CC4C | Savannah's Paw Tracks

Archive for the tag “CC4C”

23 Aug 2021

Kitten Season 2021 and counting…

HIYA!! SAVANNAH HERE!!!

I’m sure most of my readers know what “kitten season” means, but just in case—let me give you the 411 (info) in short. Kitten Season amongst those of us who do Trap, Neuter, Return (TNR) with abandoned community cats is a dread time of year. Spring through Summer and into Fall, until cold/wet weather shows up, male and female cats find each other to breed. Mom L , Dad P and me started our Delta View Cats all volunteer group to try to address at least the part of the “iceberg” we can find in our home town of Pittsburg, CA.

I thought you might be inner-ested in seeing some of the little dear kittens we have been able to at least trap and get them spayed and neutered, flea treated, vaccinated and microchipped. If they are older than 10 to 12 weeks, they are usually already too feral for a foster to attempt to socialize. And another “411”—fosters for kittens/cats are as scarce as those old hen’s teeth!!

Here are a few kittens that we could only TNR. We had no one to foster them or they were already too feral. You can see one Mom cat nursing a kitten in the red chair.

Other kittens were more fortunate ‘cuz we could find a foster or our partners at Community Concern For Cats(CC4C) took them in and found fosters. CC4C also provides most of the medical care for any kittens we can help to get socialized and they then go through their adoption program. The itty bitty kitten actually fell from above a front door. Mom cat was moving her kittens and he got restless and slipped from the roof above the front door. He is fine! The photo with some oranges actually has FIVE in it. Four kittens and their mom. I tried to draw circles around each one, let me know in comments if you could find them all. The cutie Snowshoe Siamese kitten was found stuck to a cactus!! No kittening around!! By a city resident and they unstuck her and she is now in foster care, but feral still. And the tabby kitten is with CC4C and doing very well.

Delta View Cats (DVC) has two volunteers who feed every other Sunday at our waterfront park colony. They also live in a large apartment complex and were happy to help an experienced cat trapper in trapping a dad cat and four kittens. Once they saw the kittens in the traps, their hearts melted and after our county animal services spayed/neutered etc., these two wonderful volunteers decided to foster the two sister and two brothers. The happiest day in the last five weeks since they took these sweet, but semi-feral kittens in, is TODAY!! YES!!! The bounded sisters, Luna and Xochitl, found their forever family today!! WOOT!! The girls are in the photo with the rainbow nip tow.

Now comes the most frustrating 411 I have. Kitten season is always an incredible challenge for all of us in California’s Contra Costa County. We have “breeding weather” a good part of the whole year. In the past we were able to receive support from our county’s Animal Services because they had a large network of kitten fosters and so they would intake healthy kittens of almost any age. If the kittens were very feral then of course they did not. BUT—under the cloak of “COVID”, our county animal services is no longer intaking ANY healthy kittens, friendly abandoned adults like they did before. We all understood why they could not intake such cats during the shut down from COVID, but they are now operating almost at 100% and they have established a “new” policy to not intake ANY healthy kittens, friendly adults going forward, forever.

Now you ask—” But what about dogs?” And I answer that our county animal services, during COVID, was able to spend funds to build another lovely, large exercise area for the dogs. But nothing has been done for the cats. Their position is that “animal sheltering says that cats do not do well in a shelter environment”. Right, dogs do not do well there either. BUT, Mom L, Dad P and me have been able to pull over 30 cats in the years before COVID, off the streets and get them adopted in to loving homes through our county animal services.

Somebody please help me understand why our county has stated that all us “small non-profits must manage our county’s over population of abandoned community cats”??!! WAIT!!! WHAT??? Many cities in California have actually started to INVEST city and county funds in TNR and their cities and county’s are providing leadership to get the small non-profits together to humanely address this over population.

So let me know in comments what’s up in your area about addressing the over population of abandoned community cats.

PAW PATS, SAVANNAH

Posted in Community Cats, Feral Kitten Rescue and tagged CC4C, feral kitten season, kitten socialization

09 Aug 2021

11 Comments

It Takes A Village…

HIYA!! SAVANNAH HERE!!!

That old human adage—”it takes a village” is true for what it takes to rescue an abandoned community cat in danger. Mom L and Dad P are co-founders of a nonprofit TNR (Trap, Neuter, Return) all volunteer group, Delta View Cats (DVC) dedicated to helping these cats in our city of Pittsburg, CA.

Of course, this is one of my most ambitious Paw It Forward project ever!!They are carrying it out under my paw tracks guidance. This story was first written by one of our DVC volunteers who pawticipated in this rescue story. Mr. Chris and Mr. Mauro were present the night Stormy was finally saved and Mr. Chris wrote this about it.

“Shivering, hungry, and covered in fallen leaves

On Saturday, July 31, during their routine, daily, community cat colony feeding at Riverview Park, a couple of volunteers with Delta View Cats (deltaviewcats.com), a nonprofit trap-neuter-release organization in Pittsburg, heard a loud yowl and went to investigate. They found an adult, black kitty in one of the park’s storm drains.

We suspect Stormy was abandoned in the park, an all-too-common practice. We found a cat carrier in bad shape near the storm drain.

It would make sense that this frightened feline, an apparent domestic cat, dumped through no fault of his own, would retreat anywhere to safety from park traffic.

(this video is not professional but if you turn up the volume you can hear Stormy’s cries of fear and his hope for help)

Volunteers to the rescue

On Sunday, after several unsuccessful attempts to coax Stormy out of the drain, one of our tireless Delta View Cats volunteers reached down into the drain with heavy-duty gloves. Ray began petting stormy and offering him smelly tuna. After several tense moments, with a confident scruffing, Ray lifted Stormy into a cat carrier held by another volunteer. Collective sigh of relief!

Chalk it up to timing & good fortune. The quiet of the near-midnight hour. 4 people putting their heads and hearts together. And a little black kitty magic.

He rested on our balcony covered with a blanket, heated by a safe space heater and he had a midnight snack of water and a little bit of tuna. He appeared to not be feral; he gave slow blinks and didn’t hiss or strike when I went to put water in the carrier. His eyes are so soulful.”

After the rescue, our DVC volunteer Mr. Ray, had a storage building already set up to house community cats on their way to being adopted. It is managed by another cat rescue, Kitty911. Stormy waited for a neuter appointment and we knew his adoption would be overseen by our partner, Community Concern for Cats.

Delta View Cats is making neuter surgery plans now and fortunately, another DVC volunteer who feeds the colony we manage at this park, Miss Shashi, fell in love with Stormy and his rescue.

Short story short! Stormy is now with Shashi as a “foster to adopt”.

We are fortunate that our city of Pittsburg has provided us with funds for spay/neuter for cats we find along the waterfront area. Once Stormy is all done with his medical needs, then Shashi and her family can adopt him forever!!

Again a short, not great, video of Stormy accepting the love from his foster to adopt human!

I will keep you updated on Stormy’s journey.

PAW PATS, SAVANNAH

Posted in Adult Cat Rescue and tagged cat photo, CC4C, Community Cats, paw it forward, real rescue stories

26 Jul 2021

18 Comments

One castle guest TOO MANY!!

HIYA!! SAVANNAH HERE!!!

You know that I have already put my paws down about all these castle ~~nuisances~~ guests arriving at who knows what time of the night!! You remember I even did a Friday Meme about this, right??

And sadly for me, in my fifteenth year of life—NO ONE LISTENS TO ME!! AAIIIEEEEEEEE!!!!

Ok, glad I got that off my chest. You know kitties, it is never acceptable for our humans to bring into our castles some uninvited guest! Don’t you agree? That said, as I suggested in my latest Friday Memes post, Mom L and Dad P have yet another castle guest to my once peaceful domain. And even worse!! He’s a BOY cat not neutered!!! YIKES!!! He howls/yowls all day and all night. Thank Ceiling Cat I am hard of hearing. Mom L goes to bed with ear plugs!

This boy cat arrived mid week last week, and he so sucked up to my sweet Miss Kandi, my beloved pet sitter, that she just had to call Mom L and ask if Mom L wanted to take him in. BUMMER!! Mom L said—ahhhh…sure. She knew this guest was gonna upset my our peaceful castle.

He jumped into Miss Kandi’s cat and would not leave!

Thankfully, Mom L got him into the Kitchen Clinic last week so he got his vaccinations and flea treatment. But he still needs a “snip and tuck” if you know what I mean???!!! Doc Josie thinks he is about ten months to fourteen months old. Guess what he weighs???? For a youngster, this boy cat is already hitting ELEVEN POUNDS!! And he is NOT fat!! YIKES!! He has room to grow!!!

So’s the only place I would allow him to be housed is in my castle ~~dungeon~~ garage. I directed Mom L to leave the fan on in my laundry room, net to the garage, so’s I don’t have to hear him yowling his despair about being in a cage. Yes, that’s right. He is in a nice comfy 42 inch cage with toys and all he could ask for. I am not, after all, running some B&B for dumped abandoned community cats!!! (ummm…maybe that is a bit strong to say??)

You can see as he poses next to a 36 inch cage, that even as a young adult, Bart, yes Dad P named him, is a tall boy!!

Bart loves to play but even more he loves being pet and showered with attention. He will be neutered within the next week if we can find a vet hospital that will so that quickly. Thankfully, our city of Pittsburg has given us an allowance for spay/neuter even at regular veterinarian hospitals. But there is a long wait list to get him in for that surgery.

If any of my readers know anyone living in Northern California, San Francisco bay area, please do share this post. Bart is available for adoption through our partners at Community Concern For Cats. Contact Mom L: rodgerslcr at gmail dot com