Breezes Cat Boarding Retreat

11/07/2024

22/06/2024

14/06/2024

UPDATE! Please sign the petition https://chng.it/7WB55NnSSD

KEVIN’S STORY! We were contacted by a lady on Tuesday night at 9pm who had three hungry cats visit her house in Burwood. Kevin was a sprightly healthy friendly boy probably about 8-10 months old and had a congenital foot deformity from birth, which you can see below. It didn’t seem to bother him. We organised to help Kevin and the other mum and baby and asked her to keep feeding the trio and keep them inside. Kevin didn’t have a name but we owed it to him to give him one and respect his memory.

Unfortunately she was impatient and at 9am on Wednesday morning she contacted RSPCA NSW to come and get him. They had a vehicle in the area and picked Kevin up from the lady and told her that his foot was the result of a birth defect and they would probably kill him as a last resort. They would not take the mother and kitten (wearing a jumper) that was with him (luckily as it turned out). We surmise they were a neighbours cats looking for food.

We started posting for assistance for Kevin and his two little friends on Wednesday night not knowing the RSPCA had already swooped in. The lady who was caring for them told me after we posted and we had arranged to assist her, that she had called RSPCA and they had come and taken Kevin but not the others.

As it was too late to contact RSPCA on Wednesday night, our volunteer Lesley phoned them around 8.30am Thursday morning asking if he was alive and that we would take him into our care. She was told by the receptionist he was at their Yagoona shelter and she would update her by calling her at 10.30am. She didn’t say any more than that. Lesley never got the call. At 11am Lesley phoned again and the receptionist she spoke to was on another call and so she left her details asking for the receptionist to call her. At 2pm yesterday Lesley still hadn’t heard from them so she called and found out they had killed Kevin less than 24 hours in their care. WE ARE ABSOLUTELY DEVASTATED! 😡😡

We then phoned RSPCA immediately as we got the text from Lesley that he was dead. 😩😭

The response from the receptionist was that he wasn’t microchipped or registered as the justification for killing him. I reminded her that RSPCA as with all animal shelters has an obligation under the law to hold stray animals for 7 days. I asked to escalate the matter and asked to speak to management. She said someone would call us. We didn’t receive a call so phoned again later yesterday afternoon only to be assured someone would call us. WE ARE STILL WAITING.

Just to give you context Sydney Street Cats receives upto 5 referral calls each day from RSPCA NSW asking people to contact us to rescue their cats. We are a one man band volunteer operation who punch well above our weight rescuing cats. We are NO KILL and have rescued 1,200 street cats in 10 years and have only had to put a handful of cats to sleep over the years through end of life or being mortally injured. We treat every cat that is injured or sick we don’t spare any expense they all go on to live their best lives.

RSPCA NSW kill 28% of cats that come into its shelter (over 4,000 in 2023). They receive $65million in annual revenue and has $136million in cash reserves and a brand new $35million shelter in Yagoona. They have hundreds of paid staff members and a CEO purportedly on $500,000 a year. People tell me there never seems to be animals there.

We are still waiting to hear from you on why you thought Kevin’s life was not worth anything RSPCA!! And why you did not hold him for 7 days as per the law. He is not feral and his foot is easily treatable.

Who holds RSPCA to account when they fail to help animals when we in rescue work so hard around the clock giving our own money and resources to stop animals ending up there and giving them the best chance to live. Because at the end of the day that’s what any animal wants. It’s up to us to make that happen.

DO BETTER RSPCA! We won’t let this rest and will keep going for Kevin. We love you Kevin💕😢sleep well you beautiful boy

NSW government contacts to complain about RSPCA NSW
EMAIL/ CONTACTS – please add your Mayor and Councilors
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
------------ text in email to include the following ------------
To: The Hon. Ron Hoenig MP Minister for Local Government,
The Hon. Emma HURST, MLC (Chair, Animal Welfare Committee),
Ms Abigail BOYD, MLC (Substitute Member, Portfolio Committee No. 8 - Customer Service, for Pounds in New South Wales)

19/12/2023

The artist and his art

19/07/2023

22/06/2023

12/01/2023

It is with a very heavy heart that we report Dirt, our Boss Shop Cat, passed away yesterday. He was 15 years old, and beloved by everyone here at the railroad and around the world.

Here’s Dirt’s story. In the spring of 2008, a little kitten of orange and white fur was found in the engine house by himself. The mother and any other kittens were long gone. The crew at the time would sit for hours each day with cans of tuna and soft cat food, to get the little fur ball to trust them.

When he finally came around to trusting them, Al, the railroad’s Master Mechanic, took him to the vet for a checkup, shots, and eventually he was neutered. It was live and let live. The shop guys did their thing, and the little kitten did his thing. The warmest place in the shop is in the cab of a coal-fired steam locomotive. There is coal dust everywhere. Over time, our little ball of fur started picking up some of the black coal dust, and he was named Dirtbag. As our visitors started discovering the shop’s cat, it was decided to shorten his name to Dirt.

The engine house and machine shop are very dirty, noisy environments. In addition to the locomotives and railroad cars being moved in and out. Repair work goes on all the time. Dirt got very wise, very fast, quickly figuring out where not to be when locomotives and cars were moving, or work was being performed.

He grew into a large rough-and-tough tom cat that ruled the shop and surrounding neighborhood. We saw him playing fetch with gophers and bats. Don't ask us how he got them, he just did. He hated being cleaned up, but loved being a railroader. It was not uncommon to find him rolling around in the dust outside the shop.

The shop knew he was special, and did what they could to protect him. When Angie, our superintendent, went to work in the mechanical department she became one of his caretakers. She became his nemesis, since she took him for his vet visits. She cleaned him as much as she could, which Dirt did NOT like at all. To make amends, she would sneak him turkey dinners on the holidays.

Mike Calchera, our grizzled track guy, got to scratch Dirt’s ears and would make sure he had clean warm beds, it was Al who was his favorite. Al was our master mechanic at the time, had a soft spot for Dirt. Dirt could do no wrong and was given the run of the shop and the engine house.

The arrangement of Dirt doing his thing, while the shop guys did theirs, would have stayed that way, had it not been for the keen eye of photographer extraordinaire, Steve Crise. It was during the 2018 winter photo shoot; Steve was walking through the machine shop. He happened to notice Dirt, sitting regally, in front of locomotive 40. He laid down on the machine shop floor with his camera, and grabbed the shot with Dirt posing the whole time.
It was a great photo, but there are thousands of great photos out there. What Dirt needed was a publicist, enter Eric Mencis, who was our Guest Services Manager at the time. Eric posted Steve’s photo on our page and the rest, they say, is history!

Who knew that a semi-feral cat, living at a National Historic Landmark Railroad, in the middle of the “Big Empty” of Nevada, would become so famous? We sure didn’t, but boy howdy did Dirt become famous! Google “Dirt the Nevada Northern Cat,” and stories, videos and articles pop up. Dirt has been featured in the Washington Post, Trains Magazine, and newspapers in Europe, not to mention the thousands of individual posts of our visitors that got to take his picture.

All this publicity brought people to Ely to see him, many traveling hundreds, if not thousands of miles. This stunned the staff and volunteers. After all, Dirt was just Dirt, right? Nope! Dirt was a media and social media sensation, and Dirt knew it!

As part of the experience at the Nevada Northern Railway, we offer scheduled guided tours of the machine shop and engine house. Dirt knew the schedule. He would hide away all morning long, but let the 2:30 pm tour come into the machine shop, and Dirt was there to greet them. When the tour was over, Dirt would wander off to one of his many hidey-holes until the next tour.

Dirt has fans that love him from all over the world. But we few at the Nevada Northern Railway Museum are the lucky ones. We got to love him in person. As he aged, we found a vet that loved him as much as we did. Dirt also received more care takers including Jasmine, who would be his last. He never missed a meal, or a head scratch. As he aged and slowed down, he learned to love watching shows on our phones while he was sitting in our laps. After the show, he would leave streaks of dirt on the pants of his visitors, or drool on their boots.

Dirt was one-of-kind. He was the Boss Shop Cat at the Nevada Northern Railway. Con, our Trainmaster, selected a spot on the grounds in between the Depot, and the Freight Depot in the shade of a pine to serve as his final resting place. His burial site is opposite where all our excursion trains’ locomotives sit prior to departure, and it gives a view of the yard, that in addition to the shop, was Dirt’s domain.

But be forewarned, if you’re visiting the Nevada Northern Railway Museum and you’re admiring one of our steam locomotives just prior to departure, don’t be surprised, if, out of the corner of your eye, you see a lanky old guy, holding an orange and gray cat, looking over the locomotive. The old guy will be cursing a blue streak at the crew, while the cat just looks on knowingly. If you turn to confront them, they will have disappeared. But don’t fret, that was just Al and Dirt checking out the locomotive, making sure that everything is running smoothly. After all, they don’t call us the Ghost Train of Old Ely for nothing.

We are all saddened with the passing of Dirt. He will be missed. The machine shop and engine house won’t feel the same without him. His last days were spent with the crew that loved him best. Gathering around, our crew laid him to rest while a Nevada snowstorm blew through. They shared their memories and thanked him for his service. Knowing that they were laying to rest one of their own, a part of the Nevada Northern Railway family. They will all tell you, this was one of the hardest things they have done here.

To commemorate Dirt, we will be having two life size bronzes cast of Dirt. One will serve as his gravestone, the other will be placed in the machine shop, so Dirt can continue watching over the shop. As details become available on the bronzes, we’ll keep you posted.

And don’t forget, Dirt was teaching his protégé DJ, Dirt Junior, the ins and outs of being the Boss Shop Cat. We knew this day was coming, DJ now has big paws to fill.

We will be posting stories on Dirt, and his time at the railroad in the coming days and weeks. Please feel free to post your stories in the comments for all to read.

Sincerely,
The Nevada Northern Railway Crew

Mark, Joan, Angie, Charish, John Henry, Lennox, Josh, Nick, Carlos, Mike Hughes, Con, Mike Hejny, Kurt, Gary, Ron, Bill, Kelvin, Kemper, Ellie, Jasmine, Kat, Jim, Roger, Will, Brian, Zech, Derek, and Michael Green.

01/12/2022

17/11/2022

Truth is, it works 🤫😂🤣

15/10/2022

This joyful ball of fluff is Mickey. He is ridiculously affectionate and all he ever wants is to do is be loved and snuggled. Even while typing out this profile he is jumping up at my hands and rubbing his cheeks against them because I stopped patting him.

Mickey is looking for an indoor-only home where he will be spoiled rotten. He has lived with dogs and cats previously so he should be fine to do so again, with a slow introduction. He loves to have lots going on so he will be perfectly suited to a large family or someone who works from home where there is always someone available to give him a kiss and a scratch.

Mickey is a chonker, weighing in at 6.5kg. This big boi isn’t overweight but shouldn’t be allowed to put on a significant amount of weight either. All that fluff needs to be cared for and luckily he likes to be brushed. He will also need his pants trimmed from time to time to keep him nice and clean.

Mickey is in tip top shape as he has recently had a dental and a small benign lump removed from his cheek. He is not fussy with food, easy to groom and always so happy to see his people. Honestly, he is the best cat. This sweet boy was left behind when his owner moved away. We are looking for a committed home who is willing to care and spoil him for the rest of his life! He is, of course, desexed, microchipped and up to date with vaccinations and parasite treatment.

If you think you can give this sweetheart what he needs you can apply here: https://www.squishiesrescue.org.au/adopt-cat

07/10/2022

Posting for a friend:

This little Miss (Cleo) is looking for a new home.

She’s one year old - Shy but sweet.

Will link current owners details later.

27/09/2022

😹

23/09/2022

😹

23/09/2022

Oh no, you didnt....

16/09/2022

15/09/2022

It's one of a kind.

11/05/2022

🥰 UPDATE: CLEO HAS BEEN ADOPTED

MEET CLEO..

Cleo is very special little girl because she loves to help her foster mum with the housework. Changing the sheets, dusting, washing the dishes, Cleo is there to learn and assist. She will follow you around the house offering her brand of expertise wherever it is needed.

After her busy day of housework, Cleo unwinds by playing and socialising with the other kittens. She also manages to find time to give her 3 doggy foster siblings a little bit of affection.

As you can imagine Cleo is all tuckered out after her busy days and this is when she loves to climb onto a lap, have a cuddle and purr herself to sleep. Cleo is an amazing little girl who has an enormous amount of love to give to her forever family and she is waiting to meet you now/

Cleo is desexed, vaccinated, microchipped and comes with free lifetime registration. Please contact us by filling out our Adoption Questionnaire at the below link, if you would like to come and have a cuddle with Cleo.
https://forms.gle/oAX3xZYQJizVAnFFA

AWL NSW R251000222

10/05/2022