Tri, the Hillside Calico

Tri is a sweet calico who's front leg was mangled in an engine. She's a friendly but lives outside with a colony being fed by a wonderful elderly woman. To make matters more complicated, when she went to the vet, in fear, she bit a vet tech so she's on rabies isolation for the next 8 days. We are hoping to raise enough funds to have her leg amputated when she's out of iso. She's young and cats (as well as dogs) are resiliant and do just fine on 3 legs. Of course, she can't be outside so we'll be looking for someone to adopt this little sweetie. One of the vet techs at the the clinic may foster her after surgery. Her caretaker has visited her at the clinic and loves her but has too many house cats already and can't take her in. If you can contribute to her care, please click the donate button and indicate it's for Tri. We need to raise about $1,000 - we have a matching funds grant by one of our benefactors. I've yet to find out if there is any significance to her unusual name but will. I'll keep you posted.

The New Face of TNR

More Strays, Faster Pregnancies

seems to be the way it's going with our TNR this spring.

So far we've spayed 2 mamas with 5 & 6 week old kitties. Both were pregnant already, while still nursing. That's frightening!

We're trapping more strays this year than in the past. It's one of the delimas of TNR. It's always been our belief that if a cat has a good feeder, someone who has their cats TNR'd and provides food, water and shelter while monitoring the colony for new cats or medical needs, that that cat is pretty lucky. However, when there's a recent release who's sweet, scared, and used to being a pet, the lines get blurred. Not being a shelter, we can't house the cats for any length of time. We have fosters that will do temporary care but with the number of strays we're finding. Shelters are besieged with people giving up their cats and dogs and often can't take another. Many of the areas we cover have been heavily effected by the economy, release of pets is unfortunately, inevitable. If you have a solution to offer, please do.

Out of 5 cats last week, 3 were pregnant, 15 kittens were prevented. One of the mom's, with 6 in her belly was still nursing 2-6 week olds. Two out of 5 cats today were friendly strays.

Sweet Cheeks and Henry's Update

Sorry, no time to upload photo but Sweet Cheeks is now in very temporary foster care. She had to be removed from the colony because she was extremely disruptive and was causing a tremendous amount of stress for the feeder, as she continued to 'rule' the porch, not allowing the regulars to feed. She's very sweet and needs a home ASAP - her kittens didn't make it. She is precious and needs to be in a one animal household. Henry, on the other hand is doing well. In case you don't remember, he was the beat up, 12 year old who came in full of dried feces, dry brittle hair, old fight wounds, hardly any teeth, frostbit ears, dirreah. He spent the first two weeks eating and sleeping and pooping (all over the side of the litter box, don't 'cha know). After eating good food from Sirius Cooks (http://siriuscooks.com - we love those girls and their healthy food and snacks), getting antibiotics and probiotics and EFA's, no more dirreah, his coat is starting to smooth and he's cleaning himself! He's also taking an interest in his surround. For the first couple of weeks, he wouldn't look at me. When I'd be near, he'd close his eyes. Now, little by little, he's looking... Once he's healthy, he'll be neutered and will possibly go back out on the street. He has a good Colony Manager so he'll have food, water and shelter. Time will tell - he's definitely on the road to recovery.