Shelter me!

This story is about “unadoptable” cats that came from the Animal Rescue League (ARL). Everybody in the shelter felt sorry for these cats.  They had been rescued from the streets and they were very beautiful animals (as you can see from the photos). The 7th (not seen in the group featured immediately below) is another orange cat. Coincidentally, both orange cats were named Garfield.

If you think these are sad looking cats, you’re right. Nobody wanted to adopt them.

(Who’s who:  left to right-top row: Shasta, Violet, Garfield;left to right-second row: Elmo, Kiki, Petunia). At the time ARL called, we didn’t have any barns to place to cats in, but that didn’t stop us from trying to figure out how to pair up these cats. Keep reading to find out what happened….

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When we asked our pals at ARL to put the two Garfield cats together in order to evaluate their compatibility, a neat thing happened. The cats became inseparable playmates. We found the barn by posting a plea on an equinesite. Or you could say they found us.

The pictures of the Garfield boys in their acclimation cage were taken day-of-arrival in their new barn home. The bottom row photo was taken by the barn owners several weeks after the cats were set free in the barn.

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We put Petunia and Kiki together with Violet and delivered the three of them to a barn in New Hampshire. Petunia and Kiki nervously settled in and Violet was a disaster. We could not get Violet out of the carrier. We left the barn and were resigned to bringing her back to the shelter when all of us caught a lucky break. We stopped to pick up cages just over the Massachusetts border and the barn owner took pity on Violet. Violet ended up living in the cat version of Shangri-La. These photos were taken in her new home with her new family.

 

 

               Violet in the shelter.                                     Violet in the barn.

 

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We mentioned Petunia and Kiki earlier. If you look at Petunia’s picture up top (second row; far right) - she is awfully scrawny, especially compared to Kiki who looks healthy but awfully unhappy.  In their new home, they bed down in a heated tack room with a cat door that lets them come and go as they please. We took these photos several weeks after they were released…

Kiki relaxing on couch in tack room.

Each cat has her own food bowl. Petunia doesn’t like to share.

Petunia is five years old. It took her a long while, but she finally found a home (with a little help from a few friends).

Here is a sweet update we received from the barn owner on June 15th

They’re mousers!…Petunia had one in her mouth this morning waiting to greet me, what a good girl!…And Kiki was batting one around on the floor last night as I did night check acting so proud to show off her kill to Mommy…By the way Kiki has turned into this total love bug, as soon as she sees you she comes running over for her lovins’!..

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We’re down to Shasta and Elmo. Shasta is the black and white cat, a one year old female, abandoned on the street. Not too friendly to other animals or people. In fact, she made us more nervous than Violet did, initially. Everyone decided that she ought to be placed alone. So, we found her a barn where the owner said Shasta would have goats for company. That sounded good to us. Here is one of the goats; here also is Shasta on day-of-arrival. Relaxed enough to eat, which is very good.

 

Then we got this update from the barn owner -

Shasta is doing great.  She’s so friendly, purring and meowing and wanting to be petted.  She’s really playful too my friend and I were playing with her with some baling twine.  She’s eating well too (she had some salmon last night for a snack)

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We still had to find a barn for Elmo. We didn’t know what to do for her.  In the photos at the top of this page, she is the grey cat, second row, far left. We felt bad for her but our well of barns, so to speak, had run dry. We sent a photo of her to Shasta’s new owner and got this promising reply -

I just looked at Elmo’s picture, she’s looks very unhappy.  Somehow we’ll do something to help that kitty.  If she’s in any danger of being put down, let me know asap.

 A week later, we received this note from Shasta’s owner. Things were looking up - 

Actually, we were talking about Elmo the other day.  You’re definitely not being a pest.  I just sent my neighbor an email.  We both decided we’ll help the cat, it’s up in the air where it will actually live, my barn or hers.  I’ll let you know when she emails me back.

I ended up bringing Shasta in the house, she seemed like she needed interaction with people or other animals.  She gets along great with the other cats and the dogs and she’s very talkative.  If you talk to her she meows back at you.  I had her in the spare bedroom for a couple of days then opened the door.  She goes almost all the way downstairs but likes to stop at the landing and stick her head through the railing and meow.  She also runs from the spare bedroom into mine then out again, all you see is a black streak.  Very funny.  She’s definitely happy.

Shasta’s barn owner did indeed save the day. Her neighbor took Elmo. It was a great relief to us. We hated the idea of leaving one cat behind. She shared these pictures with us -  taken after she released Elmo from her acclimation cage - She looks great.

So, that’s how seven unwanted cats found barn homes. We do a lot of  sweating when we are trying to find barn homes for unadoptable cats like these. We welcome donations to cover our travel and other related expenses. Today, this program does not pay for itself.  Any amount will help us. You may donate through our secure Paypal site by clicking this link. Many thanks.