Caturday: Skyee & Garage Cats

This gorgeous girl is Skyee out at Best Friends Society in Utah.

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

"Don't hate me because I'm beautiful."

Skyee can't help it! She's an old girl, but it hasn't toned down her beauty one bit. And she enjoys being gorgeous, because she loves chatting with people "meow, meow", and even gently playing.

Skyee used to be terribly standoffish, but age has made her much more friendly. And she's ready, at her ripe age, to find the home that's eluded her for so long. (She came to Best Friends long ago from a shelter in California that was closing down, and she's never been adopted!)

Skyee gets along beautifully with other cats. Children should be older just because she used to be so skittish - we wouldn't want those tendencies to return!

She's a lovely cat with a lovely personality. And it would be wonderful if she could find a happy ending at last in these golden years.

Wishing you luck and love this holiday season, Skyee.

~*~


I was going to post the simple fact I had finally set up the porch for the garage cats for the winter, but then I figured - why be simple? :) So, here's a little introduction to the garage kitties.

We have 6 cats that I know of on the farm who have hung around or shown up. The garage 3 are the more social group of cats we have here on the farm. Spring, summer and into the fall, they mostly live in the Conestoga building we have right by the house which has a lot furniture from our old home (the cat particularly like curling up in the upside down chairs), my dad's tools and some of my rescue stuff - a few cages and a trap or two. However, for the winter, I set up the side porch (which has a hole cut into the screen for them to come in through) with a heat lamp, some soft blankets and a bed that warms up a bit too. The screen door and window also get covered up with plexi-glass so the kitties can still see out, but there's no real breeze in there. This year, they'll have to deal with the unplugged, no longer being used refrigerator, but I think they'll manage - less room, which means more snuggling :)

Here's who will be on the porch this winter, the garage kitties one by one...

Meet Norman - a huge beast of a cat who also happens to be FIV+ and a real love bug - no fighting from him so far. Norman I brought on in a desperate attempt to get Wilson to eat - I'd had him for about 2 weeks and he rarely ate a thing I left for him. Thinking he was lonely, I brought Norman in ... this is how he got his name. Although Wilson was named for the volleyball in Castaway, I always thought of the neighbor from Home Improvement - "howdy ho, neighbor", which is also the cute phrase the old man, Norm, I grew up next to used to greet us all the time. So, Wilson and Norman, the cheery older neighbors. Norman remains pretty evasive, though sometimes he'll let me pet him. I don't think he'll ever be as affectionate as he was when his best friend for life was still around, Buddy. Looking at Norman makes me still ache for Buddy and the pals they were together. He's also the biggest wanderer out of the garage cats. I've seen him everywhere from back by the back barn (trying to steal food for the kitties back there) to in the woods to down near the front of the lake ... I promptly hollered at him for that - once passed the lake, it's only another say, 50 feet to the road.

This little lady is simply known as "Momma" or "Irish Momma". She came to me from my great uncle who was feeding a cat outside his home and one day she brought him kittens. I sat outside for hours until I caught them all - the whole litter consisted of 4 female kittens. I hate to think how many kittens there would have been if I hadn't caught them!!! All the little girls were given Irish names (my great uncle is VERY Irish) and adopted out in pairs. Irish Momma wasn't a friendly house cat though, so I set her up in the garage where she has never left. I pet her for the first time in, wow, maybe the 4 years I've had her just the other day while she was eating. She's always around, but won't let me approach her. She's endeared herself to me with how adorable she is though. Her favorite spot? The stairs leading up into the hot tub or on top of the cover. She's a smart girl! :) I don't know if it's because she came from a small town with busy roads, but she's the least likely to wander. She's always pretty much in the garage, by the hot tub or in the garden between the garage and the house, though sometimes she'll wander up to the front porch ... so, as far as I know, her life consists of mainly a, max, 75 foot radius.

The most recent addition to the garage crew is Champ. I had just lost Buddy recently when a new cat was coming into work. The business behind us, Champion Tire, was nice enough to feed and love up some ferals (all fixed), but someone had dropped off a cat recently and they were just maxed out. Work agreed to take the cat in and try to adopt it out ... however, while doing our intake exam, we found out the poor guy was FIV+ and our FIV Suite was already full. Fresh from the loss of Buddy and looking at this poor kitty who was FIV+ like Norman and now with an unknown future (the tire place didn't want him, that's why he came to us and we couldn't keep him because we were already too full), I took it all as a sign and agreed to take him. "Champ" came home with me and though he's not wrapped up with Norman like Buddy used to be, the two seem to hang out a bit and he's a nice addition. I'm not sure if you can tell from the photo, but he's a real beast of a cat - huge! Long legs and a stomach that looks like he's swallowed a basket ball.

To say the kids were excited the side porch was set up is an understatement. As soon as I was out there, Irish Momma was walking in and out of the hole in the door, Norman was sitting at the bottom of the steps and even Champ wandered by as I set everything up for them. Below is a photo of the garage cats already settling into the side porch: Champ curled up under the heat lamp and Irish Momma eating. Norman's either off wandering or maybe tucked behind Champ. Nothing was more adorable than when Norman and Buddy used to both curl up in the heated bed together! Sometimes the only sign they were both in there was what looked like a fifth white paw on Norman - Buddy would be buried under him asleep with just his little foot sticking out from under Norm.

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Here's handsome Fuzzy all stretched out on a perch in a cat tree.

FIV Facts - It's Not A Death Sentence

I am an animal lover. I am a big mush for cats ... any type of cat really deserves to live, in my opinion, unless suffering horribly in a manner that can no longer be reversed or healed. In saying this, I am admitting to having not one, but two FIV+ barn cats at my parents' farm. Would inside homes be preferable? Absolutely ... but when the popular alternative is death, I don't think I'm doing much of a disservice to them. I mean, Norman, for example, was living in a beyond dangerous area where he needed to be relocated from, but he was feral as well. An FIV+ cat is hard enough to place, let alone a feral one!

My love, my beast, the other half of the former odd couple of Buddy & Norman before Buddy passed away - I cannot express how much I love my man, Norman. Norman was one very hard to trap boy that I had agreed to take before we even got him, I believe. I had a new kitty, Wilson, who had come to me after his owner passed and the house he lived outside of forever was being sold. There were 5 other cats he had lived with, but Wilson had always been the outsider of the group so we assumed there would be no problem of him settling in solo ... however, that was not the case. He refused to eat for weeks! Though I believe Wilson was named for the volleyball in Castaway I always thought of the neighbor with the constantly covered up face on Home Improvement and just like that neighbor, I'd grown up with a neighbor who said "Hi-dee-ho, neighbor" when he was out in his yard and saw us - Norm Sanger. So, that's how Norman got his name when we took him in hoping that some company would perk up Wilson and his appetite.


Norman was best friends with my Buddy and has been quite lost it seems with Buddy now gone. It breaks my heart. I have not been able to touch him since Buddy passed away though he's always close by and never that hard to find around dinner time.

Champ came into my work when a contact said that two cats had been abandoned at their place and they just could not handle taking on anymore: they were going to take one and wanted us to take the other one. He was friendly enough, they said, but after they left him with us, he turned out to be positive for FIV when we tested him. Our suite here was full and with the rumors and assumptions about FIV+ cats being so unfair, I doubted a place that didn't want this cat when they thought he was healthy certainly wouldn't want him if he was FIV+. I said I'd take him. Here's a photo of Champ while he was laying around, caged, getting used to his new home:


Could Champ be an inside kitty? Perhaps. But he's very happy outside, runs as soon as he sees us getting to close and though he's outside, he's alive and well watched over. He spends most of his time in our pole barn about 20 feet away from the house.

I keep them as happy and healthy as possible. They are seen at least twice a day during meal time. My boys are probably overly fed, are neutered and vaccinated. All the cats not only have the outdoors to play around with, but toys too. I've seen them enjoying naps in the sun or curled up in the leaves. I keep them healthy with extra nutrients is they seem a little down, I apply Revolution to them monthly when they let me. They have 4 barns to pick from if weather comes up and every winter they're offered not only the usual comforts of old sofas and comforters in their barns, but our side porch is set up for them with heat lamps for when it's super cold, extra blankets and a heated cat bed to sleep in.

Aside from just having two FIV+ barn cats, they live with other cats too. FIV is not as contagious as rumored and feared. Wilson is NOT positive for FIV, Irish Momma tested negative as well and the cat who just emerged from the woods and never left is one very healthy cat too!

I stole these below well known facts from my friend's website: Paws For Life Coalition. She's got various other great tid bits on there too, so check it out!

THE FIV FACTS - IT'S NOT A DEATH SENTENCE:
1. The Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) is a lentivirus, meaning that it progresses very slowly, gradually affecting the cat's immune system over a period of years.

2. FIV is a cat-only disease and is not transmissible to dogs, children or other humans in any way, so there is not a threat to families even if an FIV cat scratches or bites you. In fact, the only thing about FIV that you can catch is a bad case of deadly rumors.

3. FIV cats most often live long, healthy lives and never suffer any symptoms at all.

4. FIV is not easily passed between cats. It cannot be spread casually - like in litter boxes, water and food bowls or when snuggling, grooming and playing. It is rarely spread from a mother to her kittens, although some kittens can have a false positive reading due to the mother's antibodies passed on to them. It is best to have the kitten retested every 60 days up to 6 months of age.

5. The virus can be spread through blood transfusions or serious penetrating bite wounds. (Bite wounds of this kind are extremely rare, except in free-roaming, un-neutered tomcats.) So unless your cats at home routinely tear each other to pieces, it should not be a problem.

6. A neutered FIV cat in a home is extremely unlikely to infect other cats, if properly introduced. Proper introduction should always be made when adding any new cat into your household. It is not necessary to isolate an FIV cat in a multiple cat household unless the FIV cat is likely to fight with the other residents.

7. Many vets are not up to date about FIV since the virus was only discovered 15 years ago. A lot of vets did not want to take a chance and the rule of thumb was to totally separate the cat, find a sanctuary or have them euthanized. If we went back 15 years ago, before anybody tested for FIV, all of these cats would be in regular homes living normal lives. But researchers now discovered something they could put a name to, even if the cats never got sick.

8. FIV-positive cats should be kept as healthy as possible (as with any cat). Keep them indoors, free from stress, feed them a high-quality diet and treat any secondary problems as soon as they arise.

9. It is our strong recommendation not to consider vaccinating your cat with the current FIV vaccine. All cats just vaccinated with the FIV vaccine will test positive for FIV. If your cat was ever lost and then found and taken to a shelter, they may be euthanized as a result of this false positive test. There are no current commercial tests available to distinguish between a healthy vaccinated cat and one that truly has FIV. The vaccine only covers 2 (A & D) out of 5 subtype strains of FIV (A, B, C, D & E). The A subtype is seen mainly on the west coast and D subtype is in Asia. Most cats in the US test positive for subtype B and is most prevalent on the east coast.

For more info on FIV & vaccine information, visit: http://www.baypathhumane.org/care_fiv.html
http://www.hilltopanimalhospital.com/fiv-vaccine.htm & http://www.theanimalspirit.com/ginger.html