Just Keep Purring

We have a new cat this week in the Lifesaving Center of Best Friends Animal Society, located in the Sugarhouse district of Salt Lake City.   Fossey is another owner surrender but unlike Cougie, who I talked about in my post Owner Surrender, Fossey did not come to us in very good condition.   For one, he weighed 24 pounds, and though he is a large cat, he is terribly overweight, making him mostly immobile.  His fur was so matted that we had to shave his entire body except for his head.   And he was not eating, so he now has a feeding tube and is fed a liquid diet every few hours.  He is not a beautiful sight although he does have a really cute face.  In the best of worlds, he’d do some of his recovery in a foster home but it would take a really special person to foster him (if you might be that person, look here).  I am no veterinarian, but I certainly wonder whether he will ever be a healthy cat ready for adoption.  I will keep my thoughts about his owner to myself.

Chester

Once a week, I get up early and drive to the Sugarhouse area of Salt Lake City to volunteer at Best Friends Animal Society taking care of cats waiting to be adopted. Taking care means cleaning their kennels, feeding them (usually wet and dry food, because it’s not certain which they will eat), and giving them fresh water.   Cats mostly come in from other public shelters in the area.  We know certain cats will be quicky adopted … they are beautiful, healthy and friendly to all.   Others are traumatized after being abandoned or, as they say, surrendered by owner, ending up behind bars.   Some have been on the street for a while and need to be cleaned up and socialized.  Fortunately, BFAS has a large number of people willing to foster cats, which really helps with getting them ready to be adopted.  Some have health problems, ranging from injuries and parasites to feline diseases like Feline Leukemia.   These cats are lucky to land at BFAS because the Lifesaving Center provides veterinary care and medication.  And we get senior cats, who are often adopted by senior people because they are usually mellow companions.

Cats, People

 

Every Thursday morning, I get up early (for a man or 77} … 7:00 am to be exact … and drive to the Best Friends Animal Society Lifesaving Center in the Sugarhouse neighborhood of Salt Lake City for my shift doing Morning Cat Care.   Typically, there are between fifteen and thirty cats to take care of, which means clean their kennels, feed them, and spend some time with them, since many of them are traumatized to be in another rescue facility.  After all, there is no way for them to know that they have ended up in the best place they could, a facility that will give them medical care, food and a warm bed, and human attention until they can be adopted or placed in a foster home.   The cats I care for are typically a mix of new arrivals from other shelters with no room for them, cats that are too sick or agitated to be in foster or adopted, or … and these are the cats I want to talk about … cats that have been adopted then returned. Now, I am happy that most shelters will take back cats that, as their temporary owners say, haven’t worked out … after all. it’s better than simply dumping them somewhere or dropping them at the Humane Society.   The favorite excuses for returning adopted cats seem to be:  the cat bit me or scratched me, unprovoked; I discovered I’m allergic to cats; the cat required too much attention; or the cat was too aloof.

Going to the Cats

When I lived in California, I volunteered at a cat rescue at a local Petsmart that was managed by Cats in Need.   Once a week I would go in during the evening to clean cages, feed the felines their dinner and give them some human attention.   There were typically 6-10 cats ranging from kittens to seniors and the goal was to find them homes.   Adoption events were held every weekend.   I adopted my first cat from Cats in Need, a senior tuxedo named Claude that cancer took almost exactly a year after he come home with me.   You can read about him in Friend for a Year.  When we moved to Utah, I adopted another tuxedo, this one only two years old by the name of Tyson.  You can meet him here.  Like all the tuxedo cats I’ve known, Tyson has a lot of personality and loves … sometimes demands … attention.  I love him.

Meet Tyson

Yesterday, we picked up my new feline pal from his foster home. His name is Tyson and you might say he is a long distance rescue. When we lost my friend Claude to cancer last August, we decided it made sense to wait until we move to Utah before I found another kitty. I continued to work at the Cats in Need Rescue in Yorba Linda to get my kitty-time and even met a few new cats I’d have brought home, but I waited. You might say I mostly waited because I discovered a website, Petfinder, that allows you to search for pets to rescue in most cities. And so I began to search in the Greater Salt Lake area, where we were moving in December. It was mostly just for fun and to discover where there were rescues I might visit after we moved. That is until early November when I came across Tyson at the Friends of Community – Cat Rescue (FOCCR) in the Salt Lake suburb of Centerville. This was his profile.

Just Plain Stupid

Recently, I posted about how many black … and black and white … cats are languishing in rescues around the country. If they are lucky, they are in a no kill rescue, meaning they have a forever home, even it’s a cage. Those in shelters that euthanize cats are more likely to euthanize black cats because they are the last to be taken. Why? Because a sizeable slice of our supposedly modern society still believes the ancient superstitions that black cats are bad luck.

Black and White (Cats)

If you’ve been coming around here for the last year, you know I am a cat lover, and the cat I loved most had to be put down because of cancer recently. I chose Claude … or rather he chose me … at the Yorba Linda Cats in Need Rescue, where I have volunteered for about a year and a half. At any given time, there are three to six cats staying at the rescue and dozens more being fostered in the homes of other volunteers. Adoption events are held every Saturday and Sunday. It is a joy to come in on my appointed evening and find any cat has been adopted but especially a cat that I like. But it is discouraging to see cats returned by people who adopted them, after promising to give them a forever home. And is sad to see cats that remain week after week, living in a cage.