From the Challenger’s House update email:
Here at Challenger’s House it’s been hard to keep up with all the calls & requests for us to take cats & kittens. It was a late “kitten season” but even with an adoption center (at Petsmart) full of kittens, and foster homes full of kittens, and kittens here at the shelter, adoptions have been slower in 2010. In the first quarter of this year, we took in 37 and adopted 47 but in the second quarter we took in 57 and only adopted out 27. We still keep a population of 120-140 at any given time.
What a lot of people don’t understand is that being a no time limit (no-kill) shelter, we can’t take every cat or kitten that comes along. If we did, we would be overcrowded, disease would set in, and money would run out quickly. And since we keep the cats until they are adopted or die of old age we end up with cats that are middle aged & older, some of whom will probably live with us the rest of their lives.
At the current time, donations are down & our funds have dwindled. We are asking that everyone who is able, send a donation to help us defray the cost of vet bills, medications/vaccines, flea control, food, litter, utilities, and all the other expenses associated with operating a shelter that provides a comfortable place for the cats & kittens to stay until they are adopted. You can make such a difference by supporting Challenger’s House in its quest to help as many homeless and unwanted cats & kittens as possible.
We take the animals we can but when our foster homes are full and the shelter is full, and when money is tight, we have to turn people away. It’s heartbreaking to tell them we don’t have room for the litter of kittens they found in the ditch or the cat that their neighbor moved off & left.
If you’d like to donate to Challenger’s House, you can do so by mail, phone, or Paypal – all the information is at the bottom of their Petfinder page, here.
I went and added a note on yesterday’s entry, but in case you missed it…
“NEGATIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!!”
“And then we was tutored, and it was EXHAUSTING!”
They tested negative (didn’t I tell you they would? But I was still worried!), they were neutered, and they had their ID chips put in, got their rabies shot, the whole kit and kaboodle. Now they’re ready and available to be adopted, we’re just waiting for room at the adoption center!
To celebrate the negative test results, well….
Meet Los Gatitos (Spanish for “The kittens.” At least that’s what Babelfish tells me. I know nothing of Spanish, so if Babelfish steered me wrong, please let me know.)
This is Hermano.
Pancho, Sofia, and Evita sleep off their spay and neuter surgeries.
Hermano’s a little leery of me.
“Whatchoo doin’, lady?”
Yes, we have FOUR white kittens. Hermano has two blue eyes, Sofia has one blue and one green eye, and Pancho and Evita both have green eyes. (I’ll be putting collars on them so I can tell them apart from a distance.)
They’re about 10 weeks old, and when they counted back on the calendar at the vet’s, they came up with May 5th – Cinco de Mayo, thus the Spanish names.
These kittens were tossed in a ditch by some guy in a van out in the country. Luckily, the sister and mother of a Challenger’s House friend came upon them almost immediately, which is a good thing – white kittens are particularly vulnerable to predators because they’re so visible.
They were a little bit skittish last night, but this morning they weren’t too concerned about me. Hermano let me pick him up and pet him, and didn’t think it was TOO horrible an experience. Pancho is a live wire – he was literally hopping straight up in the air to get rid of some of that energy. They’re adorable, sweet, playful kittens, and I’m looking forward to getting to know them!
Spanky, in his current favorite sleeping place.
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Previously
2009: That is one happy little cat!
2008: Sisterly love.
2007: And then the guy sat down to talk to us, and I turned into a pouty teenage brat.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.