How have you helped cats?

I figured since this forum can be alittle depressing maybe an up lifting thread would help and give others ideas of how they can help kitties and maybe the stories will inspire people. You really can make a differance by helping just one cat. And I love to here stories of cat rescues!

Hmm lets see I guess that would be taking in Lady D & reporting her other family. At the time we had only 1 baby Logan & were not really planning on getting another cat. That was until my husband told me about someone at his work who had just had a litter of kittens. He said if he couldn't get rid of them to homes he was going to put them in a bag & throw them out on the highway . Well I had hubby grab one got a few friends to get the word out for the rest out reported him. Heard he lost his cat to one of the police officers who came to investigate, to a much cleaner & happier home with his daughter .

About 3-4 years ago a employe told me about 2 kittens and some older cats behind the store . That was on base Ft Steward Ga. She also said that all the employe there feed the cats every day but the cats are wild . So , having just lost a cat myself my heart was going out to the cats . So my husband and I starting to look for them . After the cats got food I try sneek up to them . Well all the grown cats run off , but the little ones stuck around but hiding . My paitiant payed off after a long long time waiting and I finaly catch me a kitten . She was not more then 6-8 weeks old . The other kitten run off after that . So we took her home and place her alone in the bathroom for some days with food and water and the catlitterbox with some poop in there for her to smell . After a while she come around and we were able to pet her and we also place her into the cat box to teach her to use it . The vet gave her a clear bill after deworming and shots of health . Today she is one heck of a sweetie girl and her name is Mellisa .But she is the only one cat we have that wont go outsite into the inclosure we have for the cats .I wonder why ?

My Son came home from baseball practice with a small black cat in his arms. He found her under the bench at the park.
She was tiny and very thin, we thought she was just a kitten until her Vet visit come to find out she was pregnant malnourished and had ear mites.
She had three beautiful babies, that went to great homes got spayed and lived with us for ten more years. We called her Mama cat, she was the sweetest cat I have ever known.

I've found & rehomed so many cats it makes my head spin!

All of my pets are former strays.

One that stands out was a cat that belonged to some people downstairs in a dive of an apartment complex I used to live in. I found her on the stairs one day acting disoriented - turned out the losers downstairs were paint sniffers & had sprayed her with something. I took her in & hid her from them, and hand-fed her baby food until she recovered. I was afraid she might die at first, but she gradually got stronger. I got her spayed, & gave her to a friend of mine. He just loved her! She turned out to be mostly OK, except sometimes she would try to jump on something & miss, poor baby. She was a sweet cat!

Another one that stands out is one day walking in the park I heard a pitiful mewing...followed it to the source & found a tiny little black kitten that couldn't have been more than 5 or 6 weeks old. I took him home & cared for him until he was old enough to give away. None of my friends wanted him (I'd already given all of them cats & was starting to wear out my welcome! ) He had 2 extra thumbs on each front paw - could tear up your legs in a hurry, and my cats just hated him! One day I was in a store talking with the clerk & she whipped out a picture of her polydactyl cat that had died...I saw the opportunity & asked her if she'd be interested in a kitten - so the little demon ended up in a loving new home being spoiled rotten. He was quite a character!

My little Felixia was a rescue...she was abandoned by neighbors that moved away & left her behind living out of a dumpster. She's the sweetest little girl & I'm so glad she followed me home 11 years ago!

Hmmmm...where do I start? hehehehehe

We take in the strays, ferals, and unknown origin critters. You can't always count on them having full lives, as many are health-compromised by the time you get them. We give them the best that life can offer while they are here, and lovingly say goodbye when their time is at hand. We work through our grief by throwing our love at the rest of our babies or taking on the care of others. I don't even want to know what our vet bill is every year!

Here are my saved babies (warning, the list is long):

Max: A pound-kitty, and a Manx. Ruled the entire household, including my husband and I. The best darn cat that I've ever had!! Plagued all his life by rhino virus, crossed the bridge at age 8 from sudden heart failure.

Natasha: Pound kitty and a black princess. Lived the life of a queen for 10 years before crossing the bridge.

Boris: Wandered up to our house about 14 years ago. He was born with FIP and lived in heaven until he crossed at 1-1/2 years.

Shep: Wandered up to our house one day about 12 years ago. She's been living the life of luxery since.

Rocky: A 10+(?) year old unneutered tom wandered up to my apartment. I trapped him, had him neutered, and fostered him until I could move into my current house. He was an outstanding guy and lived with us for about 4 years before crossing the bridge.

Indy - her feral mom was hunting in her yard and Indy followed her. I walked out and the mom spooked and ran off. Indy spooked and started running towards our dog pen (5 big dogs that she didn't notice were asleep at the time). I grabbed her before she could climb thru the fencing and took her into the house....she has been with us for nearly 10 years.

Stumpy: A crate fell on his tail while he was in the storm cellar out back. I heard a cry (didn't know he was even in there), picked him up screaming, brought him in the house....he has been with us for 8 years.

Tigger and Eight-Ball: Born in the rafters of our garage. When big enough to get around, Tigger fell down from the rafters into the window well. I built them a big pen on the floor, kept them until their mom was done nursing, then adopted out their sister Molly and brought Tigger and Eight-ball into the house.....they have been with us for 6 years.

Bob Marley: Found him in a box in our garage. Brought him into the house....he has been with us for 5 years.

Pinky and Ruby: Ruby was playing on a clematis vine when he slipped and got his leg totally tangled. It was 105 degrees that day, and I noticed him when I was coming home from work. He bit me as I cut him out of the vines, then limped away on 3 legs. After trapping him, I quarantined he and his brother Pinky to ensure they didn't have rabies.....they have been with us for 3 years.

Scarlett: Mom moved her 3 kittens onto our front porch then proceeded to disappear when they were 3 weeks old. Brought them in, weaned them, then adopted brother Twinkle Toes and Maggie out to friends. Scarlett has been with us nearly 2 years.

Muddy/Koko: Mom had her 4 kittens on the front porch, then proceeded to disappear when they were 10 days old. Brought them in, weaned them, adopted Jake and Elwood to our best friends in Denver. Muddy/Koko have been with us for 15 weeks.

Other ferals: Have trapped/neutered/released a number of ferals that live around our house. 3 of them are at least 9 years old now: Cross-Eyed Larry, Tan Foot, Blackie, (Red)Head, Flashback, Tan Foot Jr, T-squared, and on and on and on.......

And dog stories:

Ellie Mae: abandoned on the side of the road after delivering her puppies. Physically abused, manged, ticked, flead, ear-mited and generally a mess. Dropped to her belly and peed herself when you would reach out to pet her (she was really abused bad). Lived with us (and slept in our bed) for 13 years before crossing the bridge in January.

Jethro: Another dumpster dog found on the side of the road. Highly malnourished and dehydrated - lived at a vet for 3 months for recovery before we brought him home. Lived with us for 10 years before crossing the bridge.

Doug & Tyler: Greyhound rescues. Tyler was left with his 2 litter mates in a cage in an apartment by his owner who left the country. They lived for 3 months at Texas A&M vet school before the vet tech took him home, thinking that they were going to use him for medical experiments. He had major bone reconstruction surgery due to his early trama. We grabbed onto him and loved him for 10 years. Lost both to bone cancer.

Nita: Pound puppy. What more can be said? Always very sickly (who knows what her origins were), loved her for 5 years before crossing the bridge.

That's all I can think of right now.....I'm sure there is more!!

Both Fluffy and Socks are kittys i rescued from outdoors. Both were/are kittens. I fostered cats in the past. I also donate food to my shelter.

I have never lived with a cat that I did not rescue. I cannot count the number that have come and gone over the years, but I still have my first permanent cat, Fred. He will soon be 15 years old. He was about 4 weeks when we rescued him.
We do not do a lot of celebrating around the holidays, but I have a tradition of finding strays to feed on Christmas. It started when I noticed the group of ferals behind a local restauaunt had nothing to eat because their food source was closed. I got a bag and a few cans and fed them. I can usually find several cats around dumpsters, so I haunt the dumpsters on Christmas, looking for cats.

(You knew me or Laurie would be here sooner or later, didn't you Val? )

My personal rescue story is Ophelia. We heard a baby kitten in distress one night and figured out she somehow got trapped between the walls of our apartment building. So we punched a hole in the wall - the deposit on the place certainly didn't compare to a life! Turns out we were the first people she had ever seen and she was feral, but we were very patient with her and she's living the life of luxury now.

The other thing I'm doing, along with Laurie (LDG), Christy (Okeefecl) and Kass (Russian Blue) is devoting my "spare" time to two websites to promote animal rescue and companion animal awareness, education and lobbying. (Laurie was kind enough to ask if I would be involved as the webmaster for these sites that she and Christy started.)

www.SaveSamoa.org is our site dedicated to rescue stories to inspire others and education materials for people trying to help one (or two or ten ) animal at a time. In fact, I know we host a few from people who have already responded to this thread. We invite everyone here to submit their stories of rescue. These are all wonderful stories.

Our other site is www.StrayPetAdvocacy.org which is still under construction. The purpose of that website will be a one stop shop for research for people who want to change the overall situation for homeless animals. (There's a TON of information out there, which we are trying to consolidate into one place...a big job to say the least.)

Wow, good thread idea, Val!

All of our cats are rescues, in one way or another.
Midnight, Coal, Lilith, Sasha, Romeo, Phoenix and Khepera were all shelter kitties.

Lilith was pregnant when we adopted her, we kept all 6 kittens since we couldn't place them in responsible, good homes. That would be Jules, Blondie, Polly, Pan, Silver and Max.

Sunshine was rescued from the side of a highway.

We found out about Tillie right here on TCS from Wind_Danzer. Jamie's co-worker's mother was being placed in a nursing home, and her cat had nowhere to go. The co-worker has 2 FIV+ cats, so they couldn't take her in. All the no kill shelters were full. Wind_Danzer posted a plea on here and we drove to NJ to get Tillie.

Aside from our 15 kitties, Tybalt and I maintain the Petfinder website for the local SPCA and also post adoption flyers for shelter pets needing homes. We also are getting started on trying to change PA's animal cruelty laws and working on getting a better state policy on TNR and Spay/neutering. We would like to have our own rescue/no kill shelter/cat sanctuary eventually.

We have offered to foster cats and kittens from the local shelter, but because of some legal reasons, they cannot have an outside fostering program. We are looking into how to get the shelter's policy on this changed, but this is going to involve taking on a Board of Directors....

Both of my two cats - Sphinx and Kuce are pound rescues. We went into the only shelter in the county that puts animals down (there is about 4 shelters total - 3 are no-kill plus a few foster out groups) on my birthday last year and Sphinx caught my eye. He was looking sooo sad in his cage. I just had to bring him home, my mother wasn't sure about it but when she saw Kuce she went home with us also. Sphinx was just a day or so away of being put down because it was kitten season. The volunteer that was there that day was ecstatic that they were both going home to someone.

I feel I'm helping the Persian breed going by breding them but many disagree.

Nana & I rescued a cat from a shelter called Diamond a bit over one year ago.

Midnight (deceased) lived in a no-kill shelter from the age of 2 months until I adopted her at the age of 8 months. At this shelter all the cats available for adoption were able to roam freely inside of a large shed-like building. All except for Midnight, she was afraid of the other cats and actually lived on top of a small crate. I was told by the shelter director that she was very uncomfortable at the shelter and very sheldom left her crate to mingle with the other cats. After her adoption, Midnight lived as an indoor only cat, and we had 13 1/2 wonderful years with her. Since she was so uncomfortable at the shelter, I think I can consider her a rescue. I don't know what kind of life she would have had if I hadn't found her.

Originally posted by valanhb
(You knew me or Laurie would be here sooner or later, didn't you Val?

)

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