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  • You can’t clone my Jack Russell Terrier

    There was a story in the New York Times on January 1st about cloning pets. (”Beloved Pets Everlasting?” by Eric Konigsberg) One of the pet owners waxed poetically about the desirability of enjoying their dog for the equivalent of a human lifetime, as opposed to a dog lifetime. Hmmmm.

    Personally, I have a hard time believing that it is possible to ‘clone’ an animal and recreate the same exact set of emotions and personality.

    But I will admit that the cloning scenario breathes new life into the old nature vs. nurture debate: Are we (or our pets) the sum of a lifetime of experiences or simply the product of our genes? Or a mixture of both? I opt for the latter, in which case 100% duplication is not possible. Is it?

    If we had not adopted a little Jack Russell Terrier recently, I might not be thinking about this at all.  He is so friendly to adults and children alike we tend to think he has been very well treated throughout his life, if not genuinely loved. But as far as we can tell, we are his third, possibly his fourth owners. Why has he been passed around so much? It is a riddle that may never be solved.

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    When I look at him, I can’t help but think that the experiences we have with him today and tomorrow will be unique because he is (and we are).  Therefore, the idea of trying to artificially extend our life with him or any beloved pet after its death — through a cloning procedure — strikes me as unrealistic. 

    Are attempts to clone pets an expression of their owners’ desire to exert superhuman control over mortal events? It sounds a bit like that. But, as an old friend of mine used to ask, how does that affect the price of tea in China? So, let’s just say it seems sad and ironic that in the USA where 5-7 million cats and dogs are being surrendered to shelters every year (like our own little terrier pal) and 3-4 million of them are being euthanized, there is money to be made in cloning dead pets. 

    Even if I took a hands-off position, “Caveat Emptor. It is not my business if someone wants to spend $150,000 to clone a pet,” I have to believe there is no such thing as replicating a dog’s personality in a cloning experiment. A pet’s personality (not unlike ours) will be a sum of genes and experience and the temperament and knowledge that grows out of that immeasurable brew. 

    In the case of our dog, we knew he would have a high energy requirement because he is a Jack Russell Terrier and they are thoroughly energetic. We expected him to be an intelligent little guy because his breed is known to be very smart. What we did not expect is that he would have a prenaturally calm disposition and be so well-prepared to bond with us at the relatively advanced age of eight (which is roughly middle age for a JRT).

    When we got him, all we knew for sure was that he was loveable. We had no idea that he would insist on welcoming every single person he meets on the street, that he would invariably greet babies by licking their nose, that he would sit rockstill on my lap for hours at a time while I worked on a computer, or that he would be capable of sleeping through the night for eight or more hours curled in a ball on my pillow. These are the unexpected delights and we cannot imagine another dog, never mind a clone, replicating his generous spirit. Maybe that is the way it should be; that is also the way it is.

      Sandy Bodner

    No Comments »Sandy Bodner on January 6th 2009 in Essays

    Dewey the Cat: We recommend it!

    We finally read it and we really liked it. It is a sweet, true story. If you decide to buy this book for yourself, or better yet, gift it to a cat lover…we would be grateful if you used this link, as Shelter Me will get credit. Happy reading.

    No Comments »admin on January 5th 2009 in Nicholas Dodman

    Barn Cat Journeys

    This pony and cat are featured in the Barn Cat Journeys video. Photo by Brian Ciavola

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    2 Comments »Sandy on December 21st 2008 in Adventures with Barn Cats

    How the Barn Cats are Working Out

     

     

    Out of 40 placements: 

    5 disappeared

    4 do not catch mice

    31 seem to be doing very well

     

     

    #1-7 are the Gardner Animal Control cats - safe and sound after 9 months;

    #8-13 came from Second Chance Fund working with Worcester Animal Rescue League;

    #14-17 are the siblings our friend Lori rescued from the Malden Diner basement;

    #18-19 were two unrelated feral strays from Billerica Cat Care Coalition and MRFRS that we added to a barn we had previously worked with in Upton;

    #20-28 were ‘unadoptable’ cats from MRFRS in Salisbury;

    #29-31  were cats that were returned to MSPCA Methuen because of litter box problems;

    #32-34 were kittens that our president Sara Carlisle rescued and paid to neuter;

    #35 was a feral kitten that Morene took home from her vet;

    #36 was a stray cat who ended up at the MSPCA in Methuen after Shelter Me paid to neuter him;

    #37-38 were two kittens that Kitty Kats rescued from the streets of Brighton, MA;

    #39-40 were two kittens that Kitty Kats rescued from a dumpster in Rosalindale, MA.

     

     

    ______________________40  Shelter Me Barn Cats____________________

    Here are one-by-one updates by name and locale:

     

     

     

    1. Mushy - Very happy at a barn in Littleton. When we went to pick up our cage, the barn owner was at a horse show; we saw a cat that looked an awful lot like Mushy looking out a window in the house. 

    2. Tiger aka Tigress - Living the good life at a barn in W Newbury. She drove an vole family out of the barn; she has the run of the loft and the tack room. They don’t let her out because they are afraid the coyotes will get her. You can see her video in our Cat Rescue section.

    3, 4. Sketter & Mittens - Very settled at a barn in Ipswich. Their owners are a small animal veterinarian and her husband. The cats are not skittish anymore; they are pet-able.

    5. Max - Happy at a barn in Boxford, although he was missing for two weeks recently and in the interim, we brought the barn owner 2 kittens that KittyKats had rescued from a dumpster. The day after the kittens turned up, Max returned. We are glad to report he is a good mouser. More on the kittens later.

    6, 7. Tiny & Felix  - Settled at a barn in Upton. They rarely leave the loft. We are pretty sure they catch mice.

    8. Mino aka Milo - Very happy at a farm in Mason, NH. His new owners installed a screen door in their tack room so Milo could see into the stable. They changed his name to Milo because they thought Mino sounded like a fish.

    9, 10, 11, Samantha & Elle & Gretchen - Elle & Gretchen are doing great at a farm in Fairhaven. Samantha appears to have run off. Although there is a feral colony in the neighborhood, we cannot be sure that she has taken refuge there. We have to count Samantha as a loss.

    12, 13. Juliet & Romeo - Living happily in Orleans. When they first moved in, Juliet was the friendly one and Romeo was very timid. But after they were released from their acclimation cage, Juliet started running around the farm and Romeo became the friendly one.

    14, 15. Guinivere & Rosalyn. We settled these girls at a barn in Mendon. They were not friendly during the acclimation period, which was not surprising because they didn’t have a relationship with humans when they were living in the basement of a diner in Malden. We received this message from the barn owner about a month after we dropped them off…

    They do seem to be getting a little better. They don’t “run and hide” when I feed them or clean the litter box now. They kind of look at me with complete disdain.  Not great but better. A woman who volunteers for Purrrfect Cat Shelter in Medway told me she’s had 2 ferals in her house with her for 9 mths and still can’t touch them so I figure I’m making some progress. Hopefully the barn will be finished by next week and I can start letting them out. I know you probably need the cage but I don’t want to rush it and spoil everything.

    After the barn owner opened the cage, one of the cats moved into the new barn and the other stayed in the old one. We thought that was a little odd. Not too long after, the cat in the new barn started leaving dead mice around for the owner to see. The barn owner thinks that this is a demonstration of the cat’s affection for her.

    16, 17. Jake & Jim. These are siblings of Guinivere and Rosalyn.We settled them in a large barn in North Easton with an enormous hayhoft. They were so standoffish during the acclimation period that the barn owner kept them in the acclimation cage for 6 weeks. When she let them out, they disappeared for four days. Then they came back, began eating their food regularly and are frequently seen running around the barn. There are no longer mice in the feed room.  We posted a video about the these little guys on our youtube channel called, Rescuing Cats from a diner in Malden.

    18, 19. Rhonda & Carla. We placed these two feral, unrelated cats in the barn with Felix and Tiny. These cats were not adoptable; they had no place to go and we thought that we would be able to create a small colony. It didn’t work. Both of them ran off not long after they were released. Since most of the cats we have placed successfully were ‘bonded pairs’ (e.g., siblings or at least well-acquainted because they lived together in the same shelter) we tend to think that we made a mistake trying to settle unrelated cats. Many other rescue groups say that shouldn’t matter. But we cannot help but think that resettling unrelated adult cats in a barn is difficult to do successfully.

    20, 21 Jewel & Clementine. We shot quite a bit of video of these girlsYou can see them in Barn Cat Journeys.

    They live in a beautiful barn in Groton.  Jewel never, ever came out of a black carrying case that we placed in her acclimation cage. When her new owner opened the door, Jewel promptly moved out of the barn and into a pasture next door. She did not have a very positive influence on Clementine, either, who became increasingly skittish after she was released from the acclimation cage. In fact, neither Jewel nor Clem caught any mice at all in their barn; they much preferred to chase chipmunks in the fields.  So, they were healthy and happy but initially ignored the job they were hired to do.

    22. Samoya. He is a beautiful, huge orange cat  -  part Maine Coone - who did not get along with any other cats at his shelter. At the cage-free MRFRS shelter in Salisbury where he resided, he shared an office with Stacy Lebaron, the president of the organization. While he got along fine with Stacy, he had to be separated from the rest of the population to ensure their safety. We settled him into a barn in Northfield, Conn. His new owners renamed him, Chester. He is much loved and oddly, is no longer a threat to other cats. We received this email from his owners…(We still need to find out if he has ever caught any mice.)

    Sandy
    He is really funny, no mice, but you will never believe this… He has a friend, I have no idea where this cat came from but I have seen a tiger cat that “hangs out” with him. As soon as the cat sees me it bolts, but Chester does not chase him, and it seems as though they sit near each other. He is like a little dog, always right there with me, no matter where I am, he finds me. He really is a great cat.

    23, 24. Daisy & Inky.  Inky is Jewel’s daughter and they are a lot alike. Inky takes off the moment anybody spots her. But she is healthy and hanging around the barn. Daisy has become friendly enough for the barn owners to pet.She seems really happy. They appear in their own video in the Cat Rescue section of our site and make a special appearance in Barn Cat Journeys (at the very end). We love their barn; it has the coolest guinea hens we have ever seen. Three of them move together as if they were connected. It’s a riot and very noisy.

    25, 26. Taz & Salem. This guy and gal came from MRFRS in Salisbury. Taz was one of those cats that never, ever came out of the house we placed in his acclimation cage. Salem was a lot friendlier and even got to the stage where the barn owner could pet her. After the cats were released, they did their job, caught mice, and the barn owners sometimes saw them playing in the fields. Then Salem went missing and everybody was heartbroken.  Salem has been gone more than a month and we have to call her a loss. But the barn owner was worried about Taz. She didn’t want him to be alone and when we posted a notice about two feral kittens that needed a home, she took them in to keep Taz company. More on them below. 

    27, 28.  Gypsy & Birdie. These two came from MRFRS; they were just terrified of people. We took them to a fabulous barn with a heated tack room in New Hampshire. A calico was already in residence as were a couple dogs. They get along fine with the other animals. The last we heard the cats were still too freaked out to leave the tack room when anyone was looking.

    29 Pumpkin aka Mr. Peabells. Pumpkin was a day away from being euthanized when we took him. He was unadoptable because of a litter box problem. We counted ourselves very lucky to have found him a lovely barn in New Hampshire with a young couple that kept goats and chickens and a beagle that became Pumpkin’s best friend. They renamed him, Mr. Peabells, and told us he had a habit of visiting nearby neighbors and hanging on their screen door until they let him into the house. Everybody loved him until the day he disappeared. We have to count him as a loss.

    30, 31. Molly & George. They were not adoptable because of litter box issues. We placed them in a great barn in Sturbridge with a very friendly horse and a donkey as Barn mates. There is a video of them in our Cat Rescue section. During the acclimation period, George loved to sit in his owner’s lap. Molly was a little braver. But once the cage door was opened, George took to the fields. Molly was so beloved that they moved her into the house to sleep at night, but returned to the barn every morning. Then an unexpected thing happened: Molly refused to come into the house anymore, spent her days catching chipmunks in the field and dropping them on the front steps of the house. Neither one catches mice in the barn. Sightings of George are few and far between. Molly remains personally elusive. 

    32, 33, 34.  Cheddar, Cody, Blue. They are living happily in Groton; Clementine is a full member of their little tribe. The mices and birds have left the barn building. Jewel is starting to come into the barn after 9 months. See Barn Cat Journeys for a video report.

    35. Stripe.  He was a beautiful calico kitten that bit quite a few people, including three people at his first foster home, Sara, the president of our group, when he got loose in her tack room just before she took him to be neutered, a barn owner that returned him about 2 weeks after we delivered him, and me (when I went to pick him up). We took him home for a couple weeks, set him up in an acclimation cage on a very nice porch, and wished we could keep him. But we couldn’t. We also couldn’t pet him. We took him to live with Felix and Tiny and asked the barn owner to keep him in an acclimation cage in her garage. She petted him the day he arrived, struck up a great friendship with the little guy, and last we heard, was considering turning him into an indoor-outdoor cat.

    36 Sylvester aka Mr. Kitty aka Mr. Smitty-Living happily at a farm in Abingdon. He was a stray whom we neutered as a favor to the woman who was feeding him. He got into fights with her other cats so she gave him to a friend. He got into fights again and the friend turned him into the MSPCA. We were sort of flabbergasted that a cat we saved could end up in a shelter. We found him a barn home and they fell in love with him. This includes the husband/wife owners, a horse named Centauro and three little dogs that he plays with very nicely. See him in Barn Cat Journeys.

    37, 38 Gidget & Gadget- These twin black kitties were as cute as could be but they were not friendly, and a barn seemed like a lot better place for them to live than the streets of Brighton, MA. We posted pleas for a barn for them and were happily surprised when Taz’s owner called to say that she thought he needed company and would take them in.  We received this email from her some weeks after we dropped off the kittens…(You can see them in Barn Cat Journeys.)

    Hi Sandy,
    Just wanted to drop a note and let you know that Taz and the “sisters” (Gidget & Gadget) are doing VERY well together. We closed up the barn and opened their cage on Thanksgiving Day. It was a nice warm day and they were happy to be out. They remained close & stayed in the tack room for almost a week before they found their way to the loft with Taz. Now the 3 of them are living up there together and seem very content. The kittens are soooo happy to be out of their cage. They run around like crazy in the barn and have found their way into every nook and peak down to spy on us from the eaves. The larger black one (Gadget) walks the rails over the horses stalls. She’s very curious. When they run around upstairs they sound like a herd of elephants. When it’s feeding time, they come & sit on the steps to wait, or I find them curled up together perched on the highest hay bales in the loft. They’re all very shiny and look fat & healthy. Taz especially, he’s very fat & fluffy now.
    Sadly, no Salem.

    36, 37 two orange cats for Max - Just settled in Boxford. When we brought them, Max had gone missing for two weeks, but returned a day after they were settled in. The kittens are currently (as of 12/08) in an acclimation cage in a heated tack room. Last we heard, Max sits on his owner’s lap when she is visiting the kittens.

    No Comments »Sandy on December 21st 2008 in Adventures with Barn Cats

    Ricky Ferreira visits Dotty Luff, Cat Lady of Highwood Condo

    Ricky joined Shelter Me to produce a series of programs about animal rescue.  For the first installment in his new series, “CATASTROPHES,” he visits Dotty Luff and meets the half dozen cats that she and Purr-fect Cat Shelter and the Animal Control Officer of Franklin look after.  The cats’ feeding station is built on land that belongs to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; it is situated next to the Highwood Condomium in Franklin, MA, and has become a flashpoint for controversy. See this situation from Ricky’s vantage point. He has a great hip hop sensibility.

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    highwood3.jpgMarina F, who owns one of the Highwood  condos shared photos of  the cats with us.

    No Comments »admin on October 27th 2008 in Condo Association Threatens Cats

    Humane Society Issues Action Alert to Protect Highwood Condo Cats in Franklin, MA

    CLICK THIS URL AND IT WILL TAKE YOU TO THE HSUS ALERThttps://community.hsus.org/humane/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=28197878

    7 Comments »admin on October 10th 2008 in Condo Association Threatens Cats

    Our Favorite Animal Behavioralist: Nicholas Dodman

    An Interview with Dr. Nicholas Dodman, BVMS, MRCVS, one of the great animal behavioralists, about his new book. If you have ever wondered, as we have done, how to select a dog that matches your personal lifestyle and personality, this is superb reading.

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    Here is another one that comes very highly recommended…

    1 Comment »Sandy on September 22nd 2008 in Nicholas Dodman

    a note from Morene about Woody the barn cat

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    Sara and Woody visiting with Corey

    Woody is now 13 1/2 years old, and we have been privileged to have him

    as a barn cat for the last 7 1/2 years.  Our former neighbor was moving

    to Georgia.  She was going to put Woody down because he had always been

    their outdoor cat and she couldn’t take an outdoor cat with her.

    Luckily, I met her for lunch and she told me about Woody.  He just

    happened to be hiding under a car when I pulled up in the driveway to

    drop my neighbor off after our lunch.  When I saw that he was orange, I

    knew I had to save him! (We have a thing for orange cats).

     

    Woody was a mess when we got him in early December, 2000.  He was very

    matted and terrified. But he loved people and loved being in the heated

    feed room.  He had previously lived in an unheated garage. Although we

    would carry him all over the barn, into the hay loft and up to the

    horses, Woody did not leave the feed room for 6 months.  Tricia, our

    barn manager, finally enticed him out with treats.  He is one of the

    most food motivated creature in the world.  And yes, he is a great

    mouser!

     

    We always joked that Woody looked like a bowling ball on legs, but in

    2002, Tricia noticed that he was drinking and urinating an inordinate

    amount.  She suspected he had diabetes, so we had him tested. He had

    indeed developed diabetes so we started him on shots.  All of us have

    learned to give sub-cutaneous shots, which are actually very easy to

    give.  After a period of close monitoring (blood tests, which Tricia

    could draw) we settled into a routine of one morning shot each day and

    special DM food for diabetic cats.  The DM food is high protein, low

    carb, and is available at any vet’s office.

     

    Woody is not only a fixture at our barn, but is beloved by many of the

    neighborhood walkers who walk by our farm each day, and stop to pet him.

    He is the friendliest of cats, with an extremely soft coat, that he

    keeps very clean.  He is fearless around the horses, and follows Tricia

    out to the paddocks when she turns the horses out in the morning.  He

    comes out to keep our daughter Sara company when she is teaching a

    lesson and if there are people sitting on the viewing stand, he will

    come and join them. The Minuteman ARC crew who cleans the stalls on

    weekdays dote over Woody and give him lots of love and pets.  Our horse

    vet has privately told me that Woody is one of his top 5 favorite cats.

     

    At first I thought I was doing a good deed by rescuing Woody, but it

    turns out that we were the lucky ones, because he is one of the best

    creatures who lives on our farm!

     

    No Comments »admin on September 3rd 2008 in Our Favorite Cat Tales

    Before the Last Meow

    Tue Jul 22 03:00:02 2008 Pacific Time

          Nonprofit Says Lack of Foster Homes Hurts Animal Rescue More Than Lack of Funds

    MEDFORD, Mass., July 22 (AScribe Newswire) — The first time Shelter Me, Inc. (http://www.sheltermeinc.org), a fledgling animal rescue organization, ran into a capacity problem, the culprit was not lack of money. The immediate cause was deceptively simple: exhaustion. After rescuing approximately 48 cats and kittens, the group’s extended network of supporters reached its super-saturation point. Family, friends and business colleagues had variously trapped, bottle-fed, fostered, and adopted every animal they could. More foster homes were needed and there were none to be found.

    While a shortage of foster homes remains Shelter Me, Inc.’s leading challenge, the challenge is not unique to this young organization, just passing its first year anniversary. An insufficient number of foster homes plagues nearly every large and small rescue organization across Massachusetts. The lack is especially acute during the summertime breeding season when the exploding birthrate of stray, wild and owned cats fills all available space.

    A smattering of posts (minus identities) extracted from http://Masscats.org a listserve of 300 volunteers and professionals, on an average day in July reinforces the sense of desperation when helping hands are in short supply:

    - I know everyone is full up, but I just wanted to let you know that the MSPCA in Methuen and Lowell Humane Society are both officially FULL… they are desperate for any help possible. If you know of anyone who might be willing to help these organizations with adoption or foster care or transfer please contact them directly. I hate this time of year!

    - We have been called to a colony of 2 feral adult cats and trapped 6, 7-week old kittens as well. I know everybody is busy, but if there’s anyone who can take them, please e-mail off-line. 3 orange, 3 diluted tortie/gray tiger. I am in Middleboro and will drive almost anywhere.

    - I trapped a cat last night who is in need of a foster home. He is a very sweet guy, but pretty beat up. Angel Umbrella was going to take him, but they just had a cat dumped in their parking lot yesterday, who had to go into the last cage. I am paying $165 a night to keep him at Angel right now as I cannot have him in my house. Can you help….even on a temporary basis until Angel Umbrella can make room for him?

    The limited availability of foster homes is most severe when all the children in the Commonwealth are on vacation and hundreds more households might - at least theoretically - be available to play with homeless kittens for 2-3 weeks until they are old enough to adopt out. There are virtually no costs to participants. And yet, no effort has ever been able to substantially (i.e., geometrically) increase the number of children and their parents willing to join a foster cats crusade.

    Difficult to understand why foster homes would be a hard sell, although many clues reside in the failure - of all undertakings to date - to lower the overpopulation of cats in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

    Over the last two decades - despite the efforts of numerous rescue groups to provide free and low-cost spay/neuter (http://www.massanimalcoalition.org) - more adult cats were surrendered to MSPCA shelters in 2006 - 11,209 - than in 1986 - 10,961.

    To place this worsening state of affairs in perspective, consider the number of dogs being surrendered in the same period was reduced by more than 60 percent, from 12,117 in1986 to 4,564 in 2006. While success is credited to multiple strategies, including aggressive spay/neuter and licensing, the situation is not entirely parallel.

    “People buy dogs. Cats are more likely to ‘happen’ to people,” is an observation Carter Luke from the Massachusetts MSPCA shared at a Mass Animal Coalition meeting earlier this year. He was referring to the sense of elasticity that surrounds “ownership” of cats, which leads to many lost opportunities to control the population. For example, if someone feeding a stray cat on their back porch does not consider themself an “owner,” that person is less likely to assume responsible for spaying or neutering the animal. Unfortunately, the consequences of inattention are explosive. An unspayed female may have four litters per year, a reproduction rate that often begets disease and starvation.

    Perhaps sadder still are the young healthy cats that enter the shelter system in the summer months, surrendered by their owners. They face euthanasia in open admission facilities that must continue to accept additional animals, even when they have no more room. At precisely that moment, a foster home is the difference between life and death for the animal. A foster situation buys the time to find a more permanent home.

    There are dozens of organizations willing to train, support and supervise the foster homes. Ironically, it is not money the animal rescue movement needs at this specific moment. Money is always welcome but it cannot close this immediate gap. Only foster homes can do that. Help us put the word       - - - -       CONTACT: Sandy Bodner, sandy@sheltermeinc.org

    No Comments »Sandy on August 13th 2008 in Before the Last Meow

    We found Dutchess and Cindy in a shed…

    Dutchess was only about 9 months old herself when she and her kitten were found in a shed. dutchess-2.jpgcindy.jpgdutchess-3.jpg

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    No Comments »Kathy on August 7th 2008 in Our Favorite Cat Tales