From the monthly archives:

January 2006

And now for something completely different..

January 30, 2006

Okay, so I guess the one-post-per-day idea was a little overzealous. I so rarely have any time to do anything of a personal nature here, it seems. I made it a priority to write tonight, as it was such an eventful day!

We have a calico cat that just had her kittens today. She had a total of seven little furry bundles of cuteness. I was watching her all day to make sure nothing went wrong with the birth. She was great and all kittens look healthy and well. I checked in on her a few hours ago and noticed that four of the kittens were all lumped together. I reached into the birthing box and realised that the placenta was still wrapped around two kittens and three of them still had their umbilical cords attached! Thankfully, Dr. Jackson, the main DVM we work with from Southern Animal Foundation (the vet office we use for all our animals here at Celebration Station), was still here from her nightly visit. We caught her as she was walking out the door and I assisted her in tying off the umbilical cords and cleaning them up. It was really amazing and something I was grateful to be here for.

We also have a minor epidemic of URI in the cat area here, so I’m almost up to 30 cats that I med in the AM and PM. Yikes! Our volunteers (Alice, Cathy, Sheryl and Sharon) are so great about letting me know of any cats that they are worried about and make sure that I take a look at them. Tonight, Alice let me know of a tabby that has been really depressed and not really eating very well. I checked him out and noticed that he was dehydrated. So, with Mike assisting, we gave him Sub-Q fluids to help rehydrate him a bit, as well as helping him feel better. He will be going to the vet in the morning, but in the meantime, he will feel better tonight.

On a different note, I’ve had friends emailing me about photos that I’ve taken over my stay here. Since I don’t really have time to reply to all of them, I’d like to let everyone know that I probably won’t be able to post most of the hundreds of photos I’ve taken until I arrive home. I apologize and can try to start to upload a few from my earlier time here, but I can’t promise to. Thank you for understanding. 🙂

Okay, I’m off to bed! :sleepy:

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Good Things

January 25, 2006

So much good is happening. It’s amazing what a bunch of like-minded people working together can accomplish. For a while there were some kinks in the operations here at Celebration Station, but I feel like things are starting to get smoother every day.

Cat in dog trapI’ve been here (this trip) for over a month now. Knowing that we only have a little over a month to save the rest of the animals out there leaves me feeling apprehensive, but I know that we can’t save them all. We receive a large number of friendly cats everyday, which is truly amazing to me. Considering that they have been out on the streets for over 4 months now, in awful conditions, and end up purring in your arms totally blows me away.

I hope someone somewhere writes up a study on these animals that have been through this experience. I know there will be studies on humans, but a study on these animals would be fascinating as well.

As for updates from the Station, we are completely full with dogs and cats! But, a lot are scheduled for transport to loving homes. Doodles the duck was adopted and she is now living on a 5 acre sanctuary with other domesticated ducks, among other barnyard animals. The cockatoos were also adopted, as well as the fish and turtle, but not to the same person!

I went out trapping last night and we caught a dog and a cat. The cat was in a dog trap (in the photo above), which is not that unusual around here! I hope to go out again tomorrow evening, but it all depends on the amount of sleep I receive. As of now, I am running on 5-6 hours a night.. eww. It’s okay, though, most of the stuff I do I can do in my sleep now. And most days I almost have to! 😉

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Call for Volunteers

January 22, 2006

The following was posted on the Best Friends website on January 10th. I’m crossposting because we really do need volunteers. Take a chance and do something that happens once in a lifetime. You won’t regret it!

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Volunteers are urgently needed in New Orleans to help in the final drive to rescue pets displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

The work involves humane trapping of dogs and cats on the streets, and helping care for the animals at the rescue center.

The rescue program is managed by Best Friends Animal Society. If you’d like to donate a few days of your time to help the animals, please fill out our Volunteer Form at http://www.bestfriends.org/HF/VL.cfm.
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I hope to see you here! 🙂

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New Furbaby

January 20, 2006

I just had to mention that I personally adopted a kitty. Yes, this makes 3! I find it amazing that, even after all the times I’ve been over here in Louisiana doing pet rescue, I have only adopted one animal! So, without further ado, meet Noni.

Noni

Her photo was taken by Clay Myers from Best Friends Animal Society while he was here at Celebration Station. There are other photos, some of her and some of her and I together, but I am unsure if they will be published in their newsletter at some point, so I don’t want to step on someones’ toes.

Noni’s story is like many other Katrina animals. She was an owner surrender, literally handed over to me while I was out on a food/water/rescue mission during my time here before I came back over for the long haul. Another volunteer and I were looking for a cat in a ruined neighborhood and there was a couple across the street from an address we were scouting who asked us what we were looking for. We described the cat we were looking for and I noticed Noni (her real name) was hanging around their yard. I enquired about her and the husband said that she was their cat. He offered her to me and told me to take her instead! She was so sweet and I noticed she was pregnant, so I couldn’t say no. His wife scooped her up and placed her in my arms.

As he was doing this, he also mentioned that she had had two previous litters. I didn’t hesitate in promising him that I would find her a great home. Noni and I bonded immediately, but I didn’t make arrangements to adopt her before my short two-day break during the holidays. She was there when I returned and I knew then that it was meant to be, so I officially adopted her. She lives near my desk in Kitty City and will meet her sister and brother (Celeste and Kanji) when I return home.

Photo credit goes to Clay Myers.

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