Fostering with RAPS

New to the scary but safe world of RAPS   (LBF)

Visitors who arrive at the weekend for an hour with the cats are frequently blown away with the concept of 400 felines in one place – though they also have to come to terms with the fact that many of those cats are feral and will hide any time there are strangers around.  What the majority of the visitors will not see is that the Sanctuary cats are the visible portion of a much larger organization.

Good momma with babies   (LBF)

The Adoption Centre is the first building you encounter as you come up the lane to the Sanctuary. Access is limited, and it’s best to call and make an appointment, though weekend visitors can get access as long as it’s not too crowded. The inhabitants change – at some times of the year the kitten room is full of fuzzy adventurers, each one cuter than the last. When older cats are surrendered they are usually kept in a quieter area – able to roam if they’re sociable. What the general public is not aware of is the dedicated team of foster-parents who work in the background.

So scared - but it will get better!  (LBF)

Most of the kittens who come in are escaping a life that, without us, would probably be very short. When we are made aware of a feral colony, or a situation in which there are pregnant females, Ken and Lisa spring into action. This is not a “set a trap and see what you catch” situation. Being trapped is stressful for cats, and responsible rescuers remain on hand to cover the traps and transfer the trapped animals as soon as possible. When kittens are concerned, drop traps are usually the best way to go, manually triggered to get the maximum number of kittens (and their mom) simultaneously. But it’s not always about trapping; Ken and Lisa have lifted kittens out of machinery, from holes in walls, and from between floorboards.

Ken & Lisa rescuing kittens

And kittens living in those sort of situations are not always healthy kittens – so for many of them, the first trip is to the hospital for the treatment of flea infestations, eye infections and the like. Once their health is stabilized, they can go to foster-care, where they will get fed, weighed, and socialized; their first visit to RAPS may be at around 8-10 weeks for their first vaccines.  If they were caught with their mothers, they may be kept together, but it will depend on how feral mama is;  if she hates us all (and some do!) she will make it very difficult to socialize the kittens, and they may need to be separated from her. It’s a delicate balancing act; they will get best immunity if they are still nursing from her, but she may teach them that humans cannot be trusted.

Thyme, Sage, Rosemary & Mint have been
bottle-fed since day 2; now 4 weeks old  (KDG)

Kati is the foster-mother who most frequently gets the pregnant moms, oversees the birth of kittens (occasionally rushing them in for emergency care) and sheds blood in extracting kittens from protective mama-cats in order to assess and weigh them regularly. Many of the female cats at the Sanctuary have been feral moms who have had to be separated from their kittens; Carly and Celine, Harbour and Vonda, and many others have had kittens who have settled happily in their own homes, while their moms have taken much longer to accept humans.

The young Dr Flint in fosterage, wary and suspicious;
you may look at me, but not touch!   (KC)

Older kittens will sometimes go into fosterage, to get some more concentrated handling. It’s a truism that kittens can be tamed if you can do so early enough; 8-10 weeks usually sees the ones who come in very young as being comfortable with humans by the time they are in the kitten room. The older they come to us, the more likely it will be that they need extra fosterage time. Dr Flint came into our care when he was c.6 months old and went into foster with Kate, who is one of the Kitty Comforters. She gave him his own room (away from her own cat) and spent a lot of time with him, coaxing him to eat from her hand, and to play with wand toys. He was a typical rebellious teenager, and resisted all the way. It was decided that he was not currently adoptable, and came to the Sanctuary where he vanished in the back pens.  Every time Kate visited, she looked for him, offering him tidbits – but he mostly stayed out of the way.  Then gradually he began to be spotted nearer the Tea-Room, looking for treats, and starting to accept touch. Volunteer Marty accepted the challenge at that point, and now Dr Flint has become Dr Flirt, looking for petting, allowing himself to be handled not only by Kate but by others.

All grown up;  perhaps not really tame,
but ready for contact  (BC)

What do you need, in order to offer foster-care? Especially if you already have a cat, you need a separate room – spare bedroom, office, second bathroom – where you can set up litter-box and bedding. You need to be able to sit with them and interact as needed – perhaps hand-feeding or offering treats, perhaps playing with wand-toys and teaching them that fingers are not for biting, perhaps just sitting and reading aloud so they have the sound of a voice. If you take younger kittens, you need space for a cage, so that they are only out when supervised. You monitor how much they’re eating, how their weight goes, what their bathroom habits are, and you stay in touch with the Adoption Centre. You can get supplies from there and you bring them in as needed for vaccinations. Fostering kittens is finite, which is why it appeals to some people – you get an intense dose of kitten cuteness for a few months, and then you’re done. If you already have a cat and are looking for another one, short-term fostering may tell you how well the resident cat will accept an invader – supervised and limited introductions may lead to acceptance, or tell you that your cat prefers to remain an “only”.

Now caged for a specific diet, Atari longs to get
loving attention from someone  (AM)

Kittens are not the only ones in need of fosterage, and much the same conditions apply with other cats. It may be an older cat (like Chloe in the SingleWide) who is not doing well among all the other Sanctuary cats, and really needs their own space. It may be a cat (like sweet Atari or spicy Thor) who needs to be on a limited diet because of allergens or gastric problems. My own boy, McCormick, is obviously reactive to something in spring, because he scratches himself silly unless I’m careful about keeping doors and windows closed; he came to me first as a foster. If the cat needs a limited diet, the fosterer can get supplies from RAPS, and all medical care is through the Hospital. Some of our fosters take the end-of-life cats for comfort-care; others love the young ones but feel themselves too old to take on a 15-20 year commitment; an older cat or a short-term younger one may meet everyone’s needs, including the cat's

.

For more information about fostering, check the website or call 604-275-2036 and talk with one of the staff about all that’s involved.

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Lisa Brill-Friesen, Kate Clark,
Brigid Coult, Kati DeGraaf, Anne Marchetti

Black Cats in the Front Courtyard

Allen (KN)

Black Cat Syndrome is indeed a thing!  It takes concentration to recognize the details behind all the black fur, and when that black fur is wary and hiding, it can be hard to distinguish one black cat from another. We have a lot of black cats in the Front Courtyard of the Sanctuary, and learning who’s who is largely a process of elimination. I have to confess that I am still not good with some of the shy ones who don’t interact enough to make personality a good factor.

Reefer  (KN)

Allen is currently the largest of the black cats; having lost his buddy Kenji earlier this year, he has become more social with a whole lot of the others. He has also become braver with people, allowing petting and hand-feeding in a way that he rarely did when Kenji was alive to step up and run interference. Reefer is stockier, and is not so much black as very dark chocolate – a colour that intensifies during the summer months. Both boys are dedicated members of the chicken treats crowd. Reefer and his friend Figaro are the last of a group that came to us in 2017 from a closing shelter on the Sunshine Coast.

Bowie's tail identifies him immediately (KN)

A few of the cats are easily identified visually, though they’re wary of close contact with us. PennyLoaf, with one eye, is usually found on a shelf in the Old Rabbit Area, hiding behind a drape; occasionally she will venture into the Hill House, but will scurry back through the window if she feels insecure.  Bowie, who’s a bob-tail, is mostly spotted on the run; he hides out with his friends Janis Joplin, Joan and stumpy-tailed Jett, and all four of them want nothing to do with us! 

Caleb gets kisses from Wasabi  (BC)

Wasabi, who’s one of the three tripods in the front courtyard, is easily identified; he is out and around more frequently because he is devoted to handsome tuxie Caleb, and follows him around, nudging and grooming his buddy,

Nyla guarding "her" cage  (LBF)

There are many more less-distinguishable black cats.  Three of them are collared; Luka, who I blogged last year, mostly hangs around the sink and generally avoids other cats; the other two originally based themselves in the Connor building, but can now be found everywhere. These are the ones I’d started with when I planned this blog.  They are practically identical, and their collars are what everyone looks for. The older of the two is red-collared Nyla – also known as "the Annihilator". She came to us in 2023, and is more than 10 years old. She’s one of the cats who laid claim to the cage where she was first placed, and when it was opened, she refused to move.  She was very reactive for some time; not just cage aggression, but a believer in attack being the best form of defense. Her red collar is somewhat frayed and tatty, but she is not easy to handle, and nobody’s in a rush to replace it! In three years of living with us she has mellowed somewhat – meaning she no longer rushes to lunge at unwary visitors, But she’s no cuddly kitty, either, and volunteers have learned to treat her with respect

Harbour is working at being a lap-cat  (KN)

Harbour is almost exactly Nyla’s twin but a good bit younger, and she sports an orange collar. She came in last summer, having apparently been found as a stray at a dumpster with three teens and another female, but the Adoption Centre folks said that their fur smelt like someone had been smoking with them in the house...  The other young female, Pier, and the teen kittens, Bay, Cove and Shore were all adopted.  We think Harbour was the mom of the last three. There were a couple instances of her getting overstimulated and bite-y while at the AC – cages are smaller than at the Sanctuary, and it can be stressful for cats – so she was transferred to us.

Harbour has learned to mooch for tidbits  (BC)

There were one or two reports of reactivity, but since coming out of her cage she has settled well, and is willing to come for petting, treats and lap-time. The collar is now less of a warning, and more of identification.   Now that she’s settled, we’ll need to consider whether she's adoptable. If we could find the right cat-experienced family that were willing to put in the work and learn her boundaries, she’d probably do well in a home. 

There are still many other black cats around in the Front Courtyard: Jenny, Norah, spicy Emily, sweet Spooky, curly-tailed Benny – and that’s without taking into account all the nearly-black ones with small white markings: TicTac, Daiqiri, Alyssa, Cuddles....   Probably time for another blog!

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Lisa Brill-Friesen, Brigid Coult, Karen Nicholson

Little Grey Ghost

Dahlia (BH)

Visitors to the New Aids pen are usually accosted at the gate by the shameless scroungers: Domino, Mr Binx, Cypress (and slightly less assertively) Wyndham.  Angus, Obelix and Boomer are rarely far away. Among our FIV+ population, it becomes pretty obvious that it’s male-dominated – in fact, there are only two females in the pen at the moment:  calico Amaretto, and grey Dahlia.

You may touch my paw ONCE only  (KN)

That makes sense when you remember that the virus is passed in the context of a deep bite, and that it is usually the unneutered males, both feral and stray, who will fight with each other over territory, or food, or mates. Once trapped and neutered, the lack of testosterone dulls the urge to do battle, and the occasional scuffle is rarely a real fight.  A female will sometimes acquire the virus in the course of mating, if the act involves biting, and an FIV+ female can pass the virus on to her kittens in utero. We don’t know how either of our girls was infected, but with care, they will live lives as long and healthy as any uninfected cat.

Dahlia likes to perch on the steps  (BC)

Many of our FIV+ cats have come to us through other shelters; Amaretto is one of many from the central area of Vancouver Island. Dahlia is local; she was found wandering in the area near the former RAPS Shelter (now SPCA) on No 5 Rd.  The person who found her wanted to keep her but she was becoming too fractious for them to take care of (not surprising, knowing our Dahlia!); they took her to the vet for checking, discovered she was FIV+, and surrendered her to the shelter, from which she was transferred to the Sanctuary. This was in the fall of 2020. In early December of that year, she did a jail-break, but remained hanging around the parking lot and was finally coaxed into a trap with a tasty plate of chicken.

She prefers to be at eye-level to greet you  (MW)

Most of the male cats in New Aids are solid, blocky boys; they build up jowls and muscle as they grow up unneutered, and they maintain their build.  Dahlia looks very unlike them, slim and long-haired, she is not usually a fan of people. She likes her comforts, and can usually be found in the main cabin rather than outside; her preference is to hide behind a drape in the top cage, and currently she is a little miffed that it’s occupied by a newcomer, and she has to find an alternative bed.  New volunteers are often warned about approaching her; you can frequently get two pets in, and then she’s had enough and lets you know it.

Favourite resting place in the top cage  (HM)

However, Marty tells me that this week she allowed herself to be petted by a visitor, and loved the attention – when they left, she had an attack of the zoomies, and sprinted outside and then back in. Who knows what attracted her to them?  But like all cats, she can take you by surprise. Awhile ago, a volunteer arrived for a New Aids shift just in time to get a phone call telling of the death of a family member.  We sorted out how to cover her shift, and she decided she needed to take time with the cats before rushing home. Sitting on the ottoman in tears, she was surprised and touched  that the cat who approached and sat with her quietly was Dahlia – not usually any sort of a lap-cat, she obviously understood distress and offered quiet comfort.

Dahlia (KN)

She’ll likely never join the social crowd at the gate; she’s not a welcomer, and her tolerance for people usually has its limits.  Mostly she prefers to remain hidden, and dislikes being disturbed. But when she recognizes something in a human – perhaps the magic hands, or the sadness – she will emerge and make her presence felt.

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Brigid Coult, Brielle Hutchison, Henrie Morgan, Karen Nicholson, Michele Wright