BB's Backyard Cat & Kitten Rescue

01/21/2025

Want a snuggly friend or two with none of the costs? Consider applying to be a foster for my rescue!
I've got SEVEN CATS waiting to come into my rescue and I would love to spread the wealth of taking care of them amongst some foster homes and not just shove them all under my roof. Most of these cats are socialized and snuggly and will be spayed/neutered, vaccinated, dewormed, flea treated, and tested negative for diseases prior to intake. You volunteering to foster them would offer them loving, caring temporary homes while they wait for their forever homes and also allow me space to take in more cats in need.

01/19/2025

Do you love cats? Then please help me save them by sharing, donating, or even just interacting with this post!

01/19/2025

WE NEED DONATIONS!!
https://tinyurl.com/helpsavesixcats
This is Ronnie, one of the 6 stray cats who needs to find an indoor home after being fully vetted. He is very friendly thanks to the care and socialization done by his caretaker and her family.
Each cat will cost roughly $200 to vet. That will include full vaccines, spay/neuter, a microchip, a SNAP test for FIV/FeLV. If you want to sponsor a cat directly, you can message me here or text me at 301-938-9115.

01/19/2025

If you are willing, please share and/or donate to our cause through either financial donations or items from our Amazon wishlist tinyurl.com/bbbyamazonwishlist. Every little bit helps me save more cats and grow my rescue so I can expand and help even more cats in need in our community.

01/17/2025

WE NEED DONATIONS!!!!!
I’m going to be very loud and annoying about this but it’s for such a good reason. WE NEED DONATIONS. Yesterday on 1/16/25 I was made aware of 6 stray/semi-feral cats with varying levels of socialization who are all in need of full vetting and a rescue to take them in. Their caretaker has to move by March 15th due to the property being sold and, ultimately, these cats both need and deserve indoor only homes. They need rescue intervention and I want to give it.
The cats in need are 2 younger (5ish MO) kittens, 3 young adult males, and the mother of the kittens. The kittens are the most timid but are young and will come around quickly once brought inside and the others are much more socialized. THEY ALL DESERVE INDOOR HOMES. Please, please, please help me provide that for them. I can only do it with your help.

A private cat rescue run by Elizabeth Crass, a lifelong cat lover & advocate.Located in Kissimmee FL

01/17/2025

Cat rescue expectations: snuggling kittens!
Cat rescue reality: sitting in your car babysitting cat traps. Sitting out in the cold babysitting cat traps. Wondering why cats are the way they are. 🫠
Day 3 of trying to trap Velcro and no success. But we’re still trying, and we won’t give up! The reality is that cat rescue isn’t at all glamorous; on Wednesday I sat in the parking lot watching the traps for an hour and a half. I’d just been at work for 8 hours and was operating on 4 hours of sleep, so I was nodding off in my car while watching Supernatural to pass the time. On Thursday I also went back to trap again and beat Madison there so I sat in my car, in the dark, eating Cava and watching Supernatural (are you sensing the theme?). We tried for over an hour but were unsuccessful, but today is a new day. And I’m keeping my fingers crossed it will be THE day. 🤞🏻🐈‍⬛💜

01/15/2025

What does it take to trap a cat?This varies a lot from cat to cat and situation to situation, but for this outing I brought what's in the video. This is a pretty standard setup for me; I keep everything l'd need to trap a cat in my car at all times, but I also like to have extra stuff on hand in specific situations just in case. My motto is "better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it", which comes from a place of having trapped cats and kittens for almost 3 years and having been burned many times with not having *that specific thing* with me when I needed it.

01/14/2025

Can you spot the cat?
Feral and stray cats are known to pick some of the worst places to live, and oftentimes even worse places to have their kittens. This cat’s mom chose under a shipping container that was, once upon a time, surrounded by a pile of construction trash.
“It’s the worst place to have a den,” Madison, a friend of mine who has been feeding and caring for Fig and her kittens for months, explained. “Because under the containers is where all the water drains. So it just makes this river.”
I’m now involved in trying to catch Fig’s one remaining “kitten”, Velcro, who is feeder friendly and ~5 months old. Velcro’s one brother already found an indoor home and the other 2 siblings went missing, but Velcro has been velcroed to mom and unable to be trapped despite Madison’s attempts. All other rescues also declined Madison’s attempts to get help due to Velcro’s age, capacity issues, and all the other typical issues why cats go without rescue intervention. It all comes back to there not being enough resources to go around. And, sometimes, people look at older kittens and see them as beyond help. I’ve met many rescues who do it. It’s not true, but it’s an old bias.
Regardless, Velcro now has lots of stinky tuna in the trap to entice her in. No more playing coy— we need her trapped so she can be safe and warm inside and find a loving home. (Then Fig will be TNR’d— don’t worry!!)
Please keep your fingers crossed Velcro cooperates!
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01/12/2025

More donations!!
Thank you to Isabelle, a coworker of mine at my “real” job (aka the one that allows me to fund so much of my rescue), for the towels and to whoever sent the cans of cat food for Gypsy. She’s a hungry girl and greatly appreciates your donations.
We are still in need of lots of cat food and some new blankets! You can see our up to date wishlist at tinyurl.com/bbbyamazonwishlist. If you would like to donate supplies you already have, please message us here and we can coordinate. Any and all donations are appreciated. 💜

01/11/2025

1. Gypsy loves to nurse on anything and everything— including the web of my index finger and thumb 🥹
2. To whoever donated this bag of dry food, THANK YOU for your incredibly kind donation. Every little bit helps immensely, and a 16 pound bag of food means my fosters will have dry food for about 10-12 days. Which might not seem like a while, but it’s still a weight off my shoulders.
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01/09/2025

Want to help feed Gypsy, our severely underweight new intake? Donate through one of the channels below or please share this post!
Gypsy was found outside ~5-6 days ago starving and alone. She approached her finders desperate for attention and someone to help her, and they answered that call by getting her to me. Now she is safe, been evaluated by my vet, and is on the road to recovery. But she still needs more help, and you can assist in providing that help by donating towards her care!

01/06/2025

💜❕NEW INTAKE ALERT!! ❕💜
Meet Gypsy! A 5-year-old female cat who was dumped in a neighborhood in Kissimmee 3-4 days ago. Gypsy was found outside in very poor body condition; she’s thin as a rail and had some hookworms that certainly aren’t helping with that. She showed up practically begging for help outside a good samaritan’s house and, thank god, those good samaritans were more than willing to open their door to her and make sure she got the help and care she needed.
After couch surfing for the weekend, I met up with Kristen and her husband at my vet this morning where Gypsy was seen by my vet, Dr. Perez. It was confirmed she’s around 5, despite at first appearing to be under 1 given her very thin body condition. What her finders had thought was immaturity was actually neglect and a potential thyroid issue (bloodwork pending). It’s obvious she was dumped; she’s friendly, her nails are short as if they’re freshly trimmed, and she has been snuggling and meowing at every new person she meets. She was well-behaved, if a little wiggly, for everything she endured at the vet: a FIV/FeLV/HW SNAP test (negative), blood draw for a CBC/T4 check, vaccines, dewormer, flea treatment, and lots of poking and prodding in between. And now she has been surrendered to me to ensure she can get all the care she needs and find a forever home once she’s ready.
I cannot thank Kristen and her husband enough for not only taking Gypsy in and reaching out to me for help, but also for covering 100% of her $500 appointment today. What an incredibly generous and much-appreciated donation to help get this girl on the right track. Now she’s home with me and going to begin introductions to some of my other fosters tomorrow, and hopefully by then we’ll have her BW back to know about her thyroid.
If you would like to donate towards Gypsy’s future care or the care of my other fosters, you can do so through Venmo (bbbykittens), Zelle (301-938-9115, or by purchasing anything from my Amazon Wishlist (tinyurl.com/bbbyamazonwishlist). 💜
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01/05/2025

Guess what? It's after the first of the year and I want to get a good start on growing my rescue this year.
Since starting my rescue officially in 2022 with the beginning of me taking in kittens to raise, vet, and re-home, I've been a mostly self-funded rescue with much appreciated donations but not enough to financially sustain my rescue. I'm working to change that this year by marketing myself better and trying to get the word out there more about what I'm doing behind the scenes to help cats in need.
If you'd like to help me help cats, you can do so by DONATING!! It sounds vain, but financial stress is the biggest stress any rescue deals with and it's also what limits our capability to help animals in need the most. Vet bills are expensive, and even just getting a cat the basic vetting required for adoption costs me at least $500. And I get maybe a $100 return on each cat in the form of an adoption fee, and that's not counting the supplies sent home with the adopter(s) or the other expenses put into the cat(s). Even a donation of $15 can make or break my ability to help more cats in need.

12/30/2024

I thought I recognized these kittens!
This was a litter found by a friend of a friend. They were in a pile of tires with no mom in sight and in pretty ok condition, except for the runt— Earl Grey— who was small and a bit behind developmentally. I got involved pretty quickly after they were found and assisted in getting their first vet appointment lined up, getting them all dewormed/flea treated, and have offered advice and insight whenever needed as well.
Some might ask why I didn’t just fully take these kittens into my rescue, and the answer is because I never needed to! Between the finder, her roommates, and their friends/family they all had homes lined up within the first week. A lot of times, rescue situations aren’t as cut and dry as just the idea that every cat needs to be an intake. Sometimes you just need to meet the people where they are and be willing to offer whatever help is necessary so long as the cats are in a safe space (and, believe me, all 5 of these babies are beyond safe and incredibly loved). Kovu, O’Malley, Earl Grey, Onyx, and Winston are all super sweet babies who are so lucky to have been found and I’m happy to have been able to use my resources to assist in getting them the care they needed to thrive. 💜

Kitty party!😍❤️

12/24/2024

What do you get when you adopt a cat from BB’s?
A lot!
First off, you get one— or two!— new forever friends to add to your family. They alone are priceless. They’re also UTD on vaccines (~$150+ value), spayed/neutered ($200+ value), microchipped ($50 value), and free of all parasites and communicable diseases (again, priceless!). All of my cats are also ANGELS at the vet and well behaved for nail trims, which are 2 more absolutely priceless skills that will benefit you and them for the rest of their lives.
Second, you get somewhere around $100 worth of supplies sent home with you! This includes a 2 week supply of their wet and dry food, their favorite treats, some cat toys, and a cat bed (not pictured) that smells familiar to help them adjust. All adopters also get a copy of a book called “Kitty Language” that helps cat owners of all ages better understand their cat’s behavior and body language. I also send home informational packets with LOTS of vet and science-backed information on feline care, wellness, and provide you with additional educational resources to help all adopters feel prepared for their new feline friends.

12/17/2024

As if we didn't have enough other cat bills... I've got 2 cats at my rescue who currently have UTIs/crystals. Badger, who is ADOPTABLE and by far one of the sweetest cats I've ever met, was showing the beginning signs of a UTI yesterday. I got him right to the vet within about an hour and a half and his bladder was inflamed on the ultrasound so even without being able to collect a urine sample (he was empty) it was obvious what was going on. Let me emphasize here how incredibly important it is to always be paying attention to your cat's behavior so you can quickly notice when something is wrong and act accordingly.
Just last week I also had to take a rescue resident, Vi, to the vet for her own urinary issues. Vi is unadoptable due to severe maladaptive anxiety, and she now has a UTI and urinary crystals that we're sure are likely a byproduct of that anxiety (post on that coming soon). She will be on anxiety medication for life to help manage her issues and might need a prescription urinary diet too. We'll know for sure at her recheck after the first of the new year.
If you would like to make a donation towards helping to cover their vet bills, you can do so at our Venmo, bbbykittens, or through purchasing something off our wishlist at tinyurl.com/bbbyamazonwishlist . Even if you can't donate, please share with your friends to help out cats in need this holiday season!

12/04/2024

Tim and Belle are ADOPTED!!!!!
This was a huge, huge win for so many reasons. Tim and Belle are “older” cats— 7/8– and that alone can be a huge deterrent for many adopters. Not to mention they are black cats and Belle is a little bit of a shy girl. But, with all that being said, I really cannot emphasize how perfect their new homes are turning out to be. In less than 24 hours, Belle began showing off her snuggly, chirpy self and was settling in to watch TV with her new mom. At the same time, Tim has been exploring his new home, doing lots of his own snuggling, and playing with the roommate’s 2 cats under the door. And they found these homes in less than two weeks!! This is honestly unprecedented for me and I could not be more thrilled.
Tim & Belle’s owner had to find them new homes at no fault of here or theirs and took the time and iniaitive to get a rescue involved. Their success settling into their new homes is testament to how loved they have been, and the fact that she got me involved to find them homes at all shouls be proof positive for anyone with the wrong idea that these cats have been cherished members of the family. Rehoming pets should not be looked at as a failure, a lack of love, or anything else involving laying blame. There are circumstances where it’s unavoidable and done with the best interest of the pets at its core, and this is definitely one of these situations.
[📸Belle posing like a princess 👑 & Tim hamming it up like the snuggly man he is.]

12/01/2024

Did you know that black cats are significantly less likely to be adopted because of something as simple as the color of their fur?
According to the National Library of Medicine, black cats are the last to be adopted and only at a rate of 10% in shelter settings. Even as kittens they are passed over in favor of cats of other colors.
I regularly have people reach out to me inquiring about whether I have any orange cats, calicos, torties, grey cats, or whatever other color. They pass over black cats I’ve had up for adoption for a year in favor of trying to seek out a flashier looking cat. My personal favorite color of cat is black and, if I had room, I’d have 10 all black cats of my own. But instead my house (my rescue’s HQ) is full of black cats I’ve rescued, knowing full well people would pass them over, but still having chosen to rescue them anyways because they needed to be rescued and deserve forever homes.
Cited Article/Study: https://www.msj.edu/news/2024/02/the-power-of-black-cats.html