Yvonne’s Tiny Treasures Cat Rescue

11/11/2024

lest we forget 🤍

Remembering them all - Humans & Animals 💜❤️

11/08/2024

we decided it’s high time to do a weekly post to meet both our alumni + our permanent resident kitties!

meet Melea 🌸

over just two years ago, I saw a Facebook post looking urgently for a place for a couple bonded senior kitties. it was literally right before Halloween, and they were posted for free.

every year, we regularly take in free or dumped kitties around Halloween to prevent them ending up in the wrong hands. it may not be known to some, but Halloween is an extremely dangerous time for cats and dogs.

Melea formerly named Maris, and her sister Taffy were a tortie and calico bonded pair. I was worried sick they could end up in the wrong hands before Halloween and we immediately went to pick them up. bonus points that they both looked super cute! I had a person lined up wanting to adopt them from us in December but ultimately that person ended up being unable to. and then slowly, of course we fell in love with Melea and Taffy!

they had a loving former owner apparently, but she was left with a stroke that rendered her unable to move and is still in a long care home.

Melea is a 10-12 year old (we aren’t sure her exact age 🤍) vivacious and personable Torbie. technically she is what you may refer to as a tortoiseshell-calico mix, dubbed Torbie as she has a combined colouring of the two breeds!

when we first adopted Melea and Taffy they were behaving almost feral and full of fear. their owner had been in a home for a few months and they were being taken care of by a kind neighbor, but it was very clear they were traumatized from missing their owner and being alone most of the time. it took months for us to gain their full trust and for awhile Taffy refused to eat, it was clear she was in a lot of emotional pain. when senior animals face a loss or abandonment (in this case a “loss” as their owner suddenly left as she had a medical emergency) they often face deep depression and may stop eating and drinking and essentially try to pass away. it’s a heartbreaking thing to watch, so we spent dozens of hours trying to bring them out of their shells.

slowly but surely we got to discover their beautiful personalities and we ended up keeping them both on as permanent residents.

Melea is probably one of our largest residents! in true tortie fashion, she is a large gal and loves her food. we feel she may be a Ta**us as food and home life is everything to her! 🤭she is on her weight loss journey but she is also just a very large cat to begin with! she is very talkative and will answer you when you chat with her. she LOVES watching movies with us and always insists on sitting on her moms chair and will make me get off of it when im eating dinner, so she can claim it.

she definitely rules our household! she is a bit of a Queen Bee amongst the other kitties, and amongst the rabbits as well. but she does have a loving heart and as long as no one steals her food, she often grooms the new residents to make them feel at home.

typically cats hate being dressed up, but she is the exception! I know she enjoys humouring me, but she seems to rather enjoy getting dressed up, and the attention that brings. fun fact, she has placed third in a couple pet photo contests we entered her in!

11/06/2024

meet our newest and tiniest intake - Shrimp! 🍤 he looks so similar to his new adopted brother Sushi, we had to keep up the theme. found at an estimated barely six weeks old, dumped and rescued by a Good Samaritan. in due time he will be neutered and looking for his forever home, but this little man has stolen our hearts already. his favorite game includes jumping into the laundry basket and hiding under a towel and springing out at you. he loves zooming around and even chases his tail like a puppy! he has got the teeniest little kitten cry and enjoys sitting on peoples heads and making biscuits 😂 we are so thankful you are safe now! 🤍

10/17/2024

hi friends sorry I haven’t been active on this page lately, it is with heavy hearts we announce the passing of our beloved alumni and one of our rescue mascots Memphis. in August Memphis slipped away to heaven after a brave fight with kidney disease. our hearts will never be the same but we are so truly thankful for the two years we had with our beloved family member. Memphis you will be greatly missed forever, and thank you for showing me the joy in cat rescue. a beautiful reminder to adopt not shop, as there is no joy like being able to provide a senior kitty their final home.

how lucky are we to have had something that made saying goodbye so hard 🤍

06/03/2024

‼️ Make no mistake - this was not an accident; it is their INSTINCT ‼️

They (male and female) will do anything they can to find a way out when it is time to mate.

We hear different versions of this ALL THE TIME.

"I thought it was a male, but turns out she's female."
Never assume the gender of a cat. Never take someone else's word for it. BOTH genders need to be fixed for their health and well-being on top of helping with overpopulation.

"I thought kitten season was over."
Kitten season is never over. Plain and simple.

"She doesn't even like going outside, but she got out when my kids had the door open."
When mating is the only thing on their mind, they will escape any chance possible - guaranteed.

"I didn't have enough money to fix her right now. There's no way I can afford her AND kittens?"
Certainly a reasonable statement. But, if you know you cannot afford mama and her kittens (because it WILL happen), it is best to try to make other arrangements for her. Reach out to every shelter, rescue or low-cost clinic to see what options you have. You may find someone to help. Taking care of mama and four kittens is likely more expensive than the low-cost spay surgery. And please, please don't hand off your unspayed female to someone else unless you know the person and are absolutely positive they will have her fixed. Make a plan BEFORE you are stuck in this bad situation.

"We were keeping her inside until she got spayed, but she pushed the screen out of the window last night!"
And if she comes back, she will be pregnant and you will now have kittens to deal with on top of mom.

"We don't have any male cats around here, so I don't know how she got pregnant."
Male cats will travel up to 5 miles in search of a female in heat.

"She's just a kitten. I had no idea she was old enough to get pregnant."
It is possible for kittens to get pregnant at only 4 months of age.

The 1️⃣ answer that solves all of these scenarios is to have your cats spayed or neutered before the age of 4 months. There are ZERO "accidents" if they are fixed. To you, it's just one litter. To shelters and rescues, it's another litter they can't absorb.

01/17/2024

🤍🤍🤍

01/17/2024

important reminder to please make sure your four legged family members are safely warm and inside in this cold snap!! Even though they may have fur, we have rescued so many frozen or hypothermic kitties in weather that is much warmer than this. If you see any strays that are outside in this weather, please contact us so that we can help 🤍

01/17/2024

hi everyone! thanks so much for checking out our page. We are small independent feline rescue located in the heart of the lower mainland of BC.

Ever since I (Kiana) can remember I’ve had a deep passion for animals and for animal welfare. It has always been my dream to open an animal sanctuary, with a particular emphasis on cats and especially senior kitties.

I have grown up on an SPCA certified farm and have had animals all of my life. Since 2012 I was continually rescuing and rehabilitating strays, orphans and disabled animals, both domestic and wild. Roughly five years ago I opened our home to our first rescue kitty, Whiskers. Back in 2017 we lost our beloved family cat Isis when she was 21 years old. I never fully healed (and never will) but when I saw Whiskers’ beautiful yellow eyes and round little black face, I instantly felt that she sent him to me. After that, my heart slowly started to heal just a tiny bit and I decided to open up my heart and home to any cat that needed a home.

Five years later, I have fostered, rescued and rehabilitated almost 200 kitties. Along the years, several rescues and a couple ferals decided to take permanent residency with us, and it’s been a wonderful but also a heart breaking journey at times. While I realize that no kitty will ever replace my beloved childhood cat, rescuing any cat that needs a home has been my passion and has also been my healing.

I finally decided to give our little rescue a name, and create an official page. I decided to name it in loving memory of my late grandmother Yvonne. Because of my grandma + Isis there was instilled in me a deep love for cats when I was very young. My grandma Yvonne was an avid feline advocate and always took in rescue cats ever since she was quite young. She adored her kitties and adored all creatures. She also used to call me and her kitties “my treasures”, hence the second part of our rescues name. My goal with my rescue is to honor my grandmother and Isis’ memorys and to put an end to feline homelessness. Our rescue also has a strong emphasis on rescuing abandoned senior felines and helping them find their loving forever home. There is nothing more painful than seeing a loyal senior pet who has been cast aside into a shelter to spend the rest of their days. Every paw deserves to have their forever home with their forever family 🤍

While we realize we still are such a tiny rescue, our goal is to keep growing and eventually have our build own shelter + sanctuary. We also are a strong advocate for spay + neuter and for feline rights. Our dream is to be able to provide low cost spay + neutering all over the lower mainland, to combat the pet homelessness crisis. Thank you for all your support, we couldn’t have done it these past few years without so many wonderful people.

In loving memory of my beloved grandmother Yvonne Newton (circa 2004) + cat Isis (not pictured).