Be Good While I’m Gone

Elvis - up close and personal   (KN)

I’ve volunteered at the Sanctuary for more than thirteen years now, and being with the cats has been a big part of my life. Not only is the place Sanctuary for the cats, but it is also Sanctuary for many of the volunteers, staff and visitors who enter the gates. I’ve been blessed by loving much about my work life, but cat-time – even when it involves scooping poop and cleaning up cat-barf – is something else, and I have encountered many loves there.  So the prospect of being away from them for more than a month is hard to contemplate – even though I’m very excited by the prospect of a holiday.

The regal and demanding Cole  (KN)

I often arrive with a baggie of chicken tidbits, and there is a certain amount of cupboard love involved. But whatever the motivation, it’s hard not to be touched when you arrive and your voice is recognized; when cats start gathering and vocalizing.  Probably my favourite thing is to enter the back courtyard – to have black Cole asking to be picked up, and tabby Celeste looking for petting. Before I get around the corner Pumpkin is hurrying down the stairs from Newcomers, and Midnight is emerging from his hiding place and anxiously calling me.

Midnight (BC) - still wary,
but increasingly comfortable with petting

Midnight’s very much a work in progress right now – he’s gone from being a touch-me-not feral to gently accepting food from my fingers, and ducking his head to solicit head scratches and full-body petting. He enjoys being groomed, but is easily spooked by the presence of other humans, and warned off by other cats. He is more vocal than many of the cats – and has been known to paw for attention when I have another cat on my lap.  I seem to be the only person with whom he allows this degree of contact, and I really hope that while I’m away, he will allow someone else to give him the pets that he craves. 

Sylar, asking if there's any more chicken,,,,   (BC)

Midnight can often be found with his grey buddy Sylar, who is officially my sponsor cat – Sylar will also accept food from the hand, but you need to watch your fingers; in his anxiety, he will not always aim well, and nipped fingers are a regular occurrence. Sylar does not allow contact that does not involve food – he is definitely a chickaholic. He will (reluctantly) allow petting when caged, and his body enjoys it, but his brain doesn’t – I’m not sure I’ll ever get him to where Midnight is...

Leo loves attention - cuddles often, admiration always...  (BC)

Beautiful Leonardo diCatprio is a regular greeter when I arrive on Friday mornings, and is another who loves to be picked up and snuggled when it’s his idea. Karen is his person of choice, but he is happy to make do with me if she doesn’t arrive. He is one of those cats who drapes himself elegantly in his basket or on the courtyard table, and demands to be admired. Food is less the draw than a caressing hand for Leo.

The Elvis cuddlers - Vince, Daphne, Brigid

And I will SO miss my buddy Elvis, who follows me around on my Friday morning shift, doing quality control on all the bowls of dry food.  At break times, he likes to take a flying leap so that he can cuddle on my chest and offer kisses.  He and I are not exclusive – he will cuddle with other people, so I don’t think he’ll be deprived of attention – but Elvis-time is a very special experience, and I will miss it. I sure hope he can find a home with someone who can give him all the love - but I also hope it'll wait till I'm back.

Scout (BC)

My own boy Scout is going to summer-camp with Debbie, where he will be loved and cared for – and the Neko-Blog is on a five-week hiatus while I am away on a largely cat-less vacation (my family are mostly dog-people!) Check at www.catsanctuary.ca for whatever will take the place of the weekly blog – I’ll be back at the Sanctuary in August! 

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Brigid Coult & Karen Nicholson

Tumbleweed

Tumbleweed   (BC)

I’ve been holding off writing about this boy until he had his little glory-moment on the RAPS Pets and Pickers episode last week, and now I can introduce him properly. 

Pretty scared when he first came to us  (BC)

Sometimes our cats come to us without names, and the med-staff (or occasionally others) get to suggest them.  Sometimes they come to us with names they have carried all their lives, and we don’t change them – though we may modify them if we already have a cat by that name.  And sometimes our cats come from other rescues who name them for us – and occasionally it’s just the perfect name.

Finding a shady corner on a warm day  (DW)

Tumbleweed came to us last year from  the same rescue that sent us Marble and her family (in last week’s blog). And his name couldn’t have been better chosen.  You see, Tumbleweed is a CH cat – he has cerebellar hypoplasia, which is a condition sometimes found in kittens whose brains have have failed to develop fully in utero – specifically, the cerebellum, the portion of the brain that deals with fine motor skills, balance, and coordination. It is possible that a kitten could develop cerebellar hypoplasia if its mother is severely malnourished during her pregnancy, and  other inflammatory diseases of the brain such as toxoplasmosis infection may cause similar symptoms. However, the most common cause of this condition by far is infection with panleukopenia virus.

A little venture into the courtyard  (LBF)

The most typical CH symptoms are jerky or uncoordinated walking, swaying from side to side when trying to walk, a goose-stepping gait called hypermetria, mild head tremors, and/or intention tremors. Intention tremors occur when the cat or kitten intends to make some sort of movement and may be present to a minor degree when they walk, but are usually most pronounced when they try to do something more involved such as playing with a toy or bending over to drink or eat out of a bowl.  

Watching the TeaRoom action (LAB)

CH kittens or cats are in no pain, but need to live in a safe environment, since they have few defences. The extraordinary thing about Tumbleweed was that he survived as part of a feral colony for several years. I contacted Foster Kritters to ask about it -Tumbleweed showed up in his caretaker’s yard as an older kitten. She was feeding feral cats on her property and had been unsuccessfully trying to find help from a rescue – so she just kept feeding the cats. Tumbleweed grew up there with his family as part of the colony and possibly never left the property. It's quite secure and secluded, even though it's in a suburban area, so he really just got lucky. By the time we randomly met the property owner and learned about this colony, Tumbleweed was eight years old. This was quite a sickly and inbred colony so we stepped in right away to help. This is when we also discovered RAPS and reached out for help. We have very few options on the Island for a cat like Tumbleweed so we were thrilled when Valerie said he could come there to retire. 

Tugboat comes visiting  (KN)

He reminds me of our dearly loved Wobbly-Bob who had some sort of progressive neurological problem, and was very shy and wary because he couldn’t control his movement. In WB's case, the condition continued to develop, and was not CH.  Tumbleweed initially hid away in the Tea-Room; he had a bed under the chair by the heater, so it was prime real estate, and occasionally someone (in this case, our beloved Tugboat) would move in and be his roomie for a while. As the weather changed, Tumbleweed moved across the room to den up in the base of a cat-tree, and occasionally to climb it. He may not be very good at balancing, but he never stops trying. He was wary of people, but occasionally he bonds with a visitor – some of our young ones at the weekend are potential Kitty-Comforters, and Tumbleweed responds to their gentleness.

Enjoying time outdoors without fear  (KN)

He is now more ready to emerge when there is someone in the room, and can be coaxed to play with a wand toy, or to tumble and pounce and chase after a ball. He is starting to emerge from the Tea-Room in the morning and evening hours to explore a little;  most of the other cats just let him be, and his bed-time buddies are more drawn to him for his cosy bed.

Blissful belly-rubs  (KN)

In an untended colony he would have been unable to fend for himself or to hunt; he would have been easy pickings for a predator. He was fortunate to be in a colony that was being cared for and provided with food – and we are happy to be able to give him a really safe and loving home to live out his days in peace. 

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Lisa Brill-Friesen, Leslie Ann Burgess, 

Brigid Coult, Karen Nicholson, Debbie Wolanski

Video by Joshua Levesque

Newcomers in New AIDS

Simon  (KN)

All over the province there are cats living wild. They may always have been feral and the offspring of feral cats, or they may be cats who have been dumped or who have strayed and never found their way home. And all over the province, there are amazing organizations working to help these poor animals – perhaps by taming them and getting them readopted, or perhaps by doing Trap/Neuter/Return, and caring for the colony.

Marble  (BH)

We are a resource for some of those rescues to turn to. Both our cats from Kamloops and the ones from the Kootenays were no longer able to exist as they were, and could well have been killed by local authorities; each colony was too large, and too unsocialized a group to foster or adopt out, so they came to us. We have similar contacts with rescues on the Island, and it is from one of those that Marble’s family came. Foster Kritters Feral Cat Rescue is active in the Cowichan Valley; they have no website, but you can find more about them on Facebook and Instagram. Much of their work is done with TNR, but occasionally they come across cats that can be trapped and neutered, but should not be returned – as with this group of cats.

Biggie  (BH)

They came to us because they are all FIV+ (Feline AIDS), and though FIV positive and negative cats can live together, by keeping them as a colony, we can maintain more careful attention to their physical health. We think they are all related, but may not be all from the same litters.

Smalls  (BH)

The oldest of the group is Marble, and to quote Foster Kritters, “she looked like a senior even though she's only around 4 years old and it was very clear that she had experienced a very tough life. She had a badly injured and painful eye that she had lived with for at least three years. She had raised multiple litters of kittens and looked defeated and exhausted”. She was under medical care with Foster Kritters for some time, much to her disgust – they managed to raise funds for surgery, and hers finally necessitated enucleation (the removal of an eye). 

Marble    (KN)

Once she was on the mend, she was transferred to us at the Sanctuary, living initially in a cage so that her healing was monitored. Now she’s out, and very happy about that. She’s not really ready to come for attention, but she knows that humans are not out to get her – she’ll make friends when she’s ready. This evening she was playing in a corner with a toy containing a little bell, and I could hear her having fun before she tired herself out.

Simon (BH)

The two youngest are orange Simon and black Smalls, and they may be Marble’s sons or grandsons.  Simon is the more social of the two; he’s happy to be touched and to play, and he might sometime be a good candidate for adoption. Foster Kritters had tried to adopt him out, but sadly, people don’t understand that FIV+ cats can be wonderful home cats. Smalls is shyer, preferring to tuck himself out of the way; he has time to decide that he’s truly safe.

Smalls  (KN)

In the middle is Biggie, who is Mr BIG Personality. We think he’s older than Simon and Smalls – he might even have sired them, but without doing genetic testing, we can’t tell. He also came to us with eye problems – in his case, it was entropion, with the eyelashes turned in and irritating the eyes. A round of surgery corrected the problem, and Biggie has blossomed – he’s probably been in pain for some time, and is now feeling wonderful.

Biggie says "Pick me up!"  (KC)

Biggie LOVES people; he actually makes working in New Aids a little dangerous, because he presses himself to your legs as you walk, and you constantly have to watch that you won’t trip over him. If you stand still too long, he gets up on his back paws and begs to be lifted. He loves to be held – regular way, on the lap, or occasionally on his back like a baby. 

Cuddle time  (BH)

He plays like a kitten, dancing and pouncing – but you can see in his face that he has suffered because of his eyes. His delight in being handled led me to think that he, of the four of them, may have had a home sometime in his past – that he’s a stray or a dumped cat, rather than a feral. But Foster Kritters are sure that he's part of Marble's family.

Biggie - the look of love  (KN)

At least, with us, he and the other three have a future. It may just be a future lived at the RAPS "Kitty Club Med", well fed, with comfort, safety and company. But it might even be finding someone to he His Person, and finding a home of his own where he will be loved.

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Katy Cobb, Brielle Hutchison, Karen Nicholson