Opt to Adopt - Moses and Abby

For all the promoting that we do of house panthers around here, a lot of people are surprised we only have one. But we tell people that mom doesn't even remember the last time she actually went "looking" to adopt, so she gets what she gets. MOL

We do have a rather handsome house panther to tell you about today. Moses is at the shelter where mom volunteers every other week and she is more than a little in love with him.

Moses is about 4 years old, neutered, vaccinated, microchipped and tested negative for FIV/FeLV. He is super sweet and gets along with most everyone he meets. He is a big guy and just a lover. Mom isn't exactly sure how long he has been at the shelter, but it has been at least since last fall. There have been a couple of sales and yet Moses still gets overlooked.

But how can you resist this???


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We wanted to remind you too about Miss Abby over at Tails from the Foster Kittens. While she is diabetic, it is SO easy to control and our friend Miss Connie would really like to get her placed into a home from being in foster care. If you know of anyone interested, please let us know or send them over to Miss Connie for more information.

Our friends at Paws and Effect wrote a great article about diabetic cats that is a great read as well as an article Miss Connie wrote as well.

Happy Halloween!!!

In honor of this holiday.....we refuse to dress up.  No costumes no how no way!!!

However, we can give you lots of blacks cats:

The Dust Bunny/Amelia is growing into a big girl-cat. Her hair isn't quite as wild as it was when she was tiny either. But she still has that chocolate overtone to her furs. She still isn't spayed yet either.... gotta get over the (neverending) snot.

Mozart is of course our resident house panther. He is the light weight of the family at just over 8 pounds and mom suspects he spends a lot of time looking for ways to warm up. :)

And then there is the Goose. (you saw his brother Maverick yesterday)  He is just goofy.......

it is such a shame he can't seem to relax at all

We hope you all have a SAFE and treat filled holiday!!!

Opt to Adopt.....

This is Petra - a 4 month old kitten at the shelter were mom volunteers.

She is super sweet, kind of tiny and sooooo soft!!!

Our friend JaneA wrote a great article on Catster about an ASPCA study about length of stay in shelters and reasons for adoptions. But it turns out their "black is not an issue" statement is based on dogs....while we think black dogs languish in shelters too, a lot of them are labs which is one of the most popular breed of dogs in the US.

Mom has volunteered long enough to say that yes - black animals DO take longer to get adopted. Not always, but is there is a litter of multi-colored kittens and black kittens, the other colors go first.

If the ASPCA wants to do an accurate study, here is mom's idea: find some open admission shelters that will share their numbers. Take the total intake and separate out by color (most shelters now use software that will let you do this easily enough). Then figure out the percent - of the total animals coming in, what percent is what color. Of those animals, how many make it to the adoption floor? What is the length of stay?  THEN tell us that black cats don't spend longer in shelters.

Of course, mom says she tells people to pick by personality (though she was thrilled one night when a family came in and said they wanted the "right" cat but wanted a black one).

Random Fridays.....

Thanks for yesterdays comments. Mom says it helps to be able to get it all out and then read and know you all understand. :)  As for those who posted it could be someone in there house, it could be some here too - Ivy would never survive a "behavior" test and Junior would implode in a cage situation. We know we are preaching to the choir, but until people spay/neuter, take care of their animals and cat stop being second class citizens, this is going to keep happening. Thanks for standing with us.
~~~~~~~~~~~

Speaking of spay and neuter....mom took the beer kittens yesterday. The boys were neutered. Stella didn't want to go and bit mom's finger. And in a literal interpretation of adding insult to injury, she wasn't big enough to be spayed....and mom had to take her back home. MOL!!!  The boys will head up to Petco for the adoption weekend and maybe stay depending on what else happens.

~~~~~~~~~~
Mom is driving another slobbery bloodhound tomorrow. This is an older girl rescued from a pound, she got entropian surgery (where their eyelids turn in - can you imagine how much THAT would itch?) and is now on her way to a foster home. Update on that - her meds didn't come in and she won't be moving this weekend. But....there is another boy headed to foster care and mom will get to meet him!!
~~~~~~~~~~

An anecdotal story:
Last Friday, there were 8 kittens available for adoption at the shelter. One short hair black kitten, one short hair buff tabby, one long hair buff, one long hair black, one long hair brown/white tabby and three Abyssianian mix kittens.

Mom figured the Aby mixes would go quick cause they were cute, but then again they were close to 5 months old, so with little kittens around, it could be a toss up. Mom wishes she had gotten a picture of the kitts: they have these long legs, big ears, lovely brown ticked coats and tabby stripes on their heads. And the boys were outgoing too.... (for more on Abys check out the Poupouette blog or Catster)
 (image from Caster.com)

Anyhow, by the end of business Sunday, there were two kittens left. Care to guess which two?  Yep - the black ones. For all those out there who don't believe black cats and dogs get adopted last, we share this with you. Now, the long haired black kitten went home Monday night. And the short hair black? He is in the isolation ward with a cold....and he has more purrsonality than he knows what to do with.
~~~~~~~~~~

Recognize this momma cat?  Yep - that is Cookie.
Mom sent an email to her new family and we got an update:
Cookie (Nala Giovanna) is getting acclimated and busy exploring the place for sure. She found her 'home' in A's room immediately and follows her all around, but had a little trouble getting close to me the first week. Since A hasn't been at my house since last Friday she has started to open up to me, though, but I think A is going to be her favorite person in the whole wide world...!

 (M is the guy who adopted her and A is his daughter that he shares custody of with his ex)

He did mention that Cookie is having some adjustment issues with A going back and forth, so Mom recommended a Feliway diffuser to help with her stress. We are glad they are sticking with her dispite some initial set backs. He emailed back and said they love her very much no matter what!!!  :)
~~~~~~~~~~~

black animals....

We all know how mom feels about the house panthers.

(for anyone looking for the banners we are using, you can find them at Petfinder)

Poncho and Gin

Mozart

Oh - and the Poncho was ADOPTED!!! Mom took him back last Monday. There was a very nice couple that came in on Thursday and were looking at several different cats - including the goof. Mom checked the web on Saturday morning and Poncho was off the site - meaning he got adopted. We aren't sure if it was that couple of not, but we hope so. Concats on the new home!

  This is Chloe from CHA.

She came to the shelter this spring. And while that seems bad enough, she came from another shelter. Where she had been living for 3 YEARS!!!  What the ___???

Miss Chloe is a BIG girl. (ok, mom calls her a beached whale, but whatever). But she is super sweet....  Pet her and she purrs. :)  She was living in the director's office for a while (they move some of the adults around to give them a different perspective). When mom would walk into the shelter, she said she could hear Chloe yelling to be let out. The office cats would get let out and allowed access to the lobby during the day and Chloe was SURE she should get the privilege all the time......  We agree.