One of the volunteers for us lives on the east coast of Florida, and makes the drive over to For the Love of Cats, to help and share her love for the kitties. While she makes the drive across the state using E. Tamiami Trail as her route, she makes a routine stop at a gas station half way, in the middle of the Everglades.

She has come to learn of a mother cat who has lost litter after litter, due to the dangerous conditions of the Everglades. She resides here.  It is a tough life out there for a cat to survive, let alone an entire litter of kittens. Hawks, eagles, vultures, and don’t forget the Florida Alligator, are all a threat out there in the great wilderness. After many attempts of trying to trap the litters, our volunteer was having no luck. By the time she would get back to the litter, they were all gone.

One of these visits, she spotted Momma cat with one kitten left. This kitten seemed to warm up to people, but not enough to get close to grab her. Many attempts were made to save this little kitten from the same fate as the rest of his litter, and finally with a little luck the kitten got close enough for our volunteer to grab him up and bring him here, to the shelter.

He became known as Roman. Roman at first was very shy and timid, as he knew nothing of an indoor environment. He was very sweet however, and won over the hearts of many volunteers, as his charming purrsonality was that of a champion. He did however have a hard time learning to socialize with other cats. He lost his litter mates at a young age, and was never taught socialization with other cats. It took Roman a lot of slow careful patience to trust other cats, but with constant work and dedication from volunteers, he finally became able to trust other cats and be around them.

Roman was recently adopted into a loving family, but now has to adjust to life in a house. He loves his family very much, and is very nervous to venture out into much of the house, calling a bedroom his ‘house’. While Roman was at the shelter, he fell in love with and took care of a little 6 month old kitten named Salvadore. He treated Salvadore like he was one of his lost (but not forgotten) litter mates.  It was suggested to Romans new family that they consider getting another kitten around 6 months of age to help Roman adjust and be comfortable in his new home life. After little hesitation, Roman soon had a new buddy and playmate. They instantly fell in love with each other love to play all day long. Roman now has an example to follow, when it comes to getting used to a house (outside of a bedroom of course!) .

Roman is lucky and it was his fate that he found his forever family outside of the great wilderness that is Southwest Florida.

Please check our box and enter to win this fun contest! So many of you have sent us such great photos of your ‘kids’- one is surely a winner!!

Best of luck!

Jan and Jim

What would happen to them if something suddenly happened to you? A plane crash, a hospital stay, a bad accident? Is there a possibility that your pets will outlive you? For your pet’s sake, have a plan. Most of you have a will and probably a trust so that loved ones are provided for. What about Fluffy or Scruffy? Ask your family members or trusted friends and add to your will so that they are taken care of “just in case”.

Hundred of thousands of wonderful, loving pets are killed every year because their guardians did not have a plan in case of emergencies. You have friends, family, recreation, vacations, dinner out, parties and social occasions. Your pet only has you for its friendship, love and security. They give you everything they have without question and they deserve your attention to making a plan for their security if something should happen to you.

Disaster can happen at any age and suddenly.  We adopted a sweet young cat, Sooty, to a family 3 years ago with 2 young children. Since that time, the husband and wife have divorced and the wife was living alone with her now early teenage children and Sooty. She had a massive heart attach and died at 48 years old! There was a plan for the children. She did not have a plan for Sooty. Fortunately, Sooty came back to us. For the Love of Cats has an agreement with adopters. For Sooty though, sitting in a cage surrounded by strange cats, kittens and people, is traumatic. Studies show that animals grieve in their own way. Cats have the mentality of a 5 year old child. They blame themselves. They are frightened, sad, depressed and lost without their loved one. With time and lots of love and reassurance, they begin to want love again and we can find them a new life much the way we all must go forward after losing a loved one. Sooty is one of the lucky ones. Most pets are surrendered at the county shelter where they sit terrified and alone in a cold cage until they are killed to make room for more or worse yet, thrown outside by un-compassionate relatives or landlords to take their chances against the traffic, weather and coyotes.

None of us like to think about the possibility of something disastrous happening to our lives but your pet needs your ability to love them beyond the grave by finding a person who would be willing to take your pet and love it as their own. Please make this your most important resolution to keep for 2012. Your pets will thank you!

At 12 weeks old and living outside without any real human interaction, most kittens this age are too feral(wild) to be domesticated but we always give the kittens the benefit of the doubt before they must be fixed and returned to their colony. Yogi was worried but never hissed or growled or tried to bite. With quiet words and slow movements, I reached for his back to give him a reassuring stroke and he just rolled upside down for a belly rub! This was a kitten that was so happy to be inside and cared for. Yogi was full of fleas so we had to wait for the Revolution to work its magic for 36 hours and then after a flea combing, just to be sure, Yogi was in our arms purring and adoring the attention! Every day he has demanded more attention and even though we have only had him for 2 weeks, you would think he had been home raised. Mother cats are responsible for this response.  If the mother cat is truly feral, frightened or has been abused by people, they have a way of communicating this to the kittens just days after they are born. Consequently, if they are people friendly abandoned pets, they tell their kittens that people are good.  Yogi’s mom is a sweet, shy abandoned house cat that is fixed now and she is lucky to be living in the yard of people who truly care for her.

For several years now, we have been talking to people who have lost their home and jobs and even though it is so tough on families, their pets have had the worst of it. The number of abandoned cats  has risen from a lot to overwhelming. Hundreds of animal friendly people are caring for these new community members and we are helping to fix as many of them as we have funds.

Yogi is one of the lucky ones!

Our plan was to go back the next morning and collect all the animals and bring them back to the shelter and go from there. When we got to the apartment the next morning, someone had locked the door! Calls to the building manager and then to the condo owner gave the manager permission to unlock the door. Thank God! The apartment was an absolute disaster. This guy was in the process of moving so stuff was everywhere. One cat is a big, black and white male who was so friendly. The other two cats where purebred chocolate Persians.

The 3 cats were settling in at the shelter as Jim and I made calls to friends about the sweet hairless rat. “Of course, I’ll take him!” said Linda, our rat-loving friend.  Another call to a volunteer and this sweet little boy was on his way to his new home in Naples.  The hermit crabs were sleeping in my office when the bailiff called.  His daughter  loves hermit crabs so they came over that evening to collect them. While all this was going on, Jim went to the jail with a surrender form to have the cats signed over to For the Love of Cats for adoption. That did not go as well because the man refused to sign it saying that the black and white cat was the last friend he had in this world and he did not want to give him up.  We found out later that the Persians belonged to his mother who had died several months earlier. Our call to Domestic Animals Services  helped us with the process of dealing with inmates and we finally had the Persians  signed over to us while we fostered them for 2 weeks.

Those poor little Persians. They are brother and sister, Java and Mocha, so frightened and nervous and terribly matted. It took over 5 hours to gently comb and cut those nasty matts away. Within days, they were both starting to relax and eat regularly. They are a beautiful pair and had to stay together. Finding them a home together would take some time.

We spent Thanksgiving with friends and while enjoying the feast, talked about our special pair of kitties. It is strange how events and people come together. A couple at the celebration had a single ragdoll cat and they had owned Persians for years but did not have any now. “You should meet them!’ Jim said and off we went with our bellies full of turkey and pecan pie to make the introductions. It was love at first sight! Little Java and Mocha had a hew loving home! Their new mom affectionately calls them the “twins”. The sister is a princess, of course, and the little boy follows his new mom all over the house just to be close. Their ragdoll and little Java are the best of friends. Both get brushed several times a day and are now spoiled rotten and just beautiful and happy again.

It was the best Thanksgiving ever!!!

We have learned that once a kitten has herpes virus that they have it for life. As they grow into adult cats, any stress or pressure on their immune system will give them runny or goopy eyes or in the case of Giselle, she may develop small sores around her tail if she gets stressed. It is similar to herpes virus in people who get “cold sores” when they are stressed. Cats that show signs of having herpes virus are not contagious to  other healthy cats so they can have other cat and dog buddies.

Syrena’s kittens are 5 weeks old now- running, playing and discovering the world around them- we are enjoying their antics now so stay tuned for more updates on these little cuties!

Click on the link below to read the full article on MarcoNews.com

http://www.marconews.com/news/2011/jul/28/paws-cause-feline-artists-display-their-artwork-ma/

Tangelo — Not too long ago, Tangelo had a person in his life he thought could trust and was a friend. Unfortunately, Tangelo was mistaken and the man slammed a pipe onto his tail, killing the nerve endings. She helped Tangelo with the nerve damage which is affecting his bladder, and she worked with him giving him healing energy and relieving his pain.

Minnow — When Minnow was born, she was one in a litter of three. Sadly, Diane said that the other two kittens from her litter didn’t survive, and she was then found and brought to the shelter.

The Lime Terrace Kitties — Diane said that the mother of the Lime Terrace Kitties was accidentally trapped in a delivery truck and was brought to Marco Island. She then tried to protect her kittens here by keeping them away from the yard of big dogs.

The cats and kittens here at the shelter thank Diane greatly for her beneficial and healing services. For more information about Diane’s fascinating services, please visit her website at www.dianeschuette.com.

She enjoyed a day at our “kitten spa”, which includes:

• A complimentary shampoo and blow dry
• Manicure and pedicure
• Flea medications, testing and vaccination, plus…
• BONUS internal cleansing program!

She’s now very happily growing and playing with her new friend Minnow.