Bottle Drive was a success, but we need more volunteers

We did a bottle drive yesterday and earned nearly $400 to help the animals. While I am content with any amount, it would be nice if we had a bigger team of volunteers to help with the fundraising.

I must thank the volunteers who did show up:

Darlene Richard: a fabulous woman who is my lifesaver! Without Darlene's help I don't know what I would do! She volunteers almost every day in the kitty workshop, and I can always count on her to help with fundraisers. Darlene and her husband Michel have adopted Hazey and Eeyore from Healing Animal SCARS, and they paid to TNR some cats in their back yard.

Darlene volunteered to stand all day at a table to display our cause and collect donations.

Shane Bennett: Another wonderful regular volunteer who is reliable and helps with everything under the sun. Shane and his lovely wife Amanda have adopted Marble from our rescue. They live just down the street from me, so I can call on them for anything, and they even take home laundry to clean for the kitties!

Lee Sampson: the big hearted pizza man! He runs the King of Donair on Windmill Road and has helped numerous cats. He recently adopted Reese (aka Cinnamon), an emaciated and dying cat foundoutside his restaurant. When I found her, Lee immediately took over as her Fairy Godfather and my vet and I were considering euthanizing her, but Lee nurtured her back to life.

Anita Doward: she was willing to drive, even with last minute notice from me, and always helps at our Bottle Drives. Anita takes in stray cats too and has 4 lovely young kitties for adoption on our website.

http://search.petfinder.com/shelterSearch/shelterSearch.cgi?shelterid=NS28&preview=1

Nicole Bigney: a great lady who works at Mercedes and has helped with many events since we began almost 3 years ago. It was great to see you again Nicole!

Wendy McKellar: another great gal, she lives in Shearwater and I helped her find her missing cat Skytz a few months ago. Wendy was willing to pitch in and help with her mini-van, even with two babies in carseats! Thanks a bunch for your help!

Juanita Faulkner and her son Adam Greenly: They read an ad on Kijiji and offered to start volunteering. Adam sells chocolate bars and donated the $24 profit to Healing Animal SCARS. Big thanks to a great young man!

Katie Hanrahan: my little sunshine girl! Katie has been a dedicated volunteer and always helps out at the kitty shed and at all events. I can always count on you Katie! You're the best!

Rachel Dix: another sweet girl who lives on my street and helps with Bottle Drives and Car washes. We really appreciate your help!

Michelle Clark: she helps with the kitties too and many fundraisers. Michelle brought along a new volunteer to help, her friend Kelly

Kelly: Thanks so much for joining us yesterday! We hope to see you at future events

Kassie Hagen: Her family has rescued countless cats and found homes. Kassie is a young woman with a huge heart and loves all animals. She has brought me many kittens over the years, most recently a litter of barn kittens from the barn where she keeps her horse. Unfortunately these kittens turned out to have Distemper and 4 of the 5 kittens died. Elegance is still hanging on though, and looking better every day.

We pray that Elegance will pull through and be the true poster child survivor story!

So in closing, I want to thank all the volunteers who showed up, and every person who donated to our cause, whether by donating refundables to the volunteers who knocked on your doors, or those who dropped off recyclables to the Depot to donate to our cause.

The kittens thank you too!

SPCA hosting Town Hall Meeting on feral cats

Will you attend this important meeting?
http://www.spcans.ca/events.html
May 30, 2009
Town Hall Meeting on Stray and Feral Cats
8:30AM-12:00PM,
Saint Mary's University, Sobey Building, Room 265,
903 Robie Street, Halifax.
Volunteers, advocates, concerned residents, municipal animal services staff, and veterinarians from across the province are invited to this meeting facilitated by the Nova Scotia SPCA to discuss approaches for managing and assisting stray and feral cat populations. The meeting will provide a forum for generating new collaborations and sharing information

Ruffian is doing well in his foster home

Ruffian is making himself at home in a new place again.

He is now comfortably ensconced in a spare room chez Angela Miller until we can find him a purr-manent home! Angela and her partner Mark are actively helping us look for an appropriate home, where Ruffian will be understood and loved. After all he has been through, I don’t think I should send him home with just “anyone”. While he has been very good with the many children he has met in my rescue workshop over the years, and he is great with my boyfriend’s 4 year old daughter Sidney, I do not entirely trust him not to lash out with his claws if a child alarmed or harmed him. So I don’t think he should go to a home with small children. Also I have tried adopting him to someone with physical limitations but they could not reach under the furniture he was hiding under. At first he is shy but if you can reach under the bed/chair/couch/whatever, Ruffian pushes his head against your hand to get rubbed. Soon after he will come out and sit on the furniture and allow you to caress him all over! He is very playful and loves other cats, if properly introduced. He was very social with the multitudes of cat-friends he met in my rescue workshop over the years.


Here is the latest message from Ruffian's foster family, sent Sunday afternoon:

Hi Sonya,
Ruffian doesn't hide anymore. Whenever we go in to visit he is laying on the bed. When one of us lays down with him he snuggles right in :)
Mark's dad popped by yesterday afternoon and met Ruffian. He really liked him. He told Wilma (Mark's mom) about him and she wants to meet him. Would it be okay with you if we took Ruffian up to meet Wilma ?
(edited)
She has a soft spot for orange tabbies, and they didn't want a male cat, but they may make an exception for him and put in an application to adopt him.
Apparently Wilma really missed Moxie once we got back from Mexico last month, and they started talking more about getting a cat of their own.
Angela

So together I hope we can find a permanent home for this loveable cat! Truly everyone who meets him loves him.

Barn Kittens with Panleukopenia

these 5 kitties were found by Kassie Hagen at the barn where she rides horse, so she and her mom delivered them to me on Saturday night, April 25th. It appears they are from 2 different litters. The 2 orange tabbies and the brown tabby are about 5 weeks old. The two tiny black striped kittens are only 2-3 weeks old

Tue, 5 May 2009 18:19

Hi there friends and supporters,

It is with great sadness that I must report that for the first time in 3 years and 201 rescued cats, we have a confirmed case of distemper (panleukopenia) in a kitten. Tongo was outwardly healthy for the first 8 days he was here, but on Sunday morning, he suddenly fell quite ill. We treated him and kept him as comfortable as possible, but by Monday afternoon, he was too far gone to hold out any hope for survival, so I helped him make a trip up to Heaven, by humanely euthanizing him at the vet.

His littermates, Elegance and Unicef, are living in separate cages, so I can monitor how much each of them is eating, drinking, peeing or pooping. The other 3 kittens (Gemma, Hallie and Woofer) are doing fine, still sharing a cage. For those who have visited the rescue workshop in the past week and seen the kittens: Thanks for all your help with them in the last week,and I wish I could still let volunteers come over, but it is shut for now. Quarantine is required to diminsh risk of contamintaion. We don't want the sickness to spread, but the volunteers shouldn't have to worry about bringing it home to their cats, as long as those cats are up to date on vaccines

Friday, May 8th

Unicef has joined his brother Tongo at the Rainbow Bridge. I will miss him so much! Unicef was doing farily well when he went to the vet yesterday afternoon, but upon arriving home he suddenly took a turn for the worse. He wouldn't eat anymore, got very tired and lethargic, then started vomiting bile. Over 24 hours he lost a lot of weight, could not even keep waer or Pedialite down, and had constant mucous coming from his poor sore little bum. Last night his fever skyrocketed to 40.3 degrees Celsius, so this morning I decided to bring him to the vet for IV fluids, instead of giving subcutaneous fluids every few hours. As soon as the kind doctor saw him, she shook her head and said, "No, Sonya" She knew he couldn't handle the trauma of having an IV needle stuck in his leg, the veins are too tiny , dehydrated and collapsed. I took a few moments to say goodbye to him, kiss him goodbye, and then I held Unicef while the vet gave the needle to end his pain and suffering.

Ruffian has found another foster home

Ruffian has been rescued again.

I posted the following request on Facebook: "Ruffian needs a home ASAP - he is coming back from foster this week and cannot enter the infected rescue workshop , due to the distemper outbreak. Check out his profile here http://www.facebook.com/l/;http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=8002355 and tell everyone who loves cats that he is about to become homeless! Foster or adopt this lovely boy"

Well the Facebook nation came through for me! I had a few responses from adopters and volunteers, also Laurie Wheeler posted Ruffian's bio on her HART website here: http://www.valleyhart.com/adoptus.htm

Yesterday I met a wonderful woman, Angela, who offered to bring Ruffian into her home of 2 other cats and 2 dogs. I brought her to his former foster home, and she met him and saw how he like to be rubbed, once I dragged him out from under the bed. So I brought him to Angela's house to help him get settled in. It is starting as a foster home, but if he gets along well with the dogs and resident cats, he may be adopted!



Here is a message sent this morning by Angela, his new foster Mom


Hi Sonya,
just wanted to give a quick update on Ruffian. He came out from under the bed last night on his own after a few hours of Mark and myself being in and out of the room for visits. He hopped up on the bed with Mark at one point and laid down with him.
Both our cats have been at the door hissing and sniffing. Ruffian is interested and goes to the door but doesn't make any noises. He also caught a good look at our German Shepherd, I don't think he knew what to make of that, but he seemed very curious.
Last night around 3:30am he started to cry. He was scratching around in his litterbox quite a bit too. So I went in and cleaned the box and added some more litter. He was still crying so I gave him some more food and he seemed fine after that.
This morning he's playing hard to get again, but I don't expect it will last too long based on last night.
Angela

Bottle Drive Fundraiser

Healing Animal SCARS is doing another bottle drive to fundraise for rescued cats and kittens. Please let me know if you would be available to volunteer on Saturday May 16th from 9:30am to 1pm

We need to fundraise to cover veterinary costs, as each cat is tested for Feline Leukemia and FIV, fully vaccinated and spayed or neutered. Each cat can cost over $300 so raising money is vital to our rescue.

Desperate plea: we had an outbreak of distemper and need to buy all new supplies and pay the vet bill for the sick kitten that was euthanized. Now more than ever, we need helpers for this bottle drive. If you don't want to travel to join us in the Eastern Passage area, maybe you could canvass your own neighbourhood for refundables and let me know how to obtain it from you.

We need volunteers with a truck or van to drive! Other volunteers can be passengers and knock on doors to request donations.

Residents who wish to support may deliver their own refundable recyclables to the Enviro Depot on Cow Bay Road in Eastern Passage at any time and put it on Sonya's Cat Rescue account. Each month we earn enough to neuter another cat! Every can or bottle helps add up to make a difference.

Call 469-MEOW to volunteer or donate or adopt a cat.

Hi there friends and supporters,

It is with great sadness that I must report that for the first time in 3 years and 201 rescued cats, we have a confirmed case of distemper (panleukopenia) in a kitten. Tongo was outwardly healthy for the first 8 days he was here, but on Sunday morning, he suddenly fell quite ill. We treated him and kept him as comfortable as possible, but by Monday afternoon, he was too far gone to hold out any hope for survival, so I helped him make a trip up to Heaven, by humanely euthanizing him at the vet.

His littermates, Elegance and Unicef, are living in separate cages, so I can monitor how much each of them is eating, drinking, peeing or pooping. The other 3 kittens (Gemma, Hallie and Woofer) are doing fine, still sharing a cage. For those who have visited the rescue workshop in the past week and seen the kittens: Thanks for all your help with them in the last week,and I wish I could still let volunteers come over, but it is shut for now. Quarantine is required to diminsh risk of contamintaion. We don't want the sickness to spread, but the volunteers shouldn't have to worry about bringing it home to thier cats, as long as those cats are up to date on vaccines
Here is what I wrote on Facebook on Monday morning, before he died:
I am very sorry to report that for the first time in our 3 years of rescue, we have a kitten with distemper, also called panleukopenia. He is very sick and I am praying he will survive, but it is not looking good. Tongo was doing fine since he arrived last Saturday, but yesterday he suddenly developed a high fever, is vomiting, has bloody diarrhea and no appetite or energy. We provided Pedialyte and subcutaneous fluids last night, and this morning I took him to my vet. He was tested with a rectal swab SNAP test, and it came back positive, so this is not just a suspected case, but has been confirmed.
Thus we are trying to disinfect EVERYTHING he may have come in contact with, and will have to keep the rescue workshop under QUARANTINE until further notice. Donations of bleach and disinfecting wipes are badly needed.
We will have to throw away all our litter boxes, scratching posts and cat beds. We would really appreciate donations of new cat supplies, to re-stock our rescue.
As it is, I don't have any idea how I am going to pay the enormous vet bills! Please volunteer at our Bottle Drive on May 16th Thanks so much,
Sonya Higgins


Since writing that message, I have had a case of bleach donated! So we don’t need any more bleach right now, but I am including a “Wish List” for the things we could use:

I would like the following items for cleaning:
paper towels
boxes of tissues
Disinfecting wipes (Lysol, Mr. Clean, Clorox or any brand)
hand sanitizer
small hand broom sweepers with dust pans

Extra miscellaneous items:
a Dust Buster
a space heater
a large cat scratching post or tower
a digital thermometer

Cat items:
small scratching posts
cat beds
cat blankets
toys: balls, mice, feather wands, etc
cat carriers
litter boxes
litter scoops

Of course, we need money to help cover the vet bills. Donations of cash may be made in person at the Eastern Passage Village Vet hospital to the SCARS account. They also accept debit and credit card. If you want to donate, but cannot make it to the vet in person, you can call in your credit card and they would mail you a receipt. I have also had a few people send me an Interac email money transfer.
Personal Cheques are not accepted at the vet, but may be mailed to me:
143 Briarwood Drive
Eastern Passage, NS
B3G 1B7

Thank you so very much on behalf of the (remaining) kitties,

Since the distemper virus can live for a long time in the environment, as it is airborne, we will NOT be able to take in any new kitty cats for quite some time. At least a few months, possibly for up to a year! This does NOT mean the end of Healing Animal SCARS – we can still help people who are willing to foster the kitties through our program. I can also still help folks who want to TNR an adult cat, as long as they are not looking for financial assistance. People who want to help a feral or stray cat and are willing to pay the reduced veterinary costs, can borrow a trap form me, get help trapping, plenty of advice. I can lend them equipment to keep the cat confined in their own shed or spare room for a few days post surgery. I just cannot have any new cats come into my rescue for a while. So please spread the word! We need foster homes desperately!


Sonya Higgins
Chairman/Director, “Healing Animal SCARS - Sonya’s Cat & Animal Rescue Society”
katsonya@accesswave.ca
http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/NS28.html
469-MEOW (469-6369)