Photographs

If you come to visit the cats at my house, or are a foster home picking up, or for whatever reason, and you have a digital camera which you know how to use, can you bring your camera and perhaps snap a few photos while you are here? I always need photos of cats and I simply cannot figure out how to use mine - ie. to download and not only that, I have zero interest in this side of things so don't want to learn.

I have had some folks want to come out and take photos but it is often difficult to co-ordinate it with everyone's busy schedules.

Thanks in advance.

Petition

I received this about a week ago and meant to post it sooner but forgot. Please really consider supporting this. A lot of animals are used in totally unnecessary laboratory tests just to cover the company's you know what in the event of a law suit. I can tell you of a couple of specific cases I know of but don't want to publicly post these. I have not used Body Shop products in years as I know they get around the "we do not use animals to test our products on" statement by contracting out the testing to independent labs and that gives them the right to say they are "Cruelty Free." I personally only use products that specifically state they are "Cruelty Free." I am sure some of them pull the Body Shop stunt but it is the best I can do with the information I have available. I have been known to walk up to people in drug stores who were buying a particular toothpaste and tell them how animals died in the testing of that particular product. Do consider signing this petition. I don't know if it will do any good, but it can't do any harm.

"I have recently learned that the Beauty Corporation L'oreal and all of they companies associated under them (ie: Garnier, Maybelline, The Body Shop) have there products tested on animals or they hire outside laboratories to do the testing. There are hundreds of companies big and small that do not do any testing on animals so there is no reason for L'oreal or any other company to do so. When labs test on animals they are intentionally harming the animal (ie: kittens, rabbits, mice) and then killing it. This is not okay and we need to all speak up and insist that it stops. I have started a petition on the website Change.org and I am asking everybody I know to sign the petition and to send the email out to anybody they now to help get signatures. I have notified L'oreal of the petition so hopefully with enough signatures we can be successful.

Thanks for your support.

https://www.change.org/petitions/loreal-stop-your-amimal-cruelty-by-not-testing-on-animals

Thrifty Collection Boxes

At the beginning of the year, I wrote a letter to Thrifty's asking for permission to put coin boxes for a month in their stores in the Greater Victoria area. We have done this for three years in a row and it has been a significant fund raiser for us as we usually collect at least $5,000.

Here is a response I received by e-mail

"Re: Cat's Cradle Animal Rescue - Coin Box Campaign 2012

Dear Ms. Archer,

A letter requesting coin boxes at Thrifty Foods in 2012 was received and has been reviewed by Vivian Chenard, Manager of Community Relations. We sincerely thank you for thinking of our company. After careful review, I regret to advise that we are unable to support your request at this time.

I would like to assure you that the request was not declined because we do not consider your cause to be worthwhile. However, each year we must decline many meaningful requests as our promotional/coin box calendar is already full for the current year. Please feel free to reapply next year.

I thank you for contacting us and wish you all the best for success.

Regards,

Kyja Levitt (on behalf of Vivian Chenard)
Community Relations Coordinator
Thrifty Foods Marketing Office
6649 Butler Crescent
Saanichton, BC, V8M 1Z7
250.483.1715 (P)
250.483.1621 (F)"

I responded expressing my disappointment and asked Thrifty's for a list of who is putting coin boxes in their stores during 2012. I don't think this can be a big secret but I doubt somehow I will get it. The reason I asked for this is that I noticed for one month last year, and I cannot remember what month it was, and it wasn't December as they don't put boxes in their stores in December, there were no coin boxes at the tills in the Thrifty's Stores.

Someone mentioned to me that since Sobey's took over Thrifty's, things have not been the same.

If any of you wish to contact Thrifty's and express your disappointment over CCAR not getting the coin box month, please go ahead. I would love to see them innundated with complaints about this. The e-mail address for the person who wrote the above e-mail is klevitt@thriftyfoods.com.

There is a kitten in my shirt!

Every time I get new kittens to foster, all of my normal routines kick into high gear:
1. Let kittens into new room.
2. Try and catch each one to inspect the rear end and feet for litter and poop - kittens are notoriously messy at young ages.
3. Quickly wipe down kitten and send back out to play.

This time, things have changed a bit because of clay litter. Be very careful if you have young kittens and they are around clay litter as it can clump, and stick through their fur. One of my poor little guys had it so caught up in his fur that he had to have a full bath so that it wouldn't cause sores or inhibit his kitten movements...

So now, I have a kitten in my shirt so that he can reheat before he goes back to his family in the kitten room!

In Memorium

It is with tears and sorrow that I have to add one of my own foster brood to the Memorials page - sweet Raccoon. I can only say that I am glad that his short life ended in the comfort of someone's arms. He will be missed and always loved.

Motel needed

Does anyone know of a motel/hotel in the area of Tswassen, Delta or the airport that has either separate cabins, or rooms that one can enter from outside without going through a lobby. Would need to be on a ground floor and at the back. I may need to stay the night somewhere with several animals and while I wouldn't take them all into the room, I might rotate them as it will be a cold night. Not quite sure how to go about searching for this on the internet either and certainly don't want to call any places as that might "tip their hand" as to what I want to do.

Foster Homes needed

Is anyone able to foster a momma cat, supposedly very sweet, with five six week old babies? I don't want to take the momma away from the kittens for at least a week so need somewhere to put them until they are adopted. They will likely be adopted quickly but cannot go to a new home until they are at least 8 weeks old. Momma can stay with them for a week or so, or longer if you think it is necessary, then we will place her somewhere else. Let Beverly know if you think you can help. You will need a separate room for her and her babies. We will supply all you need.

I MAY need a foster home for a pregnant siamese cat but not sure if I am getting her. Again, let me know if you can help.

Thanks!

Winston

Dr. Wilson started to put Wilson under on Wednesday morning and the first step is to intubate him. He immediately started to crash, his blood pressure dropped, his heart was irregular. After stabilizing him, she started to further anaesthetize(sp?) him but he again started to crash so Dr. Wilson decided to cancel the surgery. Her comment to me was that if this surgery was something like a dental, and he started to crash, she could stop, but once she had started the amputation, there was no way she could stop the procedure. We have discussed this at length and have pretty well decided that because of his instability and the very real possibility that he would die if operated on again, we will likely not proceed with amputating his leg. Barbara, his foster mom, is in complete agreement and so is Dr. Wilson. If his health improves remarkably, we may consider it again, but it would have to be carried out with an anaesthetist on board as he is at such high risk. Thanks to you all who have cared about this boy. He is doing fine but Barbara tells me that even the next day after the attempted surgery, he was still groggy, which is most unusual.