Zootie returns

Zootie's family emailed to say that it just wasn't working out. Zootie wasn't bonding with the family (who has two very active young boys) and he would not let them pet him. He interacted with the other cat in the household, but not with them. So absolutely, we will take him back. We have a "no questions asked" clause for our cats. Of course, I do ask some questions. "Is he using the litterbox," etc. I was assured he does use the box, although apparently he doesn't cover his handiwork.

I was concerned about getting back a kitten who was really shy, after four months in another household. But Zootie has been very affectionate since his arrival here, and lets me carry him around. He immediately comes to me when I walk into the room, and rubs around my legs. Perhaps, having grown up in a quiet household with a woman, he just doesn't know what to make of men and normal active boys.

So we'll just need to find him a quiet home with a woman. He is quite cautious of the cats outside the door to his room, and hissed at Myssie, his sister. Over time, I'm sure he'll get used to them. I'll keep him restricted for a few days until he is more comfortable.

Greene colony continued

I received an update from the folks in Greene who are TNRing their cats. "George" was picture-perfect in the pre-baiting stage. They fed him in the trap up until the night before the vet appointment.

George apparently was quickly caught at the appointed time and made it safely to the vet, where it was discovered "Georgie" was in fact "Georgie-Girl." We know how that goes!

Please note the perfect use of two slit pillowcases to cover the trap. This beats the heck of out bundling the trap up in an ungainly sheet (although a sheet is still good if you need to house the cat overnight and want to be sure he/she doesn't pull the cover off). These nice neat covers make things a lot less cumbersome on you, the vet, and don't take up 1/3 of a load of laundry afterward.

...and then moved successfully into the feral cat den I lent them (they already had everything else they needed).

After a week or more of rest in a warm, sheltered, indoor location in her cage, Georgie-Girl will be freed back outside the house, to face a kitten-free spring!

And then it will be Shadow's turn:

Rather than housing and adopting out cats, this is really what I would like to do: Create a spay/neuter fund that would finance spay/neuter for people like this, have an equipment bank to lent traps, cages, and dens to the public, and provide training.

It's just a 501(c)(3) away...

(note: Why not just kill the cats? Ecocatwoman has a great post this morning summarizing why this hasn't worked. And she blogged TWO HOURS before I did this morning. She is far more productive on a Saturday morning than I am!

Girl Bob gets a home

Her new owner was searching for a play-and-snuggle-buddy for her active 10-year-old cat who recently lost his feline friend to kidney disease.

I think Girl Bob has the snuggling part down pretty well, don't you? Here she is practicing with Tyler:

Because Girl Bob is so tiny, I'm taking her to the vet for a pre-adoption vet visit. She was checked quickly before she was spayed, but I think a good listening-to is in order.

I've received a bunch of inquiries on Tyler. Some have been gift requests. Tyler is complex enough that he really needs to be specifically chosen. He was very charming with Kim, who adopted Girl Bob, after being quite nervous around the couple who came by earlier in the weekend. Somewhere out there is the right home for him.

Folks who want to learn

Every now and then I get a wonderful and rare email. The person won't be wanting to adopt a cat from me. They won't be wanting me to take a cat from me. They won't be wanting me to fix any cats for them.

They will have feral cats of their own that appeared one day, the way feral cats do. They will already have taken some good steps to care for them. They will have already realized they need to fix the cats before spring arrives. They will have already been wise enough to look for help online. That's how they usually find me.

You want me to do ANYTHING for you? Just send me a photo like this:

Her name is Shadow.

I lend you anything I own if you have already taken steps to get your porch cats safe and warm. These kitties are from Greene NY, my very first hometown, where I lived until I was 4. Their caretakers were already well on the way the TNRing them. I sent them to the Neighborhood Cats page to buy one of their special "cat trap and isolator" packages and told them I'd be happy to lend them a feral cat den.

They came out on Sunday and brought their new trap (so shipping must really be fast!) It was the first time I'd seen the trap, and I'm very happy with it and will continue to recommend it. The flat hand-guard needs to be removed, because the edges are too sharp and a frantic cat, or a mistakenly caught raccoon, could shred their paws on it (been there, done that, in my nuisance wildlife control days). With the hand-guard removed, it is important to keep gloves on. I miss some of the older traps that used to just have extra wire bars as a hard-guard, so the animal could not reach through. Or the hand-guard should be thicker and the edges smoothed.

Other than that, it's a beautiful trap. I still like that the Safeguard traps I own are a bit wider than the Tomahawk. A plastic double food bowl does not fit easily in the Tomahawk, and it does in the Safeguard. But the wider pan, and the easy back door lock, more than make up for overall width in the new Tomahawk. If you buy the kit, you also get an isolator (which I need to start calling a "trap divider", which nowadays is required equipment for safe and humane feral cat handling. The price for the kit is very affordable for what you get. Previously I steered people away from Tomahawk traps because they were quite expensive. You could get two nice wide Safeguards for the cost of one Tomahawk trap. Not any more!

I may still buy the Safeguards myself (maybe) but for a new trapper, the Tomahawk is a beautiful thing, especially that wide trip pan that a cat is less likely to step over, and that easy-as-pie backdoor latch.

We talked about getting the cat out of the trap and into the den, and into the cage. They already had a wire cage so did not need to borrow the one I have. We visited the cats upstairs. It was a joy to talk to people who obviously cared about their cats because it was simply the right thing to do.

This kitten is so beautiful he almost doesn't look real!

Once these cats are fixed, there will be no growing population of kittens next spring, and no hungry mother cat catching birds or whatever she can get her paws on to feed her litter.

That's what it's all about.

Girl Bob video

...and me babytalking. Must. Stop. This.

Faith, with a cameo by Arthur, and Morgaine

I'm not sure why it is slightly greyed out. It looks bright and clear on the camcorder.



The mewing in the background is not Faith, it is Cinnabon, who was very distressed that I was paying attention to someone else than her. Unfortunately we never got to hear Faith's cute little chirpy voice.

Here is little Morgaine with her pretty sunny face:

Baby, it's cold out there...

Brrrrrr! It's really cold out there. The banner arrived yesterday. It is smaller than I expected, but still quite visible. I'll order a larger one the next time I need to do a VistaPrint order. The large banners aren't "free"--the small ones are.  I wanted to attach this a bit closer to the road, but the ground there isn't even enough to use a ladder, and I'm quite careful with ladders. I don't want to be one of those "found frozen in the snow" stories in the local news.

We had visitors yesterday, but Tyler was wary of the gentleman. I think I need to be clearer on my pet profiles that people will need to sit quietly with my cats for ten minutes before trying to pick them up. If a kitten or cat gets grabbed before they are comfortable with the situation, they aren't likely to let themselves get grabbed again. I need to do a better job of conveying this to visitors. Their current cat is a real mush-ball, so I think they will be happier with an outgoing cat/kitten of more traditional background. So Tyler is still here with me, but is very welcome.

The light was good this morning (as good as it can get in the cat facility) so I spent some time taking video. It's faster to take than it is to upload to YouTube via my tiny netbook (about 50 minutes for a long video). Once I've learned to cut and edit the videos, this time will go down, but I'm not there yet--not due to lack of aptitude, but due to lack of time. In other words, I haven't even tried.

So once Faith's video is done chugging along, I'll post a link here.

Stay warm!

Longfellow and Wiggles find a wonderful home

A few weeks ago, I posted that Longfellow was off to a new home in NYC. Well, sadly, that home fell through. The adopters found a cat closer to home, and while we are always happy when any homeless cat is adopted, it was a disappointment. There had been lots of preparations for the the trip (the vet visit, the new tires "just in case" a snowstorm hit, the borrowed GPS, the new camcorder to be sure the adopters had more than just photos and emails to view, etc.).

All of these are investments I needed to make anyway. I probably wouldn't have lumped them all together, but the camcorder is getting me increased inquiries on my other kittens, the new tires are like Velcro in the snow, and Longfellow was due for his vet visit anyway.

It seems like there is almost always a reason "things happen." Because not only has Longfellow been adopted into a new local home, his sister Wiggles has as well!

Renee and her family had adopted a totally feral cat from me for their barn about six years ago (I believe?), and given him a wonderful life (ongoing vet care, a new barn cat buddy, a new barn when they moved). Renee has periodically sent updates--even a photo of her hugging a cat I had been certain was forever unhuggable. They were now looking for a pair of kittens upon the passing of their beloved house cat.

They came to visit, and while the kittens were charming, it was Wiggles who pulled out all the stops, drawing brother Longfellow along with her. She climbed right into laps, purring loudly and gazing soulfully into their eyes.

Guess what?

Today Renee sent photos of Longfellow and Wiggles, now Comet and Halley, well-settled into a beautiful home where they are now the one-and-onlys.  Just like every cat deserves. A home of their very own.

"They slept with us the very first night and have been pretty much every night since.  Once in awhile I hear one of them raising heck with the toys in the living room.  Usually it is Comet, but last night it was Halley because Comet was sleeping next to me!

Our favorite game has been to take the feathers they have torn off toys and put them on the forced air vents on the floor when the heat is running.  The feathers fly up and look like moths.  It is great fun for all of us and the feathers are getting "recycled"!  I expect great things from them when we get moths in the house next summer"

I have to say, the first evening they were gone, it was a bit of a shock when I shook the treat bag, and only my five pet cats came running out. Some readers may shake their heads at five, but for years I had seven pets cats. Two passed away, and Longfellow and Wiggles got house privileges to maintain the status quo. Five cats may seem like a lot, but seven is pretty much a swarm!

When only five cats fit quietly around two plates in my kitchen, it seemed downright quiet around here. In bed that night....I had no cats! None of my oldsters was willing to brave the cold and come up to keep me company!

Ivan has since realized he will have no competition upstairs (and remembers there is an electric blanket) so he has finally started joining me. Toward morning, Nellie comes up as well. 

I will miss Longfellow and Wiggles. I have to say I got a bit weepy-eyed when their photos arrived. But there could not be a better home for them. I could not have written a fairy tale that ends this well.

It's not like we can't find kittens who would like to fill the vacancy...

Right?

Right?

By the way, handsome grey Tyler has a visitor tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed for him!

Tyler and Girl Bob videos

No music, no commentary, nothing amazing, just young cats!

Tyler, examining the distractions in the Great Room:



Tinsel-ball soccer with Girl Bob:

How is your back, Gretchen?

The ceiling in Room One is done! Thank you, Gretchen!

More work on the cat rooms, and tracks in the snow...

Gretchen is coming over Sunday to help work on the ceilings in the new cat rooms. I bought three rolls of paper. I'm sure it will take more for both rooms, but given the cost it seemed wise to underestimate rather than over-estimate. I decided to get a start on the knee walls, since my only real experience with wallpapering is helping my mother 35 years ago.

In those days, there was no nice flexible pre-pasted wallpaper. Nowadays all you have to do is wet the stuff in the bathtub for 10 seconds. Back then it was a messy job of mixing paste and putting just the right amount on with a big wooden brush.

Let's face it. What my upstairs needs is a total gutting, but that won't happen until there is a miraculous extra 30K in the bank. Until then, I'm just covering up what someone once considered a renovation.

Can you believe I've lived here for 11 years and still haven't removed the little stars the kids put up from the previous owner? In fact, one of those kids is in college and has fostered two litters of kittens for me. Times flies.

This damage, however, is my fault, from bashing the ceiling with the board that serves as a door into the knee wall.

I discovered that you shouldn't push the seams too closely together, or they buckle and don't lie smoothly. Better a small gap than a pushed-up seam.

You can tell the ceiling tile is under there, but it is a huge improvement. I find it amazing that I'm enjoying fixing up these rooms, when five years ago I would have found it a huge chore.

I shoveled my way out the wood pile this evening and found more cat tracks. The poor guy is wandering around in my back yard somewhere. Hopefully he'll head back down to the barn and find the food I put out for him (or her).

Nancy fed the cats in Ithaca today so I didn't have to haul myself all the way in and back, so I had a little time to spend on the computer (for myself). I had promised my sister business cards (Vistaprint keeps sending me "free" coupons, which of course they make up for in high shipping/handling fees). In with the free business cards was an offer for a "free" banner that somehow ended up cost me $6.95. Still a bargain:

I plan on hanging it on the side of my barn. I don't care who thinks I'm a crazy lady at this point.

I have a new blogging buddy. Myssie has decided cuddling is OK. Now if only Girl Bob would get brave enough to come down off the bottom step of the stairs and join us.

Feline home improvement

Financially I am not bringing in enough a month to increase my bank account. It keeps going down, smidgeon by smidgeon, and we know what this means over the long run. I considered a house mate, but frankly, I just can't do it. I need a second bathroom and a second entry to be able to tolerate someone in my living space. Personally, I'd love the company, but no, if I'm stuck downstairs, I don't want the person also having to come through my area to get to theirs.

But I still have these unused rooms upstairs, and frankly they needed an overhaul anyway. One was a guest room (closed off to protect it from cat fur, and unused, because who comes to Spencer?). And one just sat there. Both had 20 year old red carpet and a blah off-white paint job.

It occurred to me that these two rooms would make great cat boarding rooms for someone who didn't want their cat(s) in a condo or a cage. Each room is big enough for up to five cats, so if someone were going away a long while and wanted a place to keep their family of felines, well, here you go.

I ripped up the carpet. Gretchen and Nancy helped me with the vinyl. The kittens amused me as I painted. I'll likely need to call for help to paper the ceilings (they are tile board. Yick). But slowly things are coming together.

What an improvement! I recently received a gift card for professional reasons (not a kitty donation), and with that I will purchase two of these. Chairs will be covered so things can be washed between cat visits. I need to resurrect my tax ID number, as well as liability insurance.

Right now, rescued kittens Myssie and Girl Bob are living in luxury (and then have the run of the house in the evening). I figure they can test out any problems for me. The window sills need wider shelves and ramps. The electric heaters are working quite nicely at keeping the temperatures constant, unlike the rest of the house, which fluctuates due to the wood stove and air-forced furnace.

If you are planning any vacations and need a place to keep your kitties, keep me in mind!

And doesn't it figure that as soon as I ripped out the guest room, my sister stayed the night. Oh well, that's what I have a futon couch in the Great Room for!

More feline Christmas cheer

Donna sent a photo of sweet Espie to cheer me up when I was sick. How could she not make someone smile?

And then of course there is little Dude. Debra sent his photo along (and yes, we need to get together soon!)

And while I've already blogged this photo of Zuzu, I had to include her beauteousness in honor of the good thoughts Stephanie sends throughout the year.

Speaking of friends, this week Nancy is feeding the Fast Food Ferals while Kat is on vacation, and she also used some of her magical contacts to help keep them safe another year, as their shelters need to move yet again. She found them a place to go. We love you, Nancy! Nancy adopted Gizmo, formerly Paddles.

Whenever someone says to me "Why in the world would you want to spend all your time and money rescuing CATS for God's sake," I point to all the kind and genuinely good people who are in my life, both those who can help, and those who just touched my life while they were helping an animal in need.

Great Xmas for the cats

Alas, I have been laid low by not one but three viruses (the cold-type, not the computer-type) and am way behind on my blogging. Luckily I did manage to take photos so that I could share Christmas for cats in a belated fashion.

Jack and The Lewitt, above, one set of "bestest friends", sent a whole Christmas tree worth of presents, in addition to their support throughout the year:

Presents are always checked out by the house cats, first, and they are heartily disappointed when they only get to keep a mouse or two. More photos to come of the rescued cats enjoying their bounty!

Jelli, Phillip, and the whole House of Stout not only fed my sister and I royally on Christmas Eve, they also send support at holidays, and when I sound too sad on the Facebook or the blog. :)

The kitty colony on Hagadorn Hill sent a Christmas photo as well. Valarie and Craig are fosterers extraordinaire, and also keep my vehicles running, and keep an eye on my driveway in winter to plow it out when I am traveling so Donna and Tim can get in to care for the cats.

More friendship to come. Thank you everyone. I couldn't do this without you!

Happy New Year, 2011

Last year, Longfellow was just a little tyke. The year before that, we had a pom pom drop in the cat facility, narrated by the fishies who are bigger now, too.

This year, I'm headed up to the spare rooms with a wine bottle, paint brush, and the computer set to watch the live webcast from CNN.com. More to come!

"Bah, hum.....awWWWWWwwwww"

You just can't be a humbug about Christmas when one of your adopted kittens arrives in the mail on the front of a Christmas card. I'm fairly certain that candy cane wasn't photoshopped in there, and I can just see in my mind's eye, someone slowly easing it under Phillip's paw while he was snoozing...

When your next Christmas card is from a couple who adopted a kitten from you oh-so-long ago and their note says "Amelia is still hanging in there at nineteen and a half, moving slowly, but still moving!" you can't help but smile even wider.

Nineteen years!

When the phone rings, and yet another adopter says "Let's do dinner this week; I have presents for the cats..."

Well.

It makes you contentedly brew up a pot of coffee and get to work on that unfinished pile of Christmas cards of your own.

Christmas changes for all of us over the years. From the giddy anticipation of childhood, to the adult glow of seeing loved ones open gifts you carefully chose for them, to years of sadness when you may have faced Christmas alone, to other years when you reach beyond family to the community, and discover the quiet solid joy of volunteering with a food pantry or your church, or sharing dinner with a friend or neighbor.

This year Christmas sort of crept up on me. I did not have my holiday party this year. The most I could muster as far as decorations were my two little out-of-the-box artificial trees, the red bows on the fence in front of the house, and pine boughs in the window boxes of the cat facility. I can't quite comprehend that Christmas is this coming Saturday. When you work from home, there are no peripheral office parties and decorated cubicles, no Christmas trees in the the lobby, no stopping at the store on the way home and greeting the bell-ringers with a dollar a day or emptying the change from your pockets each time you see one (I stuffed a five in the kettle in front of the Big M last weekend, knowing I might only run into them one more time before the holiday arrived). You don't really realize how much you count on the random "Merry Christmas!" and "Happy Holidays!" salutations to pull you into the holiday community, until they aren't really there.

There's just the carols on the radio--which seem sort of disembodied without the rest of the holiday tinsel. And the wonderful, wonderful Christmas cards. Then the Big Day arrives and when you climb in the car for dinner and hugs in some other city. And then it's over. The next day, the carols are abruptly gone from the radio airwaves. Just like that.

But oh, those Christmas cards make a person smile! They are still here after Christmas, too, in a glittering pile on the coffee table.

My own cards will likely be late (maybe not!) arriving in the mailboxes of others. But Phillip and his candy cane sure made the task even more enjoyable.

May your days before Christmas bring you increasing joy!


Other cat rescue Christmas posts:

Black Cat Rescue
Animal Shelter Volunteer Life
Joa's Arc

and just in case you thought having a cat and a Christmas tree was bad, click here.

Dr. Whitten Wu checks in

Mary Beth writes:

"Just wanted to drop you a note to let you know how the former Ferdinand, now known as Dr. Whitten Wu, or just Whitty for short, is doing.  We're coming up on our one year anniversary with Whitten and he is as friendly and loving as ever.  He has grown into a hulking 13.5 lb cat with the silkiest, most magnificent black and white coat with a pronounced gray undercoat and big fluffy tail.  He greets us with tiny, happy mews every night when we come home, and has successfully taught us to play "cat and mouse" - we have learned to throw the pink toy mousie for the cat when he brings it to us - over and over and over again.  He likes to keep our laps warm and also occasionally begs for a few minutes on our enclosed (but not heated) back porch to scratch on the welcome mat and sniff the breezes.  He's a great cat, thanks again for helping us bring him into our lives."

These are the kind of messages we love to get. 

Whitty is brother to Longfellow and Wiggles below!

Moving into the world of YouTube

I promised the people interested in Longfellow a video of him. My camera requires me to buy and download special software, which I really didn't want to invest in because the video on my camera is pretty poor. So today I stopped at Walmart and picked up a cheap little Flip camcorder.

Even the word "camcorder" scared me. Remember what that used to mean? A great big huge piece of equipment that cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars. I held the little Flip in my hand and marveled.

The software that comes right with the camera is not particularly intuitive. Taking the video was absolutely simple. But after that things got a bit murky. I had to Google things like "how to tell the size of a Flip video" and "how to edit a Flip video" in order to get rolling. Even then it made more sense to create a YouTube channel than save the things.

Yes, we are on YouTube. Heeeeere's Wiggles!



Before taking any video, I vacuumed my floor, which scared all the cats away. Longfellow disappeared (his trip to the vet today might have had something to do with that, too). So much for his career in film.

Hopefully having video of the cats will help with adoptions. I've dedicated myself to getting cats out of here. I'll let you know!

Oh, Longfellow finally came out of his shell:

Black Cat Three

First Skinny Bear. Then Coyote. Now...well...I think I've run out of names. I called her Porch Kitty when I named her .jpg for her photo.

I've seen her around for a few weeks, but I thought "she" was a "he." She got in a hellacious fight with Bear up in the garden. I've seen her out the fields at the neighbors. She was peering in the window one day, and I was able to leave her some wet food on the porch one night. She ran away, but came creeping back later to eat it.

Tonight I dished out some turkey stew for the cats and for the most part they turned their noses up at it. They aren't big on people food. I looked at the big plate of cat-licked stew and figured I'd take it out to the porch to see if the black cat might come by. It was windy, cold, and snowy outside, and I immediately noticed cat tracks. Good, s/he'd been by!

Then something came yowling out of Bear's cat shelter at a run, winding around my legs. It always amazes me how these cats play shy for months or weeks, and then one day say "ENOUGH!" and come running up for help. Surprised, I set the plate down, and a pretty, plushy, but skinny black cat tried desperately to decide if she wanted to be fed or petted first. She would turn and wind all around me after grabbing a mouthful of food. I copped a feel under her tail and determined that she was going to be a $150 cat instead of a $70 cat. Alas.

What to do with her? I had just emptied the cage in the lower barn. I had just introduced Coyote to the cat facility cats and she was doing well. Her cage downstairs had been empty two whole days.

I brought Porch Kitty into the bathroom and sat down with her. She was mad with happiness. A peek at her teeth showed she was a couple of years old. Coyote's mom, maybe? The two of them abandoned together? Then I saw the ticks. A tick on her chin. One by her ear. Uck! Outside with her! I pulled the ticks I found off with a tick-twister. I carried her down to the barn and we shut out the winter. She explored the downstairs while I set up the recently vacated two-level cage that Coyote had been. I plopped her inside with food and water and went to the house to warm up a Snuggle Safe for her. It beat being out in the howling wind and snow.

Then I came in, threw my clothes immediately into the washer, and took a shower.

I've been toying with the idea of some "BurmaShave" type signs along my road, dealing with abandonment. I think it's time. With my luck I'll probably get cited for illegal signage.

If you can think of any ditties telling people why dumping cats on struggling farm owners is irresponsible and illegal, please leave your poetry in the comment section!

Long distance adoptions

So I got two inquiries on Longfellow this week. One didn't respond after I sent back the application. This  usually means the person has found another cat, or is looking for an indoor-outdoor cat, or is thinking about declawing (which we don't permit). The other line of inquiry continued---from New York City, near Central Park.

It's always interesting when I get emails asking about cats. I always expect the folks to be right next door---people from Owego or Spencer, wanting to adopt a cat. Often, after I reply, it will come to light that the person is 4-6 hours away.

Most are at least 40 minutes to an hour away.

There are Wildrun cats in Germany, France, California, and Florida, but I didn't adopt them to those states. They were adopted close by, and their adopters moved to those remote locations. I have adopted directly to PA, NJ, NYC, and Maryland.

As a control freak, I have natural concerns about long distance adoptions. What if it doesn't work out? What if the people turn out to not be as they seem? What if they were to lose the cat--so far away, how could I look for her or him?

This was Longfellow we were talking about. Longfellow who has been curling up in my elbow for over a year now. Patting my face, purring at my back in my bed, making me laugh with his graceful bounding around the house. I was just looking at Wiggles and Longfellow this week, wondering...are they here for good? Are they another Squeak and Nell--kittens that never left?

Wiggles had visitors this summer, but they ended up adopting a kitten. When they came and Wiggles began lobbying, I realized she would be much happier in a home where she receive the attention a pet cat ought to. Personally, I don't believe a cat ought to have to compete with five other cats for attention. One to four cats is optimal. After that, the love gets hard to spread around.

So after a moment of angst when I saw Longfellow's name in the subject line of two messages, I thought "Yes, he deserves his own home."

So both Longfellow (and Wiggles) are off to the vet next week. They are due to their vaccinations today, actually, and then they'll be good for three years.

And we'll see how it goes with the New York City possibility, for Longfellow.