Our Labour Day labours

With a spay neuter clinic yesterday, there was no rest on Monday, we had 12 spots to fill and were determined to do so.  Lesley got up early and trapped three older kittens then we met up near Greenwood and trapped the mom and one of the kittens I saw on Saturday.  Sadly they are older than we thought, at least 10 weeks so will need socialization.  Foster homes are in short supply right now!

We had an afternoon nap then went to Neilsen and Ellesmere for six o'clock and trapped 3 of 4 cats in a backyard, and then sped across Scarborough to Victoria Park before sunset to try to get more adults and kittens.  This is a big colony we've been working on for months now, progress has been made but the more you trap the harder it gets.  We did trap one tiny kitten, what a difference, at six weeks it doesn't have time to be feral, and will be accepted at THS with open arms, not the 10 week olds.

All in all, we filled 11 of 12 traps, so can't complain about that!

Six week old

Ten week old

I'm heading back to Greenwood to try to get the other kittens, the mom and kitten that we did catch had fleas so bad they had to vacuum them off!  And in other good news, Liz and Marianne caught Batmom's other kitten, so now it's just Batmom to get.

Seriously it has to stop soon!

Is it just me or does this feel like a marathon kitten season?  Even with all the TNR the kitten calls keep coming.  Via my friend Andrea I found out about a pregnant cat being fed by a couple not too far from me, oddly she had a collar but was starving when she showed up a month ago and hardly left their yard.  I went over, and she walked right into the trap.  I took her to Susan's and posted her on-line as found, she had a pretty pink collar with no ID and wasn't friendly but we did get the too tight collar off.  Susan called me the next morning to say she had her kittens!!!  Not even 24 hours safe inside.  She and her kittens are safe, and the kittens will find homes, we will see if anyone is looking for her but who lets their unspayed cat out!

Batmom, who lives at a colony near me, and seems untrappable, had yet another litter of kittens, sigh.  We managed to catch two of them but one remains at large, we are bringing in someone who nets in hopes of catching Batmom before she becomes pregnant yet again.

And another email from a mom and kittens!  I checked it out yesterday, couldn't catch the kittens, but will persevere.

Yes more kittens and contented cats...

A few years ago I helped a lovely woman named Maria who lives in the west end with a large colony of cats.  We got all fixed with the exception of one wily female, who continues to produce kittens but thankfully Maria is always able to catch them.  If only we could catch her!  She rescued five tiny beauties this week, I met her at the vet and took two to Betsy to foster.  Strangely, there was also three older kittens in her laneway so she got them too, they need a bit of taming but fluffy tabbies with ear tufts!

Three tabbies all look like this!

Wee babies on their way to Betsy

Steve and I often remark on what a delight Twig is, she seems very happy and content, so glad she was rescued and had her issues dealt with.

Twig content at home

And on the theme of content cats, Lynn and I visited Gloria, who had the colony nearby that I TNRed and still feed at.  Gloria took in three of the cats from the colony, Lionel is an older guy with diabetes and arthritis, but now lives happily inside, doted on by Gloria.

Oh, and we finally caught one of the McPherson kittens, the others are eluding us.  We keep going though because we see what great lives these cats can have!

Four more safe!

Today's catch: a litter of rescued formerly feral kittens, on their way now to a happy life, but first we have to deal with their nasty URIs and eye issues.  For today they are safe with Michelle, and are off to the vet tomorrow....no names yet we aren't even sure who is male and who is female.

Beating the heat

The heat lately has been brutal, it just makes me want to lie around, kind of like my guys here are doing.

But the colonies still need feeding, the cats don't seem as affected by the heat as I am, I'm sure they prefer it to January any day.   We did some trapping last week, some successful, some not, and I'm frustrated by a couple of people who have a kitten situation but won't do the slightest thing to help. One feeder says she is too busy to trap the kittens, I found a foster for them, they are about 6 weeks old the perfect age!  We tried but there was no sign of them, she continues to feed them, how hard would it be to put out a kitten trap!  It's the difference between them having loving homes and living a hard short life on the street.  OK, end of rant, I'm off to feed my feral friends, they at least are grateful!

Bye Bye Baxter baby

Ten and a half years ago, before my rescue days, we set out to adopt a kitten.  We had lost 4 cats in 4 years and needed some new life in the house.  We discovered a tiny fluffy orange kitten at a vet for adoption, before we were to take him home he had a prolapsed anus, but we said no matter what happened we still wanted him.  Thankfully that was all fixed up and we brought our boo boo Baxie baby home, he was an adorable kitten.

Recently we've noticed him losing weight although he was eating well, but his bloodwork was normal.  Then last week he developed horrible diarrhea and stopped eating, and meds weren't working.  After an ultrasound we got terrible news, that he had an aggressive lymphoma.  Baxter was clearly in pain and distress so today he crossed the Rainbow Bridge.  No matter how many times I have to have a cat euthanized, it still breaks my heart.  I told Baxter I would see him again across the bridge but not for many more darks, I still have lots of cats who need me.

Goodbye my beautiful Baxter we will always miss you.

Road trip for kitties

Susan and I set off yesterday to pick up four kittens from a friend with a small sanctuary outside the city.  We had a lovely drive and came back with four lovely cats who surely will easily find homes here.

All my rescues now go through Annex Cat Rescue for adoptions, it's great to work with such a wonderful organization, and it helps me to be able to help more!  So I'm doing a 5k in October to help raise money for Annex and all the vet bills, one of the Haliburton cats for example had to have a cardiac ultrasound and we discovered she has a congenital heart condition, or even many of the kittens end up with wounds, or parasites and other issues and need costly vetting.  If you would like to donate (and get a tax receipt!) it would be greatly appreciated.
https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/FundraisingPage.aspx?registrationID=3506320&langPref=en-CA

What's the kitten count?

On my walk this evening over to Riverdale Park to see the sun set, I was thinking about how many kittens we've rescued so far this year, and by we I mean all the people who don't hang up when I call and ask them if they can take one more kitten, and Lesley, who even though she is in her 70s, is out trapping or driving or rescuing every day of the year, and Annex Cat Rescue, who has been doing all the vetting and adopting out of what seems to be endless kittens.  I think the count may be around 75 but I stopped keeping track.

Tonight I saw Sandi's cuties, now ready for adoption, the last of our Haliburton kittens.  Hooray for that!  And cheers to everyone who fosters, drives, traps, feeds, adopts, all for the love of cats.  

And Pseudo returns home

After ten days at the vet recovering from his dental we took Pseudo back yesterday, he ran around meowing saying hey why did you redecorate while I was gone, but today he seemed back to normal, happy to roll around in his catnip and eat his dinner.

Pseudo goes to the vet

Last weekend I noticed our chubby Pseudo wasn't eating that well, which is certainly unusual for him.  Somebody who saw him thought he was pregnant!  Pseudo is one of the cats we can pat and Tuesday I was able to just pick him up and plop him in my handy dandy open top carrier and off we went to the vet, meowing all the way.  Well Pseudo had some bad teeth, not surprising for a 10 year old feral cat, so yesterday he had dental surgery.  Luckily all his bloodwork was normal so hopefully this will fix him up.

Priming him for the pickup

On the way to the vet

I stopped in to Sandi's to see her kittens, this is the last of the Haliburton kittens!  Meet Kiwi, Peach and Mango!