Who we are

Cherry Street Cats is me (Robin), my husband Steve, Sandi, Michelle, Verena, Vinyse, Derek, Kent, and Connie, a group of dedicated cat lovers who care for a colony of feral cats in the east end of Toronto. I also have a great rescue team of Lesley, Joanne, and Susan. Together we do our best to make the lives better for feral and homeless cats and kittens. 900+ cats helped in nine years!



Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Happy endings

A few weeks ago we caught the three kittens from under the porch near Brenda's house and they went to a wonderful foster home, two have already been adopted. After that, mama Daisy moved the remaining two kittens. We searched under every porch to no avail. Finally, last week, they emerged and we sprang into action. It's easier said than done to catch kittens and it took three tries before we caught them.

Here are they are, the holdouts, aren't they cute. They are probably about 9 weeks old now. Aaffien took them for a few days to do intensive socializing and then they went to the same foster home as the others. Since they were out on their own longer, they will take a bit more work but in a few weeks they will be ready to go to their forever homes, and with faces like that, it shouldn't take long for them to be snapped up. Thank you Dawna for taking them in, and thank you Toronto Cat Rescue for all your help with these cats and kittens.





We also trapped Daisy, the mother, and Beau, the presumed father, and got them spayed and neutered so that Daisy won't have to raise any more kittens under a porch. The wonderful person on the street who was feeding them has agreed to continue to do so and will provide them a shelter as well so they can be snug and warm.




So that mission is complete with happy endings all around.


I couldn't resist throwing in this picture of Reggie (formerly Pumpkin), one of our feral kittens from last year, in his new home. He has grown to be a very handsome and loved cat.


Whenever I feel tired I remind myself of all the happy endings.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Field Guide Part 2

Here is part 2 of the field guide to our cats: I used a picture of Mo in part 1 but I thought this one showed his chocolate colouring so much better. Ollie is a very shy cat who is only seen intermittently.
And then there's the handsome Jackson, our resident eating machine. He enjoys his food and a good pat.
This is either Socks or Semi-Socks. We think there were or are two black and white cats who we only see from afar.
Issac is another shy guy.
Henry is a newcomer, he showed up last fall and based on his behaviour, seems like he was someone's pet at one point. He's neutered now thankfully (he's a sprayer!) and allows me to pat him. He is still sorting out his place in the colony.
We can only distinguish Lionel from all the other black cats by the bump on the base of his tail.
And this is Minky, Clyde's companion, who lives at Clayton's.
That's everyone. the kit and kaboodle. So depending how many black cats there actually are, and that number could vary between 2 and 4 (I think) we have somewhere between 22 and 24 or 25 cats at our colony. Quite the crowd. Can you imagine how many there would be if we hadn't done all that spaying and neutering and adopting out of kittens?

Thursday, April 7, 2011

To the rescue!

I have two happy rescue stories to report. Sunday night we went to the unnamed wildlife habitat to try to trap and relocate another cat. We managed to trap a fluffy orange cat who reportedly had been out there for 12 years and was somewhat friendly.

Well, this lucky guy is now in a home, after having been checked over by a vet and had his teeth cleaned. Turns out he is FIV positive but amazingly healthy otherwise and his new mom doesn't care, she had given him sanctuary for the rest of his days. He went home last night and maybe it was just the pain meds, but he was snuggled beside his new person purring away.

Back at our colony, we were concerned because Tina hadn't been seen for a few days and she always shows up for meals. Jo, who is part of her group, seems ill and hasn't really been eating so we were concerned something was up with Tina too. Steve and I headed down last evening, peering with a flashlight into every shelter, wandering through the boatyard calling her name.

Suddenly I heard insistent meowing and found Tina looking out the window of a boat. Somehow she had gotten trapped inside. I clambered aboard. Luckily the door wasn't locked and I freed poor hungry Tina. We cleaned up a lot of cat hair and a bit of poo, hopefully the boat owner won't know what was up. Check out the name of the boat!
Tina was thankful to get something to eat after 3 days. She must have so stressed out in there.
I slept much better last night, having solved the Tina mystery.