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.

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.

Rescue Cats

For several weeks now, I have been dealing (not very well) with a sprained foot and ankle.  It began with what seemed to be a minor sprain in the arch of my left foot and was aggravated when I had to lunge to catch a cat that was attempting to make a run for it.  I caught the cat but rolled my ankle painfully.  The cat’s name was Mittens, a resident at the Cats in Need cat rescue where I volunteer.   When I saw my doctor about my ankle, he asked how I hurt it.  He must be a cat lover because he said this: Some cats don’t want to be rescued.  It certainly would seem that way but the truth is, to a cat being locked in a cage in a strange place hardly seems like a rescue.

Meet Claude

For months now, I have been volunteering at Cats in Need, a local cat rescue. I clean cages and cat boxes, feed the cats and (best of all) I get to play with the temporary residents. I try to take a photo of every cat I meet there but I’ve probably missed a few. What is gratifying is to see cats, especially older cats, go home with a new owner. But I admit, in addition to helping the Cats in Need, I had an ulterior motive. A while back, my son’s cat, Elvis, was diagnosed with a massive tumor and had to be put down. While I got over the loss of Elvis, I was keeping an eye open at the rescue for my next cat, who would really be my first cat. The cats in my past have belonged to my mother and my kids. They are, in order, Bambi, Purry, Norman, Mr. B, Kitty, Mr. P and Elvis. Last Saturday, I brought home Claude, six year old Tuxedo.