Rescue Archives - Page 7 of 11

A Special Happy Tail

The best rescue stories have happy endings, but the very best ones are about less-adoptable cats and humans with really big hearts. We wanted to share one of those with you today. You may have seen a post on Savannah’s Paw Tracks back in October about a trio of kittens with cerebellar hypoplasia (often referred to as CH) up for adoption. CH cats are often referred to as wobbly cats because the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls fine motor skills and coordination, is underdeveloped at birth. Even though this is a non-progressive and non-contagious neurological condition, they are considered less adoptable cats since their uneven gait and motor skills make many adopters pass them up in favor of other cats.

So imagine having a litter of three of them that you’re trying to place in good homes! That’s a daunting task for any rescue.

We were forwarded the most amazing update email, and we’re simply going to post it as the original email read:

The three sweet CH kittens found their forever home this past weekend – together! A wonderful man was searching for one as a playmate for his CH little boy and found mine on the CH cat FB page. Once he met all of them, he could not think of separating them. This guy is awesome – totally loves CH cats and said that he is only interested in adopting them. He has lots of space and means to provide for them. He’s home most of the time and can dote on them. I spent 3 hours with him and called a reference so I feel quite good about it. He has been in touch with me each day describing their progress. He loves them as I have.

That’s right. One man who already had a CH kitty adopted all three CH kittens. Who would have imagined that?

In this season when the year is leaving and talk about opening their hearts and give gifts to one another, one adopter showed incredible generosity and love by taking in all three of these kittens. He’ll be waking up on Christmas morning with the love of all three special kittens, and that’s a gift that you can’t wrap and put under a tree.

Special thanks to Savannah for letting us be the ones to share this wonderful news with everyone!

Bring Joy to Shelter Animals with the Santa Paws Drive

Have you ever wondered who helps make shelter animals have a happy holiday season? The Santa Paws drive does!

The Santa Paws drive has raised more than $55,000 in toys, treats, and donations for 30 shelters worldwide over the past five years. This year, the Santa Paws drive benefits two organizations: Good Karma Pet Rescue and the Cute Transport Network. These two organizations work together by save animals in high-kill shelters by finding them forever homes or no-kill rescues where there is greater demand for adoptions. Over the past two years, these two organizations have saved over 350 animals through their transport efforts.

This is a cause near to our hearts because the head peep has been a volunteer driver for the Cute Transport Network on several occasions, transporting up to 21 cats at a time on part of their journeys toward their forever homes.

How can you help? You can donate to save a shelter cat… or even a whole family. Or if you’d like, you can donate to sponsor a kitten’s spay/neuter or health certificate so he or she can travel onward toward a forever home. You can even sponsor a cat carrier for the trip where a rescued kitty — or kittens — will travel safely on their journey.

Please consider helping kitties in high-kill shelters find homes through Good Karma Pet Rescue and Cute Network by making a donation to the Santa Paws drive. All donations go to getting rescued kitties vetted for transport and for the supplies needed to safely transport them to their happily ever afters.

Is a Cat as a Gift A Bad Idea?

This is the time of year when so many people are trying to think up thoughtful gifts for loved ones, the question comes up about whether it’s all right to give cats or dogs as gifts. The prevailing wisdom is that this is a bad idea because the recipient is likely not to be as attached to a pet that they didn’t pick out themselves, and most shelters and rescue groups don’t like to adopt out pets as gifts for fear of seeing them relinquished back again.

Studies of shelter statistics over the past fifteen years on the subject have actually shown that these fears are unfounded, and that relinquishment of previously-gifted dogs and cats to shelters is actually lower than from other sources. Odds of a cat being relinquished to a shelter were higher when the cat was acquired from a shelter, as a stray, or from a pet shop than receiving the cat as a gift.

A survey of animal shelter intakes found that “unwanted gift” was listed as a reason for only .04% of cats entering the shelters surveyed, compared with “allergies in family” listed as a reason for 18% of cats relinquished. Cats adopted from shelters are actually more at risk of being relinquished than pets given as gifts.

The vast majority of the survey respondents in the a 2013 ASPCA study who had received a pet as a gift said that it didn’t hurt their love or attachment to the pet, over half said that it increased their love for their pet. People actually believed they had stronger feelings for their pet because he or she had been a gift.

With shelters and rescues overwhelmed with homeless cats, does this surprising information make you wonder whether animal shelters and other rescue organizations can safely rethink their policies on giving pets as gifts?

Reference: MPDI, Should Dogs and Cats be Given as Gifts?
Photo credit: depositphotos/45arseiy

Pets are Veterans, Too

It’s Veterans Day, which is observed every year on November 11 on the anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I in 1918, is a day here in the United States that we honor our veterans for their service for their country and to sacrifice for the common good.

Lots of those veterans were deployed far from home and left home and family. And some of them left behind pets, who may have been the only family they had. We want to recognize the pets of the veterans who went through long separations from the humans they loved and trusted. Unlike human family members, cats and dogs can’t understand explanations about why their humans went away to serve. They just know that they were gone, and that must have been lonely and maybe frightening for them.

There are pets today who are going to be that kind of veterans, too. Their humans are deploying right now, and not all of them have a trusted human to take care of them while they are becoming veterans. It’s scary to think that many cats and dogs might be relinquished to shelters because they don’t have anywhere to go while their humans deploy.

While we often think of fostering as something you do for animals waiting for adoption into forever homes, did you know that there are also organizations that arrange foster homes for cats and dogs whose humans are deploying? These groups include:

Guardian Angells for Soldier’s Pet
Dogs on Deployment (not just for dogs!)
Foster Military Pets
NetPets Military Fostering
PACT for Animals Military Foster Program

Many local rescue orgnaizations also have fostering programs, so ask around your area if you would like to foster a cat or dog veteran-to-be so that they can celebrate with their veteran when deployment is over.