​Hi Friends and Family of the Catty Shack,

It's been awhile since we have touched base but we are still slogging our way through kitten season. If you have been to the Shack lately, you may have noticed an inordinate amount of kittens scampering around. And they just keep coming!

The good news is, we had 16 adoptions last month and already have 10 for this month. Our fosters are holding their own with most of us having between 6 and 10 kittens at any  given time. I think Michelle and Megan Kelly hold the record for having the most fosters at one time this year which I think was 17! They deserve medals!
I think I have the youngest at present...3 three week old bottle babies I got last week.

Also, our vets at Mile Hi have been amazingly good to us, always working us in whenever we call, doing multiple spay/neuters in a day, just being so supportive and willing to keep kitties for observation and special care. We seriously couldn't do this without their support and help. Just one day last month there were 19 Catty Shack kitties there!

If you have never fostered, you won't realize the intense amount of work it takes to bring kittens from just days old to ready to be adopted. These are the boots on the ground people who make it all happen. When we get a call on cats and kittens in distress, it's the fosters who make their rescue happen by saying yes and being willing to open their space and give their time to bringing them to health and giving them the social skills it will take for them to be adopted. They have a skill set that they are constantly polishing by use. I can't say yes if they don't say yes so Kudos to them for giving their time, resources and sleep to rescue these vulnerable ones. At last count, we had 14 fosters with kittens.

And we have fosters who have opened their homes for people to meet their kitties before they get to the Shack. 4 of our adoptions so far this month have come from a foster's home. We also have a photo album at the Shack now where people can see a picture and read a bio of a kitty not yet at the Shack.

In the last few days we had Leah, Rupert and Murdock adopted from the Shack as well as adoptions from fosters' homes.

Thank you to all of you who are involved in one way or another with us and our mission to take Cats off the street in our tri-city area. We appreciate your support and faith in us.
If you are looking for news or happenings at the Catty Shack remember you can find us on Facebook at cattyshackrescue, Instagram at cattyshackrescue and our website is cattyshackrescue.org.

We will keep you posted, Susan

​HELLO AGAIN,

(You can tell when I have a day off and try to play catch up!)

I just want to share a few things with you...again! To demonstrate how much help we get that we may or may not be cognizant of.

First Gloria Toft. Gloria was a long time foster for Lolly who started P.A.A.L.S. They took the first 2 kittens I rescued, back in 2010, into foster for me and then Lolly died shortly after. The person who fostered them, Gail, is currently fostering for us again. But Gloria had stepped back from fostering until she said she might foster again and got the kittens from Hades! Leah, Levi and Ali, who unbeknownst to us had RINGWORM! The word that strikes terror in the hearts of rescues everywhere! But, like the trooper she is, Gloria stayed with them until they were done with the ringworm and ready to come to the Shack. If anyone doesn't know what this entails read up on it. It is mind numbingly, exhausting, continuous work with mountains of laundry and medicating while all the time trying to avoid getting it yourself. If you would have seen what they looked like, and I did, you wouldn't have believed it would be possible. So we thank Gloria, for she basically saved their lives. Every single one of them would be gone now if she hadn't stubbornly dedicated herself to saving them. An angel for sure.

And speaking of ringworm, we had a woman bring a kitten in that she found in the road last Tues. It is between 4 and 5 weeks old. We took it to Dr. Baxter at MileHi after she said she would foster it. He is riddled with ringworm and has URI. She is keeping it in isolation at MileHi until the ringworm has subsided but he is eating and recovering nicely. A huge favor for her to do for us. And when a woman who was waiting to see the vet heard the story, she donated 50.00 to us thru MileHi to care for the kitten. Another 2 angels plus the rescuer.

Then last Saturday a woman contacted me about a little kitten found after the big storm.  She was distraught and brought the little orange tabby by NOAH. I said we would take him as he obviously needed fostering. Then the rescuer handed me a check for 200.00 for taking him and Julie, a NOAH volunteer, offered to foster him. 2 more angels.

And, we are losing our Sunday Angel, Ivy Broiles, who is leaving to go to college. Many of you may not have known that Ivy came to the Catty Shack every Sunday, a day when no one else came in, and spent time with all the kitties so they didn't have to spend the day alone. It eased my mind so much to know that the cats and kittens weren't left to their own devices all day by themselves. We will miss Ivy, our Sunday Angel, but wish her the very best as she moves out into the world to pursue her education.

We are so fortunate and blessed to have so much support, concern, compassion and caring. I thought you ought to know what goes on behind the scenes at the Catty Shack.

Susan and the kitties

​Hi All,

If you are receiving this email it is because you have contributed in a big way, as a volunteer or foster, to the success of the Catty Shack.

We had 16 adoptions in July and have started August off with 2 adoptions right away.
You made this possible by contributing your time, money and energy to making us a success. Whether you are cleaning, feeding, doing adoption shifts, bringing in signs, greeting the public, doing paperwork, taking pictures, printing, buying food, making photos for the public to see, trapping, fostering, raising and contributing money, talking us up, doing follow up phone calls with adopters, doing laundry, helping people in distress who have or have found a cat, returning  phone calls from people with cat issues or anything else I haven't listed, you can see just a part of what it takes to make our rescue run smoothly.

The help from a trapper and fosters are what make this operation sing as we are able to rescue straight out of the situation and take the vulnerable kittens and cats into a safe haven until they can be assessed, have their issues addressed and decompress enough to be adoptable. If you think coming into the Shack for your volunteer shift and dealing with all those kittens and cats is work, imagine living with them until they can cycle through the Shack and be adopted! It's a lot of work and fun!

We passed our 500 cats rescued mark last month and sailed right on to 515 as kittens have been brought in off the street to us and our daily phone calls have been answered. You can be proud of this number and the accomplishment it represents. And it wouldn't have been done without each one of you bringing your unique and individual skills to our tiny but mighty rescue.

I salute you and recognize your skill and sacrifice in bringing this to bear and look forward to our continuing partnerships with each other. I value each and every one of you and the skills you bring to our association.

Susan

Remember that we are on Facebook and Instagram at cattyshackrescue and our website is cattyshackrescue.org to follow the happenings of the Shack as they are posted.

​Hi Everyone,

A quick note out to say we just adopted 8 kitties and cats in 7 days! Woo hoo!

4 of the kittens were adopted through their fosters and never got to the Shack. Then we had our little Russian Blue girls, Alexis and Ellie, go together to their new home where they were given fancy names!

Then our shy and special boy, Morgan, was adopted by someone who saw his true beauty and specialness. Morgan was brought to the Catty Shack by his kitty mom, along with his siblings and lived in the backyard until we could get them in.

And our very special adoption announcement is that Jasper got adopted. He had been at the Catty Shack since March of 2015. He had been rescued as a two week old kitten along with his mom, Missy, and three siblings. When they came to the Shack his siblings Agatha and Sinbad were adopted quickly and Jasper and his bonded brother Einstein were left and never seemed to be noticed. Einstein was adopted earlier this year and Jasper's life became shut down and  very internal. Then one day last week someone came in and SAW him. She said ...that's the one...and he went home with her the next day. We are hoping he is able to come out and enjoy life again. All our love and good wishes go with him.

Thank you for witnessing all our stories and supporting our work. Our best to you all,
Susan and the Catty Shack Team

​Hi Friends of the Catty Shack,

It's been awhile since I have posted any news about the doins at the Shack so I think it's time!

We had Tiger Lily, Edith, Aurora, Victoria and Heart all  adopted. Now that we have kittens, all the adults are getting adopted! Actually that's not true. We had 3 kittens and a mom adopted from foster.

Speaking of fosters, we have 9 hard working fosters this year and it is making all the difference. We started pulling kittens in off the street in May and just kept going. The fosters have made it possible for us to do that. We have seen right at 100 kittens this season already. We have pulled or are keeping an eye on the majority of them. Only a couple of groups have gone in a different direction because of sheer timing. Along with them have come moms who have been spayed, males that were hanging around and a few strays.

So many stories. The group with the deceased mother whose body we were able to test so the kittens could be cleared for FIV/FELV. Several calls with close to 20 cats each needing help. The lone kittens found wandering and put with others their own age. The 3 day old kitten who brought us a foster. The five 10 day old kittens found and bottle fed. The cats abandoned over a year ago, still waiting to be given a home. And they are still rolling in. We are working tirelessly to keep from having to TNR any kittens. We hate the thoughts of consigning any kitten to the short, dangerous life of the street and strive to hang onto them until we can bring them in.

We added battery operated lights on timers for a couple of rooms at the Shack and they
are a nice addition. They are hung up high so the cats can't reach them and add a homey touch.

We are in the process of printing up brochures to use for fund raising. They are beautifully designed, triple fold pages with lots of info. You will be seeing them soon!

We will be announcing a day to give the Shack a makeover also. We are aiming to do this in one day with lots of people. So if you would like to help, we will let you know. All materials are provided and we have a specific look we are aiming for.

We had magnetic car signs printed up for the Catty Shack and they are available at the Shack. They turned out nicely and were done by one of our volunteers.

We feted our volunteer, Paula, who lives in Missouri, at El Gato Azul and it was a fun celebration of her always coming to help while she is in AZ visiting her dad.

We also got listed on AdoptAShelter.com and you can order items through Amazon.smile or check our wishlist for items we need on Amazon.com.

We do have things in the works we can't talk about yet and some exciting news but that's for next time.

In the meantime we are rescuing cats and kittens!

Thank you for making this all possible,

Susan and The Catty Shack Volunteers and Kitties

​Good Morning Everyone,

It has been so long since I sent an email out with news that I thought I should reassure everyone that...yes, we are still here, yes we are very busy and yes we are rescuing daily!

We have 47 kittens in foster and 33 more we are working on bringing in off the street still. This year, orange is the new black! And orange and white. We have 9 fosters as of this writing and more inquiries so we are really pleased to have attracted that many people who want to help save kitten lives. I don't have to tell any of you how precarious the life of a kitten outside is and how fragile they become without the proper food or if orphaned.

And we are not leaving the moms behind! We are so happy to have the help of a pro trapper who goes the extra mile to make sure there is an understanding for the person who calls in with the "problem" Cat of how to care for the cat and kittens until we can get them in. Then mom and any males hanging around get spayed, males neutered and returned if feral or placed if friendly. We are calling it...NO MOMS LEFT BEHIND! And we couldn't do it without the willingness and sacrifice of someone working to make it all right. This involves endless hours on the phone, driving to sites, setting traps, transporting back and forth and real dedication. We are fortunate to have this talent working with us.

AND...we have had adoptions! I don't know how far back I left off but Ava and Cookie, 2 long term residents have been adopted. Ava and Tiger Lily were returned and Tiger Lily is being adopted today. We had a mom and kitten adopted before they reached the Shack and it looks like 4 other kittens will be going to homes instead of the Shack so we are moving along. We had Shadow, our declawed older boy, adopted too.

The youngest kitten we found this year was 5 days old and we have had several groups of bottle feeders. We lost our first two kittens this year and have also had our first encounter with ringworm in a foster group. Luckily our intrepid fosters are undaunted by these issues and keep moving forward to bring our babies to health. I could write a book about it!

But I won't. I will just try to keep this email short and to the point. We, of course, always need help of any kind that you can spare whether it be time, money or resources. We have been getting wonderful donations of food and goods and also money to keep us going. You can imagine what it will cost to get all those kittens spayed/neutered, shots and fed until adopted!  We are now on AdoptAShelter.com, Amazon wishlist, GoFundMe,
And have a PayPal button. We are under Community Cats/Catty Shack. Check out our website cattyshackrescue.org, facebook@cattyshackrescue, and Instagram @ catthyshackrescue .

There is so much more I could tell you but I will end by saying thank you for supporting us in this endeavor to take the kitties of the tri city area off the streets and into homes. You are our life blood and make it all happen.

Susan and the Catty Shack Crew, Fosters, Cats and Kittens!

We're on Adopt-A-Shelter.com now. You can visit Adopt-A-Shelter.com or click this link to get started. Search for Community Cats @ Catty Shack Rescue, and, from there, you can start shopping online. Your purchases will directly help Catty Shack Rescue. Thanks!

​Hi Everyone,

We have a few newsworthy items to inform you of.

First off, without any fireworks going off or drum rolls or anything, we quietly passed the 400+ mark in cats rescued since our non profit started in late 2011. That is the number of cats we have taken off the streets of the tri-city area. While it doesn't seem like nearly enough just let your imagination take you to the tri-city area with those 400+ cats still out there! You have helped us spare that many cats and kittens the untold suffering of lives on the street they would have experienced without us.

We have 28 kittens at the present time along with mothers and others who have either joined the Catty Shack or are being held in foster until they can. We, like everyone else, can use more fosters so if you know of anyone who could foster put them in touch with us. We need fosters for kittens but also for single cats we are bringing in as strays to be adopted. They are friendly, tired, hungry and needing a place to decompress and remember what life could be like before they were abandoned, dumped or run off.

I wish I could convey to you what heroes our fosters are. We absolutely could not continue without them. They fill in the needed gaps in care, round the clock feeding, medical care, vet visits, socializing and so much more. They are the ones who say YES every time and even volunteer themselves without me asking them. It is amazing and awe inspiring how much they give of themselves with no expected reward but to say good bye to the little ones they have raised so carefully with so much concern. They are the best!

Today we adopted little Lilly to a new home and wish her every happiness. What a sweet little girl from a mom found as a stray in Williamson Valley. We lost her little brother in post op for his neuter surgery, something new to us, and she had to adapt to being a lone sibling. But the two fosters who had her then took in 5 more kittens so Lilly would have siblings. She never saw a stranger, whether cat or human. Good luck little Lilly. We are a little lonely without you.

We have welcomed several new volunteers to the Catty Shack and have some exciting things in store for the future which we will be sharing with you.

Don't forget to visit our Facebook, Instagram, GoFundMe and website catthyshackrescue.org for quick news flashes and kitty fixes.

Thank you for being part of the Catty Shack Family and for your support and caring. We couldn't do ANY of it without ALL of you!

Susan and the Kitties

​Hi Everyone,

This weekend we very quietly, with no fanfare, slipped over the 400 mark of cats taken off the street since 2011 when I registered as a non profit under the name Community Cats. We actually are at 405 and counting.

If you are receiving this email, you had a direct hand in making that possible by the countless volunteer, hours, miles and resources you have donated for this to happen.

I have no words to express the depth of feelings this brings up for me as we continue to make this dream of reality happen together. Thank you for feeling the same way I do about these lives and their value in the world.

And I know I speak for the ones we care for when I say Thank You for saving our lives.       

Susan