by Harvie Schreiber

Harvie has been with the Cat House for eight years. She coordinates Facebook and Fundraising for The Cat House on the Kings, fosters kittens, and serves as an Adoption Coordinator and on our Board of Directors.

“Summertime, and the livin’ is easy….”

As the temperatures rise during the summer months, things tend to slow down in the cat rescue business. Well, giving and donations tend to slow down; people are on vacation, or are getting ready for back to school, or they are working on summer projects. But at The Cat House on the Kings, the rising summer temperatures mean rising power bills (we pump our own water from a well, after all), as well as rising numbers of cats and kittens. As of mid-August, we’ve rescued over 1,000 cats and kittens (plus a dozen or so puppies and dogs) Our telephone rings off the hook with people asking us to take in cats and kittens and we’re officially “over-the-top full” at the moment. Because donations are down and kitten numbers are up, your financial assistance is more important to us now than ever. Please consider taking a moment to make a cash donation to us at: cathouseonthekings.com or by purchasing much-needed items off our Amazon Wishlist: cathouseonthekings.com/wishlist. Don’t forget, when you do your back to school shopping at smile.amazon.com/ch/27-0015288, Amazon donates to Cat House on the Kings.

At The Cat House on the Kings, we love visitors (and visitors seem to love coming to see all of our sanctuary cats). We’ve recently had visitors from The Netherlands, South Korea, France, Germany, England, Australia, the Cayman Islands, Taiwan, Oregon, Colorado, New Mexico, Iowa, Texas, Nebraska, and from all over California, including several birthday celebrations, as well as a Pismo Beach church group of 38 people. To arrange a tour or an appointment to visit, just call our office at: (559) 638-0490 to make the arrangements. If you are planning to adopt, we do ask that you visit our website first and fill out an online adoption application before coming for a visit, since all adoptions require this. When you come, feel free to bring treats for the cats, a donation of cat food or litter, and even a picnic lunch to enjoy by the beautiful Kings River (and surrounded by cats). Our next Open House is on Saturday, November 2 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mark your calendars for this family-friendly, fundraising event.

Speaking of our next Open House on November 2, it’s our Autumn/Holiday Open House and it will include a large Silent Auction. We’re looking for donations, vendors, and volunteers for this event, and you can email Tammy@Cathouseonthekings[dot]com for details on any of those things. For donated items, as long as you’re willing to drop it off at The Cat House on the Kings or our Fresno Adoption Center (or ship it to us), we’d love to have it. Handmade items, collectibles, purses, home goods/home décor, gift items, pet items, artwork, holiday items—these are all things that have sold really well at past Silent Auctions. As for volunteering, we have two shifts available (early morning and a bit later), as well as some sit-down opportunities for those with limited mobility. If you’ve got questions and would like to help out with a donation or as a volunteer or vendor, please contact Tammy Barker at her email!

We’re excited to announce that 2020 Cat House on the Kings calendars can now be pre-ordered and will be shipping in late September. By popular demand, the amazing Cat House on the Kings fundraising photo calendar is back for another year with even better photos from some amazing professional photographers. Our calendar is a labor of love that brings together a number of very talented people who take photographs and who donate their time, talents and skills to design and create the calendar as a donation to The Cat House on the Kings. We’ve got 2,500 copies coming and we would really love to sell out. Our cats can use all the money we can raise. Worldwide shipping is available. And can we say that these calendars make awesome holiday gifts for friends, relatives, coworkers and business associates? We would love for some businesses to purchase a bunch for holiday giving!

Imagine hearing the loud, panicked meows of a tiny kitten coming from a storm drain. This is what recently happened in the City of Reedley. Several Cat House on the Kings staff members were dispatched to check this out after being notified of this kitten. But Homer, Armando, and Karla were unable to get to the kitten, which was stuck in a pipe with water. The Cat House on the Kings had initially been contacted by the Reedley Fire Department who asked if we would take the kitten once rescued, but rescuing it turned out to be more work than anyone imagined. Animal Control also became involved, as did the local media (Thanks, CBS47), and Reedley Police Department. Finally, after a lot of discussion and false starts, a very cute (and very loud) kitten, now named Piper, was freed! Piper is now safe and sound at The Cat House on the Kings, where she’s been dried off, filled up with food, and is waiting to grow bigger so she can be adopted.

If you’ve adopted a cat (or dog) from The Cat House on the Kings, please consider submitting an entry to the Petco Foundation’s Holiday Wishes Contest in the hopes that we might win a Petco Foundation Grant of up to $100,000. Between now and September 23, 2019, adopters can submit a story that highlights how their pets “brighten their adopter’s lives, in big and small ways, and should celebrate the love of their pet.” The submission should also include photos and can even include a video. Your submission also needs to include The Cat House on the Kings’ point of contact, email, and phone number: Tammy Barker, Tammy@Cathouseonthekings[dot]com, at (559) 999-8238. You can submit your entry here: petcofoundation.org/holiday-wishes.

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. Join our Pets Facebook group to keep up with all of our pet articles.

We have also just set up a new email mailing list for KRL’s new pets newsletter. It is still a work in progress-click this link to subscribe. It will only go out once a month and will keep you up to date on all of our pet articles, including the Cat House column, and hopefully some extra content each month.