Mewsings. Rain at Home: A Successful Adoption Rain was rescued from a downpour. Page 4. What Can I Give Aunt Louise? Written by Anne Zabolio

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1 Mewsings C e n t r a l T e x a s A n i m a l S a n c t u a r y Fall 2014 Volume 11, Issue 1 One Life at a Time Together, this is what we do. Seven Little Orange Tabby Kittens Without your donations, there would be no hope. Rain at Home: A Successful Adoption Rain was rescued from a downpour. Best Friends Workshop Enrichment will revitalize the lives of many cats here, making their home with us more of a home. Lizzy is Well and Ready for Adoption Lizzy is now healthy and ready for her forever home. Off the Streets Steve & Tigger are off the streets for good. Page 2 Page 3 With Your Help We Make a Difference We are profoundly grateful to all our volunteers and supporters, including you! Just the fact that you are reading this newsletter shows that you care. With your help we save lives and find loving homes for animals in need. We can not do this alone, and want to thank each of you for everything you do. Want to do more? We have volunteer opportunities coming up for gift wrapping. It's a fun activity and is not a long-term commitment. See our Facebook page and the blog postings on our web site for details. Other possibilities include helping at the sanctuary, transporting animals to and from adoption events or veterinary appointments, or signing up to be a sponsor for one (or more) of our permanent kitty residents. Thank you again! We wish you and your family a wonderful holiday season! What Can I Give Aunt Louise? Aunt Louise is a dear old soul who loves animals, especially cats, and says she has everything in the world she could possibly want. Still, you love her and want to give her a holiday gift. Why not make a donation to Thundering Paws in Aunt Louise's name? We'll send her a card saying you did, if you send us her address. We'd never mention the amount; that would be gauche! Your donations help rescued feral kittens like Katy and Wendy grow up to be happy, adoptable cats. Want to Foster a Puppy or a Dog? Written by Marilyn Rysiewicz It takes a very special person or family to foster a puppy or a dog. You have to be willing to raise, train, and love the pup, yet let her go when she finds a forever home. You have to take her to adoption events. Since we have a lifetime guarantee, yet nowhere to house dogs at this time, you have to be willing to take her back if she is returned from an adoptive home. Sounds challenging? It can be - especially the part where you fall in love with the dog, knowing that he/she is not yours to keep. But it is rewarding and satisfying to be a foster person to these precious animals. You give them love, hope and a chance for a new life in a forever home. If the idea of being a puppy foster person tugs at your heartstrings, please contact us at , or us at info@ for more details. Thank you. 1

2 One Life at a Time Together, this is what we do. Adon Written by Alison Upton Here's how your donations made all the difference in the lives of some beautiful kitties. When we rescue cats and kittens, we don t always know what we re getting into. Sometimes we get lucky with healthy, robust kittens that can stay with their mom until they re weaned. Other times we have a very sick mom who is not well enough to take care of her kittens at all. Such was the case with Ophelia and her kittens, Adon, Aria, Evander and Zeke. Because of their difficult beginning Zeke, Aria and Adon have all had medical issues that required hospitalization and/or emergency care. If you have pets of your own you know how quickly the bills add up when dealing with a medical crisis. You don t want to give up on your beloved pet, especially if you think there s a chance they ll recover and lead a good life. Zeke became ill and had to spend several days with the vet. He recovered and was adopted by a family who knows his medical history. Aria became desperately ill after her spay surgery. With the help of the dedicated staff at Lake Austin Blvd Animal Hospital and the loving care from her foster mom, she fully recovered. A little spitfire of a kitten with a huge personality, Aria is living with Evander, her healthy brother, at our adoption center at PetSmart in Bee Cave. They charm and delight visitors and volunteers, and are doing quite well, thanks to you. Their feral mom, Ophelia, was treated, spayed and is back with her caregiver. Adon was a delicate kitten that worried his foster mom with his lack of appetite and slow growth. She noticed he panted when he played and seemed to tire easily. Under the auspices of Thundering Paws, she took him to the vet. A cardiac ultrasound proved normal, but a chest x-ray showed possible asthma. Adon was put on a regimen of antibiotics and an anti-parasitic. When done with medications, Adon received a good health report with the caveat that he might have asthma. Thrilled, we brought Adon back to his foster mom and shortly began taking him to our adoption events. Two weeks later, very late on a Friday night, Adon suddenly fell ill with vomiting and diarrhea. He was taken to an emergency vet clinic where blood tests showed ZERO white blood cells! His body was fighting an infection so virulent that his bone marrow couldn't produce new cells fast enough. IV fluids and antibiotics were started and he was hospitalized for the weekend. He was weak as the proverbial kitten. We didn t give up on him. By late Sunday night, Adon was rallying, giving us cause for hope. By Monday morning his white blood cell count had returned to normal. He was eating a little, grooming himself and meowing at the staff at the emergency clinic, no doubt asking when he could go home. Adon is now doing very well and we will do our utmost to find him a forever home dedicated to watching his health. Once Thundering Paws has committed to helping a pet, we will support that animal in any way we can. Without your generous giving, we would not have been able to take care of this litter of kittens and their mom through some very trying situations. Together, this is what we do. One litter at a time, one life at a time. Evander Aria Zeke 2

3 T H U N D E R I N G P A W S Seven Little Orange Tabby Kittens Stretch A donor contacted us about the feral cats in her elderly father s yard. He was willing to feed them, but, he wanted their reproduction stopped. Trappers from Thundering Paws and Spay Austin converged on the property and, over the course of two days, trapped four adults and six kittens. The four adults were neutered and returned to the property. The kittens were treated for dehydration, worms, bacterial infections, and are now being fostered in the hopes of taming them. The seventh and last kitten, who had a clearly injured hind leg, avoided capture until four days later. Finally trapped, she was whisked off to the vet. Unfortunately, her left leg injury was so severe that amputation was the only option. Her right patella was also injured, but the vet wanted to wait before that was repaired. Named Randi, she is now fostered by a cat-whispering staff member, and has learned to purr. She still has times when she is fearful and hisses, but the family is patiently working with her on this. foster, and a board member asked one of her friends to foster. Since these kittens were about 9 to 10 weeks when captured, they may not all tame. If that is the case, they will be spayed/neutered, and returned to their colony, where they will be fed and monitored. Randi, however, will either be tamed and adopted or stay with Thundering Paws for the rest of her life. Without your donations, there would be no hope and no safe place for Randi and her six siblings. Seven kittens at once has severely stretched our foster program. We had two volunteers offer to Jubilee Charlotte Binky Bambi Randi Tootsie 3

4 Rain at Home: A Successful Adoption wheels and zippers, harnesses and leashes, increasingly difficult obstacle courses. We saw a video of a cat who was learning to count. The vet who was presenting this workshop told us, I was teaching him just fine and some rude people came and adopted him! His comment was tongue in cheek: everyone is happy to see an animal go to their forever home. Lizzie is now cleared by x-ray, healthy, loving and ready for her forever home. Had you not been donating to Thundering Paws, we wouldn t have been here for Lizzie, and we are so glad we were! Off the Streets Rain was rescued as a tiny kitten from a downpour on Highway 290 in Dripping Springs. Adopted to our Sunday volunteer family, he showed his dad, Clyde, the inside of a cat's gullet in an incredible yawn! Poor thing must have only gotten 19 hours of sleep that day. Best Friends Workshop In October, Assistant Director Scott Haywood and I attended the "How to Start and Maintain an Animal Sanctuary" workshop at Best Friends Animal Society. Along with 30 other participants, we spent a week attending various classes presented by Best Friends facilitators, all masters in the field of animal rescues and sanctuaries. Education programs, adoptions and long term care for dogs and cats were just some of the topics covered. We learned many new things that we're eager to implement at Thundering Paws. Of all the classes we attended, the one on how to provide "enrichment" for the animals we house was one of the most important and fascinating. Why enrichment? you may ask. Cats are, as we all know, a lot smarter than most people think. Given no incentive, they become bored and this boredom can lead to many problems: spraying, bullying, litter box mistakes, aggression, depression, anxiety, overgrooming, over-eating, or loss of appetite. Enrichment means many things: fun, learning, relief from boredom, breaking bad habits, developing good habits, and clicker training. Engaged, active animals are happier, friendlier, and are more likely to be adopted. Enrichment will revitalize the lives of many cats here, making their home with us more of a home. We hope that some cats formerly thought to be unadoptable will be more enticing to a forever home. Scott, intrigued by the concept of enrichment, will be developing ways to engage particular cats in learning and play. We are writing proposals for enrichment items such as, strollers with large I must confess. Informative classes aside, my favorite activity at Best Friends came one gorgeous chilly morning when I had no classroom session scheduled. I had the privilege of taking Rupert, a large, white, pot bellied pig, for a walk! It was my first time walking a pig and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I know Rupert did, too. The workshop was held at Best Friends enchanting Angel Canyon location in southern Utah. The peace and quiet of the sanctuary is exhilarating yet calming. Visits there recharge my soul and remind me that the dream I have for Thundering Paws is a possibility. Lizzie is Well and Ready for Adoption A former volunteer called to say that there was a cat hiding under her house. The woman thought the cat's back legs were broken because she could barely move. The young lady crawled under the house, pulled Lizzie out, and took her to our vet. X-Rays showed that her legs were not broken. She had been bitten by an animal and what looked like broken legs was really a dreadful infection, down into her bones. The poor kitty had been in this shape for a while. The vet started her on antibiotics immediately. Lizzie improved rapidly and became a favorite at the clinic where she showed her love for people. When well enough, Lizzie was returned to the home of the woman who found her. Lizzie immediately made it clear that she did not like the woman's cat nor children. Thundering Paws was called again, and we took Lizzie into the sanctuary. Tigger Two red tabby cats, Tigger and Steve, have recently moved into Thundering Paws foster homes and are available for adoption. These boys came from separate managed colonies in Austin and had been TNR d. TNR (trap-neuter-return), for those who are not familiar with the program, is when homeless cats are trapped, spayed or neutered, vaccinated and returned to the area in which they were living. Colony caretakers provide food and shelter and monitor for any newcomers or other problems. The caretakers of these particular colonies noticed that Tigger and Steve were friendly cats and might be good candidates for adoption. How right they were! Tigger is a loving, young kitty who is quickly learning to enjoy the pleasures of being a house cat. He loves to be brushed and likes it when his foster mom gives him kisses. Tigger is FIV+ but don t let that scare you away. He s doing well and there is an excellent chance he will live a long, normal life. Steve s foster mom says he s a big, huggable, 14+ SOLID pounds of ginger-cat love. He s a master at making biscuits and will get those paws working as soon as someone starts loving on him. Steve gets lots of attention at our adoption events and he eats it up. Steve and Tigger are off the streets for good and are loving it. If you have room in your home and heart for either of these boys please contact our adoption Steve coordinator, Melissa, at adoptions@ or stories written by Anne Zabolio except Off The Streets written by Alison Upton 4

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