Monthly Archives: May 2010
Bean Bag puts a toy mouse in his mouth. Even when his jaw was broken, he tried to eat and chew on his toys. He is a survivor.
I just wanted to let everyone know how Bean Bag and his family are doing. This little guy is definitely a survivor with a huge will to live. Even when his jaw was broken in several places, he was eating and chewing on his toy mice. Dr. Klein did fix his broken jaw and then last week, filed down one of his teeth so it would fit better in his mouth. Dr. Klein said he will never have a perfect bite, but he will be able to do everything he needs to with his mouth and not notice much difference.
While Bean Bag was under having the tooth filed, Dr. Klein also neutered him. In addition to his other jaw problems, Bean Bag also had only one descended testicle (making him a cryptorchid) and Dr. Klein had to go in through his abdomen to do the surgery.
Besides the broken jaw, the trauma to Bean Bag’s face also caused his right eye to be injured and he will be blind in it for the rest of his life. However, neither the blindness or the broken jaw have ever slowed him down. He runs and jumps and plays like a normal kitten. He just exudes such joy.
When I first reunited Bean Bag with Apple Seed, who we think is his brother–they look exactly alike with Bean Bag being the “Mini Me” version of Apple Seed–they immediately jumped on each other and began wrestling happily. I had to pull them apart because I was afraid Bean Bag would hurt his newly restored jaw.
The boys wrestling. As you can see, nothing slows down Bean Bag, even though Apple Seed is twice his size (Bean Bag is pinned in this photo--those are his legs in the air squirming).
The same thing happened when they all were together again, with Cat-cus now thrown into the mix. No one hissed. No one acted as if they did not know each other. Instead, Cat-cus went up to Apple Seed and began licking him. They promptly laid down with their head resting on each other.
Queen Cat-cus living the good life.
I would love to see two of these babies adopted together. Actually, my great wish would be to keep the little family of three together. While I know that is a long shot, these three are just so happy together that it makes me laugh and smile every time I am in the room with them. They certainly know the secret to a happy life.
Bean Bag says, "Come on, you know you want me. I will always look like I am winking at you."
I recently learned about a new web site called Reply For All. At this site you can sign up to have a special signature added to your emails showing a fact about a cause you choose. An ad is also included with the signature and those sponsors donate money to the cause you pick. There are a variety of causes, including ones to “fight global warming” and “end world poverty.” But the one I thought everyone on here would like to learn about is the “defend animal rights” cause.
When you sign up, you choose that you want to defend animal rights and then you are shown various signatures that you can pick. The signatures have changing facts about animal rights and an advertisement from one of the site sponsors. You also get a running tally of your impact. The signature is automatically added to your email and for all those emails you send, you help The Petfinder.com Foundation and ASPCA if you choose “Defend Animal Rights” as your cause.
Since we all send out tons of emails every day, it makes sense to do something with our email that can help animals.
So get signed up now by going to: Replyforall.com
Rescue Chocolate bills themselves as “the sweetest way to save a life.” This is because 100% of the net profits from the sale of their chocolates are donated to animal rescue groups nationwide. For the month of May, all proceeds benefit the No Kill Advocacy Center.
Rescue Chocolate not only helps rescue animals, their products also feature eco-friendly packaging to help the environment. Additionally, no animals at all are harmed with the products as they are vegan. The chocolate is even kosher.
To purchase Bow Wow Bon Bons, Pick Me! Pepper, Foster-iffic Peppermint, Peanut Butter Pit Bull, or “The Fix,” visit the web site: Rescue Chocolates
With Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, graduations, and wedding season approaching, we know you can find a reason to buy something from Rescue Chocolate. And let’s be honest, who actually needs a reason to buy chocolate?
Twenty Cats arriving for surgery at Capital.
This whole week has been consumed with the fate of forty-five cats.
Let me explain.
I received an email at the beginning of the week from the director of the Ohio SPCA telling me about a lady who lived in Logan County who had forty-five outside cats. Teresa, the Ohio SPCA director, wondered if we could take a few of the cats. The Health Department had become involved, ordering the woman to remove all the cats from the property. She had until the end of the month to carry out this major feat. Of course, the end of April was only five days away.
While I told Teresa we really didn’t have any place for additional cats, I’d see what we could do to help. I began emailing and calling different groups we work with to see if any of them might be able to squeeze in a kitten or two. Another one of our volunteers, Carol, called people who had expressed an interest in barn cats.
On Wednesday, Carol and I arrived at the woman’s house to assess the situation. In the meantime, Teresa had made arrangements with Capital Area Humane Society to do a spay and neuter clinic that would allow us to fix thirty cats (if the woman could catch them). So Carol and I took nineteen carriers, ten traps, and one large metal dog crate for the woman to use to contain thirty cats for the clinic.
The woman told me she would catch several 5-6 month old kittens that we could take with us for placement with the Union County Humane Society.
In her inventory of forty-five cats, she told me she had ten 5-6 month old kittens, fifteen that were one year old, and an assortment that were older. So in one year, twenty-five cats were born at her house or were brought to her by neighbors.
When we arrived at the house, the lady had two cats in boxes, two cats in carriers, and she also brought a mother cat out to us who was nursing her own litter of kittens and another cat’s litter. There were seven kittens in the two litters. She had told us that there were two pregnant cats. Obviously now, there was only one pregnant cat, because the one litter was only a few days old.
One of the 5-6 month old kittens was a gorgeous Himalayan/Siamese mix, which happily Union County was able to take. The cats were all terrified, but did not seem feral. It became pretty obvious that this poor lady had been feeding all the cats in her very nice housing development. The neighbors brought her kittens when they found them and because she put food out, all the strays came her way. She had a huge heart, but should have been fixing the cats as she took them in.
Right now she was very overwhelmed and afraid for the cats–afraid that they were all going to be killed.
Besides us and Teresa from the Ohio SPCA, the only group that had responded to the lady’s pleas for help was Wyandot County’s Humane Society, which I learned takes in cats from the whole state to get them out of horrible situations. But, because they do that, most of the cats are euthanized.
Carol and I gathered up the four kittens and the mother cat with the two litters and left the property. I had to return in the morning to take any captured cats to Capital for their clinic day on Friday. On our way home, Carol and I stopped at the Union County Humane Society. They took everyone except two of the older kittens that had upper respiratory infections, fearing they would infect the whole shelter.
When Bobbie and I arrived back the next day, along with a very nice volunteer, Claudia, from Capital, the lady had been able to catch twenty-one cats. One of those, a Maine Coon, went to Noah’s Ark. The lady also gathered up a mother cat who had just had a litter of four kittens the day before. They were so new to this world that their umbilical cords were still attached. They went into foster care with a volunteer from Union County.
Not part of the 45 count--four newborn kittens, born on Wednesday the 28th, umbilical cords still attached.
Happily, Capital Area was able to fix, vaccinate, and deworm all of the cats, and even give long acting antibiotic shots to several of the cats that had more serious upper respiratory infections. We were able to place nine of them in barn homes and only ten cats returned to the lady’s property.
Within the next few weeks, the lady plans to catch the remaining fifteen cats so they can also be fixed and vaccinated. Capital Area has kindly agreed to also fix all of those for the lady at no charge. I cannot thank Capital Area Humane Society enough for all that they did to help these cats.
The Health Department inspector is also very happy about the situation. While he still wants the number of cats to decrease, he is allowing us more time to work on this very large project.
This story proves that when several people and groups all work together, insurmountable obstacles can be overcome.