Month: August, 2011

Shadow | Furkid of the Week

Look at this handsome guy.

Shadow is a little over a year old and is a beautiful, friendly kitty who loves to play with other kitties.  He’s having fun at Furkids wrestling with his buddies but would love to go home with someone who has another playful kitty.  He’ll bring you hours of entertainment and love!

As is often the case with some of our animals, there is not much information in Shadow’s file about his background.  We hope that some of our volunteers will comment here if they have any more insight about his personality.

Shadow is cat number 11118.  Please consider making an appointment to come by the shelter to meet him.  Or apply to adopt him today!

2012 Cat Calendar Contest | Results

Furkids recently ran a contest for our 2012 calendar and invited entrants to submit a photo of their rescued/adopted cat and share the story of why they deserved to be in the calendar. We received over 40 wonderful entries! We only wish there were that many months in the year so we could feature them all!

It was a very challenging decision for the committee, but we are pleased to share the 13 finalists.

Over the next few months, our fantastic volunteer professional photographers, Jacob Fu and Esther Julee, of Julee Photography, will hold photo sessions with the finalists and will produce our beautiful 2012 Furkids Cat Calendar! Stay tuned for information on how to pre-order your calendars. If you pre-order, you get to vote for the cat that you would like to see on the cover!

Here now, are the finalists that will grace the 13-months and cover of the 2012 calendar. Get ready for your close-ups, kitties!
(Click on the image to move through the slideshow, and be sure to scroll down as this blog post continues below).

We have also put together a pictorial of all of the entrants so we could share with you these beautiful and special felines. We have selected six Honorable Mentions to be featured in our upcoming newsletters.

Saving Sight: How You Can Help

A police officer friend, responding to a recent call, found a stray mother cat and her five sickly kittens. Given the grave condition of their eyes, he reached out to Furkids for help. We responded immediately and went to rescue the family.

The mom, Belle Star, was malnourished but trying desperately to feed her kittens. I can honestly say that I have never encountered the severity of sickness that afflicted these kittens. The photos of their condition upon intake are too grotesque to share. We all were overcome with grief at their condition, including our veterinarian, and especially for one kitten that did not survive. We all wished we had learned of this family sooner so that we could have spared them such suffering and we vowed to do everything we could to not only save them, but save their eyesight, too.

After examination and treatment orders were received, we quickly placed the family with our experienced volunteer, Lisa. She has worked diligently to keep up with the demanding medical regimen implemented by ophthalmologist, Dr. Winston. Regardless of everyone’s best efforts, Billy the Kid and Jesse James will each lose one eye. Fortunately, they have perfect sight in their good eyes.

josey wales	jesse james	calamity jane	billy the kid

We continue to keep up with their medical regimen while we wait another month until they are old enough for their surgeries. Their other siblings, Josey Wales and Calamity Jane, will not lose an eye although they each will have cloudy vision in one. Other than the loss of an eye for two of the kittens, these are all healthy and happy kittens and they need a good home.

Right around the same time, another kitten with a horrible eye infection was found by a postal carrier during her daily route. She brought the kitten to Furkids and we named him Radar. We are grateful that Lisa agreed to foster him as well. Like the other kittens, Radar has no vision in one eye and very little sight in the other. He has an ulcer on his eye that we are aggressively treating with four different medications and weekly examinations with our specialist. It is possible Radar will go totally blind, but we hold out hope for him that the treatment will work.

The weekly doctor visits and medications for six kittens have been costly to our organization. We are grateful to have been able to help these kittens in need and we hope you agree and will provide support to help offset the great expense of their care and future surgeries.

Please help us raise $2000 using the chipin widget below.  Thank you for your support that allows us to provide the help needed in these challenging situations.

An Adoption Story | Shep

We love to hear about how our furkids are doing after they get adopted into their forever homes.  One of our cats, Shep, was a regular “greeter” to everyone at the main shelter.  Since he was in the front suite of rooms (Rooms 1, 2, and 3), he would scratch at the glass doors demanding attention from everyone who came into the lobby.  Shep had been adopted once for a short while but was returned.  There have been a lot of Shep fans at the shelter.  We were all rooting for him to find his forever home.  Well, he found it!  His wonderful adopter, Jason, sends this recent update on his bonding adventures with Shep:

Shep is doing great!  He has adapted very well to his new home and lifestyle.  He has got to be the sweetest cat ever.  When I come home from work he greets me with kitty flavored kisses, lol.  He’s a licker, but it’s cute.  He follows me around from room to room always trying to put his paws up on my shoulder, then gets cozy with me everywhere I sit. 

He’s a very smart cat.  He started to claw on the couch and I politely told him no, brought the cat scratcher in the room, and told him “this is where you scratch” and he did and has not scratched the couch any more…he is awesome.

He goes wild over the laser pointer.  It’s his favorite toy.  He even realizes that it’s coming from my hand and knows it’s playtime when he hears the click from the button being pressed. Feathers are his next favorite.  I brought home one of those sticks with feathers at the end and he just went crazy over it — tore half the feathers off in just a few minutes, leaving remnants to be cleaned off his claws.

He also enjoys waking me up in the morning right before my alarm goes off by laying right on my chest and licking my face, and if I am sleeping on my stomach he gets on my back to make biscuits until I awake. It’s a good thing I have a thick blanket.

I am so happy to have him as a part of my family.  Thanks Furkids for bringing happiness into my life and everything you all do for these animals and the people that adopt them!

 - Jason

Thank YOU, Jason!  We are always happy to see our cats off to good homes and into the hands of great adopters like you.

If you would like to read more nice adoption stories, see our web page, Happy Beginnings.  If you have adopted one of our cats and would like to share your adoption story please send it to info@furkids.org.  Include pictures and we’ll put the story and pictures up on the website for everyone to see!

Furkid of the Week – Zenyetta

This week’s “cat of the week” is a DOG!  Yes, Furkids also has dogs available for adoption.  Meet Zenyetta.  She is a young, energetic, sweet, playful, smart Shepherd mix with a beautiful brindle coat — and she is in desperate need of either a FOSTER FAMILY or a forever home.  A Furkid volunteer found her in her front yard one day with a broken leg.  Our veterinarian set her leg in a cast and she is much better now.  Zenyetta is house trained and learning commands.  She absolutely loves attention and will reward you with lots of dog kisses.

If you are an experienced dog foster family, please consider taking Zenyetta into your home until she finds her forever family.  She needs space to run and play.  She also will benefit from bonding more closely with people.  She is about 6-8 months old.  You will want to be present when she is around children since she gets very excited during playtime. Furkids is prepared to pay for two weeks of hands-on training when we find a qualified foster home for her.  To apply to foster her, please complete our volunteer application.

If you would be interested in adopting Zenyetta, please complete our dog adoption application.

We are asking our Furkids network of friends to please get this message out to all your far-reaching dog-loving audiences.  We really want to find a place for Zenyetta to call her own — either a temporary foster home or a forever home.  Thank you!

For more information about Zenyetta or to make an appointment to meet her, please contact us.

Good People Doing Good Works for Furkids

As the saying goes, it takes a village to make something successful, and at Furkids it is no different. It takes many people – hundreds and thousands – to carry out our good work in and for the community.

We want to introduce you to some special friends who have helped our organization most uniquely. From a group of young boys organizing a lemonade stand, to a few good friends who threw a party with an incredible turnout, to a birthday boy who wanted to forego his birthday gifts to help our animals. These nice people are heroes in our book and we are very grateful to them for their generous spirit towards Furkids.

Meet Jack (left). Our young friend recently celebrated his birthday and asked friends to bring much needed supplies for the shelter instead of gifts for him. According to his mom, Holly, Jack “actually really enjoyed giving back to Furkids. At first he wasn’t crazy about the idea of foregoing birthday gifts but he was really happy to deliver the supplies and was impressed with his friends’ charity efforts as well. Everyone really thought it was a wonderful gesture and asked me all about Furkids. It made us feel proud to be able to help in that way.” It makes us very proud, too! Thank you, Jack. Happy Birthday!

We are also very proud of and impressed with three young brothers Jake, Ben, and Drew (right) who delivered to our shelter the money they raised selling 220 cups of lemonade to their neighbors and friends one hot afternoon! Their parents must be very happy to have raised three thoughtful and special boys!

And how about the recent story of our adopter and friend, Dave, who together with his friends reached out to us with their idea to host a cocktail party to benefit Furkids. As the Furkids director and founder, I was invited to attend and speak. Nothing could have prepared me for this incredible audience of 100 animal-loving friends! I was blown away by the thought and effort that went into this awesome party! I received such a warm welcome and there was a great turnout! The hosts worked hard on securing amazing silent auction items and donations of food and beverages. The evening even had its own name, Cocktails and Cat Tales – with a specially made logo printed on beverage napkins and coasters! Guests were asked to make a donation of $20 or more for Furkids. What an incredible night! These friends raised over $3,000 for Furkids! We are so grateful to Dave and his co-hosts for this amazing effort!  Pictured below from left to right are the party hosts and me:  Ron, Jeremy, Dave, Steve, Christian, Samantha (me), and Justin.  One party host, Jack, is not pictured.

These are amazing examples of what a generous spirit and willingness to help animals can do! We appreciate these wonderful friends so much.

Buffy | Furkid of the Week

Bonnie Ford was a Furkids supporter and avid friend to cats.  Sadly, Ms. Ford passed away in May of 2011.  The cats under her care came to Furkids and are looking for new homes.  Buffy is one of the cats in that special group.

Buffy is a quiet cat and not one to immediately draw your attention.  Instead, she will perch herself on a cat tree and stare at you until you notice her.  Once you do, you may just be hooked.  When held, Buffy likes to drape her front paws over your shoulder…and stay there!

She has had some dental issues and several of her teeth have been extracted.  This causes her to drool a little bit.  She is very well accustomed to being around other cats and would do well in a multi-cat home.  Please help Buffy (and her mates!) move forward by considering her for adoption and giving her a new home.

Buffy is cat #11219.  Click here to apply to adopt her.

Furkids & Community Partnerships

We recently featured our new partnership with Jewish Family & Career Services in our June 2011 newsletter.  We wanted to expand on how great it has been working with the group of volunteers from their Tools for Independence WORKS program — a division of JF&CS serving adults with developmental disabilities.

Pictured above left are Sammy-the-cat and Sandy.  Right: David and Todd in Room 1.

These great volunteers come in to the main shelter every Monday and Wednesday.  They clean in the mornings, go to lunch, then come back to socialize with the cats.  So they spend their entire day with us at the shelter twice a week.  That’s wonderful!  In addition to all those valuable hours, they also help at our Thrift Store on Tuesdays, where they help with sorting and staging the donated items that come in to the store.

We are very proud to partner with JF&CS and we are beyond honored that their WORKS participants have chosen Furkids as the place where they want to help.  Three cheers for them!  And a huge “thank you.”

Left: Lynn holding Flower.  Right: Hadrian-the-cat is never one to be denied some sweet attention.  Thank you to Shivani for indulging him!

Volunteers Save the Day!

We can’t say enough about our fantastic volunteer network — especially our youth volunteers.  Today, we had to put out an urgent call for help because our regular group of volunteers for Fridays was regretfully unavailable.  We were thrilled when some of our youth volunteers showed up and saved the day!

A bajillion thank yous to Liliana, Anthony, and Angel (pictured left with Picasso the cat) for volunteering not just on this day — but all summer long at Furkids.

Safiya and James, both Creekside High School rising seniors, also joined us today.  They are both in the marching band.  Safiya is on the featured twirlers & dance team and James is on the drum line.  James also plays football.  Safiya wants to be a vet, and since today is surgery day at the shelter, she got a chance to see our resident veterinarian, Dr. Gordon, in action!  Though they are big fans of Morehouse College, they traded in their academic t-shirts for some Furkids attire at the end of the day.  Thank you, Safiya and James!

And it doesn’t end there.  The place was hopping today!  Prisca is going to be in the 10th grade at Give Center West.  Here she is (pictured at right) during Friday Fun Fest at Furkids with her favorite feline Tigger — who resides in Room 5.  Prisca has also been volunteering with Furkids all summer.

Youth volunteer Liam (6th grade, pictured below left) brought his cousins Isabelle (4th grade) and Bridget (7th grade) all they way from Philadelphia, PA, to help us today as well.  Bridget actually has allergies, but takes allergy meds and has never had a problem being

around cats.  In fact, she volunteers at a cat shelter outside Philadelphia called the Kitty Cottage.  This is their second trip to Furkids this summer.  We are so happy to have them with us.

Finally, here are sisters Grace and Helen (holding Trix and Belinda).  They have graciously decided to spend their last day of summer vacation with us.  We are so lucky.

It’s a great day at Furkids!