Spring has Sprung!

It's May and spring has definitely sprung.  We are getting calls from folks that have dramatic issues with outdoor cats and kittens.   We are working hard to help them however we can.  One trapping this week yielded 14 cats from one location!  The good news is, is that we have NOT had the kitten issues this spring so far and we attribute that to the work we have done the last two years in the area!

Helping means spending money.  Spa treatments are not cheap no matter where we take them.  We are so grateful to have Dr. Schultz and Dr. Victora working with us and giving us a discount on their prices, but we have to constantly fund raise to have enough money to continue our work with the furry friends...

May is going to be a busy month of fundraising and awareness of the plight of homeless cats.

We are proud to be part of The Best Friend's Animal Society's Network Partnership.  What that means is, is that we can use their media tools and marketing ideas to help find more homes for the homeless.  This is a great benefit for us and we are honored to be part of their organization in this way.

May is Black is Back Month for Network Partners.   The entire month we will be focusing on finding homes for black cats.  For some unknown reason, black cats and dogs are the last to be adopted!

May 10th we will be participating in an adoption event at Petco in Council Bluffs along with the other members of the Southwest Iowa Animal Coalition.    We will be hoping to find homes for our available cats, but also to focus on Disaster Preparedness.  Come and bring the kids!  There will be live donkeys, kitties and doggies!

May 23-24th we will again have a food booth at True Junk's May Daze outdoor junk fest in Walnut.  All proceeds will be used to help more kitties in Western Iowa.

Finally another May fundraiser is OMAHA GIVES  which will be held online on May 21st.  this is a 24 hour fund raiser where the Omaha Community Foundation will accept donations in our name.  Those donations will be eligible for matching funds depending on our ranking in the total percentage of donations overall.  We are really excited about this and hope many will participate in this way!  Its simple, go to OmahaGives24.org
select Western Iowas Feral and Homeless Cat Program for your charity and GIVE!!!

So Much for Black Cats being Bad Luck!

With Halloween just around the corner, I thought it would be fun to look up some information about why black cats are connected so closely to witches and Halloween, bad luck and superstition.
Sprinkled in are pics of some black cats we at WIFCaP know and love!

Dating back to the ancient Egyptians , it was believed that black cats were sacred, so they worshipped them. An Egyptian goddess called Pasht was said to have had the body of a woman and the head of a cat. Since the Egyptians believed that Pasht had nine lives, they also believed that all cats did.
The Egyptians were so respectful of black cats that when one died, it was preserved as a mummy, just as Egyptians rulers were. Cemeteries have been found with mummified bodies of thousands of black cats, plus mummified mice to accompany them into the next world!

Our Beautiful Zeva - One of WIFCaP's first for "spa treatment"!

 Another tidbit found on the internet:

"If you believe that a black cat crossing your path is bad luck, you believe in witchcraft.
Legend has its that in the 1560s in England, a father and son threw stones at a cat that had startled them on a moonless night.
The wounded cat ran into the nearby home of a suspected witch.
The next day the old woman was seen in public limping and bruised, and a superstition was born which caused the burning alive of innocent women in the seventeenth century."

But there is actually more written in folk-lore about the GOOD LUCK black cats bring than bad...here are a few!

Black cat, cross my path
Good fortune bring to home and hearth
When I am away from home
Bring me luck wherever I roam

- Old English Charm 

* Freya, the Norse Goddess of Love & Fertility drives a chariot pulled by two black cats.

* To dream of a black cat is thought by many people to be a lucky omen.

* Many theater folk love cats, perhaps because they, too, were once ostracized and shunned. It is believed that a black cat in the audience on opening night portends a successful play.


* In the south of France, black cats are referred to as "matagots" or "magician cats." According to local superstition, they bring good luck to owners who feed them well and treat them with the respect they deserve.

* Fisherman's wives kept black cats while their husbands went away to sea believing that the black cats would prevent danger from occurring to their husbands. These black cats were treated like royalty and were considered so valuable that they were often stolen. At one point, they became so expense that few fisher folk could afford them.

Whenever the cat of the house is black,
The lasses of lovers will have no lack.

~ English Proverb

(the above from fullcirclenews.blogspot.com)

Also black cats and all cats are honored and held sacred in the county of Japan.  

AVCheryl with a black kitty we were able to find a home for!

It seems the bad luck superstition has overpowered the good luck and because of it, black cats are the last to be adopted and the first to euthanized in shelters.

Arya-found wandering and alone now belongs to Kathy's son!

What we know is that black cats  are lovely creatures and each that we have had a joy to know, has been more than purrfect!

Sherman found in a ditch outside a distribution center, has a new lease on life with Linda!

When a black kitty finds it way to AVC or WIFCaP we are thrilled.  We always know a piece of our heart will leave with them when they find their furever home!

Edwyn - found in Walnut and adopted  by our friend Autumn in Omaha!

We hope you will all have fun during this Halloween season, but please, if you own a black cat, keep it inside and safe.  And if you are looking to adopt a new cat/kitten...wont you please pick a black one??