Community Cats | Savannah's Paw Tracks

Archive for the category “Community Cats”

07 Oct 2019

Monday Meowsie News: Friendly Community Cats

HIYA!! SAVANNAH HERE!!!

Bet’cha my readers already know this, but—not all community cats are really “feral” cats.

Feral: in a wild state, especially after escape from captivity or domestication

Lots of them had homes and for whatever reasons, they were abandoned to live on their own.

My Paw It Forward work with Project Delta View Cats (PDVC) runs across many cats, adults, who fall right into the “friendly” range of our community cat work.

Thought you would enjoy learning about three new great “friendlies” we are now trying to help find forever homes.

Cinder

Cinder showed up to eat at one of our volunteer’s backyard small colonies. Meow!! That was his lucky day! PDVC got him neutered, chipped, vaccinated and we are now trying to find adoption paths for him.

He is a very young, handsome boycat. We are working on helping him find his adoption path.

Bianca

Miss Bianca appeared at our city River View Park colony one day, looking very bedraggled, and scared and hungry. Her fur was unkempt and she was showing lots of her bones.

Our colony feeders worked on her and within a bare few days, she started to show her REAL SELF. Caretakers names her Bianca and she is now on her path to adoption. Now spayed, chipped, vaccinated and loved by all who come in contact with her. Our Community Concern For Cats, CC4C, low cost S/N clinic hospital were taken with sweet Bianca and a member offered to recover her after surgery and foster he until she is adopted!!

Bianca has striking blue eyes and the sweetest temperament. When Mom L took her out of her carried to move to her recovery cage, she started purring immediately!!

Cruiser

Cruiser is a great name because we discovered that she was “cruising” between two of our feeders!! Yep! She now had a tummy on her!! Cruiser went in for her spay, only to discover that she was ALREADY spayed!! And she has a microchip!! We are now waiting to learn if that chip had a guardian attached to it. If not, we will work with the county near us who chipped her to get her chip released so she can be adopted out. Cruiser spent a bit of time with us and she is soooooo loving!!

It happens that when we work with “friendlies” in community cat targeted TNR that they have a chip. However, it also happens that even if we find that “chip owner” they refuse to admit they own that cat OR the chip is never registered.

Unfortunately for the “chipped friendly cat”, the rescue must find the owner of that chip and get them to “release” the cat from the chip so that we can then get the cat into an adoption path.

That is our work now for Cruiser.

Let me know if you have ever rescued a cat with a chip and how you worked through that.

PAW PATS, SAVANNAH

23 Sep 2019

18 Comments

Seniors Rock Trap, Neuter, Return (TNR) !!

HIYA!! SAVANNAH HERE!!!

Let me set you straight before I start—when I say “Seniors” I mean the human ones. I have a story about a whole 55 year old+ Senior Mobile Home Park that will make you happy all week long!!

Now I know whenever some of us in the community cat rescue and TNR work have all had unpleasant experiences when trying to work with mobile home parks. These can be a breeding ground, literally, for over population of community cats.

So the story begins with me sitting at my desk pawing through some emails and Mom L’s mobile phone rings. I pawed the answer button and a nice lady asked for Mom L. The lady couldn’t speak “cat” so she didn’t understand my meows asking her if I could help her instead, so’s I hollered out for Mom L.

Mom L took over and soon learned that this group of senior humans at a mobile home park were looking for Project Delta View Cats (PDVC) to help them with a colony of community cats in their park that was continuing to grow.

Finally after some chit-chatting they agreed that Mom L and Dad P would go to their facility and speak with interested residents about how to humanely trap, neuter and return their cats and kittens to be able to manage their population. Lots of residents showed up, some just wanting the cats to “disappear”. But there were enough who were ready to learn how to do TNR to form a team. Our PDVC volunteers taught them how to trap humanely and another one visited them to demonstrate how to use a drop trap.

If all communities came together the way this one has, our work to humanely manage the community cat over population would be so much easier!!

They held a couple of fund raisers at their mobile home park; one was a breakfast that Mom L and Dad P attended. They cleared $400 and will use that to buy their own drop trap and other supplies.

Dad P getting his breakfast

The residents were cooks and dish washers so they kept their costs down to next to nothing.

The kitchen was busy!

Mom L and Dad P sat with some of the residents and had a great chat about their community cats they were helping out.

Nice people shared their table with Mom L and Dad P

Their team leader, Miss Rio, had just caught a litter of six kittens before the breakfast started. She was taking them to our county animal services, who partner with PDVC, so they could be fostered then put up for adoption.

Kittens waiting for transport

Mom L got a couple of photos and was surprised to see that two of the teeny kittens had brown fur!

Aren’t they cute!! So Delta Hawaii mobile home park is standing proof that when a community works together, they can indeed humanely manage their community cat population. All PDVC has done is to teach the residents and then they are buying their own trapping equipment, doing their own trapping, transport and recovery. The adults are released back where they were trapped and will be cared for by residents.

SUCCESS!!!

Let me know if you think this will work in your community.

PAW PATS, SAVANNAH

Posted in Community Cats, paw it forward and tagged Community Cats, paw it forward

09 Sep 2019

13 Comments

Remember Sam? I have an update!!

HIYA!! SAVANNAH HERE!!!

I posted on July 29th the ~~tail~~ tale of Sam aka Samantha aka Sammy’s capture to be able to treat a severe injury. We thought Sammy was a girl, then a boy, then a girl and finally once we got “him” to our county animal services, they confirmed “IT’S A BOY”!!!

Well Sam was released from Contra Costa County Animal Services (CCAS) to Miss Jane’s care in early August. CCAS staff and medical docs treated him like the elegant young mancat he is. We are proud that CCAS is one of our key partners for my latest Paw It Forward Project, Project Delta View Cats (PDVC).

We also have the great good fortune to have a wonderful working relation with Furry Friends Pet Relief as they are the rescue that found a very reasonably priced veterinarian, Central Boulevard Vet Hospital, who knows how to manage feral kitties, to do Sam’s much needed dental. Sam was boarding on stomatitis so we weren’t sure what would happen and how many toofies he might need extracted.

Good news!! Sam had NO extractions!! And one of our wonderful volunteers, Miss Kandi, donated the cost of his dental. So after that, Sam went to have a very nice relaxing recovery at Miss Jane’s home.

Check out the amazing set up Sam had thanks to Miss Jane and her hubby Mr Bob. Sam was catered to and cared for and we believe he is ready to be released back to our park colony this next week.

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I know that Sam will always remember Miss Jane, his protector and care giver. He will be looking for her to serve up his meals once released at PDVC’s park colony.

So tell me all about any successful recovery stories you have when you helped out an injured or ill community cat?