Tales from the nursery week one

What did I learn this week?  I learned that the process of cats giving birth is not for the faint of heart and that Susan is a remarkably strong and calm person, I am so thankful she took in all these cats.  

We have our group of moms and 8 kittens that all rotate and our doing well then we had the excitement of the orange cat (not pictured here) named Butternut giving birth Tuesday night.  Luckily Susan had managed to get her into a large dog crate prior.  Mama does all the work and she gave birth to five teeny tiny orange kittens but then we had the heartbreak of one dying within the first day and then another shortly after.  We went back and forth about whether they should get to a vet but Butternut was very growly and we couldn't handle her and ultimately we decided the stress would be worse and sadly there isn't' much a vet can do for a kitten less than 24 hours old.  Kittens are fragile creatures and if she had still been outside who knows how many would have survived.  However we took these cats in to help them and to lose babies on our watch was devastating.  The other three are doing well though and so is the big group so fingers crossed.  We are going with a tree theme for names for this group.

Ash and kittens

Walnut and Chestnut and kittens

Who doesn't love kittens!

Well this is a new one for the Cherry Street rescue, all these kittens, and we can't tell which kittens belong to which moms, and it looks like a couple of the others are about to give birth any minute! Where's the webcam when I need it?  Thankfully they are all getting friendlier, but neither Susan nor I are experienced with cats giving birth, so this will be quite the learning experience.

Meanwhile, they are eating and eating, if anyone is able to help out with donations of canned or kitten food it would be greatly appreciated!

The first of the Haliburton horde arrives

I think I may have mentioned that I'm working on my biggest rescue yet!!  30 cats at a cottage in Haliburton!  I am scheduling a massive spay neuter clinic for May but in the meantime the cats aren't waiting and the kittens are arriving, so today Susan and I met Wonita in Beaverton and she brought a big carrier full of kittens and moms, 8 babies not even a week old, as well as a couple of other females.

I hope to God they turn out to be tame, they were frightened understandably after a very long drive, so we will let them settle down and go from there.  So many beautiful babies, orange, buff, tabbies...can't wait to snuggle them all.

Spring is here!

Finally spring is here, and all the cats (and us) are enjoying the warmth.

Here's a link to an episode of The Rescue Diaries, shot at one of the other colonies I feed at.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBVdXms66fw

Floppy, now part of the gang at Hank's

The elusive Arrow

The spot where Arrow goes to eat her special food

Lily

Tibbs

Achieving goals....

Well yesterday I achieved my goal, I fed 30+ homeless cats, had a nap with six of mine, and later went to TIFF Just for Cats Film Festival for Michelle and had some wine.  Not a bad day.

I tried yet again to trap Arrow, but it was see trap, run away, and wait for the lady to put it away finally and feed us.  I'll just keep feeding her and hope for the best....

I also spoke to a woman outside Haliburton, this project will be my biggest yet.  A lovely lady started feeding a couple of cats, of course four years later there are 30, and there isn't any TNR up there.  I'm working on organizing a special clinic and she says some are friendly so I'm hoping that we can home some.  There are at least 6 pregnant cats she says, a blind cat, a cat with an injured paw, it's a bit overwhelming, the hardest part is that it's a three and a half hour drive away but we will figure it out. Cat convoy anyone?

Microchips work!

I returned home on Friday from delivering a grumpy abandoned cat to a new foster to find a message from a vet at the Toronto Humane Society saying a cat with a microchip registered to me had been hit by a car and brought in.  I immediately called back, wondering who could it be?  It was Jenko, a black and white female.  I TNR hundreds of cats so that name meant nothing to me, but when they told me the address I knew which one she was, a nearby colony.

She had a badly broken leg, but she was friendly and headbutting the staff.  I contacted the feeders at the colony and they knew her of course, she is one of the tamer ones they have been wanting to rescue.  I have to thank the THS, they said they would amputate her leg at no cost, and then return her to me after recovery.  We will put her in a foster home and find her a loving home once she is healed.

We had a three legged cat and he got around just fine.

Fingers crossed her surgery goes well today and she recovers well.

Betty had a bad morning on Friday but we adjusted her pain meds and now she's eating well again and running around playing.

Happy homes

We brought Betty home after her dental surgery yesterday and she's been acting like nothing happened even though she had all but her canines extracted.  She's eating well, playing and just seems happy to be home.

Posie was recently adopted by a lovely artist named Sharlena and she's been sending wonderful updates to Joanne with these fantastic pictures.

 And Posie has a big brother now too!

Nothing beats the feeling of seeing cats who lived outside now happy in homes!

Monday means time to get to work!

I may not have a job that pays, but I work, do I work!  Yesterday was a trapping day, I started at Carlaw and Gerrard, and caught one of the two stinky unneutered males, then I met up with Lesley and we went to Rosedale but were shut out there.  Later we headed up to Scarborough and got two females and a male, that's ten cats in two weeks done there, bing bang boom, colony under control.

This morning we packed up Betty for her big day of dental surgery.  Our poor girl had all but her canine teeth removed, I know she's a trooper though and will recover well and be better off.  I just hate when they have to go through that kind of thing, and worst she has to spend the night there.  Even though we have lots of cats when one is missing we really notice it.

Baby pictures

I found this picture of Apollo when he was a kitten, look how he still tucks his paw under the same way!  He was one of seven kittens born in the Carlaw and Gerrard yard three years ago, we scooped the mom and all the babies when they were just a few days old, they went to Jenny, then to Michelle, they got adopted, and Apollo got returned and well, need I say any more, he joined the Bain colony.

I took him to the vet yesterday, he was such a good boy, but he too needs dental work!  Sigh, add him to my list, Betty goes for her surgery Tuesday, Oliver also has been diagnosed with stomatitis and now Apollo needs dental too.  Could it be contagious?  

Lesley and I are trapping tomorrow but there is a snowstorm predicted!  It's April 3 for pete's sake!

Marvelous Max!

I posted previously about the three abandoned cats that we rescued and Susan took in.  Pamela and Sophia were snapped up in a week but Max the orange boy has been shy and also needed some dental work so he is still at Susan's.  The last couple of weeks he has really come out of his shell and Thursday we got his dental done, now he can go up for adoption.

Connie took these great photos yesterday, he was up on her lap, so he just needed some time to settle in to indoor life.  We have a great team thing going on, Connie and I both try to get in during the weekdays while Susan is at work to spend some time with the fosters.  With his great looks though I don't expect Max will be a foster for much longer!

As predicted, Posey the kitten was adopted within days of being posted, a lovely artist with another cat took her home yesterday.  Unfortunately the sibling was never seen again and now mom has disappeared, but Posey is going to have a wonderful life!