Purina ProPlan to the Rescue!

Several Months ago, we applied and were approved to be part of Purina's ProPlan to the Rescue.  Which means that we are eligible to receive donated food from Purina ProPlan!  Ive been waiting and waiting and yesterday was the day the big UPS truck pulled up to my garage to unload!  I'm not even kidding when I say that I almost spit out my chicken noodle soup when I saw the truck slowing driving by my house!

Christmas in November!

No, the truck wasn't full!  But the wonderful and kind driver unloaded 234 pounds of ProPlan cat food for our colonies!  That might sound like a lot of food, but in reality it will only be around for a few weeks and we will be out again.   This donation, however is a HUGE blessing to us and we send many thanks to the team at Purina's ProPlan to the Rescue!

Oh what a beautiful sight!

What this means is, our feral colonies will have a great Thanksgiving and wonderful food for weeks to come!

Zeva waiting for Breakfast!

Garage Sale was a big Success!

The day started off perfect!  A bright, crisp fall day was just the ticket for our garage sale.  This is part of the crew and customers that helped us get off the ground!  Pam, Linda, Cheryl, Becky and Amber!

We had such fun, educating (you can see our information table in the lower left) and meeting people that wanted to know or already knew about feral cats.  This is Cindy.  She lives in Avoca and has been a faithful caretaker of ferals in her area and needs help, so we can expand at some point and help in that direction too!

Living in Iowa's Antique City and living right on main street has advantages!  We were able to have many travelers stop by.  One couple from Wisconsin stopped by and told us of the 18th century mosaic quilt they had just taken to the University of NE Quilt Study to be authenticated.  They were nice enough to unwrap and show us!!!

Getting young people involved in community service is a huge thing to us.  Here is Amy and Marye from a youth group in town that came by to make our winter shelters!  Thank you girls!!!

And of course Kathy's cats had to get in the act!  Here is Lucy, checking to be sure we got everything unloaded from this box.  Such a helper!

Some of our customers, supporters from Omaha even came.  This is my nephew David.  He is a wonderful man who loves cats!!!  He has rescued two kitties that now live with him and is fostering a kitten at this time as well.  Here he tries to befriend Ricky, who is the shyest!

Our facebook friend Dawn came to help too!  She lives in a town about 25 miles from us.  So good to have her here and so glad to meet her.   Dawn and Kathy will go to the conference in DesMoines next Saturday together.  Right now....the name of the conference is slipping my ever-loving aging mind and I will add later...geez!

Anyway, all in all it was a great day.  The weather could not have been more perfect.  We had LOTS of people and they opened their pocketbooks for the kitties.  Many of them were very excited to hear about the cause and were eager to learn and to share what they know.  While I was totally exhausted at the end of the day, I, Kathy cannot wait til the next one!  We even had participation online.  Some of our facebook friends that were too far to join us, purchased items online and made donations to our chip in account. 

Much gratitude goes to everyone involved in helping to make this happen.  All of you who donated items to sell, that helped set up, that spent part of your weekend working,  that sent encouraging notes, who made things for us to sell, who came and purchased items here or online...we love you and appreciate all you do to help us. 

I signed up on my email to receive google alerts on feral cats.  Its amazing EVERY DAY how many articles and how much activity is going on in this area.  The word is getting out and people are beginning to notice!

Clearing the Air...

Wanting to be totally above board and clear about what our mission is, I thought it would be good to spell out again our plan for the Walnut Feral Cat Program.

The problem is feral cats overpopulating our community.  They need our help.  They need to be altered so they cannot multiply.  We need to care for them by providing that altering and then feeding them and supplying them with some winter shelter. 

At this point we are at the very beginning of fund raising and without donations, nothing can be done.  We are researching grant money and soliciting donations so we can move forward.

Altering the ferals and strays is only half the battle.  We need the community cat owners to be sure their animal is altered as well.

I do want to be clear that WIFCaP  cannot provide spay and neuter for cats that have homes.  We have two vets that have graciously offered to help with the ferals only.  We are however, creating a resource list of some area vets that will include their charges.  That list is in process and we hope to have it soon. 

We are also NOT a shelter for homeless cats.  We simply are not set up to take in strays.  At this time, I am working with a Omaha Organization to see if they could meet that need for us.

Please call or email if you have any questions!

Hello? Are you Ready???

While Lucy hung out at home, we held our first ever real WIFCaP (Walnut Iowa Feral Cat Program) meeting.   Cheryl, Pam and Kathy were so excited to have four people come to hear about our new program and give ideas and support to this new project.

This will be a great and fun way to give some of our younger residents the opportunity to gain some leadership skills and do something good for their community.  McKenna and Mariah are taking the responsibility of making posters and fundraiser cans for our downtown businesses!  We are eager to see their creativity.

We visited our cable company and have arranged to have some public access TV advertising to inform the public of what we are doing and how important it is for them to spay or neuter their own pets. Our cable station also makes videos of area activities and we dropped a major "hint" that we would like to be featured on one!

We have a volunteer to help drive cats to and from the vet!

We had a lady attend who volunteered the backyard of her house for a feeding station and she also donated a bucket of dry food!

We will be running a press release in next weeks newspaper.We will send copies to several area newspapers as well and hopefully get some additional "press".

We will contact Omaha Steaks to see if we can obtain more Styrofoam coolers for shelters. Hopefully, free.

We will begin looking for donations of food from places like Petco, Purina, etc. and begin researching grants.

We will be asking the city of Walnut to make a monetary donation for food and vet services.

We have four cats identified as needing to be the first four to take in.  There is "Big Daddy" (nuff said) who hangs out at Cheryl's shop and most likely has fathered many of our local ferals.  There is a gray mama cat who reportedly has five or so kittens living behind a vacant house just off main street.  There is a tabby/white male that loves to fight with my cats and then there is a black that shows up at my house around 6pm every night on his "rounds"..


Our fund right now has $53.00 in it...

Honestly, to be blunt, our need right now is money or food donations.  We must buy food and have enough on hand to continue feeding.  If we start, we must continue.  Cats love routine and once they know they will be fed, they will be watching each day for us to come.

So MUCH was accomplished today and we are happy.  "One step at a time" keeps echoing in our heads, and we are fighting the feeling of being overwhelmed.  There is much to do, but passion and our love for these furbabies will win over any fear we have.  

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Now There Are TWO more!

This is Be-Bop! I think anyway....I believe this kitty belonged to a family in Walnut, who decided to move and leave their cat to fend for himself. He is a nice kitty. A bit shy right now, but he needs a home. He also needs to be altered. :(

This is the kitty that rode 60 miles on the undercarriage of a pick up truck. From Corning all the way to Walnut! She has found a new home in Omaha with my nephew and her name...PIXIE!

This is Boo. He has hung around my house since he was a kitten. He is feral and Im worried that he might be sick. He is very thin. Eating and sleeping. Coat doesnt look real good. I heard him coughing this morning. I hope it was a hairball but...I think I need to trap him and take him in. Breaks my heart, he's been around nearly two years.

This is the sweet little black cat that strayed up to my porch. One of the feral gene pool, but very friendly! Took him in for altering and happily found a home for him. His name EDWYN!

There is a little gray stray hanging out at Kelly Reed's shop. They asked if I knew of a home for her. I dont. :( She needs fixing.

Cheryl's stray Tara has brought her two little babies to the feeding spot in the courtyard. We've lovingly named them Rhett and Scarlett.

I going to the City Council Meeting tonight to ask permission to put money cans in the downtown businesses for donations to get these babies all fixed and maybe find homes for them.

Take Pity on the Kitties is on a roll!

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I Miss Tekoe!

My Visit to Florida was so much fun.  I sent my buddy Tekoe a catnip mouse and by the looks of these pics, she loved it!

A Little Did you know about Cats"

If Cats had their own way, they would eat small portions of food throughout the day, just as their ancestors did, but most will settle for two good meals a day with dry food set out for "grazing".  If your cat eats mostly canned food, it is advisable to to add a dry, crunch food to his diet for chewing excercise and teeth-cleaning benefits.  I feed my kitties "wet" food in the morning and again in late afternoon.  I also keep a dish of high quality dry cat food available during the day.  This way, if I leave for a day or so, they just eat the dry and I dont need to worry about them.  MEOW!

Visions of What Could Be!

Lucy and Ricky watch my baby Boo eating his food from the outside dish.  Boo has been sleeping on the front porch and makes daily appearances to eat.  What must be going on in the heads of my kitties? Ricky for sure is wishing he could get out there with Boo.  He has escaped out the front door 3 times in the last few days.  He has cabin fever in a major way.  I put him out on the balcony yesterday for an hour or more and that seemed to help, but he sure wishes he was an outdoor cat.  Maybe they are wondering what it would be like to live outside.  One thing is for sure they would rather have Boo's food.  I feed them all natural, expensive stuff that is good for them, and just like humans, they would rather have the junk food!

A Little Did Ya Know About Cats

According to an analysis by Veterinary Pet Insurance of 450,000 clients, MAX has been the most popular name for cats and dogs over the past five years.  A spokesperson for the company speculated that not only is it an easy name to say, but it cant be confused with ordinary one word commands.  The next four favorites on the list: Chloe, Lucy (yeehaw!) Tigger and Tiger.

MEOW!

Catnip Toys and Inquiring Letters!

Attack with a vengance!

What do you mean it isnt "done" ?

Free with $10/$15  donation to Take Pitty on the Kitties!

Ok, this little catnip toy isnt done, but as you can see, Ricky cant leave it alone already.  I had several other pics, but the cats were a blurrrrrrr of movement trying to play with this already.  I think it will be popular!  It is made of recyled wool, some embroidery and filled with fabric scraps and catnip from my own garden!  Even cat toys 'Go Green' !

My idea is to offer one to anyone in the US who donates at least $10.00 (includes shipping).  If you are out of the US..minimum donation is $15.  Every one will be a little different and I have an idea to make "heads"....cats always leave the heads for last.  Watch for more pics.

Help us help our out door friends.

Our weather has been really cold, sub zero and I worry so much about the kitties I see outside.  Its really hard to find a place in the snow and cold to put the live trap, where they will go to it and where I can moniter it.  With wind chills at 40 below, Im having a hard time getting what I want to do done.  

So for now, I am just feeding them.  I purchased two big bags of food, one from Aldi.  As the cashier was lifting it to skan it, the bottom broke open and cat food splayed everywhere.  Of course I bought a different bag....BUT I asked the manager if I could purchase the broken bag for a lesser cost and she said NO.  The company will not allow broken pet food to be sold or given away.  I explained our project to no avail....the same thing happened at Target and Petco.  Now, that seems totally stupid to me.  They will throw away good food that could go to a good use.  Dumb!  I will be writing inquiring letters to these companies and more.

A Little Did Ya Know About Cats!

We all know the appeal of catnip to our feline family members!  Catnip is a perennial herb belonging to the mint family.  Catnip contains a naturally occurring compound found in fragrant plants and essential oils.  It is neither toxic or addictive, and its greatest effect is on cats of reproductive age, rather than the very young or the very old.  Catnip is easy to grow, but be careful, it can be quite invasive!  MEOW!