Apex Peak Fest 2011

Alley Cats and Angels participated in Apex Peak Fest again this year.  We made approximately $450 in cat bed and catnip toy sales and donations, but the most important thing was getting the word out about TNR and low cost spay/neuter options.  Bed/toy sales went to the main medical fund and all donations in the donation jar went to the Alter an Alley Cat fund. 

Lucy Liu spent the day entertaining people.  She's an adorable 5-month old tortie found in a Harbor Freight parking lot.  A nerd bot came by to visit her and it didn't faze her one bit!  Lucy Liu represented the "angels" of Alley Cats and Angels

Feral Cheryl, the awesome sock doll with her cropped ear, posed inside a TruCatch trap.  She represented the "alley cats" in Alley Cats and Angels.  She also allowed us to demonstrate how the trap works.

Feral Cat Article - Heart2Home Magazine

The article I wrote for Heart2Home Magazine about feral cats appears in this month's issue.  http://www.heart2homemagazine.com/images/may2011.pdf.  It starts on page 23. 

My mom will be tickled pink.  :-).

Some editing license was taken on my original article.   I really wish they hadn't taken out the part of "these cats are killed with the salve to the collective conscience that..." And a few other of my preachy comments. I'll get an unedited version of my article up shortly.

Spring Hope TNR Project Update and another TNR project

Marie P and I went to Spring Hope yesterday to trap for our spay day today.  We were lucky enough to have Elizabeth Ruffing accompany us so we could take photos (she's the one who took the photos for our TNR photo documentary).  We warned her - you really haven't seen this many cats in one place at one time. 

We've TNR'd so many cats in such a short amount of time that it's getting harder to catch the cats.  After being there for over four hours, we only trapped two cats and the other cats we saw that were not ear cropped proved to be very wily and knew what the traps were for.  We left a couple of traps and showed the caregiver how to set them and how to release the cats if he caught an ear cropped one, but to call us if he caught one that's not ear cropped.

So we only caught two cats yesterday but we did find three kittens.  One was under the front porch and two (appear to be the same age) and then Elizabeth found two more back near the goats.  They were wedged in quite tightly and she braved the tall grass and possible snakes and got them out. The babies appear to be about 5 weeks old and have upper respiratory - one not so bad, one more with breathing (wheezes), and one who is really bad off.  Not only is he congested and his eyes goopy, one of the eyes is already opaque and may or may not be able to be saved.  He had to be fed by hand because he doesn't seem to be able to see or smell the food.  They are currently at the vet (came to the office with me this morning until someone could pick them up and get them to vet aroudn 10:30).  Thankfully, no one was here at the new job - Monday must be work from home today.  So here are some pictures of the little meeps.  The itty bitty hissy kitty is the really sick one.  He had to be picked up with gloves at first because he'd do all he could to rip you to pieces, but he was just scared.  He did well last night when I was picking him up and holding him.

(I love this pictures, he's so fierce!!)

And then a "funny thing happened on the way home from Spring Hope"....  We stopped at fast food row near the highway and lo and behold, to what do our wondering eyes did appear?  Cats.  Feral cats.  Of course!  Trapped three yesterday for spaying/neutering today.  Talked to one of the restaurants and found out there are about 20+ cats there.  This colony will be a priority because the area cannot sustain any more growth.  We do have some pictures to post and will update this post a little later with those pix - Elizabeth had to take a break from uploading/posting/etc. and get some real work done.  :-)

The Cats Need Your Help!

It's been a big medical year already and these big expenses have hit us hard. We are proud of the fact that we do not turn a cat away because it will need immediate extensive (and expensive) medical treatment, and cats - both friendly and feral - get the necessary medical care.

This year we have had three eye enucleation (removal) surgeries, one diaphragmatic hernia surgeries, an ultrasound to check for kidney stones, and last week a perineal urethrostomy ("PU") surgery for a cat with a urethral obstruction (the PU surgery took 3/4 of our yard sale money). And because 97% of the kittens we take in are born into feral colonies, they often come to us in poor health and this year has been no exception, as we have weekly visits to the vet for kittens that were very sickly and debilitated when we rescued them.


We believe in providing the best medical care for the cats and we are thankful for the wonderful vets who work with us on pricing. But it still can really have a big impact on our expenses and our medical fund has been hit very hard this year. Our emergency medical (does not include routine medical such as spay/neuter and vaccinations) for this year is almost $6,000. That is almost as much as our emergency medical was for all of 2010 and it’s still very early in kitten season.

Please consider making a donation today to help us continue to help the forgotten felines. The cats need you and so do we. Thank you.

Yard Sale (and other) News

We had an outstanding yard sale on April 30th.  $2,600 raised for the kitties.  Which is great, because we've taken in so many high risk kittens that were not in good shape when we got them that we've spent almost $600 in just two weeks on non-planned medical (sick kitty, etc.).  And one of our long-term residents is currently in the hospital for a blocked urinary tract and the medical bills for him may be close to $1,000.  But we raised the money at the yard sale, so all is well right now.  A huge thank you to everyone that donated to the yard sale, volunteered with the yard sale, and bought. 

Bo Duke was adopted over the weekend.  YAY!

In other news, I just started a new job and am learning new people, processes, and technologies so blog posting might be sparse for a while.  Wish me luck everyone!  Thanks.