adoption news

Guess what???

Well three things:

 

 Carling got ADOPTED

her new dad is a second year vet student 

with no other pets (yet)

  

Kilkenny got ADOPTED

his new mom plans to spoil him rotten

The third thing - mom is sure she is cursed. The new floors were supposed to go in yesterday. Mom got all the cats locked in the back bedroom using canned food as a treat. She had everything moved into her room and the kitchen and the hall. And the installer had some issues....it is a long story and mom got pissed and they will get done, but the company couldn't get anyone out until today. Cross your fingers and paws.

Quick post

Nothing today....sorry

We are getting new floors put in our living room and dining room (which is actually the foster room). The company will move the big furniture and rip up the carpet. But mom had to move all the books off the shelf and all the smaller furniture.

Us cats are all sorts of weirded out. There is stuff all over the bedroom....and in our back room....and in the hallway.

Mom says the floors will be great. We say change sucks.

random Fridays

how Chanel plans to spend the weekend

(though let's be honest, this is how she spends most of her time)

Goldfish had been in the Sleepypod, climbed out, stretched 

and then laid down right there and went back to sleep

Thanks for all the positive feedback on our Wednesday post. Thankfully most applications are good, people care for their pets and we can do adoptions smoothly.
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To answer some questions about the cat cafe:
1. The tree by the window in the pictures is on a tension rod from the floor to the ceiling.
2. Most that we have heard of charge an entrance fee to cover their costs with anything left over helping the rescues they support. Most of them aren't very expensive - this one was $10 for an hour.
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We have gotten some snow and it was BITTER cold for a few days. Sunday night mom was in bed reading and the snow removal people were outside cleaning the condo drives. Goldfish was not very happy that there was banging and noise outside the condo. She was on the bed with mom but jumpy with all the noise. However....mom would call her name or whistle to get her attention after a bang and Goldfish would settle back down and let mom pet her. This went on for about 30 minutes - until there was a REALLY big bang and Goldfish ran out looking for a better hiding place. But still - mom was very proud of her being brave.
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Speaking of Goldfish, taking a page from Daiquiri, she taught herself to play fetch. She will bring mom a mylar ball to throw sometimes. Mom is allowed to sit up in bed but not go too far. Of course the girl would also pick the toy that doesn't fly very well. But mom got thinking last night - she wonders if cats think the fetch thing is weird? They bring people their toy having killed it, and those weird people throw it far away and the cat has to bring it back AGAIN!!  haha
   *interestingly enough, a cat behavior expert answered a very similar question this week over at The Conscious Cat

Dear applicant

*a post from the mom

Dear snippy denied applicant:

When you fill out the application, I ask for just one thing - be complete and honest with all of your answers.

I should not have to chase you to get your landlord's phone number if you rent (as an aside, I am amazed by the number of people who put that they own when in fact they don't). I shouldn't have to chase you to get a vet name and phone number if you currently have pets in the house.

But more importantly, please remember that as volunteers with a rescue organization, we feel like we are the last line of defense for these animals. We care about them and try to do everything in our power to make sure that they get loving FOREVER homes. Not "bring them back when they scratch the sofa homes" or "kick them out when we move homes". So, yes, we are going to ask questions and we expect answers.

That said, we don't reject many applications. But when they are rejected, we have done the work and have good reasons for our decisions. For the record, I just email applicants and let them know they have been denied. My thought is that if I give them an in depth explanation, I am just giving them a better tool to lie to the next group. (our organization has a database that does have our denied applications saved and we do search in case people try to come back again and change their answers)

If I think it is about education, I will certainly go that route.

But....if you have a cat and a dog and the dog sees the vet every year and the cat hasn't been to the vet in over 4 years, you don't get to be all ticked off when I reject your application for failure to provide vet care to your animal.

If you have a pet in the home that is not neutered (unless it is a medical issue I can verify with the vet), don't get ticked off when I tell you that you can't have another pet. Yes - all of OUR animals are already spayed and neutered. But we are trying to reduce the population and I am not going to encourage you to have an animal that isn't fixed.

I am tired of people not being able to accept "no" as an answer. I am tired of people sending back emails after they are denied telling me that I am a terrible person for "denying that cat a good loving home". I am tired of being told that I don't care. I am tired of people having to have the last word and being mean.

And FYI - yelling at me, emailing me hurtful things and being mean - it isn't going to change my mind. I am STILL not going to approve you. Just accept the answer and move on with your life.

I have said it before and I will say it again here: if you give a damn about animals and feel you can do a better job, PUT UP OR SHUT UP!! Every organization needs volunteers....go do something and stop criticizing those of us that are doing the hard work.

so there

fun event

There is Gem City Catfe in a city about 90 minutes from where we live. They announced last fall that the Kitten Lady would be coming in and giving a talk about TNR.

Four ladies from the rescue were going to go together. However the weather was supposed to get bad and mom and one other lady ended up being the only ones that went. They had a reservation at the cafe before the talk.

 

If you look close, this climber is shaped like a plane as Dayton

is the home of the Wright brothers.

 

cute display of each cat with their names

The cafe is divided in half with the cafe in one part and then the cats in their own section. The cat section has two levels and lots of places to hide or just hang out. They do give instructions when you first go in about letting the cats come to you and respecting their space. There are places to sit and toys available to play. Like most cafes, there is a cost to visit, but Gem City is $10 for an hour so it is really reasonable and remember that the cost helps the cats.

After hanging with the cats, mom and her friend headed over to the another building for the TNR talk. Hannah Shaw markets herself as the Kitten Lady and started out mainly working with neo-natal kittens from shelters. She has started doing more TNR and talks about community cats - she made the point that TNR will reduce cats in shelters as part of the population of "unadoptable" cats in shelters are ferals/community cats and then tiny kittens that need so much foster support that some shelter cannot provide. It really is a cycle.....spay and neuter those community cats, reduce the number of kittens in shelters. Mom admits that she didn't learn much as she has been involved in TNR for a while. But...it was interesting to look around the crowd and see the different types of people that were learning how important this is in our communities. There were a lot of kids and we love that the next generation of cat rescuers are getting out and learning and advocating.

Random Fridays

the girls

They love that the table is there. Add the curtain, the bed and a floor vent

and this spot is usually occupied by at least one cat.

really?? that is comfortable??

We have the cold and snow coming again this weekend. Mom says it better hold off cause she has plans for Saturday and she doesn't want them screwed up.

Hope the rescued girl continues to make progress. It is slow going but she is learning to trust again. 

power of the treat

 

mom broke out the treats over the weekend

 

Chanel tried some self service

 

Even Junior showed up

 

Daiquiri decided the service was definitely too slow

 

well look who showed up

Mom has been saying that she wanted to try sitting on the floor and getting some treats out to see if she could get Goldfish to come up to her. Everyone here will show up for the shaking of the container - except for Goldfish who apparently was off somewhere. She finally showed up and was a little skeptical at first. Mom threw her a treat and she would get a little closer. After a few minutes she finally walked closer and took a couple of treats right from mom's hand. It is going to be a slow process, but mom is hopeful that if she keeps this up, Goldfish will get a little more trusting.

misc stuff

On Sunday, after waiting patiently, Marzen was adopted and went home!!!
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It was seriously chilly here and it SNOWED!! Chanel spent a better part of Saturday evening watching the local snow plow clearing out our condo driveways. Mom went out Saturday morning but then came home and spent the rest of the day here.

Sunday she ran out, got to kiss Marzen and Kilkenny (who is still at the store and waiting for his time to come), cleaned at another partner store and then came home to watch basketball and yell at the TV. Nothing too exciting, but that is OK.

However, mom was out on Friday night at a fundraiser to help with TNR efforts. A local artists location opens up and they sell art and allow the rescue to sell cat stuff and the money goes to TNR funds. Mom was upstairs with the adoptable cats they brought. In face, the orange and white kitten named Hero was adopted by someone who met him that night.

Random Fridays

We fooled you - there are 4 cats in that first picture:

The love affair continues

Holy moly it got cold here. Yeah - we know we live in the mid-west and it is January. But it was 60F on Tuesday....and 24F yesterday.
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If you live near central Ohio and want something to do tonight, come check out some art and cats at The Amazing Cat Show IV in Columbus. Mom will be there with adoptable cats (of course).

spot the cats

How many cats do YOU see???

The girls love that mom put this end table in this spot. It is right over one of the floor vents (where you see Ivy's feet sticking out from) and now that the bed in on the lower level, it is even better. The bed is heated, but mom leaves it off most of the time. She had turned it on, but Ivy kept getting off of it and leaving. Mom suspect with the whole thing sitting over the floor vent, it was getting too warm. The other nice thing is that this table is right next to the window and the cat ladder so it give another exit to that side of the room.

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Someone asked on Monday in the comments how we got Hope from the lady. In this case, she had a decent relationship with mom's friend, so mom let her handle it. The lady signed a surrender form, loaded the cat in a carrier and mom's friend brought her to mom's car. Mom knows she is lucky it went that well, but based on conversations figured it would be fine or she wouldn't have gone by herself. In other news, Hope is relaxing a little so hopefully she can be looked at by the vet soon and we can help figure out a plan for her next step.

good news

We reported on Friday that we had 4 cats/kittens still available for adoption. While we want all of them to get homes, it really is the momma cats that we cross our paws for sometimes.

Well.....Friday we got good news. Someone had applied to adopt Delphi - momma cat to the Greek Kittens. And they came in Friday to pick her up and take her home. They do have a dog so hopefully she will be OK with that, but we are all thrilled that she has been picked!!
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Friday when mom stopped at the adoption center, she and another volunteer were putting up a sign about a January adoption special. As they were working, a mid-sized orange and white tabby kept running around the floor, skidding into cats and other objects. After scanning him, they realized his name is Hemingway (though he is NOT polydactyl) and is about 6 months old. To amuse themselves, they got him on the cat wheel at the adoption center.....

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Mom also did a rescue on New Year's Eve. She got a text from a lady she knows that they were hearing a neighbor abuse a cat. Arrangements were made and mom went out in the rain and picked up the cat. She is now safe with the rescue and mom is calling her Hope. She is pretty freaked out by all the other cats and the change of environment, but at least she is safe. The vet will get a good look at her once she calms down a little more. Mom did stop to see Hope on Friday and was allowed to scratch her head a little bit which is progress. Before you ask, we did think about fostering her and bringing her here, but she was pretty angry when mom tried to get her out of her carrier. She is actually better off at the center where she can be kept in a space where she is a little more contained.

wrap up

Mike would come up and just ASK to get his butt kicked

but he is certainly adorable

Did you see the news on Facebook?? Mike was adopted on Monday!! He went to a family with 4 (!!) kids who are going to spoil him rotten and he will love it! We already got a brief update and he is fitting in like he has been there the entire time.
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Thanks for reading and commenting on our year end reviews. It takes a while for it to be put together but we like going back and seeing everything from a year end perspective.

For those keeping count, we had 3 momma cats this year, 23 fosters total for the year - 8 female, 15 male. Which brought our total foster count to 321. We have 4 still available for adoption: Kilkenny and Marzen, along with Carling and Delphi.
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Since we are headed into winter here in the mid-west, it may be a while until we have kittens again. Mom needs to clean up the foster room and get everything reset anyhow. And then again, sometimes you just never know what will pop up along the way.

Year in Review 2018 - part 2

JULY
In some not good news, Cilantro passed away ... and so did Clove and Chicory ...

We did get a new toy called Sheer Fun for Cats and love it still

Junior got caught and his teeth were cleaned

A new spice kitten that we named Annatto joined the foster room

Annatto thought he was tough and was quickly nicknamed Catzilla

Chive and Caraway were both neutered and were going to head up to the adoption center to find their new families except the cages were full so they stuck around for a while longer.


AUGUST
Mom decided it was time to interview a potential new kitten raiser to help socialize, so she brought home Soda...a big FIV+ boy to live in the kitten room.

Plus with the spice boys gone to the adoption center, mom brought home a new tuxedo kitten to keep Annatto and Soda company.....introducing Goldfish (yes, THAT Goldfish)

Mom discovered Soda under the bed one night and kittens running all over and had to install a chain lock on the foster room door since Soda figured out how to open the door.

A certain kitten finally weighed over 2 pounds...and Soda continued on the interview process.

Chanel had her annual vet visit and vaccines, Goldfish was tested and Annatto was retested. Goldfish was negative and upon this retest, so was Annatto.

Soda continued on interviewing, Cardamom was ADOPTED, and Daiquiri tried to give mom a heart attack.

SEPTEMBER
In a change of plans, mom decided to take Soda back up to the adoption center. She came back with a mom and kittens that had been left in a carrier outside the rescue.

Annatto was ADOPTED and the new group of kittens got names - welcome the World Beer Kittens.

Mom had a crisis of conscience and Carling (the momma to the world beer kittens) got moved away from the kittens and into a crate in our living room.

Goldfish was still with us working on her social skills and Carling moved to a partner store.

The kittens got a paper bag to play with and found it to their liking.

We did have to share some sad news when Harp and Kirin suddenly passed away. The rest of the kittens weren't doing very well either but got meds and fluids and lots of purrs.

Fortunately the remaining 4 kittens turned the corner and got better.

For Remember Me Thursday we did a special post about our momma cats.


OCTOBER
What's UP???

We did an update on the kittens and their changing personalities.

The kittens rediscovered the paper bag.

Oh - and we discovered that Goldfish had a home all along....with us.

NOVEMBER
Lots of kitten pictures and more kitten pictures

We met the Comfort Zone people at Blog Paws and got a chance to review their plug ins

We talked about the growing relationship between Goldfish and Chanel

And more kittens

A couple of supporters sent treats and toys and treat bags were made for all adoptions in December

Plus Chanel met Santa Claus

DECEMBER
Guinness went to an adoption event and some of the other kittens were placed at partner stores

The smaller kittens were spayed and neutered and moved to a partner store - and we got to meet Mike

Mom put together the ski chalet from last year and Chanel moved right in

Ivy celebrated 10 years with us and Mike met Santa

Daiquiri celebrated 4 years with us