« ATM Kitty - Adopted December, 2005 | Main | Jimmy, Dusty & Cherie - Adopted January, 2006 »
December 31, 2005
VISIONS OF SUGAR PLUMS...
“The children were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of sugarplums danced in their heads.”
For the hundreds of homeless cats and kittens in our community, the vision is quite different. There are no beds, much less sugarplums. With plummeting temperatures, reduced food sources, frozen water and scarce shelter, many will die of exposure this winter. Our municipal governments have chosen to ignore this crisis and our no–kill shelters are always full. For the many homeless and forgotten cats in our community, there is, quite simply, “no room at the inn.”
Friends of Felines has a different vision – a community where homeless and abandoned cats are no longer forgotten.
Cats are abandoned every day by people who should never have had a cat in the first place. Many have not been spayed or neutered, and their inevitable offspring are considered "feral" only because they are not socialized to humans. In all other ways, including their need for shelter, food and our interference with their "reproductive rights." they are as domesticated as their parents.
We can’t take them all in - every shelter in the state of Connecticut combined couldn’t take in all of the homeless cats in lower Fairfield County - but we can prevent hundreds of homeless kittens from being born in the first place. Our volunteers humanely trap abandoned, stray, and feral cats. Adult cats are sterilized, vaccinated and returned to their environment, but when possible – as space and funding allow – those tame, abandoned cats we find living within a feral colony are placed into our foster program – and our boy Christopher was one of the lucky few.
| Once someone’s pet, and suddenly homeless, two-year-old Christopher’s first lucky break was finding a feral colony where FOF had already completed a Trap-Neuter-Return project*. The resident cats objected to the newcomer, but the colony’s caregiver welcomed Christopher with food and shelter, and while she laughed at the clever ways he begged for attention, she was saddened by this sweet cat’s loneliness. We were saddened too, but foster homes are hard to come by, so we left well enough alone. |
 Christopher Begging |
 The Happy Patient
|
Christopher made it through that winter, but in the spring he stopped eating and was loosing weight – the least we could do was take him to our vet, where he was promptly admitted - and promptly began to eat again! It was just a hospital cage, but with his own fleece bed and plenty of company, he was soon back to clowning around and begging for human attention. Good enough to be returned to the colony… |
Can’t donate right now? We understand. Please remember us when you can.
 Still Clowning Around | And Christopher? Of course we didn’t put him back! We dragged our feet a bit and boarded him for a while, then we suddenly got lucky with a new foster home, which – and who could resist? – became Christopher’s Forever Home. It does take a community after all. |
We wish you a joyful holiday season and a happy and healthy 2006,
Elysa Gillan, Janine Paton, Christopher, and all the Friends of Felines
*Christopher’s old haunt was once plagued by the strain of feline overpopulation – worn out mothers, sick and dying kittens, fighting, injured tom cats – Friends of Felines can proudly say that with the cooperation of a wonderful caregiver, this managed colony is living out a happy and peaceful life - and after four years, not one new kitten has been born!
Posted by Becky at December 31, 2005 03:55 PM