Have Another Cookie...

Cookie Hill (MW)

We have our share of cats who have names in common – usually names they have arrived with, rather than names they have been given here. At one stage we had four Bobbys at the same time! Domino, Jasper, Jinx and Katie have all been popular names,  And Cookie, as a name, is up on that list.  The earliest Cookie was one of my first RAPS acquaintances, and beloved by many.  Cookie 2 was one of a pair of very tubby cats who lived with us for a while, and were adopted by someone who was able to control their food intake and help them get fitter.

Cookies 1 (CF) & 2 (PH)

I introduced Cookie Mills a couple of years ago; this sweet girl continues to be a favourite of staff and volunteers, but prefers to ignore all the other cats. She is becoming more and more a tubby variety of Manx; long-term Sanctuary lovers will remember PeeWee, with a similar build.

PeeWee (BD) & Cookie Mills (KN)

Our most recent Cookie came in about 18 months ago; she had her cage-stay in the Hill House, and since we had Cookie Mills in the back courtyard, this front courtyard girl became Cookie Hill. She came to us from an owner who had tried everything to help her beautiful girl settle down. Cookie had come from the SPCA so they had no back-story, but it became obvious to them that she was untrusting – particularly of men – and acted out with aggression, anxiety, and of course, peeing. The family tried everything, but it was clear that only the mom was acceptable to her. 

Cookie Hill  (LBF)

Sadly, the SPCA wouldn’t take her back; they said that she was unadoptable, and that euthanasia was the only alternative.  Luckily, the Cat Sanctuary was a better one for her.  It took Cookie Hill a while to accept her change in status, and there was a fair bit of swatting involved. These days she mostly hangs out in the Yellow Shed area, and when she’s in the right mood, she can be chatty and affectionate with humans, though she reminds me of Sophie in the TeaRoom – moody, but cute, and ready to be petted if you do it to her specifications.

Cookie Hill (KN)

She stands out from all the other little tabbies because of the beautiful orange necklace she wears.  Often a torby (tabby/tortie mixture) has the orange colours dispersed generally among her fur (she’s almost always female, because of the genetics around colouring). Carly Simon and  Christina Aguilera are a pair whose tabby markings are balanced with their ginger colouring. Roe has striking ginger blotches in her coat. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a clear marking of the orange fur to give a cat a pattern like this. And she has the most beautiful green eyes to offset her colouring.

Cookie Hill (KN)

Cookie Hill will never be Miss Popularity around the Front Courtyard. There’s not much room in the Yellow Shed but Miss Hill insists on a shelf to herself, and she is not into socializing with the other cats. The Hill House itself tends to be more social than she’s ready to face. As the weather warms up, though, we’ll probably see more of her out and about. We do have some faithful male volunteers, but it’s mainly women she sees, and we hope that she will be able to put her bad experiences of the past behind her, and learn that there are people that she can trust again.

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Lisa Brill-Friesen, Barbara Doduk, Claire Fossey, 

Phaedra Hardman, Karen Nicholson, Michele Wright

Heartbreak Harry

I try to keep the Neko Blog focused on the joys of the Sanctuary – and there are many joys.  But for all of us, staff and volunteers, the hardest part is always when we lose a cat.  I blogged when we lost our beloved Cookie almost two years ago, when we lost beautiful Kojak (with a memorial to our other leukemia cats) and when we lost sweet Daisy last month.  Lee asked me last week to post something about Mindy, and I hesitated, because she wasn’t well known to a lot of people – I ended up posting Lee’s tribute on Mindy’s blog page.
But this week has dealt a blow to many of us with the death of our beloved Harry, and I’m breaking my own rule and offering a cat-obituary.

MW

Harry came to us just over four years ago.  We like to call ourselves Richmond’s best-kept secret – our address is not posted, our entrance is not signed – people wishing to surrender cats take them to the No 5 Road shelter, where it is decided if this is an adoptable cat or one that needs to come to us. Harry’s owners had obviously done their detective homework; he was found in a cage at the door by the morning med staff, and attached to the cage was a note that let us know that Harry had a peeing problem, and that in spite of surgery, the problem continued – to the ruination of their floors.

The Sanctuary exists for cats like Harry. We instantly fell in love with him – and it was mutual. After a short cage-stay to acclimatise him, Harry ventured out and made slaves of us all. 

JP

Sadly, he was either carrying the leukemia virus latently, or picked it up; a blood test let us know that Harry had to be moved into the Old Aids area with the other leukemia cats. 

Leukemia cats are very susceptible to every random germ, and it hits them hard, since their immune systems are down. Not only did Harry catch every upper respiratory infection going, he was also stressed by other more dominant cats in the enclosure. 

DW

It was decided to remove him into the Leukemia room at the back of the single-wide trailer. There he shared with no more than four or five other shy cats, and rapidly settled down.

There are all sorts of jokes about “dogs have owners; cats have staff” and “in ancient times, cats were worshipped as gods; they have never forgotten this”. And there’s a grain of truth in it – many cats will accept our love as long as they please, and then walk away when something else is offered. But Harry was a lover; he gave back love to those who loved him, and he was never happier than when sitting on a lap, and looking lovingly into the eyes of his friend. And everybody was Harry’s friend. Many people made a point of going to the Leukemia room any time they visited, to have Harry-time, and there was no better way to spend an hour.

PH

One thing we always know about our leukemia cats – we lose them too soon. Over four years with us, Harry had fought off a series of infections and renal problems and always pushed through. This time it was too much for that tired body.

CF

Many of us will be holding you in our hearts, Harry, and looking for you when we, too, get to the Rainbow Bridge.

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Claire Fossey, Phaedra Hardman, June Price, Debbie Wolanski, Michele Wright

The Passing of an Icon

There are probably very few readers of this blog who’ve not experienced the pain of losing a beloved furry friend. We tend not to write about such losses – the Neko Blog was created to celebrate a place of life, and its feline inhabitants. But part of life at the Sanctuary is dealing with death – and we’re taking this opportunity to pay tribute to a sweet friend who was a faithful member of the welcoming committee.

From Claire’s blog back in September 2009:

He introduced himself to me on my very first visit. I was softing a cat sitting on a table when I felt a gentle tap-tap-tap on my knee. I looked down, and there was Cookie, looking back up at me.

"Hello."

I reached down to give him a soft, then went back to what I was doing.

Tap-tap...

"Hello. Would you be interested in patting a cat a little more? Me, for example?"

Very friendly and such a polite boy! Cookie was the first cat whose name I learned and the first one I wished I could take home (this while I was still living in a place where I couldn't have pets). What I hadn't realized at first, though, is he's not as young as his aimiable demeanour may suggest. He's also one of those odd cats who's not dying to move in with someone and be a one-person feline.

Cookie came to RAPS when he was around 2 years old. Now in the neighbourhood of 11 (this was in 2009),  he's been at the sanctuary so long that Leslie, our resident expert on the names and stories of the cats, couldn't tell me how or why he first came to live there.

 

Tired of this "being patient" business, Cookie tries a little leg climbing

Cookie's lived at the sanctuary so long that it's hard to imagine him anywhere else. In fact, when it comes to cats who are such long-time residents, RAPS staff are very reluctant to approve adoption requests simply because the animals have come to view the sanctuary as home and may have a lot of trouble adjusting to a new and very different environment.

 

And from Leslie Landa:

 

At 17 or 18 years of age,  our beloved Oreo Cookie's reign as our chief greeter and attention seeker came to an end.  Cookie was truly adored by everyone at the sanctuary, including many other cats, and had a long and happy life.  He was my own family's "pet at the sanctuary," since my children asked to adopt him many years ago, and was spoiled every Tuesday by RAPS member Marlene, who brought shrimp and treats and cans of Fancy Feast with Cookie's name on them.  Marlene had also been interested in adopting him, but we all realized that he was content at the sanctuary among all of his admirers.  Cookie leaves behind him a lot of people with scarred legs and torn jeans, but oh, how they loved him. Farewell, sweetest boy!

 

Blog introduced by Brigid Coult

Pictures by Claire Fossey

 

Paws to Admire

Have you ever noticed how really exquisite cats’ feet are?  I’ll come clean:  I have a huge foot fetish – or maybe it’s more accurate to call it a paw fetish.  But I’m mesmerized by the beauty of the feline foot.  As I write this, I’m trying to put my finger on exactly why.
Mostly, I think, I’m in love with the shape – often there’s such an elegant length of graceful leg, ending in a lovely big blob of furry roundness – the leg like a dancer’s, the paw like a powder puff.

Jingles just “happened” to have her foot out as I went by – probably knows about my paw fetish and is taunting me

Dancer’s legs.  Note – two background cats trying to get their paws in the picture

Sometimes just the powder puff itself is enthralling. 

Check out Gina’s feet, maybe the poofiest EVER.  Could she possibly have blow-dried them??

 Perhaps Gina has been inspiring the other cats, as someone else is clearly trying to compete with her for the poofiest feet.

Sometimes what I love is the angle of their paws, the way their hind feet jut out from those lovely round haunches at a cheeky side-ways angle.  Did you ever see such exquisitely poofy caramel perfection??

One of the cats in Old Aids – maybe Chip?

Sometimes a cat’s paws stick out enticingly from under a furry flap of tummy, like those of an Emperor penguin protecting its egg.  I also love the way the paws are so often white on an otherwise non-white cat, as if nature had taken a moment to highlight this exquisite detail.

Ben aka McGyver, new guy in the Moore Trailer.  “Love me, love my feet.”

It’s clear (at least to me) that the cats know how beautiful their feet are, and often display themselves to advantage.

Mr. Pink’s Toes

Unknown cat’s bottom I mean foot

And last but not least, there is sweet sweet Cookie, who knows that paws can be useful too.  When I’m sitting on the stairs giving out treats, he’ll sit behind me and use his paw to tap me on the shoulder every time he wants another one.  I don’t have a picture of his feet, but here he is learning to take selfies.  Clever boy, that Cookie.

 

Blogger: Moira Langley

Photos: Moira Langley and Michele Wright

cat sanctuary music video!

For a different way of sharing the always entertaining cats living at the sanctuary, I decided to shoot some video. As a number of my RAPS friends know, making music is another thing I like to do...
And so it seemed to me a great idea to create not just a video with the cats, but a music video with the cats.

I recorded a cover of Ingrid Michaelson's The Way I Am, chosen because the cats take us just we are, just as we do for them.
Some of you have seen this already. For those who haven't -- enjoy!

Click on the image below for the embedded player, or click here to watch from the YouTube page.

Here are some of the cats featured in the video:

Yoda

Lucy

Selma

Orlean

Squeakers
(with Orlean still wriggling in the background)

Mario and Nelly

Logan

Marilee

Foxy

Booster

Ziggy Girl

Cookie

Note: There will only be one blog post this week -- the video was lots of fun to do, but really took it out of me!

sanctuary gardens welcome summer

With the cool, rainy weather we've been having, it's hard to fathom that the longest day of the year is just around the corner. At the sanctuary, the biggest visual reminder that summer is really almost here is the proliferation of flowers in the beds lining the back courtyard.

The sanctuary gardens got their start early on, when volunteers began bringing in surplus plants from their own gardens. They've been lovingly maintained by a core group of green-thumbed volunteers ever since. Check out Marianne's article from the August 2009 RAPSity news for more.

And here are some photos of the gardens this spring:

 Cookie

 Tilley

 Howie

Springtime and a Place in the Sun

Look forward to a Friday feature on a white cat called Grubby (and for those who don't already know, see if you can guess the reason for his name!).
For today, here's a short photo essay to celebrate spring at the sanctuary.

While winter weather had a lot of cats heading inside for warm, snug beds, a bit of sunshine and the hint of warmer days to come brings just as many out to bask in the sunny courtyards. Here are a few of our friends from past Neko Files blog entries, enjoying last Sunday's sun.

Salty

Salty & Mr. Bojangles

Cookie

Ranjit

Sadie

Jasmine