Blogs

One of our new Members, Anita, is a Doctor who lives in Spain. She agrees that feeding grained foods is not a good idea for her cats—and she added that grain is not so great for humans, either.

Anita's dilemma is that she's having a tough time FINDING grain-free cat food in Spain. I haven't been able to find a US-based cat food supplier that will ship overseas. This issue also came up with a friend of mine who lives in the UK. Again, the Grain-Free Revolution hasn't really hit our European neighbors.

After a few hours of research, I was able to locate something close to grain-free in the UK for my friend, but what can Anita do?

I checked Dr. Pierson's web site-the Holy Grail of Grain-Free Nutrition Information for Cats (along with other helpful topics, such as Litter Box problems/solutions and Diabetes Management). I found a link I'd like to share that talks about how to MAKE your OWN Cat Food! Now this is not for everyone, but if you live somewhere where you can't get grain-free food, then go ahead and make your own.

My caveat, and Dr. Pierson's is to be CAREFUL about handling raw meat. I fed RAW to my cats and they did great and loved it, but it's possible that my OLD kitty, Bob, who has FIV, may have gotten sickened by my mishandling of his raw food. We'll never know for sure, but I decided to feed canned, grain-free, over RAW, for now. If your cat is older and immune compromised, then DO be careful.

If anyone else has suggestions on where to find Grain Free Cat Food in Spain, let's here it! Post a comment or if you're a Member, you can also post a BLOG article!

Make Your Own Cat Food

Grain-Free is the Only Way to Feed!

photo by Trapper Jeanne

This is Chip.

Looks like Chip is a free-roaming kitty (stray). It's pretty obvious from the photos, he's NOT feral. He had a home and love from people and he hasn't been separated from humans long enough to have forgotten that love. He has, however, been away from people long enough to become a very dirty kitty! Voted number One in his class for Dirtiest Kitty in CT!

photo by Trapper Jeanne

Regardless of his dirty coat, Chip needed to be neutered and tested for disease. The tests always give me a stomach ache and sleepless nights. I never want to hear bad news. I hoped Chip would get a clean bill of health.

Trapper Jeanne moves at light speed. Just another day passed and I heard from Jeanne again-Good News! Chip didn't have anything that couldn't be treated. He had a very bad infestation of worms, which apparently, made a "run for the border" (sorry, gross, I know!), after Chip got his first de-worming treatment. Chip was neutered and ready for a new home.

Now the problem was...how to get Chip into a shelter where folks could FIND him! Jeanne doesn't have a shelter, she generously donates space in her own home to help rescued cats. We know from first-hand experience that the odds of adopting out an adult cat from a foster home is very low. Adults do much better in a shelter, where they can be seen by more potential adopters in a shorter amount of time.

This cat is a love-bug. He deserves a shot at a great home. How can we get him into a good shelter, where he'll be safe until he finds his forever home?

We've all seen kitties that have had a rough life and perhaps don't look as lovely or glamourous as a Show Cat, but this really takes the cake. Great story and video, below.

Bat Boy

Last weekend, Trapper Jeanne, as we call her, called to tell me some news about a feral cat we've been feeding. While we were chatting, she told me she was behind her family's Hardware Store, putting out food for yet more feral cats. Suddenly Jeanne got quiet, then she whispered:

"I see a new cat. i think he's feral. He looks pretty rough. I'm gonna put out a trap."

"No way! You're kidding!"

" Serious. Hang on a sec."

Jeanne's got talent. She also just digs in and isn't afraid of getting involved with any free roaming cat she comes across. I don't know how many kittys Jeanne's saved, but I know it's a lot.

Then Jeanne began to describe him to me.

"He's mostly white...wait...Oh my God...I think he's...YES! He's going into the trap!!! The door isn't closing behind him! Shit! Wait a second..."

I could hear some muffled sounds, then suddenly a LOUD, plaintive MEOW! Trapper Jeanne lived up to her name. She caught the cat!

Jeanne got back on the phone with me, her voice high with excitement.

"I got him! Can you hear him meowing?! He CAN'T be feral!"

A deaf person could hear him MEOW it was so LOUD. He sounded a bit like a Siamese. Jeanne told me he was really skinny and dirty and we both knew that if he meowed like that, it meant he was probably not feral, but perhaps lost his family and he sure needed some help.

So Jeanne put him in her car and took him home for evaluation and to get him some food. Thankfully, Jeanne works for a Vet, so she has a great deal of knowledge and connections! Go Jeanne!

I told her to get going and begged her to update me when she could and to send me some photos. I wanted to help, too, but didn't know if she'd need my help. I am SO jonesing for foster kitty!

I started to hope that this kitty wasn't feral so we could get him a new home. How could this cat basically just show up when one of the few people in the area who could have helped him was there? For those of you who work with ferals, you KNOW, they often don't just go into the trap. He must have been very hungry and possibly used to being around humans to go after food while Jeanne was there watching.

Chip's story continues with a few photos and more news....stay tuned.

Shower Curtain Insanity!

And it's ONLY $11.99! How purrrrrfect is that??

Hee hee..but you ken see yer nekkidness if you hang it in yer showr!

Okay, perhaps the idea of spaying your pet isn't particularly a cheerful notion, but in fact, it is the number one most important thing you can do to help, not only your cat or dag live a better, longer, life, but it will help reduce the number of animals who are needlessly KILLED every year due to overcrowding in shelters.

If you want your kids to know about the cycle of life by seeing your cat or dog have a litter, then become a FOSTER family to kittens or puppies who are already born! Most, if not, all rescue groups need volunteers to help socialize, feed and love young animals and their Mom's while they're still to young to be adopted. Some of the offspring will be only a mere few days old. Speaking from experience, it is an amazing journey to watch these creatures grow and thrive and an honor to be part of their lives until they go to their forever homes.

Please, for the sake of all those suffering animals on death row at shelters, get your cat or dog spayed. If you can't afford it, there are MANY programs available to help offset costs across the country. It shouldn't be a burden to your wallet and the money you'll save in excess vet bills from having intact animals will surely be worth it.

Happy Spay Day!

Socks Clinton

1989—2009

It's important to me to show both sides of this story.

Below, I posted a link to a website about No Kill Shelters and their shocking revelation that HSUS (Humane Society of the United States) and AHS (Animal Humane Society of Minnesota) had both recently euthanized a large number of animals, for basically, no good reason.

I was particularly distressed about AHS.

When I was a little girl, I lived in Minnesota and we adopted two cats from AHS. One of them went on to win a contest called: The All-American Glamour Kitty Contest, which was sponsored by a Glamour Kitty Cat Litter. I was just 10 years old, at the time.

Needless to say, from that time onward, I always had a warm place in my heart for AHS. It was the first charity I ever donated money to and I never stopped donating. Last year, when I had my Last Will & Testament prepared, I decided to donate a portion of my ESTATE to AHS.

Today, I read this article about AHS "humanely euthanizing" 120 cats from a hoarding situation because some of the cats had: URI's (a COLD), some had herpes virus (a COLD-ish), FIV (NOT CONTAGIOUS unless through a deep, penetrating bite wound to another cat) and RINGWORM (ok, contagious to everyone, not fun to deal with or treat and the tests take two weeks to get a positive or negative hit).

For this, ALL the cats were KILLED.

I have a cat with FIV. It's NOT a big deal and my SIX other cats are JUSt FINE, thank you.

We had to deal with Ringworm in our tiny rescue group and we survived it. On a big scale, such as AHS had to deal with, it's a different story, BUT it shouldn't be the reason to just KILL THE CATS.

Same thing for URI's and Herpes---I heard that other rescue groups offered to help and even with that AHS didn't want to risk putting those cats into the population, Yet, if they got ONE cat that was sick with any of the above and it was deemed "adoptable" from an age and personality standpoint, they'd save it.

They also have an "open door" policy to take every animal in to the shelter, regardless of health or age or behavior issues. Then, THEY KILL THE ONES that don't make the cut. I'd like to know what lengths they go to to help out the animals or do they just pick the nice cute ones that are easy to move out and KILL all the rest without giving them any chance at all, then blame it on overcrowding, not enough funding or staff?

I really have a problem with what they did to those cats. Many of them could be ALIVE today and staring a new life with either a new family or at least getting well enough for that second chance.

Yes, it would have COST MONEY and COST HOURS and been DIFFICULT to manage, but it could have been done, it would have taught them better ways to manage this in the future and those animals would be ALIVE.

I'm not rich, but with any luck, my Estate will be worth a few bucks when I die. I certainly don't want any of that money to go to a place that claims to be so good to animals but who seems to just pick out the nice ones and dump the tough cases out with the trash.

HSUS & AHS!!!!

More rant in a bit...

Ugh...

I FINALLY got something to back up my gillions of gigabytes of data and for some reason, instead of taking a few HOURS to back up, it's taking A WEEK. I kid you not. I started it on Sunday, it's still going now and it won't be done for another day or more!!!!! I am FED UP, CRANKY, PISSED!

Until I have the backup done, I'm not going to be posting since I don't want to interfere with the backup.

Talk about annoying!!!!!! I have sooooo much to complain about, too!

Until I get my computer back, pop over to Twitter and visit me! Let me know how you're doing. How are your cats? Gracie is going back to Dr. Larry tomorrow. The jury is still out on if we have her allergic issues under control or not.

As for me, I went to the dentist for a cleaning 12 hours ago and my gums still ache and I found out I might end up losing a tooth-one that was crowned last year and which has NEVER been right, since.

AND, I just watched the most DREADFUL movie!!!!! Why did I watch the entire thing (if you count fast forwarding through the last 30 minutes, watching the WHOLE thing)? Don't bother watching Snow Angels. Yes, there's snow. Yes, if you believe in Angels, then there are a few characters who most likely become Angels during the movie. Other than that, it was DEPRESSING, BORING, SLOW, BORING, DEPRESSING, and SLOW.

Thank Goodness my TIVO grabbed Ghost Hunters International while the movie was playing. At least I have some quality entertainment to look forward to now.

Over and HMPF!