I am working on the donation thank you letters this weekend for 2015. IF you want an actual receipt (as well as the letter) please email me your physical address. My computer isn’t set up to send out copies of hard copy material. My email address is catsatrisk@comcast.net I will be sending out the letters via email unless a physical address is already provided.

I just did the year’s tally. We rescued 159 cats/kittens  Adopted out 95  Sent 40 to the bridge (some of those cats were already here) and only had one cat returned after an adoption. No wonder, I am so tired. 🙂

In the early part of January this year, I received a phone call from a gentleman named Brandon. He lived in Lebanon and he and his wife had found a young kitten, a tortoiseshell. They were unable to keep this kitten and they looked fruitlessly for a good home for her. I was their last resort- would I take her?

Knowing that torties are so hard to adopt, and having recently lost two torties myself, I told them I would meet them at Walmart and take the kitten. They were relieved and said that if life ever changed for them. They would be in touch, because they had both fallen in love with this almost hairless kitty.

That was the day that Molly came into our lives and a visit from a vet in Albany confirmed my suspicions as to why she was hairless. Someone had thrown battery acid on this beautiful girl! Mike and I decided to keep her and work on her skin problems. Using a combination of holistic measures and standard medicine, as Molly grew, her skin became less wrinkled and painful and her beautiful fur started filling in the bare spots. We loved this kitty and she took to sleeping with me at night in the crook of my arm and in the middle of the  night, I could plan on being bit (in love nibbles) if she woke up and wanted to be petted. Her worse vice was jumping on the counters and even the stove- causing me several moments of near panic when in one instance, the burner was on cooking soup. Her favorite food was potato chips- go figure and she loves crackers, popcorn and Cheetos. Silly kitty, picky about wet food but would gobble up Pringles in a second.

I took her three times out to houses of families interested in adopting her, but she was always overlooked. So we kept her and I kept praying I would find the perfect place for her.

Two days ago, I received a call from a gentleman who said his name was Brandon. He said his wife had seen Molly’s photo online and was she still available? I told him yes and we arranged to meet on the 12 of Dec at their home in Albany. I told him, as I told everyone else who calls us that just because I am bringing her, didn’t mean I was going to leave her. He said he understood.

This morning- I found a home for Raine and this home is wonderful! The couple, they are delightful, retired, live quietly out in the country without another pet and they saw her photo online and fell head-over-heels in love with her. Their home was immaculate- well-maintained and Raine went right up to the woman and let her pick her up. Of course by the time I left- she was hiding under the bed, but the couple understand that this will be temporary. But if she doesn’t work out- I will drive the 3 hours up there and fetch her back. I don’t think that is going to happen. But it was a 6 hour drive and when I got home, I was pretty tired. All I wanted to do was crawl into bed.

That’s when Mike said the gentleman named Brandon called several times and wanted to change the time of meeting with me and Molly. So, I called him and he asked me if we could actually meet at 8:00 p.m. tonight. I was dead-tired, but I am not in this for my enjoyment, I want these cats to find a good home- so I said I would meet them and off I went.

When I got there, he was waiting outside and something clicked in me, that I thought I knew him. We went upstairs to his apartment and his wife was waiting as well as a beautiful, sleek, healthy black kitty to greet us. Once Molly and I were in the bedroom with the couple, they explained they were the original couple who had rescued her almost a year ago!

I smiled, let Molly out of the carrier and she went right to them. She remembered their kindness and they were so overwhelmed to see her with hair and healthy I thought they might break down and cry. We had great conversation and when I left, Molly was on top of the bed- not under it!  Merry Christmas Molly, you have found your humans again- or rather, they found you. Turns out the woman had remembered me mentioning this blog and she kept tabs on my postings praying that Molly would still be available. They didn’t want to tell me over the phone who they were, because they felt I might not believe them as people now don’t trust their neighbors, let alone strangers they meet in the middle of the day at a WalMart Parking lot! I will sleep tonight- knowing that two cats who had a rough beginning are now being full-timed loved, cherished and cared for-

I did take pictures of the cats in their new homes and will post them tomorrow. Mike who is my photo/computer expert is sound asleep so the photos are still in my camera-

God Bless You All and Brandon, if you and yours are lurking- I just want to say that it has been a pleasure making your re- acquaintance tonight and I know that Molly will have a wonderful life with her new family.

Molly after months with us:

Molly adopted!

Carol and Raine- update- Raine is eating and drinking and coming out from under the bed. GREAT signs for her being in the home not quite 24 hours. They want to call her Clawdette- LOL

I will let her pictures speak for themselves 🙂

I will say now the Internet’s Grumpy cat has competition! Meet Smiley Cat! LOL

The Rangers said she has been hanging around the near-empty campground for over thirty days so tonight- she went to a new home!!  The woman has a little boy who needs a “friend” and I have no doubt that Raine can be that child’s buddy. One thing about polydactyl cats is they are super intuitive and clever. I have had the pleasure of owning 4 of them in the 35 years doing rescue and none have disappointed. I would love to keep her because in this area they are rare- but that isn’t what rescue is all about. Raine will have a wonderful, long life with a new family and she will be the only pet in the home. Couldn’t ask for better than that!

Oh Well that is why we do home checks. I wouldn’t even put a fish into that home. Dirty filthy floors, dirty diapers laying around- no room even showing a semblance of being cleaned in the last few months. Garbage just stacked everywhere- Holy Moly- so much for this adoption-

To ALL our Canned Cat Food Angels THANK MEW!

This is Raine, she arrived about two hours ago. She was found in a campground that was getting ready to close up for the season. The woman called “everyone” and I was the last on her list. I took her only because the weather is getting really nasty outside. She is currently in our Introduction cage- she has been spayed YAY! She is sweet- no microchip of course and she tested Negative for the nasties. Gotta love the polys they are so darn smart. Hopefully she will go to new home soon- dilute calico as well! She is probably around 2 years old. We de-flead and de-wormed her. Someone will want her.

Yesterday a local lady presented me with a Safeway gift card for $60.00 so I went and bought (what else) cat food! It was around noon the same time the local high school kids get out for lunch. I was in line with all my cans of food and loading them on the belt when this teenage boy came behind me and clunked down a monster drink. Since the cashier was already ringing up my purchases. I couldn’t let him go ahead of me. So I just kept piling the cat food on the belt. *G*

I was out in the parking lot loading up the canned food in my truck when this same boy went past me to join his friends waiting for him near my truck. He was complaining so loudly about this “lady in front of me, guys you wouldn’t believe it- she had like 48 cans to cat food! It was crazy!” I looked up at them and smiled and said “Actually, it was 52 cans. I run a cat sanctuary at the edge of town, we have 32 litterpans to scoop- anyone want to help us out?”

He mumbled an apology and took off but not before I saw the girl who he was with sock him in the arm and say “You are so rude!”  LOL

I don’t know what happened to manners in school- but we learned ours long ago-

The new tuxedo boy came up to me this morning and I noticed his walk was off. His back left hip looked swollen and for one moment I thought he had been hit by a car. But he has not been out of his enclosure since arriving here.

I haven’t had much time to bond with him, but when I tried to pick him up, my hand slipped inside something goopy and warm. I know what that means. I got all my med supplies and went back and he allowed me to clip, shave and drain this huge wound on his hip. In the center of the wound is a tooth mark- so he was attacked sometime ago and the wound is just now opened. It has been cleaned, he has been given meds and I stayed out of the vet’s office! YAY! LOL

It’s amazing to me that these cats can trust us after being on their own for so long. Not even my own kitties like to be shaved, but he didn’t protest at all and when we were done, he licked my hand.

One of the kittens now has an eye flare up and it looks like it might be the beginning of either feline herpesvirus or cherry eye. Cherry eye is pretty rare in kitties. Also Lionel the kitten who I was told two months ago would need his eye removed is having eye issues. I like my vet, I truly do. I just wish I could stop going to see him every three days. It’s getting to be the matter of just taking my sleeping bag and rolling it out in the lobby and sleeping there.

Winks eye:

4:30 update: Turns out Wink’s third eyelid has been torn almost in half on one side. They are keeping her until Monday when they will go in and either repair the damage, or cut the third eyelid and shorten it. The fear about bringing her back here is with it just dangling out in the open, another kitten could get ahold of it and do further damage.

Lionel has a bad case of conjunctivitis and has some drops he needs in his eyes three times a day because it is so angry. While I was there picking up Lionel, a woman came in and donated 6 bags of dry kitten food to the sanctuary! I will just have to add water to the dry food because we only netted 9 cans of food this week. Nine into thirty-two doesn’t go very far. 🙂

Pocket, the little calico I had to pry out of the hoarder’s hands went to the vet yesterday due to her hearing difficulties

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She has the worst case of ear mites the vet has ever seen at such a young age (1 month old) I was only able to remove one layer of debris, the vet removed two more layers and there are two more layers of crust to go! He said it is entirely possible that the weight of all that ear mite poop and eggs have ruptured her eardrums but without being able to see into the ear canal- he can’t say for sure. We are hoping in a few days when I again attempt to clean out another layer, her hearing will improve and her eardrums are intact. Poor kitty at the end of the treatment she looked like a little gremlin and she slept hard on Papa all night.

This morning, I discovered all the canned cat/kitten food has been eaten. I am praying in a few minutes when I go to pick up the weekly donation of food that canned food will be in the mix. And then tomorrow as well another pick-up.

We need to do a dump run of soiled litter. What goes in has to come out! George was kind enough to donate his small trailer and we have stuffed it full of bags of soiled litter. I estimate at least an $80.00 dump run because of the weight of soiled litter. Not able to handle that right now- only $25.00 in the Kitty.

Still working on some local fund raisers but no one has committed to us yet. We are just small potatoes after all. I got a bit testy with a local shopkeeper yesterday (who by the way we have removed 5 stray cats from under her porch). I held my tongue when she said she didn’t want to run a fundraiser for us. I wanted to say that I must only matter to her when she has a stray cat problem? But I didn’t. It’s just frustrating, but life moves on.

The recent addition- the tuxedo male, I have found ads out all over, no one has stepped forward to claim him. He is turning out to be quite the love with people. Just not friendly with other cats. Going to do our best to find him a home after the 30 day hold is up and put him in a home with no other kitties to compete against him. He charges the yard cats from his sanctuary- hitting the wire repeatedly. I called him a knucklehead yesterday. LOL

Well, I need to go and pick up the food. Please pray there will be canned foot among all the rest-

God Bless Us Everyone- and may the world please stop going crazy. I take my comfort in prayers and purrs.