As many of us know, black cats and dogs are often the ones that languish longest in shelters or get euthanized first. Black cats and dogs often seem to be the most bountiful. So what would you do if you were presented with this unique problem–saving the lives of 200 (yes, I said 200) black cats all at once?

This is exactly the situation faced by the director of Northside Humane Society in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I had an email from Lori D’Arensbourg this morning and here is what she wrote:

“I  am the Director of Northside Humane Society in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Last year I received a plea for help from a couple with approximately 200 cats. When I arrived at the residence, I was in shock at, not only the number of cats, but the fact they all are Black with only three that are black and white.  My first thought was it is going to be too overwhelming, spaying and finding homes for 200 of the least adoptable, black adult cats. I decided to look at this as a challenge and thought, even if we help 100 that is half that will not be killed at animal  control where 10,000 animals are killed every year.  I started picking up 15 – 20 cats every week and delivered them to and from Spay Baton Rouge spay days. To date we have spayed 170 and found homes for around 80.  With postings and  the story airing on two of our local news channels we still have between 120 and 130 to place. I speak frequently with animal control and they have granted a short reprieve but can’t give us much longer. I hear this all the time: ‘It all started out with 3 kittens.’   I’ve included a link with video from WVLA news.”

Here is that link: Black Cats in Baton Rouge 

I have to confess that I have a soft spot in my heart for black cats just because they so often are the cats people overlook. I realize that we have just as many black cats in need of homes here in Ohio and the plight of one group of black cats in faraway Baton Rouge might not seem worth focusing on since hundreds are being euthanized locally. But I keep putting myself in this situation. I have walked into a lot of overwhelming cat problems, but never a home filled with 200 black cats. And so I truly feel for the Northside Humane Society and Director Lori D’Arensbourg.

If you know anyone in the Baton Rouge area, please encourage them to consider adopting one of these kitties. If you can afford a donation, even a small one, to help these black kitties, please visit the Northside Humane Society’s web page.

And if you can do nothing else from here in Ohio (or wherever you may be in the world), please keep these kitties in your thoughts and send tons of positive energy and love their way.

I receive a newsletter occasionally from a group called ROAR, Rescue Operation for Animals of the Reservation. This group, which is part of  National Relief Charities, works with Native Americans to help with stray cats and dogs in their communities. Because Native American people have always had a special link with their animals, the services ROAR provides are especially important. 

ROAR does much of the same things we do, only concentrating their efforts on reservations. They firmly believe in Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) and part of the newsletter focused on TNR efforts at the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana. It is always a joy for me to learn about other groups who are working for feral kitties. 

I also had a nice packet in the mail this week from Alley Cat Allies, featuring their new guide on “How to Help Feral Cats: A step-by-step guide to Trap-Neuter-Return.” Along with this very informative booklet, which features pictures and online resources, I also received a “Basic Truth” flyer about TNR, and a “We’re Helping Outdoor Cats” doorhanger. The doorhanger can be placed on doors in the neighborhoods where a group is trapping to alert neighbors to what is going on.  The flyers can be handed out to explain why TNR is so important. You get 50 flyers and 25 doorhangers in the complete kit.

Alley Cat Allies always provides wonderful resources for feral cat caretakers. If you would like to order the Alley Cat Allies Trapping Kit, you can do so online for only $15: Order Trapping Kit

The Kit also includes the “Alley Cat Allies Educational Video Library,” which contains a DVD of instructional trapping videos. 

For all of you who are helping feral cats, thank you! Especially now, during kitten season, it can seem overwhelming to hear of another feral mom with a litter of kittens. But one day, with all of us working together, ferals in need will be a thing of the past. So keep trapping and keep a hopeful attitude! Look how far we’ve come!

If you log on to Facebook and become a fan of World’s Best Cat Litter (WBCL), the company will donate a pound of their product for each new fan. To become a fan: WBCL’s Facebook Page

Once you are their fan, you can then vote for your favorite organization each day by clicking on the “Help a Cat” tab. For every vote, WBCL will donate 1/10th of a pound of cat litter. The charities that will be helped in this first round of voting are all in the Washington D.C. area and include:  Alley Cat Allies & Fairfax County Animal Shelter, The Washington Animal Rescue League, and Washington Humane Society. All three charities will win regardless. They will win cat litter in proportion to the number of fans and votes that are received. The more votes and fans, the more cat litter that will go to cats in need in these organizations. 

You can vote each day until July 16. 

Additionally, you can also enter to win a year’s supply of World’s Best Cat Litter, a T-shirt, and litter mat in a contest hosted by “My Himalayan Cat Goma Blog!!!” To participate, become a fan of World’s Best Cat Litter and then vote. Once you have voted, return to the “My Cat Goma” blog and leave a comment saying you voted.  It’s as easy as that. The “My Cat Goma” blog is really cute, too, so check it out while you are there.

So far World’s Best Cat Litter has already donated over 2,600 pounds of litter. To learn more about World’s Best Cat Litter, visit their official web site and find out how using whole-kernel corn makes their litter better for the environment: WBCL

Stewie and Maggie are finalists in Petfinder.com’s “The Whiskers” photo contest. They were chosen as one of six finalists in the category, “Best On-Screen Duo.” The public now has the chance to vote for their favorite photo, so please log on today and vote for Maggie and Stewie: The Whiskers Awards

Besides Maggie and Stewie’s CATegory, there are also finalists in categories such as “Best Newcomer,” “Cattiest” (we entered Fiona in this one, but sadly she was outranked by some other divas), “Best Comedic Performance” (Winston in his pirate hat was our choice for this, but again, there are some bigger clowns than our boy–okay, maybe not bigger in weight, but bigger in clownishness), and “Best Picture.” All of these pictures were chosen from ones that are used on Petfinder.com to profile cats for adoption.

Petfinder.com is celebrating June as “Adopt-A-Shelter-Cat” Month with this contest and encouraging everyone to adopt a rescue or shelter cat as a friend.

You can vote for one finalist in each category every day until June 30. So please stop by and vote for Maggie and Stewie each day so our sweet sister and brother duo will WIN! Amazingly, their picture was picked from out of 1,350 nominees.

We have to thank Kristin for the photos of Maggie and Stewie, who are her fosters. Kristin is a super photographer and she always takes the best pictures of her pets and fosters.

So please go VOTE . Besides winning in their category, we also hope that Maggie and Stewie might even find a home from this great  exposure. 

Our Dynamic Duo!

I had an interesting email today about a program I didn’t even know existed. This program, called Operation Noble Foster, provides temporary foster homes for cats owned by military personnel. While Operation Noble Foster focuses on fosters for cats, NetPets.org works to find fosters for military non-cat pets.

Operation Noble Foster was started by Linda Mercer who runs Purebred Cat Breed Rescue, a group I have worked with in the past, as they pull purebred cats from shelters and find homes for them.

I cannot tell you what wonderful services I think Operation Noble Foster and NetPets.org are providing. So many times, I hear of military personnel who cannot find anyone to take their pets when they are being deployed and the animals end up at a shelter or in the care of someone who does not really want them. Sadly, many animals also are abandoned because the military person cannot find any other solution on short notice.

As we just have come from celebrating Memorial Day, let’s remember our military in another special way–by helping them keep their pets, pets that are often the one point of stability in their lives and a source of unending comfort.

If you would like to do a very important job and foster military pets until their owners can return home to them, please check out the links below. Or if you know anyone in the military who needs help placing their pet, please guide them to these sites as well.

To learn more about NetPets.org’s foster program: https://www.netpets.org/netp/foster.php

To learn how you can foster for Operation Noble Foster: http://operationnoblefoster.org/basics_foster.htm

I'm a STAR! Read about me online!

As I wrote yesterday, The Animal Rescue Site is conducting their $100,000 Shelter Challenge from May 17 to August 22. As part of that, they are also collecting the “Most Heartwarming” stories from rescue groups and shelters. One story each month will win a $2,000 grant.

We submitted Miss Naomi’s story, because this sweet girl is truly a survivor.

Here is the link to her story: Miss Naomi featured on The Animal Rescue Site

To learn more about this contest: Most Heartwarming Story Prize

And don’t forget to keep voting for Black and Orange Cat Foundation each day!

Vote daily for us at The Animal Rescue Site and we could win $10,000. Voting began May 17 and will continue through August 22. All you have to do is go each day to The Animal Rescue Site. Click on the purple “Click to Give–It’s Free!” button. Once you do that, you can click on the “Vote” box on the next page. Put in Black and Orange Cat Foundation under the shelter you want to support and Plain City, Ohio. 

Each time you “Click to Give” you also help to donate food for shelter animals in need, so you are doing good both by clicking and voting for us!

Don’t forget–you have to vote each day!

I first heard about the “goth kittens” a few months ago on a Care2 blog titled “Pet Accessories Gone Wrong.” I couldn’t agree more that there is something wrong with piercing three month old kittens and labeling them as “gothic.”

Yes, you read that right.  Dog breeder, Holly Crawford of Pennsylvania was piercing kittens not only through the ears, but also on the back of the neck. She also used a rubber band to cut off blood flow to the tail of one kitten so the tail would fall off.

And, you guessed it, these “goth kittens” were black in color, mimicking, I suppose, in Crawford’s mind, those people who dress in black and sport various bits of jewelry through many different portions of flesh in the goth subculture. So, of course, it only made sense that to be true gothic felines, the tiny kittens required multiple piercings, as well; piercings that were done by Crawford using a 14-gauge needle that is usually reserved to puncture the thicker skin of cows.

I cringe to think about the pain associated with this practice, especially for those kittens that were pierced through the back of the neck. As Kayla Coleman noted in her blog on Care2, the neck on a cat is very sensitive. A mother cat will hold a kitten by the back of the neck to make it submissive so she can carry it. By “scruffing a cat,” or grabbing it by the skin on the back of the neck, you can essentially do the same thing to a cat and cause it to become more submissive. This practice is often used in veterinary clinics to control scared or aggressive cats. But eventually the “scruffed” cat is released, the pressure eases, and the cat returns to a normal state. A constant pressure on the back of the neck, via the piercing, must have produced a constant state of submissiveness in the tiny kittens. Who knows what kind of mental distress that may have caused.

Although Crawford maintained that the needles she used were sterile and she watched to make sure the pierced sites did not become infected, I think she did more damage to these tiny creatures than she can ever know. Once the kittens were “healed,” she then sold them online for hundreds of dollars.

Crawford was charged with animal cruelty and sentenced to a year of house arrest on April 12. To read more about the details of her trial, go to: Gothic Kittens

To see a video of the actual kittens from when they were rescued back in December, go to: Gothic Kittens YouTube Video. Happily, they had the piercings removed and all look very happy and healthy.

Sadly, these kittens are just one of many in a long line of animals that humans have inflicted strange cosmetic practices on to make them look good in our eyes or behave in ways more in line with how we think they should behave. We dock the tails and ears of dogs, because we don’t like the way these body parts look in their natural states.

There are even some people who have testicular prosthetic implants surgically placed in their neutered dogs to keep the dog looking “macho.” Called “neuticles,” these devices have no actual value to the animal, but make some humans feel better about the “look” of their male dogs.

We also cut off a cat’s toes at the joint to keep them from tearing up furniture by doing what comes naturally to them–scratching. This, too, is a type of mutilation that, unlike piercing kittens to produce a “goth” look, is socially accepted. It’s more common name is declawing.