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06-28-2010

A sad story with hopefully a happy ending!!!

We were recently contacted by a woman who takes care of some feral kitties in her neighborhood. Her landlord had apparently asked her to trap three cats, two babies and a mama, and said that he had a great place for them to go…. He said that if she helped him get them he would get the kittens to a great home and the mom fixed. Instead he took them all to Animal Control where they went on death row. There was a 3rd kitten was alone under an abandoned shed. I don’t know who was more upset — the death row inmates, the caretakers who had been duped, or the 6 week old kitten left alone.

We put up the chip-in and no one chipped in, however, we got two $20 donations so we took a leap of faith and got the inmates released. We dropped Mommy at Hollywoood Animal Hospital to be fixed and vetted. Two of the three kittens were taken to Stray Aid for spay/neuter. There was a boy and a girl. Unfortunately the boy has/had a hernia…

Diane at Stray Aid had the hernia fixed for us. Then we caught the third kitten, who ALSO had a hernia, but Diane fixed that as well and now the kitties have been reunited in our wonderful volunteer Vicky’s bathroom… Three very feral but happy and HEALTHY kittens and one relieved mama!!! The kittens are unfortunately too unaccustomed to people to make good pets, but at least they are starting out life healthy and won’t ever have to worry about taking care of babies themselves!

Anything anyone can do to offset the cost of getting them out of jail and the licensing we are going to be forced to do, four spays/neuters, rabies, deworm, and two hernia repairs will be greatly appreciated! Any little bit helps — please contribute something!!! Then we will have the money to bring the next sad story to a happy ending!!!

Here is a link to the Chip-In page… Please contribute anything you can as EVERY BIT HELPS!!!

http://catpals.chipin.com/save-mom-cat-and-2-kittens

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06-07-2010

Two more kittens caught and placed in foster!

Check out these cuties… They eluded our traps for days, hiding up trees and behind bushes. Finally they were caught and brought to a wonderful foster home, to Colleen, who fosters normally for Homeless Pet Advocates. Within MINUTES, they were curled up on her lap and looking sleepy. MINUTES. Not to say they’re well-adjusted cuddly little kittens.. not YET.. After all, today was the first time they had someone pick them up and want to snuggle. But they’re well on their way to being there. She named the grey girl Gracie and the tuxedo boy Jasper/Jazz.

They’re about six weeks old now. They’re being de-fleaed and de-wormed and the grey baby seems to have a cold that needs to be treated, but hopefully by the time they reach adoptable age (eight weeks) they’ll be ready to go!

Please contact us if you are interested in adopting these two, or fostering some of their siblings. About six kittens are still out there, covered in fleas and waiting to find someone who wants to cuddle them.

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06-06-2010

Cat Pals has been busy this kitten season!

In addition to all the regular trapping, spaying, neutering, and feeding that goes on each day by Cat Pals, we recently discovered a special case that needed our attention — a whole little well-hidden colony of kitties, unfixed, and all their babies. Here are some of their pictures from an indoor transport from their traps to carriers:

These three and another tuxedo kitten were caught and placed into foster care. Three are already tested and up for adoption! The fourth is waiting until he gains a little wait. Amazingly, the foster mom, Carlene from Grateful Paws, reports that they were scared but friendly when they got back to her house. After living outside for their whole little lives, how amazing!

A mama cat was discovered watching over her brood of 6-8 kittens. She’s super protective of her newborn babies, so Cat Pals is trying their hardest to find a safe way to trap her and her kittens so they can go into foster as well and the kittens can find wonderful forever homes.

As you can see, there are a whole bunch of different kitties.. calicos, grey babies, black and white babies… We’ll be sure to update with more pictures as these babies grow and reach the age where they can go to their new homes.

Please consider making a donation to support our work with trapping the stray cats of Hollywood to prevent the cycle of homeless kitties, and with our daily feeding of the strays of Hollywood Beach. A link can be found above. Thank you!

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06-01-2010

Kitten videos!!!

Stacey, foster mama here. I have taken a bunch of videos of the four kittens featured in the last post, so I thought I would share them with you!

Here are all four, eating away!

I love this one because the white tabby is just PIGGING OUT, laying in the food and everything. “MINE ALL MINE!!!” See how Moo is just standing there, like, “Um, I guess I’ll just stand over here.. and not eat!”

“Wild Kitten” playing with the beloved Feather On A Stick:

Black Kitten exhibiting age-typical GNAW-PLAY:

The kittens came with me and my husband to Key West this weekend and had a WHOLE TWO ROOMS to play in (rather than just the one at my house). The first night they had to spend in the bathroom. I took a bath that night and thought, oh my, ALL hotel bathrooms should come with kittens because they make them SO MUCH CUTER. See, check the bathroom rug:

The next day we gave them freedom to explore the bedroom and living room and OH MY, they were so excited. After spending the first few minutes under the couch, they came out and got crazy. Key West places are always so dark, and this B&B was no exception, so pardon the lighting.

Black Kitten is certainly a character. Sweet and feisty, all at once. She really made us laugh.. Check her out:

A close-up!

Typical kitten sibling scene:

More adorable playing:

Mmm, let’s not show this to the folks who own the B&B:

Can you see my dog Maggie up there on the bed? She’s probably too scared of the kittens to come down! Oh, and, strangest thing.. This time I decided to be PREPARED since you see stray kitties everywhere in Key West. So we bought cat food at the Walgreens. Guess what? NO CATS at the house next door. There used to be like six! We saw a reeeeally fat cat one night on a walk who wanted attention. I asked my husband, “Should we go get her some food?” He’s like, “She’s better fed than OUR cats.” True. There are cats on front porches everywhere there, and bowls out with water and, presumably, food at times. You never know if the cats there are pets or just strays who’ve taken up front-porch residence and are welcomed. Seems to me people in Key West are pretty good to their cats (and their roosters!). Wish it were like that everywhere! I was all worried one night about a cat I saw across from our hotel and minutes later I saw a lady on a bike tricked out with cat food containers come by. The skittish cat obviously knew and loved her and came running out for attention and food. Yay crazy cat lady on a bike!

Now here’s some wonderful news…. Two of the kittens were adopted! The black girl went to a nice guy named Nadeem who visited me and the kittens with his sister, who both oohed and ahhed over all four of the babies. Nadeem had his heart set on the black girl and, after talking for a while, I knew that he’d be a great home for her. Moo went home with a girl named Miranda, a recent college graduate who came by with her mom. While standing and talking, Moo fell asleep in her arms. MM, I think that sealed the deal!

Now the two boys need to find homes. The mostly-white tabby boy pretty much MAYBE has a home. We’ll find out tomorrow. Then it’s just me and “Wild Kitten” — it’ll break my heart for him to be alone so I hope his furever home comes calling very soon!

Here’s Wild Kitten playing and being cute. He has come around so well, like all of them. He still ONCE IN A WHILE makes me catch him, but as soon as I do and start petting him, it’s all PURRRRRRS. I think he’ll be such a handsome boy kitty when he grows up.

Check back soon for more kitty & kitten adventures! And please contact Cat Pals to lend your support, rather you want to make a donation, want to help the kitties hands-on, or even want to foster like me!

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05-25-2010

Stacey’s new foster kitties

Hey there. I’m a volunteer for Cat Pals. I’m the lucky one who gets to foster little kittens (and their moms!) when they need a place to crash for a while. My last batch of fosters have a great story that can be found at TwoMamaCats.com. I just got a new batch of four last week, so here are some pictures!

We got an email from a nice girl named Tanya who had some kittens living behind her work building who had to go or they were going to be trapped and taken to Animal Control. Since we didn’t want a sad fate for these kittens and they were old enough to be taken from their mom, I went over and Tanya helped me snatch them up. How could I resist the kitten eyes in the picture above?

There are two boys and two girls and they’re about 6-7 weeks old at this point so they’re ready to go to their new homes soon. They were a little wild when they first arrived at my house, but have warmed up QUICKLY and are already loving people and purring when we’re around.

These are the two boys. They’re both tabby with flair! The one staring at the camera there I nicknamed Wild Kitten since he was the most scared and he has this gorgeous fur and darker “mask” around his face that makes him look like a little wild cat of some kind. He’s doing great now and is so cute, if a little shy.

A better pic of the other boy:

As you can see, he has a lot more white, and a cute little beauty mark on his face too. I love his nose — it’s a perfect little black nose!

He knows how to play up the cute:

Here is the cow kitty; we call her Moo.

She has the tiniest little half-moustache and the best markings. She’s really just a doll.

Our fourth kitty is a perfectly black little girl:

She is super cute and so sweet. She was the very first one to warm up to us, the first one to purr because we were holding her.

A pic of her from her wild days:

Here’s a few more of the wild boy:

And the other boy:

Sadly I don’t have many of the black girl, but she’s the star of my videos so far, so I’ll upload them soon.

They have been dewormed but still need to be fixed before they can go home in a week or two. We are accepting applications for these babies right now, so you can reserve your cat of choice. Please contact me, Stacey, for an application. I’d love to talk to you! Either call 954 – 401 – 4085 or email me at estacey AT gmail DOT com. Thank you!!!

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