No Trapping September 1 – 11.

Taking the holiday weekend to recuperate from move and allow all trappers to enjoy a weekend without me hounding them to get more cats.  See you fine trappers on Sept 12th.

NO TRAPPING 9/01 – 9/11

NO TRAPPING 9/01 – 9/11

NO TRAPPING 9/01 – 9/11

NO TRAPPING 9/01 – 9/11

NO TRAPPING 9/01 – 9/11

NO TRAPPING 9/01 – 9/11

I was reminded of the anniversary of Katrina via text from my good friend Becky Gainey who I met working at the temporary animal shelter set up at LSU in Baton Rouge.  Gabby and I had already been there for a couple weeks when she arrived.  She finished off what I started; managing the front of house operations.  It was a crazy time in our lives, but we both came out of it with amazing black boy cats, my MONKEY and her LOUI.

When we arrived on the scene in Louisiana, just about one week post Katrina, we were surrounded by ANIMAL RESCUE people from every part of the country.  I remember a couple girls who came down in their pick up truck with the words “ANIMAL RESCUE” written on the back window.  The immediate thought in my head was….I WANT TO BE CALLED A RESCUER SOME DAY.  Funny where 5 years gets one.

On the fifth anniversary of Katrina, I was finishing up a long week and a half stretch remodeling our new facility.  I was exhausted but determined to do in-take out of the new place last night.  And we did.  If I hadn’t been so tired and brain dead, I’d have opened a bottle of champagne and taken a photo of us planting my very proud “FIXED KITTENS” sign in the yard by the front porch.

With the help of probably 30 dedicated volunteers whose names I’m unable to mention at this point as I’m pre MORNING TEA (though it’s past noon) and my head isn’t on straight yet, we turned a stinky 70′s house into a rescue megaplex.  I’m so proud.  And so humbled by the blood (literally as Paul nearly took his finger nail off yesterday), sweat (everybody contributed to that) and nearly tears given by everyone to make the place rescue ready.

We took in our first cats last night.  Nine came in for TNR during our first evening’s operations, ironically ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF KATRINA.

I think it’s in the stars people.  I think it’s meant to be.  My name rhymes with Feral.  My new facility opened on the day that began the biggest animal rescue in the history of this country, and while exhausted, I’m full of energy, excitement and hope to help thousands of free-roaming cats get fixed or found forever homes.

Thank you all who are making this possible through your time, donations and dedication.

Beaming……

~ Carol

PS.  The trip we took to Baton Rouge is detailed here on this blog:

http://southboundforanimals.blogspot.com

We are able to finance our copy and office supply needs by redeeming used ink cartridges of any make, shape or size.  Please collect these from your work place and get them to us.  We have the potential to not ever have to pay for office supplies in the future if we can collect enough.

Bring them to our site anytime.

4600 Knapp NE

: ) Carol

Hello Feral Friends:

Thank you all for your generosity and help so far while we prepare our new facility for feline residents.

Our hope is to get the ferals in this weekend and begin TNR operations on Sunday night in our HUGE NEW DIGS.  Thank goodness we won’t have to trip over one another any more in our tiny garage stalls!

We need some things for our new facility.  They need not be brand new, but in decent condition.

Who has the following to spare?

*Plastic chairs for patios.  They just need to be in one piece without cracks.  We will be spray painting them a bunch of cool colors to match our cat rooms and waiting areas.

*Crock style food dishes.  Ceramic only.  No plastic.  But heavy crockery types, the larger the better, but all sizes needed.

*Cork bulletin boards of any size

*White boards of any size

*Doorway thresholds for vinyl flooring.

If you have any of these items, please contact Carol at info@carolsferals.org

Thank you so much!

~ C

PS  We will still be working at facility this weekend.

Friday:  laying remaining flooring, replacing trim, caulking it in place.

Saturday:  remaining tasks from above, moving TNR supplies in from old facility.  Organization.

Sunday:  moving from point A to B

Please consider coming to our new facility to finish installing the flooring and moving equipment into the new facility.  Times.  All day friday, saturday and sunday.  From noon – ?

Let Carol know if you can make it:

info@carolsferals.org

facebook

616.560.0555

Thanks muchly!

Let’s get this place rockin’ with kitties!

C

Details for FB:  http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=146123618752788

Moving to our new home this weekend! YAY!

Here’s the facebook invite:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=112302608824138&ref=mf#!/event.php?eid=112302608824138&ref=mf

Everybody, please give me your availability all times between noon Saturday – Tuesday at 10pm.

We will assemble crews to install the flooring. Need all hands on deck for this one folks.

IF YOU HAVE EVER INSTALLED VINYL FLOORING BEFORE, WE NEED YOUR EXPERTISE FOR SURE. WE HAVE NO FOREMAN FOR THIS JOB, SO WE WILL BE MORE OR LESS WINGING IT.
…
Will provide snacks and drinks. Bring a few friends. Le…t’s power this out and have our cats in by mid week.

Thank you Dr. Bruce Langlois for allowing us to deduct the flooring costs from our rent for the next year.

IF YOU CAN’T PHYSICALLY WORK ON THIS PROJECT, how about supplying food, drink and snacks?

Thanks so much!
We’re almost there!
Carol

Calling all angels.

The vinyl flooring I’d like to purchase will run us somewhere around $1,750.  That’s pretty much impossible with the big rent we will be paying on the new place.  We need to find some that can be donated.

Here is my plea.

If anyone can help me procure even a room at a time, that would be great.

vinyl flooring needs:

2554 total sq ft.

bedroom 1     12×14    &    12×9 – 6×9 (not sure what this note means -6.9 but thinking that’s to be used for bed 3)

bedroom 2                12×16   use scrap for nook

bedroom 3          12X12  and scrap from bedroom 1

dining/family room     12×28      12×16      12×16

hallway                          6×22

laundry room    6×11 and use scrap from furnace room     *can be ugly….laundry room

den (stained glass)     12×14  & 12×6

fireplace room    12×25     12×14     12×14     *needs to be lovely and durable (high traffic for feral intake)

furnace room (bk)    12×16  & 12×16  use scrap for closet       *can be ugly if free cuz it’s a storage room

Prefer loose laid vs glue down.
Like a lighter color but not shiny if i have my choice.  Facility is all dark wood paneling and a lighter color would be best if possible to brighten it up a bit.

Something like this or a little lighter perhaps?

Alana, one of our awesome feral trappers left her gig after capturing two cats from the colony she has been working on in a neighborhood littered (literally) with cats and kittens.

When she was driving, she saw a cute dilute tortie girl sitting by the street.  Alana said she looked right into her eyes and she stopped her truck and the very pregnant girl came right to her.

When processing her paperwork we needed a name.  I piped up (which was probably a bad idea) with the name Octo-Mom which I didn’t know the real name of the woman but Kolene who was helping with intake or Alana said “Nadya, her name is Nadya”.  So we named her NADIA.

Groovy!  Till just now when I got a text from my vet who said, “We have a mom with kittens, her name is Nadya.  UGH!  a day to late to spay her.  Guessing we will have another litter to find homes for.  Hopefully though she’s not like her namesake and gives us 8.

Lesson learned, don’t name a cat after an ultra fertile woman.

Check the t-shirt.

Have you heard the expression:  You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear”?  It’s a horrible expression when you visualize it really.  But it’s completely applicable to this situation so visualize it.  Then visualize a half scared out of it’s mind kitten who is afraid of humans living in a home with them and not wanting any part of them.

In my opinion, this is what we do when we make the mistake of thinking that every cat should be in an home.  I am a firm believer of keeping pet cats indoors and sheltering them from the numerous perils that are outdoors.  Besides cars, cruel kids who would like to use a cat for their next “science project” , idiot neighbors who think cats should be shot or poisoned, and “bunchers” who grab up strays to sell to class b animal dealers, cats outdoors are in great peril.  But feral cats, being leery of humans are less at risk for most of these harms.  So I believe we should keep feral cats FERAL.

Think about the big picture.  For every cat in this country to have a home, each American household would have to give residence to 49 cats.  That’s not possible, OBVIOUSLY.  So the feral cats who thrive outdoors and are happiest in their wild state, need to be left to being outside.  If we fix them and return them through a Trap-Neuter-Return program, we will circumvent unnecessary births and better ensure the cat has a good life without the mating and fighting related diseases that will be minimized after sterilization.

It’s natural for us humans to want to help these feral cats and kittens.  Kittens appear to be helpless little beings and many are, but the feral ones are not.  They are fierce little monsters who will bite you in the thumb and think nothing about your two week course of antibiotics that will be necessary if they get you good enough.

In my opinion, 6 weeks is the cut off date to tame a feral kitten.  If you feel you want to tame the feral little beast, here is how to do it:  Taming Feral Kittens

But if you do tame the kittens, plan on having them fixed and finding them homes on your own, because rescues and shelters are full to the brim.  Don’t expect a rescue to take kittens off your hands.  For tips on how to rehome a cat, look no further:  I Need to Rehome a Cat

The ferals can take care of themselves.  They are adapted to their environment and they like it like it is.  Imagine someone taking YOU and forcing you to live in the WILD.  Same difference!

When you see a bedraggled mess of a cat outdoors you either have a stray (once owned cat) that is not good at fending for itself outside of the home, or a very sick feral.

It’s a common misconception that feral cats look bad.  It’s the contrary, they are fine in the wild and can take care of themselves, hunt and maintain a relatively healthy life though without TNR, they will breed prolifically and wind up sick or dead.  But you see those situations mostly in barns or in the hands of a hoarder where too many cats are kept in too small of an area and they share the diseases and parasites as well as the outbuilding.

Why not try to get the cat to like you?  Why not TRY to make him friendly?  This is why!  Because making an outdoor feral cat trusting of humans puts it in more danger than it would be if it stayed feral.  I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be loving and kind to the scared cat that seems to WANT TO BE you friend.  I’m saying, don’t spend your time trying to win the affections of a feral so that you can get it fixed.  That my feral friends is what live-traps are for.

We need to look at the big picture in everything we do in this lifetime as everything (every single little thing) HAS A CONSEQUENCE. Tame the kitten, find it a home…..displace a home for a friendly kitten that will be euthanized at the shelter because it has no place to go.  It’s the exact same argument for not letting pregnant cats have their kittens.  Every life that comes into this world, takes the place of another that will be killed.  Until we have NO MORE HOMELESS PETS, we have to spay/abort pregnant cats and leave ferals to be FERAL.

For more compelling reasons to spay a pregnant cat, read this:

*** CAUTION slightly GRAPHIC***I have a pregnant cat and I’m thinking of letting her have her kittens

Make silk purses out of silk.  Leave the sow out of it.

~Carol

Probably not the ideal candidate for your kid's new pet

Oh boy, we need some stuff for the new facility.

Here are our 7 wishes for 7 kitties!

If anyone would like to donate an item to helping us ready the new adoption facility/TNR resource center here’s the list:

Kitty one wants:  Kwikset Combination Door Locks:  Door Locks $70 each  – need two

Kitty two wants:  Smoke Detectors & Batteries:  Need 10

Kitty three wants:  Carbon Monoxide Detector:  Detector $43

Kitty four wants:  Garbage Disposal:  Disposal $72  (would be nice but not huge priority)

Kitty five wants:  Heat Control Window Film:  Film $46 per roll – need 6-7 rolls, because draperies or blinds are futile in a cat house.

Kitty six wants:  Vinyl Flooring for 2,500 sq. ft.  Remnants for smaller rooms are fine.   Would prefer a nice quality for our main intake facility room which will be higher traffic.

This is what we need folks.  If anyone would like to donate funds toward these items, purchase items for us or donate gift cards to Lowes, that would be amazing.

Wait till you see this facility.  It’s a dream come true.  We will have two large bedrooms,  a huge living room and dining room devoted to housing our adoptable cats.  A large TNR resource center and waiting area will combine with our office to create an educational space and comfortable place for our feral clients to wait to be processed for transport to vet.  Two bathrooms for cleaning traps, housing a mom and kittens or other special needs cat and thank goodness, a flush toilet for volunteers (this is a new one, as we have had nothing but an bedside commode thus far), laundry room to wash our cat towels etc without having to take to laundromat or to my personal residence, storage rooms for supplies and equipment and safe transfer room for processing incoming ferals.

Once we’re in (target date Sepetember 1st) we will hold an open house and let you all see what you’ve contributed to.

Thank you all for your support.

~ Carol

PS  Kitty Seven wants you to know:  If funds are tight and you’d rather lend a hand to install flooring (with instruction from our job foreman, Jerry) or help with move of equipment and furnishings, please contact Carol at info@carolsferals.org.

PROGRESS PHOTOS!  HERE:  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=201956&id=648270769&ref=mf

PS  Thank you Steven Wright for your donation to start the remodel ball rolling!