Blanket Therapy

Karrie in action - with fans gathered round  (BC)

Mornings at the Sanctuary are busy with people scooping and sweeping, scrubbing and making laundry changes – and always taking time for the little stops to visit with cats.  Evenings are similar, when the canned food comes our and anxious faces await plates – and once again, volunteers arrive early or stay late to visit with feline friends.   

Boots & Reefer

But in the afternoons (unless there’s a work party labouring on a project), all is quiet, and the Kitty Comforters are present.

Max has found the fresh catnip

The KCs were the brainchild of the late Marianne Moore, and after her passing their leadership was taken over by Anne Marchetti. Their focus is primarily the caged cats who may need more one-on-one interaction with humans than they will get in the normal way. Anne will alert us to where attention is particularly needed. Currently, that includes a number of cats who have not yet settled enough with us to have their own blogs – so you will have to wait to hear about Orange Julius who began very cage-aggressive and is learning that we’re not so scary, about a group of cats who came to us via a bequest from Missouri, about Tumble who is recovering from surgery and may possibly go to the Adoption Centre.

Both blankets occupied

But many of the feral or wary cats are out and about, and sometimes the best way to approach them is to let them approach you.  Especially in the summer months, that’s the mode for KCs Karrie and Catherine, who begin their shift by spreading blankets in the sun of the front courtyard, and waiting to see who comes.  Food may be involved, but more often it’s touch and grooming and gentle voices and a little catnip.

Boots has become a lap-cat with Karrie

The blankets are magnetic for the cats – there are some of them that will come immediately to be part of the sit-in, and other that gradually let themselves be coaxed into it. We suspect Boots was a stray, and he’s been considered for adoption, but he’s wary with a number of people. Summer afternoons on the blankets are his favourite thing, and he loves it so much that he will cuddle with Karrie instead of maintaining a cautious distance.

Max the cat-burglar

We worry about Max, who really needs a tolerant home with no other cats, but who doesn't show up well when we have visitors; normally he stays clear of the others, but he knows that Karrie’s bag usually has catnip in it, and he will venture closer for her gentle attention and for the ‘nip!

Spooky's snooze is watched over by Boots

Sweet Spooky is one of our older cats now – wary of people, as her name implies, but cautiously trusting with a few. She is one of the cats that Karrie will go and find in wherever she has hidden herself – just a few treats and a little petting reminds her that life’s not so bad. Just occasionally she will venture out with the others and make her own space on the blanket.

Our former Mexican street lady has presence!

Like Max, Kia is not a great fan of other cats, and mostly she prefers humans to leave her alone as well. She’s doing much better this year and venturing out more consistently – with her, the draw is less the ‘nip and the food, and more just the quiet time in the sun, and the softness of the blanket. She doesn’t want much in the way of attention, but she’s beginning to enjoy being present as long as the others don’t bug her.

Bingo: all the 'nip in this bag is for me!

Bingo is one of the Texan cats that came to us last year; they have assimilated themselves well into the front courtyard crowd, and love to be part of the blanket party. He loves the fresh catnip, and wiggles his way into contact with it. His brother Wilbur is more of a sit-around-in-the-sun type.

Wilbur, Leo and (of course!) Boots

Xena is a relative newcomer, and not very comfortable with humans – so it makes us very happy when she joins the blanket sun-bathing crowd.

Xena, looking disapproving

While Catherine and Karrie are visiting caged cats in the DoubleWide and the shyer cats in the back courtyard, the blankets remain in the front courtyard until the end of the KC shift, with cats coming and going as they please.  As the feeding team begins arriving for the last shift, the blankets are folded up to be taken home for washing, and preparation for the next afternoon of feline basking. 

Blog by Brigid Coult

All photos (and inspiration) by Karrie Radford

Boots is Getting Braver

Boots  (KN)

Boots came to us last year from Vancouver Island – he was feral-trapped by CATS (Cat Advocates Teaching and Saving in Comox). Their work initially focused on finding lost and dumped cats, and either reuniting them with their owners, or finding them new homes.  But in the course of this, they also come across many ferals.

Boots hiding out with the ferals  (LBF)

For many small rescues doing big work, ferals are a problem that needs a solution. Organizations like CATS do not have large facilities, and much of their work is done through fosterage. Fostering is good for kittens who have a chance to re-pattern their responses to humans in the first few months of their lives, but for many older cats, changing their ways is not easily done. CATS has a barn-cat program, encouraging local farmers to take on neutered, healthy cats – but the feral life, even within a barn-cat lifestyle, is a risky one.  CATS approached us about the possibility of taking Boots on. 

Anxious - but not ready to run just yet  (KN)

We think he’s about seven years old;  he began his life with us in the Connor building of the Front Courtyard. There we saw a hint that he might not be fully feral – though not ready for contact, he liked to be talked to. When released, however, he reverted to all the usual feral patterns – finding hiding places, emerging only early morning, and in the evening, responding with hissing and a strong smack when approached too closely. He was never an aggressive boy; his reactions were always defensive. He tolerated other cats, though he was basically a loner.

Snug in his favourite Connor hidey-hole  (BC)

I don’t know who was responsible for his change of heart, but in the last while we’ve seen him allowing touch – and not just touch, but real petting. He will accept treats, but they’re not the primary motivator. He’s beginning to be curious about humans, and will hover in the vicinity if other cats are gathered with a volunteer or visitor.  In fact, we’ve often seen him out during visiting hours – a real stretch of bravery for a cat that used to be so scared.

Treats for me?  (BC)

Though Boots sometimes hangs out with the other ferals in the Old Rabbit Area, increasingly he is basing himself at the Connor – not often inside, but on the porch in one of the shelf beds or in the cat-tree box.  If you get a chance to meet him, go slow and patient – he may initially huddle and hiss, but if he’s in the right mood, he will sniff your hand and investigate further contact, and sometimes allow (and enjoy) full-body strokes.  Offering him treats is appreciated, but it makes the other cats gather round jealously, and he then gets anxious about their proximity.

Relaxed and at ease  (KN)

We are always excited when a cat like this decides to put fear aside and approach us – whether a true feral, or a cat that has been a stray for a long time. The Kitty Comforters do much of the work in this area, but all of us, staff and volunteers alike, have a part to play in helping cats like Boots feel relaxed and at home in the Sanctuary. 

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