Monthly Archives: February 2011

Many of you may remember last May when we began working with a lady in Logan County who supposedly had 45 outside cats that needed fixed and re-homed. We have continued to work with that woman and I honestly think her estimate of 45 cats was very low. If I would have to guess, I would say we’ve probably helped fix nearly 100 cats. And we still are not done yet. She thinks there may be 10-15 more that she is having trouble catching at this point.

The latest batch to go in to be fixed were a mother cat and a litter of four kittens that I had coerced the woman into taking inside to care for. The woman has a male cat outside that routinely kills newborn kittens. I told her she could not let that happen to these babies and she agreed to take them and mom inside until they were old enough to fend for themselves.

A few weeks ago, I contacted the woman to see if the kittens were big enough to be fixed and if the mom had weaned them. Many, many of the cats in this woman’s colony have horrible bouts of upper respiratory infections–sometimes so bad that they die. The woman told me that all of the kittens were really ill and she was treating them with antibiotics. When I contacted her again two weeks ago, she thought they were well enough to go to our weekly clinic, but she told me that one of the kittens, who she had named Ruby, had almost died. Because of the upper respiratory infection she had survived, Ruby was tilting her head. The woman thought the head tilt was because the kitten had not received enough oxygen to her brain while she was ill. I told her that cats usually develop this tilt because of damage to their inner ears from infections or severe ear mite infestations that cause their equilibrium to be off and so they continually tilt their heads. 

When I picked up the kittens for clinic the following Wednesday morning, they all seemed very congested. I wasn’t sure if they were well enough for the surgeries, but I left them at the shelter for Carol and Dr. Amy to check over.

Later in the afternoon Dr. Amy called me. Two of the kittens had stopped breathing during their surgeries and she had to intubate them to bring them back. Dr. Amy was very concerned about the kitten named Ruby. She wasn’t sure if she would have a normal life, because it appeared that she only had one kidney. Additionally, she was having a very hard time breathing and Dr. Amy did not know if she would live through the night. She wanted to know if I wanted to euthanize the kitten. I told her that since the kitten was already waking up from her surgery that we’d give Ruby a chance. If Ruby got worse in the meantime, before I arrived to pick her up, or tested positive for feline leukemia/FIV, then it was okay to euthanize. 

When I got to the humane society to pick everyone up from clinic, Ruby was still alive, but breathing with very labored breaths. Dr. Amy asked me if I could keep Ruby and her brother, Stevey, for the next week to make sure they were going to live. Both kittens were in very poor shape and were struggling to breathe. I knew that they could not go back where they had come from, so I talked to Carol and we agreed to help these babies.

I put them in my spare bedroom with a vaporizer on them and began administering antibiotics and hefty doses of Lysine, since I believed they were probably suffering from both the herpes virus and a bacterial infection. The little boy, Stevey, who looks like a Maine Coon, also had a weepy eye.

Besides struggling to breathe, the kittens were also very frightened, not only of their new circumstances, but because of how rotten they felt. They had just endured major surgery and were gasping for breath. I suppose I would be terrified, too, in those circumstances. They cowered in terror in the back of the large dog crate I had placed them in. But even though they were very sick, they still ate like troopers and that gave me hope that they had a chance. 

They lived through the night and continued to get better. 

Because I had to be out of town for a few days, Carol took the kittens from me and continued on with their care. She asked me to stop over recently to see how much they had improved in just two weeks. She also wanted me to evaluate Ruby, who she thought was deaf. 

When I arrived at the shop where Carol was keeping the siblings, she demonstrated why she thought Ruby was deaf. Opening the door to the room where Ruby and Stevey were playing in a large dog crate, Carol advised me to creep in very quietly. Stevey instantly looked up when the door opened. Ruby continued to play, unaware of our approach until Carol reached out to touch her and she jumped. She had not heard us coming.

Carol said she had noticed Ruby’s deafness the very first morning she had her. She had walked into the room and Ruby had not responded. Carol rushed over thinking the kitten had died, but then saw Ruby’s sides moving with her ragged breathing. Ruby, however, had not noticed Carol. 

We tested Ruby further, making noises and watching for her responses. It does appear that this poor baby, with the tilted head who has survived so much, is deaf. 

The kittens are doing much better now, eating and playing. They are very bonded and we think they will need to be a team for the rest of their lives. They love to be petted and begin purring immediately, but they are not very sure about being picked up and held. We don’t think they were picked up much previously. Carol is working on that and they are coming around. 

Carol told me that it will take a very special person for these two, since they have a few things stacked against them. I assured her that with a bit more time and attention that I think they will be adoptable and someone with a big heart will want to give them a home.

I’ll keep you posted.

I recently came across this license tag on the back of a car and was intrigued to find out more. The Florida plate, featuring a dog and a cat on a beach and the words “Spay Neuter” and “Animal Friend,” promotes companion animal sterilization in much the same way that the Ohio Pet Friendly tags do.

Like Ohio, Florida sells the Animal Friend pet plate to raise money for grants that go to rescue groups and shelters to fund spay and neuter surgeries. The Florida program got under way in 2005 and has helped to save the lives of many, many cats and dogs across the state since its inception.

I love the tag line for “The Spay Neuter License Plate.”  It reads: “How the Problem of Homeless Pets Gets Fixed!” A very neat play on words.

The plate also features a cartoon dog and cat named Max and Charlie.

To read more about the Florida plate, visit the Florida Animal Friend web site HERE.

Similarly, The Ohio Pet Fund began giving out grants in 2006 to Ohio rescue groups and shelters to help with spay, neuter, and sterilization education. The money for these grants came from the sale of the pet tags.

Happily, Black and Orange has been the recipient of a grant from The Ohio Pet Fund each year since they started funding this important work. If you don’t have an Ohio pet plate, please buy one the next time you renew your license or tags. These tags feature a dog, a cat, or a dog and a cat together. To find out how you can purchase your own Ohio pet plate, please visit HERE.

There are also horse tags and you can find out about them on the Ohio’s Horse License Plate web site HERE.

We hope that every state will adopt similar programs to help with the very important goal of sterilizing companion dogs and cats.

Betty Peyton, the director of the Humane Society of Madison County (HSMC), has been named as one of Sunny 95’s 2011 “20 Outstanding Women You Should Know.” The point of this contest is “to celebrate ordinary women who do extraordinary things.”

Betty has been working with the shelter for the past 10 years. Black and Orange has worked with Betty and HSMC for over five years, helping to spay and neuter area feral cats and asking the shelter to place friendly, adoptable cats when we didn’t have space for them. We’ve also partnered with them on various fundraisers and events, including Slobberfest.

From everyone at Black and Orange Cat Foundation, we would like to congratulate Betty for this huge honor.

The formal awards ceremony will take place on Thursday, February 17, at the Lincoln Theater (769 East Long Street) in downtown Columbus from 7-9 pm. This event is by invitation only.

A grand public celebration will be held on Friday, February 25 at the Aladdin Shrine Center at 3850 Stelzer Road in Columbus from 4-8 pm. This event is open to everyone, so please come and congratulate Betty. Or if you can’t attend, send her an email at betty@madisonhumane.org

To read more about Sunny 95’s “20 Outstanding Women You Should Know” event, visit their web site HERE.

To see Betty’s profile on the Sunny 95 web site, go HERE.

You can also visit Sunny 95’s Facebook page HERE to find out details and see photos from past years.

To find out more about the Humane Society of Madison County, visit their web site HERE or become their fan on Facebook.

You can also read a copy of the HSMC’s February 2011 newsletter to find out more about Betty and her achievements for the shelter.

February 2011 HSMC Newsletter

Many of you may remember Miss Kitty who I featured in a blog posting back in November. My friend, Cynthia, wrote me about the cat who had a botched declaw surgery and was dumped outside to live. Cynthia kindly looked out for the pathetic creature and made sure she had food and a safe place to sleep until she was adopted by Jane Martin and her family right before Christmas (HURRAH–the best happy ending ever).

Jane decided to submit Miss Kitty’s story to The Animal Rescue Site’s New Beginnings Story Contest to help B and O possibly win a $3,000 grant (thank you, Jane–that is so nice).

Here is how the contest works if you would also like to enter and help B and O, too! From now until February 27, you can submit stories about animals that received a “new beginning” and designate a rescue organization to win $3,000 if your story is chosen. On February 28 and 29, judges will pick five story finalists. Then between March 2 and 20, everyone gets to vote for their favorite story. We’ll let you know if Miss Kitty’s story makes it into the top five. We certainly hope so.

To read the story that Jane Martin submitted about Miss Kitty for the New Beginnings Story Contest, go HERE.

Happily, because Jane provided Miss Kitty with a new beginning, this is one kitty we don’t have to worry about any more.

Each year, National Spay Day is celebrated on the last Tuesday of February. This year it falls on Tuesday, February 22. To celebrate, Rascal Charities and the Rascal Unit will be spotlighting “Big and Beautiful” dogs to sterilize. On Spay Day, they will sterilize 50-60 large breed dogs for only $35 (which will also include a rabies vaccine if the dog needs one).

You must meet the Rascal Charities criteria to have the sterilization done and you must schedule for the event by calling 614-791-7729.

To find out more about this Spay Day event, visit the Rascal Charities web site, HERE.

To help with funding for this event, Rascal Charities will also be selling event t-shirts, which can be purchased at their office in Dublin or by emailing a request to joseph@rascalunit.com

To find out more about Spay Day, an event sponsored by The Humane Society of the United States, visit their web site HERE.

Bissell is currently hosting a “Most Valuable Pet Photo Contest.” They are in the fifth week of the contest and for this week, our super photographer volunteer, Kristin, submitted a photo of her dog, Bonsai. If we can get enough people to vote for Bonsai’s photo, it will move on to the next round of voting. If Bonsai’s photo wins the contest, there is a grand prize of $10,000 that Kristin has designated for Black and Orange. There are also runner up prizes of $5,000 and $1,000–all of which B and O could use to help with our spay and neuter efforts.

To Vote for Bonsai’s photo, go HERE.

You must vote every day for the next week. The voting period goes from Wednesday, February 2 to Tuesday, February 8. A new voting period begins each Wednesday. The top pets each week move on to the finalist round for the chance at the $10,000 Grand Prize.

Please help Bonsai’s photo move into the finalist round so Black and Orange can also win!

VOTE!

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