My Saturday update

Let's start with the good news!  Kahlua, the lost foster cat, was spotted yesterday thanks to the flyers that had been distributed.  James and Lesley rushed over last night and managed to easily trap her! She is safe and now back at Michelle's!

I took advantage of a sale at Petsmart and stocked up on Friskies for my ferals, winter is coming, and they need to get good and fat.  It was cold and blustery today and already I'm worried about them.

 I'm also worried about my little Twig, she is ill, she was just sleeping for a couple of days (but still eating) so I took her to Dr Vlad and she had a fever and a bit of a URI, so now she is on antibiotics. Her pancreas levels are increased too which is a bit odd.  Hopefully she will bounce back quickly, I hate it when my babies are sick.

The kittens have arrived!

Betsy's pregnant cat had her kittens yesterday, it's the first time Betsy has dealt with this, thankfully in most cases mom does all the work.  She quickly had two kittens, then after a delay another, and then a few hours later she delivered the last one, sadly it was stillborn.  The other three seem healthy though, so thankful she had her babies inside.  I posted her as found but no one has come looking for her.

I spent the entire day at Michelle's yesterday waiting for kittens to poo.  She is away and they finished their giardia meds so need to be tested.  Well I thought kittens pooed all the time.  I kept feeding them and feeding them, but after 7 hours only three had gone!  That was the best I could do.  They are so cute, but are four months old, now, they have had persistent URIs and then giardia.  Let's hope they are healthy now and can find homes!

In troubling news, one of Michelle's former fosters, who just moved a week or so ago, pushed open a window screen yesterday and is missing.  I hope she is found quickly!

Surprise!

A rescuer acquaintance, JJ, called me last week about a friendly cat that had showed up in an alley where she feeds a couple of ferals.  THS was at capacity and couldn't take the cat right now, so thankfully Betsy agreed to foster her.  Surprise, this cat is clearly very pregnant, but luckily very friendly.  I've posted her as found in case someone is looking for her, but now she has a safe warm place to have her babies.

Meet Elaine, she is going to have cute kittens!

I've had a nasty cold the last few days, so have been spending lots of time in bed, and I have lots of company, the cats love it when we go to bed during the day!

Unflattering selfie of me with Blinky

 I tried yet again to get Hank to no avail, just all the black cats clustered around, sigh.

Seven years of blogging

I've been blogging about feral cats and cat rescue and trapping for seven years now!  I started on Thanksgiving in 2009, we were trying to catch Tibb's kittens who were on a boat.  We did catch them, she got spayed and is still part of the colony.  So much has changed in that time, cats have come and gone, many have died, I trap and rescue and feed at other colonies but Cherry Street is still closest to my heart and it saddens me to realize that one day, probably within the next five years, there won't be any more cats there.  I am convinced that Hank has a tumour in his mouth but I have been unable to trap him, it's absolutely heartbreaking.  On the positive side, he's lived many many more years than he would have had we not come along to take care of him.

Pseudo enjoying the trailer

Sadie and Misty, two of our new feral friends

 And on another happy note, cutie pie Kevin got adopted and went off to his new home this week.

Will I still be blogging about cats in seven years?  It's hard to know....Happy thanksgiving to all, as usual I give thanks for all the cats in my life and the friends I have met along this journey.

R&R and back to reality

Steve and I took off to Newfoundland for a few days, my east coast soul needed an ocean hit, but guess what we found some cats to visit with!

 It's back to reality now, visited Michelle's cuties yesterday.  She is in Jamaica with a hurricane approaching, so maybe I can steal her kittens while she's gone LOL.

Unfortunately I returned to find that our Hanky has some issues with his mouth, he is having trouble eating and is drooling and his mouth looks swollen.  He is an old cat for sure, and five years ago he had major dental work, taking out all his teeth except his canines. My task tomorrow is to try to trap him to get him to the vet.  Oh how I hate when they get old and ill!

An afternoon at Michelle's

Michelle still has her kittens, and Spot has joined the gang, poor babies had URIs and now giardia so aren't ready for adoption yet, but at least I get to go visit them, they are so cute and sweet, I could spend the whole day in the kitten room.

Jackson

Freida

Toulouse 

Spot and Vincent

And here is a picture of another cutie, Kevin, he's Susan's foster, but is enjoying a vacation currently at Joanne's.  Hard to believe he was living outside for at least a month before we rescued him!

The mystery of the stolen kitten

Yesterday while I was at the laundromat doing cat laundry, I got one of those calls I dread, we've found a cat and the microchip traces to you.  This time it was a vet clinic, someone found a cat and brought it in, her name was Jazz and the chip was registered to me.  Well I TNR hundreds of cats so the name didn't ring a bell, I went home and looked through my records, nothing, and she wasn't eartipped and was friendly so even stranger.  I called the microchip company and they said Jazz was spayed and chipped in March 2015 at the Toronto Humane Society so I drove down to talk to someone there.

I went into intake and explained the situation and gave them the chip number.  When the intake person put the chip number in the computer, she looked puzzled and had to get the supervisor.  Well, what a story, Jazz was a kitten I took in for adoption, but she was stolen from the shelter last spring!  All this time she's been living somewhere, and for whatever reason got out or was abandoned and was found not that far from the THS.

She looks in pretty good shape, just a scratch on her face, I can only hope the people who stole her loved her and took good care of her. She is now back at THS, waiting for her second chance.  

Today

Jazz as a kitten

Are you tired of kittens yet?

I think I may be tiring of kittens, surely it must be fall and kitten season will end soon.  We caught the cutest little white kitten last week!  He was feral for all of about 24 hours!

Lesley is running quite the system at her place, catch the kittens, tame and assess them and move them on to foster homes.  These two are from Yonge and McPherson, their sibling was caught a few weeks ago and mom already TNRed.

I caught another of the Greenwood kittens, one left, but I'm not having any luck.  In other news, two of Joanne's older black kittens have been adopted!  Michelle's four cuties are off to the adoptathon, Susan has the grumpy mom and we think five kittens, and the cutest little orange and white guy.  Full houses everywhere, but the wonderful thing is they keep finding fantastic homes.  I hope they all live a long wonderful life, safe and loved.

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.