National Feral Cat Days

Not only is it Caturday, but today is National Feral Cat Day! Every year on October 16th I celebrate this day whether it is by being out at an event or just keeping the special day in the back of my mind.

11,000 animals (like Cooper on your couch and Oscar on your window sill) are put to sleep every day in shelter. There are simply not enough homes for all of them, let alone the countless others born outside and raised as ferals.

Leaps and bounds have been made over the years to help feral cats and the cat over-population problem. These cats have learned to be afraid of people, so they cannot simply be brought to shelters and adopted out. Removing them to be euthanized is not an option either because cats are there for a reason: warmth, a food sources, other cats to mate with, etc.

TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return) is the only method proven to be humane and effective at controlling feral cat population growth.

Even Disneyland embraces TNR!


More information and facts on TNR can be picked up on these websites for those of you that love cats (or hate them) and want to know how to better manage them to prevent more

- Alley Cat Allies
- Feral Cat Coalition
- Neighborhood Cats

Here are two great events to keep in mind to help celebrate this day:

What: STAF's 13th Annual Paws in the Park
When: Saturday, October 16th, 2010. Registration Time is at 10:00 AM
Where: Fasola Park, Delsea Drive, Deptford, NJ
Why: A great event for a wonderful organization and cause. Also, Joa's Arc's Nennee and Minenn will be there with some of our best volunteers!

What: TNR Workshop
When: Wednesday, October 20th, 2010, at 7 PM.
Where: the Cherry Hill Library in Cherry Hill, NJ.
Why: A wonderful opportunity to learn about TNR from some of the best feral, TNR, spay/neuter clinic experts and volunteers in the South Jersey area.

Have a wonderful day, friends, however you might be celebrating!

"You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

Photos

I've been taking photos recently and plan on selling some when my mom opens her farm stand.


My aunt said this one takes the cake so far. Hooray!

Like it??? I'll be selling framed prints :)

New Camera!

I got a new camera for my birthday. Hooray! HOORAY!!

Here's the first picture I took with the camera...

Ok, it's not the best. I had no idea what I was doing. Honestly, I'm pretty sure I didn't even really know I was taking a picture. And here's a photo of me when my mom was convinced she knew better than me and could figure my new camera out. I tried to stop her...

Thanks mom! Ok, here we go, I picture after reading my manual, finding the flash and finally starting to get things under control. Nothing fancy, but a success all the same:

And for your entertainment, some photos since getting my camera under control and having some fun things to take photos of. Enjoy!

A Day For The Birds

Recently, I've been trying to figure out the best tattoo for my dad. Aside from my paw prints, my other 3 have meanings attached to my Aunt Jean. Focusing on figuring out what would be a great design for my dad has been something to distract me from the way we're losing him. I've come up with all types of ideas - "The Tree of Life" symbol (I have Chinese symbols and a Mayan calendar symbol tattooed on me now), this really neat picture I found with a tree in all 4 seasons, the leaf of a japanese thread leaf (one of his favorite trees), etc. There's only one I keep coming back to... feathers.

My dad is crazy about bald eagles: he has clocks with them on them, pictures, even a nutcracker and, once sick, one of the things he stole (and we had to return) was the weather vain off the house he grew up in - which just happened to have a bald eagle on top of it. He also loves red tail hawks (me too) and constantly points them out when we see them while driving. So, the feathers of those large birds makes the most sense to me ... but finding photos of feathers seems impossible on the internet. Most are just feathers people painted to look like those of these birds. So, I emailed out a bunch of people hoping for some photos: bird clubs, photographers, rehabilitaters, etc. Everyone was very kind, but one woman, Terri, was local and nice enough to invite me out to the wildlife rehabilitation center she works for: Woodford Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge. What a trip!!

I'm bad with names and that goes for birds too, but I believe it was Aldora. I could be wrong. I can tell you for sure though that Terri was nice enough to hold on to this big guy so I could take some photos of him (I plan on framing some good ones for dad too). I want to say he was hit by a car (again, the foggy memory - I'm going to guess it was a bad meds day - stupid epilepsy of mine!) and it severely damaged his left eye - you can see a photo of it below. He was so handsome!!! I don't think I can say that enough. :) He was also apparently extra heavy. Terri took him to get a weight and he was 1500+ grams when apparently his max weight has been about 14oo grams or so in the winter. That's a big boy ... um, perhaps we can use the holiday season as an extra for the extra weight?? :) Whatever the case, he wears it well and Terri was nice enough to tolerate holding him for awhile. She was really nice.

My friend Beka was nice enough to meet me at the center that day to get some pictures herself and we were lucky enough to meet some other birds before they were put away, like this gorgeous owl. Look at those eyes! Too cute. His name is Squam and he is a Barred Owl. Terri tells me that Barred Owls have been on NJ's threatened list since the 1940's when we began to development their habitats of old growth forests.

Beka and I wandered around for a bit after meeting some of the birds and we took some more pictures of the other birds we saw there along the trails. Did you know bald eagles make the weirdest noise?! Well, it's true! The one started making this noise that sounded like a pig!! The photos below with the gloved hands holding the birds are the birds we were lucky enough to meet. The other photos involved trying to not get the cages in the photo shots and some cropping skills when I got home. The whole time we were there was really nice and a lot of fun, even though it was a little chilly out that day. Then again, of course I loved it - it was rescue in a whole new way that I haven't have the privledge of participating in yet. :) Check out more photos from our time there...









The other bird we met, Killy, an American Kestrel. They have recently been placed on the endangered list due to habitat development...



I highly encourage you to check our Cedar Run's virtual tour and consider making a trip there. I know I'm going to head back some time with my friend, Robin, at least who was excited for me to be going there. Cedar Run has trails to walk along, so many animals to see and a great deal of information. They seem to be a wonderful, wonderful non-profit.

All In A Day's Work

Today was going along fairly normal - me planted near the kitchen to keep my dad out, trying to manage his pacing, get him to do some minor projects, etc. It was not a good day though. Around 4 PM, my dad came in and told me there was a fawn outside ... and it was stuck in the horse pen.

I had a dozen bad images in my head of this thing panicking as we approached it! Would I be on my way to the wildlife rehabilitation emergency facility a couple hours away soon? How hurt was this poor thing? I mean, stuck in the fence sounds pretty serious ... especially when I saw my dad grab huge wire cutters. Was the fawn's mom still near by? Was I about to get kicked with those nasty hooves? Agh!

As if I wasn't worked up enough, the sight of this poor thing just made my heart sink even more ... he must have jumped over the fence (and made it) when something went wrong. He was hanging upside-down by one hind leg with his body resting on the ground, but twisted so his head was laying between the fence and his own side. To top it all off, I felt awful because I had no idea how long that poor fawn had been hanging there because my dad had been inside watching TV for hours (when normally he'd be outside or in the garage near the horse pen working on stuff) because he was so awful today (he can get really destructive when trying to "fix" things).

I had grabbed the wire cutters from my dad on the walk through the one pen for our horses and told him to go turn off the electric tape that runs along most of the fence and to maybe consider getting the neighbor ... basically, I just didn't want my dad over there and upsetting the poor fawn further.

I was terrified as the approached the fawn. With the way the fawn was hanging there, so still and for who knows how long, I was shocked he was still alive! No time to space, I cut the fence and he didn't move at all. However, it wasn't as simple as just cutting the one fence wire loop. The fawn had fought so hard to free himself, he'd wedged his little leg into one corner and really pulled the fencing tight around him. For the next part, I'm lucky he didn't freak out and hurt us both! I had to pull on the wire and then grab that little munchkin's hoof and pull it out and away from the fence. Injuries-wise, the fawn had a cut on this leg, maybe an inch long, not too thick and thankfully not too deep. His leg was straight hanging there (didn't look broken) and he got right up and dashed off into the woods, so I'm hoping he's ok.

It was just a few minutes, but what a crazy day that made for! I hope that little fawn is ok tonight and his cut doesn't get infected. It's just such a shame because that damn metal fence has never actually caught a deer or fawn like that before and it's only around maybe 1/3 of our entire pen.

On another note: what a game, what a game tonight for the Flyers. I wish I had been there and yet with the way it actually ended, maybe not.

"Win For Wolves"

It's the best possible news! The Bush Administration has just announced it intends to withdraw its plan to strip gray wolves of their endangered species protection in the Northern Rockies.

What a huge win for wolves AND for hundreds of thousands of online activists like you who share the credit for this amazing victory!

Let me bring you up to speed. Last March, the Bush Administration declared the Northern Rockies' wolf population "fully recovered," then it handed off responsibility for the wolves to Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. Just as we predicted, a bloodbath ensued, with 110 wolves slaughtered by state agents and hunters in as many days.

NRDC, Earthjustice and 11 other conservation groups raced to court and won an injunction that put a temporary halt to the killing until the full case could be heard. We fully expected to fight a drawn-out courtroom battle in order to win a permanent victory.

But thanks to the Bush Administration's surrender, that battle will NOT happen. Instead, the wolves of Yellowstone and the surrounding region will remain protected by federal law.

That means Wyoming, Montana and Idaho will NOT be allowed to begin the extermination of hundreds of wolves this fall as part of a massive public hunt -- the first in more than three decades. Instead, those wolves will continue to roam the Rockies -- wild and free -- as nature and the law intended!

Why did U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials throw in the towel? They had to face up to the fact that their case against wolf protection would never hold up in court. Above all, they ignored the best available science showing that wolf populations had not fully recovered.

In the end, the Administration had little choice but to put its tail between its legs and beat a hasty retreat.

Make no mistake: the fight doesn't end here. You can be sure the federal government will be back soon enough with a new plan. And the states will learn their lessons and return with yet another scheme for killing wolves.

But you can be equally sure that, with your help, NRDC will stand vigilant, fully prepared to meet and turn back any new and deadly threat.

In the meantime, please join me and all of us here at NRDC in celebrating this red-letter day in the storied history of the Endangered Species Act. It happened because you and thousands of others chose to stand up in defense of embattled wildlife. Thank you!

Sincerely,
Frances
Frances Beinecke
President
Natural Resources Defense Council