japan have resulted in roadblocks.

While the death toll here grows by the hour, U.S. officials said they are working with the Japanese to expedite approval of dog teams from Virginia and California now on their way to Japan to avoid similar bureaucratic snafus. The 150 American rescuers and their 12 dogs trained to find survivors will arrive in Japan today.

World Vets is also mobilizing to assist animals in need in Japan. I've placed their fundraising widget in the column to the right if you are able to give.

Healthy Pets & People reminds us to be prepared--for our pets' sake--in case disaster strikes our own lives. There is also disaster preparedness information on Petfinder's disaster page.

Go to the Blogpaws blog for more links.

Run like a rabbit and go! Adopt-the-Internet Day, March 15

2011-03-08T13:30:00.003-05:00

I know I have shelter and rescue bloggers who visit here daily. This is a great opportunity to get extra web traffic and help find more homes for homeless pets. If you know of a shelter/rescue who blogs, please pass this on!

In honor of Petfinder.com's 15th birthday year they have named Tuesday March 15, Help Petfinder Adopt the Internet Day. It's a day devoted to spreading the word about pet adoption, so people think adoption when they decide to bring a pet into their lives.

It is basically a takeover of the Internet from now through March 15 (and beyond?) so the web is buzzing about adoption everywhere you look.

Petfinder is hosting a blog hop and asking websites and bloggers everywhere to talk about pet adoption. You or the organizations you adopted a pet from can be on there if you--or they--have a blog.

So you don't have a blog? If you have a Facebook page or Twitter account you can also participate.

Petfinder will be including a "linky" on their landing page on March 15 where you can add your post links. They will also be sharing your links all day on Twitter and will be promoting the landing page with the links on Facebook all day. They have over 100k followers on Facebook and over 11k on Twitter. That's a lot of people finding your post and learning about adoption from you.

Here is the landing page: http://www.petfinder.com/info/adopt-the-internet You can find badges to post on your blog or website, and more.

So...all you have to do is post just once between March 1 and March 14th about Adopt the Internet Day. That shouldn't be hard, since almost everyone here has adopted or rescued a pet and has a story to tell. ;)

Then, on March 15th--the big day--devote at least one blog post to the subject of pet adoption. You can write about what it means to you, share your own adoption story, tell your readers why adoption is so important.

You can also feature one of the shelter and rescue-nominated Adopt-the-Internet All-Star Adoptable pets at http://www.petfinder.com/adopt-the-internet-2011/gallery I believe Tiger Tom is in there, but I haven't clicked all 400-some pets yet.

Petfinder also has a giveaway for people who pledge to tell one friend about pet adoption. They have ways to share on social media and more. I'll send more information about that in a later post tonight.

Even ICanHasCheezburger is involved. You can caption adoptable pets!

Send me a link to your post--one now to spread the word, and another on March 15 to share your words on adoption--and I'll add it below. I'll also repost the list to get as much traffic as possible to everyone who participates. That will be happening all over the internet. Thanks!

DFW Rescue
Examiner.com
Yahoo Contributor Network
Petfinder Blog (of course)
A Canine Opines
Dogtime.com

Not boothing at Community Showcase, but will visit

2011-03-05T08:27:00.000-05:00

Between traveling to NJ, and a quick trip I need to take to Syracuse, I've decided not to have a booth at the Community Showcase, although I will stop by to visit. I need the time open on Sunday for people to visit here who definitely want to adopt, and with Saturday taken up with other things, I need every Sunday hour I can get. (Alice, maybe you could give me a ring when you leave Light On The Hill and we could meet at the Showcase for a walkabout? I'll email you).

Trying to decide if I should go to the Community Business Showcase

2011-02-26T21:28:00.003-05:00

The last few years I have gone to the Spencer Community Business Showcase. So many people go, but I'm always surprised how few people I know, myself. Last year was fun because more friends visited. I did also get an adoption from it--not that day, but later.

Arthur was last year's poster kitty. Alas, he is still here. I thought this year I would take Portia, given how friendly she is. Arthur was a little nervous last year. Portia probably wouldn't mind being carted around the room in my arms.

Will any local folks come by and say hi? It really is fun to walk through. I may take the pop-up nylon cage, instead of hauling along the heavy metal one. But I haven't yet decided if I will go.

It is Sunday March 6.

Old friends at the vet

2011-02-26T20:49:00.001-05:00

Now and then I run into old friends when I take new cats into Cornerstone Veterinary Hospital.

Two weeks ago I ran into Schubert and Tuck, who were in for their yearly checkup. (Were they both in that crate? Can you believe I can't recall if it was Schubert or both of them now? Gettin' old...)

And when I was in this past week, Dr. Armao let me know I had just missed Shakespeare. Apparently he is doing great!

I wonder what percentage of clients at Cornerstone are Wildrun or Lucky Day Rescue cats?

If I lived with Maru...

2011-02-24T14:07:00.003-05:00

I would be laughing so hard I would get nothing done.

Sir Morgan gets his "Proceed to New Home" card

2011-02-20T17:25:00.001-05:00

A mere two weeks after posting a video for Sir Morgan, he found a home. It looks like it's time to get more cute video for the rest of the cats! Poor Morgan has been here over a year, stuck in a cage at night to keep him from constantly grazing from the big shared food bowl and because he sometimes copped an attitude with other male cats. Now he's off to a home where he will be the one-and-only, and someone is home all day to fuss over him, too!

Cutest pink nose ever -- Sir Morgan

2011-02-14T23:10:00.002-05:00

Zootie amuses the household

2011-02-13T23:54:00.000-05:00

Tyler torments Molly...and Molly thinks it's great

2011-02-13T20:26:00.000-05:00

Poor Molly. Tyler is the only cat who will play with her. It's like the kid on the schoolyard who thinks the bully really likes her when he pushes her.

At least I'm warm inside

2011-02-13T17:03:00.003-05:00

Molly was on the porch during all of this, just staring and quivering. I was amazed she was as quiet as she was. But it was finally one small woof that sent them running away.

Next week it should be in the 40s, so hopefully it will melt off some of the snow, making it easier for them to get around.

Snow

2011-02-10T23:10:00.000-05:00