Open House/Volunteer Appreciation Day, October 16, 2005

It was a wonderful affair! Everyone who was anyone was there! We all had a great time, good cheer, good food and lots of wine! We missed you if you didn't come, so mark it on your calendar for October 16, 2006! Our Annual Open House/Volunteer Appreciation Day is always the same date every year - National Feral Cat Day - which is always October 16th. And the public is always welcome to join us and learn more about what we do, have fun, visit the cats (maybe take one or two home?) We show videos on Feral Cat Caretaking and mingle and have fun!

October also happens to be our residents' absolutely favorite month being that Halloween is in October and all. What other holiday has so many cat items to decorate and deck the halls with! And we take decorating seriously! So as part of our Open House we also hold our annual Halloween Kitty Costume Contest. We are happy to announce that Bosco (above) is the winner of the 2nd Annual Town Cats Halloween Kitty Costume Contest wearing his pumpkin costume! That's Jeannette, who volunteers at Town Cats shelter Saturday night shift with mom Juanita, holding him.

Elvis was our runner-up, in second place, very dashing in his pirate suit. (left.)

Tally finished the contest in 3rd place (right) due to her majestic ease in sporting the pumpkin gown.

Other cats in the contest:

From left to right: Lilly in a monster suit; Louise sporting a Halloween bandana; and Odette sporting a monster costume - she's with our youngest volunteer, Jalissa who is 7 and who helps at TC shelter Friday nights with mom and dad.

Last, but not least, Carmen is sophisticated in her pink princess outfit (left).

On the right is Melissa, who has been volunteering at the adoption fairs at the PFX SJ store for 4 years now and has learned how to administer vaccinations now too.

On the left, that's Hannah who's volunteered with her mom Jackie for 5 years now - she's holding a kitten with a foster family member, Emily, who's also holding a kitten.

From left to right, below: Rita Wessel, who's volunteered with Town Cats for 4 years now plus lots of volunteers in background, including Judy Schroeder who's volunteered with TC for 5 years talking to Dennis and Mona Liu who adopted Spot that day (they previously adopted Babble (now Billy Idol), Sangria (now Jeff Chu), Firebird and Flipper (now Shaft); Kay Schultz, who has been conducting our Sunday adoption fairs at PFX SJ and fosters, and traps and... for about a year now;and Joya Deias - Joya adopted feral cats from us and is now fostering a litter as well.

Left, Denise Schroeder. Denise does our database and paperwork plus fosters and manges the Pet Smart Gilroy adoption center.

Below is Barb Glusker who has been fostering, doing the Sunnyvale and Santa Clara Petco fairs, trapping and ....for about 3 years now, and Glenn, Barb's significant other who has been volunteering at the fairs and fostering and trapping for about 3 years now.

We all had lots of fun! Good educational videos about feral cats and their care too! Thanks for coming everyone! And if you didn't make it this year, don't miss it in 2006, we hold this event at the TC shelter every year on October 16th which is National Feral Cat Day!!! And many thanks to all that helped the night be a success!!