We got a great deal on some new climbing toys for the suites in the new building. Chris assembled Pop Tart's and Giesela's today. I've noticed if I add enrichment toys and rearrange the room Pop Tart spends more time out in the open exploring.
My bff Alexis gave me this black cat pillow last year for Solstice, and Piper absolutely loves it. She's decided the black cat is her new playmate and she wrestles it several times a day. I'm so thankful to see Piper feeling well enough to play. Drengr is glad she found someone else to play fight. He's getting a bit old for full-time kitten sitting.
Isolt playing with Piper. They found a piece of tubing I use to make their fountains. I'm so happy to see Piper feel well enough to play and enjoy being a kitten. I think about little Pocket and miss her every day. I'm so grateful that Piper will have a long healthy happy life.
Little Piper does have FIP. The good news is she improved rapidly with treatment. Temperature is down to 101.5. It was 103.4 early this morning prior to her GS441524 injection and came down to 101.5 just 2hrs later. I can't say enough good things about GS441524. I only wish it had been available when Knut was alive. I was really worried we might lose her early Monday morning and to see her up walking about now is just incredible.
So many of the local kittens people find need fip treatment. This is case #4 in kittens this year. Without treatment a kitten on the street is very unlikely to survive.
GS144524 is not cheap though. A small cat's 3month treatment will cost us approximately $800 which is a week of the shop's average income. If you could share our shop with friends and help increase traffic, it would be a huge help in paying for Piper's medication.
https://coven66.etsy.com
Váli and Drengr helping me sew. At least one tests out each cat bed I design.
Yesterday, the day I have been dreading for many months finally arrived. When I went out to do Salem's fluids, I found him collapsed beside his hammock. My grumpy old man was already gone.
Salem was the very first Coven66 cat. In 2019, just a week after Chris and I got married, Chris read me a Facebook post from Onslow County Animal Services. A family had surrendered their 14yo cat to a high kill shelter because he was "too old". We adopted him the following day. Over the next few days Chris and I came up with the idea of me selling my jewelry and art online (the herbs came later) to pay adoption fees and bring home the cats who were about to be euthanized. I don't think either of us envisioned the size of the sanctuary today. It was just a rescue operation for a handful of the most at risk cats. Salem was the start of it all. Salem would have turned 20 next week and had been on fluids daily for kidney failure since last fall. We all knew this day would come, but he had survived so much and outlived so many that a small part of me hoped he'd live forever.
Salem's original given name was Blackie. I usually resist changing names of older cats. However, Salem showed absolutely no sign that he recognized the sound "blackie". Can you imagine? This was his name for the first 14 years of his life yet he didn't recognize it. Likely because he just wasn't spoken to much. So since he didn't know it anyway I changed it to something that better suited his personality.
Everyday I reminded him what a brave boy he was and how lucky we were to have a cat like him.
Salem just had this amazing, commanding energy. I'm convinced that whoever originally designed Halloween black cat decorations must have known our Salem. He looked like a creepy crochety Halloween cat with a stare that'd make your blood run cold. I highly admired that about him. He was the most goth cat I've ever known. He never had to fight, he just stared and cats moved out of his way. I can only imagine what a force o
This is the greeting I get every morning. 🥰 I am humbled and will be forever thankful that I am so deeply loved by all these beautiful souls.
They have a whole indoor and outdoor cattery for them to spread out in, but when they hear my voice, they will all crowd into the catio to greet me.
Sometimes rescue can feel like trying to move an entire ocean using only a teaspoon. The resources never quite match the need. It can get discouraging.
But when I see these happy faces, I know that to them I changed the world. That is what keeps me going.
I didn't teach him. He stepped on the wheel and it moved then he figured out exactly how to use it by the next day. One smart little cat.
Both Isolt and Váli have become such good big sisters to little Feillan.
Feillan is so smart and observant. Watch how he softly touches Isolt to remind her where he is. He's actually the first cat to show any sign that he understands Isolt can't see him. Even cats who have lived with Isolt for 2 years will hide from her, not realizing she only follows sound and scent. So the fact that Feillan caught onto this in 2 months is pretty impressive. Feillan and Mayhem went to clinic last week, so everyone under our roof is all caught up on surgery now.
The first week of September 2023 I spent hoping and praying these little ones would beat the odds. Little Rowan, Rjomi, Reid, and Fortune were born at the property up the road where cats have been dumped in numbers that the land owner can barely feed, let alone spay. I haven't mentioned it in a while because everyone's struggling financially. Every rescue is doing more with less and every rescuer is giving all they can. I have not forgotten the cats there and will not give up until they're healthy and spayed. We did raise funds to spay 10 but that's a drop in a very very big bucket. Population numbers vary wildly depending on who you ask. Even from the same person I've heard 350 and 200 a few weeks later. Personally I've seen around 50 friendly cats on the road side of the property. I do know that there is a colony of feral cats further into the woods which is why the friendly cats are forced to stay nearer the road than is really safe. Conservatively I'd say there's at least 100 possibly as high as 300.
Even for 50, commuting to Mechanicsville 6 cats at a time isn't practical. I think the best solution is a mobile clinic. I've found 2 mobile programs in the area which can do 30 surgeries a day for $2100-$2400. I'd need to book at least 2 days to get on the schedule and pay 50% deposit. Some weeks we barely raise enough to cover bills, but we will get there. It just may take a very very long time. Once scheduled we'd need 27 traps and volunteers to help catch 30 cats a day.
These 4 souls deserved so much more out of life. There are some phenomenal TNR organizations in counties east of us but so far I haven't found anyone serving our area. Coven66 is primarily a sanctuary for difficult to adopt cats. We don't have funding for a TNR program. If you know anyone with the resources & volunteers to help with even a portion of the surgeries send them our way please!!
We are now shamelessly exploiting our kitties to advertise for us in effort to increase sales. So far Váli and Feilan were very enthusiastic about demonstrating our new cat toys for everyone. It's been a tough year for all rescues. Donations are down and the need for help is increasing. When the community is struggling financially, fewer cats get spayed, which leads to more kittens being surrendered and often leads to the surrender of older pets too. Recently I had to turn away 4 cases. There are few things that make me feel worse than not being able to help a cat in need. We don't give up though. We try harder and brainstorm new ideas. The latest is cat toys. If this doesn't work we may have to sell toe bean photos. 😸
