Big Birthdays for Small Seniors

Little Sara Lee   (MW)

It’s very often impossible to tell the age of a cat when it comes to us.  A vet will make an assessment based on a number of factors – size and shape, dental formation, eyes, activity – but for each factor, there may be counter-indications. With teeth, for instance, some cats suffer from stomatitis – an inflammation of the mouth that is often best dealt with by extracting most of the teeth – so missing teeth may not be a sign of age. 

Onyx   (MW)

We do have good assessments of the age of some of our cats, though, because they have spent most of their lives with us, and even a good approximation in the early days can help us mark some significant milestones with better accuracy.  So we’re pretty sure that both Sara Lee and Onyx have celebrated their 20th birthdays, and are chugging along just fine!

Onyx & her sister Topaz  (KN)

Onyx is one of the last of our “Donni cats”, coming to us from a hoarding situation many years ago. She and her “sister” Topaz were usually found together; neither was particularly comfortable with being handled, but they were OK being around people.  Their usual hangout was in the laundry room – preferably in the tiny room with the water-heater.  In finer weather they would emerge and sun themselves together in the courtyard.  Topaz crossed the Rainbow Bridge last year, but Onyx is still hanging in there. 

Onyx enjoying the sun, last fall   (KN)

The water-heater room is no longer accessible to her (too many pee incidents in bedding storage!), but despite her age, Onyx makes her way up the shelves to her favourite corner high up in the laundry room. Volunteers have to be careful about leaving a clear path for her – we don’t want her landing on a surface without secure footing, and falling – and she’s definitely a bit slower about getting up and down, but she’s very determined and makes the climb several times each day.

Hoping for a handout  (KN)

She’s not really a people-cat – but she does love people who bring soft treats (she’s one of the cats with minimal teeth), and when chicken is being offered her radar alerts her to join the begging crowd in the courtyard. She has no hesitation in standing up to the pushy felines – Pumpkin and Walker and Nyx can give shyer cats like Sylar a hard time, but Onyx stands her ground, and there’s nothing wrong with her chicken appetite!

In some lights, Sara Lee's eyes clearly show their different colours  (KN)

Sara Lee is another laundry-room girl, but unlike Onyx, she loves human attention. Her hearing is beginning to fail, and as it does, her voice gets louder, demanding that someone come pet her / feed her / turn on a tap... She doesn’t choose to climb to Onyx’s level, preferring to be within reach; her usual nesting place is on either the washer or the dryer, where warmth comforts and vibrations seem to soothe.

Contented smile  (LP)

Being on the drier also has the advantage of being by the sink at mealtimes. Catfood cans are soaked in hot water for ten minutes or so, to make the food softer and more palatable, and Sara Lee like to be where she can get the first taste of warm gravy. She does quality control for every single common plate, just to make sure she gets the best. 

Sara Lee sharing with Barbara (BC)

She trained little Barbara, before she was adopted out, and her usual sampling partner these days is big Cole – though it’s less a shared experience than of two single-minded cats ignoring one another. Sara Lee is quite social – she was a regular visitor to Spike and Princess’s cuddle-sessions, and she can often be found snuggled up with other buddies in the laundry room.

Sharing a bed with Cinnamon Bun Lincoln  (LBF)

Once the weather improves, and staff/volunteers are able to enjoy break-time sitting in the open air, Sara Lee will be one of the first to join them. She may be tiny and old, but she is an experienced and enthusiastic lap-sitter (though not a relaxed one – she stands in laps rather than sitting in them), and likes to navigate around the table to visit all her human friends.  If there is chicken on offer, so much the better!  The only thing that she doesn’t like about laps is that the humans will try to groom her, a process she doesn’t enjoy very much. One of the features of an aging cat is that often they will not groom themselves properly, and Sara Lee’s smoky fur (black on top and white underneath) is more matted than we like to see.

Love to the birthday girl  (LBF)

Just as we’ve recently been celebrating Betty White’s almost 100-year-old life, so we need to celebrate Onyx and Sara Lee’s 20 years – a significant achievement for a couple of cats who came to us from feral beginnings. We know that there are cats that live longer lives – just as there are humans who are still active in their 100s – and this pair couldn’t be in a better place to be medically tended and given love by many people.  Two tough and active little old ladies – here’s toasting you in Sara Lee’s favourite cat-gravy! - long life to you both! L’chaim!

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Lisa Brill-Friesen, Karen Nicholson, Lisa Parker, Michele Wright

Mango Tango

Look!  A big orange cat came right up to me.  He must be as nice as he looks!  

NOT!

Like other large or attractive cats, people often wonder why they’re here. If only their exterior appearance matched their personalities! 

Mango loves to befriend humans and bully cats.  His current routine is to greet newly arrived humans with a bold leg rub and at times… a leg trip.  With a club-shaped tail, large body, and being almost knee-high, he can easily tangle your feet.  Moving backwards or forwards, you’ll be doing the foxtrot when he chooses to weave between them.  Be glad you’re not carrying a tray of coffees or a pot of soup!

He likes petting and all food offers.  Like a loyal friend, he’ll keep following you around.  He has a growing curiosity of closed gates.  The cold doesn’t bother him at all.  He also like to sample all the food bowls in the courtyard.  

With his “friendliness” established, you’ll be playing right into his paws.  Nothing bad can happen, right?  If any other cats come by to say hello, Mango will swat them.  He also has a sneaky habit of inching closer to unsuspecting cats and smacking them or chasing them away.  These dirty tricks have quickly earned him a bad reputation.  Keeping it up and he’ll be dancing with himself in time out.

Mango threatening Salem

I find him to be an oversized, unruly kitten at times.  Wands and lasers catch his eye, but only hold his attention for a short time.  A rattle from a ball or another cat approaching suddenly becomes more interesting.  If he wants something, he might bite or grab with claws.  We have other cats like that, too.  It’s a behavior that most of them never leave behind.  We warn newcomers or leave a wide berth while walking by.

This boy does not know his own strength.  If a small kitten pounced on feet or gnawed on hands, it could be ignored.  When a 15 pound fellow like him does it, it hurts.  Littermates can bite them back in return or walk away to establish boundaries.  All we humans can do is shout “no!” and walk away.  Of course, there’s the odd human who insists on carrying on a conversation and still treating them.  In Mango’s mind, it means biting = treats.  “I must bite the hand that feeds!”

Sunning the belly...

While caged, he appeared calm and lazy.  For a 1 year old, he’s huge!  After a couple minutes of interaction, the claws and teeth would come out.  He didn’t display much warning.  It was his way of communicating “enough” or “go away”. His size made it tough to maneuver around.  The only choices were to sit or leave.  Mango would either lay in the tree or snack on his kibble.  If he was angry or defensive, he would make some effort to chase you out.

Biting and clawing are learned behaviors - just like so many other surrendered for aggression cats have here.  Sadly, Mango also seems to lack feline social skills.  Instead of a stare down or swishing tail warning, he will outright hit other cats.  He 100% has a home here, but I can’t say how many friends he has.  If you choose to tango with him, know that he likes human company and loves food even more.  Obviously, don’t wear your best dress or any knitted sweaters, ‘less you don’t mind having distressed threads and an untrendy ugly sweater afterward. 

Blog and photos by Pauline Chin

(thanks, Pauline!)

Big Chances for Two Big Boys

Nishka   (LBF)

It’s been a custom to end the old year and begin the new one with a Neko-RAPS retrospective focused on those cats who have passed – but I just can’t do it this year. We lost a number of well-loved characters in February and March and I paid tribute to them at that time; and then we marked a Rainbow Bridge day in August and shared more sad memories.
No – this needs to be new hopes for the New Year, and a focus on a couple of the cats who are getting a new lease on life with us.  

Little John  (MW)

Most of the cats that come to us, come because someone has given up on them. They’ve been deemed unadoptable for some reason – they’re feral, or they’re pee-ers, or aggressive...  And here, they discover that they can just be what they want to be; they can stay distant or allow human touch, they can live inside or outside, they can be a loner or cuddle up with a whole bunch of other cats.

Enjoying attention   (JS)

In the fall we welcomed a big Siamese mix from Kamloops – and I mean Big!  This guy is a good 20lbs of solidness – not obese, just large. His owners had given him the quirky name of Little John (for those that don’t know, this was Robin Hood’s big sidekick) but I’m also hearing people refer to him just as LJ. Sadly, he’s a biter, and apparently always has been – and it’s not just love nips; this guy bites down, and we don’t know what sets him off. It’s probably something that over-stimulates him.  

"helping" with the cleaning   (KN)

We saw this with Benji and Mango (next week's blog) too – when caged, everything was intensified for them, and a visitor preparing to leave the cage was particularly at risk. In this situation, it’s perfectly acceptable for a volunteer to ask a staff member to deal with a cage;  many of our volunteers are experienced cat-people, but for those that aren’t, we don’t want to make them feel at any sort of risk.   Cages of newly-arrived cats are often initially marked for med-staff attention only. Little John liked to have visitors – especially Assistant Manager Valerie, who already knew him well – but even she came in for the teeth treatment occasionally.  

Out and about in the gardens  (KN)

In a regular shelter, this would not be a good situation; he’s too big a cat to keep caged the rest of his life;  he couldn’t be offered for adoption because of the biting; he would probably be put down.  But with us, once he was past his initial cage-stay, Little John was given the freedom of the back courtyard, and visibly relaxed.  If we are ever allowed to have visitors again, he will probably be one of the cats that has to wear a warning-collar, but for now he is happy to wander, to investigate every open pen and to interact minimally with other cats. We’ve not seen signs of aggression with them, but he’s so imposing that not even Jasper and Gizmo (our usual troublemakers) are getting in his way.

Big paws mean big claws....   (KN)

He can’t be offered for adoption, but that’s not to say that he might never find a home – many of our staff and volunteers are suckers for a cat with personality like LJ, and though he’s not part of the cat-crowd, we know that he tolerates them, and that he lived with and loved a dog-friend.

You may admire me....   (MW)

Our other Big Boy has just come to us. Nishka is a pure-bred Maine Coon cat who was kept by his breeder for stud services.  At the age of 3 he was retired because of stomatitis - they didn't want to risk that in the bloodline - and most of his teeth have been removed.   Maine Coons often have an “angry” face (I have a friend with a T-shirt that says “I’m not angry; this is just my Scottish face”) and Nishka has a formidable presence that was interpreted as aggressive – hence the surrender to RAPS. We are delighted to welcome him.

Interested in conversation   (BC)

Obviously, he is not entirely happy about being here, and about being caged. But he has quickly realized that he can have a rotating stream of volunteers coming to visit him, and has accepted some lap-sitting and gentle petting. Sadly, he doesn’t much like being groomed, which he badly needs!  He lives up to the Maine Coon nickname of “gentle giant”, and can occasionally be heard talking to himself in that characteristic chirpy voice. We’re looking forward to having him out of the cage and interacting with the SingleWide population. Because he was surrendered for aggression, he will not be going to the Adoption Centre, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t find a home with a volunteer or staff member.

Sometimes I sits and thinks....  (BC)

Both Big Boys have another chance for a good life in 2022. A very Happy New Year indeed!

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Lisa Brill-Friesen, Brigid Coult,

Karen Nicholson, Justin Saint, Michele Wright

Winter Kitties

 

Cornelius & Gemini enjoying snow and sunshine (LBF)

Ten days of snow in the Lower Mainland is pretty unusual; most of us need to head to the mountains to get the white stuff. So when it happens, everyone is taken by surprise - cats included!

Leo seems to love being outside  (KN)

Most humans and cats tend to fall into one of two categories; we turn our backs on what's going on outside and cosy up for the duration, or we get outside and enjoy winter sports.

The Pen 6 cats would rather stay in a warm floofy pile  (LBF)

This happened during the holiday, when we had volunteers missing, and covering the extra shifts was complicated by the need to dig out paths to access the various buildings.

Sunshine on (piles of) snow.  (BC)

The majority of cats seem to prefer their comfort, and stayed safely in their buildings. There was, after all, no point in putting plates of food in their usual places outside; frozen catfood is not appealing to anyone. 

Chai is much more an indoor kitty than she used to be;
she stays carefully in the shoveled areas (KN)

In the front courtyard there was some serious hibernation, with only occasional visits outside to investigate the conditions. 

Autumn loves the snow, and her thick coat keeps her cosy  (MW)

But there are always a few intrepid explorers.

Kenji is another floof with no fear of the cold   (LBF)

Something under the snow attracts Figaro's attention  (KN)

The pen 3 cats are from Alberta.  They probably have no actual experience of an Alberta winter, having come from a hoarding situation, but they have been eager to get out and investigate.

Cornelius leads the way (LBF)

but encourages the others to join him!  (KN)

The pen 6 cats are from Kamloops and have undoubtedly survived winter cold. Their thick fur is good protection, and though they'd rather cuddle up and stay warm, some of them are willing to brave the cold to get a bit of fresh air.

Cheeto  (LBF)

For some reason, the tree is especially attractive in this weather, and there have been several little black climbers surveying the Sanctuary from above.

Jackie O is the chilly queen of all she surveys  (KN)

Not everyone is happy, though.

Jasper's paws are cold!  (KN)

In the evening, they all return to their cabins, and leave it to the volunteers to tramp through the snow to deliver dinner.

Sanctuary at night (JS)

It's beautiful - but it never lasts long.  And nobody - cats or humans - enjoys the rain that inevitably washes it all away. 

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Lisa Brill-Friesen, Brigid Coult, 

Karen Nicholson, Justin Saint, Michele Wright