Too Many Homeless Cats Consider A Rescue or Fostering

Our local animal shelter is so full that they are not taking anymore cats or kittens and all the people that foster are full. It really is an example why people should get their cats spayed or neutered. There are so many starving kittens and cats that freeze to death in the winter. It’s so unnecessary and no way to die alone and unloved. If you can’t rescue a cat, please think about fostering. I am sure there are opportunities for fostering in every community.

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Cali

Cali was another rescue. None of us can resist rescuing homeless cats and dogs. This one came by way of Charles, my husband. I don’t remember what year it was, but it was more than six years ago because he was working at the local treatment center for troubles youth.

Cali was living out of a garbage can in front by the entrance. Charles was done for the night and parked there long enough to run his paperwork in. Cali tried to get in the van with him. When he came back out to take the van to the company parking area she did jumped in with him. She was being so lovable called me and asked if he could bring a cat home. I said no, we have too many pets already. Charles said okay and he wasn’t going to, but she followed him up to the entrance when he went to clock out and just waited by the door. He just couldn’t resist and told her if she was still there she could come home with him. She was still there waiting and followed him when he came in and jumped in his truck before he could get in himself.

When Charles came in the door with a cat, both boys were up and running to see what “Daddy” brought home. I was out voted. We agreed we would keep her for now and get her to the vet. So she got her shots and spayed, staying with us until I finally found the perfect home for her. She didn’t like the other pets and as lovable as she was with us, she was not a good fit here. It took awhile but we found a family with a young son who wanted a cat and they had no other pets. Cali’s new family sent me pictures of her to show how happy both she and there son were.

Hope and Her Pet Beetle

Too funny, Hope caught a bug last night and went running into the cat’s room with it. Yes, my cats have their own room. She then brought it back out and put it down at the rug in front of the front door. She kept picking it up very carefully and then putting it back down. It turned out to be some sort of beetle that snuck in the door when my adult (LOL) son came in after dark. I had the outside light on, and several bugs swarm the light and try to sneak in with him every time he goes out or comes in at night.

A mosquito hawk snuck in too and she was chasing that at first. It was hovering around the ceiling and wouldn’t come down within reach, so she gave up on it as soon as she spotted the beetle. She started going crazy with the beetle making a noise that sounded like she was crying. I think she was trying to make a pet out of it. She kept playing with it and chasing it around picking it up, carrying it around and putting it back down. She was not trying to hurt it but picked it up very gently and carried it around set it down and cried.

I don’t know how long she played with that beetle because I was too busy laughing to pay attention to the time and trying to get a picture that would show that beetle. The beetle was probably traumatized, but I was highly entertained. KitKat, normally her partner in crime was still stalking the mosquito hawk. Never a dull moment with these two around. Of course, Cuddles just sits on my desk and watches them. She usually won’t join in the shenanigans until she thinks I won’t see her.

In Memory of Caesar

He was a Jack Russel Min Pin, a crazy combination and what a clown.

august 9, 2016

Caesar was my favorite dog ever. He was such a clown that you couldn’t help laughing at him, even if you caught him doing something he shouldn’t be doing. I used to take him outside to play with the ball every day when the weather was nice. Problem was he had those short stubby legs and couldn’t jump high or catch a ball, so we switched to a soccer ball. He was so excited. I used my feet to move the ball around and then kick it to him and in no time, he figured out how to do the same. When the weather got bad, I used a little bit smaller rubber ball and we played soccer in the house.

Our oldest cat Cuddles took Caesar under her wing. She acted like he was her baby kitten watching over him all day. At bedtime they would get on the foot of the bed and she would give him a bath. Every so often he would think he was done before she was, and she would bop him with her paw so he would lay back down. Cuddles cried real tears when Caesar died. I have never seen a cat do that before. It was a long time before she wanted anything to do with any other dog or cat for that matter. She is finally becoming best friends with Cai now. It is good to see them play and take naps curled up together. It took me awhile to get attached to anther dog also, so I understand. I will never forget Caesar, even though we have found other dogs to love. I often picture him play soccer in a field of flowers across the rainbow bridge.

In Memory of Flaca

September 9, 2020

Her life was short, but she gave great joy and was much loved.

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Christine

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Nimbus

Nimbus was another of the many animals we have rescued over the years. As you can see, he found a wonderful home and is much loved.

We used to have an old RV which was parked by the garage in our back yard. We had been working on getting it road worthy but not managed to get it done yet. Since it was sitting there, we had used it for a changing room when having a huge water fight party. We ended up selling it before getting it finished but it had its use while still here.

One of the most memorable things about the old RV was the day my sons, Charles and Chris heard a kitten crying. It sounded like it was inside of the RV, so they got my keys and went in looking everywhere, in the cupboards, underneath seats and all the places they could think of. After searching inside and not finding it, they looked under and no sign of a kitten there either. Finally, one of the boys crawled underneath the RV and saw where it had climbed up inside the underneath area. Poor little thing was so scared and would not come out. If I remember right Charles insisted on getting a can of tuna to bribe the kitten out. Charles always uses tuna to bribe his cats to come out of hiding until they get used to our home, and sure enough it worked.

Cotton as the boys dubbed him, was covered in fleas. She was too little to use any type of flea bath. I do not remember who came up with the idea, but someone said use original blue Dawn dish soap. I knew they had used it to clean birds that were covered in oil after a big spill, so it should be safe to use. I took him to the bathroom sink and adjusted the water, so it was lukewarm. The boys helped me, and we got all the fleas washed down the drain after my son crushed them. They got an old milk crate put something soft in it and after Cotton was good and dry as we could manage, we tucked him in and started looking for a home for him.

I posted pictures online first so hopefully I would find someone I knew, because I wanted to be sure he was well taken care of. My boys were not really wanting to give him up, but Charles had just recently rescued a pregnant cat and it was a struggle to find homes for all those kittens, so I agreed if we did not fine a good home we would keep this one, but we had to at least try first. We were so blessed that one of my long-time friends that had helped me with Charles when he was a baby (her mother is the nurse that helped deliver him) decided to take him. She brought he little girl over to meet him and that was the end of that.

They named him Nimbus. He has had a great life as you can see from the photos. Nimbus bonded completely with that little girl and is much loved. She sends me more pictures every so often and I am grateful both to my boys, who learned to love and rescue animals, and to my friend and her daughter for loving Nimbus.

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Christine

The Ice Cream Truck On The Way

When I was young there was always an ice cream truck that drove around the neighborhood and stopped when there were children present. I think there was one here when my children were little too, but I have not seen or heard one for many years until this summer.

Now my dogs hear it coming before I do and I do not know how they know what it is, but they do. Maybe they can smell it. All I know for sure is they want that truck to stop for them. There are never any kids out when it comes through here, so it does not stop no matter how hard my dogs try to get the drivers attention.

Chief’s Way

Chief has been so grateful for a home that is not full of 108 cat’s and all their messes, not to mention people who have time to give him a little attention. A couple of times one of the kids didn’t’ get the gate fastened good and Chief was able to get out. Both times he walked straight to the side door and scratched at it so I would hear and let him in.

Twice since our oldest son left for the Navy, we have taken a trip to visit him. The first time my sister, who Chief has always gotten along with better than most, stayed at our house until we got home. Normally Chief is the most well-behaved little dog I have had. Not for my sister though. All our pets were fine with her except Chief.

The second time we left Chief with a close friend who Chief is fine with, and she sent me photos and videos every day showing how well he was getting along and seemed incredibly happy. Until the last couple days. He turned into a little stinker, misbehaving until he came home. Apparently, he was ready to be back with us and afraid he was not going to ever go home. Chief has made it very apparent his way is with us. That is why I had to take a picture of this sign we passed on the way to where my son was stationed at the time.

Pet Sillines

September 11, 2020

Cuddles sits at my desk pretending to be me, checking out the latest news, even trying to sip out of my Navy cup, while KitKat sits staring out the window denying our existence. Hope is on the back of my chair crying because a bug got in the house and she can’t reach it. She will spend half the night stalking that bug. Meanwhile Chief is busy making a fort, looks up at me with that “Who me? No not me, I just found it like this.” look on his face. Then comes Cai “Mom, mom, hey momma, you going out?” So, we go to the back door look out, lo and behold there is my favorite little squirrel just watching to see if it is just me and Chief or if Cai is coming out. That squirrel loves to get just out of Cai’s reach and tease her. If it’s just Chief, he is ignored.

Cuddles

Cuddles was our first rescue pet after our boys were born. There was an old abandoned house next door to us when we moved here 29 years ago. Eventually it was condemned and torn down. Unfortunately, that caused a lot of critters to run to our property to escape. We were in the middle of remodeling at that time, and the mice that ran this direction began to find their way in the house. So, we decided to go to the local shelter and get a kitten.  When we got to the shelter, they had a litter of kittens that had just been rescued from a dumpster. They had not been vetted yet, so they were not ready for adoption. We had to pass by their cage to get to the other cats and one of the kittens started meowing at me. I could not resist stopping to talk to her a bit. I bent down and petted her through the cage as she pushed her head against it trying to reach me.

We went on the to look at the other cats and looked for one that would respond to either me or my husband. None of them showed any interest in us, so we thought maybe we would wait until the kittens were ready. Every time we walked past that cage, the same little kitten would make a lot of noise and stick her paw out of the cage trying to reach for me. We asked when they would be ready to adopt so we could come back and get the one that seemed to want us so much. We also wanted to know if they could hold her for us and let us know when she was ready to pick up. The workers at the shelter saw how much this little kitty wanted me and kept trying to reach out to me. They decided to let us adopt her that day on the condition that we take her to get her shots and get her spayed within three or four months. We had to sign a paper agreeing to do so and bring the papers from the vet showing it was done. That is how we ended up with Cuddles. She chose us, instead of us choosing her.

KitKat

KitKat is my son’s cat. When he rescued her, she was already pregnant and appeared to be less than a year old. He helped her until she delivered her kittens and we got her vet checked and spayed through Action for Animals. Between the two of us we found homes for the kittens. When my son left for Navy boot camp, he left KitKat with us until the time comes that he has a somewhat permanent home. Although she has accepted us, she thoroughly enjoys the rare occasion when our son gets to visit.

KitKat is a bit of a night owl, sleeping most of the day. In the evening she comes out and prowls around the house to make sure everything is the same as she left it. She is rather aloof where humans and dogs are concerned, but she will occasionally curl up next to me and let me pet her under the chin or scratch her ears. When she is done, she lets you know. Cuddles, our senior cat is the only one she interacted with on a regular basis, until we took Hope in to foster. Hope and KitKat soon became playmates and have bonded very closely. They have a variety of games that resemble children playing some sort of tag or hide and seek, with Cuddles joining in as more of a referee.

Hope

 January 21, 2020, Hope had joined us as a foster kitty not long ago. I was thinking I could use the distraction while my Sailor is out of reach for the next who knows how many months. I had been down with the flu since the previous Tuesday. The first three days were pretty rough but I’d been getting gradually better every day since. Still being under the weather I laid down for an hour nap. I woke up to these two playing, one on each side of me taking turns jumping up and tagging each other. Of course they quit as soon as I reach for the camera. So now Hope is following Cuddles everywhere. Cuddles is acting like she is unaware, but she stops and waits until Hope catches up. Good little Mamma. They just went in my youngest son’s room where KitKat was napping. Brave kitty.

Meet Cai

Meet Cai, our youngest Pup. She will be three years old in a few months. We rescued Cai from the local animal shelter when she was just a few months old. We named her Cai because it mean Joy and Cai is so joyful it’s contagious. She loves everyone and she loves doing whatever Mom or Dad happen to be doing at the moment. She is my gardening buddy. As you can see she was quite fascinated with helping me plant my garden the year. Anything I do she thinks she needs to learn how to do. It is quite comical to see how she tries to help. Cai is my husbands best friend now. We got her a little over a week before our oldest son left for the Navy. Cai was spending much of her days cheering him up. The two of them love to go for rides together. She will put her head on my lap and start whining and look at me with sad eyes, so I ask her what she wants and tell her to show me. She will walk right up to Dad’s jacket on the hook by the door and point her nose at it then point at her leash hanging nearby. So good at letting us know what she wants, but not always so good at listening to no. She will pout worse than any little kid all day, until Dad gives in and takes her for a ride or lays down to watch a movie with her. She has her preferences and Dad will watch something she likes. She is Dad’s best friend and Mom’s little helper.

Then Came Chief

Chief was a seven-year-old rescue dog. He a little ragged looking and missing some front teeth, but his poor little heart was just begging for someone to show him just a little bit of attention.  How we ended up looking for him is a sad story. We had a little Jack Russel-minpin that passed. I was so heartbroken over him. He was my favorite of all the dogs I ever had. His name was Caesar and he was such a clown. Caesar made everyone laugh. I finally decided to go to the local animal shelter to see if they had any small dogs similar in size at least. I knew that no dog would replace my little Caesar, but I was hoping one could distract me and maybe comfort me a little bit.

When we got to the animal shelter, we started looking at the dogs they had in the front area. They were all bigger than I wanted so I just kept looking. Then I paced a cage with a big not so friendly looking dog named Caesar. I tried so hard, but the sniffles started. I tried to suck them up, but it only made it worse. I finally just busted out crying. One of the workers stopped and ask me what was wrong and could she help. My husband had to help explain because I could not get the words out. She told us there were some in the back, but they were not ready to be adopted yet. She let us go look but no small dogs at all. I told her that was okay, I would just come back everyday until they had a smaller dog.

I am not sure if they thought I would be back, but I was. The very next day I came back and started looking at the dogs they had in the front. All the same dogs they had the day before. Not one to give up, I went inside. As soon as I enter the same woman that let go look in the back came running up to me and said “I think we have the perfect dog for you. He came in last night so you won’t be able to take him home until he gets vet checked and neutered, but we can save him for you if you want him”. So of course, I had to go look. They called him Kevin and gave me a leash to go to the fence area play yard. I walked him around for a bit then sat down on a bench. He jumped up beside me and did not want to get down even when I took his leash off. My husband brought our other dog in to make sure they would get along okay and the two of them played around and were good together, so we decided to adopt him. We could not take him home yet, but he was ours.

The next day I went alone to the shelter just to walk Kevin and get him used to me. He was so lovable, and I was able to take him off the leash and play with him for a while. This raggedy little guy loved the attention, but he did not respond to his name at all. I took him back in and put him in his cage. The following day was Saturday, so I took my youngest son to meet Kevin. We played with him for a while, and every time my son sat down, Kevin jumped up and climbed on his lap. While we were there, we noticed volunteers showing up to walk some of the dogs. After we took Kevin back to his cage, we volunteered to walk a couple of them and then went to the cat room to play with the cats. Volunteers can come and play with the cats to help socialize them and get them ready for adoption. My sons both love cats and my youngest volunteered to come back and play with the cats several times after that.

The day before we met Kevin, there was an article in the paper about a house in a nearby town that had over a hundred cats and to dogs, a Pitbull and a little mixed breed. People the wet in to rescue these poor animals had to wear hazmat suits the conditions were so terrible. It breaks my heart when I see things like that in the paper. Kevin was at the shelter along with several new cats, the day we went back to meet him. I know he came from that house, but they were not allowed to tell me. No wonder he looked so ragged. We were determined to change that as soon as we brought him home.

Tuesday it was time to bring Kevin home. When we got to the shelter, they brought him out to us. As soon as he saw me, he got so excited it was obvious he remembered me and could not wait to go walk with me. As soon as we got the paperwork done and got him in the car, we started trying out new names for him. Kevin was seven years old and did not respond to the name Kevin at all. The shelter gives dogs a name when they do not know their original name and this little fellow did not like that. We had a tradition at our house that all our names started with the letter “C”, so we started trying out “C” names to see if he liked one. I do not remember which one of us tried the name Chief, but I do remember that he answered to it. It was the first name of several we and tried that he responded to so Chief it was. So Chief it was. That is how we ended up with Chief. Chief is 11 years old now and as happy as can be.

Past

Memories of Teddy

My memories at the yellow house were happy and full of laughter. It was my older brother Georgie, as I called him back then, who taught me to laugh. Teddy was a puppy that grew into a great big dog. He was a Newfoundland, which if you are not familiar, are just a little smaller than a St Bernard. My first memory of Teddy was hearing Georgie going back in his room after my parents were asleep. I got up as quietly as I could and snuck across the hall to his room. Sitting on the bed playing with Georgie was Teddy. Georgie got a funny look on his face and said I should go back to my room and please do not ever tell mom and dad the he let Teddy in the house. I promised not to tell but insisted that I got to play with Teddy before going back to bed. So, we agreed, he could let Teddy in every night after mom and dad went to sleep and I could come in and play with them for a bit if I were still awake.

Teddy is the first pet I can remember. He ended up bigger than me, but he was the most lovable dog and always wanted to show it by licking me and my brother.  I still remember Teddy knocking me down and standing on my shoulders so I could not get away from him while he was licking my face. I laughed and hollered for Georgie to get him off me. He started laughing so hard he was rolling on the ground which only made me laugh more and Teddy think he was funny and just do it more. The more I laughed the more my brother laughed and the harder it was to convince Teddy to get off me. Seems like everything we did in that yellow house made us laugh.