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| A Nonprofit, No-Kill
Feline Adoption Center/Shelter and Feral Cat Advocacy Organization
serving Santa Clara County, California. |
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Santa Clara County |
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2003 Animal Care Conference
- San Jose! by Lorna Pusateri and Rosi Mirko Town Cats proudly participated in the the 2003 Animal Care Conference held March 2, 3 and 4 at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose. The event was sponsored by the California Animal Control Directors Association, the California Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) and the State Humane Association of California. The conference provides educational seminars for animal care professionals. The seminars focus on shelter medicine, management, animal behavior and training, shelter services and field services. There are also exhibitors displaying supplies for shelters and animal care groups. Town Cats had an exhibitor booth to demonstrate our support of shelter workers and animal care professionals and our willingness to work with them to find homes for their shelter residents. We also provided educational literature for conference attendees on our aggressive house cat adoption programs and on feral cat care. We strive to work hand in glove with our local municipal shelters in order to reduce the number of euthanasias of unwanted cats and kittens. We take as many out of the shelters as possible and take them to adoption fairs, advertise them on our web site and in the papers, we do whatever it takes to help the shelters find homes for their homeless cats!  Logan
was the official Town Cat ambassador and everyone came by to pet
him. The Avid representative even microchipped him for no charge
to demonstrate their products and we are happy to announce that
we will soon be microchipping all of our adoptees. We sold lots
of T-shirts and everyone enjoyed the 9 part video series by the
SF SPCA on feral cat care and Trap-Neuter-Return protocol and procedures
that we showed in our booth.We are serious about our mission to reduce the number of homeless and euthanized pets in America and will be proud exhibitors at conferences such as this whenever given the opportunity. |
Vets offering special
referred by Town Cats when making their appointment. |
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| Humor - Engineers Guide to Cats | Health | |||
 Cat User's Manual CAT v.6.1b: Completely Autonomous Tester Manufactured by MOMCAT User Installation & Maintenance Documentation Features: * User Friendly * Low Power CPU * Self Portable Operation * Dual Video and Audio Input * Audio Output * Auto Search Capability for Input Data * Auto Search for Output Bin * Auto Learn Program in ROM * Instant Transition (<2 nanoseconds) Between Full Power and Standby Mode * Energy Saving Standby Mode When Not In Use * Wide Operating Temperature Range * Mouse Driven * Self Cleaning Production Details: After basic KIT construction, the unit undergoes six weeks of onsite ROM programming and burn-in testing. Listed features are installed during this period. Since MOMCAT uses local suppliers, there may be a variation between individual units. Some of the units may not meet general standards. MOMCAT's quality assurance may reject inferior units. Users may sometimes salvage rejected units. Beware of Far East clones. These may violate import restrictions. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Transportation: A suitable transportation case should be used for transportation to the operating site. Failure to properly ship a CAT unit may result in loss or damage to the unit and serious injury to the user. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Installation Procedures: Upon receiving the CAT unit, the user should examine the unit to verify that all I/O channels are free of debris and operational. The user should look for minor bugs in or on the system. Bugs are indicative of the MOMCAT production enviroment. The user may manually remove any bugs. Bring the CAT to operation in an environment temperature of 20deg C (+/- 3deg tolerance). Use a quiet room with the primary user(s) present. Open the transporation case and let the CAT unit autoexit. Initialize the self learning program by displaying the output bin. The next step consists in displaying the input bins. These should contain H2O (liquid state, room temperature, 99% purity) and dry energy pellets. Immediately afterwards, you must display the output bin. If the user already has a CAT unit successfully installed, it may be possible to download the BASIC routines to the new CAT. For the first day or two, the CAT will stay in self learning mode. When the learn buffer overflows, the CAT will autoswitch to sleep( ) mode. This is normal. The MMU system will store the new information to permanent memory. Afer 72 hours, the CAT will be interacting with the operating environment. The unit may often be placed in direct sunlight. If all basic environment requirements are satisfied, the CAT system will produce a slight hum. This is normal. A new CAT should not exit the primary site facility. Full portability comes after extensive burn in. Some users never let the CAT unit autoexit the site. The advantages are longer unit life and fewer bugs. Contact with pirate CAT units may lead to unplanned BATCH iteration. Contact with untested CATs may lead to virus infection. If allowed to exit, some CAT units may try to port across a street. Fatal errors may happen. These errors are never recoverable. Such situations are not covered by warranties. If you decide to let your CAT out, it should have a READ_ME.TXT file with a system address and URL. Your CAT should have a system name. The name may have to be repeated until the system can read it correctly. This lets you issue voice commands to bring the unit to an online state. Many owners give their CATs a secret password as well. You can also get the CAT's attention by booting the system. While this is effective, it is discouraged. Too much booting will abuse the system. The manufacturer is not responsible for injuries to the user. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Applications: MOUSE is a killer app. This is pre-installed. At present, there are few productivity applications for CAT. Many owners use their system for game playing. CATs play best when they are young. Older units suffer a system timing decay which leads to reduced response and flexibility. Some of the better CAT games are: CACHE The CAT will CACHE a data code. Similar to the K9 unit game, but the object code must be smaller. MIRROR Place the unit in front of a mirror and watch it attempt to parse itself. Some units may ESCape. Reboot the system by calling its name. STRING The CAT attempts to parse a data string. JUMP Move the data string through the air. The CAT unit will reach new heights of operation. CHASE Played between two CAT units or a CAT and a K9 unit. Units take turns as one is the data and the other attempts to parse it. DANCE and SING Offer fishy data code to elicit a range of audio output. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Maintenance: CATs will self recharge. This takes 20 hours in a 24 hour cycle. CATs are self cleaning and require little user maintenance. Do not clean the unit with alcohol or benzine-based solvents. This can lead to violent explosions. A CAT unit should be taken once a year to a VET (Very Expensive Technician) for a system checkup. Do not attempt to open a CAT. There are no user serviceable parts inside. If a unit emits strange smells or sounds, it should be serviced immediately by a VET. You may examine the CAT system to determine if it has a male or female scuzzy port. If the port is male, then the CAT unit may emit a non-toxic aerosol. The VET can remove this component. CATs with female ports are plagued by periodic heating problems. The VET can fix this permanently by removing an internal part. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Caution: * CAT systems are normally user friendly. However, in certain documented situations, a CAT may pose a danger to the user. Repeated jamming or obstruction of air ports may lead to a CAT deploying its auto defense mechanisms. * Do not strike a CAT. * Its CPU clock rate is over 500 mHz. *Twin D-shaped five-pin connectors have an average seek rate of 3 milliseconds. Children should not poke anything into the CAT's I/O ports. CAT may BYTE. In dry, cold weather, a surface electrostatic charge may build up. To avoid electric shock, stand on an insulated surface. * Do not operate the CAT above water. This may lead to end-user damage. * Carry a CAT firmly. Do not swing it by its "tail". =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Service Life: As CATs become older, the learn program will recognize every situation. The CAT may become too smart for its own good. The Ctrl key on many CAT units is defective. CATs like to have their own toys. They often have hobbies, such as bird watching or studying tropical fish. If you properly care for your CAT, it will give you years of loyal service. Many users get a second or even third unit. Most users don't need the extra capacity, but they enjoy the ability to run complex simulation games. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- User Groups: CAT users can find other users on the net news group called rec.pets.cats. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Lifetime Warranty: The CAT unit is guaranteed against catastrophic failure. Nine coupons are included. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Specifications: * Models Main frame, desktop and laptop models (smallest footprint in the industry). * Interface Touch sensitive interface for maximum user friendliness. * Memory 16 MB with 1 MB in ROM. Upgrades available real soon now. * Expected Lifetime 12 years with +/- 72 months (although 20 years are common). * Weight 3-6 kilograms without optional cables. * Speed 3 milliseconds search/find with self-uprighting supertwist technology. * Color Graphics Either paper white, monochrome (black/white), 64 grey shades, or maximum of 16 million colors with 40 gigabits of high resolution pixels. * Sound Chip 16 octaves, digital MIDI output (MI/OU). * Power Consumpution 250 grams protein daily (2 micrograms per second.) * Operating Range -30 to +45deg C (-22 to 105) * Vibration 5-500 Hz, one octave/min, dwell at all resonance points. http://www.andreas.com/catman.html By Andreas Ramos Thanks to Ray & Laura for sharing this with us
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Feline Panleukopenia Feline panleukopenia (FP) also known as feline distemper, is a highly contagious viral disease that occurs wherever there are cats. Cats at any age may be stricken by this often fatal disease. At highest risk are young kittens, sick cats and unvaccinated cats. Generally older cats have acquired immunity and are infected less frequently. Dogs are not susceptible to FP - canine distemper is an entirely different disease caused by a completely separate virus. Neither disease is transmissible to humans. FP is passed from cat to cat by direct contact. The most common source of infection is fecal waste, but the virus may also be transmitted via other bodily secretions such as saliva. Cats may also become infected without coming in direct contact with an infected cat through bedding, cages, food dishes, hands and clothing of handlers that may have been in contact with an infected cat and therefore may harbor and transmit the virus. This virus is very stable and is resistant to many chemicals and may remain infectious at room temperature for as long as a year. Short of raising a cat in total isolation, it is nearly impossible to prevent exposure. After exposure, many of the cat's cells are destroyed. This cell loss makes the cat more susceptible to other complications and bacterial infections. FP is a complex disease which can vary in severity from mild to extreme. Many signs are not typical and many guardians may believe their cat has been poisoned or has swallowed a foreign object. Because of this, treatment may be delayed or or neglected. The first signs are generalized depression, loss of appetite, high fever, lethargy, vomiting, dehydration and hanging over the water dish. The course of the disease can be short and explosive, causing death within hours of discovery. Normally the sickness may go on for three or four days after the first elevation of body temperature. Fever will fluctuate during the illness and abruptly fall to subnormal levels shortly before death. Other signs in later stages are diarrhea, anemia and persistent vomiting. FP is so prevalent and the signs of the disease are so varied that any sick cat should be taken to a veterinarian for a definite diagnosis. The survival rate for kittens is poor, older cats have a better chance of survival if adequate treatment is provided early in the course of the disease. Treatment is limited to supportive care and therapy to help the patient gain and retain sufficient strength to combat the virus with its own immune system. There are no antibiotics that can kill the FP virus. If caught early enough, at home care including hand feeding, daily subcutaneous fluid therapy and antibiotics for secondary infections may combat the disease. Hospitalization with intravaneous fluid feeding is usually required. Pregnant females that contract the disease, even in its mildest form will usually give birth to kittens with severe brain damage. Strict islation is essential. The area where you keep the cat should be kept warm with heating pad under towels or blankets to keep the cat warm and comfortable. It must be free of drafts and very clean. Plenty of tender loving care is extremely important. Cats may lose their will to live so frequent petting, hand feeding and good nursing care by his or her guardian is essential to recovery. FP is controlled in several ways. Cats that survive a natural infection usually develop sufficient active immunities to protect them for the rest of their lives. Mild cases may go unnoticed and will also produce immunity. Kittens may also receive immunity from their mothers milk. This is temporary however and the kittens must be vaccinated to become fully immune. Vaccines offer the safest protection. They stimulate the cat's body to produce protective antibodies against the virus to prevent infection from natural disease causing viruses. Vaccines are preventative, not curative however. They must be administered prior to the cat becoming exposed to be effective. A bleach and water solution (1:3) is the most effective way to eliminate the virus from the environment. Be sure to clean all surfaces with soap and water solutions first, let it dry completely, then spray with the bleach and water solution and let that air dry prior to letting the cat come into contact with the surface again. Feed bowls, litter boxes, linens, all surfaces that the infected cat has come into contact with must all be washed with bleach and allowed to dry before introducing other cats to the same area. It's recommended that all items the sick cat has come into contact with be replaced with new and that you quarantine the area the cat lived in for a month at least, longer if possible before letting unexposed cats come into the same area again. |
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Sweeps & Freebies |
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| Unwanted
Prizes are always Welcome !!! If you have an unwanted prize please email us and see if you can make a cats life a little bit easier. If we can't use it at Town Cats we may be able to auction it off to raise much needed funds.
Win
A FREE Littermaid MEGA
Win
a pet gift basket |
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| Our Volunteers collect Paw Points to donate items desperately needed such as cat litter and bedding. | ||||
If you have unwanted Paw Points please send them to our volunteers at: Town Cats P.O. Box 1828 Morgan Hill, CA 95038-1828   **Offer for free supplies ends 30th June 2003 |
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