A Nonprofit, No-Kill Feline Adoption Center/Shelter
and Feral Cat Advocacy Organization
serving Santa Clara County, California. |
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http://www.towncats.org/newsletter/archive.htm |
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Aidan
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Crystal |
Diana |
Mocha |
Sue |
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Apologies.......July has been a hectic month
for everyone at Town Cats and this edition of the newsletter
was put on the backburner. I hope everyone understands that
sometimes things have to take priority.
Business is booming at Town Cats! We are smack in the middle
of kitten season and we've got kittens coming out of our ears!
Too bad this business is so one sided - supply always outweighs
demand. So we greatly appreciate our supporters who help us
be able to care for all the cats and kittens while they await
their final homes! Thank you!
I am sure some of you have noticed the changes on the website;
mainly the addition of some new affiliate banner and our new
google banners. We decided to give these a try in the hope that
it will raise much needed funds. We appreciate you supporting
Town Cats and the affiliates who are on the site, every penny
earned with these programs helps tremendously & will help
cover spay neuter costs over the next few months while we wait
for the new county facility to be built.
 One
of our new affiliates is Ewatchfactory.. a site where you can
build your own one of a kind watch. If you are looking for something
unique as a gift, or want to promote a club or business, don't
forget to check them out in our Shop and Help section.
For all you shoppers out there who want to help support Town
Cats at the same time as shopping.. stay tuned, we are working
on something new... |
| Articles |
We were very happy to receive a generous donation
of flower essences from one of our adopters this past June 2003.
She had adopted Bianca, one of our adult cats, and used flower
essence mixtures on her when she first brought her home to help
her adjust (see
Bianca's Diary on website); and emailed us daily on Bianca's
progress. She suggested we try the essence on the cats at the
shelter to help maintain tranquility and harmony.
Having come of age in the 70's at the height of "flower
power" (for example, in high school I taught a meditation
and yoga class for PE credits, got the school cafeteria to sell
salads and vegetarian fare, had my own herb and vegetable garden
etc.); I was quite familiar with herbal teas and home made remedies.
So of course the flower essence idea sounded like a great idea.
We understand cats are very sensitive and at TC we treat our
residents as our own pets and want the best for every one of
them. Plus we figured if it didn't work, it wouldn't hurt them.
And if it did work, we all figured maybe we'd try some ourselves,
especially now during kitten season, it's probably a good idea
to keep us from getting burned out...especially considering
there's a few drops of brandy in each mixture along with distilled
water...worth a shot (literally)...
So, we set up a meeting for the donor to bring over the essences
and train us on their usage. Well, she brought a cornucopia
of essences and books plus bottles to keep special mixtures
in - enough to last us months! Flower essences help stabilize
the well being and emotional states, they don't treat specific
diseases. So first we identified the main characteristics that
require constant tending to in the shelter environment so as
to strike harmony and balance amongst our residents. These are:
1. depression 2. aggression and 3. fear. We felt that treating
these three behavioral characteristics would help our residents
the most, and we could experiment with other mixtures for different
things later as we became more familiar with the essences and
the cats reaction to them. We learned that there are flowers
that work on things such as separation anxiety, losing attachments
to the past to help one adjust to changes amongst many other
emotions that animals and people experience through the course
of a lifetime. They help the body to generate a natural sense
of well being and balance within the cat, or person, or any
other animal for that matter.
We looked up the three main characteristics that we wanted to
treat immediately (depression, aggression and fear) in the books
provided and found flowers to suit each one. We mixed them and
came up with our three basic remedies. Immediately we gave the
depression mixture to the older cats who had been surrendered
and basically had given up all hope - they had lost their will
to live. We had three residents in this category: Cabo, an 8
year old declawed female; Kitso, an 18 year old female and Kahlua
an 8 year old declawed female. All three of these gals would
lie in their cage and not move. We had to give them fluid therapy,
hand feed them and coddle them to keep them alive. Cats are
very sensitive and do not like change. When abandoned to a shelter
or other situation after years of loving their owner, they just
simply lose the will to live and will not eat, going into what
we call "shelter shock". Kitso was also on vitamins
and glucosamine for arthritis and general old age; but within
four days of putting the flower essence drops in their water,
these girls were jumping out of their cages and running around
the shelter. TC is a free roaming shelter and we encourage the
residents to exercise and get out and about on the jungle gyms/condos
etc. we have installed for them. So although Kits wasn't hanging
by her tail from the condos since she is 18 after all and has
dignity...she did get out and sit on our laps and purr so we
feel she was happy at the end (she passed away in her sleep
last night, July 30th). Cabo and Kahlua are still happy and
seem more motivated about life. Cabo attends our adoption fairs
in hopes she will find a new permanent home soon and Kahlua
will start coming too - however you can see both girls on our
website and at TC anytime.
We also have our "bad" boys club - see the gangs article
in this newsletter. Cats in general are independent and living
amongst 90 is hard on any cat, but some are naturally more "alpha"
or dominant in nature and to maintain peace, we have to watch
for the ones who pick fights and separate them etc. So we mixed
up the flowers recommended to reduce aggression and promote
acceptance of living in a "colony" or "herd"
setting. We are happy to report that our tough guys Peppy, Ozzie
and Harper, as well as our alpha females, Patty, Alanna and
Leslie have come a long way. We still put them away in their
own apartments or condos at night since we're not there to monitor
them; but Harper has been seen lounging around TC licking kittens
lately and not picking fights and Ozzie's the kitten dad now!
He pins the kittens down and gives them full bathes, and meows
to be petted and hasn't picked a fight for about a month now.
Peppy's always laying around now peacfully too...they all seem
a lot more relaxed and at ease, accepting the other cats. The
girls all seem to be happy and more tolerant of the other cats
too. All of these cats attend our fairs and are on our website
- you can see them at TC anytime and we hope they'll find homes
soon.
There aren't many rescue groups that take in feral kittens,
so we get a lot of these guys. We catch them as young as possible,
preferably weaned and under 7 weeks old so we can tame and make
them loving housecats. When these babies arrive at TC, they
are absolutely petrified, and again, will not eat nor drink
and since they are so small, can make themselves sick very quickly
and die if they dehydrate and don't eat. So we need a mixture
to alleviate fear and to give the cats a sense that they are
home and safe. Again, we looked up the flower properties and
matched them to this need and have been putting this mixture
into the general community water bowls and in the water bowls
of all newcomers. We have noticed that the cats become calmer
sooner. Of course, turkey and chicken baby food (jarred meat
only) helps too as poultry has calming properties and cats love
the taste so it helps get them motivated to eat again!
We are very happy with the essence therapy, if you will and
plan to keep using them as long we have a supply. If you are
interested in learning more about flower essences, here are
some books to look at:
1. Bach Flower Remedies for Animals by Helen Graham and Gregory
Vlamis
2. New Bach Flower Therapies Healing the Emotional and Spiritual
Causes of Illness by Dietmar Kramer
3. Treating Animal Illnesses and Emotional States with Flower
Essence Remedies by Jessica Bear, PhD, ND & Tricia Lewis
4. Bach Flower Remedies for Animals by Stefan Ball and Judy
Howard
5. Flower Essence repertory A Comprehensive Guid to North American
and English Fower Essences for Emotional and
Spiritual Well-Being by Patricia Kaminski and Richard Katz
6. Emotional Healing for Cats by Stefan Ball and Judy Howard
-Rosi Mirko
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Town Cats will be at the Taste of Morgan
Hill in September, I hope we see some of you there.
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Thank You Petco !!!
We want to extend a huge Thank You! to the Petco Morgan Hill,
Petco Santa Clara, Petco Los Gatos and Petco Sunnyvale and their
generous patrons who raised $1,876
for Town Cats during their Spring Pet A Thon which ran the months
of March and April, 2003!
This is especially needed and appreciated since there are very
little by way of spay neuter programs available currently and
our vet bills are running upwards of $3,000 monthly just for
spaying and neutering primarily! |
| Veterinary
Services |
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~*~
See the main site for
Up-todate Spay Neuter News
~*~
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AKAL Berryessa Veterinarian
Hospital
408-453-2524 |
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Animal Medical Center
408-267-7387
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St. Francis of Assisi-San
Martin,Ca
408-683-0866
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| Sweeps
& Freebies |
|
Unwanted Prizes are always Welcome
!!!
If you have an unwanted prize please email
us.
If we can't use it at Town Cats we may be able to auction
it off to raise much needed funds and help make a cats life
a little bit easier.
Win
a collar
Catnipetc's
2003 Pretty Kitty Contest
Win
$50 in "Kitty Kash"
Win
a Sitting Pretty Kitty gift bag
Photo Contest
monthly sweepstakes to win free pet food for a year.
If your Show-n-Tails entry is voted the monthly winner by
our site visitors, you’ll receive a great PRO PAC Prize
Pac including: - PRO PAC Bowl
- PRO PAC Denim Shirt
- PRO PAC Baseball Cap
- PRO PAC Pet Treats
- PRO PAC Pet Food Coupons
win a free three-month supply of PRO PAC Pet Food just for
voting on your
favorite Show-n-Tails entry!
WHISKAS
Cat of the Month Photo Contest
Win
FREE Pet Food for One Whole Year!
Win
a bag of Bil-Jac dog or cat food
Woodruffs
Monthly Give Away
Win
a free cat toy!
A
bag of Flint River Ranch dog or cat food
|
Win
your choice of Mini Print
From Cat Man Drew Strouble |
Win
Hartz pet products & a t-shirt
Win
a Kitty's Delight Toy Ensemble
Watercolor
portrait of your pet
Sheba
Cat of the month Photo contest
WIN
FREE ARM & HAMMER CAT LITTER
Flint
River Ranch Dog or Cat Starter Pack
Bones-n-Paws
100% Cotton Dog Shirts
Custom
ANIMAL / PET Portrait
egiftsNmore
Cutest Pet Contest
Win
a Free Squirrel Proof Bird Feeder
MetPet
Weekly Drawing
Pet
Supplies+ Pet of the Month Contest
Happy
Dog Toys Gift Basket Giveaway
|
Thankyou to CashnetSweeps.com
for supplying details of pet related sweeps for our subscribers
and supporting Town Cats. |
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Searching for answers
Google has been very good to Town Cats lately, we seem to
do very well in their search ratings..We run a stats program
which tells us where our visitors come from and what key words
were used in the searches.
This helps us identify and return links to other webmasters
who support us and also helps us identify hot topics and areas
that we need to improve.
A relatively recent addition is the Cruelty Free Company List,
this seems to have generated quite a lot of interest for a
small site such as Town Cats and has even resulted in an inquiry
about paid advertising from one of the companies who wants
to improve their listing.. and all this just from a simple
list put on the site to provide added information for our
visitors who are concerned about products they use.
...We do however get some odd visitors sent our way.
The answers are out there....
but they may not be what you expected !!
Recent searches that have directed traffic to Town Cats have
included:
"Pictures of Leann Rymes"
- a valid result only in so much as one of our success stories
mentions her...
"Hi everybody,
I just wanted to e-mail you and
tell you Precious(she's been renamed Leann after the singer
Leann Rymes) is doin great."
We also rate 1st & 2nd when searching for "feral
cat poems"
Other strange key word strings that
have linked to Town Cats include:
Of course we get a lot of good linking too... popular searches
include things like:
- cat balding conditions
- plants poisonous to cats
- cats wallpaper
- how much KMR do I feed a kitten
- rainbow bridge cats
- semi-feral cats
- kitten season
Maintaining good ranking in Search engines is very important
to get the exposure we need... thank you to everyone who links
to Town Cats from their websites.. it really does help. Of course
we are always looking for writes who want to contribute content
for the website or newsletter.. so if you feel you have a literary
mind, or just want to submit a poem or picture or wallpaper
you created.. email us. |
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(or: We're gonna have a hot time
in the old town tonight!)
At the Town Cats shelter, diversity is celebrated--we have all different
sizes, shapes, ages, hair length, colors and personalities. After
their initial quarantine and adjustment period, Town Cats residents
are allowed to freely roam inside the shelter, which means all cats
find their own niche no matter what their preferences are. Some cats
are very confident and immediately want lots of active attention,
other cats are shy and feel more comfortable with lots of quiet time
in a good hiding place. Town Cats provides a great environment for
each cat to feel comfortable at their own pace. Unfortunately this
serene atmosphere is sometimes interrupted by our members of the "Bad
Boys Club" who find it amusing to torment other residents or
assert their dominance at the shelter, which in the interest of harmony,
is politely considered neutral territory by everyone but these brats.
Our diversified environment means that former street cats live among
former pampered housecats. For instance, there are several male "thugs"
such as "Ozzy", "Harper" and "Pepe",
to name a few, who haven't quite figured out that they don't rule
the streets anymore. These guys still act like bullies towards some
of the other shelter cats because they lived on the streets as un-neutered
tough guys where they had to fight for food, territory and females.
It takes them awhile after rescue and neutering for them to realize
they don't have to act tough anymore. In the meantime, they are supervised
closely and put into private sleeping quarters at night so they don't
cause trouble for the other more easy-going residents. But if they
get the chance, these hooligans make sure no one else gets too comfortable,
pouncing on unsuspecting co-habitants when the time is right. Although,
as with any good gang member, these guys steer clear of each other,
they know better than to mess with another Bad Boy! Unbelievably,
several of these streetwise tomcats love to be around kittens! It
is amazing to see these big male bruisers happily grooming and cuddling
with any kittens they come across. Even bullies need love and have
soft spots for babies, but we keep their soft side a secret from the
other cats so as not to ruin their tough guy image.
As careful observers of feline society within TC, we have noticed
many other types of "gangs" or cliques exist which are comprised
of cats of similar ranking who "hang" together. Most of
these cats are truly bonded with their "gang" members -
they are seen walking together with their tails wrapped around one
another's, butting heads in greeting, cuddling together taking naps
and even rubbing up against cats who aren't members of their gang
at the risk of being swatted because they are so affectionate to one
another. Our welcoming committee is comprised of cats like Basil,
Boomer, Boo Boo, Desiree, Desi, Ulysses, Crystal, Kendall, Travis,
Sandie - curious and friendly teens who have always lived in a group
setting and love every newcomer kitty that arrives.
Then there are those adults, who although are independent and don't
really hang out together, are at the top of the social scale because
they drift through all the different gangs throughout the day without
being bothered by the other cats. This includes cats like Ralph, Rusty,
Patty, Allana, DQ, Precious, Calvin, Cabo, Turtle, most of the adult
residents who are so well adjusted, all the cats respect them and
don't bother them, even the "bad" boys leave them alone.
There is a definite society based on a hierarchy of ranking at TC
and we do our best to keep all the residents happy and living in harmony.
We recently received a generous donation of flower essences (see related
article in this newsletter) and decided to give them a try to improve
the well being of the TC residents. Results have been positive as
these special remedies seem to really calm down the aggressive or
uptight gang members, has also helped the feral kittens arriving stricken
with fear, help cats to live in a group setting and especially help
our shy or depressed cats such as "Kitsu" who at the age
of 18, was tragically surrendered by her family when they decided
they didn't want her anymore. This sweet senior lady has had a difficult
time adjusting to shelter life and was extremely depressed for several
months as she missed her family and home that she had loved all her
life. Kitsu had no interest in eating or leaving her cage, but shelter
workers made sure she got a lot of private attention, which she adored,
and let her have as much time as she needed to feel comfortable. With
much time and the new flower essences to help her, we are so very
happy to see that Kitsu has finally ventured out of her cage this
month to gradually explore the shelter. Her depression seems to be
subsiding and she now enjoys napping and watching her shelter mates
from a quiet spot against the wall. We feared she might succumb to
a broken heart, but we now feel she has finally shown an interest
in life again; we didn't give up on her and neither did she!
As much as volunteer shelter workers (humorously, but accurately,
called "Cat Maids") strive to meet the needs of each individual
resident who are lucky to be safe after their rescue, a shelter is
just a substitute for a real home. We understand that some cats do
better than others in a shelter environment, as they all wait for
a permanent adoption into a loving home. Won't you give one of them
a chance?
Please note that we use the term "bad
boys" affectionately to refer to the antics of our gang
members, as these guys are not "bad" at all, they
are just doing what life as a stray and testosterone conditioned
them to do. Most of our "troublemakers" are actually
extremely affectionate towards people and are litter box trained
so they are highly adoptable, they just need a household where
they can be single or at least a home with "less"
cats than they live with at our shelter.
These not-so-tough guys would love to be your "one and
only"!
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Smokey Joe |
Boo Boo |
Riley |
Cinderella |
Lily |
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