Goat Berry Trails

01/11/2024

Happy Halloween!

15/10/2024

A big thank you to Kayla at Scally-Wag Grooming LLC for giving these 4 kittens a bath for us.

23/09/2024

Kittens at play!

23/09/2024

Snack time for these little ones that we took in over a week ago and waiting on our foster to have room for them.

21/09/2024

Storm cloud sunset!

20/09/2024

Foggy morning sunrise!

07/09/2024

We had to say good bye to a community cat yesterday that we helped out last year. His name was Blackie and he was around 4 years old.

His caregiver found him in his shelter severely dehydrated, and unresponsive after being missing for a few days. I took him to our vet. Blackie had liver failure, his kidneys weren’t working right and he was having seizures regularly. To top it off, he had a temperature of 106.9.

His caregiver had tried to convert Blackie and his partner Mr Peach into inside cats after they were neutered last year. But these feisty ferals just didn’t want any thing to do with being inside. So last year we built them a heated shelter that had an eating area with heated bowls during the winter.

Mr Peach seems lost without his buddy. His caregiver will try again to convert Mr Peach to inside life.

04/09/2024

It’s so hard to say good bye!

Theo was rescued in April of 2022 when he showed up at my daughter’s house after somehow surviving the winter in rough shape.

Just barely over a year old, skinny, anemic, severely dehydrated, multiple wounds, URI, heart issues, kidney issues, FIV positive, and diagnosed with moderate sarcopenia. He was a mess. With a sub-q fluids and a lot of loving care, Theo got better.

The only problem that really created a challenge was, he was feral and probably abused. He wouldn’t let us touch him after he got healthy. Eventually, he would rub up against us and allow us to pet his head for about 20 seconds before he smacked us with his front claws. Not to mention, he bit me a couple of times. He was a handful.

About a week ago a became very vocal for attention and allowed me to pick him up without retaliation. But soon after that he stopped eating. Unfortunately after getting some test ran. The news that his kidney disease had ran its course and his kidneys were no longer were working. It was heartbreaking news.

He cuddled with me last night for the first time ever! Theo hadn’t been outside since the day he was rescued. But I took him outside and to enjoy some sunshine and feel the grass under his feet before we made the trip back to our vets office. He really perked up while outside and tried his best to meow and then crawl to me. I promised to him that I would get a Cato built for our sanctuary cats to enjoy.

The picture with him in the cage is from the day we rescued him.

I will miss this feisty young man!

23/07/2024

Enjoying the sunset while cutting fresh hay for the goats!

07/07/2024

Summer Update!

Summer is here and the goats really enjoyed the tall pasture hay before it was cut and baled.

The two kittens that we took in May are doing well and Sansa is already adopted. Arya is healthy, but is blind in her one eye from the scarring. She is acting like a normal kitten and now with a foster enjoying a normal life filled with snuggles!

We found out Princess didn’t enjoy sharing my home office with the kittens. Mostly the sharing of her litter grass pad. Princess is unable to use a normal litter box due to the damage in her front legs from the abuse she received prior to her rescue last year. So she goes to the bathroom on a grass training pad that lays over a puppy p*e bad. The kittens wouldn’t let her go to the bathroom in peace and she wound up with a urinary infection. The funny thing is she would go and p*e on the kittens bed.

We also took in five neonate rats for almost a week. Luckily a Wildlife rehab was able to take them in. This was a new experience.

We are slowly but surely getting our older kittens spayed & neutered so we can find forever homes for them. Funding and available appointments is slowing us down.

Oliver, one of our senior FIV cats was treated for some dental issues and a urinary infection back about a month ago. Thankfully, we have Fresh Step Health Monitor Crystal Litter that we use for our older FIV group. It brought the urinary infection to our attention.

Finally, we believe we have a place for our non-social barn cats that we will announce later this summer.

We wish everyone a safe summer.

Aaron & Donna

15/05/2024

This little sweet guy had his meet & greet at PetSmart today and finally found his forever home. We wish you all the love and happiness, you deserve it! It’s been a long time coming since you showed up in subzero temperatures. We will miss you Venom!

13/05/2024

Meet Arya!

This little girl came in as a hot mess a few weeks ago! She is feeling much better now and trying to act like a normal kitten.

But unfortunately she is completely blind in one eye and currently partially blind in the other eye.

At this point, the ulcer in her one eye hasn’t ruptured and needing to be removed. But it has damaged the eye to the point she will be blind in that eye.

The second eye also has an ulcer, but it’s not as bad and will heal with just some vision loss.

The ulcers were caused by her being sick and her eyes being infected and stuck shut for too long before she came into our care.

Her feral mother has already been spayed, vaccinated and returned back to her colony and where there is a caregiver that feeds them.

Arya will fortunately have a much better life than her feral mom and was caught at the right age before she became feral and unable to be a pet like her mother.

Donations are needed to help cover this little girls vet bills.

10/05/2024

They seem to seek me out! This little girl was literally waiting for me at the door a few days ago.

A little spicy at first. But we got her eyes cleaned up and she is on antibiotics for the upper respiratory infection. After her quarantine, she’ll buddy up with the other kitten we have.

01/05/2024

01/05/2024

We had to take this little girl in even though we are still full from last year‘s kitten season. This little girl is of course sick. Her eyes were sealed shut and full of puss. I cleaned her up, got her on antibiotics, and put some antibiotic drops in her eyes. Gave her sub-q fluids because she was dehydrated. She perked up this morning and ate. Unfortunately, the kitten got more sleep than I did.

We trapped her feral mom that we have been trying to trap since last year. Mom's going to Humane Ohio to get fixed and then going back to the farm she came from.

We are currently reaching out to other rescuers to see if they can take This little girl in.

18/04/2024

We have a few sweet cats that went to fosters over the last week or so, with the potential to be their forever home if things work out.

26/03/2024

They wouldn’t go inside the barn until started to rain!

23/03/2024

Going home!

This week we had two cats returned to their caregiver after staying with us for 6 months.

Last summer we were helping their caregiver out with food for their pets and in September they had to move and was not able to take the two cats. We agreed to provide boarding until they were in a position for the cats to live with them again.

The smaller cat is Kelly and we were able to get her spayed while staying with us. The larger cat is Blackie and she was already spayed.

Both are sweet cats and we are glad that we could help out and prevent the cats from being rehomed or surrendered to a shelter.

Welcome back home Kelly and Blackie!

22/02/2024

Goat Berry Trails Update

Over the last month or two we did have 6 cats find their forever homes.

The rescue is still full and continues to work on getting more cats appointments for their spay/neuters, shots, and testing. We just have not raised enough money to get all of them done yet. In January we had to take care of couple of vet bills that was close to $1,000. The bright side is these cats that are waiting on appointments to get scheduled don’t have to live on the streets. They have a chance at a normal life once adopted.

Even more good news is, we are stocked up on cat litter, wet cat food and treats for a while. Thanks to Greater Goods Charities and their pet goods program. Because of the generous donations from companies like Arm & Hammer, Purina, Merrick, Royal Canin, Hills, JM Smucker, PetSmart Charities, Chewy, Rachael Ray, and Mars. They make it possible for us and other 501(c)3 nonprofits to rescue animals in need of care.

Just to put in perspective. Donna and I are volunteers for 4 Paw Animal Rescue in Metro Detroit. They are an ambassador of Great Goods Charities and manage the distribution of the donated pet supplies. In 2023 they received 85 semi trucks of supples that included over 2 million pounds of pet food alone. A typical distribution day for volunteers can be 4 hours to 11 hours, depending on the amount of trucks that come in and the amount of rescue groups picking up supplies. It’s not uncommon to have a volunteer take a break to make some calls to secure a rescue transport or to bottle feed some puppies and kittens. Nationwide Greater Goods Charities ambassadors distribute around 8000 semi trucks of pet supplies.

Last but not least, we will be posting our current cats that are available for adoption.

Sincerely,
Aaron Bailey
Goat Berry Trails

02/01/2024

Learning to be a cat again.

Writing this brings tears to my eyes as a remember all of the pain and suffering Princess went through at the hands of some evil human.

We picked Princess up back in August when Jessie Amross reached out for help after finding Princess shaking, barely able to hiss, and too weak to move. She was just skin & bones, severely dehydrated, abused, with a severely broken back leg and tail. She was able to pull through after a lot of love and attention. Her medical care included a few surgeries that required her back leg and tail to be amputated. Princess is definitely not the same feral cat today. She is a little chunky now and learning how to be a cat again. It took her months to be able to walk again because she was so skinny and weak. It was the little things that we celebrated, like when she could set up on her own and not fall over while eating. She still has her challenges to work through. She can be moody. She doesn’t like to be picked up, hates having her back half touched and will give you a warning bite if you do either wrong. She is unable to use a litter box because she isn’t able to use her front paws correctly due to the damage from the abuse and being shot. Princess prefers to go the bathroom on her Bark Potty Pads and at some point may need specially made diapers. She is starting to be a normal cat and plays with her friend Wobbles who has CH, which is like the cat version of cerebral palsy. Princess will pounce on Wobbles, but gets mad if Wobbles pounces on her. It’s so funny watching those two play. I have never heard Princess purr and she really doesn’t meow, it’s more like grumpy chatter mixed with a soft hiss. She does love to have under her chin rubbed and at night when I take a nap on the floor with her, I'm usually awaken with her whiskers tickling my face as she nuzzles my nose. By the way, she also snores.

As I look back now and reflect on the last four months, I am so grateful that we were able to save and help Princess through the worst time in her life.

Going forward we don’t know if Princess will ever be adopted because she’s not your average cat. Princess is a Miracle and Fighter. But we do know that she will always be safe and have a loving home at our rescue. She does require special care and unfortunately donations never did cover all of her medical cost. But thankfully her care and recovery was made possible by the necessary food and supplies received from the Greater Good Charities Program by donations from the following companies like Bark, Chewy, The Hartz Company, Meow Mix, Royal Canin, and PetSmart. We really appreciate Jeanine Grimes Cook Dotson and all of the volunteers at Greater Good Charities.

Aaron & Donna Bailey
Goat Berry Trails
Founders

02/01/2024

Princess says, Happy new year!

Like most years, 2023 was filled full of learning experiences, challenges, and blessings!

We learned that no matter how well our intentions are, the outcome can be far from what we planned.

The main challenge this year was not anticipating how busy Humane Ohio would be and not being able to get many spay and neuter appointments. It created a problem that we still are dealing with as we have a bunch of older kittens that need to be spayed and neutered. The good news is, we started getting appointments with Humane Ohio and hope to get everyone fixed by the end of February.

Our largest blessing came from all the companies that donate pet supplies to the Greater Goods charity. This program gave us the ability this year to stockpile wet food, and other supplies that our rescue needed to help cats like Princess, who is pictured above. Princess was the most critical cat that we rescued in 2023 and we will post a full update on her soon.

We look forward to 2024. Our current focus is getting spay and neuter appointments for the rest of our kittens so they can be adopted. We also will be making changes in how we operate to prevent us from overwhelming ourselves again in the future.

I’d like to also thank everyone that helped and financially supported Goat Berry Trails in 2023.

Aaron & Donna Bailey
Goat Berry Trails
Founders

27/11/2023

Duke has been adopted!

Duke came to stay with Goat Berry Trails after his caregiver passed away. Duke, who is FIV positive and a true sweetheart, went to his new home last Sunday. His new caregivers, Mark and Ann, spent a couple of weeks preparing their house to welcome this precious little guy. With the help of multiple deliveries from Chewy, Duke has everything a cat could dream of and has hit what I like to call the Cat Lotto.

We’ll miss you Duke, but we’re so happy for you and your new family!

23/11/2023

06/11/2023

Here is a community cat shelter that we helped build for a caregiver. The shelter is insulated and heated.