(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

These are the faces of the kitties Loews Portofino Resort in Florida has been trying to trap ... and send to a high kill shelter.

Gracie

They once had a model T/N/R program, and the new manager has said "they must all go."

Abbie & her babies

One mama and her kittens have already met their sad fate. (Not Abbie, thankfully.)

Oreo

Now only 7 remain - all ear-tipped & "fixed" - but if they leave, another feral colony will step in to fill the void.

Morris

Please go to facebook.com/LoewsHotels and tell them to reinstate their Trap/Neuter/Return program.

Bonnie & Clyde

Blog The Change: Jammies' Story

Thanks for stopping by as we participate in today’s Blog the Change for Animals Blog-a-thon! The folks over at the site Be The Change For Animals sponsor a quarterly Blog The Change day – and today’s the first in 2012.  Animal lovers everywhere are joining forces today to talk about causes near and dear to their hearts. 

Our first entry in the Be The Change Blogosphere this year is Jammies' Story.

photo courtesy HELP Humane, Belton, MO

Jammies is gorgeously golden – all buff with a cream muzzle and big golden eyes that stare sadly out at you.

Jammies was dropped off anonymously at HELP, a no-kill animal shelter here in the KC metro area. When staff arrived for work that day, they saw this lunging, screaming, biting ball of fury trapped in a carrier. Once inside the shelter, Jammies was so aggressive that no one was willing to open the carrier door.  They noticed something odd about the paws that were attempting to strike out at anyone who dared approach, and an abnormal tendency to shift from paw to paw, indicating discomfort.

When they couldn’t get close enough to Jammies to even determine if this kitty was a boy or girl, they decided to visit their vet.  Poor Jammies was so aggressive, so agitated, that the vet had to anesthetize him to even determine it was a “him”!

By this time, everyone involved suspected that Jammies was suffering from being declawed.  Everyone had heard of “bad declaws” (as if there are good ones?!?) but this one…wow.  As one shelter worker put it, “some vets are really butchers when it comes to this.”

They asked the vet to x-ray Jammies' paws. What those pictures revealed was horrendous: Jammies had shards of bone – remnants of the declawing procedure and possibly even regrowth of the claw – inside his paws. Imagine the pain poor Jammies was in.  What would your disposition be like if you were forced to stand on or walk barefoot over broken glass...day in and day out? 

It’s no wonder he became aggressive and struck out at all who came near.

The International Veterinary Academy of Pain Management and other schools of Veterinary Clinical Sciences have published studies that indicate that fifty percent of cats undergoing a declaw will have one or more complications from it that include lameness, pain, hemorrhage, infection and even internal regrowth of the claw.

Is it any wonder that over 20 nations have declared this practice illegal? Indeed, just this past November, Israel added its name to the ranks with an impressive penalty for those caught in the act: a fine of up to 20,000 shekels and one year in jail.


Normally those of us who live in the U.S. like to think we're a nation that is forward-thinking with regard to the welfare of animals. The fact that declawing is not against the law here is sad but unfortunately not surprising. The number of cat owners who are informed on this issue is shockingly low. And that is why we've chosen to focus on this issue as our Blog the Change entry by telling Jammies' story.

Fortunately, Jammies’ story has a happy ending. He’s on his way to a pain-free existence thanks to the surgical attentions of a responsible vet who removed the bone shards from inside his paws. He’s in the caring hands of staff and volunteers at the HELP shelter – all of whom are teaching him that some humans can be trusted. And he’s well on his way to exchanging aggression for cuddles.

When Jammies was picked up at the vet to go “home” to the shelter a few days ago, the tears flowed as this golden boy – finally on his way to being pain-free – greeted his caretaker with a head butt and a purr for the very first time.

photo courtesy HELP Humane, Belton, MO

Please…pass the word.  There is no such thing as a good declaw.

EPIC BATTLE: Kitteh VS Dust Mop (I so WIN)

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

Guess who WE gotted to meet!!! @SeabassCat's momma! (You canz read Sebastian's blogs, too, at www.seabasscat.com)

Hangin' wif Maxwell

You gots any WAND toys? Inquiring Faradays wanna know.

*SQUEE!* Girl Time!

Our First Pet Blogger Challenge

We're very excited to participate in the 2012 Pet Blogger Challenge!





 Oh yes! And we might even let Mommy answer a few questions...for a price (hey Mommy, those tuna flakes are reeeeeally nommy...(HINT!)



OOOOH! And don't forget to catch my good side when you take pictures of my bling to show, Mother. Mother?



Gee thanks guys. Can't tell you how your generosity warms my heart... *grin*


Here are the questions - with our answers following:

1. When did you begin your blog? The blog began in October of 2010.

2. What was your original purpose for starting a blog?
Initially it was to give Ryker more than 140 characters to voice his opinions and spread his charm.

3. Is your current purpose the same?
Not really. About 15 days after we began, Ryker died quite suddenly.

I know many folks who are comfortable "tweeting" for their pets who have passed across the Rainbow Bridge, but I'm not one of them. Initially it was because it was too painful (it still is!) but later on, it just became more important to write about animal advocacy issues.

And then came Da Boyz in our lives - Maxwell & Faraday. For those of you who haven't met them, these guys are the first kittens my husband has ever known. So he got to name them (with a little direction from me). He's a physicist, so he chose to name them after 2 famous physicists. That is, of course, after I vetoed his first choice: naming them after the particles Lepton and Tachyon (I did mention he had a little direction from me? Sorry, but I refuse to own a kitty with the nickname of "Tacky").

For the past year, the blog has been evenly split between articles advocating for cats and random slices of kitty life in our home.

If not, what’s different?   oops, I kinda answered that already :-)

If so, how do you feel you’ve met your goals?  

We participated in Be The Change for Animals' "Blog The Change" events once every quarter.  And we also participated in Petfinder's promotion in September: "Adopt a Less Adoptable Pet". This was actually a blog marathon that we partnered with Sebastian the Sensitive Soul on - and it was our first foray into hosting guest bloggers on our site (very cool experience!).

We also recently wrote our first promotion of a "product" we feel very strongly about in a positive way: Animal Planet's' show, My Cat From Hell.

4. Do you blog on a schedule or as the spirit moves you?  Both scheduled and spontaneous.

If the former, how often — and what techniques do you use to stick to it? We try to have a Worldess Wednesday and a Saturday Blog Hop post every week - even if it's just pictures or videos of Mischief & Mayhem -- err, we mean Faraday & Maxwell. Allie, of course, is a Complete Angel. Excuse me, I think I hear Faraday choking....

If the latter, do you worry about… well, whatever you might worry about (e.g. losing traffic, losing momentum)?

5. Are you generating income from your blog? No.

If so, how (e.g. sponsor ads, affiliate relationships, spokesperson opportunities)?

If not currently, do you hope to in the future — and how? We're not sure - but we won't refuse if the right thing for us comes our way.

6. What do you like most about blogging in general and your blog in particular (bragging is good!)?  From a design standpoint, I guess it'd be the way each cat has his/her own voice and can interact within each post through the use of integrated avatars. From a content standpoint, it would be the opportunity it provides to educate, and to help spread timely information that will be beneficial to animals in general, cats in particular.

7. What do you like least? That with my schedule, sometimes I'll be so time constrained that blogging becomes almost impossible for weeks. Also my learning curve - I think there's still a lot I can learn about how to make a blog more effective.

8. How do you see your blog changing/growing in 2012?  That's a good question - one I don't have a complete answer for. (eek! don't tell my high school English teacher I just ended a sentence with a preposition! ;-)
I'll be doing my very first book review at a publisher's request, so that will be a "first." And I hope there will be more firsts as 2012 progresses!

Wordless Wednesday

(in my best Bogie voice)
"...Of all the nip joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."

(Maxwell nursed that drink all day long....)

Spotlight On: Spots

Hi! Oh, HI!! *wiggles pink toenails* So glad you stopped by, because today we asked Mother if she'd let us spotlight a very special kitty at my Alma-Mater, Wayside Waifs: Spots.

Spots

Yes, we felt awful for him cuz he was given up for adoption on Catmas Eve!
Who abandons their kitteh on Catmas Eve anyways?
That is sooooooo wrong.



But that's not the worst of it: he was abandoned on Catmas Eve last year. Poor dude! He was adopted in March (after three whole months in a shelter).

But it gets even worse: get this - he was then brought in again as a stray, a few days before this Catmas. Now as former shelter kittehs, Allie an' me feel this is terribly wrong. Awful. Criminal even!

Spots: A Really Cool Dude

This dude deserves a home - a real good one this time. And Momma sez he's soo sweet and laid-back. Just an all around mellow and friendly kinda guy. Third time's just gotta be the charm...right?

So if you know anyone in the Kansas City area who might be interested in a real Upstanding kinda Kitteh...
tell 'em about Spots, would ya? Paws crossed for him to have a FABULOUS New Year.