Oct 16 is National Feral Cat Day!

Support TNR Education & All feral cats! - please make this your avatar for the next couple of weeks!




Help promote TNR awareness!

Here are ideas:
http://www.alleycat.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=388
http://www.alleycat.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=390

We're putting up the posters at all the local vets and supermarkets (all the places where they have bulletin boards for announcements - maybe it's a rural thing?) around here tomorrow, and the library will host us having educational materials for people to pick up.

Here are a list of events and clinics around the country:
http://www.alleycat.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=481

Sacramento is having a Walk-a-thon! (On Oct 11)

Educational video is available here: http://www.neighborhoodcats.org/

More educational materials available here: http://www.bestfriends.org/nomorehomelesspets/

Care banners available here: http://www.straypetadvocacy.org/html/care_banners.html

I´ll do it!...
Nice education Laurie...

Excellent Rigel!

...and for those of you who are not premium members of TCS, here is an avatar that is the correct size!

We dont have a day here but the major humane societies and Alley Cat Allies always use Oct 16th too

Thanks Laurie! I think I'll volunteer at the spay/neuter clinic that day!

Eithne - there has been a lot of discussion as to why it wasn't called International Feral Cat Day. But I think the current thinking is that it is National Feral Cat Day in any country that chooses to observe it. So it would be National Feral Cat Day in any country that has organizations or individuals that choose to do something about it.

So we got posters out to all the local vets, the local supermarkets (they all have "community" bulletin boards) - and we decided to include all the local pet stores. In about a 12-mile radius with a couple 20 mile spikes, including the WalMarts and Targets (that have large pet sections), we could think of 27 pet stores we know of offhand! Don't know if WalMart and Target will put them up - but the local ones did.

Rigel - that's a great idea!

...so for those of you who don't want to replace your avatar, using the image in your siggy works too!

I just wanted - on behalf of feral kitties everywhere - to say THANK YOU to everyone who has adopted the banner in their avatar or siggy this year!

Ummm...I don't want to sound stupid, but how do I add it to my siggy?

Just as an FYI for those who don't venture into the Cat Lounge or Fur Pics, the October Photo Contest is "From Wild to Mild" or before and after pictures of feral/wild/stray cats in our lives. The top three entries will be featured in TCS's 2010 Calendar.

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=205426

I just added banner to my siggy

To add to your siggy, you can paste this into your signature line:

(IMG)http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...atDay.jpg(/IMG)

....but the IMG tags around the link don't use parantheses - you have to replace those with brackets.

Your signature you adjust in User CP.

Are you on Facebook and can I add this to Facebook?

Sorry, kind of late getting back to you. I know you can via Alley Cat Allies (http://www.alleycat.org). I don't use FB so don't know how that stuff works, I saw it mentioned on the Alley Cat Allies website.

How fitting... National Feral Cat Day is on my birthday!! I my feral family! And now they are ALL spayed and neutered..

I always hated the acronym because you don't just neuter tomcats. Queens are spayed and all cats get their ears tipped. So I made up my own name for it that makes a lot more sense: STAR.



Sterilize

Tip

And

Return



By using this acronym, I can create a graphic logo that makes it easy to remember. STAR volunteers can be called stars and get star awards. I could call it a 5-point program (trap, sterilize, tip, vaccinate, return). In other words whatever kind of logo I use for it will feature a 5-point star.

EmilyMayWilcha said:

I always hated the acronym because you don't just neuter tomcats. Queens are spayed

Click to expand...

"Neuter" simply means the removal of the reproductive organs and is properly used for both genders. Nothing incorrect about it. The correct word for sterilizing males is castrate. . .I don't know why Americans use "neuter" to mostly mean castrate :dk:. Of couse, I don't know why we say "spay" for an ovariohysterectomy, either :lol3:.

But I like STAR, too!

Five feral cats live in our lanai in Florida. We feed them. They come and go as they please through a cat door.  Yesterday  I wrote a blog with many photos. Please offer advice to take care of these beautiful animals.

This is a photo of Brutus and Cleo. 

Willowy said:

"Neuter" simply means the removal of the reproductive organs and is properly used for both genders. Nothing incorrect about it. The correct word for sterilizing males is castrate. I don't know why Americans use "neuter" to mostly mean castrate. Of couse, I don't know why we say "spay" for an ovariohysterectomy, either.
But I like STAR, too!

Click to expand...

The only place I ever read the word castrate was a James Harriot book. So it looks like the British word for neuter, not Americans misusing an English word. The reason we have different words for males and females is obviously they are totally different surgeries. I watched a dog lose his testes once. All they do is squeeze the testicle to pop out the testis and sew up the empty scrotum. Using two words makes sense to me.

Of course, using a monosyllabic noun people can buy, click on, and draw makes raising awareness much easier!

lonepinestore said:

Five feral cats live in our lanai in Florida. We feed them. They come and go as they please through a cat door.  Yesterday  I wrote a blog with many photos. Please offer advice to take care of these beautiful animals.
This is a photo of Brutus and Cleo. 

Click to expand...

Awww, they are so cute! It would have been purrfect for the cat hugs photo contest in May.

My plan for feral cats is put them in a cat-safe yard with a pond, tree, cat grass, low-maintenance nontoxic plants, and memorial stones within a Purrfect Fence.and absolutely nothing flying insects love. It also will have something for shelter and a door to a large enclosure. That way it will be easier to figure out if a feral cat can be tamed instead of returned and if something goes wrong I can do something about it. That's very important if I have a pregnant cat because she must be tamed before her kittens are born.