Have you ever volunteered at a cat shelter or been otherwise involved with cat/pet rescue?

Anne

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If you have ever volunteered at an animal shelter, or have been otherwise to involved with cat rescue,  as I know many of our members have, can you please send me a PM with the following:

In one paragraph, please share a single memorable feel-good story or moment from your involvement in cat rescue. Be as descriptive and emotional as you like, but please keep it to 2-3 sentences (not easy, I know!!) If you have a picture to add, that would be great, but it's not absolutely necessary. I'm looking for stories about special cats that found great homes, were happily re-united with owners after being lost, recovered from abuse/trauma etc. Anything with a happy ending that lifted your spirit. 


I hope to be using these for a special blog entry to be published later this month. If I end up using your story, it will be with full credit given to your member username, of course! 

If you're new here and don't know how to send a PM, you can also just post it as a reply here. I'll copy your contribution and delete it here.

Thank you in advance! 
 
 

mona kloos

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Oh, yes, so many times!   When I lived in apartments, I had several cats spayed just to help the

sad situation of too many kittens.    Most of my cats had at one time been strays themselves.

But my best story is this.....

In 1998, I went to the Humane Society to get a kitten.   Well, they did not have many kittens, and the

ones they did have did not warm up to me at all.

So, the shelter asked me if I wanted to look at the older cats who had problems.     God intervened on this one, because even though I wanted a kitten, I agreed to look at these cats.

One of them - a grey cat with white paws - was only about nine months old, and her only problem was that she was in heat.   So many people take cats to the shelter rather than get them fixed themselves, but that's not true for me.    I fell in love with this little grey kitty with the white paws.

And every cat has to be fixed - that's just part of being a responsible owner!

The Humane Shelter would not let me have her until I had an appointment to get her spayed and I could not find a vet to commit to it.     One vet said she would not consider operating on a cat from "the pound" until we had her home for three weeks.      So I was on the phone with hubby, and sobbing that I might not get this cat.     So, my sweet hubby called our vet and convinced him to fit this cat into his schedule.   So I went to get her, and the Human Society was about 20 miles from where I live.

Amazingly, when I took "Chirble" in - a woman was there from the Humane Society and she said, "Oh, look! There is "Kung Pao" - Chirble's original name.     What were the odds that I would run into someone who recognized her even though I was miles away from where I got her?

Chirble died in January 2013, and I was so devastated that I could barely function.   And that went on for months.   She is the "cat of my life" as I say.    We loved each other so much.  I love to tell people about her, but I won't go on and on in this thread, but that I had never considered getting an older cat, and she became my most true love is a miracle to me.   I miss her every day, even though we have the wonderful new cat, Missy, who is just as sweet as Chirble, yet I think Chirble will always be number one.   I hate to even say that, because Missy loves me as much as Chirble did, and I love her.    Missy was born on December  30th, which is probably when Chirble knew she was going to die.   And I wonder if Chirble transferred her soul to MIssy.     So I spoil Missy to death, even though she isn't Chirble - but maybe she is?    Anyone else had an experience like that?

Thanks for listening.    I am so scared of what I am going to feel like on January 7th of this coming year because that's the day that Chirble died in 2013.  

I had my Christmas cards made by Zazzle, and Chirble's picture is on the back of most of them.

Maybe you guys will get to see her next year when I quality for the exchange of cards.

And that leads into a new discussion - Chirble had tumors that grew suddenly and she was bleeding internally, which is what caused her death.     The emergency vet said that they are showing some evidence of tumors being related to the "three year" rabies shot.

So that might be important info for all of you.   Our new cat is not getting rabies or feline leukemia shots because both our cats are strictly indoors.    She got the distemper mixed shots, but our vet said the other shots were fine to avoid if they are only inside cats.     It's been years since we let our cats out because there are coyotes in the area now, and they were killing cats.

Anyway, thanks again for wading through all of this.

Mona
 

marie000

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I helped catch a mother cat and her strayed kittens, Cats Protection gave me a trap and I went back to check every hour untill they were all caught.

We think the cat belonged to students that left her behind when course ended. Happens alot here near the university.

I looked after them until Cats protection found a foster home, this was 2 years ago. Often wonder how they are doing! The kittens needed to get used to people.

The mum was a friendly tabby.

Will upload pics if I can find them.
 

mishicats

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Although I will not allow myself to go into the shelter anymore for fear I will fall in love with yet another cat, I already have 4 rescues, I  have left my local shelter money in my will and my husband and I also donate food every month. I just love cats.
 
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Anne

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Oh, yes, so many times!   When I lived in apartments, I had several cats spayed just to help the

sad situation of too many kittens.    Most of my cats had at one time been strays themselves.

But my best story is this.....

In 1998, I went to the Humane Society to get a kitten.   Well, they did not have many kittens, and the

ones they did have did not warm up to me at all.

So, the shelter asked me if I wanted to look at the older cats who had problems.     God intervened on this one, because even though I wanted a kitten, I agreed to look at these cats.

One of them - a grey cat with white paws - was only about nine months old, and her only problem was that she was in heat.   So many people take cats to the shelter rather than get them fixed themselves, but that's not true for me.    I fell in love with this little grey kitty with the white paws.

And every cat has to be fixed - that's just part of being a responsible owner!

The Humane Shelter would not let me have her until I had an appointment to get her spayed and I could not find a vet to commit to it.     One vet said she would not consider operating on a cat from "the pound" until we had her home for three weeks.      So I was on the phone with hubby, and sobbing that I might not get this cat.     So, my sweet hubby called our vet and convinced him to fit this cat into his schedule.   So I went to get her, and the Human Society was about 20 miles from where I live.

Amazingly, when I took "Chirble" in - a woman was there from the Humane Society and she said, "Oh, look! There is "Kung Pao" - Chirble's original name.     What were the odds that I would run into someone who recognized her even though I was miles away from where I got her?

Chirble died in January 2013, and I was so devastated that I could barely function.   And that went on for months.   She is the "cat of my life" as I say.    We loved each other so much.  I love to tell people about her, but I won't go on and on in this thread, but that I had never considered getting an older cat, and she became my most true love is a miracle to me.   I miss her every day, even though we have the wonderful new cat, Missy, who is just as sweet as Chirble, yet I think Chirble will always be number one.   I hate to even say that, because Missy loves me as much as Chirble did, and I love her.    Missy was born on December  30th, which is probably when Chirble knew she was going to die.   And I wonder if Chirble transferred her soul to MIssy.     So I spoil Missy to death, even though she isn't Chirble - but maybe she is?    Anyone else had an experience like that?

Thanks for listening.    I am so scared of what I am going to feel like on January 7th of this coming year because that's the day that Chirble died in 2013.  

I had my Christmas cards made by Zazzle, and Chirble's picture is on the back of most of them.

Maybe you guys will get to see her next year when I quality for the exchange of cards.

And that leads into a new discussion - Chirble had tumors that grew suddenly and she was bleeding internally, which is what caused her death.     The emergency vet said that they are showing some evidence of tumors being related to the "three year" rabies shot.

So that might be important info for all of you.   Our new cat is not getting rabies or feline leukemia shots because both our cats are strictly indoors.    She got the distemper mixed shots, but our vet said the other shots were fine to avoid if they are only inside cats.     It's been years since we let our cats out because there are coyotes in the area now, and they were killing cats.

Anyway, thanks again for wading through all of this.

Mona
Welcome to TCS and thank you for sharing Chirble's story with us. I'm so sorry to hear she passed and I know many of us can relate to the pain and emptiness she left behind. 


If I may make a couple of suggestions - 

1. Start a thread in our Crossing the Bridge forum about Chirble. It's a place for Tribute Pages for our Bridge Kitties.

2. Start a thread in the Health forum about your experiences with the vaccinations. I think this could be helpful for others and may spark an interesting discussion there.

Could you share a picture of Chirble with me? Either here or send via PM. Thank you!
 

segelkatt

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If you have ever volunteered at an animal shelter, or have been otherwise to involved with cat rescue,  as I know many of our members have, can you please send me a PM with the following:

In one paragraph, please share a single memorable feel-good story or moment from your involvement in cat rescue. Be as descriptive and emotional as you like, but please keep it to 2-3 sentences (not easy, I know!!) If you have a picture to add, that would be great, but it's not absolutely necessary. I'm looking for stories about special cats that found great homes, were happily re-united with owners after being lost, recovered from abuse/trauma etc. Anything with a happy ending that lifted your spirit. 


I hope to be using these for a special blog entry to be published later this month. If I end up using your story, it will be with full credit given to your member username, of course! 

If you're new here and don't know how to send a PM, you can also just post it as a reply here. I'll copy your contribution and delete it here.

Thank you in advance! 
 
I went to the Orange County shelter in SoCal  with my daughter to see if there were any cats that sort of jumped into our hearts, we found none. However, as we were out in the parking lot a woman walked up with a carrier in her hand. We stopped to see what she was bringing. It was a cat that she said was hanging around her dad's house and he could not take care of it. It had pretty blue eyes and otherwise looked pretty, was willing to be petted, so we took it off her hands. 

On the way home we had to pass our vet's office so we planned on taking the cat there before we even got it home. While driving there, with my daughter having this cat on her lap, she said "I think this cat is pregnant." The vet confirmed this but also said she was a very young cat, probably only 7 or 8 months old and VERY pregnant. As I was going to have this cat spayed the vet said he could take care of this at the same time and to come back the next day. At that time he said she had 6 kittens in her and probably would not have survived giving birth to that many kittens at her age. We took her home, loved her a lot and named her Capucchino on account of her coloring. She turned out to be a pure-bred seal-point Birman with her white boots on side-ways. She is now 13 years old and the most loving cat ever. She needs her cuddle twice a day and comes to get it like clockwork. My daughter, who has passed away 7 years ago due to a birth defect at the age of 37, told me when we picked up the cat from the vet, that we had just saved the cat's life twice as not only would she not have survived giving birth to all those kittens, but if we had not taken her in the parking lot of the shelter, once she was in the shelter and was found to be pregnant she would have been put down immediately, as that is the way the county shelters work. So she has used up two of her nine lives. She is healthy and playful, and I think she is happy. I know she makes me happy when she climbs in my lap and demands to be petted.  
 
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Anne

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If you have ever volunteered at an animal shelter, or have been otherwise to involved with cat rescue,  as I know many of our members have, can you please send me a PM with the following:

In one paragraph, please share a single memorable feel-good story or moment from your involvement in cat rescue. Be as descriptive and emotional as you like, but please keep it to 2-3 sentences (not easy, I know!!) If you have a picture to add, that would be great, but it's not absolutely necessary. I'm looking for stories about special cats that found great homes, were happily re-united with owners after being lost, recovered from abuse/trauma etc. Anything with a happy ending that lifted your spirit. 


I hope to be using these for a special blog entry to be published later this month. If I end up using your story, it will be with full credit given to your member username, of course! 

If you're new here and don't know how to send a PM, you can also just post it as a reply here. I'll copy your contribution and delete it here.

Thank you in advance! 
 
I went to the Orange County shelter in SoCal  with my daughter to see if there were any cats that sort of jumped into our hearts, we found none. However, as we were out in the parking lot a woman walked up with a carrier in her hand. We stopped to see what she was bringing. It was a cat that she said was hanging around her dad's house and he could not take care of it. It had pretty blue eyes and otherwise looked pretty, was willing to be petted, so we took it off her hands. 

On the way home we had to pass our vet's office so we planned on taking the cat there before we even got it home. While driving there, with my daughter having this cat on her lap, she said "I think this cat is pregnant." The vet confirmed this but also said she was a very young cat, probably only 7 or 8 months old and VERY pregnant. As I was going to have this cat spayed the vet said he could take care of this at the same time and to come back the next day. At that time he said she had 6 kittens in her and probably would not have survived giving birth to that many kittens at her age. We took her home, loved her a lot and named her Capucchino on account of her coloring. She turned out to be a pure-bred seal-point Birman with her white boots on side-ways. She is now 13 years old and the most loving cat ever. She needs her cuddle twice a day and comes to get it like clockwork. My daughter, who has passed away 7 years ago due to a birth defect at the age of 37, told me when we picked up the cat from the vet, that we had just saved the cat's life twice as not only would she not have survived giving birth to all those kittens, but if we had not taken her in the parking lot of the shelter, once she was in the shelter and was found to be pregnant she would have been put down immediately, as that is the way the county shelters work. So she has used up two of her nine lives. She is healthy and playful, and I think she is happy. I know she makes me happy when she climbs in my lap and demands to be petted.  
 
two or three sentences? You've got to be kidding.
No worries! I realize it's sometimes easier to write the details and share, and I really do enjoy the stories (I'm sure others reading the thread do too). I just want to create a nice article in the end, maybe some nice visual infographic to go along with it, and for that I'll be taking 2-3 sentences from each story (possibly with some editing).

If anyone wishes to give the condensed version, 2-3 sentences is great, but the longer versions are more than welcome too! 
 
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