Tabby's Place - Donny

I felt the need to blog about Donny today. He’s in need of some good thoughts, friends, and some extra special attention – via my blog right now since he needs his sleep as well.

“Donny Brook”, better known around here as Donny, is an adorable little marmalade boy that came to Tabby’s Place towards the end of the summer of 2008 (I was out after my surgery when he first arrived). He, along with his little family, came to us from a shelter in NY when he was still very little and nursing from his mom. Just when Donny was big enough to be fixed and potentially be adopted, we found out he had ringworm and into treatment he went … and remained for a very long time.

After being treated for ringworm for about 4 months (because several kitties that we got from that NY shelter had the most persistent damn darn ringworm), Donny was finally out of a cage and free to run around our lobby area. He was able to be socialized by all, loved up, have play time with his brother Ulysses and our paraplegic boy, Tashi, and was able to seen by the nice people that come to visit us here at Tabby's Place – all new things after being caged for so long due to that pesky ringworm, all things that could lead him to finding a great home of his own – and he did! A volunteer fell for that sweet face of his.

However, while out and running around, it was noticed that Donny had a funny way of walking … and running … and lying around. Then, the thought occurred to us, “Hey, maybe all that hissing and 'attitude' was not poor socialization, but a reaction to pain? Maybe there was something wrong with our boy?”

As it turns out, Donny has luxating patellas in his hind legs, meaning his knee caps have a tendency to slip in and out of place. Although some cats do fine with this condition, Donny appears to be very uncomfortable. We were told he definitely needs surgery on one knee, most likely needs surgery on his other knee and depending on how those surgeries go, Donny might also need a third surgery done on his one hip. That would be three surgeries his intended adopter could not plan for or possibly even pay for. Not to mention, just when he got out of a cage and free from ringworm, he’ll need to be on strict cage rest for at least 2 months after surgery, which means Donny might be caged for the next 6 – 9 months if he needs all 3 surgeries.


Donny already had one surgery at the end of the last week and Donny’s in a great deal of pain now. Not only is recovery rough in general, but the poor guy just wants to get at you for some love and that means he's moving and causing himself incredible pain!

Have you ever known someone that needed knee surgery done? Do you know how much you use your knee throughout the day? Now imagine having a surgery to fix your knee (possibly even involving shaving away at the bone so that the knee cap can fit properly) and no one being able to explain to you not to use it! Donny has no idea that just lying in one place with make life easier (not "pain-free", but definitely more stable). The best we can do is provide pain meds, make sure there’s a lot of padding around him and remind Donny that we love him (which, of course, includes signing his bandages).

Please send Donny some good thoughts ... and donations are always appreciated. It is generous people just like you who have taken the time to read this that allow Tabby's Place to care for kitties like Donny and the rest of the cats here.

On a totally different note: things that rock – Hocus Pocus ... but I've missed most of it, so I'm going to watch Medium instead since that rocks too

*note - check out the labels and you'll see "TP". I've said this before and I'll say it here again, I do that to try to keep my personal blog from popping up on search engines for my work place, but since this entry is about Donny and the amazing work Tabby's Place does, I referred to this great place by its proper name in this entry.

Little Miss Bessie

On Friday the 13th, I met what could be a huge new terror part in my Poppop and Gram's life - little Bessie. After losing her Sara after years and years of love, my Gram was feeling lost - as anyone who has just lost a beloved cat and only pet would, of course. Gram found herself at the Jersey State Feline Fanciers Cat Show (this is the cat show the rescue I started has attended to show off adoptable kitties since I was personally invited 7 years ago when doing the "50 Cats House") in January and she fell in love with a kitten's photo. That pictured kitten would be Bessie. :-) (Note: Yup, that's my super aunt, Brit Knitter, in the framed photo in the background - haha! Gotcha in a photo!


Little Bessie is definitely one cute little thing, indeed. She is a Snow Bengal that was bred in New Jersey. Now, I was thinking that the world of kitty breeds was being expanded the way Bessie was described to me, but as it turns out the "snow" part of her name is just a jazzy way of including her color when describing her breed. I love Bengals and have since I attended that first cat show years ago and first saw them (the more traditional, dark, marble ones). The "Snow Bengal" certainly isn't any ugly looking version either! :-)

I can't be okay with the fact little Bessie came from a breeder, but I also can't deny that Gram seems so in love with her already and is very happy. For my own sanity, let me add this though the the entry: Each day it is estimated that 10,000 humans are born in the U.S. – and each day 70,000 puppies and kittens are born too. As long as these birth rates exist, there will never be enough homes for all the animals. Every year, 6 - 12 million* animals are euthanized in shelters. The biggest and best solution to this horrible truth is to adopt animals only from shelters and have them spayed or neutered to prevent the cruel overpopulation that condemns millions of animals a year to death in the United States. Still tempted by these too cute photos of Bessie? If you follow the above Bengal link, towards the bottom of that page is a section called "Find a Cat" with shelters that currently have Bengals desperately seeking homes.

Oh and on a somewhat similar note (the aunts and family), check out the super sweet valentine gift I got from my aunt:

Chocolates, organic strawberries and money - can't complain about that!

* - No organization in the United States has a reliable estimate of how many dogs and cats are euthanized annually by shelters in this country.

Tori

Aw, look at Tori! This girl with the interesting mug shot is located in Utah at Best Friends Animal Society. That cute little tongue hanging out makes Ben pop to mind. He's hard to get a photo of and often has his tongue sticking out - with his nervous personality and habit of hissing, the tongue out just seems to add insult to injury. There's also a Tori at the sanctuary right now too.

This kitty obviously brings a lot of others to mind for me, but for more information about the Best Friends' Tori, read on:


Breed: Domestic short hair
Gender: Female
Age: Adult
Size: Medium

Frightened little bear.

Tori is the cutest cat. But she kind of freezes when you pet her like, "This isn't going to hurt, is it?" Talk about a darling who hasn't had much love in her life.

Tori came from a shelter in Pahrump, Nevada that closed down because it had fallen into disrepair. More than 800 cats were there, neglected and ignored. Tori was one of them, and she's still unsure about life.

But she tries! She wants to love you. She just doesn't know where to begin - or whether you're going to hurt her.

Do you have the patience and compassion to reach out to someone like Tori? Other pets shouldn't be a problem. With her fears, adults might be best. But all she really needs is someone to take her under their wing.

Cybil

Look at that face! It belongs to a rumored sweety, Cybil. Cybil is located in Utah at Best Friends Animal Society. Check out Cybil's profile:

Breed: Domestic medium hair
Gender: Female
Age: Adult
Size: Medium

What's silly-sweet?

That's what Cybil is! She's sweet because she meows when she meets you, and she loves to be petted. But she's silly because she hates being picked up, and she's a little smarty pants with the other cats. (Though they seem to get along with her anyhow!)

Cybil is a beautiful diluted calico, fully declawed from her former life, and she's got great big feet. So cute!

She came from a terrible hoarding situation in which hundreds of cats were neglected out in Pahrump, Nevada. At eight years old, she's one of the more mature ones from that bunch. And somehow, she never lost her friendliness, despite the trauma. She does have a little litter box issue - the adoption folks can tell you more. But she's a true survivor, and she really deserves a home for living through what she lived through with such grace. And staying so silly-sweet!

Can Cybil be your cat? "Pretty please?"

Tony

This boy is sweet, sweet Tony and there's not enough good things to say about him. He's such a fighter. It's been more than a year since his diagnosis with Acromegaly and he's still going strong!

Acromegaly causes the body to produce excessive amounts of growth hormone. This can lead to a number of life-threatening complications, including heart disease (which Tony has now, also). In addition, the excess growth hormone interferes with the body's ability to utilize insulin and often leads to uncontrollable diabetes.

You can read more about him and the other special cats at the sanctuary here.

Jewel 2

Meet beautiful Jewel 2. Look at those blue eyes!

Jewel 2 is located in Utah at Best Friends Animal Society. Here's more information about Jewel 2:

Breed: Siamese
Gender: Female
Age: Adult
Size: Medium

Jewel has amazing blue eyes that make you want to reach out and pet her cute little mug!

Nonetheless, Jewel can show two very different personalities when greeting her. If she is lying down or sleeping she can be very timid and scared and will need someone patient when teaching Jewel to trust humans again. She has come a long way and does accept pets on her head and shoulders.

However, Jewel is very food motivated which is great for training. When you have food she is your best friend and will let you to pet her, sit with her, rub her all over and she will follow you for food while rubbing her body around your legs!

Jewel was rescued along with more than 800 other cats in the Pahrump, Nevada desert, living in squalor at a rescue organization that had fallen apart. The poor cats weren't getting basic care or any love at all. She just wants a place where she can belong.

Jewel kind of bats at the other cats sometimes, but she's OK with them. Being an "only cat" would be fine with her, but either way!

Won't you give Jewel your love for life?

Darwin

Meet sweet adorable Darwin. I just love those kitties who look like they have masks on and he definitely does in the photo of him: the white neck with the brown tabby face. Too cute!

Darwin is located in Utah at Best Friends Animal Society and here is what Darwin’s profile says:


Breed: Domestic short hair
Gender: Male
Age: Adult
Size: Medium

Darwin is a giver.

He lived in a hoarding situation with more than 800 cats in the hot Nevada desert, in Pahrump. Even though food, water and shelter were scarce, Darwin always allowed his fellow hoarding victims to go ahead of him to get to the basics. Talk about a gentleman and a friend!

Now that he's been rescued, he is still kind-hearted. Darwin loves playing with the other cats. And he loves toys! What a treat! He didn't know what toys were until coming to Best Friends.

When people come to visit, Darwin still lets his cat friends "go first" for petting and attention. And after he's seen everyone else has "gotten theirs," he'll go up to a visitor for some serious one-on-one time. Darwin loves being petted. He thinks all people are really great.

Darwin gets along well with everyone, although at first he may be a little shy around dogs.

If anyone deserves a forever home, it's this guy!

Can I Ask a Favor ...

My Sundays Are For Cats post is a bit random this week. I didn't really have a kitty in mind and yet one cat apparently decided to do me a favor and show up just yesterday!

I'm busy entertaining my cousin who was visiting and my mom called me yesterday saying that she heard this crying in the garage. At first she thought it was just one of our barn cats, but the crying was persistent and usually the barn cats aren't in that garage so close to the house anyway. So my mom went investigating and like a person lost for days in a desert running towards an oasis, a kitty my mom had never seen before came charging at her! Of course, my mom called me about this poor, starving cat who had been eating for an hour flat and was so sweet - letting her pick her right up.

Once off the phone, I started to think about what to do. My parents definitely don't need another barn cat, let alone a sweety like this one. Barn cats should be happy outside, not dying to be held :) After spotting what I believed was my boss's car in our parking lot, I went on out front and found him even though it was my day off: "Hey, how was your vacation? Uh, can I ask a favor??" And I got the okay to bring the kitty here!

And here is the cutie:

Seriously, how cute is she?! She's super pretty and now named Rhiannan. She actually looks surprisingly like another rare-looking kitty we just recently got here at work, Dove ... everyone keeps making the connection and I love Dove, but Rhiannan is a bit prettier, I think: she's got some orange mixed into her coloring. She's a big talker too, meowing and squeaking whenever anyone walks by her cage - which is rare since she's in a holding room right now. Only a few weeks though and I'm sure she'll be adopted quickly after that.

I'm not sure where she came from, but Rhiannan is very affectionate and somehow either found her way through acres and acres of woods to our garage or from the road, around the lake and across the field - either way, her appearance is quite random. I'm thankful that she's so mouthy though and kept yelling until my mom couldn't ignore it anymore. Because of it, Rhiannan's now inside, warm and safe. Today might have been unusually warm, but the temperature is supposed to drop again as soon as tomorrow!

Jan

For some reason, Jan just comes to mind when I think of fall - maybe it's her coloring. This girl comes off very shy (and she's definitely not a "petite" cat), but she's wonderful! I know this because she's another cat at my work place. Read a bit more about her and enjoy your holiday!

Jan is a mix of calico and tabby in most unusual markings, including a couple of sizable patches of orange. The effect is quite beautiful, as you might guess. Jan is a young cat, too---about two years old, we believe.


We don't know much about Jan's past, but she was one of four kitties we have who were abandoned in a carrier outside a vet's office. Jan was very frightened of us for some time, but she has made excellent progress here and now comes over for attention readily, which is delightful. She's a sweet, chunky little girl, and we're hoping to find her a home soon. Come in to see our furry "patchwork quilt"!

Update: Jan continues to make good progress. She's in our weight management room now, as she's really too chunky. But she's doing well with the cats in there, and, while still on the shy side, wants to find out what you're doing there whenever you come in. Jan has asthma, but it's very mild in nature (she requires no medication for it now), and we're hoping her symptoms will lessen still further as she loses weight.

Sabrina

I had planned to write today's post about my new foster kitten ... however, I found out that the little kitten I planned to foster was adopted!


That's right, my girl was adopted - straight from surgery too! Good news? Indeed! But I've got to think that my "bad luck" streak of fostering is continued here because I don't get her for any time at all. Selfish response? Yup. I won't deny that either :-)

Sabrina, pre-naming, came in with a horribly stripped and mangled front foot. Just looking at that foot created a literal gut reaction: the urge to up-chuck! I mean, she was rushed off to an emergency medical facility so quickly that the picture above is the only one of her, I think, and it's only because of my sick curiosity once seeing her injury. Her injury was so horrific that I blocked it out in the photo for your own sake. The top half of her one little leg was stripped of fur & skin. The bottom half was twisted all the way around & I don't think it was attached in any way.

She was named ("Sabrina" by the staff there) once at the emergency vet facility and apparently the one vet just kept repeating, "She's so sweet," over and over again about the kitten. Once it was determined that Sabrina definitely needed her leg surgically removed, I decided I'd foster her. I mean, she needed her leg removed and she is just a little baby - I figured foster care with me was better than in a cage where her muscles definitely wouldn't be given much of a chance to adjust.

Happy ending is, of course, before Sabrina was even out of surgery, she was adopted! A vet tech adopted her, so she gets to recover and adjust to her new home at the same time. So, Sabrina is this week's Sundays Are For Cats entry ... even if she's already adopted.

Tashi!

Click the photo above to read the article. Also, check the links below too:

Lost cause feline finds haven: http://www.nj.com/hunterdon/index.ssf/2008/11/lost_cause_feline_finds_haven.html

New Jersey Sanctuary Rescues Paralyzed Kitten: http://www.catchannel.com/news/2008/11/05/new-jersey-sanctuary-rescues-paralyzed-kitten.aspx

Paralyzed kitten from Ohio finds home in Ringoes- http://www.somecrazygarbage.com/archive/2008_10_01_archive.html

Tashi, the star-
Special Need: paraplegic and incontinent: http://www.tabbysplace.org/SN_page.php?id=655

Tashi Update- http://network.bestfriends.org/MessageBoards/TopicPopup.aspx?g=171e754433dd45c0b4939c59740a9331&t=27589

About.Com:Cats: http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=10&nav=messages&webtag=ab-cats&tid=67073

Ahhh, I think this has been a good "Sundays Are For Cats" post. :)

**Though it seems a bit silly to shorten my work place to "TP", I try to keep my personal life and work life as separate as possible ... including in my blog. The title of my work isn't shortened out of lack of respect, just to keep my blog from coming up any more than it already might in search engines for my work place.

Kira

Kira

Gender: Female
Age: Adult
Location: Kanab, Utah

All purrs and cuddles! You'd never know the pain that Kira has endured. Kira was born in a crowded animal shelter. Her eye infections and respiratory problems never got treated - and they hurt something awful. She must have thought pain was just a part of life.

Once, she got adopted, but her infections had let to worse and worse problems, and her new family just couldn't treat her. That's why she's at Best Friends.

Today, Kira is on soothing eye drops, and of course, the most important - "love therapy". She has ulcers on her eyes from all the infections of the past. But she's feeling a lot better. She is one of the friendliest cats. She always has a cuddle and purr for you when you visit. Would anyone like to take her home? She has special needs, but she still hopes.

Look at that adorable face! I tell you, if I lived near Kanab, UT, I'd be spending my time with this girl as much as I could.

Joa

Meet this sweet, "little devil". Joa is a paraplegic kitty who is in need of a special home to call her own.

Joa

Domestic Long Hair-black, Baby, Female

RESCUED MAY 18th BY OUR FRIENDS AT VELVET PAWS IN HADDONFIELD, NJ [Joyce is so wonderful!]

On the weekend of May 17th, Haddonfield had a big event and a woman came in Velvet Paws (VP) with her teens. The woman told the owner about a stray in her yard who gave birth to three kittens, one that seemed to have paralyzed legs. She said she called all over to rescues in her area (North Jersey) and she was told they would euthanize the kitten. The owner at VP was so upset that she agreed to intake and foster the kitten out of the goodness of her heart.

The cutie's name is "Joa" for Joan of Arc. It's amazing she survived outside unable to walk! She does move her tail a little but we will see what the vet thinks. At this time, Joa does not appear to be able to control her bowels on her own and she is still being syringe fed since she is just 4-5 weeks old.

Delta 2

Delta 2

"Pet me - but don't mess up my fur!"

Oh boy. This one's a primadonna! Delta likes her bed to be fluffed up - don't ask her to lie on the flat kind of cat rug. She's fond of attention. Unless she's in "one of her moods". And if something doesn't meet her standards - she is good with an evil eye.

Strangely, Delta came from an animal shelter in Pahrump, Nevada, that had fallen apart, and where the animals were being neglected. You'd think she might have low expectations because of that! But instead, when she was rescued, she looked at everyone like, "Ah, there you. It's about time. Have you contacted my lawyer? The service here has been just awful. I'm planning to sue."

Delta is healthy, young adult, and gets along fine with other animals - sometimes. Depending on which one and whether she's in the mood!

She would really like the dignity of a home.

What a cutie!

Sam

Sam is in foster care in Brooklawn, but his home is actually under attack ("harassment") due to the town's pet limit law ... apparently the public service that their resident does by fostering is not seen that way by the town board.

Sam
Brown Tabby w/ White, Adult, Male

[Sam] was getting so stressed out [at the shelter he was at before] that he was repeatedly getting sick to the point the vet suggested just to put him to sleep. Instead, he was kindly kept in an office by himself until FFRV stepped in and put him into a foster home of our own.

Sam is a LOVE. He adores his new foster family and follows them ALL over the house and sleeps with them at night. He also LOVES to play ... This handsome, sweet boy just wants attention and is a real love ... The vet also discovered ... Sammy's declawed!

Sam was at a disgusting, disgusting shelter before that kept their animals in awful, neglected conditions. One kitty that I have myself in foster care, Candice, had her mouth in such an awful condition that every single one of her teeth removed ASAP and her mouth was so infected that her tonsils had swollen to the point of almost blocking her breathing:

Sam was said to hate other animals, keep getting stressed in the shelter environment and so should be put to sleep ... he's in a very diverse foster home now with lots of other animals needing homes and was doing just fine the last I heard. He could have been killed for an absolutely bogus reason!

I know the back story because I was the one that pulled Sam and was lucky enough to have his foster mom offer to care for him and take him into the rescue she is a board member of.