T H U D E R I G P A W S 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 December 2010 Volume 7, Issue 4 Susie Finds Her Home A nice woman saw Susie at an adoption event, and... Black Cats A Forever Family For Coco Coco is a beautiful seal point Siamese mix... Feral Cat Spay/euter Fallout We remain committed to trapping/spaying/ neutering feral cats. Willie, Waylon & The Girls Mark Jennings Our late friend... Page 2 We have a lovely threesome of black brothers... Page 2 Volunteer Day Armadillo Christmas Bazaar Come see us Sunday, December 19th... Santa Paws & Claws The PetSmart stores offer non-profit animal rescue groups a really good opportunity at Christmas, Santa Claws and Paws. We supply a Santa Claus, and a few elves. PetSmart supplies a Santa suit, a camera, a printer to print out pictures, frames for the pictures, an impromptu studio in their stores, and publicity for the event. The public brings their pets to sit on Santa's lap and have their picture taken. They pay $10 (or thereabouts) for the "shoot" and the subsequent picture, and the non-profit-- Thundering Paws--gets half of that. It's not only a really good deal for us but it is a tremendous amount of FU We will have Santas at the Slaughter Lane and IH 35 PetSmart on Saturday, December 4th, and Sunday, December 5th, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and at the Brodie Lane PetSmart on Saturday, December 11th, from 11 to 4. Bring your pets for a photo shoot Adopted Cats Great news Seven cats have been adopted since the September newsletter. The following darling kitties now have their forever homes: Coco, Cosette, Garfield, Irene, Precious, Susie and Trinity. Holiday Gift Wrapping We are kind to our volunteers We only ask you to wrap packages at bookstores, where the wrapping is easy, you know, square and rectangular books? We ask Barnes & oble on Brodie Lane, and BookPeople for times. These are the days and times we need people to wrap packages at BookPeople at 6th and Lamar: Friday, December 10th, 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday, December 11th, 9 a.m. to noon Sunday, December 12th, 8 to 11 p.m. Thursday, December 16th, 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, December 18th, 9 a.m. to noon Sunday, December 19th, 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday, December 23rd, 4 to 8 p.m. Friday, December 24th, 4 to 9 p.m. Saturday, December 25th, 12 noon to 3 p.m. We have gift wrapping opportunities at Barnes & oble on Brodie Lane the following days and times: Saturday, December 18th, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday, December 22nd, 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday, December 24th, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rita Mae Board member and excellent cat trapper, Calene Summers, was trapping cats on a hilltop on Highway 290 West. She got two gorgeous calicos. Calene really likes to trap girls because, even though we're aware that it takes two to tango, the Continued... 1
T H Rita Mae, continued females carry kittens and when we spay a female, we know that we have stopped innumerable kittens from being born to a life of misery. Calene took them to Austin Humane Society (AHS), got them spayed, vaccinated, and the rest of the amazing "cat tune up" that AHS offers each feral cat. Then Calene brought them here, to our Recovery Hut, to rest for a few days before being released to their former location, where they are fed daily. I went to the Recovery Hut the next day to clean cages. I was cleaning the cage of the short haired calico, with my back to the cage containing the long haired calico. I heard the loudest purring you can imagine behind me and, when I turned around, Rita Mae, as she has come to be known, was purring, making biscuits, closing and opening her eyes slowly--known here as "making love eyes"--and giving me all the signs I know to be those of a nonferal cat. "Do you want to be a tame kitty?" I asked her. "Oh, YES Please" she said. She's very polite. I talked to her softly and she upped the amperage of her purring, a feat I would not have thought possible. "Do you want to get adopted and be petted and cuddled and loved and sleep on somebody's bed?" I asked. "Oh YES PURRRRRR YES YES" she answered. "Great" I said, "We can make that happen. May I reach in your cage and pet you?" I asked, reaching my hand into her cage. "Oh AAACCKK It involves you actually TOUCHIG me??? Oh, no, I don't think I can do that" she said. I withdrew my hand. Rita Mae said, "Better. Purr." "Well, would you like to sniff my hand?" I asked. "Oh, it's a little scary, but I guess I could do that," she said, and approached the hand wiggling between the cage wires, gave it a quick genuflect with her nose, and then withdrew, to purr at me some more. Over the next several days, we kept up this dance, Rita Mae soon allowing pets, long strokes, then picking up and cuddling, purring all the while. Today you would not suspect her of ever having been a feral cat. We had a love session this morning where I held her in my arms, petted and kissed her, while she curled into a happy ball and purred loudly. Cats, as we all know, have many different temperaments. I have rarely met as happy a cat as Rita Mae. She is happy being held, sitting under the bunny cage watching everyone else, playing with a string, or just sitting by herself in her cage, purring and making biscuits. If she happens to be in the cage, which is just her safe 2 U D E R I G P A place now as she is out and about with the other cats, and a human walks by, she runs over to the edge of the cage so she can tap the human and purr at her or him. She doesn't show well at adoption venues because there is too much activity and she is scared. But here at Thundering Paws, she is the most appealing of cats, a genuine love muffin. W S Black Cats We have a lovely threesome of black brothers: Huey, Dewey and Chuy. All three need homes, but, unfortunately, people often overlook black kittens when choosing a forever companion. One of the best cats I ever had, Leo (for Huey Susie Finds Her Home A nice woman saw Susie at an adoption event, and e-mailed that she was very interested in adopting her. She put in an application and when we read it, we so wanted her for Susie. The lady already had a semi-feral cat whom she had tamed enough that the kitty was sitting on her lap. Susie came from a feral colony and, while no longer feral, was very shy. When we talked to the potential adopter on the phone, she had a very soft voice and calm manner. We were excited for Susie Unbeknown to us, the lady's son had an emergency requiring her travel to another state and a lengthy stay away from home. We were sad, but we went ahead with our plans and continued to send Susie to adoption venues in hopes that another perfect home could be found for her. When the nice woman returned home, she assumed--incorrectly--that a cat as wonderful as Susie would have already been adopted, so she didn't pursue the matter further. But we weren't just looking for any home; we want the best home for each animal in our care. So Susie was still here, still waiting for the perfect home, still going to PetSmart to be shown to potential forever families. Susie's new mom just happened to go to PetSmart to get supplies for her first kitty at the time that Thundering Paws happened to be having an adoption event and Susie happened to be there. And the woman happened to look at our kitties once again and she happened to recognize Susie. That's a lot of happenstance She was so excited She had no idea Susie would still be available and was delighted to adopt her. Happy ending Leonardo, named after a inja Turtle), was solid black. He had an extensive vocabulary of chirps, tweets, and chortles. He lived with me, at first, because he simply didn't get adopted. After I had known him a short while, however, I Dewey "proposed" to him, and he accepted. He was my cat the rest of his life, and I was the better for it. Please consider adopting a "plain" cat. You will be so grateful once you get your new kitty home Many black cats have velvet fur, Chuy like Huey's, and many others are playful and amusing, like Dewey and Rosie. Chuy is a character, always trying some new antics, and he has the best purr box ever Rosie
T H U D E R I G P A W S Rita Mae was almost full grown, about 7 or 8 months old, when she went into a trap. We got her spayed and let her recover from surgery in our Recovery Hut. After a few days, however, she became a love bug, rolling on her head for pets and scratches. A Forever Family For Coco Coco is a beautiful seal point Siamese mix who, like Susie, was featured in our last newsletter. The neighbor who found Coco told us, on bringing her here, "Oh, you'll have no trouble finding this beautiful cat a home." Theoretically, that should be true, however, there are so very many beautiful, and perfect animals who don't find homes that we know this is not often the case. When Coco got here, she was frightened, unspayed, untested, had no known vaccinations, and we knew nothing of her history. She had to have all the vet work done, plus be in quarantine for a while to be sure she didn't spread any infections to our other kitties, be calmed down, and taught that people are nice and want to hold and pet a sweet cat like her. That takes a while. We showed her a few times but there are other groups--excellent groups--who show exclusively Siamese and Siamese mix cats, and people often adopt a cat from them. At our adoption event in ovember, however, a young woman who has one Siamese cat wanted a companion for him and so she wanted Coco. She is now in her new forever home. Another happy ending Another set of kittens we picked up the day they were born. Cosette, Garfield, Precious, Skylar, and Trinity still had umbilical cords when we found them under an abandoned house. They were used to "bait" a drop trap, and their mom obliged us by running in to see if her babies were all right. We had mom and babies--the best case scenario--and we brought them to Thundering Paws for safe haven, good food, clean water, and a climate controlled nursery. Fabion was a good mom and raised her kittens very well, but forgot to tell them that humans are their enemies, so they are very tame. Later, we trapped Fabion's sister, Eppie, and her three kittens and a large cat who we believe is father to them all. Fabion, Eppie and Moonpie, as the male was dubbed, have all been surgically altered so they will no longer reproduce, and returned to their home territory, where they are fed twice a day. Eppie's three kittens, Roger, Irene, and Ariel, are with Thundering Paws. Roger and Ariel are Irene being petted until they are tame, which we don't think will take long. Irene never wanted to be feral in the first place and allowed people to hold her the first day, showing her appreciation by purring loudly. Four of these precious kittens are still available for adoption. Feral Cat Spay/euter Fallout Kittens are sometimes too old or too committed to being feral to re-home and, in this case, we treat them as feral cats, spaying/neutering and returning them. We remain committed to trapping/spaying/ neutering feral cats. Quite often we get kittens in our traps and they are usually quite willing to be tamed if they are young enough. Sometimes "young enough" isn't a requirement. Willie, Waylon & The Girls A woman named Melodi lived in a house in southeast Austin, where she fed a colony of five cats, some feral and some friendly. Her landlord sold her house out from under her and she had to move very quickly. She had nowhere for the cats to go and the incoming tenant was said to have large, unfriendly dogs. She contacted Willie us. Excellent cat trapper Calene Summers went over with traps and got out Miley Cyrus, a longhaired black kitty who is semi-feral, and Angelina Jolie, a long-haired blue and white kitty who is very feral. Calene had named and spayed these girls years ago. These two we took to a maintained feral colony in Dripping Springs, where they will be confined until they know their area and their caretaker. Waylon That left three friendly cats--willie, a short haired light red tabby; Waylon, a young, short haired red tabby with white; and Tammy, Waylon's sister, a short haired blue kitty with white markings. Calene tried everything but couldn't persuade them into traps. Either Calene, Beverly Williams, or I made the trip to their house daily to make sure they were fed. After about two weeks of this, I went to feed the cats one day, taking two large carriers with me. I put the food into the carriers and they all three obligingly went in to eat. I slammed the doors and voila Cats were caught. Angelina Jolie I whisked them off to the vet for combo tests. Sadly, Willie is FIV positive. We have another FIV positive cat, Mason, who was featured in the last newsletter. Poor Mason is presently caged, having temporarily lost his space, a large bathroom, to kittens. However, when the kittens are all adopted, Mason will get his room back and, hopefully, Willie will be good company for him. Waylon and Tammy are negative for FIV and feline leukemia and we hope they will be adopted. Continued... Roger 3
T H U D E R I G P A W S Willie, Waylon & The Girls, continued We are sorry to have broken up the colony, but when they are endangered, it is sometimes a must. They are lucky kitties. During the recent cold snap, they all had heated shelter, plenty of food, clean water, and safety and they will continue to have that for the rest of their lives. Volunteer Day We did it again Our third Starbucks Make Your Mark volunteer day reached its goal, just like the last two. We logged 106.4 volunteer hours last Sunday (and that's not counting some of the people who worked off site), to make Thundering Paws eligible for our third $1,000 grant from Starbucks. We could not have done this without your help. Thank you so much Besides the grant, we did a ton of work. We cleaned out the large store room more completely than it has been cleaned in at least eight years. We cleaned out the shed housing the kennels and carriers such that I was able to determine which ones we need and which we can donate. We are going to donate at least 15 kennels and carriers to Austin Pets Alive We walked the dogs a lot, which is great because Dax, who had heartworm treatment in September, was cleared to go for long walks as of Thursday, ovember 4th, right before our big work day on Sunday. He and Maggie got lots of attention, and Maggie even got a bath. (Dax said, "Please, no bath," so we honored that, for now.) We got lots of cleaning done. The Recovery Hut was cleaned out. Many cats were petted, and they all need the attention. Off site, hours were logged into entering information on our animals into our database, showing cats and dogs at PetSmart on Brodie Lane so people could meet and adopt them, and nursing tiny bottle-baby kittens. Starbucks allows us three $1,000 grants per year, and we have done the work for all of them this year. I plan to schedule the next one for mid-to-late February, 2011. I hope you can all come back then, get another tremendous amount of work done, and make us eligible for another grant. If we aim at February, June, and October next year, the weather may cooperate. If we try, like we did this year, to have one in August, we know the weather will be awful, so we won't do that again. We so appreciate your help, and your volunteering. Mark Jennings: 1959-2009 Our late friend, Mark Jennings, who died in October, 2009, had asked many months before his death if we would take his cats for a significant donation. At the time, he had five cats and we agreed. By the time of his passing, he had lost three cats. We took in sleek ona, a solid black kitty, and gorgeous Sarah, a dilute tortoiseshell. I do not assign correlation, this could be a coincidence. But those two cats, both adults, one solid black, were adopted within weeks of our taking them. We did not push them. They are beautiful and sweet, but no more so than many of our other adult residents. Their adoptive humans had no relation to Mark nor to each other. It was if they had a curious "boost" of some sort. We certainly appreciate all the benefits that Mark's generosity has provided Thundering Paws. And we were, of course, glad we could help his precious kitties to loving homes. Armadillo Christmas Bazaar We will be set up in the community area on Sunday, December 19th at the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar at the Palmer Events Center. Come by and check us out Visit our table, shop the bazaar, enjoy the music, and have a snack or beverage. We'll be there all day, from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. We will have t-shirts and other gift items for sale at our table, so be sure to think of us when you're making up your Christmas shopping list. A gift that benefits our local rescue efforts and helps animals in need is sure to be appreciated. For more information about the bazaar, visit armadillobazaar.com. Musical performances scheduled for that day are: Ray Wylie Hubbard, 12:00-2:30 The Derailers, 3:30-6:00 The Band of Heathens, 8:00-11:00 Come see us 4
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