Hello Furiends, I wanted to take my turn to chat this week about a group of incredible humans from a Facebook group called This Cat is CHONKY. They are the kindest, most wonderful group of humans you will ever meet. One note though, you have to apply to join the group as it is private.
If any of my feline furiends have something they’d like to meow about on Cat Chat just send us a couple of photos and let us know what you want to say. And don’t worry, if writing’s not your thing, I will have our Purrsonal Assistant do the writing for you and email it over before we record the chat. You can reach us at FelineOpines@gmail.com.
Hello Furiends, It’s my favorite time of the week when our feline furiends have the opportunity to let the world know their thoughts. This week’s Cat Chat is a feline Cinderella story and a reminder of the power of love.
Tyler lives with his human Mollie Hunt (a professional member of Cat Writers Association and fantastic author) and Ginchen (a previous Cat Chat guest)
This handsome brown Tabby man cat with brown stripes has quite a history and the fact that his new life suits him is illustrated by his healthy weight, 14 pounds and counting. And by the way, Tyler is the light of his human Jim’s life!
Furiends, if you are a feline with a message and would like to “chat” on our Thursday feature, send us an email at FelineOpines@gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you.
Hello Furiends, How are things in your neck of the woods? We’re doing fine here, although I have to say I didn’t appreciate Lily photobombing me the other day.
“Lily, your ruining my shot!”
I finally got Lily away from my photo and got a purrfect shot of my amazing whiskers.
“Majestic if I do say so myself!”
Meanwhile, Oliver was having a bit of an existential crisis which, thankfully, he was able to resolve.
Yes Human, I am in the sink
But, why am I in the sink?
We’re happy that Oliver has resolved his crisis and hope your week will be crisis free.
Good grief, my feline furiends, you’ve got to stop getting yourselves stuck in trees. I wrote about this last week and now, I have two stories this week! But this kitty has to say how thankful I am that there are folks that will do this.
These two arborists navigate their way to the top of a tree canopy to rescue stranded cats whenever they get a call. Brothers-in-law, Shaun Sears and Tom Otto have formed a non-profit called Canopy Cat Rescue in the state of Washington.
They risk their lives to save kitties and do it on a donation only basis. Since they started in 2009, they’ve rescued more than 2,000 felines. Meowza! They were even on a 10-part reality series on Animal Planet in 2015 called Treetop Rescue.
These guys know how to care for kitties. When they reach the frightened feline, they give him a gentle rub on the head before they put them inside the string bag to bring them down the tree.
These humans have had some challenging rescues but nothing stops them, because, as they note on their website, “As cat people ourselves, we know how horrible it feels when a cat is missing and then cries for help are heard up in the trees. “
Canopy Cat Rescue’s dedication to treed kitties knows no bounds and they will take a rescue call any time, day or night in any kind of weather. You can click here and watch one of their rescue videos.
In 2020 these heroic humans rescued 665 cats! Paws up to you!
Theses humans are not a non-profit but they offer their tree climbing skills to Georgia felines who’ve found themselves trapped in trees. Are you sensing a pattern in this week’s news articles?
This is another family rescue affair with Naomi Rice and her husband Jody taking time away from their business, Wild Rice Adventures to rescue cats. As experts in rope assisted tree climbing they have helped many needy felines.
Their knowledge of rope-assisted tree climbing and relevant equipment made them the purrfect people to respond to felines in need. It all started four years ago when they helped get a cat out of a 60 foot tree because the fire department would not help. Their desire to help the community has resulted in many more kitty rescues.
Their fee is $50.00. They assess the situation looking to rescue the cat without harming the tree. If the cat’s owner is in good physical shape, they may have the owner do the climb as cats often respond the best to the owner. They rig the rope and get the owner “geared up” help them get to the top of the tree and then bring them down with their cat.
These good folks have returned many felines to safety. You can learn about their feline clients with videos like this one on their Facebook page.
It looks like, my furiends, that if you’re going to get yourself stuck up in a tree you’d better be in Georgia or Western Washington! But better yet, STAY OUT OF THE TREES KITTIES!
The Joe Willie Project supports senior kitties, those with special needs or ones are semi-feral. (Courtesy of Marin Humane)
Now you don’t have to rescue cats out of trees to be a hero. Mark M. Glickman’s life was changed and inspired by a cat he rescued that was named Joe Willie. The feline had significant medical issues and was older when he was adopted by Glickman over 25 years ago. Because of the love and furiendship Glickman shared with his feline Joe Willie, he began to think about special needs cat who would benefit from a higher level of care in shelters. Glickman created the Joe Willie Project to honor his furry furiend and began working with Marin Humane to help special needs kitties. The program supports medical, behavioral and placement help to promote adoption of senior kitties with special needs or those that are semi feral.
Since it’s inception, the Joe Willie Project has funded more than 160 medical procedures, paid adoption fees of more than 100 senior cats and provided behavior assistance for more than 1000 cats.
The fund has paid for state of the arts kitty condos specially designed to reduce anxiety. Studies have shown that cats that are overly st5ressed tend to contract upper respiratory infections. The Project has placed almost 700 semi-feral cats (cats not happy as house cats but not independent enough to live on their own as true ferals) in safe, caring environments by working with Marin Humane partner Marin Friends of Ferals. These cats are placed with adopters who provide basic food, shelter and veterinary care for them in barns, warehouses or other semi-protected areas.
This kitty says kudos to these humans who are thinking outside the box and helping felines with special needs.
Every year supporters of Faithful Friends build cat shelters to keep colony cats warm throughout the cold season.
The organization set a goal to raise $5,000 for supplies and build a minimum of 200 cat houses. So far, supporters have raised $4,630, and 142 cat houses have been created. A local Eagle Scout Troop 29 participated in the building.
Many kitties will be safe and warm this winter thanks to these good folks!
The House of Cats Ernesto sanctuary cares for cats who were hurt or abandoned due to the war in northern Syria.
Mohammad Youssef, the veterinarian at the sanctuary, said “We are working on sheltering stray animals such as cats and dogs, and we are contacting local councils in the area to help the team carry out awareness campaigns among civilians on the need to care for animals as a humanitarian duty.
The sanctuary was first established in 2014 in eastern Aleppo, but when that area became a war zone, the veterinarian took all the cats that were at his house in Aleppo’s western countryside and fled to Idlib where he worked with other volunteers to establish the House of Cats Ernesto.
The sanctuary is officially recognized and licensed and was built in Idlib in early 2019. The organization is funded by donations from animal lovers around the world. The group is looking to open new sanctuaries so that all the animals in northern Syria are protected and cared for.
How wonderful it is that these humans in these war torn areas are willing to care for kitties and other animals affected by war.
Hello Furiends, I hope this Wednesday finds you well. It’s been a bit boring in our neck of the woods and it appears that The Human has taken this lull in the schedule to mock us. Granted, Oliver seems to have received the worst of it. She entered two social media events, #childhoodphotochallenge and #unflatteringcatphotochallenge. I have posted the photos below and will let you be the judge.
Okay, this one isn’t too bad but poor Oliver in the next photo….Oliver may have lost a large part of his fan base with this pic!
I would suggest to all my furiends that you watch carefully what contests your humans enter you in!
And now, lets see what happened in the feline news world this week.
Sometimes you’re looking for a book, sometimes you’re looking for a cat and now you don’t have to decide between the two at the Auburn Public Library in Maine due to their cooperation with the Greater Androscoggin Humane Society. You can find feline’s hanging out in the library’s teen room. Customers can come in with a 30-minute browsing pass. That gets them in the library for 30 minutes, whether they want to look at books, read the newspaper, visit with the cats and yes, some come specifically to visit with the cats.
Library staff approached the Greater Androscoggin Humane Society about getting a feline boarder last spring. Employees had returned from their COVID-19 shutdown, but the library was still closed to patrons. A temporary resident cat felt like a good morale booster.
This library receives our Paws Up award for creative thinking and for helping more felines find homes!
Wow! You humans are really stepping up your game when it comes to helping felines find their furever homes. The Feline Advocates of Leon County Florida opened a new book store earlier this month called Fat Cat Books.
The book store is part of Fat Cat Café, also operated by the Feline Advocates of Leon County. Organization leaders say while the café is home to a lot of kittens, the book store is geared toward senior cats.
Eight to ten cats will live inside the store, all of them up for adoption. The book store opened last week has already had three cats find their furever homes.
Evidently, the Chinese take umbrage to a feline hitching a free ride on a train. Humph, I bet this wouldn’t have happened in a cat loving country like Japan!
We felines have a way of getting around and Gunnlaugur is no exception. He lives in the north of Icland in a village called Varmahlio.
Gunnlaugur the cat, who lives in the northern village of Hofsos, was found around 31 miles away in Varmahlio, where locals had posted a picture of him online in hopes of finding his owners.
Gunnlaugur first went missing in June, but his humans said it isn’t unusual for him to disappear for several weeks at a time so it was a while before they figured he was missing. He had appeared in Vaermahlio and fortunately, someone had seen a Facebook post about the missing feline so they were able to reunite him with his family.
These two villages are abut 50 kilometers apart (about 31 miles) and ther are many lakes and rivers the cat would have had to navigate to get there.
His humans, upon his return home, remarked that he was a bit portly when he left but is now slim and trim and he has returned to his job keeping mice at bay in the stable and enjoying his equine friends.
You humans have been meowing for years about dogs who resemble their owners but nobody (until photographer Gerrard Gethings began to photograph feines and their look-alike humans.
Gethings first started with a series about dogs that resemble people before he began his feline photography. He does say that shooting cats is more difficult because cat’s (if they deign to come out from under the bed and join you) are easily fed up.
No matter what he had to go through to get these pics, I say they are amazing! Who knew humans could look as good as cats?
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