Caring for Cats Displaced by Hurricane Harvey: An Interview with Samantha Bell

The Sunday after Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas, Samantha Bell, Cat Behavior & Enrichment Lead at Best Friends Animal Society in Los Angeles, was called into her manager’s office, who started out with, “You know how Best Friends is helping with Hurricane Harvey…?”

woman and tabby cat
Samantha and cat Jessica Lange

Best Friends Animal Society, which has helped in disaster areas before, would be going to Texas to rescue animals in and around the storm-ravaged zones. While going to Houston was not mandatory, Best Friends needed to send two or three Los Angeles staff members to Texas, and Samantha knew immediately that she wanted to go.

Best Friends had staff on the ground in Texas on August 28th, shortly after the hurricane hit. The Los Angeles team deployed to Houston about one week later, once the organization knew where help was needed most. Continue reading “Caring for Cats Displaced by Hurricane Harvey: An Interview with Samantha Bell”

Sophie Helps a Cat Colony #sundayswithsophie

Sophie here! I hope all you hoomans and kitties are enjoying your Sunday. I’m just taking a break from my Sunday snoozing to drop in with a message from Mom.

Mom recently learned about a colony of cats at her alma mater. A kind gentleman is caring for the colony. He feeds the colony twice a day, including on the weekends. And he hasn’t taken a vacation in eight years because he wants to make sure the cats are fed every day and that they never miss a meal! Now that’s dedication.

stray tabby cat Continue reading “Sophie Helps a Cat Colony #sundayswithsophie”

National Feral Cat Day #feralcatday #BtC4A

Cat lovers who are involved with or simply care about community cats may know that tomorrow is National Feral Cat Day. Started by Alley Cat Allies 15 years ago in 2001, each year October 16th is meant to raise awareness about feral and community cats. The 2016 theme of National Feral Cat Day is All Cats All Communities and you can learn more at NationalFeralCatDay.org.

National Feral Cat Day

Continue reading “National Feral Cat Day #feralcatday #BtC4A”

TNR of Warren

In honor of the upcoming National Feral Cat Day, today we continue with highlighting people and groups who are doing their part to help feral and community cats. TNR of Warren, a group that was founded in September 2008, started “as a vision of what can be accomplished when a Trap-Neuter-Return organization, veterinarians and the community work together for the good of stray and feral cats.”

TNR of Warren, a 501(c)3 organization, is located in Warren, Ohio. They are not a shelter and they do not take in cats from the public for adoption. The group is strictly a trap-neuter-return organization.

Corky, who runs TNR of Warren, has been with the group since January 2009. In the past, Corky has volunteered at shelters, rescued cats and been on the boards of various rescues. But when Corky was adopted by a group of free roamers in her yard, she knew what her life’s mission was… “to help the unwanted cats of the shadows.”

To date, TNR of Warren has spayed and neutered close to 9,000 cats!

TNR of Warren, carriers lined up Continue reading “TNR of Warren”

Caring for Community Cats with Terry (and Brian!)

Brian’s Home is a popular blog hosted by mancat Brian that promotes adoption by always signing off with “Adopt cats, we deserve it!” That’s definitely a blog that’s right up our alley! But, do you know the human behind Brian’s Home? If not, prepare to meet Terry Frum today!

This coming weekend on October 16th, cat lovers everywhere will be taking part in and promoting National Feral Cat Day, a day to raise awareness about community cats, often referred to as feral cats. While we will have more on National Feral Cat Day later, I thought it was appropriate this week to highlight people who do their part to help feral cats.

Enter Terry – who has been working with community cats since 1999. While Terry primarily works with feral cats in the greater Greenville area and upstate South Carolina, he has been involved in rehoming cats and kittens throughout the entire country.

Before we meet Terry, want to know something fun(ny)? Sometimes when fellow bloggers meet Terry in person, they call him Brian. Something Terry considers to be a compliment. I wonder how Brian feels about that…

terry-and-brian
Terry and Brian

Continue reading “Caring for Community Cats with Terry (and Brian!)”

Nine Lives Greece – Οι Εφτάψυχες

Cordelia Madden-Kanellopoulou is one of the co-founders of Nine Lives Greece – Οι Εφτάψυχες, which is a group of like-minded volunteers with experience in animal welfare, who decided to start the rescue organization due to the lack of any other charity in Athens focused on the well-being of the city’s innumerable stray cats. Nine Lives Greece started in 2006 and became an officially recognized charity in 2008.

Mission Statement: To promote cat welfare through neutering, education and enhanced relations between humans and cats in Greece. Continue reading “Nine Lives Greece – Οι Εφτάψυχες”

Stray Cat Photography with Sabrina Boem

You may remember that I briefly introduced you to amateur photographer Sabrina Boem in an earlier post. Well, today is the first in a series of three posts featuring her stunning black and white photography – with today’s subject being Stray Cats. Later we will see People with Cats and lastly Sabrina’s Shelter Photography in the final post.

Residing in Italy in San Dona’ di Piave (Venice), Sabrina is a small business owner whose passion for photography has led to one of her photos being selected for National Geographic’s ‘Daily Dozen’ as an Editor’s Favorite! Stay tuned to find out which photo – it will be in the People with Cats post.

At the end of this post, there is a special video compilation of Sabrina’s stray and shelter cat photography. Volume up when you watch it!

stray cat Continue reading “Stray Cat Photography with Sabrina Boem”

Pitties and Kitties

Pitties and Kitties is a new foster-based rescue group located in Lee’s Summit, Missouri that focuses on…you guessed it, pit bulls and cats!

Started just five months ago in March 2016, their mission statement is as follows: Pitties and Kitties is a 501(c)3 non-profit rescue dedicated to changing the lives of both pit bull type dogs and feral/stray cats in our community. We aim to alter the misconceptions of the pit bull breed and provide dogs in need a second chance by working with local rescues and pulling from high kill shelters. In addition, we will Continue reading “Pitties and Kitties”

La Troupe in Granada, Spain

I first became aware of Olalla through her beautiful photos on Instagram. When I reached out to her about a potential photography profile, I learned more about what she does in Granada and discovered that Olalla cares for a colony of about 30 cats. While I will be featuring Olalla’s stray and feral cat photography in a later post, today we look at La Troupe and the colony of cats that Olalla cares for.

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A Conversation with Olalla

How did you get into rescuing and caring for cats?
My first rescue was a few months after I moved to Granada seven years ago: two abandoned kittens Continue reading “La Troupe in Granada, Spain”