Hello Furiends,
Yes, it’s true, the deadline for our feature last week came and went and our Purrsonal Assistant completely dropped the ball. I am pleased to tell you that after an intense staff meeting and a stern warning (and some extra treats), The Human has changed her ways and promised to meet our stringent editorial standards. This also includes handling our comments on the wonderful blogs many of our furiends run. We advised her that there would be no future slacking (yes, she was quite ill but this should not effect the level of service at Feline Opines.

We have been blessed (or cursed depending on your point of view regarding snow) this winter and although we’ve had a lot pf purrcipitation here in the Inland Northwest, it’s been mostly rain. We indoor kitties have no opinion either way but The Human was thankful she was spared snow shoveling when she was sick. Since the subject of snow came up this week Oliver, Lily and I decided to imagine ourselves in a snow setting and each of us had graphic made to reflect our preferences. We then decided this week’s web wanderings would be about cats and snow.

Oliver said he fancied himself in the snowy woods on a snowmobile. Yeah right, Oliver can’t even stay in the room when The Human rolls out the vacuum monster.

Lily purrfers the gentler, more old fashioned snow activities and thinks sailing down a mildly sloping hill on a hand carved sled would be her winter activity.

As for me, I’m not so excited to get out in the cold but I’d be happy for a rest in a tepid spa (I do love water) with a catnip cocktail and a nice view of the snow outside.

And now on to our wintery web news finds. I hope you enjoy.

Blueberry, a 5-year-old cat, was brought to the Caldwell Mill Animal Clinic in Birmingham, Alabama after her owners began noticing she wasn’t feeling well. The cat remained at the clinic over the weekend and on Tuesday morning the cat took a turn for the worse.  Two of the clinic’s technicians came in, braving the ice and snow to take X-rays that showed the cat had ingested something and was in need of immediate surgery.

Dr. Nicole Martin knew she had to get to the clinic to help Blueberry. The temperatures were frigid and the roads were so icy drivers were warned to stay off the streets. Martin decided that since she lived the closest and she needed to get to Blueberry so she set off and walked the three miles to the clinic.  

The operation was successful and the object that Blueberry had ingested was removed. Blueberry is recovering fully thanks to the dedication of Dr. Martin and the technicians at Caldwell Mill Animal Clinic.

As a side note, we were a bit surprised about snow in Alabama so we sent our researcher to find out. She located a site called Does It Snow.com, checked Alabama and found out this isn’t unusual. Who knew?

A stray kitten was stuck outside during Wisconsin’s snow storm until volunteers came to her rescue.

Rescuing a kitten in a snow storm was probably not on Sara Dykstra or Karen Hendrickson’s list of 2024 goals.  They had been receiving reports of a kitten living in the rocks along Bradford Beach. Volunteers from the Urban Cat Coalition in Milwaukee spent over a week trying to trap the kitten. They estimated it was three or four months old and they knew she was in rough condition.

After snowstorms battered the area for a week an Arctic blast plunging temperatures to below zero was predicted. The kitten survived the storm but rescuers were worried she’d freeze. They knew they needed to trap her and get her inside.

This is why Sara Dykstra, of Milwaukee, and Karen Hendrickson, of St. Francis, found themselves at Bradford Beach early one morning.

“We had such a limited time frame to get her before this -25 wind chill temperatures were coming in that night,” Dykstra said. “If we didn’t get her, we didn’t think she would survive.”

It was difficult for them to think that this little kitten had survived the conditions at the lake but survive she did. They were able to locate the kitten in the rocks but she refused to come out. When she did venture out a bit to check out the trail of food they’d place leading to the trap.

“We could see her and she would meow to us, but we just couldn’t reach in and grab her,” Hendrickson said. “She was too far down and too scared to come out.”

After two hours in the cold, neither woman wanted to give up. They didn’t want to leave the kitten to a certain doom. They tried another tactic, removed a shoe lace from one of their boots and hoped the kitten would be enticed to play with it. One played with the shoelace that fascinated the kitten and the other one fed her ham. She got close enough and they were able to swoop her up.

Once in the cage Ruby was taken to the home of one of the rescuers so she could be warmed up. She was then taken to the veterinarian for a checkup. She was declared healthy with only a flea problem. Her weight was good and so was her fur and there were no eye or respiratory infections.

Ruby spent a few weeks with Henrickson. She is slowly being socialized and the hope is to pair her with another single kitten and to have the two adopted together at the Urban Cat Coalition.

What a wonderful story of survival and kindness and determination of these wonderful women.

Cat enjoys “zoomies” on frozen pool

It’s always fun to see felines joyfully embracing winter.