A very little baby

Two weeks ago, we received a call from a nice young lady who had found an orphaned litter of very little kittens on her visit home to the family farm for Thanksgiving. Two of the kittens had already died in the barn, but one little fighter was still alive and in need of help.

The family cared for the baby for one night, and tried to convince one cat loving aunt to adopt the little kitten, but she had just recently lost her beloved old cat, and she wasn't sure if she was ready to adopt again. The next day, Natalie brought the kitten to me.

We guessed that she was barely four weeks old, and she still needed to be bottle fed. I got kitten formula and a bottle, and settled in for the routine of feeding every two hours, helping her poop, and sleeping. I named her Scout.

The next day, I took Scout to the office with me, as she couldn't be left alone. She was a very good girl. But, part way through the morning, I had a visitor. It was Natalie's aunt - the one who hadn't been sure about adopting a kitten so soon. As soon as the kitten had left to come to my house she had missed her desperately, and she came to my office to take her home. What a happy ending! Scout has been renamed Patootie, and she is now the reigning queen of Denise's house, already making friends with Denise's two older cats.

Here is Patootie, visiting with Carol's daughter Zoe yesterday. She is all claws and teeth and diva attitude, and she is much loved.

-Sarah

Hernia kitty

Midnight was rescued by People for Animals, living under the deck of a concerned citizen. He had been on his own for some time, but had retained his sweet and loving nature. This sweet boy was taken to the vet for examination. We discovered that he was already neutered AND declawed, and that he is about two years old. However, we also discovered that Midnight has a small hernia. His condition is not causing him any pain right now, but should be taken care of surgically so that there is no risk to him in the future. Sadly, PFA can't afford the cost of the surgery. Midnight is currently in a foster home with multiple cats, doing very well. He is adorable, and loves to play and snuggle. We want to see Midnight equipped for a long and healthy life. Can you help? We are accepting donations towards Midnight's surgery, as well as searching for a loving home for him.

Gus the cat who made all of us cry

This is Gus. And believe it or not, he looked far worse a week ago.

PFA was called by a local woman who often works with us to help cats in the North Central part of the city.

Her neighbour had vacated his house, and had abandoned two cats there.

When we went over to rescue them, we found Gus.

We are guessing he is about ten years old.

He wasn't able to walk when we found him, as his nails had grown so long they were embedded in the pads of his paws.

He had matted fur lumps the size of your fist hanging off him.

He was so skinny that we all cried as soon as we looked at him.

Gus' eyes were sunken in his head, and he had green pus discharging from them.

Gus was so weak that we weren't sure he would live on the drive to the vet.

After two days at the vet, Gus was diagnose with a thyroid disorder that, combined with neglect, had caused him to get so skinny and dehydrated. A simple fix, and now he just has to take one pill a day.

Gus had to be shaved to remove all of the matted fur.

Gus was immediately adopted by one of our volunteers who had gone to simply drive him to the vet that day. She couldn't get the image of his suffering out of her mind. For the first few days after Gus came home he had to be carried to the food bowl and the litter box. Now, he can take four or five steps at a time before resting - a huge improvement! We are confident that with all of the love and the care that Gus is now getting, he will become a healthy and contented cat.

Many thanks to Dr Sheppard and the staff at the Animal Clinic of Regina, to Sheila for calling us, and to Barb for adopting Gus and loving him so very much.

-Sarah

Genghis the university cat

We were called this week by some concerned citizens who had noticed two older kittens living on the campus of the University of Regina. Our intrepid trapper, Tammy, agreed to go out and work with one of the people who works on campus to try and trap the kittens and tame them. Tammy went a'trapping today, but lo and behold, she didn't get a kitten, but a very large, very hungry and bedraggled siamese cross cat!

Genghis is probably about 2 years old. He is neutered and tattooed, but had clearly been at the campus for some time. He was very hungry and a bit skinny, and had a bad case of fleas and ear mites. He spent the evening at my house, until we found a foster home to take him, so I was able to clean out his ears, feed him, and write down his tattoo number. I'll be calling the humane society tomorrow to report him as found, and maybe we'll have some luck with reuniting him with his family. Otherwise, he'll be available for adoption next week.

I'm just glad he will be warm and well fed tonight.

-Sarah

Quick downtown kitty update

Our formidable team hit the downtown cat colony on Saturday morning and did an amazing job! By lunchtime, 6 cats were at the vet, waiting to be sterilized, and will be heading out to the farm on Monday night.
5 kittens were scooped: 2 are already in an adoptive home, and 3 are currently being fostered.

Our team is going back to the site on Wed night to try and trap a few more adult cats and grab some more kittens for the foster homes.

We are realizing how many cats there are in this colony. We don't think we even have half of them yet, and our funds that were set aside for this effort are almost all spent. After Wed night, we will have to regroup, assess how many cats we thinks are left, and perhaps engage in some very specific fundraising.

I am hoping to get a better idea of the actual demolition date this week from my conversations with city hall.
Thanks so much for everyone's support and good wishes. We'll keep you all posted!
-Sarah

People for Animals at the University of Regina Volunteer Fair!

A plan coming together

Here is a status report on Operation Downtown Kitties.

The team will be meeting at 10am on Saturday, and are planning on trapping until about 1pm.

Wilfred will be taking the lead on the site itself on Saturday. He is a founding member of People for Animals, and an extremely experienced member of the Feral Cat Team. Wilfred has an acute understanding of the nature and behaviour of feral cats, and we couldn't have a better person working on this. He has visited the site multiple times now, and I know he is already very invested in seeing the community safe. Wilfred will be bringing two traps, and a cat carrier, along with lots of treats and smelly food.

Ken will be assisting Wilfred. Ken is a long time member of PFA, and a wonderful foster home. He will be taking at least one batch of the kittens we catch on Saturday to his home so that he can work with them and socialize them to be ready for adoption. Ken has also worked with Wilfred on trapping projects before. Ken will be bringing three cat carriers, and a trap.

Sandy is a caring woman who is already fostering Coconut's kittens (and doing an amazing job), and will be taking two more kittens to foster from the downtown site on Saturday. She is also going to be one of our drivers.

Alanna will also be joining. She is a PFA member and volunteer, working on a variety of Pet Rescue projects. Alanna is bright, caring, and energetic. Alanna will be bringing my three cat carriers, blankets, and her own carrier. Alanna will also have the names and numbers of other volunteers (Sandy, Chris) who will be available and on call to come and bring cats to the vets as they are trapped. She will be bringing her cell phone for this purpose, and she will also be able to contact me that way. Alanna will also be taking photos.

Finally, we will have Dianne and Mauri, our wonderful friends who found this colony, alerted us to the danger it was in, and are generously funding the sterilizations of all of the adult cats! We couldn't do this without them.

I have called and booked 3-5 adult cats in at the Victoria Veterinary Clinic. They will be boarded from Sat until Monday morning, at which point they will all be sterilized and treated for ear mites. I have also called the Animal Clinic of Regina and booked spaces for 2-3 cats for the exact same thing so that we know we can keep on going if we have a lot of success with trapping on Sat.

We are planning on driving all of the adults that have been trapped and sterilized to the farm in Bethune that is offering them a home on Monday night. We will have a veritable caravan of carriers going, with Brittany, Mauri, and Dianne driving them out, and Cathy meeting them at the farm to help unload.

The Bethune farm is owned by an older woman who just had a brand new barn built. She loves cats, and just wants to offer them a safe space. She is taking them so that she can love them and get to know them. She can take up to 15 cats. I will be calling her daughter on Saturday night to let her know how the trapping went, and give an update.

I have still had no success in finding anyone at City hall who can tell me when the demolition is actually slated to take place. However, I am encouraged by the fact that the City permits office can't find any record of a permit being issued for a demolition on that site yet. The owner would have to apply for the permit ten days before demolition, so this means that we have at least ten days at this point.

Thanks, everyone, for all of your interest, commitment, and help. This is a big operation, and I couldn't be more pleased with how it is all coming together. I know that we won't be able to catch everyone this first time, so we will be planning another trapping effort soon to save anyone who is left. Stay tuned...

We truly can make a difference in the lives of vulnerable animals!

If you would still like to help, please do drop me a line at badbunnygirl@hotmail.com

-Sarah

A race against the machine

I received a call last week from a kind woman who wanted to alert PFA to a possibly disastrous feline situation existing in our downtown core. On her walks in this area, our friend had discovered a thriving feral cat colony, based out of an abandoned garage facing an alley. It was clear that this feline community had been living there for some time, and that the neighbours were feeding them and ensuring that their shelter was adequate.
What truly alarmed this woman was that she knew that the garage and the four surrounding buildings that dozens of cats call home are slated for demolition soon, to make way for a condo development.
She was more than willing to offer help, but she really didn't know where to begin, or what to do, and that is why she called People for Animals.

I contacted some of the members of our feral cat team, and asked if they could go by this location to assess the situation. Wilfred, an extremely experienced and knowledgeable member, made it a point to visit, and has now been to the site multiple times. Wilfred has found that this is truly a close and vibrant community of cats. There is a dominant orange male tomcat, and four or five producing females. There are multiple teenage kittens, who were likely born at the beginning of the summer. Then, there are the baby kittens, ranging in age from 6 weeks to about 10 weeks, many of them still nursing. There are also stray males loitering about, who grab food from the location when they can. Most of these cats seem to be feral, or at least semi-feral.

Wilfred and I have concluded that we need to move quickly. When demolition begins, not only could it possibly injure or kill the cats, but they will be left in the middle of the city, without any shelter, at the beginning of our harsh winter. Even without this crisis, we would want to begin to work on trapping the adults and sterilizing them so that they can no longer reproduce, and trap the younger kittens so that they could be tamed and adopted. But, with the construction date looming, this was even more urgent.

I contacted our friend again, who had asked PFA for help, and explained that while we very much wanted to begin trapping and moving cats, we were hesitating bcause of the cost of sterilizing the adults. She and her good friend quickly offered to donate $1000 to cover the medical costs. I was floored, and so very grateful. There truly are people in Regina who want to end the needless suffering and reproduction of our feline friends!

So now, we must put plans in place so that we can start this weekend.

We need:

*Foster homes for several batches of young kittens who will need to be worked with and handled so that they can become adoptable.

*Caring farm homes who can offer regular food, water and secure shelter to groups of sterilized cats.

*Volunteers to help with trapping the cats.

*Volunteers to help drive the cats to the vet, and possibly to their new homes.

*More financial contributions: believe it or not, we will still need more funds if we are going to be able to vaccinate all of the kittens we are hoping to save!

Can you help? We need many many bodies :)
Please contact me at badbunnygirl@hotmail.com or 565-1860 if you can pitch in.
Thanks so much.
-Sarah

Family Matters

This story feels like a People for Animals' soap opera.
At the beginning of the summer, PFA was alerted by a community member about a white female cat in North Central Regina who was living in an abandoned garage and had just had four white kittens. This person was able to find homes for the four babies, but wasn't able to get near the mama cat (named Coconut) to scoop her.
Over the course of the summer, our dedicated feral team worked with Coconut. They spent hours watching her, figuring out her habits and where she lived, discovering who her feline friends were, and trying to gain her trust. They set up a feeding station in her area of the 'hood, and discovered that there was a real need for it, as there were many more hungry cats than Coconut living there.
The feral team tried desperately to trap Coconut before she became pregnant again, but she was too smart a cat to be easily trapped. Again and again she foiled their best laid plans.

In the meantime they began to build a relationship with a cat the team called "Coconut's boyfriend". He was a large, cream colored flame point siamese cross tomcat, who appeared to be missing one eye, and seemed quite wild. This male and Coconut were inseperable, and it was quickly concluded that he was the father of her last litter of babies.

Finally, it was apparent that Coconut was pregnant again. The team continued trying to trap her, with no success, and she had the babies in early September.

The feral team went exploring the garage that was Coconut's home, and found it to be crammed to the rafters with junk and garbage. It was next to impossible to locate anything in there, much less teeny tiny baby kittens! They set up a nesting box in the garage, in the hopes that Coconut would move her babies into the box, making them far easier to find. Thankfully, she did move them into the box, and the feral team was delighted to meet two white kittens and two orange ones on their next garage visit. The plan was made that Coconut and her babies would be left alone until the beginning of October, when they would be just old enough to leave their mom and be socialized in foster care, and we would then try ONCE AGAIN to trap Coconut the smart cat, have her spayed, and assess her for tameness.

In the meantime, the feral team succeeded in trapping Coconut's boyfriend, and the presumed father of her second litter of kittens as well! He was named Bugsy, and was quickly transported to the veterinary clinic, where he was neutered, treated for a case of ear mites so terrible that his ears were scabby and bleeding, and it was discovered that he did indeed have TWO eyes. One was just so badly infected that he couldn't open it.

BUGSY ON DAY TWO OF FOSTER CARE

At the Vet Clinic, Bugsy was incredibly calm and gentle. Despite worries that he would be too feral to be a tame cat, he was brought to my house for a few days of quiet and rest, and so that we could assess him. Bugsy thrived with a warm bed, ointment and pills for his eye infection, love and quiet, and regular food and water. The feral team were so attached to him by then that for the first week, I had to send out daily email updates about his progress to keep them all informed, and one member even stopped by with an amazing care package filled with the highest quality food and supplements to help our boy make a full recovery. Bugsy rapidly became so tame that I could easily open his mouth and pop pills in, and brush his coat to get all of the dirt and scabs out of it without a single complaint from him.

Bugsy is now a contented resident of my home, finishing up his treatment for his eye infection (which had to be extended because of the depth of the infection), at which point he will be available for adoption. He is a very special cat. Interestingly, I have a cat run attached to my home that the cats can enter and exit as they please. Many of my own cats and foster cats spend hours in the cat run, enjoying the outdoors. Bugsy has NO DESIRE to go back outside. I think he knows how lucky he is.

At the beginning of October, the feral team put into motion "OPERATION COCONUT". They had been training her to go into the trap to eat her meals and treats, without setting the trap, to try and encourage her to see it as a harmless thing. Despite some setbacks (Coconut figured out how to sit outside the trap and paw the treats out of it though the wiring) it had gone relatively well. We had foster homes in place for both Coconut and the four kittens, and the feral team met at the garage one Sunday to gather the little family and get them into safety. Imagine their shock and grief when they entered the garage and found only ONE white kitten. They searched the entire garage, and after many hours, were forced to conclude that the kittens had been killed, or taken by someone or something.

The single white kitten was brought to my next door neighbours for fostering. Bev, Desiree and Carey quickly fell headlong in love with little "Frost" and adopted her within two weeks of beginning to foster her. She is a diva, and at 7 weeks of age is already running the entire household. She is adored.

Coconut was spayed and sent to one of our most experienced foster homes for assessment and care. Ken has found that so far Coconut is very timid, but he is encouraged by small steps of progress, and we are hopeful that soon she will be enjoying all of the benefits of being off the street, and will be tame enough to be adoptable.

Is this the end of the story?

We thought so!

But no...

Two weeks later, Leanne, one of our feral team members, was driving by the garage and saw two little faces peek out from under the garage door. Orange and white faces.
The kittens were alive and they were there!!! Thankfully, the feral team had continued to leave food and water at the garage with the dim hope that perhaps the kittens would reappear. And lo and behold, they did. They had been living amongst the junk and garbage for weeks.

Quickly, a plan was made, and four of our team members met at the garage yesterday morning to try and trap these babies, who would by now be almost 7 weeks old and quite wild. It took all day, from 10 in the morning, until 6 at night. Each and every team member was covered in dirt and animal feces and dust by the time it was over, as they were crawling through the garage trying to find the babies. Eventually, they tried setting the trap, and one by one, they were able to catch all three.

The three kittens, two orange and one white, are happily ensconced in a foster home now, warm and safe.
Frost has already been adopted, and is firmly on the path to a contented and secure life.
Coconut is spayed and will never have another litter of kittens again.
Bugsy is warm, his eye is normal, and he loves being in a home with people who love him.

That's the end.


-Sarah

Even when we say we're full...

In the last few weeks, the members of our Pet Rescue Committee keep on saying that we're full. No more. And then we come across another case that breaks our hearts and we HAVE to find a way to help.
We got a call last week from a woman who is very ill. She has spent her life rescuing animals, and now her life is coming to a close very rapidly, sped along by cancer. She has a house full of pets, but the ones that she wanted help with immediately were a lovely mama cat and her four kittens that this woman had taken in at the beginning of the summer. As she struggles with the reality of her mortality, she realized that she didn't have the time left to find homes for these lovely felines, and that she wasn't even strong enough any longer to give them the care they need.

Jody and I visited her on Saturday, and saw how very sick she was, and how urgent the situation was. We cried with her, as she spoke of how difficult it was to begin to say goodbye to her animal family. I promised that we would have a place for the little family to go this week, without knowing exactly how we would do it.

After several sleepless nights, and no room opening up at any of our foster homes, I decided that I would move the kitties into my basement family room, despite the fact that I have five cats of my own, a dog, and am already fostering four other cats. There were no other options. This is how crowded we are.

Last night, Alanna and I went over to this woman's house, cat carriers in tow. We quickly scooped all five cats into them, trying to keep the goodbyes quick for the sake of our sick friend. She wept, and tried to explain to the cats that she had to say goodbye, since she didn't know how much time she had left. I promised to call and tell her how they were doing, and we also agreed that as soon as PFA was able, we would help her relocate more of her pets.

I'm glad we helped.

-Sarah

A Public Plea for help

PRESS RELEASE

Oct 16th 2008

PEOPLE FOR ANIMALS OF SASKATCHEWAN INC.

People for Animals of Saskatchewan Inc. (P.F.A.) is a local, non-profit, volunteer-run animal welfare organization which works to assist companion animals in need and to educate people about the humane treatment of pets and other animals.

PFA has had a very busy summer, helping dogs and cats in crisis, obtaining medical care for them, fostering them, and then finding loving permanent homes for them. We have been especially focused on dealing with the cat crisis in Regina, resulting in a population explosion of cats on the streets, especially in the North Central neighborhood of Regina. Our Feral Cat Team is on the streets every day, maintaining our feral cat colonies, checking on our many feeding stations, helping animals in distress, and trapping cats to be sterilized, and, if they are tame, adopted.

With the arrival of the fall season, the calls for help from PFA from the community have increased ten fold. We are completely overwhelmed with calls from people concerned about stray cats that they have been feeding, or cats that they are rescuing from the inclement weather. Right now, all of our foster homes are overfilled, our funds are severely depleted, we are out of food, we have run out of our supply of feline vaccines, and our volunteers are overworked.

We need help from Regina’s animal lovers, if we are going to be able to continue answering these hundreds of calls for help.

•We need donations of money, food, feline vaccines, and other supplies.
•We need people to open up their homes and their hearts, and adopt one of our wonderful rescued animals.
•We need more foster homes, to temporarily shelter all of these refugees from the streets.
•We need more volunteers to assist with fundraising, pet rescue, feral team, driving, and many more roles.

For more information and interviews, please contact Sarah Pump, Head of Communications, People for Animals of Saskatchewan Inc.
(306) 565-1860
badbunnygirl@hotmail.com
www.people4animals.ca

Dumpster Kittens

So far this year we have had the "cardboard box kittens", the "plastic bag kittens", now the "dumpster kittens." Today three little girls brought four shivering kittens to my door they had found in a dumpster. And I personally, had just said again today, we're full, we're broke, we can't help anymore ...

It's different when you have to look them right in the eye, knowing their lives are in your hands.

They're now safe, warm, bellies full (they were voraciously hungry), sleeping. How we're going to take care of them, I do not know.

Carol

Welcome!

We are excited to present another forum for sharing the work that People for Animals of Saskatchewan Inc. is doing every day.
This blog is meant to be a way for the front line volunteers to share stories and photos about their experiences, so that our members and friends can participate more fully and be better informed.
We will have members of our Feral Cat Team blogging, along with members of the Pet Rescue side of things. We hope to be able to share not only stories that will tug at your heartstrings, but also offer an educational perspective about companion animals.
Read on!