A Birthday Wish For Shelter Cats

This a special birthday edition of Notes from a Shelter. Birthday gifts are nice but my wish is a forever home for every shelter cat. It’s not that far fetched. Think about it. The U.S. population in 2013 was approximately 316,128,839 adults. Even after eliminating children and any unsuitable candidates, it’s a huge number. According to ASPCA stats,

• Approximately 3.4 million are cats enter animal shelters nationwide every year.
• Each year, about 1.4 million cats are euthanized. That leaves ONLY 1.3 million cats that are adopted! We can do better.

I arrived home late last week from the shelter, feeling tired and a little sorry for myself and the cats. Was I really making a difference? An envelope addressed to me from the New Rochelle Humane Society sat on the table. I tore it open and cried. A dear reader and fellow blogger that I’ve never met, made a donation in the name of Gray Boy, my OTRB shelter muse. She’s the type who wouldn’t want the attention so I won’t mention her name. It was the best birthday present and I’m so, so grateful for the thoughtfulness and the validation. We never know how a small act can make a world of difference. It also never occurred to me that we can make these kinds of donations. He wasn’t my cat but his legacy lives on.

MORE GOOD NEWS & MEWS

Many of you were concerned when Babe suddenly wanted nothing to do with Pa, the former, bonded odd couple we’d featured. It may have turned out for the best. Babe is on meds for diarrhea, happy to be alone and Pa has made new friends with a couple of the other hoarder cats who are free to roam the back room. Every time Babe used to bounce out of their cage to play with me, Pa never dared to take the plunge. When I walked into the back room, Pa was sitting pretty in the middle of the room as if he’d never been in a cage! Babe is as playful as ever and I’m hoping someone will foster or adopt them separately or maybe Pa with his new bud Sweetpea.

Adoptions, other than kittens has been slow BUT Mittens the Tuxie was adopted. He was one of four kittens at the shelter two years ago. His three brothers got adopted as kittens but Mittens grew up at the shelter waiting and waiting two long years. Let’s hope a new Tuxie arrival has good luck. Two weeks ago, I entered a small room of cages (Gray Boy’s old room) and a friendly Tuxie roamed the room uncaged. There was no room at the inn as they say and he made do with a small box in the corner for a bed. By last week, he’d settled in nicely and probably thanking his lucky stars there’d been no cage available.

Gilbert, who loves everyone (AND IS STILL AVAILABLE) enjoyed playing with Tuxie and a stunning, new ginger gal. Later, another new Tuxie, Bobby hissed and insisted on rolling around in Tuxie’s litter box while he looked on nonplussed. Thankfully he seems easy going but poor Gilbert is going stir crazy in his cage.

Gilbert is super smart and needs stimulation which a cage won’t provide. We won a contest at Catinthefridge for a box cardboard Scratch N Bits made by Imperial Cat. Odin snoopervised the shipment before I headed to the shelter.

Like loaves and fishes I divvied up the box 20 pieces to stretch into 50, one for each cage. Sorry, some cages got small bits. Some cats immediately tore into them, hungry for some environmental enrichment. Needless to say Gilbert went nuts over his and then gave me the hairy eyeball, Lady get me adopted already! I’m tempted to take him home but he’s way too adoptable.

One of our favorites, Ivan, with a story worthy of Russian literature found his 15 minutes of fame as the Bachelor of the Week. Read all about it but he’s available. He’s cage-free and roams the intake area with a few other cats but he’d much rather be in a home of his own.

Tuxie, AKA Nelson or Mr. Tuxedo cat is highly adoptable and in the weird department, I found him lying on top of my notebook like Gray Boy (see top image) literally in the same spot. I ended up turning the image as my weekly photo quote. If you’re not a subscriber and would like to see it, I posted it on my Facebook page. If you’re in the mood to see a few more cats, visit NewRochelleHumaneSociety.org

So besides my first birthday wish, I’d love lots of shares and individual Pins of the adoption graphics, and hey, how about some more votes cuz you know it’ll help these kitties.

Click here to VOTE for the Pettie Awards.

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