Cats Seeking New Homes

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On Saturday, May 14 and Sunday, May 15, join Central Ohio rescue groups and vendors for the second Fetch A Friend Adopt-A-Thon at the Lausche Building, 717 East 17th Avenue, located at the Ohio State Fairgrounds Expo Center in Columbus.

The event will run from 11 am to 4 pm on both days.

Volunteers are needed to help with the event. If you would like to find out about volunteering, please go .

There will be tons of vendors on site.

To see a list of vendors, go .

If you know of a rescue group or shelter that would like to attend, please pass this information on to them and ask them to sign up .

To see the current list of rescue groups and shelters who will be attending the two day event, go .

And finally, you can help make this event AMAZING by donating .

To find out more about this mega-adoption weekend, which will occur annually, visit the Fetch A Friend web site .

To Like Fetch A Friend on Facebook, go HERE. You’ll be updated on all the exciting news if you are a Fetch A Friend Facebook Friend (wow, say that three times fast!).

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On Saturday, May 9, join Central Ohio rescue groups and tons of vendors for the first Fetch A Friend Adopt-A-Thon at the Lausche Building located at the Ohio State Fairgrounds Expo Center in Columbus.

The event will run from 10 am to 7 pm and takes place the Saturday of Mother’s Day weekend, encouraging mothers to bring a new furry baby home. And if you are not currently a mother, become one by adopting on this Saturday!

Volunteers are needed to help with the event. If you would like to find out about volunteering, please go .

Additionally, vendors and sponsors are also needed.

To sign up as a sponsor, go .

To set up the day of the event as a vendor, go .

If you know of a rescue group or shelter that would like to attend, please pass this information on to them and ask them to sign up .

And finally, you can help make this event AMAZING by donating .

To find out more about this mega-adoption day, which we hope will occur annually, visit the Fetch A Friend web site .

To Like Fetch A Friend on Facebook, go HERE. You’ll be updated on all the exciting news if you are a Fetch A Friend Facebook Friend (wow, say that three times fast!).

We’ll have more news about this first of its kind event in Columbus as May 9 gets closer. So check back often.

The One

As a member of the Best Friends Animal Society Network Partners, we will be participating in “The One,” a national two-week-long promotion that helps companion animals and people find their true love through adoption this Valentine’s Day.

“The One” event runs from February 14-28. From February 14-16, we will be offering $14 adoption fees for our senior adult kitties and special needs cats. We have several FIV (feline immunodeficiency virus) positive cats that are still waiting for their forever homes! Whether you are looking for “dark and mysterious” or “chubby and cuddly,” we have “The One” for you!

To find out more about “The One,” visit Best Friend’s web site HERE.

Here are a few of our selected kitties that we think would be excellent Valentines–and their fees are all reduced to $14 from February 14-16.

Thomas

1. Taj and Thomas: (Adult Siblings) You’ll need Two Laps for this Pair!

Thomas and his sister, Taj, were abandoned near dumpsters in a senior complex when they were only about a year old. A nice lady helped to find them an awesome home with their former mom and dad who treated all of their cats like their kids. Sadly, their mom died last year and when their dad went into the hospital with heart problems, Taj and Thomas and their two feline friends were taken to a kill shelter where they were slated to be euthanized.

We were able to pull all four cats and save their lives. Now we are looking for a home together for siblings Taj and Thomas who are about 6-7 years old. The two cats are up-to-date on everything and have been spayed/neutered, and tested negative for feline leukemia/FIV.

Their foster mom reports that they are the biggest love bugs ever and compete for lap time. So if you love lap kitties, you will need two laps for Taj and Thomas. These poor cats have really had a stressful few weeks. We want to ensure that they will be safe together for the rest of their lives.

Thomas is the lighter brown colored tabby with the rounder face (above). Taj is the darker colored tabby (below).

Taj

There is only one adoption fee of $75 for both cats, but we do want them adopted together. And if you adopt them from February 14-16, the adoption fee is only $14.

Honey Badger

2. Honey Badger: (Special Needs, FIV positive) Tall, dark, and handsome.

Honey Badger is one of our special needs kitties, as he is FIV positive. Honey Badger is so SWEET and will make you more biscuits than Paula Deen! Honey Badger is approximately 5 years old, neutered, and up-to-date on vaccines. If you are interested in meeting him, please call Health and Harmony Animal Hospital in Grandview, where he is residing at 614-360-3941 or stop by!

FIV is not a death sentence. Cats can live very long and happy lives with FIV. The virus can only be spread by a deep bite, so docile FIV positive kitties can live with other non-positive cats, as long as everyone gets along. They can also live with dogs, as it does not get passed from cats to dogs.

Let Honey Badger spend this Valentine’s Day making biscuits in your kitchen…and bedroom, and dining room….

Honey Badger’s motto: “Black is Beautiful.” We think so, too!

3. Thomas O’Malley: (Special Needs, FIV positive) Celtic and Cute!

We think the staff at Health and Harmony gave Thomas O’Malley this Irish name, because he is a stunning “ginger” boy with lovely red hair. Thomas O’Malley was found trying to get food near a dumpster and was trapped and taken for vet care. But after arriving for vet care, it was clear that he was not feral, but he was FIV positive. His caregiver did not want to put him back outside, so he is in need of a home. He is neutered, tested, vaccinated, and ready to head home to a castle or cottage where he can always have “smiling Irish eyes.”

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If you would like to provide a forever home for any of these kitties, please Download an application. Once you have filled it out, you can email it back to us at bandocats@gmail.com or fax it to 614-873-0972.

Check out all of our other adoptable kitties on Petfinder: www.bandocats.petfinder.com.

Valentine's day

MARS Adoption Event Flyer

Please mark your calendars for MARS Petcare’s 6th Annual “Adoption on the Lawn” on Sunday, September 15 from noon to 5 pm. The event, which is held on the lawn in front of MARS at 5115 Fisher Road in Columbus, will feature adoptable dogs and cats, music, kids activities, product giveaways, and prizes.

The adoption event will feature 18 local shelters and rescues including several purebred dog rescues (Columbus Cocker Rescue, Midwest Boston Terrier Rescue (MWBTR)Ohio Pug Rescue, and Ohio Rottweiler Rescue). Additionally, there will be two cat only groups (Cat Welfare and Cozy Cat Cottage) and shelters that feature both dogs and cats (Citizens for Humane ActionHumane Society of Madison CountyHumane Society of Clark CountyNew Beginnings Animal Shelter, Pet PromisePets Without ParentsPowell Animal Welfare Society, and Stop the Suffering).

Canine Collective, Faithful Forgotten Best Friends,  His Hands Extended Sanctuary, and Peace for Paws Ohio will also be among the Elite 18!

We hope you will come out and support MARS and all of the local rescues and shelters at this fun event. To make the flyer larger, please click on it and print it out!

 

We hope everyone will have a lovely Valentine’s Day! Spend the day with both your furry and non-furry Valentines. And if you need a furry Valentine, you can check out some of our adoptable kitties by going HERE.

One of those lovely kitties who would like a snuggle buddy for Valentine’s Day is Rhatima who knows she is a Queen! Rhatima is an older lady, who loves people and mainly would just like a sunny place to sleep and a gentle hand willing to give her belly rubs. To read her complete profile and see more photos, go HERE.

You can also click on the flyers below to enlarge them to read about dogs and cats looking for homes at the Humane Society of Madison County in West Jefferson. Many of them are available at discounted adoption fees. It would be so lovely if a few of these furr-babies found their perfect Valentine this February.

 

I was online recently looking up some information for an adopter who had developed allergies to a kitten she had adopted. While scanning pages for helpful information, I came across an article that I was horrified to read, but completely understood after perusing the pages.

The article by Emily Yoffe, which you can read HERE, said that adopting an animal from a rescue was too difficult and the rescue applications were meant to reject most people rather than help them bring a companion into their homes. With an increased push recently to ask people to consider adoption over buying animals from a breeder or a pet store (often from some type of animal mill) or finding them for free in newspapers or places such as Craig’s List, I was deeply saddened to learn that people have a hard time working with some rescue groups. Since millions of animals die each year in shelters, the obvious solution is to coax people away from other sources for animals and through the doors of humane societies and rescues.

While we don’t automatically approve every application that comes in to Black and Orange Cat Foundation, we strive to make the adoption process as easy as possible and move things forward quickly. We also try to keep things positive.

I know that there are cats everywhere. If I don’t start working immediately on an application, the potential adopters are not going to wait. Most of them could go anywhere and find a cat or kitten as appealing as any of ours (cats are just too cute!). So as soon as we get an application in, I begin to check over things. I have heard complaints of rescues that won’t process applications on weekends or who don’t return calls or emails. I do know that many groups are short staffed and staffed only by volunteers who have full time jobs and lives beyond rescue work–something that the general public may not realize. I try to explain this if the subject comes up.

I also know that I get a lot of comments about how negative some people in rescue can be. When you are working with rescuers, people who have seen all manner of horrible things done to animals, you are bound to find some people who believe the worst about everyone and are hesitant to allow an animal to go back out into the unknown world again. Is another human going to harm that cat or dog? The rescuer has invested tons of time, money, and emotion into helping the animal recover. Are all those efforts going to be reversed?

I hear many rescuers say, “I like animals more than people.” While that may be the truth, you cannot be in the world of rescue if you don’t like people. We need people. Our animals need people. Our animals need someone who will take them into their homes and hearts and love them like they are the most special furrball in the world. Love them to a capacity that even we cannot.

When I foster, I do fall in love and worry about each cat in my care. But I know that at some point, there is someone out there who needs that cat in their life more than I do and I need to make room for the next injured or emotionally broken feline who needs me.

Please don’t be too hasty to judge a grumpy rescuer. We rescuers are just human and we put in long hours and suffer tons of heart ache to help the animals who come to us.

I thought I would walk through our adoption application and explain why we ask certain questions. We do not try to exclude people. Our main goal is to find wonderful homes for as many cats as possible.

Black and Orange does have a “no declaw” policy. We don’t adopt an un-declawed cat to someone who absolutely must declaw. I do understand that there are reasons why some people need a declawed cat–medical reasons involving bleeding disorders or use of Coumadin (if they get scratched, they may bleed uncontrollably). Some people just prefer a declawed cat. When someone indicates on their application that they plan to declaw, my first reaction is not to automatically reject the application, but to educate. I have found that most people do not know what declawing entails. When they find out, many are horrified and want no part of the operation. For those who say they must have a declawed cat, I ask them to work with us to find an already declawed cat to adopt. Declawed cats also need homes.

I also recommend trimming nails (we include a print out about proper nail trimming in every adoption packet) and Soft Paws, sheathes that fit over the ends of claws to keep the cat from doing damage. Additionally, I recommend visiting the web site, www.declawing.com to educate about what declawing means and how the surgery is conducted. There is also an excellent book, The Cat Who Cried for Help, by veterinarian Nicholas Dodman, that includes a wonderful chapter on declawing (The Rebel without Claws) and the problems that can result from declawing.

We do ask for an applicant’s birth date, but we do not exclude anyone who is older. We have volunteers in their 70’s (who scoff that anyone would consider them old and would likely riot if we would not adopt to an older person) and we have adopted to people in their 80’s and even one gentleman who was in his 90’s (he had lost his last cat and thought he should not get another at his age, but found he was lonely without a feline companion). We do ask for the plan if the person becomes ill or passes on. But any of us could die any day. We should all have the same plan in place regardless of our age. Who will take care of our pets if we die at 30, 40, or 50? A cat is a 20 year commitment. No one wants their cat to suffer because they have not made arrangements for who will take over litter pan duties in the case of an emergency.

Actually, I have to admit that I do a happy dance if the potential adopter is older. I know that they may be retired and will spend endless amounts of time with their new friend. I also know that older adopters are very devoted to their cats.

Adopters do have to be adults. We don’t adopt to children and we do make sure they have a job or other means of income so they can be financially responsible for the care of the cat. Between food, litter, and vet care, feline ownership can get expensive.

We also don’t exclude college students or children under five years of age. I have heard that some groups have a blanket policy that they will not adopt to anyone in college, because of the increased risk that the college student will move after college and abandon the cat. Some also won’t adopt to anyone who has a child under 5. Again, I know some groups worry that small children will harm a kitten or get scratched by a cat, so they rule out families with small children. We take each application case by case. If someone has a small child, but the kitten or cat has been around kids and everything else is great with the application, I see no reason to reject that application. However, if the kitten or cat is very shy and would be frightened in a noisy, busy household, I try to explain that to the adopters and help them pick a more suitable cat or kitten. To be honest, don’t we want to create a new generation of animal lovers? If we start children out at a very young age loving cats and dogs and all things furry and feathered, won’t we be creating the next rescuers? The same holds true for the college students. Some of these bright minds will be our future leaders. Don’t we want those people to be animal lovers, pushing for policies and a world without harm to animals?

Additionally, we do ask for veterinarian info and we call to make sure the adopter does use the office, but if someone doesn’t currently have a vet, we recommend one to them. We’d love it if our kitties continued to see the vets we love.

We also adopt to people in apartments and other rentals. We don’t require someone to be a home owner to adopt. We do check on rental policies to make sure a particular complex allows pets, but we don’t automatically reject someone for renting.

We also adopt out of state. If we can figure out how to get the cat to you and you will work with us, we’ll figure out a transport to get the cat wherever the new home is located. We have taken cats to Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, and even out to Utah where the kitty found his home through Best Friends Animal Society. No home is too far away, as long as someone who loves our kitty is waiting!

Beyond the basic questions, our other questions just focus on giving the cat time to adjust to the new household and not expecting other pets to love the invader overnight. There is also a question about allergies, because, as I noted at the beginning of this posting, allergies are a big reason why cats get returned to us. And our goal is no returns. We want our cats to go to homes and stay in those homes. While we love them, we only want to see them again in photos or if their mom and dad brings them to have their picture taken at one of our “Photos with Santa” events in PetSmart. We want them to go on to new homes so we can concentrate on the next cat in need. So we need adopters and we don’t ever want to push good people away. That’s not to say that we don’t make mistakes, but we try as hard as we can to do the right thing for the cats and their potential new families.

I still think “Adoption is the best Option.” If you don’t find the right rescue or shelter, keep trying. The animals need you! And so do the organizations that are trying to help them.

To see our full adoption application (it is three pages), go HERE and download one.

June is Adopt-A-Rescue or Shelter-Cat Month! Hurrah! Any time is a perfect time to adopt, but you have even more incentive when it’s Adopt-A-Cat Month!

To help us get even more adoptions, the Capital City Spay and Neuter Clinic is offering $5 off any product or service to anyone who adopts a cat from Black and Orange in June.

To get the $5 savings, all you need to do is take in a copy of your Adoption Agreement from B and O, dated in June 2012, and show the staff at the clinic. They will take care of the rest!

Capital City Spay and Neuter Clinic is located at 2752 Sawbury Blvd, off of Sawmill Road, in Columbus. Their phone number is 614-761-7551. Please call to schedule for low cost vaccines and surgeries.

We have been going to Dr. Chrissy Murphy and the wonderful staff at Capital City for many, many years. Dr. Murphy recently bought the practice (formerly called the Spay Neuter Clinic) and changed the name to Capital City Spay and Neuter Clinic. The clinic offers affordable spays, neuters, vaccines, and even dentals. If you have never used them, please check them out.

Visit the Facebook page for Capital City HERE and please Like Them!

To see all of B and O’s adoptable kitties for June, go to our Petfinder site HERE. Adopt a cat this June! But if you can’t adopt a cat, Petfinder.com offers other suggestions for how you can help kitties in need during this special month. Read their tips HERE.

 

Benjamin's Poor Ear

At the beginning of March, the lady who had helped Exodus (the FIV positive kitty with the broken jaw), sent me an email and a text about another kitty who showed up needing emergency vet care. With her text was the photo above showing Benjamin (aka “Butter”) and his awful looking left ear. I immediately took one look at the picture and arranged to meet her.

Benjamin went to East Hilliard Vet Services to have his ear fixed. Much of the ear was missing and what was still there was very infected. The smell from the carrier was so grotesque, I thought I would gag. It was Benjamin’s poor ear that was giving off the awful smell and I wondered how he had survived.

We are not certain what happened to the ear. We think Benjamin was probably attacked by something that ripped away the top of the ear and then the rest became infected. Whatever happened, it had to have been very traumatic and extremely painful for this little guy.

I thought that Benjamin would end up without an ear after everything was done. There wasn’t much left and what was there was very fragmented and jagged.

But thanks to Dr. Tom and Dr. Chris and a wonderful vet student, Dr. Missy, Benjamin ended up with a very short and stubby ear. His left ear is about half the size of his right ear, but it is shaped like an ear (with a slight curl at the top). We think his new ear makes him look very handsome!

Whatever attacked Benjamin may have nearly taken his ear and also given him FIV, feline immunodeficiency virus. This is the same virus that Exodus had, so perhaps it is being transmitted by another cat at the location where Benjamin and Exodus came from. In any case, both cats from the same place were infected.

Many people (and vets) freak when they hear FIV positive. A lot of shelters automatically euthanize cats that test positive for this virus, because there are so many negative cats that also need homes. But the truth is, FIV positive cats can live very long and healthy lives and the virus is very hard to pass on to other cats. People just need to understand that these cats are also perfectly suited to being adopted and added to their families. There are too many stereotypes that need to be overcome with education.

The virus is only spread through deep bites and these typically only occur between un-neutered male cats. Benjamin is neutered and he is also a very, very docile and gentle cat who is not aggressive in any way. He likes other cats and could be adopted with a negative kitty who was also very laid back and sweet. Two cats that do not fight are not going to pass the disease.

Cats with FIV can also live long lives. While their immune systems may be a bit weaker than other negative kitties, that does not mean they are going to die young or live horrible, sickly lives. They should be kept indoors and treated for any problems that arise, but that is how we want people to treat their cats anyway, whether they are positive or negative for FIV.

There are several nice articles about FIV on the Best Friends web site. You can access those HERE and HERE. You can also read a Fact Sheet about FIV HERE.

Exodus went to Best Friends Animal Society in Utah last October, because I could not find anyone who would look past his FIV status and adopt him. But that was a very special case and I am certain Benjamin can find a home here in Ohio with an open minded person.

Benjamin is a lovely cat. He is dog-like in his personality, following you around and loving a good rubdown and scratch. He is very, very laid back and was a perfect angel during the time he had to be confined to a large dog crate so he could heal. He never made any messes or trashed his cage. He just patiently waited for “stretching time” and his meals and belly rubs. He loves everyone he meets.

Benjamin is only 2-3 years old. He has the wonderful orange tabby personality and has never met a stranger. This sweet, special boy with the tiny ear and the virus many people fear, truly deserves a home where he will never struggle to survive again. Please open your heart and your mind and let Benjamin into your home.

If you would like to adopt Benjamin, please go to our web site, www.bandocats.org and download an adoption application under “How you can help” and “Adopt.” Once you have filled it out, either email it back to us at bandocats@gmail.com or fax it to 614-873-0972.


To celebrate their new building, located at 2020 State Route 142 NE in West Jefferson, the Humane Society of Madison County will be holding an Open House and Adopt-a-thon Friday, February 10 (1-7pm), Saturday, February 11 (Noon to 5 pm), and Sunday, February 12 (1-5 pm). The official ribbon cutting will be Friday at 1 pm.

During the Open House, tours of the facility will be given. There will also be door prizes, refreshments, and tons of happy animals to meet.

If you bring an item from the shelter’s Wish List, you’ll get an extra door prize raffle ticket.

To read more about the Open House and see the Wish List, click on the newsletter page below:

To read “Bites from the Director,” Betty Peyton, and print out a “Membership Form,” click on the newsletter page below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The entire February newsletter can be opened by clicking below:

February 2012

Our beloved vet friend, Dr. Kim West, has been volunteering at the Humane Society of Delaware County learning new spay and neuter techniques and assisting Dr. Melanie deHaan from SOS of Ohio, who also volunteers at the shelter. Dr. West has seen a lot of things since she’s been going up to the shelter over the past few months. The most heart breaking, by far, however, was the cat that came in on December 22 with an arrow through her body.

Dr. West did emergency surgery to remove the arrow. She called OSU to get assistance as she performed the delicate procedure. The metal arrow was completely through the cat’s body. Not only that, but Dr. West said it had been there for at least a week. It was an old injury. The poor cat had somehow been surviving with it in her body.

Because she was worried about infection, Dr. West took the kitty home with her to recover. The one-year-old tiger, tabby female was named “Sparrow,” because she was “spared the arrow.” She is now doing very well and Dr. West thinks she can be adopted into her forever home.

I cannot understand how anyone could do this to a cat or any defenseless animal. Dr. West said it was not an accident, but appeared to have been done intentionally. It truly makes me sick to my stomach.

When I searched for the 10TV news stories about Dr. West’s kitty online, I found several disturbing stories about cats being shot with arrows in Crawford County. A cat was found on Christmas Eve with an arrow through the head. She also is expected to live. There have been five such cases in the Galion area since July. You can read the full story HERE.

A teenage boy has since been identified for shooting the cat in the head and will face charges of animal cruelty. You can read that HERE and HERE.

Sparrow’s assailant is still out there, however, and no charges have been filed in her case.

Miss Sparrow continues to make a full recovery at home with Dr. West. If you are interested in adopting Sparrow, please contact us or go ahead and fill out one of our adoption applications on our web site, www.bandocats.org under “How you can help” and “Adopt.” Once you have been approved, we’ll put you in contact with Dr. West so you can meet lovely, little Sparrow, who is super, super sweet (and young). This kitty will be going to a forever home where she will never, ever be in danger again! You can count on that.

Watch the video of Dr. West on 10TV HERE.

Read the 10TV follow up story HERE.

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