by Harvie Schreiber

Harvie has been with the Cat House for nine 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.

In early September, the Creek Fire started in the mountains of Fresno County. Within 10 days, it had exploded to more than 220,000 acres causing widespread evacuations of people and pets from the mountain and foothill communities around Shaver and Huntington Lakes. Fresno County Animal Control (Fresno Humane), in conjunction with the Central California Animal Disaster Team, first set up an emergency shelter at Clovis North High School and then at the Fresno County Fairgrounds. To help staff care for this onslaught of evacuated animals, they put out a call to the local animal rescue community; staff members from The Cat House on the Kings were quick to respond. Over the course of many days and nights, Cat House staff have helped care for the many frightened cats at the emergency shelter. Registered Vet Tech Christine Cordova, along with vet techs Brittany Lyle, Lupe Lopez, Sierra Green and Jacklyn Dominguez, not only delivered 20 cases of cat food from the Cat House, but they spent hours feeding, cleaning, scooping, cuddling and reassuring cats, kittens and even some very scared dogs, too. “We really appreciate the opportunity to help out,” explained Christine Cordova. “The real heroes are those on the front line fighting the fires and rescuing the animals, but we are blessed to be able to help out when we can.” At last count, the Cat House has taken in more than 33 animals that have been displaced by the Creek Fire. The grateful owners are visiting daily and helping to feed their animals.

Cute little Mikey is a six-week-old kitten who is very small for his age. He had a severe injury to his lip which required immediate surgery. He’d been found all alone in the mountains and was brought to us for care and rescue and his tiny meows just broke our hearts. He is recovering well from his surgery and we’re hoping that this little guy will soon be fully healed and ready to be neutered and adopted. Mikey is just one of many kittens rescued by The Cat House on the Kings who needs extra vet care and some extra love, and, with your help and support, we’re glad to provide it. Can you help? www.cathouseonthekings.com/donate

Special thanks to Dr. Piel and New Village Pets who performed Mikey’s surgery and who contacted us about him so that we could save this lucky little kitten!

This sweet kitten was recently rescued after being discovered in the engine of a car during an oil change. The man who found her lives in Dinuba, but had traveled to Traver for an oil change; that’s when she was discovered. She was unharmed and only had a little oil on her! He was so shocked that he forgot to take a photo of her IN his car, but he did deliver her to us. She’s only about eight weeks old and we’ve placed her with three new kitten friends so she doesn’t have to bunk by herself. We never cease to be amazed at the many places and circumstances where kittens are found.

We often take in mom cats with kittens, but some litters (and some kittens) are more special than others. Only 15% of orange cats are female, and this beautiful young orange mom gave birth to a litter of cute orange kittens. We discovered that one of the kittens was apparently born with a missing foot, which doesn’t detract at all from his playfulness, cuteness, and ultimate adoptability. We will have him assessed by a local vet to determine if further amputation surgery will be required to protect his stump, but in the meantime he, his littermates, and his mom are all doing well in foster care with The Cat House on the Kings.

OUCH! Meet a very active and energetic six-month-old kitten known as “Dr. Loomis,” who is being cared for by Kitten Quarters staff. He had only been in the big adoption room two days when his wild kitten antics caused him to break the femur in his left hind leg. Off he went to San Joaquin Veterinary Hospital where he received a pin in his leg, and now he’s on a month of cage rest until he heals up. Despite this mishap, he remains a purring, loving, adorable staff favorite, with a personality almost as strong as his sense of adventure and overall rambunctiousness! Once he’s all better, he will be ready for a new home.

When adopter Christina Wallis spotted a pair of kittens available for adoption on our website, she was smitten and knew that the pair would be perfect for her home. She soon discovered that while one of the kittens was still available at the Cat House, the other kitten had been transferred to one of our partner rescues. So Christina adopted the first kitten from us (Luna), then she took the time and effort to track down the other kitten (Gregory) and traveled to adopt him, as well. She shared their reunion story with us: “We picked up young Gregory today. He is such a little sweetheart and gentleman. He did great on the 3+ hour drive home today, also has been eating and drinking and playing with his sister. Luna was so excited to see him. She was just so overjoyed. They both definitely recognized each other immediately. Gregory didn’t come out of the carrier at first but did after he saw Luna. She ran towards Gregory after he came out of the carrier and they have been playing and chasing each other around ever since he got home. These are definitely two very happy little kittens.” We love happy endings like this, don’t you?

Did you know that we go through around 1,100 cans of cat food and 1,500 pounds of dry cat food every week at the Cat House on the Kings? We’re still rescuing kittens in September and expect to keep doing so through the end of the year because “kitten season” never seems to end in California’s Central Valley. We’ve got hundreds of fuzzy little mouths to feed and can always use help doing so. You can shop our Amazon Wishlist (we keep it updated with items we really need) and Amazon will send your gifts of food and supplies directly to us!

Congratulations to Rhonda M. from Ohio who is the lucky winner of our “Watercolor Cats” quilt raffle that was held on September 15. We sold about 9,000 tickets as a fundraiser for our cats, and it was exciting to see people from all over the world choosing to support our rescue efforts by participating in this fundraiser. We’re putting the finishing touches on the 2021 Cat House 2021 cat calendar and hope to have it on sale very soon. In the meantime, we are selling cat masks (should we call them “meowsks”?) which can be ordered online: $12 for the first mask, $8 for each additional mask. Free shipping in the USA.

A heartfelt Thank You to all who voted daily for The Cat House in the “All Grown Up Birthday Shelter Challenge” that recently ended. We were delighted to hear that we won the Grand Prize of a $5,000 grant in addition to $2,000 worth of supplies. We are also happy to report that we have been issued a $9,472.46 donation from the AmazonSmile Foundation as a result of AmazonSmile program activity between April 1 and June 30, 2020. When you shop at smile.amazon.com/ch/27-0015288, AmazonSmile donates to The Cat House on the Kings. Please bookmark this link and use it whenever you shop Amazon as even small purchases really do add up to a large donation for our cats. The Cat House has also received a PayPal Giving Fund Grant of $775.88 as a result of online donations made to us through PayPal, eBay, GoFundMe, Airbnb and other online platforms. Finally, we were thrilled to learn that we would be receiving a Clear the Shelters Fund grant of $50,719.81 from www.Greatergood.org, which includes donations collected for us as well as matching funds for which we qualified.

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.