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.

The Open House is next weekend and the excitement is building. We are, however, a bit short on volunteers for setting up, breaking down, and lots of stuff in between. Please consider donating the gift of time. There are two shifts available to choose from for the 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. event. We all know that many hands makes light work so please shoot Tammy Barker an email right now. In the subject line write “I Want to Volunteer.” Email: tammy@cathouseonthekings[dot]com

We have received a last minute donation of a Vizio 39” HDTV that will be raffled off at the Open House. Tickets for this raffle must be purchased at the Open House.

Hopefully the silent auction items have mostly arrived, but last minute donations will be cheerfully accepted! Please remember to check the list of suggested items for the admission donation. These are items that are needed on a daily basis to keep our facility clean and the furry residents healthy and happy. We are also running very low on canned kitten food due to the sheer number of kittens that keep arriving.

Which brings us another important subject: fostering. Consider applying to be a furry foster parent. The Cat House is always in need of foster homes particularly those willing to bottle feed. If you live in this area and think that fostering might be something you’d be interested in and you have a spare room, (bathrooms work well) just go to the website and fill out the application. Link: Cat House on the Kings Foster Application.

The Cat House on the Kings calendar will be on sale at the Open House! Don’t dawdle because over 500 of the 2,000 limited edition calendars have already been sold. You can still order one through the mail of course. It’s $20 for the first one and $15 for each additional calendar. Free shipping within the U.S. Shipping to Canada or Mexico is $6 per calendar. For other international destinations, shipping is $12 for a single calendar and $9 if you order more than one. Link: Cat House on the Kings Calendar.

R.I.P. Jasper

Some of you may remember Jasper who was featured in The Lady with 700 Cats that aired on NatGeo Wild. He was rescued from the local shelter only to discover that he had cancer. He had surgery to save his life and was soon adopted by his furever mom, Gerry. She was originally supposed to foster Jasper, but as so often happens, Gerry fell in love with Jasper and couldn’t let him go. Unfortunately, the cancer aggressively kept returning and Jasper was the consummate trooper, enduring four additional surgeries. Though his will to live was strong and he fought the good fight, he eventually lost the battle. Jasper recently crossed the Rainbow Bridge where he now frolics and plays free of pain. He will be missed.

The Rainbow Bridge is where they will wait for us, surrounded by their friends and the loved ones who have already crossed. No suffering. No pain. Where they will only know love, happiness, peace and joy.

What I Have Been Up To

The past month has been steady with cat-related work. Every day brings phone calls from people wanting me to remove cats, find homes for cats, rescue/take-in kittens, and place/rehome older cats too. To the people who want me to remove cats, I have to tell them, “I don’t have any place to store cats.” That is exactly what I told the person behind a store at a local mini mall where I have been feeding for two years. He asked me to relocate them. I told him that two years ago I already trapped all the cats and fixed them. He looked absolutely shocked. I went on to say that we removed three friendly cats and several kittens. The remaining three adults have been eating in this spot for nearly four years now. He then said to “stop feeding them then, and they will go somewhere else.” I tried to explain that it doesn’t quite work like that. I asked him to have some compassion, that the cats aren’t hurting anything. He responded by yelling at me so I just left. I continue to feed but now have it down to “in and out in 30 seconds.”

Two months ago I was asked to take in a young adult female who was the resident cat at the Selma Home Depot garden dept. They called her “Homey.” Miss Homey had her tail pulled by an unsupervised child, and she gave the child a little “nip.” The parents filed a complaint and management said the cat had to go within twenty-four hours. When I arrived to pick up the cat, the caretaker was clearly distraught. She started to cry as she handed me Miss Homey’s vet records and her favorite toy. Miss Homey has been a challenge to place. She doesn’t like other cats. Not at all. She seems to tolerate the presence of a dog but not cats. Because my home is full of cats, Miss Homey has her own room that she shares with my son. She has a huge tri-level cage that she willingly stays in when it is necessary for the bedroom door to be open. She is an excellent mouser and would be perfect for someone who only wants one cat. She is extremely loving and purrs up a storm!

I was also asked to assist an elderly gentleman in Kingsburg who has dementia. He had a chance meeting with Lynea one day and she agreed to help him with his cat problem. An unfixed female stray had given birth to six gorgeous Siamese kittens. By now the kittens were about 4-5 months old. I went in intervals, removing two kittens at a time. Several kittens have already been adopted. Now all that remains is to trap and fix the mother cat. But when I went to the man’s house, he said that his family was moving him into assisted living at the end of that week. I hastily set up traps, but the commotion of the moving kept the target cat away. So once the move is complete the family has given me permission to keep trying to trap the mother cat before she gets in the family way again. (She has already had another litter, but they didn’t survive.) She will then be returned to her neighborhood.

I also TNRed a cat and her two kittens for an 85-year-old woman in Kingsburg. She was fine with the cats and provided food and water. Her neighbors were supportive as well which just really makes things more pleasant.

I was scheduled to assist another family with a cat problem that consisted of cats coming from a chicken ranch across the street. After visiting, forming a plan and making appointments, the family decided to round up all the cats and kittens that they could and take them to county humane. I expressed my deep disappointment in their decision to take the easy way out. Calls come in regularly for help with TNR, so I just move on to the next project.

The month has brought a flurry of little ones. Two little cuties were found in a public parking lot in a nearby town, one little fellow was living behind a barbecue business where the owners fed him what else, barbecued meat. There is one sole survivor of five kittens found in a pile of construction debris and a sleek black “panther” kitten who had been abandoned by his people. All are healthy and happy at my home until big enough to be fixed.

In addition a friend brought me an adorable snowshoe kitten who had been left behind when his owners moved out. She had been hired to clean out the home and told me that the cat had been alone at least three weeks. An equally adorable ginger kitten (born to a feral mom) was discovered by another friend living as a community cat. The little orange boy had been around people enough that he was very loving. Both of these sweet kittens are now lucky enough to be in the care of The Cat House on the Kings.

Tune in next month for more cat-related news, adventures and happenings, same cat time, same cat channel. Hope to see you at the Open House!

Learn more about the Cat House on their website and you can donate here.

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 25 years, Frank, and their 2 children. Jackie currently writes 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.