Alter an Alley Cat Spay/Neuter Assistance Program Update

Alley Cats and Angels has provided free or low-cost spay/neuter for 180 cats so far this year.  These are pet cats are owned by lower-income/hardship families or feral cats cared for by caregivers who cannot afford the cost to spay/neuter a large colony.

Cats are also vaccinated for distemper and rabies at the time of spay/neuter and feral cats are ear-cropped.

We are extremely proud of what our small, all volunteer rescue has accomplished - 180 cats in 3 months is just incredible.  We are continuing to make huges strides in our fight against pet overpopulation and in educating the public on the importance of spay/neuter.

Quite an assortment!

We have a mama and babies that came to us last week when the babies were only about 3 days old.  All but one baby is polydactyl on all four paws (mama is poly on all four also), and at least one of the kittens has 7 toes on each front foot.  Two of the kittens are manxs.  So, with all those toes - we call them muppet paws, we decided to name them after the muppets.  Unfortunately, there aren't that many female muppets and we thought naming mama Miss Piggy was just plain mean so we took some of the male muppet names and repurposed them as unisex names for our babies.  We'll be clipping claws this weekend - and there are lots and lots of them to clip. 

And the names are:

• Mama: Fozzie Bear
• Orange manx (the only one that is not polydactyl): Kermit
• Orange regular tail - polydactyl: Beaker
• Calico - polydactyl: Abby Cadaddy
• Black and white manx - polydactyl: Sweetums
• Black and white regular tail - polydactyl: Snuffaluffagus 

 Such a good and very protective mama cat

Let's make a break for it.  Well, not really, these babies aren't really moving around on their own yet.  We posed them for pictures.

Lookit the little nubbie tail!  There's also an orange one with the same barely there tail (orange manx is only kitten that is not polydactyl)

Lookit the toes!  All the little muppet toes!

More muppet toes!

Lacey update

Lacey, saw a specialist today and is having surgery tomorrow. Prayers and purrs everyone please for Lacey.  It was also noted on the xray that she has some specks of buckshot in her hindquarters.  All I have to say to the person that did this is I really hope it's true that what goes around comes around. 

The two visits (today - exrays, etc. and the surgery) will cost approximately $1,000 (ouch!) which is actually less than we thought it would be and that's because the surgery will not be quite as invasive as originally it would need to be.   

Below is a picture of the pretty lady.

Today I wept

Today I sat at my desk and wept for a cat I never met.  A cat trapped last night by someone else in the rescue and transported to the vet this morning by yet another person so I never met the handsome black kitty with copper eyes.  His injuries were beyond repair and the vet said he was clearly suffering.  He back legs were swollen to at least twice their normal size and his paws were even more swollen.  He had to be euthanized -- it was the most humane thing to do.  So I cried.  Crying didn't make anything better, but still I wept for the kitty who died today.  But, at least he died with a name (Wade) and he passed quickly, whereas he would've have suffered and most likely died a slow death had he not been trapped.  I'm thankful we were at least happy to help him, although it wasn't the help I had anticipated.

And then our spay/neuter vet emailed and said one of the adult cats recently taken in that went in for spay today had a diaphragmatic hernia -- which where Lacey's hernia is is most likely from being kicked per our vet.  And I wept some more.  But then I realize Lacey is safe now and she's in a foster home where she'll get love and attention (and the hernia surgery will be done very soon by a specialist).

And I think about the two cats in very bad shape taken in over a month ago.  In such bad shape, they went straight to the vet with no stopping at go (Monopoly reference).  Those two boys each had to have their left eye removed, as did other cats from the same situation taken in another rescue group.  And it makes me sad.  But these two boys are doing well and Casanova is doing so well that he'll be up for adoption soon.  Capone is very shy and needs a lot more care before he'll be available for adoption.

But then I realize we have made a huge difference in the lives of these cats and while not all have had a good ending (RIP Wade), their lives are better now.  So now I smile to push back the tears.

Spring yard sale fundraiser for the cats time!

It's that time of year again - time to raise money for the cats with our bi-yearly yard sale.   Our yard sale is scheduled for Saturday, April 30th and we are collecting items through April 24th. 

We need your help to get enough item donated for our yard sales, please spread the words to all of your friends. The money from the yard sale will help may for medical care for the cats in our program, as well as sponsor spay/neuter surgeries through our Alter an Alley Cat Spay/Neuter Assistance Program (these programs total over $40,000 per year in costs for the cats; and we estimate our costs for the Alter an Alley Cat program will more than double in 2011 from what it was in 2010).

The following items typically sell especially well:

• Jewelry
• Lawn/garden tools and accessories
• Tools
• Office supplies
• Children's items
• DVDs
• Books on tape (books on CD)
• Furniture
• Pottery
• Electronics and small appliances
• Antiques
• Home decor items
• Pet related items

Please contact us if you have items you would like to donate and we will arrange pickup, as we do have some space to store items. Email (info@alleycatsandangels.org) is the best way to contact us, however, we can be reached via phone also at 919-303-3500. Alley Cats and Angels is a 501c3 non-profit cat rescue. Your donations are tax deductible and we will provide you with a donation receipt for your taxes.


Follow this link for a printable yard sale flyer. http://www.alleycatsandangels.org/AlleyCats_Spring2011_YardSaleFlyer.pdf


We also need volunteers to help the day before the yard sale (April 29) sorting and pricing items, as well as to help staff the yard sale (April 30).

Adoption Update

Three adoptions this weekend: Buddy, Peepers, and Fred.  YAY for all but especially for Fred, he's been with us quite a while and was very shy at adoption events. 

What a great weekend.

March 14th free spay day update

What a manic Monday!  We held a free spay day on Monday, March 14th and 33 cats were spayed/neutered and vaccinated.  Of those 33 cats, 70% were female and 30% were male.  Of the female cats, 75% were pregnant or in-heat). 

It was such a crazy and hectic day and instead of cats being ready for pickup at 3P, surgeries were still being performed.  We have the most wonderful volunteers as some delivered cats that evening because we were running so behind because of all of the expectant mother cats. 

We've determined during prime kitten season, we will do half-day spay days instead of a full spay day becaues it's next to impossible to spay 30 female cats with one vet and one tech and have them fully recovered by clinic closing time.  Pregnant females require additional after-care during recovery such as fluids, etc.

This was our first spay day where we've started tattooing the female cats as they are spayed and we'll be doing it on all female cats going forward -- both program cats (adoption, barn cat) and cats done through our Alter an Alley Cat program. Will get pictures up soon.

As of Monday, March 14th, 159 cats have been spayed/neutered through our Alter an Alley Cat program.  Much of these have been paid for through the grants we won, the others through donations, and also fundraising on our part.

Last weekend's adoptions

Am very slow in posting as it's been a crazy week.  It was a little slow last weekend but we did find homes for two wonderful kitties. 

Paul McCartney and Flowerbella were both adopted last weekend.

Adoption Update

It was another good adoption weekend.  Five cats/kittens were adopted, including one of our Lonely Hearts Club members, Pachino.  YAY!!

The following were adopted: Karma and Pachino (together), Bella Swan, Furball, Ringo Star.

Photo documentary of TNR process, spay days, and other info

Local artist and photographer, Elizabeth Ruffing, accompanied one of our TNR Task Force Leaders on one of our TNR projects.  We work on so many TNR projects, but unfortunately when you're trapping there's not much of an opportunity to take pictures so it was fantastic that Elizabeth was able to get so many pictures of the trapping process and the release process. 

This colony has approximately 20 cats and is located on private property and cared for by a senior on fixed income.  The set of cats trapped in this photo-documentary were trapped for the local Operation Catnip and because the caregiver is on a very fixed income, Alley Cats and Angels made the requested donation per cat to Operation Catnip so our caregiver does not have to take money of the cat food fund.  Feeding that many cats can be expensive.  We will continue TNRing the cats at this colony through our Alter an Alley Cat spay/neuter assistance program voucher pgoram and spay days.

We've also includes some pictures of our spay days. 

http://alleycatsandangels.org/feralcats-tnr-spayday_photodocumentary.pdf

Alley Cats and Angels 2010 Annual Report now available

Please read our 2010 Annual Report and see how much a small group of dedicated volunteers can accomplish. 288 cats saved, 178 adopted, 52 placed into barn homes, 213 sponsored spayed/neutered surgeries through our Alter an Alley Cat program, community cat projects, teaching TNR workshops. We truly are a small organization making a BIG difference.

http://www.alleycatsandangels.org/AlleyCatsandAngels_2010AnnualReport.pdf