Once Upon A Time ~ Scardy a.k.a. Blackie's Story

Once upon a cat there was a time when this one was the most abused and sad barn cat I'd seen in some time. He was absolutely terrified of me and every cat on the colony! He'd run from everyone without hesitation. I could not come even remotely close to where he was or he'd be gone like a shot. Over a few months this summer, I won his confidence with food, talking to him, sitting close by and offering my hand so he'd realize that hands don't always hurt. Every barn cat was mean, if not cruel to him. For whatever the reason he wasn't accepted by any of them. He was hit, snarled at, hissed in his face, chased away, beat up and forced out of shelter in the worst kind of weather. Morning after morning, I'd find him hunkered down on my patio in what little shelter it gave and depending on the food and milk I provided.

In summer, I'd leave the patio door open so he could venture in. Once he was comfortable with that, I closed the door once on him and he, realizing that he couldn't get out ran from door to living room window smashing his nose to a bloody pulp on both before he calmed down enough to see that he was not going to be harmed. He stayed away for a few days after that but came back and this time I was able to approach and pet him. When I picked him up, he tucked himself into a protective ball so I made a point of holding and cuddling him until he became more relaxed with being handled. 

Today;

I rescued him from an existence
of abandonment and cruelty. Its amazing the change in him now that he was given a little help and shelter.  He is expressly an 'indoor' cat now that he has adopted us as his owners. My other cats still hiss and yowl at him, but he has the most gentle way of totally ignoring them!

 
Especially Sassy!

She's my SCREAMER! 
And none too pleased with any cat she feels does not belong.



I think it really annoys her the way he ignores her nastiness and goes about the house like its his home too, in spite of her opinions. He finally stopped the constant hiding a few months ago and pretty much acts like ~ he's home now! This past year has seen all but one kitten (she's too young) spayed and neutered on the dairy, including Blackie ~~ renamed from Scardy. Only lost two cats to a deadly cat virus; one of them, this grey one's brother...(whom I was very sorry to lose)

 
Now Blackie and he play together ~ first time Blackie's ever had a playmate and acceptance by another cat! 

Blackie's own brother, the only sibling I knew of that he had, was put down this fall because of the same deadly cat retrovirus that the grey one in this photo's, brother was put down for. They have something in common these too... they both lost there brothers to sickness. Now, they are best friends who horse around playing tag all over the house!! 

 So here he is, being a little sweetheart. Happy in the home he's been accepted into.

Catspaw

 

Another Update: Nova Scotia Kitty

Ok, so I thought I'd better confirm...

I phoned my contact's friend in Nova Scotia; the contact had just left for PEI. 

Well...

They 'had' the cat...

Seems he didn't appreciate the significance of being stuffed in a cage for the drive home and took to his paws arunnin' as far away as he could get.  

I will get a regretful phone call tonight from my contact, for sure.

And an assurance that, now that they have confirmed he's still around, they will go again this coming weekend to try again for the silly creature!  


Some cats just don't realize when they've got it better elsewhere than where they are now...


I will keep you all up-to-date as to how things unfold. Stay Tuned... its not over yet!


Catspaw

Update: Nova Scotia Kitty Is Comin' Home TODAY !

I got off the phone about an hour ago with my contact, THE CAT CAME BACK!!

She said they'd be home this evening and we came meet with her and get the cat. He'll likely be overnight at our place, then to his new home tomorrow.

Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay!

One more Yay! should do it.

Catspaw

About The Nova Scotia Kitty...

My contact for this cat was in Nova Scotia over the weekend visiting her friend that has been helping this cat, but like any feline worthy of the name of Cat, he was nowhere to be found. So she couldn't bring him back with her to the island to his new home. Well, maybe next weekend!

Honestly, you'd think he suspected something...











His new owner, on PEI, phoned Saturday wondering about him. Seems the family is anxious to have him join their little farm. My contacts friend will keep a lookout for him and when they visit again next weekend, hopefully he will be around and ready to be re-homed.

All is well.

Catspaw

The Value and Importance of Adopting Rescue Cats - Part 3

Maya has her story to tell you:

The ‘cutie’ in the middle is Maya.

                             MAYA: The Adventurous Girl

I went to the mall one day and by the end of the day, Maya had joined the family. I adopted her Thursday May 10th 2012, through the Animal Assistance Group. She was only 9 weeks old then, now she is about 15 weeks old and she is also kitty litter trained. I was told that someone went into the Pet Value Pet Store here in the Sault (Sault Marie), with 4 kittens in a bag and just left them in the store without telling anyone. Some time later, the clerk noticed a tiny head pop out of the bag. She  investigated the bag and to her surprise there were 4 very tiny, sick kittens in the bag.

Once the kittens were checked by the vet and given the proper medicine to recover the kittens were placed in Foster Care because they had no mother and were just too young to be adopted out.

Recovered and were up for adoption along with her siblings is Maya.

Maya, abandoned in a paper bag and left in a Pet Store.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Maya at home now. She also will be spayed this November 2012.

Although Maya is very small for her age, I think she was the ‘runt of the litter,’ she is full of energy and she investigates anything that moves. She just loves to cuddle up to you with a purr that could melt anyone’s heart. Sasha and Maya have really ‘bonded’ and you wont see one without the other. Now she is attempting to win Xena over and it looks like she is winning her heart to. From the moment Maya came into our home, she just made herself right at home as if she had always been there.

I had not planned on three cats but it seems that each one of these cats made their way into my life and they are here to stay because I couldn’t part with any of them now. Seems they ‘all’ were ‘throw away kitties’ but I believe that EVERY animal born has a reason and a purpose for being here. My life is richer for having these three cats and they all are loved and cherished.

Even the vet remarked that all my cats were ‘very contented’ cats!

All my cats get along perfectly and they are all ‘bonding.’ My cats are indoor cats only and they never give me any kind of problems. If you have your cats fixed they are very good in the house.

They all have had a rough start in life but they found a home where they are loved and safe. I only wish that all cats were as lucky as these ones. And that people think before they carelessly abandon any animal on the side of the street or in a bush and  realize that animals have a purpose too in life and that there are people who really want those abandoned cats. 

These are three stories my cousin wanted to share with my readers and visitors. We both, sincerely hope that Xena, Sasha and Maya and all the other kittens and cats that I have managed to rescue, tame and re-home, have inspired some love and concern for strays, throw-aways and the lost that come round your neighborhoods and doors begging to be let in or for a small morsel of food.

Catspaw

Update For ~ Kijiji Ad # 392154507

I really must celebrate my readers and visitors!!

This sad looking fella, who hails from Nova Scotia, has a NEW HOME on Prince Edward Island thanks to a Blog, a Kijiji Ad, three people who care and a family who wants him!

******************************************************************************

Can you believe, I was out shopping but my husband answered the phone for a brand new home for this cat!!!

As of Sunday, July 1st ~ he has a FOREVER HOME.

Thank you, to absolutely everyone, who took the time to read the Kijiji Ad and/or my Blog about him.

I and my contact in Nova Scotia, are EXTREMELY GRATEFUL to all of you. My contact and her friend will be on the lookout for him to bring him to the island and to his new home.

Most especially, a SPECIAL THANK YOU to the happy family who has adopted him and offered him a loving home.

Catspaw

Sailor and the Ruined Castle, Con't Chapter Two

Just at dawn...

The scene grew swiftly dim and faded quickly before Sailor's startled eyes as the blue haze of the forest with the sunlit field just beyond came into sharp focus. Was he still trapped in the strange woods? He knew the town had been real, just as he now understood that the fishing village just down the hill from the ruined castle was, in fact at one time, the medieval village he was just in. As he blinked, the sunlight seemed to move towards him as it overtook the woods. The night and the blue haze vanished amongst the chatter of leaves in the cool wind coming off the ocean below. Sailor looked to the sky and beheld trees that were once again resplendent with autumn foliage. Realization was now breaking and trying to make its way into his balking mind but would he accept it? Was he starting to perceive the truth and the reality of his existence? Sailor wasn't sure of anything he had just experienced. He was content to let it go for now and explore it no further. Right at the moment all he wanted was to go back to the fishing village, back to what was familiar to him. The fish mongers and the wharf, to spend his days watching the fishing boats go out and come back in with their catches. Sailor suddenly longed to sit in his favorite places and to sleep in his chosen niches and eat out of the fish bucket again. This was the comfort he sought now.

Now, at dusk.

Catspaw

How To Write A Kijiji Ad That Gets Immediate Results

Since I write ads to re-home cats and kittens; since 2010 I have re-homed at least 50 animals. Some were my own before my three females were spayed, some were colony cats that I had tamed and socialized, some were strays that were found while others were abandoned here so I tell a mini story about how the animal came to be in my company and sharing our home. I even had Cat Action pick up at least two for re-homing. I always start with an Urgent Title that gets attention!  

 !!! This Baby Needs A Home NOW !!!

I go on to give a mini history of the cat or kitten, then I inform my ad's readers about aspects they would be interested in like temperament, how the animal eats and uses a litter box, if said cat/kitten would be a good match with other animals (dog or cat) and with children and whether its displays signs of becoming a 'one person' cat. I explain about its overall health and age; whether its fixed or not and any cute quirks he/she may possess; for instance, I had one little kitten that was a 'shoulder' cat, that was the place he most wanted to be. 

I should note here that I do not spare the readers of my ads the details when it comes to strays, throw-aways and barn or colony cats. I tell them about the life the animal has had and why they need someone like YOU to email or phone me to adopt, immediately. I give them the reasons then tell them to contact me. Here's an example of the current Kijiji Ad I have up for the little one that, after months of being alone and on her own, finally came in from the cold. 

"Last Winter I posted an ad for two of these kittens, they were this ones siblings. A group of three abandoned, dumped kittens had almost gone feral when my husband managed to catch two last November and I re-homed them, thanks to Cat Action and you. The third, this one, refused all attempts at helping her until just two days ago, she was so desperate that she allowed me to pick her up and bring her indoors and I've had her in since.

She is very small and malnourished for her age, which we put at possibly 9 months and easily startled by loud noises like the tv though she is adjusting well to her change in circumstance. She uses the box, eats well and is very friendly to any other cats, she tries hard to make friends but my cats won't have it so I have to put her, alone, in the porch each night.

She would get along very well with other animals and children as she is timid and has a mild temperament. She is the most affectionate kitten I've had in a while but she's in serious need of nurturing by someone who wants to give her the loving home she deserves and I am hoping to hear from someone out there soon, who is interested in her.

I will be posting pictures of her on my blog later today, so visit and read her story at  http://catsandtheirmews.blogspot.ca/"

I always blog about the animal then I hit them with the pictures!  I always have at least three shots of the animal(s). They are always 'free' to a good home and if I have some to spare, I give a can of wet food. 

The ad above was posted June 16th, there has been 95 views since yesterday and I got a positive response the same day! I like to meet the people taking the animal so I can judge for myself what kind of owners they will be and I have never been disappointed ~ all the people have been cat lovers and sincere about giving them loving homes. I didn't start out with the intention for being a rescue person but I could not leave the situation as it was either. Food for thought if you have animals in your neighborhood that need help.

Something to consider with your next Kijiji Ad whether its about animals or items, it can be written in the same format.

Catspaw

PS:  I re-homed the cat yesterday.

!!! This Baby Needs A Home NOW !!!

Hi everyone, I have a story to tell:

Last November 2011, in the middle on an island winter, three kittens were abandoned here at the dairy, probably because they knew it was a cat colony. My husband manage to lure and catch two of them, one a grey and the other a multicolor. They were as close to ferals without actually being feral as a cat could get; they were here awhile before being caught. I kept them for a week, socializing them then phoned Cat Action once they'd calmed down and we could handle them better. After two weeks, I gave them to Cat Action; they already had placements for them thanks to a Kijiji Ad I had placed. 

She suddenly found herself all alone and having to fend for herself, by herself. 

Her two siblings were gone, caught by my husband and re-homed by me.

The title of this blog is that same title as my Kijiji Ad

But, there was a third kitten. One that refused all attempts to help her and resisted any food or shelter. She scavenged in the barn for mice and rats, eating the grain off the floor when really hungry. Being a interloper and unwelcome by the colony, the cats here bullied and chased her away constantly. Finally, she started following them to my patio door where I provided food, milk and shelter during the winter months. She would always run, though she'd come to eat whatever was left, I could not come near. This past Friday, June 15th, all that changed. I put some scraps out for them and she came just close enough for me to touch her, once she allowed that, I took a further chance and picked her up. 

Does she look 9 months to you?

Once inside the house she was pretty skiddish so we took turns holding her and talking to her so she'd calm and realize we weren't going to hurt her. My cats of course will tolerate her but they aren't always kind; she spent the first night as far behind the dryer in a closed porch as she could get and it took my hubby to coax her out the next morning. She hid a lot on Saturday because of my cats but we took her out and made her mind by putting her out on the sofa. She soon caught on that she didn't need to hide. I fed her a tin of tuna to help put some meat on her bones. She's in fairly good health but very malnourished for a 9 to 10 month old cat. Yes, that's what I said  ~ 9 to 10 months and for all that, she is tiny!  

 Very close to becoming feral, there was just enough 'tame' cat left in her to accept being re-socialized

She is extremely affectionate, follows me round the house like a puppy and wants to be on my lap whenever I sit down. She tries very hard to be accepted by my cats and will immediately run up to them, trying to bond, only to be nastily rebuffed by my three females. 

Winston by porch door

Only Winston shows her a kindness. So much so that at night, when she is in the porch for the night, he will lay beside the porch door as if staying near to keep her company and my females at bay. She'd very readily take to other animals and she'd be great around children. I am hoping my Kijiji Ad will get some attention for her and she will find a new home soon. 

If anyone is interested in her please use the email at the top right of my blog to contact me. 

Catspaw

Help For The Forgotten

What is the best way to help ferals, strays, abandoned cats and kittens that you can do right in your own neighborhood? What kinds of programs can you look into to help the situation? How can you and your children become pro-active?

Yevgeniy Mazor-Thomas of Grafton, a vet technician/assistant supervisor of the Luke & Lily Lerner Spay/Neuter Clinic at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, left, prepares paperwork for a recently trapped cat as Spay Worcester co-chairman and Shrewsbury Animal Control Officer Leona Pease prepares to move the cat from a trap to the transfer cage at the left

Lets start with a trap-neuter-return program where people's endeavors are geared toward lowering the number of these cats by trapping them in humane cages, taking them to vets and places like Cat Action to have them neutered and spayed. You may know it as trap-neuter-spay-return or trap-neuter-vaccinate-return; all are endorsed by the ASPCA, SPCA, the Humane Society and Cat Action, here on Prince Edward Island, Canada.
According to web site of the American Association of Feline Practitioners, stray and feral cats are “humanely trapped, examined, vaccinated, and surgically sterilized by veterinarians.” This is the same here in Canada. After being fixed and shots given, feral cats are freed and returned to their familiar environment and hopefully, cared for by volunteers who provide food, shelter and monitor them for sickness. I know there is an actual House on PEI where a couple, through the aid of people like me, provide shelter, medicine when needed, food and water for them. 


The advantages obviously include:

• Benefits for feral, stray and abandoned cats. Neutered and spayed cats sometimes gain weight and have fewer health problems like breast, testicular and uterine cancers. I have four fixed cats of my own, only one female has gained weight. Spaying also reduces risks that coincide with constant pregnancy. Fewer females in heat means fewer toms attracted to an area so fewer, potentially harm-causing cat fights. 
• Benefits for people. Spaying and neutering these cats is an excellent population control where behaviors that include fighting and marking are also reduced, while benefits such as rodent control continue. Ultimately less cat suffering also means less human suffering in the face of dying or injured cats.

A feral cat on Ellsworth Street investigates a trap; the cat eventually was attracted by the food inside and was caught

 Of course, not everyone is a fan of this program. There are fish and wildlife advocates that insist re-releasing feral and strays after neutering simply constitutes re-abandonment and doesn’t permanently address the larger problem and I agree. If we were to add a Rehabilitation Program where people or families offered to learn how to tame these cats, then tamed and socialized the one that will accept human intervention and a Re-homing Program for the ones that were tamed, it would go a very long way to cleaning up the problem.

Trapped cat looks out from the a transfer cage

Some advocate relocation or simply killing the cats instead. Relocation sounds good but it is highly ineffective because it creates an unwanted vacuum effect. Any cats, be they feral, strays, abandoned or our pets, gather where there are resources, the food, water and shelter they need. I just have to look out of my patio door every morning to see that and I live on a dairy that is a registered cat colony here on the island. Believe me when I tell you that, people are already attempting to ''relocate'' unwanted animals when they dump them on the farm!  So when an existing colony is relocated or completely eradicated, before long a new group of cats that exist on the outskirts of our society will discover the same resources and move in to fill said 'vacuum.
Relocation is unappealing for other reasons too; cats, like raccoons, are very territorial so a relocated cat just might attempt to find its way home and suffer an accident, life-threatening injury or death on the way. Then again, the relocation area itself might already have an established colony that will fight for its right to not allow new cats in or it may lack proper food, water and enough sheltered areas for all of them. These are animals that migrate from colony to colony or house to house. Unless a colony’s life is in danger from something like sickness or overcrowding most experts agree that relocation is not a permanent solution.

Dogs are just as vulnerable and group together in packs when feral. Fixing, taming and re-homing works for them too

Most people are humane and not willing to support eradication. With a trap-neuter-return effort, “people will give their time, money, and resources,” says Slater, author of Community Approaches to Feral Cats. “But if you’re catching and euthanizing cats, in most cases you just won’t get volunteers to do that.”
TNR is an excellent teaching tool for people because it gets us more involved and doing something about the situation. “It gets people to think about how we can prevent cats from ending up on the street and how we can manage cat populations.” When we and our children are pro-active, everyone wins. I am referencing this information from pets.webmd.com.


My next blog will be concerning some things that you may be able to do for the cats in your area. The site where the pictures came from is http://www.telegram.com


Catspaw

Thoughts On The Lives Of The Forgotten

The question must be posed, what can you do, today, to help feral, stray and abandoned cats? Why is this such an issue for me?


I grew up with cats. My childhood memories are chock full of all the unique and different personality traits and characters of the cats our family bought from pet stores, picked up in shelters, saved from the hostile outdoors and sometimes from people's inhumanity. I guess it goes back a long way to my mother who saved any and every animal she could and nursed them back to health when we lived in Whitehorse, Yukon ~ Land Of The Midnight Sun. When my dad was away during the winter working in different town up the highway because there was little work in town, it was my mother who took care of things at home, sometimes with a shot gun. One winter my siblings and I helped her save the lives of a mother puma and her starving cubs. Another, I watched my mother train the shotgun on a large Black Bear that had come to raid the garage way at the back of our house. She would never have shot it; only if it threatened would she have let a shot off in the air to scare it away. When they did come round, they never threatened us, they were just hungry. You could say that my love and respect for animals goes back to my childhood when my parents taught me the value of preserving and taking responsibility for the family pets and wild animals that on occasion needed human intervention to survive. They also taught us the importance of understanding that this planet and all that is in it does not belong to us humans, its all 'on loan' from a powerful, Almighty God who will judge each and every one of us according to how we have treated His Creation. In light of my beliefs, I'd like to provide some information that I hope you will make use of and find helpful and inspiring.


Ferals, wild cats, strays, abandoned and throwaways ~ we have so many names and designations for these mysterious felines we occasionally catch a glimpse of peeking out from under our porch in that 'frightened' way or darting as fast as their paws can carry them into abandoned buildings, as far from our reach as they can manage. Most of them share a single destiny: short-lived and harsh lives. Fortunately, helping feral and abandoned cats isn’t difficult if one wants to help. The website WebMD went to their experts in animal health and care for the tips we all need to make a difference in the lives of our feline friends who are living, quite literally, on the edge. Please use it.  http://pets.webmd.com/cats/helping-stray-and-feral-cats
There are some good stories of intervention and rescue and I'd like to share them with you. 

Pete rescued and brought in for recovery. His eye needed to be  surgically removed after he was hit by a car. He was absolutely terrified when he was first brought in but as he started to recover, he became more  trusting and changed into a marvelous, gentle little cat.

After receiving tender care and attention at a recovery center. Pete is now happily homed with a very loving couple in Switzerland. 




 Then there's Holly's story:

"Little Holly was found in this terrible condition. The infection was spreading all over her face. There was no choice but to have her eye removed. The operation to remove her eye was Eur 85"

Sweet little Holly recovering from her eye operation. She is left with only partial sight in her remaining eye and now needs daily medication.

A feral cat is any cat who is too poorly socialized to be handled by humans and because of that, cannot be placed into a typical pet home. There are approximately 70 million feral cats worldwide, about the same number as their counterparts who have homes. Usually ferals are the offspring of cats who were either lost or abandoned by their owners and grew up without any kind of proper socialization or interaction by humans so they have no bonds to connect with us on. Females can become pregnant as early in their young lives as 16 weeks of age, then go on to have two to three or more litters a year, every year. So the feral cat population and the problems that arise from it grows and becomes a self perpetuating cycle of suffering. In just seven years of life, a single female cat and her kittens can produce 420,000 more cats. One can understand a certain sense of urgency in intervening to help prevent a bad situation from becoming worse. 
Lewis... 

"Lewis, a young one-eyed cat who was dumped by his owner was brought to a shelter in a very bad state. He spent a few months in the recovery center where he grew healthy and finally recovered. Lewis can be seen enjoying a new start in a program called Homed Animals".

Lewis...  
I'm more than sure that some people have romanticized their free-roaming lives, unfortunately the truth is very far from this fantasy. The reality is much more devastating; ferals, strays, throwaways and abandoned cats/kittens all too often live in vacant lots, dodge cars in the streets and eat from trash cans whenever they can find a scrap of food. They face injuries that become infected and cause them extreme pain, diseases and an endless cycle of near constant pregnancy of which only a few kittens survive and they all suffer extremes in human treatment and elements of the weather. The life of ferals, strays and abandoned cats is not a natural one and can sometimes last for just two or three years before you find them dead in your flower bed or beside the bushes in your back yard.
Feral cats also leave issues on our doorstep that we complain about but do little to nothing constructive to aid the situation, including the noisy cat fights over that empty box one of them is living in that the other wants, odors, possibly from infections and urinating to mark their small scrap of territory; then there are the flea infestations that our pets get from them and the inevitable breeding that creates even more unwanted cats in your already overcrowded neighborhoods. The experts are agreed that one of the very best ways to help feral cats and cat groups known as colonies, is through local neutering and spay programs done through Cat Action, the SPCA or ASPCA and other groups.


All over the net there are pleas just like this one:
"Unfortunately, at present we do not have sufficient fund to keep the ward open. This means that there will be no place for the cats to go for recovery. It would also mean we would have no place where to keep rescued abandoned cats until they can be re-homed. PLEASE help us keep this 'ward' open. We need your monthly donation to enable us to carry on with this voluntary work. Payment methods OR contact us: SASG, PO Box 31, St. Pauls Bay, Malta''.

The results of your tax returned donations are this:

"A few of the cats that have received shelter at the ward. Many of these cats have now found new homes and have started a new life with loving and caring owners. Many now live in Germany, a few in Switzerland and some in Malta".

In my next blog I will provide some ideas that I see caring people, including me, doing to help put an end to the suffering and overpopulation of these street animals and will share a story or two from my own, up close and personal experiences. So, stay tuned. The fat lady hasn't sung yet on this issue and their is still time and hope. In the meantime, here is another site to look at http://users.waldonet.net.mt/sasg/rescue.html
Cat Action team on Prince Edward Island  http://www.cats-pei.ca/

 Cat and Colony Care

 Colony Coordinator

Diane Minick

dianeminick@hotmail.com

566-2012

 Prince County Colony Care

Beverly Hillier

ubefre@hotmail.com

836-3905

 West Prince County Colony Care

Gayle Adams

gayleradams@hotmail.com

859-2487 

Shelter Coordinator/ Media Contact

Donald Turner

donald@dstenterprises.ca

        963-3179

Catspaw