Who says money can't bring you happiness?!

The summer months bring a significantly increased number of cats and kittens to the rescue. Every one of them needs a loving home and family. We want to encourage the community to adopt and to love a rescue cat. In celebration of the absolutely wonderful cats and kittens in Alley Cats and Angels' adoption program who are waiting for their forever home, and with the hope of motivating potential adopters to adopt their purrfect feline friend now, we have reduced our adoption fees for all cats and kittens to $60.00 per cat through the end of August.

The adoption fee includes wellness exam, FeLV/FIV testing, initial FVRCP+FeLV vaccination and FVRCP+FeLV booster vaccination, rabies vaccination, treatment for parasites, spay or neuter surgery, and microchip (Home Again with shelter paid enrollment).

We invite our community to celebrate Alley Cat August with us and join our life-saving efforts by welcoming a rescue cat into their home. Photos of our adoptable cats can be viewed at www.alleycatsandangels.org.

The reduced adoption fees will help us reach our goal of finding homes for all of our rescue cats by encouraging more adoptions. Make this a summer of love for your family because the adoption fees are reduced, but there will be no reduction in the love received from a fabulous feline companion.

Kitten update

Remember these guys (http://alleycatsandangels.blogspot.com/2009/05/went-to-petsmart-around-415p-to-get.html)? Well, they are all grown up now (ok, well 3 months old) and two of them are available for adoption (Daisy and Dakota). Dexter is a bilateral cryptorchid and his surgery was delayed until he could go to our specialist next week. Daisy and Dakota are both medium haired kittens, Dexter is the short haired kitten.

Daisy

Dakota

Dexter

Meet Guenther and Gwenneth

Ok, this is a shoutout to my friend and former coworker Rob Guenther who now lives in Florida. So how do I honor people I like - I name cats/kittens after them. I called Rob "Goober" a lot just because it was fun, not because he's a goober. He called me T-Bone. It's all in good friendly love. But I wouldn't name a kitten Goober, so when it was the right kitten with the right personality, I knew it was time for a little Guenther kitty. This one's for you, Rob.

Guenther has the funniest short little whiskers - but at least it helps us tell him apart from his "twin" Gustav. Silly boys that they are, Guenther and Gustav respond both to their name and to "twin". Guenther is so full of energy; he loves to play with the bell balls and chase his brothers and sister. But he can also be a laid back cool cat! He also likes to look out the window and dream about catching a bird or a bug. Rub his belly and he'll be your friend for life. Guenther does the cutest thing where he sucks on his paw to put himself to sleep. How cute is that?! Guenther and his siblings were rescued from a feral colony.

Gwenneth is Guenther's sister and she's also available for adoption. The other two kittens from that litter (Guenther's twin, Gustav; and Gershwin) have already been adopted. Gwenneth is a very energetic and people oriented kitten. She's a leader and is very adventurous and smart - she's the first one to find a new hiding spot or a new toy. She loves playing but thinks empty boxes and bags (paper, no handles for safety) are super kitty toys! Gwenneth loves to have her belly rubbed and will fall asleep in your arms. She'll also sit on your shoulder and relax and give you kitty kisses when you ask. Gwenneth thinks men are rather wonderful and will give them love nips. Gwennie is a real sweetheart. Gwenneth and her siblings were rescued from a feral colony.

Social networking with Alley Cats and Angels

In addition to our blog and website, you can now keep up with Alley Cats and Angels on:

• Twitter: http://twitter.com/alleycatsNC/
• Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/alleycatsandangels
• Facebook: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/152754/25511861?m=95ac708a

Why pets don’t make good gifts

We have received quite a few calls recently about wanting to adopt a particular cat and then after talking with the potential adopter find out they want to adopt the cat as a surprise for their friend/daughter/sister/niece/nephew/etc.

• Pets do not make good gifts. The gift giver is usually well meaning believing that a single friend or relative could use some company, or the new pet will help ease the grief of someone mourning the loss of a beloved pet, or that someone who loves animals will appreciate a pet. But it’s just not a good idea.
• Someone’s lifestyle may not be conducive to caring for a pet
• A person mourning a pet needs time to grieve – everyone grieves in different ways
• The person needs to choose their own pet, one whose personality and care requirements match his/her own personality and lifestyle

Instead of giving a pet as a gift, you can:

• Offer to pay the adoption fee for the new pet but let the person pick out the pet that is a match for the person and the pet
• Put together a pet gift basket for the person when they do decide to adopt – include pet care items, treats, etc.

A good day...

First, two kittens were adopted today. Gershwin and Gustav were adopted together today. Great family, the kittens will settle in quickly.

Second, we raised another $800 today in DVD sales at the fairgrounds. This is good, we have lots of non-rountine medical bills for kittens all currently under a vet's care, including:

• Snowy, kitten hit by a car before she was rescued
• Jasmine, kitten with eye problems
• Dexter, kitten scheduled to be neutered last week but he's a bilateral cryptorchid so will need to see our specialist vet (Dr. Monce, PetSound) for surgery

All in all, things are going well. Adoptions have slowed some which is typical during the summer. We still have lots of kittens being spayed/neutered each week. We also have lots of adults that need homes.

Six cats/kittens adopted this week

The following cats/kittens were adopted last week:

• Blaze
• Tiger Rae and Luna Mae (together)
• Matilda
• O'Malley
• Ophelia

Some very lucky kittens found great homes and those homes are very lucky to have such incredible kittens.

Prayers for Snowy

Snowy is a little (estimated 8 weeks old) kitten found last night at an intersection near a Walmart. She was possibly hit by a car or experienced a trauma by some other means. Snowy went to the emergency vet last night and was stabilized and then went to our vet today.

Snowy has blood in her urine and a little purple/red tummy from internal bruising. But nothing is broken and it does not appear there is significant trauma - although with internal injuries it's hard to tell. Right now, per the vet we just have to wait and see if the swelling goes down and we go from there. She's a tiny little white girl with blue eyes and just precious.

Please think positive thoughts and say a prayer for Snowy. Thanks..

Bye bye Bootsie and some miscellaneous ramblings

Boots was adopted. Which is absolutely fantastic news but sad at the same time because he truly was one of my favorites. He was adopted last week and came by tonight to say hello (and goodbye). He is so happy. No more competing with a bunch of other kitties for snuggling. Boots' adoptive mom, Maria, has fallen head over heels in love with him and his every kitty whim is catered too. Plus they have a two-story house versus my ranch so Boots is getting some much needed excercise (he was getting to be a bit chunky). I am sooo very happy for Boots, he really could not have asked for more. I love it when cats are adopted but when it's an adult cat - my heart just sings.

I called Boots my "Baby Bailey" because he reminded me so much of my big boy, Bailey - my number one kitty boy for about 10 years now. Hard to imagine when I get a call from my niece so many years ago "I found a kitten and mama won't let me keep him" so of course he came to live with me. Now in my sister's defense, she was raising two children, she was going to school to become an Xray/CT/MRI technician, and they already had quite a few animals (all rescues of course - it runs in the family). Bailey came to live with me and after three baths (because he stunk so bad) curled up next to me at night. It was like night and day the differences between Bailey and Fancy (my other cat).

Allow me to get even more off topic and tell you about Fancy. Katherine, a recruiter I worked with at an IT company, told me "I have a problem that only you can fix -- Fancy's being evicted and needs a place to live" -- Fancy belonged to a someone Katherine knew. She proceeds to tell me (lies, all lies [luv ya Kat!!!] how sweet and cuddly and wonderful Fancy is. So of course Fancy came to live with me (only a few months before Bailey did). Now, sweet, wonderful and cuddly might describe a rattlesnake but it did not describe Fancy! On her good days, she was mean and vicious. She'd stalk me if I got out of bed in the middle of the night and attack me. OK when I say attack, I do not mean a cute little bite. The cat would sink her claws and teeth in as deep as they would go for no reason except that I had the audacity to even exist in the same universe as her. She truly disagreed with the concept of "don't bite the hand that feeds you". I would go to work all scratched, bitten, and bloody and get laughed at for being such a sucker. When asked why I put up with Fancy, the reason was actually so obvious that I didn't comprehend why other people didn't understand - she had to stay with me. Someone else might hurt her, dump her at a kill shelter, or dump her in the country somewhere. And she was that way for a reason, I really do believe Fancy had kitty mental issues, she'd had a rough life. I had to keep food in the bowl all the time or she would get so stressed over not having food, it was so sad. It was obvious Fancy had sometimes gone for who knows how long without knowing when her next meal was. Over time (many many years), Fancy got better and would only attack me on occassion. I have to tell you, she might have been a pain in the tuckus, but she had personality galore. She could be soooo sweet (when she wanted), you couldn't help but love her. Even when she was mean and nasty, she had this delightful quality about her. Fancy crossed the rainbow bridge a few years back. I miss you Fancy, you little kitty monster.

Thanks for bearing with me. Sometimes a person just needs to ramble. :-)

Kittens in every color imagineable!

We have over 50 kittens in the adoption program, so if you're looking for a kitten to adopt we have almost every color/color combination! Below is just a small list of the various kittens we have:

• Black
• Black and fluffy (medium or long hair)
• Black and white - tuxedo
• White with black markings
• Brown tabbies
• Gray tabbies
• Silver gray creme tabbies
• Charcoal gray
• Torties
• Flame Point Siamese mixes (white with some peach on ears and tail) with blue eyes
• White with blue eyes (no other coloration)
• Every shade of orange and orange and white imagineable: dark orange [sometimes called red tabbies], orange tabbies, peach tabbies, buff tabbies, many shades of orange kittens that have white markings

We have short hair, medium, hair, and long hair kittens. Kittens are being vetted literally every week so please check our website (www.alleycatsandangels.org) frequently.

And don't forget our many wonderful adults too.

It's been a while

We've been so busy with kitten season that we haven't had a chance to blog in a while. This is our first year of kitten season where people actually know who we are and now we get calls and emails about finding kittens, can we take them.

And as much as it pains us, we can't take them all. I have a hard time with "you can't save them all". I understand it, I know it's not realistic, but darn it - I want to save them all. But we can't. It hurts me every time we have to respond to an email or phone call that we can't take the cats/kittens because we are at capacity. And boy, oh boy, are we at capacity! We are a small rescue but we have 51 kittens and 16 adults in our adoption program. Of those right now only a few of the kitten litters (about 12 kittens total) are currently available for adoption with more available each week as they are spayed/neutered, received their last FVRCP+FeLV vaccine, rabies vaccine, and are microchipped.

Adoptions are typically down in the summer and with the slow economy - adoptions are down more. It's one of the worst kittens seasons I've ever seen in all my years of rescue. There are low cost options out there, why do people not get their pets spayed and neutered?

I can't wait for the day when we get a really large donation or grant. Because we will use that money not to start a shelter (foster homes work great for rescues), but to start a voucher program to subsidize spay/neuters so they are even lower cost. A shelter would be nice, it makes adoptions easier but it also adds a lot of overhead and administrative costs -- money that could be used to help stamp out the overpopulation crisis. A voucher program for spay/neuter surgeries is my dream -- and that dream will become a reality one day. I just have to be patient.