UP YOUR ALLEY - WINTER EDITION
Sharon Talbert
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Up Your Alley is the bi-monthly newsletter for Friends of Campus Cats.
Free and worth it.
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This issue covers October through December, though there will be a Christmas
issue later, complete with shameless commercials for the Campus Cats High Wire
Tease Toy.
NEW WEBSITE
As many of you know, Campus Cats had a website hosted by Jon Frank at the
University of Washington. We've been enormously grateful for all his help
getting us set up, but it has been a bit of a worry, since we still have no
official affiliation with the UW, and we have been concerned that our website
was not in compliance with University policies regarding non-UW activities (in
the strictest sense, at least) on UW computer equipment.
Recently, though, during adoption proceedings for Angel and Chauncy (who found
a very nice home), I met Ken McGlothlen of Interscapes Creations, a local
Web-design firm focusing on small- to medium-size businesses in the Puget Sound
area, and he offered to arrange a donation of web design services and space on
a server, things we simply wouldn't be able to afford on our very delicate
budget. As I write, a new E-mail address and Web address is being set up. All
this has taken place in nine days---very fast work!---and the only thing that's
left is for the server name to get updated. The site has been polished up
somewhat, new sections have been added, and shortly, we'll have even more
pictures of cats available for adoption (and possibly, pictures of Tipsy and
Lurchie as well!).
Our thanks to Rob Etzel of Interscapes Creations (http://www.interscapes.com/)
and Sean Lamont and Sonja Krenz-Bush of ServNet (http://www.serv.net/), who are
hosting us, and to graphics artist Steve Greenberg, who reconfigured his
beautiful Campus Cats logo design for the new site and helped critique the
current design (and who, incidentally, designed Campus Cats "business cards").
Thanks also to Aki Kumashiro, who has been scanning pictures for us. We are
very excited about our new website and hope it generates more adoptions for us.
It's harder for local cats to find homes these days, what with PAWS hogging the
market with their imported goods.
Our new URL will be http://campuscats.interscapes.com/, and should become
active by December 5. Please visit us there. Your comments (and
contributions) are welcome! Also, at that time, you'll be able to reach us at
our new E-mail address: fera...@interscapes.com.
WEBSITE INPUT
We are seeking "articles" from those knowledgeable about cats, esp ferals. The
website is of course linked to other sites, some of them offering excellent
"FAQs" and articles, but we want, in all due modesty, to feature documents of
our own. I will try to finish a document on finding a lost cat and, that done,
will begin a piece on humane management of feral cats in your own backyard.
Soon we will feature a document about cats and birds, written by one of the UW
scientific staff. Currently, we are very interested in a piece about gardening
and cats (both on how to humanely deter cats from the garden and how to plan a
garden that a cat would enjoy). Is there anyone out there interested in
submitting such a document? It is needed, and soon. Also of interest would be
anecdotes of rescues of ferals or backyard humane management.
STILL SEEKING COMPUTER SYSTEM
Campus Cats is still seeking an affordable computer system. I've come to the
conclusion that I am one of those born-again Mac evangelists and so am
insisting on a Mac, a model recent enough to handle e-mail, word processing,
and web-crawling. My budget is extremely limited, as I will not use funds
donated for the care of campus cats. Anybody know of a good system in the
$500-600 range? We need a computer, plus modem. Also need printer and
sufficient software. If the seller is willing to sell a decent system at an
outrageously cheap price now, I could help make up the difference with a bit
more cash when my tax return comes in.
FIELD ACTIVITY AND ADOPTIONS
October:
Captures/Admissions: 4
Released: 0
Euthanized: 0
Adoptions: 2
November:
Captures/Admissions: 2
Released: 1
Euthanized: 0
Adoptions: 4
SEEKING HOMES
Even with recent adoptions, we are still neck-deep in cats and kittens waiting
for homes. Please visit our website or call Campus Cats at our message phone:
(206) 527-4174.
CAMPUS CATS HARDSHIP CASE - SHABBY TABBY
An adult tom was rescued (finally) near the South Campus HUB, where he has been
a fixture since last summer. This guy is tame but looks like he's been on his
own for a long time; he may be a pet abandoned when West Campus student housing
was razed last year. He would not allow himself to be picked up and evaded our
traps and nets until yesterday afternoon, when Diana caught him napping on a
dumpster and slapped a net over him. This shorthair bronze tabby looks elderly
but is only middle-aged (about 10 yrs old); he has just been aged by
hardship. He is deafened in one ear due to infections from earmite infestation,
and is suffering from severe tooth loss with infection of the remaining teeth,
which caused him to drool. To our amazement, he tested negative for FIV/FeLv!
Our vet neutered him, extracted two of the four teeth left in his poor mouth,
cleaned his ears, and gave him a flea treatment with Advantage. He is on
medication for a probable infection in his "good" ear and is on antibiotics for
the dental infection. Though virtually toothless, he eats well and with gusto.
He is very grateful and affectionate, head-butting and purring himself silly
whenever given attention; the vet and her staff are quite taken by him. What
he needs now is a lap to call home; a tame cat, particularly a half-deaf one,
will not be returned to campus. We are glad we were able to rescue him before
winter set in, but we have no place to put him in our household. He had a
number of friends who fed him and petted him during his stay on campus -- any
of those friends ready to commit? Please leave a message at 527-4174 if you
can offer this guy a loving indoor retirement home or even foster care. He's
boarding at the vet's until then.
LARS
Lars, an Angora look-alike, was abandoned on campus near Haggett Hall and
rescued by kind students. After a month of loving foster care, he has come to
stay with us because his foster mother is allergic to his fine, white coat.
Lars is drop-dead handsome, with a medium-length, snow-white coat (at least it
was snow white before he explored the fireplace) and expressive green eyes. He
is about 1-1/2 years old, perfectly tame, and has checked out healthy. Lars is
young enough to be playful and needs a rough-and-tumble buddy to run and
wrassle with. He needs a human companion who will allow him to become deeply
attached, which may take a little time given his history. He was very sad when
abandoned on campus and was depressed again when his foster parents had to give
him up. Please give him a home he can count on and please understand if he is
just a little skeptical at first. He is very loving but may need time to allow
himself to become attached again.
OTHERS SEEKING HOMES
Visit our website for more cats and kittens seeking homes. Don't be afraid to
visit more than once; more pictures and postings appear all the time.
TIPSY & LURCHIE
Tipsy, for those who haven't met her, is our resident cerebellar hypoplasia cat
who has been with us since July 1995 (b. June 1995), born missing that bit of
brain needed for balance and coordination. She is getting a bit stout these
days, because she doesn't flop around enough to work off the calories, but she
is otherwise well. She seems to "walk" better than last year, determinedly
stiff-legging halfway across the living room on a good day, and always getting
where she is going, whatever it takes. Her favorite sport is still lurking in
her hideyhole box and leaping out at Anansi or whoever else is silly enough to
be taken by surprise (sometimes I suspect he is pretending to be taken by
surprise, which is kind of him). She can follow her charge through with a hard
swat with her powerful paws, so the other cats have learned to get out of the
way when she makes her pounce, which she does with disconcerting accuracy.
Lurchie is another disabled resident, born with partial hind legs. She lived
in the field for some five years, spayed as a young cat and returned to campus
at our vet's recommendation. Last year she began to shows signs of wear that
concerned us, however, so we recaptured her (see the newsbite in our website)
and brought her in. Though charming at first, she has soured in captivity (an
epidemic of URI seriously interfered with her socializion and housing
arrangements), but we haven't lost hope that eventually she will allow herself
to be touched without growling and that she might even grow fond of us. She
occasionally suffers me to scritch the top of her head and even behind her ears
(when she forgets herself and leans into my hand, often still grumbling and
frowning). And she is never too grumpy to take babyfood off the spoon at
treat-time. Lurchie is at least finally out of the cage and living in the
nursery, which she is currently sharing with a litter of kittens. Eventually,
she will join the Under-the-Bed Gang, where she can hang out with other
hardcore adult ferals who have learned to love the indoor life. She loves other
cats, smiling and purring and waving her stumps in the air whenever Shira the
Wonder Cat blesses her with her presence.
FERAL CAT COALITION
Campus Cats, with regret, has dropped from the Feral Cat Coalition of King
County/Seattle and will no longer be recruiting for that organization. We
remain interested in joining another feral cat coalition, however. One is
certainly needed in the Seattle area.
FREE "SPAY DAY"
The next free clinic for sterilization of ferals only, offered by the Feral Cat
Spay & Neuter Project, is scheduled for *Sunday, December 7.* Please call them
immediately at (206) 528-8125 for reservations. The clinic is offered in the
PIMA facility in Seattle. The January clinic is scheduled for Sunday the 11th.
Visit the Project's site on the PAWS website (http://www.paws.org) for more
information. And spread the word, if you know someone who is feeding homeless
cats.
LOST CAT
Last week Campus Cats lent a trap to a woman who lost her newly adopted cat
(from PAWS, of course) in Ballard. The cat squeezed through the cracked-open
second-story balcony door and clawed its way through the screen. (A note on
the escape skills of any cat worth its salt: Cats are amazingly strong and can
open just about any door or window if it can get a paw in the crack -- lock
your doors and windows in position, people. A simple broomstick would have
prevented this gorgeous cat from escaping into the night.) I'm afraid the woman
has given up the search and the cat is on its own in Ballard. Please, anyone
in the area watch for this poor cat. He was last spotted on the grounds of the
Ballard Hospital and may be dumpster-diving in that area, though he could have
wandered far from that point by now. The cat is easily recognized; he is a
recently neutered male Birman (medium longhaired, Siamese-colored cat with
white paws). He did not bond with his new owner, as he had only been with her
one evening. If you spot him, contact us for a trap or borrow one from PAWS;
the cat is tame and gentle but very shy and probably will not allow you to
approach him. Watch for a cat matching my description who seems overly shy or
disoriented or whose coat is unkempt, and if you know anyone who feeds homeless
cats in that area, ask them to watch for this cat. Thanks.
A STORY ABOUT THOSE *OTHER* HOUSEPETS
I'll end this rather lackluster newsletter with a story. It's a long story and
has nothing to do with feral cats, but it has a worthy motive. If you know
someone who is a dog trainer or someone who may know a dog trainer, please
read.
OK, so this is not a feral cat story; worse, it's a feral *dog* story and a
long one. But it's a pretty good yarn nevertheless, and I am hopeful it will
help me find a solution to a serious problem.
The story is as much about my friend Hildy as it is about the dog. Hildy, a
sawed-off little character who looks and sounds like Dr. Ruth, has been
rescuing critters of every persuasion (from a squirrel with spine damage to an
abandoned Korean pig) for more years than she will admit to. She is charmed,
I'm convinced, because she constantly puts herself in very dangerous situations
and somehow always emerges unscathed. She has a guardian angel, it is obvious,
but I'm afraid even her angel is about to lose patience. I am posting this
story only partly for your amusement; my real motive is to find a certified dog
trainer who can help Hildy out of a potentially very dangerous situation.
Please bear with me.
One of Hildy's recent rescues is Scraps, a small, short-legged street dog (I'll
call him Scraps, because Hildy gave him a silly name that's slipped my mind).
Scraps is a feral, dumped some *7 years* ago in the University Village near the
University of Washington and living on his own since. He was most likely a
young adult at the time of his abandonment, as none of his human friends
remembers him as a pup. Scraps had lots of human fans during his years as a
tramp but nobody to give him a home (or even lay a hand on him). For years he
mooched from the workers at the Darigold plant and when that was torn down, he
was fed the grocery's staff. When handouts weren't forthcoming, Scraps could
tip over a garbage can with the best of them; he was also a seasoned dumpster
diver. One Scraps fan who later contacted Hildy recalled the small dog gamely
struggling to get to his den with a full-sized loaf of french bread in his
jaws, looking like a canine airplane. Scraps' "home" was a steeply graded,
wooded hillside, enclosed by a cyclone fence that had been cut to allow the dog
to pass to and fro. As he tried to jump through the opening in the fence to
get to his den with the bread, he fell down the bank again and again,
scrambling up and jumping at the opening until the bread finally broke and he
squeezed through the hole with his bounty. Such was his life, year after year.
When Hildy, who is at least as feisty and independent as Scraps, heard about
the little dog, she fed him *daily* for 14 months, driving across town to do so
(and she hates driving), even during a heavy winter (checking on the dog more
than daily during that time). Scraps grew to at least acknowledge her, though
never allowing her to touch him or even approach. One of his "fans," meanwhile,
decided to capture the little dog and set up an elaborate net system, designed
to snatch the dog off the ground. It nearly worked, and would have worked if
the anxious "rescuer" hadn't gotten trigger-happy and tripped the net before
the dog was in place and eating the bait. While Hildy looked on in horror, the
terrified Scraps, yanked high into the air and only half enclosed in the net,
wriggled free and fell, dropping with a sickening thud to the concrete 10 feet
below. The fans, who had come with friends and camcorder to record their
triumph, then left in disgust, leaving the injured dog to take refuge and heal
on his own. Scraps was not sighted for three weeks after that attempt, though
Hildy continued to come daily. It was an even warier Scraps who finally
materialized for his feedings.
Winter was very harsh that year, and Scraps was visibly suffering from the
weather, shivering so hard he couldn't stay on his feet at times. Finally,
Hildy could stand it no more and took matters into her own hands. She had set
up a dog house and bedding. Scraps would not go into a humane trap (that had
been tried many times before), but he did take refuge in the shelter in the
most extreme weather. One particularly frigid night she crept up on the
shivering, sleeping dog and literally pounced on him, right into the dog house
(she is a small woman), fortunately entangling him in the bedding as firmly as
any net. Miraculously, Scraps did not offer to bite her, seeming to realize
she was his friend even as he struggled desperately to escape. Somehow she
bundled him into her car and took him home.
End of story? No; it just begins. Scraps loves his new life of luxury,
lolling on the bed and snuggling in Hildy's lap, but he has possibly never had
a home to call his own (we are only guessing that he was dumped as an adult,
and that was 7 years ago, at any rate). And Hildy, god love her, is not a dog
trainer and isn't nearly as fierce with her animal friends as she is with her
own species. Scraps, left to his own devices and conclusions and besotted with
his new owner, has become an aggressive *biter* of all strangers and visitors,
apparently protecting his beloved Hildy and all her other animal friends.
Hildy can no longer bring people into her home, even her own son, who has been
nipped several times by the ever-diligent (and probably jealous) Scraps. She
walks Scraps late at night on a leash (he will suffer the leash but will not
allow even Hildy to muzzle him), yet still he frequently escapes and throws
himself at passersby or other dogs. He is a terror! He has not bitten anyone
seriously yet, but that is beside the point. It is only a matter of time
before there is a serious incident.
I am very afraid that dear Hildy will be sued by the next person Scraps nips or
that she will even be injured by this little dog, who is unpredictable in spite
of his deep love for his rescuer. Is there anyone who can help her, someone
certified to take on a dog with few to no social graces but who deserves a
lease (or is it leash) on life? And of course training the dog is only part of
the challenge. As I said to Hildy when she told me her story, the dog can
probably be trained, but I'm not so sure about her!
Please e-mail me with your responses, and I'll put you in touch with Hildy, who
would be grateful for your help but who will drive you crazy. And please --
*only* certified, highly experienced dog trainers with the patience of a saint.
Thanks for putting up with this long story. I hope it bears fruit.
Sharon Talbert
Friends of Campus Cats
dece...@pacbell.net
Sharon,
I hope your new website will encourage people to make reasonable effort
to locate the possible owner for each cat. I do think a number of them
are lost cats.
I am becoming concerned with the number of people feeding or taking in
strays, without one poster put up for a possible owner to spot. Not one
mention of the critter in a pound "found" book-nada. Not even going down
per cat, and looking in the lost books to see if one can spot the owner.
People feeding strays are also not taking the creature to see if it has an
AVID chip. If someone adopts my kitty as a stray they go to jail. I will
prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.
At the Riverside County pound is a clerk. Her dog had an AVID chip.
It vanished one day. Six months later, as she was sitting at her desk, a
pound worker walked her dog up. The people may have thought they were
being kind to a "stray" but reasonable effort to find the owner was not
make-it had a chip.
The six month care are theives in the eye of the law, and I do believe
were prosecuted. (This story can be verified. The pound tells it over
and over.)
That six month home was two blocks from her own. Not even a poster had gone up
reporting that "found" dog, and her "lost" posters were never reviewed by
that care. Her posters were simply something to drive by and not read.
I don't know about you, but if I had moved, and my cat escaped and
became lost, and I read a poster six months later describing a feral or
stray, and it smelled like a chance it was mine, I'd be claiming it like a
ton of bricks.
Not all the cats were abandoned.
I always assume a cat is lost before I assume it is abandoned. I'm in a
planned community out in the sticks so I feel posters are the appropriate
choice and a note on the collar if possible, and then a chip scan to be
double sure, before I have the animal chipped in my name. This new cat I
have-the pound shall see for a chip.
Your shelter may be responsible, but not huge handfuls of indivduals
acting on their own.
Paula
P. Bosche
On a cheap computer system, you might try the uw surplus, non-profits can
buy anything there, on certain days.
Phoebe Bosche Phone: 543-0249 (wk) bos...@u.washington.edu
High Energy Physics Phone: 328-1676 (hm)
Rm B217, Physics Bldg. Fax: 543-1104