Kilo & Daphne

Kilo & Daphne - LBF

Old Aids (aka the Leukemia area) received quite a number of new residents this year. Grey and white Daphne came in during the spring. Long-haired tuxedo Cooper arrived, was caged briefly and was adopted within a week of release.  Short-haired Kilo arrived in the summer and appears to be a tuxedo, but on closer inspection has smoke tabby markings. Spry siblings Domino and Banshee were transferred over from the side room of the Moore House, and very shortly afterwards adopted. All were youngsters, and very lovable additions to the FeLV playground.

Kilo on the catwalks - PC

Kilo is a friendly boy with a happy outlook on life.  His pastimes include: exploring the catwalks and staring out the window, in hopes of grabbing attention, playing with or without the other cats, being held, and sneaking onto your back if you’re next to his perch.  He’s another oddball feline who likes being picked up and carried - most of the time.  With winter on the way, he makes a wonderful cuddle buddy and hand-warmer.

Enjoying the sun - PH

Initially, Daphne was known to be skittish, but super playful.  Now, she’s part of the door dasher club.  Want to be her favourite?  Bring her toy offerings.  Daphne’s hobbies include: testing out every toy in the room, looming behind you when you’re sitting on a chair, mooching for treats, giving humans leg rubs, and giving every cat a body rub, whether they want it or not.

Queen of all she surveys - PC

You’ll notice both cats bravely hover around for treats.  Daphne might even push her way to the front!  Most new cats stay wary and remain furthest from the treat dispensing hands. I have yet to find food they don’t like.  Maybe some duck or lamb?  And be sure to bring enough for everyone!

Come play with me....   MW

Playtime is always a thrill for Leukemia kitties!  Being young, Kilo and Daphne will try anything.  Wands, balls, catnip, crinkle toys, crumpled paper… they’ll chase and pounce on everything that moves!  As far as playfulness goes, Kilo competes with Daphne on who gets first dibs on new toys.  Smoochie might join in the fun, although he prefers one-on-one time.  (He’s a wise, older gentleman.)  While Kilo will share toys with other cats, Daphne prefers to keep them to herself.  Her favourite colour seems to be pink and she won’t hesitate to snatch those toys and carry them off.

With a favourite toy - PC

When visiting the new cats, it's only fair to devote time to the long-time regulars Smoochie, Bear, and Dexter.  It would be upsetting if they see the new guys stealing attention away from them.  Being keen observers, Bear and Dexter will make very loud complaints that your ears won’t soon forget.  Twenty or thirty minutes of visiting time is plenty to enough to spread around to the dozen plus cats.  We want everyone to be in good spirits, since stress is detrimental to their health. It's a good place to make a new friend or two.  Perhaps there’s room in your home and heart for a FeLV+ kitty?

Blog by Pauline Chin

Photos by Lisa Brill-Friesen, Pauline Chin, 

Phaedra Hardman, Michele Wright

Meowvember

MW

Traditionally November is a month in which many men grow a moustache as a part of raising funds for issues around men’s health (Movember).  There’s no ‘tache-growing going on around the Sanctuary, but an interesting variety of facial fur markings can be seen.

BC

Digby is one of our relative newcomers, and his moustache marking suits his personality, which is dominant, to say the least!  He’s not afraid to tell other cats where to get off, especially when they encroach into his space.  Digby came in at the same time as Magpie, who has a similar ‘tache, but in reverse – white on black fur. Magpie is a pretty hissy feral, and has not cooperated over having his picture taken.

MW

Smoochie’s little Hitler-moustache belies his gentle nature.  Very timid for a while when he lived in the Leukemia area, he has now a wide variety of human friends. He hangs out with his buddies Bear and Hendrik in the Val Jones area.

Mya - MW

Feline moustaches are not, of course, confined to males. Mya, one of the ferals from the composting facility, has a most impressive Chaplin-type moustache marking. Her late sister, Teagan, was one of the cats with a half-tache, and shy sister Kirstie’s marking covers her entire nose. It’s too erratic to be called a moustache, but she does have a little black chin that might double for a goatee!

Brighton - CP

There’s obviously something genetic here – Brighton and Hillie also came from the same venue. Hillie’s nose is mostly black; Brighton has a much more impressive spread of coloured fur over her upper lip.

Woody - MD

Woody is one of the relative newcomers to New Aids, and like Brighton, his ‘tache has a good spread. Many men who grow their facial hair find that it comes in quite dark; it’s pretty rare to find someone with dark hair and a fair moustache. We do have a few white moustaches in the Sanctuary. Magpie, mentioned above, is a prime example, 

Salish - MW

but so is shy Salish, whose pencil moustache is just visible in her long fur.

Honey Bear - ChrisP

Honey Bear’s ‘tache is as off-balance as he is, with more white on the right side than the left

Comet (MW) & Rocky Slippers (DW)

And these two look almost identical, though as far as we know, they’ve never met. Comet is an assertive lady who dominates the cage-tops in the DoubleWide; Rocky Slippers is a nervous and shy feral boy who hangs out mostly in Pen 1 area and won’t allow anyone to touch him.

This is not taking into account all the cats who have half-taches on one side or the other – Chester, Mischa, and many others

But I think one of my favourites is an implied rather than an explicit moustache – Emily’s dark markings in all her tortie fur always look to me as if she has a little pencil-thin handlebar moustache, though to be sure, it’s stronger on one side than the other!

Emily - PH

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Melanie Draper, Phaedra Hardman, Chris Peters, Carol Porteous, Debbie Wolanski, Michele Wright

Smoochie and Bear

Bear & Smoochie - DW

When new cats come in at the City Shelter – either as surrenders or as trapped cats – one of the first things that happens is a quick trip to the vet for a checkup.  Blood testing comes first, a spay/neuter if necessary, and then a decision about where the cat will go.  For a cat that has spent any time in the wild, one of the dangers is always that they may have contracted feline leukemia virus (FeLV), and if that is the case, we are just thankful they have come to us at RAPS. FeLV is transmitted in saliva, and is dangerous to the immune systems of other cats; our own FeLV cats live in an area separated from the general population, both so that we can ensure that nothing in their saliva can contaminate anything the other cats touch, and also so that we can keep their area as safe as can be from anything that might affect their fragile immune systems.

Smoochie - DW

Many other shelters and sanctuaries are unable to create this dedicated area, and it is a sad fact that a cat infected with FeLV is more likely to be euthanized because it’s considered unadoptable. Of course, is is possible to have a FeLV cat at home, but only knowing that it should never go out, never be in touch with an uninfected cat, and knowing that its life-span is likely to be much shorter than usual. Faced with that, most people shy away from the commitment.

RAPS is dedicated to a no-kill philosophy, and leukemia cats coming to us mostly live in what we call the “Old Aids” area, now extended to the Val Jones corner.  For some time there has also been a Leukemia room tucked away at the back of the Single-Wide, but with the death of our lovely Harry, the population there was reduced to two cats, and the decision was made to transfer them over to the Val Jones area, where we have also lost Jerry, Foxy and GusGus in the last six months.

Smoochie hiding - DW

Smoochie was trapped and brought to us some four years ago; the family that found him would have kept him, but for the FeLV diagnosis. His tidy black-and-white and little Charlie Chaplin 'tache disguises a very shy boy; he was pretty scared when he arrived; it’s taken a long time to get to the point where he will comfortably accept petting, and I suspect it was Harry that taught him that humans could be trusted to give good cuddles!  He’s still shy, but now he looks for his favourite people, knowing that he’s safe with them.

Bear - MW

Bear was one of two cats surrendered together at the City Shelter; it turned out that he tested positive but his housemate was negative, and the two were split up, with Bear coming to us at the Sanctuary. “Shy” is not a word to describe Bear; he is pretty vocal, not really cuddly, but ready to throw his weight around when needed.

Smoochie - MW

Moving the two of them to the Val Jones corner was much as expected; Smoochie found corners to hide in and had to be coaxed out; Bear swaggered around with lots of confidence. Their pen-mates are Mocha, Suga, Henrik and blind Chip, and all seem to have settled well with the newcomers.

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Debbie Wolanski and Michele Wright

Wherefore art thou, Romeow?





At the back of the single-wide trailer is a small room, used as the Sanctuary office, but known to all as the Leukemia Room. Most of our feline Leukemia cats now live in what’s called the Old Aids / Val Jones complex, and there’s usually a little juggling around to get the best combination of cats that will get along together: who can cope with bossy Merlin? who can stand up to aggressive Jerry?

But the Leukemia Room is home to just a few very quiet cats, who benefit from the calm space, and also from the removal from all the feline cold germs that get passed around. They get no casual Sunday visitors, though on other days there are always volunteers who will go in and spend time with them.  Smoochie has lived there for some time; he was joined by our lovely Harry and most recently by big fluffy Bear. And if you’re lucky, you’ll get a glimpse of shy Marlowe.

Smoochie - Harry - Bear (MW)

Marlowe (MW)

The single-wide trailer has no access to the courtyard for the cats – these are all essentially indoor cats, though on the east side there’s an extensive covered deck where cats can get their fresh air and a little separation from the activity inside. And the Leukemia Room, too, has its little deck, with a double-locked entrance from the main deck.
Volunteers know that working with leukemia cats means careful hand-washing before and after – but Leukemia Room volunteers also know that working here means watching carefully for a small black cat, who paces the floor outside the doors of both entrances.

Harvest (DW)

Harvest  is usually a pretty easy-going guy who gets on well with the other cats – especially his buddy Babylon. But he REALLY wants in to the Leukemia Room, and we think that the attraction is Marlowe, who lives on the other side of the door. And the two can never be together; she’s leukemia-positive, and leukemia cats can transmit the virus through their saliva. For his own safety, Harvest must stay out. Every now and then he tries to do a jail-break in the wrong direction; he has actually managed it once, and had to be quarantined until his blood-tests showed him to be leukemia-free.

Harvest & Marlowe (DW)

That was the simple beginning to a thwarted love-story I was going to call Romeow and Julicat.  But it’s not as simple as that,
I had finished my Single-wide shift last week, and was sitting in the outside area of the Leukemia room, cuddling with Harry – who, as volunteers know, is a very single-minded cuddler!  Marlowe emerged from her bed on the shelf and sat glaring at me; Marlowe is not a cuddler, and doesn’t see why anyone else should be.

Marlowe (DW)

There was a flurry of activity from the deck beyond the door, where a plate of food was being served, and then a little black cat detached itself from the crowd and came over to the door.  Marlowe perked up; eyeing me cautiously, she descended the ramp to the door, and the two cats had a rubbing-and-posing conversation for about five minutes.

Harry was miffed – my attention was clearly divided, and he went off to do something else. I took a chance and slipped through the door, hoping to get some pictures from the other side.

 

 

At this point it became obvious that it wasn’t Harvest that was weaving and flirting and saying “I want to be in there” – Harvest has a white spot on his front, and this was an all-black cat. I got some pictures and went to find med-staff Leslie, who knows all the cats. Who was this, taking Harvest’s place in Marlowe’s heart?

 

It turns out that the alternate black cat is Clyde, the sister of our beautiful Bonnie Boy (check his link for the story of their names).

So does Marlowe swing both ways? Is she just a sucker for any black cat? (though she’s not particularly interested in either Smoochie or Bear). Is she the feline equivalent of a sailor with a date in every port? – she has a flirt at each door…   It’s certainly not the simple love-story I’d envisaged.

Whatever lies behind it, black cats pace at both the Leukemia Room entrances, and volunteers entering have to keep a wary eye open for a shadow trying to slide through on their heels.

 

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Brigid Coult, Debbie Wilcox Wolanski & Michele Wright

Top Hat, White Tie & Tails

It’s too bad you could never get cats to go for formation dancing – because we surely have a number of handsome guys in tuxedos around the Sanctuary

I just got an invitation through the mails
Your presence requested this evening
It's formal, a top hat, white tie and tails

 

Larry

Nothing now could take the wind out of my sails
Because I'm invited to step out this evening
With top hat, white tie and tails

Smoochie

I'm puttin' on my top hat

Tyin' up my white tie

Brushin' off my tails

 

Sylvester

I'm dudin' up my shirt front
Puttin' in the shirt studs
Polishin' my nails

 

Babylon and Bart

I'm steppin' out, my dear to breathe
An atmosphere that simply reeks with class
And I trust that you'll excuse my dust
When I step on the gas

 

Hudson - PH

for I'll be there

Puttin' down my top hat
Mussin' up my white tie
Dancin' in my tails

 

Tugboat - ML

But no – Fred Astaire is way too energetic for these very cool cats!

Blogger: Brigid Coult

Photos: Phaedra Hardman, Moira Langley & Michele Wright