Meowsley and Momma Black are my feline babies

Hello!

I'm so happy to have come across this forum, as the forum I was participating in before decided to close down. 

Being that this one has been around for 15+ years, I hope this one will stick around for a while!!

I've had cats for most of my life. My very first pet was a cat, and I was 5 years old. I have had dogs too (and currently have 2!), but if I had  to choose between dogs or cats as being my favourite, it would be cats (shh, don't tell my dogs!). I've volunteered at animal shelters off and on since I was 16 years old. I've done some fostering also. Love the work!

Last year, I got a crash course with feral rescue and TNR when I found an abandoned kitten in my yard one freezing night. I TNR'ed the mother and who we believe was the father. Father stopped coming around a couple of months after, but mother showed up every night almost without fail for dinner. The kitten got adopted with the help of the rescue I volunteer for, and, very recently, mother ended up moving in with us! I'll share more about that experience in the feral forums. 

That transitions nicely to telling you about my current cats! My favourite type of cat is, of course, the black cat. After years of seeing the black cats getting looked over for adoption time and time again, they hold a special place in my heart... not to mention their beauty!! Meowsley is the eldest of the two. He is estimated to be about 10-11 years old. I adopted him from the local animal control after his owners surrendered him because he was "getting too old" and they were "moving" (not 15 miles away from their old house, into a new house, that they would own....don't get me started!). He had been at animal control waiting to be adopted for 4 months before I got him. He is the sweetest cat, and has so much love to give! We are very fortunate to have him. Momma Black is my former feral. She is quite young, as the veterinarian who did her spay surgery/vaccination/deworming/ear-tipping when I TNR'ed her estimated her age to be about a year old at the time, which makes her about 2 years old now. It has taken a LOT of work to get her where she is today (again, I'll post another thread going into more detail on this), but our family loves her dearly and she is now very content to be with us. Both my kitties are in my profile picture, the larger one is Meowsley, and Momma Black is the little girl with the tipped ear. 

Thanks, and I'm looking forward to getting to know this forum!

WELCOME!  We are so glad you are here.  This site is a wonderful meeting place for cat lovers of all types.  There is so much information here that no matter how experienced you are and how much you know on some subjects, you can keep learning new things as you need them.  In addition to threads and discussions, there are many articles and reviews.  You can use the search bar (at the top, just under the top brown bar) and put in anything you are interested in, and you will get a list of threads discussing that, or articles relating to it. 

I loved the story about Meowsly!  I've been in rescue a long time and the blacks (and Siamese mixes) are my favorites as well.  I'm glad the shelter that took Meowsly when his [expletive] former "parents" turned him in because he was "getting too old, and they were moving into a new house" valued him enough to keep him for four months so that finally a truly caring black cat lover would find him and adopt him.  As for Momma Black, she sounds like my Wallflower, ho was a feral kitten who somehow fell down inside the wall of an apartment building and could not get out.  She screamed pitifully until the management actually came and cut her out of the wall.  They called Animal Control (she would not have stood a chance at survival there, being feral and hissy), but she hid somewhere and Animal Control gave up and left, saying call us when you find her.  The office was in a warehouse room, so good luck with that.  However, my neighbor told me about this story after she got back from shopping for groceries (the clerk had told her)and I called the mnagement company and they said I could come look for her and take her if I found her.  Knowing where little black cats hide helped me find her.  Despite her hisses, I scruffed her and tucked her under my arm and off we went.  She spent a couple of weeks in a crate until she was thoroughly used to me and the other cats and had been tested for aids and leukemia, and then I left the crate door open and she could come and go as she pleased.  It is now 16 years later and she still has moments where the feral kicks in and she won't let me catch ehr or pick her up, but she also has a domesticated side that suddenly shows up by my side wanting to me rubbed and petted.  Your Momma Black will probably be a lot like her.  (Oh yeah, the name Wallflower was because she was this little black fluff ball that had been cut out of the wall.)

The owner of this site, @Anne, lives in Israel, and we have many international members as well.  @Anne is passionate about this site, so I doubt it will end anytime soon as long as we keep Israel safe.

Again, WELCOME, and I hope you enjoy The Cat Site.

LOL! Good to know I'm not alone in feeling the sentiments I do about Meowsley's former "parents!" Their loss, our gain. And yeah, the good folks at our local animal control do a great job with nearly impossible circumstances. Their adoption rates continue to rise, and that's because of the dedication and hard work of the skeleton crew of staff and army of volunteers! His adoption story is kind of interesting. We had just moved to the area and I was at animal control to obtain licenses for my dogs. It had been a year since my 19 year old cat had passed away, so in passing I asked when the viewing hours were for the adoptable cats. I wasn't sure if I was ready yet, but I was new to the area so I wanted to have my options open. Her eyes lit up and said, "I can show you right now, follow me!" (found out later official viewing hours were not at that time... again, dedication!!). I kind of didn't have a choice, hehe. So I went in, and my gut  drew me over to this one particular cage. It was Meowsley's cage. He looked at me and rubbed his face on the door of the cage. She offered to bring him to their socialisation room so I could see him and pet him. We clicked, and that was it. I figured I would fill out the application and hear back the next day, nope! They sent me home with him right then and there, with one of their carriers! As I was filling out the application, she told me how long he had been at animal control, and got the rest of the story, the "real" story that I shared here about his family that abandoned him when I brought back the carrier.

I wish I could say I've never heard this story before. Unfortunately, we hear it all too frequently in rescue work, don't we? 

Thanks for sharing about Wallflower, and the warm welcome! I'm excited already about this site. 

God bless you for all that you do.

Welcome to TCS! Thank you for all that you do for those cats.

Welcome![emoji]128512[/emoji]. There are lots of black cat lovers here. Check out the groups to find one dedicated to these special guys. Hope to see you around the forums!