Remember Me Thursday

Thanks to Lola the Rescued Cat and Three Chatty Cats for hosting the blog hop.

#RememberMeThursday was started in 2013 to shine a light on pets in shelters needing homes. While the numbers are not as bad as they used to be, reports state that almost 3 million adoptable pets lose their lives every year in shelters....just because they can't find a home. 

While some promote adoption - and we are certainly in favor of that - we want to talk about spay and neuter. While adoptions reduce numbers, the sheer number of animals coming INTO shelters needs to be brought down. Spay/Neuter is the best way to do that....

Meet the momma cats of 2018:

Carling is a 5 year old calico

*she is looking for her forever home

Delphi is a 1 year old dilute tortoiseshell

*she is looking for her forever home

Cardamom is a 1 year old tuxedo

*she has already been adopted

These are just the moms of this year - between them they had 16 kittens. We don't know if Cardamom and Delphi have had previous litters...though it is possible. We HAVE to presume that Carling has had many previous litters. Just those numbers alone are scary. Now imagine they hadn't come into rescue. Three of the 16 kittens were girls. Those plus the moms continue to reproduce. Suddenly it goes from scary to staggering. Plus 2 single kittens with no moms - so who knows where they are and if they are going to be spayed.

Some of our 2017 numbers to consider:

• 10 kittens with no mom that was brought in
• 5 mom cats fostered
• 16 kittens between 5 moms

There are things you can do: 

1. Get involved with a local rescue. If they don't have an onsite clinic, we bet they would love offers to help transport animals back and forth for surgery. 
2. Spread the word - you can search "low cost spay" on any search engine or the ASPCA has a searchable database. 
3. Try some TNR - there is nothing more satisfying that hearing a door snap shut and knowing that you are helping control the local population. Keep talking about it - spread the word in your town and on social media.
4. Support your local rescue with donations - we bet they have a wish list on their website.

We are making a difference....let's keep up the good work.

Random Fridays

Mom has been using canned/pate food to bribe Goldfish. Mom sits on the floor and puts the dish right near her lap. When Goldfish comes up to eat, mom slowly pets her and talks to her. She is a little jumpy at first and then relaxes and keeps eating. Unfortunately, Goldfish is still pretty scared when mom tries to reach out and grab her while mom is standing. We have an experiment lined up for the weekend and hopefully that will help.

Soda is still here. Mom still isn't sure he is the exact fit she wants for a kitten raiser, but the FIV room had an outbreak of ringworm, so he is here for a while until that clears up and we can switch him out. There is another FIV boy that mom would like to interview, but he has to be cleared from the FIV room before that can happen. It may turn out that the right fit is in fact Soda, but mom would like to interview a couple more candidates just to be sure.

Oh - and that picture? Mom was feeding the kittens the pate above and Daiquiri started banging on the doors while sitting on a shelf outside the room. Soda heard and then SAW her and was fascinated.

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picture thanks to @Emily K

In other news....we have been holding on you all just a little bit. Cardamom went home a couple of weeks ago. YAY!! However, we held off posting just in case it didn't work out. See...she didn't exactly want to go INTO the carrier. And she was going to be at one house for a couple of days before her final home (she was adopted by a retired couple by the husband as a gift for his wife - not something we normally do, but in this case made an exception since they are an older couple and have a great pet history). She was staying with their son until the party. However, since we haven't heard back and she is still with them, we think it is safe to announce she has been ADOPTED!!

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Speaking of Daiquiri, if you missed it on social media, she turned 4 years old on Wednesday. And in an apparent effort to give mom a stroke, was missing when mom got home on Wednesday night.

See, on Wednesdays, mom works all day and then has a 2 hour shift at the rescue. Which means she doesn't get home until usually after 7:30 pm. This week hasn't exactly been quiet around here either - trash pickup was Tuesday morning and mom got home Tuesday afternoon to find guys hired by the condo association power washing the siding. The recycling truck came Wednesday after mom left and the more mom thinks about it, it was probably just too much for poor Daiq to deal with in 2 days.

Anyhow, Daiquiri didn't come out when mom got home. Didn't make a sound when mom called her name. Didn't come out for treats. After 40 minutes and turning the condo upside down, mom is freaking out. Then a paw comes out from under the sofa. Keep in mind, mom didn't think any of us could actually FIT under the sofa. Daiq wasn't coming out either - mom finally had to move the sofa and tip it up. Mom also got a new soccer ball out and they played a little fetch and Daiquiri seemed to be her normal self. Still no idea what exactly freaked her out....and why she didn't pick any of the hundreds of beds or cubes in the house for her hiding spot.