On today's #TopicTuesday Stacey from our Community Cat Program discusses the beginning of TNR season (Trap, Neuter, Return) for feral cat colonies. Learn what to look for and how to request assistance.
#TNR #feralcats #catrescue #communitycats
On Today's #TopicTuesday Berkshire Humane Society Executive Director John Perreault talks about how you can win a custom caricature of your cat by Reuben Lara of Barkshire Dog Trading Co. to be placed on the Community Cat Program Van!
Tickets have been reduced to $129.00 each*--only 100 tickets available for dogs & 100 tickets available for cats! We will have 12 dogs on our Ford Transit van and 12 cats on our Chevy van.
Your odds are pretty lucky! 🍀
*Those who have purchased tickets prior to the discount will be provided two chances.
To get your tickets please stop by 214 Barker Rd, Pittsfield or call Di at (413)-447-7878 ext. 131
Tickets will be available for purchase until March 31st.
Drawing will be held LIVE on Monday, April 1st! No fooling here!
Need not be present to win.
#raffle #catlovers #customcaricatureart #localartist #helpingberkshirehumane
Stacey discusses why the CCP doesn't trap cats in the winter--
On today's Topic Tuesday, Stacey discusses why the Community Cat Program does not trap colony cats in the winter months and how the program helps the colonies during this time. Learn more here--
#TopicTuesdays #communitycats #TNR #colonycats
Topic Tuesday--Litterbox Tips
On today's Topic Tuesday, Assistant Shelter Manager Erin discusses litterbox tips and tricks.
Office manager and vet tech Kristin takes you on a tour of our new Wellness Clinic on Dalton Avenue in Pittsfield!
How to Identify Stray Cats versus Community Cats
This week's Topic Tuesday is all about stray cats! Our Community Cat Program, Berkshire Humane Society Lead Volunteer, Stacey, let's you know what to do if you find a stray cat, and how to identify TNR cats versus regular strays.
#straycats #communitycats #TNR #TopicTuesdays
Topic Tuesday!
Join us for Topic Tuesdays! Learn about a new topic each week regarding all things animal related! Today, Executive Director John Perreault talks vet care in our first segment--
#petsandpeople #wellnessclinic #communitysupport #petvaccines #berkshirecounty
Kittens in foster care are trained to be entertaining.
TNR (trap neuter return) of cats…. This is how it goes sometimes. Fortunately, we have all kinds of tricks up our sleeves to figure out the best way to go about a tnr project… or whether there’s a project at all.
Wildlife cameras can tell us if feral cats are eating the cat food a person is putting out or other animals. If it IS cats, we can see how many, what they look like, whether we already fixed them (because we eartipped them), and what times they come. It brings a little bit of the element of control to an out-of-control situation. But we still have plenty of unknowns to deal with so we have learned to do our best but also go with the flow.
This colony lives on a farm. Melissa, our expert trapper trapped them, and they’re getting spayed and neutered this week. They’re all friendly, which is kind of unusual for a colony of barn cats. They’ve got a good life on the farm, but the farmer thinks he has homes for some of them once they’re fixed.
It’s kitten season, and it’s a real juggling act to get feral kittens into foster homes where they will be properly socialized. These five kittens had little human contact when they were first trapped, so they were split up into five separate foster homes, where each could be given intensive individual attention. That worked wonders; soon the we’re friendly, and we could gather them together into one foster home.
Kitten foster volunteers make a huge difference in the lives of these little ones. Without foster volunteers, every one of them would have to live their lives outside. If you’re interested in joining our foster team, call 413-997-2287.
Note: The foster program is completely separate from the adoption program. Our foster homes are temporary places where kittens are prepared for their new life. All of the kittens then go to Berkshire Humane Society where there is an adoption process.
Kitten season is here! Thanks to the great response asking for kitten foster volunteers, we’re ready for it. Here’s a mom and her 8 new kittens. She was a friendly cat who no longer had a home. A kind woman took her in just a few days before she delivered, and now they are in the foster care of the Community Cat Program.
Please note that this isn’t a post that’s promoting available kittens. When they grow up and become adoptable, they will enter into the adoption program at Berkshire Humane Society. There are adoption applications on the Berkshire Humane website.
THIS post is all about witnessing these miraculous little babies and a mamma who is doing a great job, and being grateful that this little family was rescued by a cat lover from living outside.
WE NEED KITTEN FOSTER VOLUNTEERS
It’s spring, and feral kittens are already being born outside. When we learn about them early on, we can bring them into a foster home to be cared for and socialized. With the right kind of interaction, they can become friendly and adoptable within a matter of weeks. What a difference a Foster Volunteer can make in a kitten’s life; feral cat to pampered pet!
It does take some concentrated effort in those few weeks, though. Often we separate litter-mates so that they more quickly come around to liking humans. That means that a Foster Volunteer may only have one kitten they need to work with at a time. Feral kittens are usually fostered in an enclosure (like a dog crate), not a whole, private room, so that can make it easier to manage if a home is small. The commitment is usually a month or less. Experienced feral kitten Foster Volunteers are at the ready to orient new volunteers about tricks to getting hissy, spitty, scared kittens to love you!
If you think you might have the time, commitment, and desire to be a feral kitten foster volunteer, call 413-997-2287 and leave a message. Someone from the Community Cat Program will call you to answer questions and explain more.
If you prefer, you can download Berkshire Humane Society’s Foster Application, fill it out, and mail it or drop it off at the shelter. You’ll be contacted by the Volunteer Coordinator about officially becoming a Foster Volunteer. https://berkshirehumane.org/document-category/foster-application/
Feral Kitten Socialization
So many kittens this year! All found in time to socialize and then bring to Berkshire Humane Society. This little gal, Martha, was about 13 weeks old before she started her socialization program. She was quite wary of people, but the foster mom’s Pug, Chester Ludlow, made all the difference. Martha’s confidence is growing in leaps and bounds around Chester, and she’s starting to enjoy the company of people, too!
It has been a busy time at Animal Dreams. We’ve been called to help with a number of situations involving kittens. These 2 were caught when they were about 4 weeks old. Their mother and 2 siblings were killed by predators, but these cuties are happy and healthy. They’ll soon go to Berkshire Humane, where they’ll become available for adoption.
Earlier this week, Epi, one of our expert, dedicated, trappers, trapped a mother and 3 kittens. Weeks before, a neighbor had brought several others of the same litter to Berkshire Humane… which prompted mom cat to move the rest of them. Mom cat was crafty, but not so much that Epi couldn’t find them. Those kittens may be socialized, or they may be trap, neutered, and returned with their mother.
Just last night, Epi worked on another project, trapping 3 kittens and a mom cat. She may have pulled a all-nighter working to get the last kitten of the litter…. It’s very important to leave no kitten behind. We think these kittens are young enough to socialize.
Last week in a busy tourist town, a mom and 4 kittens were seen under the deck of an art gallery. Soon after we were called, the kittens were not seen again, but mom cat kept coming back to eat, and seemed to still be living nearby. The plan was to wait another week to trap the mom, in case the kittens were elsewhere… we didn’t think that likely, because they were old enough to eat, and she wasn’t bringing them to the feeding station. But last night, there was a breakthrough in the project; someone across town called the Animal Control Officer (who happened to be Melissa, the Animal Dreams volunteer trapper on the project) about seeing 4 kittens of the same description. She will be working to trap the whole family this weekend. The kittens are older, so we won’t be fostering and socializing them. But we may relocate them since they don’t have a stable environment in their current location.
All of these situations are the fallout of people not spaying
These two little cuties are what remains of a larger feline family. They were born outside to a mom cat who was frequenting a kind caretaker’s home the last few weeks. A few days ago, the caretaker noticed 4 kittens. Since then she didn’t see the mom cat. One of our trappers promptly went to the barn where they had been seen, and set up a wildlife camera near a bowl of cat food.
We discovered that, along with the kittens, who were eating during the day, there were lots of raccoons. No mom cat. If mom cat was alive, instinct would call her to protect her kittens, so we think she isn’t. Yesterday morning, the caretaker found one dead, half, eaten kitten. She suspects it was an owl, which she noticed in the last few days. (Let’s remember that owls have to eat, too!) When the trapper went yesterday afternoon, she found and scooped up these two kittens. We think all 3 would have been together, so most likely, the other kitten was gotten, too. The camera is being closely monitored so we can go back if the other kitten is seen. These 2 weigh less than a pound, so they are probably a little under 4 weeks old; too young to think they should be afraid of humans. So socializing them will be a snap, but we’ll have to keep a close eye on them to make sure they are eating, hydrating, and eliminating properly. If all goes well, they will go to Berkshire Humane Society and can look forward to long happy lives as pampered house cats.
