DEC 12th!!! Feed a Cat for Christmas! BETH S.!!!!

Beth S.!!  Thank you Beth!!!  Thank you for your generosity in helping me to feed a cat for Christmas.  Beth doesn't know me from a bag of beans, but she was kind enough to see the need that few of us have that go out into the dark of morning and feed hungry stray and homeless cats.  Actually, you helped me to feed many cats this morning.  I know the dates are a little off, but I got a late start, and wanted everyone to experience their own date that they helped to fund the food that feeds all these cats.

It snowed overnight, and continues to snow - it is measureable - and it is cold out there.  I poured hot water and gave all the little shape shifters (sorry, I can't get out of my mind that ML mentioned that I am feeding shape shifting rats - she told the police this) their dry and precious wet food on my route this morning.  It was quiet.  ML did not touch my stuff yesterday, but the day before, little did I know, she actually unhinged the hinges on the shelter.  My friends came by yesterday and worked down the screws so that she can't unscrew them, and fixed the hinges.  I saw the kitten bolt out again this morning from its cozy nest in there.  If she touches it again and causes fear for those cats again, I'll ___________________________.  I'll have her arrested.  That's what I will do.  .........

Each time I pull up to one of my shelters - all 18 or so, I expect to find them by the side of the road, or gone.  There are some I am confident will be there, but I realize that nothing is permanent.  Until we live in a society where these cats matter, and we can have cat houses placed all over the city for these homeless animals to take refuge in, I will continue to fight for their lives to have some measure of comfort and security.

I leave you with Part 3 of Andrea's story.  Thank you Andrea for sharing a part of your life with us!

Part 3 – TNR and other musings

So now that we have the housing and feeding station in place and the cats on some sort of feeding schedule we decided it was time to trap them and get them fixed. I called Lollypop Farm and they were not able to get us appointments until mid-January. So I made the appointments and started plotting our strategy. One of Janine’s supporters (Diane), who happens to live not far from me, reached out and said that she had a few appointments at RCAC in December and if I wanted to try and trap the cats she would transport them for us. I did not have any traps so she generously brought one over for us and showed us how to use it. We put it out a week ahead of time with food in it to get the cats used to it. Immediately Baby Tiger went in it. Not only did he eat the food but he sat in there every day just looking around. Every day hubby would say to him “I’m gonna get you” and this is the face he would get!!

So the morning in question hubby went and put sardines in the trap. He went back in the house and watched through his binoculars as Baby Tiger inspected the trap. He sniffed and walked away. So hubby went back out and replaced the sardines with his regular Fancy Feast food and as soon as he got back inside SNAP went the cage and Baby Tiger was caught! He was a bit jumpy at first but as soon as he got in the garage hubby talked to him and he sort of calmed down.

Diane was called and off Baby Tiger went to RCAC for his TNR. So we find out Baby Tiger is a boy about 6 months old and in good physical condition. Diane brought him back to us and told us to keep him warm until the morning. She brought us this contraption that you insert into the trap that divides the trap in two and allows you to put food in the trap without getting attacked. We were a bit leery about doing this and asked her to do it for us. While she was teaching hubby I went and got the food and water ready. When we went to feed Baby Tiger we noticed that he had escaped. Since it had snowed hubby could see his paw prints in the snow. I went in for a flashlight (not that it would help) and hubby followed the paw prints into the woods and he was gone. We were all so upset worrying that something would happen to him. Then all of a sudden hubby shined the flashlight up to the shelter and there were glowing eyes coming from it. It was too dark to see if it was Baby Tiger but we kept our fingers crossed.

The next morning we found these on our back deck right up to our sliding glass door. I guess Baby Tiger was trying to tell us he was the smarter one in the bunch!!

Then hubby got his binoculars and looked up at the shelter and this is what he saw.

There was Baby TIGER in his house giving the “Evil Eye” to hubby. Hubby felt so bad that he put the food on the sun porch. This was his attempt at breakfast in bed.

When hubby used to go feed Baby Tiger he would sit there and watch now he runs and hides from hubby and waits until he gets in the house before coming out. I think Baby Tiger put the word out about his ordeal because even Baby Blackie keeps his distance too. Well, hopefully they do not have long memories because it will be Baby Blackie and the Boss’s turn in mid-January.

No matter how upset they are with you they are still creatures of habit and still come out to eat. Hubby feeds them around 7:30 AM and then at 3:00 PM. Once 2:30 PM approaches this is what we see outside our window. It’s a bit blurry but you can see the “3 Musketeers.”

I thought this would be the last part of this series but I do have a Part 4 to tell you about so stay tuned…….

Have a great day!

"Let gratitude be the pillow

upon which you kneel to say

your nightly prayer."