Happy December Furiends!
I hope your Thanksgiving was purrfectly wonderful! It was nice having The Human at our beck and call for four days. We could get used to all that attention! One bit of good news is that Lily is slowly coming out of her grief and spending a little time with Oliver and I -horray, progress!

Now that it’s December, we are trying out some holiday photos and memes. Trust Oliver to not take this activity seriously!

We will be attempting some more festive pics before Santa Paws comes. And now it’s time to enjoy this week’s feline news fresh from the web.

Former rapper left behind music career to rescue cats

Sterling Dabvis is one of The Human’s heroes. He was a presenter at this year’s Cat Writer’s Association award ceremony and she embarrassed us by being such a fan girl! But we agree, he is a hero to felines.

He began his cat career when he was home in Atlanta after a rap tour. He went to apply for a job at his local shelter. He says, “I did horrible in the interview because they had cats in the room and I was playing with all the cats, kissing all the cats,” But he still got the job to trap, vaccinate and neuter community cats.

It became obvious to him quickly that men were in short supply in the TNR and rescue world and he asked, “Where are all the guys and where are all the Black people?’’

In 2017 he started his own non-profit called TrapKing Humane Cat Solutions with multiple goals that included changing relationships and enlisting the help of Black people and also men with cat rescues.

The mission of TrapKing is to change the stereotypes of not only men in cat rescue, but also bridge the gap in communication between black communities and animal rescue/local shelters. 

Sterling Davis is making inroads in so many areas of cat rescue and bringing people into his passion that have never even thought about helping kitties before. You can follow him and his adventures on Instagram.

Oakland-based ‘Cat Town’ is a cat-sized city for rescue pets

Ah, more creative humans working to get cats adopted. Cat Town in Oakland, California is a feline sized city with scaled-down models of popular Oakland landmarks. And you won’t find cages here. Kitties are housed in “studios” and there is even a Quiet Zone for stressed out felines. They want to save every area kitty from euthanasia and by providing a calm, happy environment for these cats they are successful.

Manhattan cat owner says sitter refuses to return pet

Meowza, this is one for the books. A plant store owner in Manhattan is claiming her cat sitter won’t return his feline. This feline, is the best marketing draw for the store. When the store was forced to close because of the COVID shut down, a woman offered to care for Sammy, the shop kitty and now is keeping him.

According to court documents, the sitter was a friend of Sammy and stopped by the store weekly to visit him. The cat had lived in the shop for years and Amanda Walker (the alleged cat thief) and asked to purchase or adopt Sammy and take him to her home. The offer was refused.

The plant store owner was stuck in Florida and unable to travel due to doctor’s orders and Amanda texted him saying, “Please let me know if I can help take care of Sammy! I love him! Hope you are safe and well.” The offer was accepted and after the store was reopened, she requested an extension of Sammy’s time with her. Soon she began avoiding him and refusing to take his calls.

Walker even threatened to get a restraining order as Krstic persistently tried to get his cat back, the court documents say. The owner said he kept calling, begging her to return the cat and she took out a restraining order against him.

The cat’s owner says he is distraught as he had Sammy at the store for four years, ever since Sammy was a kitten. He noted in his complaint how much “young kids love Sammy” and referred to Sammy as a “huge draw”. He also said he takes care of Sammy like his own child, and that Sammy is like part of him. He is suing for the return of Sammy and for damages as well.

Now don’t get me wrong, this feline would never condone taking a cat away from it’s human but I wonder why the cat was left in the store when the owner went to Florida? And whose welfare are these humans looking after, theirs or Sammy’s? What do you think about this legal hissing contest?

Jay County Humane Society partners with Portland Police for cops cuddles with cats

Paws up to the innovative folks at the Jay County Humane Society who are running an innovative program to get kitties furever homes. They are teaming up with the Portland Police Department  to encourage people to adopt cats with some adorable photo shoots and a reduced adoption fee of $20.00 for a program called “ Cats and Cuddles with Cops”. The program was a great success.  

A HISTORY OF FELINES, AS NARRATED AND ILLUSTRATED BY A CAT

Well of course we’re going to give this book a paws up! It’s written by a cat about cat history and since we’ve written two books Felines Opine on God, a Devotional for Cat Lovers and Felines Opine on Etiquette: What Humans Need to Know About Guests, Cat Sitting and Furniture (with the third one, Are There Head Bonks in Heaven? coming out at the end of the year) we feline authors must support each other!

When Paul Koudounaris went to the Los Angeles North Central Animal shelter in 2011 he was disappointed to find out that the feline he wanted to adopt had already found a furever home. As he tells it, as he was walking toward the door, a striped paw reqched out from a wall of cages and grabbed his shirt. It was love at first sight and Baba had her furever home.

Today she is the narrator and model for the book, A Cat’s Tale: A Journey Through Feline History. The Tribe is quite impressed with Baba’s historic knowledge as she retells tales of cats throughout history.

We say concatulations on your new book Baba!