Update on the Weather Girls

Spoke with Dr. Jodi's office this morning and Sunny is doing well.  She is very playful, has a good appetite, and her head is coming along nicely.  The earliest she'll be able to come home from the vet is Thursday, although she might need to stay longer -- we won't really know until Thursday. 

I thought you'd enjoy a picture of Windy when she's not wet and "screaming".  She's mind blowing cute and her ears don't seem quite as big (although they are pretty darn big) when she's dry with all her long hair.

Thank you everyone for all your kind words and warm thoughts for Sunny and the other Weather Girls.  We are very happy we could take these babies in.

The "Weather Girls"

Yesterday, we introduced you to Sunny, the Siamese mix with a hole in her head.  Dr. Jodi said she did really well today with the procedure on her head.  Because the area cannot be completely closed, Sunny will need to stay at the vets for about a week so she special wet-to-dry bandages can be applied, which will help encourage tissue growth.

The other three kittens are tabbies and we've dubbed the litter the "Weather Girls" - Sunny, Stormy, Cloudy, and Windy. There are two very "floofy" tabbies and one short-haired tabby.  They received the full spa treatment (baths, ear cleaning and ear drops (terrible mites), claws clipped, etc.) last night after being examined by the vet and they were not at all appreciative.  Their foster mom took one picture which she dubbed "Windy and the silent scream".  See below. 

Sunny

The Weather Girls chilling in a carrier

Windy and the silent scream (look at those big ears!!)

Meet Sunny...with a chance

There's a television show on the Disney Channel called "Sonny with a Chance", well, this little kitten is named Sunny and after several weeks of working to get her turned over to our care and finally succeeding, she is now Sunny with a Chance.

Sunny and her siblings, three pretty tabby kittens, were born to a feral mom and were finally relinquished into our care.  Sunny has a head trauma with some part of the skull visible.  However, other than her head, she appears to be healthier than her siblings.  Her siblings are terribly underweight for their age.  Sunny and her siblings have an appointment with Dr. Jodi at Harmony Animal Hospital today so we can work on getting these babies all healthy and happy and then find them great homes.  Pictures of the tabby siblings forthcoming.

AMAZING progress for Alley Cats and Angels' barn cat program

In the past eight days, Alley Cats and Angels has placed 12 cats in barn homes. These are cats that were feral, semi-feral, or extremely shy and anti-social. One horse farm took 4 cats and four other farms each took in 2 barn cats. And we have a relocation of 3 cats lined up for a horse farm next weekend (April 18).

In the past, we had to blindly email farms and beg them to take cats and could go months without finding a farm home. But now people that have adopted barn cats in the past from Alley Cats and Angels are referring other farms to us. As of today -- only 3.5 months into the year, we have already placed half the number of cats in barn homes as we did in all of 2008. This a landmark for us -- but most importantly, it is a great accomplishment for the cats; this means those cats needing barn homes will not have to live in cages for a long while we find them a home.

Alley Cats and Angels has also partnered with several other local rescue groups to help feral, semi-feral, and extremely shy/anti-social cats in the rescue group's programs. We have been successful in finding barn homes for those cats.

Just as we do with our adoption program, we work hard to match the right barn cats to the right barn. For example, a very high activity level farm/barn would most likely not be a match for hard core feral cats, but would typically work for friendly cats with litterbox issues or cats that like people but are shy. Each situation is different and we evaluate each farm and set of barn cats carefully to ensure the right match.

Relocating is not as simple as taking cats and releasing them in the barn. Alley Cats and Angels has a protocol for relocation that must be followed. The cats must be confined in their new environment where they can acclimate to their new surroundings by sight, sound, and smell. Alley Cats and Angels loans each farm cages (with all the other items needed) to be placed in a secure environment for a period of 2-4 weeks. During the confinement, there is litter box duty and farmers need to talk to the cats to bond with them. We even provide the farm with litter needed during the acclimation period. Once the cats are released from their cages, farms must agree to provide food, water, and shelter for the cats. We do follow-up calls to see how the relocation is going and to answer questions if there are any.

Since we founded in early 2008, we have placed over 90 spayed/neutered, vaccinated, and ear cropped cats in horse farms, llama farms, and other rural situations. We have placed cats in locations including (but not limited to) Bahama, Chapel Hill, Henderson, Hillsborough, Lumberton, Raleigh, Roanoke Rapids, Rocky Mount, Selma, Warrenton, Youngsville, and Zebulon.