Three new intakes and four kittens were scheduled for spay/neuter, rest of vetting today. Loaded up the kittens into carriers, loaded up two of the new intakes (will go to foster home after vetting, at my house for quarantine and until vetted).
Went to load up the one cat who's about 10-14 months old and I thought was in heat since she kept me up all night since we took her in on Thursday night yowling. Oh my, oh dear - what's that (quite frankly, not the real words that came out of my mouth). She was in the process of giving birth. I thought we scheduled her pretty quickly considering she was just taking in Thursday night. And she absolutely did not look pregnant at all - let alone about to pop. She had given birth to one and in the process of birthing another one when I had to leave for work. Someone going by my house to check on her throughout day. But now I need to find her a new foster home since the one she was going to typically just does adults or older kittens (yay - those are hard to find).
We've been raising money for this large trapping project because our rescue doesn't have the funds to TNR a colony of approximately 75 cats, in addition to all of the other colonies we are currently working. We are been fortunate enough to have wonderful donors and have raised enough money to schedule several half-day spay days (approximately 15 cats each).
We trapped yesterday morning and had 15 cats in about an hour. We also took in 2 kittens who are approximately 4-weeks old. There were seven brand new kittens (one litter of 4 and one litter of 3) born the night before but we were unable to catch the mama cats so we left the kittens with instructions for the caregiver to snatch them up when they are 4-weeks old and call us. Fortunately, it's not a shopping center colony, but a front/back/side yard colony. Started when someone dumped a couple of cats. There are no real low-cost spay/neuter options in Nash County. We heard about it from someone who adopted some barn cats from us. And although Nash County isn't really in our TNR area (we can't do too many TNR proejcts that are 40+ miles away from us because we all also work full-time jobs in addition to working other areas of the rescue for Alley Cats and Angels). There are many "fertile myrtles" out there and what was once a few cats has grown to a colony of approximately 75 cats. And by the time we're done, I believe we'll be taking in many, many, many kittens form this colony also.
So, loaded up the SUV with 15 traps, a drop-trap, carrier with two kittens and headed back to town to drop them off in a volunteer's garage (soo thankful someone has a garage as 15 traps would not have fit in my hall bathroom - where I typically house the cats before/after surgery, plus the kittens were going to be set up in the bathroom). This morning, got up bright and early, headed to the house, loaded up the cats (thank you Darren for doing all the loading) and drove into work bright and early to change cars so the cats would make it to the spay day on time and I could make it to work on time!
One cat has a very bad eye and is being sent over to another vet. If it has to be removed, that's a huge hit to the budget. Below are some of the pictures of the project.
Very slow adoption weekend. Only one adult was adopted, but YAY for Percy!!!
We took Reba to a barn/garden home to join her partner in crime Rufus (who was relocated a week earlier but Reba needed a vax booster before she could go). Rufus is a super sweet boy but sprays a lot so could not be adopted to an indoor only home. These two hit the barn/garden kitty jackpot. Their caregiver is an older gentleman who makes a lot of handcrafted wood items from reclaimed lumber and he put the confinement cage on wheels so he could move the cats over to the workshop when he was working, move them near him when he was working out front, etc. These cats will be so spoiled rotten!
We also relocated three ferals to an almost two hundred acre farm and set them up in the breezeway of the hay barn - good crosswind for airflow, nice and shady, and then lots of hiding places for once they are released. MG (Mean Girl) and Kiki (otherwise known as Evilina) and Rhonda were relocated together. Rhonda is the only one that won't scare the barn owners as they take care of them. MG and Kiki are pretty intimidating, even though they are caged, I'm sure the mice are scared! When we relocate three cats together, we set up the cages a little differently than we do when it's just a two cat relo. With a 2-cat relo, we use a 48-inch cage with a carrier inside on one side, litterbox next to it, and food/water up front.
But with a 3-cat relo, we use two 42-inch double door cages, open the front door of one and put it to the side open door of the other and zip-tie the heck out of it (really - there is no escaping we use that many ties!!). We put a large carrier and toys (cats have to have something to do while confined) in one of the cages and the food, water, and litter in the other cage. This is especially optimal when we relocate very fractious cats as the barn owners won't have to get their hands anywhere near the kitties! They'll be caged for about 21 days and then the cage doors opened and cages left up for a week or two. We have a 95% success rate at cats sticking around and we hope this is another success story.
Charlotte is a gorgeous female marble torbie just over a year old. Charlotte has big beautiful green eyes that would make most supermodels green with envy! She is affectionate, grateful, happy, playful, versatile, likes toys, getting brushed, scratched and petted. She’s great on her own and happy to play solo or snooze. Very easy care, gentle and quick learner with minimal direction. Charlotte is happiest in a monogamous relationship as she loves her people so much she gets a jealous around other cats.
Let's be honest, Charlotte just doesn't like other cats - she depises, loathes, hates, detests, etc. other animals! But she's a fantastic lady as long as she's the only pet and she really needs a forever home. If you're a one pet house, this might be the girl for you.
Because she really does not like other cats, Charlotte becomes increasingly stressed at adoption events and therefore only makes a rare appearance. Please help us spread the word to help Charlotte find her forever home.
Sweet but shy Betty was adopted today. Someone saw her earlier in the week at the PetSmart Knightdale adoption and came to the center almost every day this week to visit Betty. Now, Betty is typically shy, but Betty wasn't shy with the person who wanted to adopt her. Perfect case of the kitty picking their forever person! That leaves just one Bedrock kitty left ande that's our sweet Wilma, our featured cat.
Also, Arnie was adopted. ARNIE!! The reason for the all caps and exclamation points? Well, Arnie was over 10 years old and weighed over 18 pounds. He came into the rescue when his only owner passed away. Seeing as how most people are always so kitten crazy, we really didn't have big hopes for Arnie being adopted. Imagine our surprise when he moved into the adpotion center on Sunday, had people inquiring about him as early as Tuesday and had several applications. We couldn't be more happy about his new home - fantastic people.
These two adoptions totally made our week!
