by Jackie Dale

Jackie is a part of Cat House On The Kings in Parlier and does a monthly column on the Cat House here at KRL.

News From The Cat House
The Cat House on the Kings would like to thank everyone who voted daily for us in The Animal Rescue Site’s 2016 Howliday Shelter Challenge. WE WON THE $20,000 GRAND PRIZE! We also won one of the weekly prizes, the most votes in one week, for an additional $2,000.

Lots of good things are happening at The Cat House on the Kings. This past December Lynea was featured as one of the Fresno Bee’s 12 Faces of Christmas. She also just filmed a live show that was aired in the United Kingdom.

The Cat House would like to thank wag.com and Wellness Natural Pet Foods for the outstanding donation of 40 pallets of wet cat food. That equals 130,000 meals! An easy way to keep tabs on Lynea’s various interviews, contests, etc. is to follow us on Facebook. All the latest news is updated daily, and don’t forget about $5 Fridays, an important ongoing fundraiser. Skip just one latte a week and donate that money to The Cat House on the Kings. At the end of the year you will have a $260 tax-deductible charitable donation! Think about it.

No Matter Where I Go….One day I was headed up to Squaw Valley to visit friends when I decided to stop and take a picture of the beautiful sunset. I pulled into a turnout, got out of my car, and took a few pictures. I turned around, and there was a cat sitting there. I thought to myself, “How can there be a cat here in the middle of nowhere?” I assumed it was a wild cat. The cat blew my theory by walking over to me meowing and rubbing up against my legs. It was like he was saying: “Please save me!” What could I do? I scooped him up and put him in my car. The next day I took him out to The Cat House where, due to his extremely loving disposition, he was readily accepted.

On The Spot Education
Sometimes work in rescue and TNR requires the utmost in self-control. By that I mean it sometimes takes a lot of effort not to tell people what you really think. A friend told me that people aren’t going to listen if you tell them what idiots they really are. I took her advice to heart and I really try to be calm and reasonable. Sometimes it can be very difficult.

One evening I was at the market buying cat food when the young woman behind me asked me what kind of cat I had. I said I had many cats, and I asked her why she was asking. “Well,” she says, “I am looking to breed my cat.” My eyes flew open wide and, of course, the first thing I said was; “May I ask why you want to breed your cat?” “My cat is the best cat there ever was and I want to reproduce more just like him.” I was a little shocked. I frankly had never heard this particular pitch for having kittens. I asked her what kind of cat she had. “Oh, its just a regular orange (male) cat.” I said to her; “I would ask that you please reconsider breeding your cat.” With just a minute to get my message across, I gave a quick spiel on how breeding her cat would not be a responsible decision. I told her that hundreds of cats and kittens die everyday because there are simply no homes for them. I left the market hoping I had made an impression and with the vague satisfaction that purposely breeding one’s cat is not as easy as one might think.

And The Trapping Commences
I began the 2016-trapping season with a referral from Lynea to check out some cats living at the McDonald’s in the nearby town of Fowler. When I arrived, I observed about five or six cats milling around the bushes. Someone had erected a small shelter from the rain and posted a sign asking that the shelter not be disturbed.

As I was on the phone with Lynea discussing what to do, a man in his 30’s walked up with cans of food. He said he stopped to feed them everyday on his way to work. I told him that I was going to trap the cats. He was very concerned about what I was going to do with them. I assured him that I wasn’t going to harm the cats and explained the TNR procedure. He was happy and grateful for the help. That same day I returned and set up traps. I stayed there for four hours and caught three cats, two older kittens and one teenager. The teenager was very feral and after fixing her, she was returned to her home. The two younger cats, a brother and sister, were fearful but I was soon able to handle them. It was good fortune when a woman in my yoga class asked me to help her find two barn cats. She wanted a bonded pair so that they wouldn’t be lonely. The two Fowler youngsters will be going to their new home in about a week.

My next referred TNR was for a retired couple in Selma who are caretakers of five homeless neighborhood cats. The woman told me that people would move and just leave their cat(s) behind. Although the couple had never even owned a pet, they could not just let the cats go hungry. They set up dog houses with bedding for them and feed them daily. They do not want to deal with kittens though and wisely decided to pay to have them fixed.

I caught five cats that day, four of them, GIRLS! The fifth cat was a huge male that inadvertently got caught in the trap. Although the couple had not seen this cat before, I decided to take him in too. I always thought it would be amusing to affix a paper collar to the cat that said; “Your cat has been caught in a local TNR project and has been fixed. You’re welcome!” My policy is, if I catch them, they are getting fixed. Period.

Can You Do Us A Favor?
The Cat House on the Kings has ordered a few too many calendars and to help move the inventory the price has been slashed in half, to $10!! Please consider helping us out by buying a calendar or two www.cathouseonthekings.com/docs/forms/calendarorder.php.

Check out more animal rescue & pet related articles, including more Cat House columns, in our Pet Perspective section and remember that if you buy an ad in KRL you can designate 10% of the ad price to go to the Cat House.

Jackie Dale is a freelance writer who lives in Reedley with her husband of 21 years, Frank, and their 2 children. Jackie currently writes for Traffic Magazine and for The Cat House on the Kings Feline Rescue. A former ballerina, Jackie now teaches yoga and fitness classes privately and at local area gyms.