Black is beautiful!

This article from the Vancouver Province gives an enlightening perspective on why dark colored felines have a tougher time being adopted.

They also include this great top ten list:

Top 10 reasons to adopt a black animal

1. Black animals are easier to find in the snow.
2. Black animals absorb heat and are therefore perfect for cuddling
with.
3. When next to you, black animals make you look thinner.
4. Black animals never look dirty.
5. Black goes with everything, so you will always match your pet.
6. Black animals always look presentable on formal occasions.
7. Black hair is invisible on your black wool coat.
8. Black animals look more distinguished as they age because their grey hair is more visible.
9. It's easier to see black fur in your food, so you'll never end up swallowing it.
10. Black is beautiful.

PFA has many rescued black cats who have been waiting for adoption for a very long time. Can you offer any of these deserving felines a loving home?

Nigella

Dexter and Rafters

Gemma and Emma

Rosie

Puff

Lucky

Jellybean is growing so fast!!!!

An update on sweet Molly and her kittens

Molly's foster home shares: "She is a lovely cat - tame but quite timid and very, very protective of her kittens. She still hisses and spits sometimes if you get between her and the kittens. She might make a good indoor cat if we can find the right placement for her.

Molly and kittens are doing fine over here. The kittens are growing like weeds and are getting very active and starting to eat soft food and Mammalac. We have 3 boys (Ziggy, Ming and Muggins) and 3 girls (Sylvestre, Tatem and Tweety). They are all cute as buttons and their various personalities are really starting to come out. For example, little Tweety (who is the spitting image of mom) goes around chirping constantly, just like a little bird."

This might have been the world's fastest adoption!

Little Charlie was found on Wednesday morning perched on the tire of a community member's car. She was no older than about 5 weeks. She was clearly hungry and scared, but was absolutely thrilled to be with company, and to be offered some food.

The woman who rescued her wasn't able to keep her, as she had to go to work. So, I suggested that she drop the kitten off at our favorite vet clinic, Victoria Vet, and that way the kitten could be assessed, and it would buy us some time to come up with a foster home. The vet said that Charlie was skinny, but otherwise healthy. Wonderful Denise said that she would foster Charlie, and we planned that she would pick her up at the vet after work that day.

Well, by the time Denise arrived at the vet that day, Charlie had won the heart of the entire vet clinic staff, most especially one of the vet techs. Denise never had a chance to foster sweet little Charlie for even one night. She went home with Chandra, the vet tech, and has already found her forever home, as soon as the legal waiting period passes for the previous owners to come forward. Sadly, this rarely happens for the many cats that we rescue, so we are very glad to know that no matter what, Miss Charlie is safe and loved!

-Sarah

A PFA Happy Ending for Lola!

Lola and her litter of kittens were rescued by PFA in April, based on suspicions that her former owners had been tossing young kittens in a dumpster in the area. Two of Lola’s kittens were rescued last fall from the dumpster and adopted into new homes, and we were worried that it could happen again, especially as spring is kitten season. Sure enough, upon investigation we discovered that Lola had a new litter of kittens and owners who had no interest it taking care of them.

Luckily, we were able to rescue the entire little cat family before they came to any harm and all of them, including Lola, found wonderful new homes. Here is an update from Lola’s adoptive parents. “Lola has adjusted very well and it is like we have had her forever. Her and our other cat, Disney, have a funny relationship. They pretend they don't like each other when we are around but, when they think no one is watching, I will often catch them lying together or working together to get into trouble. Lola loves to talk and to climb my leg for hugs and follows me everywhere. She knows she is now in her forever home and will be forever loved. My husband and I can't imagine being without her.”

We are so happy for Lola!

Alanna

A day in the life: Sarah P, PFA Volunteer Foster Home Manager

Cast of Characters:

Me - Sarah, PFA Volunteer Foster Home Manager and foster home
Fred - my long suffering laid back orange tabby male.
Oscar - my beige and white hyper male
Pasha - Oscar's mom, an opinionated calico female
Costello - my sweet RHS rescue, buff tabby male
Frankie - fluffy white troublemaking male and Atti's best friend
Bugsy - formerly feral flame point siamese male who won my heart
Baby Girl aka Gemma - Foster cat, tortie female
Emma - Foster cat, Baby Girl's daughter and best friend, black female
Blue - Foster cat, flame point siamese cross male
Atti - my amazing little Korean rescue dog
Chopper - my other amaziing chihuahua
Sammy - Foster cat, semi-feral, tabby female
Jellybean - Foster kitten, Sammy's son, 5 weeks old, buff tabby
Chika - Foster cat, semi-feral, tortie female
Piglet - Foster kitten. Chika's son, 9 weeks old, flame point siamese cross male
Roo - Foster kitten. Chika's son, 9 weeks old, orange tabby male
Patches - Foster kitten. Chika's adopted kitten- about 8 weeks old, black and white, taming up
Stripey - Foster kitten. Chika's adopted kitten - about 8 weeks old, tabby, taming up

6:30am
Alarm goes off. I look around and count how many critters are within eyesight. Pasha and Oscar are curled up together in the cat bed on the dresser, Fred on the window sill, Frankie on my chest, Emma standing beside my head, Baby Girl on the floor beside the bed, Atti between my knees, Chopper nestled into my armpit, Bugsy sitting expectantly in the hall, Blue standing on the floor beside my bed, reaching one paw up to pat my face, Costello curled up on the other pillow on the bed.

6:40am
I manage to disentangle myself from everyone and pull my robe on so that I can let the dogs out for their morning constitutional. While I am in the backyard with them, at least 4 of the cats go into the cat run - Frankie meows at me the entire time to make sure that I am aware that they have not yet had breakfast.

6:50am
Bring the dogs back in and put their breakfast together. Because Chopper is 15 and suffers from arthritis and cataracts, I feed them both high quality canned food with supplements and fish oil mixed in. Once their meals are ready I put them in the den to eat, so that they don't try to steal the cats food next.

6:52am
Chopper starts barking at the door, mad because he can't come out yet. He has separation anxiety, as his family abandoned him at the shelter about 2 months ago when they had a baby, which is how I found him.

6:53am
Count out 8 dishes and grab a can of cat food. I have to move fast, as Blue, Frankie and Emma always are standing right beside the can, gobbling right off the fork as I try to portion the food out. They usually end up getting double portions just so that the others can eat.

6:55am
Chopper still barking. Now he is also kicking the door.

6:56am
I head downstairs to the kitten room with another can of food and some water. Piglet and Roo greet me at the door. Sammy isn't too far behind, and now that Jellybean is more active, he is curious too. Chika peeks her head out from her hiding place and greets me with a soft hiss and growl. Stripey and Patches stick their heads out after a moment. When I leave the room, Piglet, Roo, Stripey and Sammy are all eating. The others wait until I leave.

7:00am
Chopper still barking. I open the door and he rushes out. Atti follows him to see if the cats left any food in their dishes.

7:01am to 7:19am
I get ready for work. Trip over cats 7 times, tell Atti she is a good girl twice (I would tell Chopper, but he is deaf!), fill up the cat crunchies, try to throw a lunch together, forget to take my vitamins, and fit showering and getting dressed in there somewhere.

7:20am
Go to the front door to put my shoes on and discover that someone has peed on them.

7:22am
Rush to the bus stop in another, not so cute, pair of shoes.

7:47am
Arrive at work and quickly log into my hotmail account before I start. Check 7 messages that came in through the night about foster cats and from foster homes. Call the vet clinic to authorize a visit for one of our current foster cats today.

9:43am
Coffee break: Reply to foster home that needs their charges moved. Email another foster home about taking them. Email a foster home asking if they can take some new pics of their foster cat. Update the vaccination spreadsheet for all of the foster cats to show vaccinations that have been done this week, and try to plan who needs to be done in the coming week.

11:30am
Lunch: Email a few foster homes just to check in. Reply to an email from some board members asking if we have room to help a newly discovered group of cats in North Central that are in distress. Update the PFA blog with some photos sent by the feral team.

2:45pm
Coffee Break: Call the vet clinic again to check on a cat that we have been boarding there due to lack of foster home space. Call them again three minutes later because I forgot to book a neuter. Thankfully, they like me! Update the foster home wait list to show that we have another cat that needs a spot.

5:01pm
Work is done for the day. On my way to the bus I check my voicemail messages, and I have 5 regarding PFA. I return one call while I catch my bus home. I have to rush because I told someone who wanted to drop donations off that I would be home by 6pm.

6:11pm
Donations dropped off, and I invited the donor into my home to meet some of the rescues. Sent them off with a PFA brochure.

6:14pm
Feed dogs, but don't have to shut them away this time, since the cats only get soft food in the morning.

7:02pm
Foster home liason volunteer drops by to pick up some deworming pills.

7:55pm
I return two more PFA phone calls. I should return all of them, but I am pooped.

8:32pm
Clean all 9 litter boxes. Sweep up the kitten room, as they really like to kick their litter out. Sit in the room for a while, and play with the kittens.

10:03pm
Finally sit down to watch the Simpsons and do more PFA email with my laptop.

11:30pm
Head to bed. As I walk to the bedroom, I have a trail of cats and dogs following me. It makes me laugh, and I am happy.

Tuffy has landed well!

Tuffy was the last of Molly's kittens to be adopted, but he has found a wonderful forever family!

Thanks so much to foster mom Sandy for sharing.

-Sarah