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