Wordless Wednesday

knitting

Theo helps Laura with the knitting

weekend adventure

Hershey got the day off from the Home for the Holidays adoption event on Sunday. When I got there Sunday morning to get him ready for the day, I learned that he had an overnight litter box accident.

When Hershey uses the litter box he balances all four paws on the rim of the box and does his business. For whatever reason he insists that no paws touch the litter while he's going! It's quite the balancing act, but he always manages it without problem. At the adoption event they use the Worlds Best Cat Litter which is a lot lighter than the clay litter we use at home, and they only use a small amount in each box. So, after everyone left for the night and it was safe, he went to use the box. When he balanced up on the edge he sent all the litter and soft poop sailing all throughout his cage. Poor guy, I feel bad that he had to sleep in that mess.

The event organizer kindly cleaned up his cage in the morning, but poor Hershey had poop caked all in his long fur. Figuring that people might not want to adopt a poopy smelling cat, we took him home for a bath. After the bath he still had an undesirable odor, so he got a second bath to get whatever we had missed in the first round. He wasn't very happy about that.

Thankfully, at last weekend's adoption event a fellow independent trapper had instructed me in how to properly scruff a cat! That skill came in very handy when bathing sweet Hershey. Now I know how to properly scruff a cat!

After cleaning Hershey up, we decided to give him the day off so he could rest and fully dry - he very much appreciated that! I went back and hung out at the event for a few more hours. After thoroughly cleaning Hershey's cage, I set it up with the digital picture frame of him and a sign saying "I'm still available for adoption, I'm just home resting today."

Meanwhile,  I got to hang out with some awesome cat people and meet more wonderful cats!

This was a formerly feral kitten who is being tamed. He looks like a mini-Max!

Olive, a shy girl, reminds me of Willow!

I got to hold Olive for quite sometime! She loves being held, which is lovely!

Confident Fanta showing off his beautiful orange coat

When Fanta arrived at the event for his first weekend, he was so scared, he immediately tried to disappear in his bed and was shaking like crazy. Now, near the end of his second weekend he's all confident and working his cage like a pro, luring prospective adopters to give him a look! 

The Home for the Holidays event is a big fundraiser for the Community Cat Coalition as well as lots of other great animal rescue groups. One of the many items available for a donation is a private label wine, known as the Christmas Cat Cab. Tiny Tim is on the label, he was a tiny runt kitten who was rescued and lovingly nursed to health by a CCC volunteer. There were many times when his health was touch and go, but it now appears he will make it and he goes to his new forever home next weekend!

Here's a closeup of the label:

The photo on the label was done by Artis Photography, the official Home for the Holidays photographer who has been taking the santa photos. They're donating the proceeds from all the santa photos to various rescue groups. On Saturday, they took over 50 santa photos with pets! They typically do about 30 a day. Santa was looking rather tired at the end of the day, he said he his cheeks hurt from all the smiling! 

So, Hershey will return next weekend for one more shot of finding a forever home before Christmas. In the mean time, he'll get lots of plays and loves. It's great to snuggle him as he smells as clean and fresh!

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I recently learned of a new cat-blogger who has decided to step into the world of TNR. She lives in Florida and has been documenting her TNR adventure on her blog, My Feral Family. If anyone is near her and knows resources that might be helpful for her, please her know. She is in need of borrowing a drop trap.

Home for the Holidays - weekend 2

Something in my heart broke yesterday when I heard the news that elementary school children were massacred in Connecticut. My prayers are with all those who are hurting as a result of this horrid act.

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Hershey is once again at the Home for the Holidays adoption event! Everyone told me he would be much less stressed on his second weekend and guess what? They were right! He's much more relaxed and himself, which is so lovely. Seeing him less stressed has made me much less stressed too.

He has a new neighbor for this weekend, Oski, a gorgeous tabby. I very much feel in love with this little guy's coloring and his personality is amazingly sweet! He's less than a year old and very cuddly. Laura held him for awhile and was tempted to take him home! No more cats!

Oski

Oski

The star attraction of the night was Nick, a seven week old tiny kitten. He was rescued from the street at 4 weeks of age and given to one of the CCC volunteers, who is now doing an amazing job raising him. When he's old enough he'll be available for adoption too!

Hershey is once again spending the night in his cage. Hopefully Saturday will be his day to go to his new forever home! Giving him up will be hard but I do know it is ultimately the best for him. He will be a great blessing for someone.

And, for some really exciting news. I won a give-away from Cat Chat a little bit ago, something I really, really wanted, so I'm thrilled to have won!! And the item arrived yesterday! I can't wait to try it out, it'll be so much fun. You'll just have to wait to see what it is!

Theo guards the new fun mystery item!

the power of love

This is Oliver...

This is Oliver getting loves...

This is Oliver overdosed on loves...

In case that wasn't clear, I'll go through it one more time.

This is Oliver...

This is Oliver getting loves...

This is Oliver overdosed on loves...

Never underestimate the power of love.

NOTICE: no cats were actually harmed in this dramatization.

Home for the Holidays

The Community Cat Coalition in conjunction with several other local animal rescue groups is hosting a month long holiday themed adoption event! The organizers arranged for the use of a vacant store front in a busy outdoor shopping mall for the entire month of December. I believe the use of the space is even being donated. It's an amazing location with lots of holiday shoppers wandering by. The Home for the Holidays adoption event takes place every Friday, Saturday and Sunday in December.

I must admit that when I first heard of this event I was a bit uneasy. The idea of people adopting animals as Christmas gifts doesn't sit well with me. But then I learned more about it. The adoption counselors have lots of experience and really know what they are doing. Animals are not adopted out as gifts and the adopters must qualify and pass a background check or even a home study in some cases. This information put my concerns at ease.

I love seeing all the different rescue groups coming together with the shared goal of finding homes for cats and dogs. Santa has even taken time out of his busy schedule so people can get their holiday pictures taken with him and their pets. The proceeds from the photos goes to a different rescue organization each day. There are fun items for sale as well as an old fashion cash donation box that seems to fill up each day! This entire month long event is all organized by volunteers who want nothing more than to find good homes for lots of homeless cats and dogs. One of the amazing local sponsors for this event, Paddywack, donated a ton of supplies. Wow!

I brought Hershey this past weekend in hopes he would find his forever home, which means I spent most of my weekend hanging out here with some awesome people and lots of wicked cute kitties! This was the second weekend of the event. I haven't heard the totals yet from this weekend, but for the first weekend, 15 cats were adopted and $1,300 was raised in cash donations! How awesome is that!!!

This is how the space looks as you walk in the front door. It's a huge space! Most of these pictures were taken before it got crazy busy with people.

The green tents house families of kittens, ready to find their new homes.

These tables display all the items that are in the raffle.

On the far side of the room, away from the cats, is the dog adoption area. 

Behind the bicycle is the dog section

Lots and lots of cute dogs were doing their best to find new homes.

On Sunday, the dog section was really hopping! So many wonderful dogs, looking to go home for the holidays. Big dogs, little dogs and every size in between. I haven't heard how many dogs were adopted, but I hope it was lots!

Hershey was far away from all the big, scary dogs, but that didn't stop him from being scared! 

He spent most of Saturday hiding on top of the wooden crate.

His other hangout spot was between the crate and the litter box.

I put a lot of thought in creating a space for him that would give him a sense of security while also allowing people to see him. In the end I think it worked well. The picture frame to the left of the cage is a digital picture frame which was constantly cycling through 50 or so photos of Hershey playing, snuggling or hanging out at home. I wanted people to see what he's like when he's comfortable at home rather than just the scared cat they saw before them.

By Sunday, he had moved into the crate.

The whole idea of Hershey being at this event was to help him find his forever home. One thing I learned from this experience is that even though cognitively I know that Hershey will be better off in a new home with people who can spoil him rotten, my heart is not wanting to let him go. This is not a huge surprise, but I was surprised at the extent of my emotional resistance to letting go. Whenever I saw someone looking him over, I had to stop myself from chasing them away from my cat!

I noticed that in my mind I was referring to him as "my" cat and other foster parents at the event were referring to their cats only by name, sans the possessive adjective. I think the entire weekend I was giving off the energy of "get the hell away from MY cat!" Laura kept telling me I needed to talk up Hershey to the people passing by. I knew she was right, but I feared if I did someone might want to take him home! On Sunday evening, as I drove Hershey home at the end of the weekend, I felt happy and relieved to be bringing him back home. I'm clearly a conflicted individual!

A woman holds her child up so he can get a better look at Hershey

This experience was good for Hershey as he got acclimated to the chaotic environment and it was good for me to learn more about the extent of my resistance to give him up. I cannot keep him, five indoor cats already feels like too many, six is way too many besides the additional expenses that come from having another as well as the fact that the existing cats don't want any new additions. Hmmm, I've got more 'letting go' work to do. Sigh.

In an attempt to ease my anxiety about what we were in for, I stopped by on Friday night to see the space. The experience had the opposite effect as my anxiety went through the roof as I pictured Hershey hanging out there. I noticed that the seasoned foster parents took a "tough love" approach and it really seemed to work. They somehow don't get freaked out by seeing their cats so stressed and sure enough, by the end of the weekend most of their cats had settled nicely and were much less stressed. I'm told that the next time those cats are at an adoption event they will be more calm and have a better chance of being adopted. That makes sense, but I'm not sure I have what it takes do pull off the tough-love approach. Seeing Hershey and the other cats so stressed significantly stressed me out!

I'm such a wuss, I admit it. Leaving Hershey's side was not easy for me. I stayed with him all morning on Saturday, trying to calm him. I eventually worked up enough internal strength to leave him for 15 minutes while I went down the block to the Starbucks. Later in the afternoon, I was able to leave for a few hours. Leaving him for the night was emotionally brutal. One of the amazing adoption volunteers could tell I was having a hard time leaving him. She came over to me, warmly smiled and reassured me that he would be ok. I knew it was true but again my heart was having a difficult time listening to my mind. I worried about him all night and I was there to visit him early Sunday morning. Sure enough, he had done just fine.

It was so fun seeing all the different cats get adopted! Seeing them go off to their new homes brought me such joy. A few of them were adopted as pairs, which made me even happier!

Most (if not all) of the kittens and cats available for adoption were rescued from being homeless or were tamed ferals. Here are a few of the other kittens and cats that were available:

There are at least three, maybe more, kittens in here.

What a sweet pair! Double your pleasure!

I completely fell in love with these two marbled kittens and their grey and white sibling. Their coloring is so gorgeous!

take me home!

All three of these sweeties were adopted!!! The two shyest were adopted together, 

which made me so happy, I about cried.

There is a small black cat hiding under the cat bed

This is Samantha, a gorgeous black and white. I can't believe how

 much this girl looks like Katie Isabella, one of the cat bloggers I follow!

Samantha's story was posted on her cage. She has had a tough life. She was dumped on the street as a young pregnant girl. She did the best she could to take care of her kittens but at some point she was attacked and bitten by dogs. When she was rescued, she had deep puncture wounds and was missing patches of fur. She was so skinny and sick, the vet wasn't sure she would live. After treatment and care she healed nicely and is now looking for a home where she will be loved and cared for. She's still a bit timid around people she doesn't know and she so loves to nuzzle her soft head against your hand as she purrs and purrs. This girl deserves a purrfect home.

Such a sweet orange boy! His name is Fanta, after the orange soda pop!

This is Mr. Fluffy, he was Hershey's neighbor for the weekend.

Every cat that is adopted gets their picture taken with their new human(s) in front of the Christmas tree and Santa scene. 

Santa is holding a cat and a bear in his arms!

Now that Hershey is settled back in at home, my nerves are starting to settle too. I've got a week now to emotionally gear up for taking him back for the coming weekend. Hershey's such a sweet cat, all the volunteers who had a chance to love on him confirmed this truth. A few were tempted to take him home and still may be considering it. I trust that he will find his home when it's the right time for us both.

Thanks to all the amazing volunteers who have helped pull off such an amazing event for the homeless dogs and cats in the community. The space is so beautifully decorated and laid out perfectly. Creating and pulling off an event of this size takes a herculean amount of work. I'm a bit reluctant to start naming names because there have been so many amazing volunteers who have helped make this all happen and I fear I wouldn't get everyone named. Even with that said, I do want to say a special thank you to Kathleen for organizing this amazing event and to Chris for managing this weekend while Kathleen was off working yet another CCC fundraiser! Thank you also to all the rescue people who give the cats and dogs a chance at a good life. A special spot in heaven is reserved for you all.

the fam

I love watching Oliver hang out with his family. Every time I see them together it brings great joy to my heart.

From left to right: Unnamed son, MK, Oliver

Unnamed son, Oliver, MK

These three are out there almost every morning now, waiting for me to deliver the yummy wet food! The unnamed son sits not far from the food bowl when I'm filling them up! Maybe in time I'll get to love on him like I do on Oliver. They are all looking rather solid, like they are not hurting for meals!

Oliver's little girl comes around at times. I still dream of getting them all four in one picture, a family portrait! They are all precious to me.