Too cute not to post

Princess Marie (yes, her first name really is Princess and now that we have two Maries, we have to differentiate somehow) snapped the cutest picture last night.  It is guaranteed to bring a smile to your face.  He looks big in this picture but it's because it's such a close-up, hes only about 2.5 weeks old.

Alley Cats and Angels' New TNR Task Force

Alley Cats and Angels is pleased to announce the addition of Tricia Andrews and Marie Pickering to our Board of Directors. Tricia Andrews and Marie Pickering will head up our expanded Feral Cat Education and Assistance program and lead our newly formed TNR Task Force.  Tricia Andrews and Marie Pickering have tirelessly organized numerous community projects involving feral cats. They have years of experience practicing TNR and educating everyone about the benefits of trap-neuter-return. Between the two, they have TNR’ed hundreds of cats and have made a dramatic impact on the feral cat overpopulation problem. Their dedication to feral cats and TNR is awe-inspiring.

The TNR Task Force is the foot soldier fighting overpopulation -- the initial impact will help curb the growing feral cat population and the benefits will be long lasting as breeding stops, thus helping put an end to the feral cat overpopulation problem. The TNR Task Force as it is yet another step we are taking in our commitment to help end pet overpopulation.

In addition to leading TNR efforts and providing feral cat education, Tricia and Marie will project a strong unified voice for feral cats, and will assist with fundraising for our Alter an Alley Cat program, which subsidizes spay/neuter surgeries for lower-income cat owners and feral cat caregivers.

If you need information on TNR, have questions about feral cats, or are interested in volunteering as part of our TNR Task Force, please email tnr@alleycatsandangels.org.

2009 Annual Report

Alley Cats and Angels accomplished so much in 2009 and we couldn't be more proud. We are sure you'll agree that our first full year as an organization was nothing short of amazing as you read our 2009 Annual Report.  

http://alleycatsandangels.org/AlleyCatsandAngels_2009AnnualReport.pdf

My ultimate wish list

Corporate sponsors or enough donations so that we can sponsor the SNAP or POP mobile spay/neuter van for 1-2 days  We have several targeted low-income areas that have about 25-50 cats between the areas that need to be spayed/neutered.  That does not count the 24 cats we have already spayed/neutered from the one trailer park nor does it include the 15 kittens we have taken in from the same trailer park.   But unfortunately with all the spay/neuters we have sponsored through our Alter an Alley Cat fund this year, the fund is running very low and most of the yard sale money will be used to vet the over 40 kitens we currently have in our adoption program.  Being able to sponsor the mobile van for 1-2 days would make a huge impact because they can spay/neuter about 25 cats in one day.  The cost would be approximately $1600 per day.  I hope we can make this a reality, but in the meantime, I can dream.

Seriously, I think they are falling from the skies...

Tonight brings more kittens -- 6 more kittens. Two kittens from the same trailer park where most of the others have come from (pretty little calico and another orange tabby).   The two are in with the trailer park mamas, but they are very tiny and when the people found one, they found three and one had already passed.  We hope our two little ones will make it but they are very tiny and they needs positive thinking and prayers.  Unfortunately when they are like this, it's really just a wait and see and pray for them. 

And four were an emergency call to our info.  Thanks to Beamer for bottle feeding them right now.  These kitties are gray tabbies, one has some white on him.

We are now up to 33 kittens in our possession (23 of which are under 1 month old) with a committment to take in 15 more from two locations, they just aren't in our hands yet. 

Time for the kittens to stop falling from the sky - please!

Adoptions and new-comers

Odessa and Lexus were adopted yesterday (Saturday). 

Of course, even with intake closed, we still managed to take in 11 more kittens this weekend.  Four were an emergency situation - teenagers raising havoc (just being teenagers and makings lots of noise - nothing bad) and scared away a mama feral from her newborn babies.  The four kittens were only a few hours old when we took them really late Friday night.  Of course, we are working to trap the mom.

And we agreed to take in seven more kittens today, they are about 4-6 weeks old and we really need a foster home for them. 

Yard Sale Results

Our yard sale yesterday was hugely successful. We made $2,066.56 (the extra one cent was a lucky penny we found on the ground!).  But we still have several items that were donated for the yard sale that aren't yard sale material -- items that we will sell on eBay or Craigslist, or other venues (Lenox items, handmade "crazy quilt", Waterford Kings Crystal bowl, brand new Furla Italian Leather purse, 36-inch TV with stand).  All those items, once sold, will add to the yard sale total.

I would like to thank Theo for again being a wonderful and gracious hostess and allowing us to tie up her garage for a weeks on end and for taking such good care of all of us when were there and feeding us Friday and Saturday.  Big thanks to Daryl Ann for all her pre-sorting of items the few weeks leading up to the yard sale and for her research on the larger ticket items and all her other hard work. 

Thanks to everyone that helped picked up donated items and transporting them to the yard sale and/or working the yard sale, we really appreciate your hard work.  So thank you to Daryl, Tricia, Marie P, Karen, Chris, Barb and Rich, my dad, Marie B, JoAnne, Marti, Sam, Chris, Robin, and Jennifer. I really hope I didn't leave anyone out - if i did, my sincere apologies. 

An extra thank you to my nephew, Jordon, who always helps out Aunt Tia when it comes to lifting the heavy stuff for the rescue.  He has helped pick up heavy items for every yard sale we have had in addition to helping when we've had large quantities of food and litter donated. He's helped with other stuff that has directly helped the cats.  He is a very special young man and I love him very much. 

Thanks to Stop Sign Graphics for designing and donating the attention getting yard sale signs and the banner.  The yard sale signs will be used for all our yard sales going forward.  And the banner will get MUCH use.  It will be used at Apex Peak Fest on May 1, the CFA Cat Show on May 8, and a mini-fair in Holly Springs on June 5 (and that's just what's already planned!).

Thanks to Excess Storage for providing us with a storage unit for the second yard sale in a row for half the normal rental price.  Thanks to Marti for letting us use her storage building to store items and for letting us start to store items there already for our fall yard sale (all Christmas decor donated for this yard sale will be stored until our fall yard sale).  We had a lot of items donated - we needed a lot of storage space!

Thank you everyone that did the "no rain" dance!  It did rain overnight pretty heavily but the items not moved back into the garage were well protected by all the new tarps donated by Marti.  With the great tarpping jobs (done by Marti) nothing at all ruined by the heavy overnight rain.

And last, but definitely not least, thank you to everyone that donated items for the yard sale. Everyone who asked their friends for items and asked their friends to ask their friends and coworkers, thank you.  If not for you, we wouldn't have had anyting to sell to make money for the kitties.

Pictures of our miracle girl, Hayley

Here is sweet Hayley Mills only three days after her eye surgery.  She has energy, she likes to move as fast as she can (which is actually quite fast given her itty bitty 2-week old kitten legs), she's eating vigorously from the bottle, and (and this may only be exciting to those of us in rescue) she finally pooped!  We put her next to a soda can so you can see how small she is.  She is just too precious for words. 

 She still fits in her mama Debbie's hand

Here she is being bottle fed by her foster mom, Debbie

The following pictures are of Hayley before surgery. *CAUTION, if you are squeamish, you may not want to look at the pictures.*

 

Barn Cat Program

We're making great strides in the barn cat program.  We relocated 6 cats to 3 locations today.  Marie drove about 150 miles and I put about 379 miles on my SUV today but the locations were great and I'm sure the cats will be happy.  We have several more relos in the works in the next couple of weeks and we are getting more barn cat applications.  This is such terrific news because we get so many emails and calls each week about high risk ferals and semi-ferals and we have so many that are in danger and need a safe environment.

Thank you to all of our adopters -- whether you have adopted one of our indoor only friendly cats or adopted a couple of our barn cats, we appreciate it and so do the cats.

For your enjoyment....

....big kitten/mama pile.  These two mama cats are from the trailer park; they are somewhat scared but they do well when they are together - they comfort each other.

It's a good day

Yesterday, not so great
Yesterday, we lost one of the critical kittens; he passed away between 1:45 pm and 3:00 pm.  However, so far the other kittens are doing well -- which makes us very happy especially considering how critical the kittens were.  Sometimes it is inevitable.  Sometimes they are too small, too sick, or too weak to survive but we still do everything possible to help them make it but sometimes they just can't.  In all my years of rescue, I've lost a fair number of kittens - some to panluke, some to congenital defects, some to fading kitten syndrome -- and it never gets any easier.  Suffer no more our little buff angel - we love you. 

But today is a great day
Hayley Mills, our little not quite 2-week old half-pound kitten, had emergency surgery today to remove her eye.  Dr. Jodi really wanted to wait until she was bigger but she was not doing very well yesterday - cried all the time and wouldn't eat and seemed to be in pain.  Her foster mom Debbie called Dr. Jodi last night around 10:30 and was told to bring Hayley Mills in this morning.  There are risk with anesthesia always but with a kitten this little, the risks were bigger but the surgery could not wait.  Hayley Mills made it through surgery just fine and is recovering at home over the weekend with one of the clinic vet techs so she can around the clock care.  Hayley - you are a trooper little girl - we might need to change your name to Xena or something because you are a little miniature warrior - what a fighter. That's our girl. 

And another great piece of news -- Cleo and Picasso were adopted together today.  Fantastic young couple with two chocolate labs, we think it's a great match.

More kittens - yep you read that right -

Marie was trapping at the trailer park tonight and called saying she had two critical babies - few days old, weak, and very cold.  There were two of them.  I had her rub some karo syrup on their gums and start warming them up.  She took the two to Lisa's house since it was somewhat close (closer than anyone else) and went back to look for more babies.  I got to Lisa's house and we continued to warm them up since their core temperature was too low to feed them.  Once their temp got to be 95, I headed out in search of something to feed them, ran to Lowe's Food and got some goats' milk for a stop gap plan (not to self, put together an emergency pack to keep in car that includes KMR in a can).  As I head back to Lisa's, Marie calls and has another critical - this one is so cold.  I crank the heat all the way up in my car and meet her to get kitten.  By the time I get back to Lisa's we're able to heat the goats' milk and give each of the first two kittens a little bit while Lisa worked to warm the third kitten.  By 11:20, Marie had found one more itty bitty and then two little ones but fat and robust.  That makes 6 more total. We hope they all make it.  Please please I hope they all make it.  I know sometimes in these situations they don't all make it but I rally need them to make it.

There are two buff tabbies, three orange tabbies, and one black kitten.  Terrible picture I know.  This is all of them around 11:40p as they were put into one cardboard box with covered handwarmers and a teddy bear to transport home.  We've gone from 10 young kittens (younger than 12 weeks) on Monday afternoon, to now having 24.

We've gone from 10 young kittens (younger than 12 weeks) on Monday afternoon, to now having 24.

Hayley - 2-week old kitten

Noon, Thursday. April 15th: And yet another kitten but from a different situation (come to us from Clayton). We really don't have any available foster homes, but we couldn't turn away this little girl. Her right eye is on the outside of her face and almost looks like a big lump of dirt on her face.  Dr. Jodi said she only weighs half a pound and is about 2 weeks old. She'll need to have her eye removed when she weighs 1-2 pounds (preferrably 2 pounds if it doesn't start bothering her before).  Agan with the iphone pix so quality not good.

Update: 3:35 PM, Thursday, April 15th: Hayley (the kitten) is headed back to the vet at this very moment. She's in a foster home that is very experienced with newborns/itty bitties/sick/under developed kittens and the foster is worried about her - said she's not thriving. If Debbie is worried, I'm worried. We need some warm thoughts and prayers for this little girl. Hopefully infection is not getting the best of her. Come on little Hayley, we're all rooting and praying for you.

Kitten pile picture

Mama had another kitten in the middle of the night Tuesday night - a little tortie. And one of the buff kittens now appears to be orange not buff. Here's our "kitten pile", the two mamas and all of the kittens are together. The first mama is more scared and the second mama is very protective of the first mama. They are probably siblings or close as pretty much all the cats in that colony that we're helping TNR are all about the same age. 

We've got babies and they're multiplying...

So I should not make a comment like "this kitten season doesn't seem as bad last kitten season".  In March 2009, we have over 17 kittens that were 6 weeks old or younger.  But so far we've really only had the N kittens and the Alphabet Soup kittens. 

• Then came Bessie and Bandit last week (the little white kitten with gray tabby mark on head and her brother the brown tabby). 
• Monday came a little orphan kitten - has been bottle fed since day 1 and is now about 5-6 days old
• And then later Monday, came a single kitten from the trailer park - about 5 days old, buff)
• Then came the mama trapped yesterday that gave birth in the back of Marie's car in the trap (3 orange kittens born around 7PM last night)
• Then last night around 9P, another single kitten from the trailer park.  Most likely sibling of the first buff kitten.  He stayed at my house last night and I syringe fed him throughout the night (easier to see exactly how much he was eating) and then I took him to the two mamas at Marie's house this morning. 

The pictures aren't great, they are all iPhone pictures.

Don't forget the "Faces of Rescue" project

Don't forget the Faces of Rescue Project
Starting April 1, Olga, a talented local artist, will paint portrait of 1 CAT per DAY for 100 DAYS. Each painting will be done in oils on 8x8 canvas or panel and will be available for purchase for $75.00 with 50% of the proceeds donated to Safe Haven for Cats and Alley Cats and Angels. The project is open to any rescued cat.

You can read more about the project and see a portfolio of Olga's paintings (including a painting of Alley Cats and Angels' handsome mancat, Jasper), visit http://owagner.fineartstudioonline.com/other2. 

You can track the progress of the Faces of Rescue project on Olga's blog at http://catclawsstudio.blogspot.com/2010/03/faces-of-rescue-project-april-1st.html

These paintings will make a great gift to a fellow animal lover (or for yourself) and they are real paintings -- not sketches, not prints, paintings -- they are oil painting on canvas.  And they are gorgeous.  And the price can't be beat, only $75 for an original oil painting. 

And a great big thank you to Olga Wagner for doing such a wonderful project.

Thank you Stop Sign Graphics

For designing, creating, and donating several beautiful double-sided reusable yard sale signs.  And for the gorgeous 9 foot wide by 3 foot high banner -- which we'll put to a lot of use very soon - yard sale, Apex Peak Fest, and the CFA Cat Show.

Stop Sign Graphics:  www.stopsigngraphics.com

Week update

Adoptions and Intake
Well adoptions are still slow and weekly intake outweighed adoptions for the fourth week in a row.  Now we're faced with the hard decision of not being able to take in any more cats until we have some adoptions (with the exception of the kittens we have already agreed to take in that are coming to us this week).   Of course there are always exceptions (when incoming is closed) due to extenuating circumstances and we address those on a case by case basis.

Only Bedford was adopted this weekend and that was a planned adoption.  His "Auntie Kate" took him on the airplane and got him settled in at her brother's house and surprisingly enough, Bedford was calm on the airplane.  Picasso does have a meet and greet set up for this week, and there is someone interested in Jasper.

In addition to the kittens we took in at the beginning of the week, we took in two cats Saturday.  We took in Lord Byron, a handsome black and white young adult, found wandering around a local college campus and also very timid 5-month old gray tabby girl who needs alot of one-on-one attention from a feral colony. 

Trailer Park Cats
Trapping at the trailer park is going well.  We have lots of spay/neuter appointments this week.  Marie trapped 6 cats there yesterday in a short time in addition to the several others she already trapped. Unfortunately one had to be euthanized because cancer had eaten away a good portion of her face - poor kitty, but she's no longer in pain and has some peace at last.  We have a barn home for four of the trailer park cats, but the others will be TNR'd and we will continue to TNR the trailer park cats.  As we get barn homes, the cats will be retrapped and relocated to barn homes.  The colony size is too big and has to be cut down to a manageale size and all cats spayed/neuter.

Barn/Garden Cat Program
We relocated four cats last weekend.  Two to a local business and two to a barn near Mebane.  We relocated one cat yesterday (friendly but not suited to living indoors only) to a garage/garden home yesterday.  He did well last night and seemed to like the children petting him.  This boy was living behind a pet store and was be let into the loading dock at night to sleep.  I think he'll be very happy there, it's a really nice garage and the land is beautiful and he'll get love and attention.

We have several relocations lined up for this weekend.  Three relos with a total of seven cats being relocated.  Four are from the trailer park.  Three are from another situation where the cats need to be moved.  We also have a barn home for three of our other cats lined up (ones that never quite tamed up for adoption) but the barn isn't quite completed yet so it will be a few more weeks before they are relocated.  But New York, Nova, and Tanner will be going to a barn together and I think they will be very happy.  The barn owners are hoping the cats will want some attention in time and I think these guys will.  Of course they understand it's possible the cats may never want attention.  Typically the highest risk cats are relocated first but when the barn owners want cats that have potential to be friendly, the hard core ferals on the waitlist are not a good fit. 

So busy, busy, busy as always.  Too bad we all have to work these pesky full-time paying jobs to be able to afford to rescue.

Alley Cats and Angels' Foster Program

Fostering is truly the cornerstone of our adoption program -- it is vital to saving lives.  Kitten season is upon us and we need foster homes.  Fostering will provide you with a lot of you and the cats/kittens you foster with a new start in life.

Zander

Remember Zander, the cute little guy with the really big abscesses?  Well, he's growing up and he is so sweet and still just as adorable as he was when we first got him.  He spent his first week at the PetSmart adoption center and got a lot of attention but no application in on him yet.  Zander and Jasper became buddies and so Zander went home with Jasper to be fostered.  Jasper is protective of Zander and despite the size difference, they love to play together.  Zander has come out of his shell and loves to play and talk and give and receive love.  He is all healed and doing great and looking for his forever home.

Zander today (well, last week):

Zander when he first came in: http://alleycatsandangels.blogspot.com/2010/02/meet-zander-cute-little-guy.html

Some of our new adults (all available for adoption)

Finally, heere's a picture of Quinn. Quinn was introduced a few blog posts ago. We took a picture of him from the side too so everyone can see how gorgeous his fur is.  He is still a bit shy but coming along nicely.  Quinn is a little over a year old.

Below is Lucky, the handsome boy found as a recent addition to a feral colony.  He is so sweet and he and Quinn have become friends.  Lucky is about 1.5-2 years old.

Picasso won't sit still enough for a photo but we'll get him one of these days!!  Picasso is about 11 months old and has some very dog-like personality traits. 

Below are Katie and Taffy.  Their owner was no longer able to keep them due to pet restrictions where they lived.  The girls are about 1 year old.

Our newest babies

Finally getting around to posting pictures of the Campbell kitties (alphabet soup - their names are AJ, BJ, and CJ!).  For the most part, they will not cooperate for pictures - little cute monkey monsters.  So the one looking away from the camera has a completely black face.  These cuties are about 7 weeks old now.

And here are our newest babies.  We took these cuties in tonight.  They were living under a trailer (different trailer park) and animal control got four of them but these two were hiding (thankfully).  Critter control business got them and found someone to take care of them until a rescue could take them in.  I wish we could have saved all of the babies.  These two are about 4.5 weeks old.  The brown tabby is a boy and the white one with the gray tabby spot on her head is female.  These munchkins cooperated for the camera. 

Week Update - adoption and rescue news

Darrin, our gorgeous 5-month old dark orange classic tabby was adopted yesterday.  And Usher was adopted (again) today.  We hope there are no allergies and that Usher will have found his forever home.

We were excited to check the mail Tuesday and find a $485 check from Petco (the Petco Brier Creek store selected us as one of the two organizations they selected to benefit from their Tree of Hope fundraiser -- big thank you to the Petco Brier Creek Manager, Jenn).  We also received some other great donations this week -- which is great because we have had some pretty large medical expenses lately, including testing for Zammie (we finally have a diagnosis, Zammie has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome).  We also received a fantastic donation for our Alter an Alley Cat fund, specifically for TNRing the over 20 ferals in the same trailer park the other 17 cats came from.  And we got some terrific items donated for our April 24th yard sale and some special items that we'll sell elsewhere such as ebay, etc.  Thank you donors.

We are very thankful for all of our supporters.  Whether you donate money or donate items for our yard sale, volunteer your time, help us in our TNR projects, adopt one of our friendly cats or take in a couple of high-risk ferals for your barn, or simply spread the word about our rescue, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.  You help make a huge difference in the lives of the stray, abandoned, and feral cats in the Triangle (and beyond).