True Stories of Rescued Kitties

Heavenly Cats

Catscapades, the book, is in production. There were a few problems this week. The file we sent to the printer wasn’t set just right. Twice, we had to go back to the drawing board. (We’re just grateful that 360 Digital Books is on their toes and communicative when there is a potential problem. They are as eager for us to have a perfect end result as we are.)

Finally, our computer was able to communicate with the printer’s computer and we seem to have a perfect file. Cross fingers! If all goes well, we should be pretty much on schedule as far as receiving our shipment of Catscapades, True Cat Tales around March 15, 2010. And I’ve talked to a lot of people who are excited about purchasing copies. So far there will be around 50 copies going out the door as soon as they arrive on our doorstep. And the orders are still coming in.

In the meantime, our cats, Lily, Max and Sophie are all doing their best to create new harrowing, humorous and heartwarming stories. And I’m talking to other people with cat stories, as well. One woman told me about a cat she found recently with a collar embedded into the skin of, not only his neck, but one of his legs, too. He had gotten his leg through the collar and stuck. And then he grew into the collar in a dreadfully painful way. Thank heavens for wonderful cat rescue folks like this woman, who took him into her home and, of course, got him medical treatment.

It seems that more and more people are rescuing cats whether it is from shelters, after having been dumped in rural areas, from private parties who have no interest in or knowledge of spay/neuter, or cats left abandoned or neglected in neighborhoods. I just came across a new cat in our neighborhood this morning. He’s skittish and I couldn’t get near enough even to see if he has a collar and tags. But I’ve already started asking around to find out if anyone knows where he belongs.

Last month a neighbor was planning a move to Idaho. The question was, would Fiona (her young cat) go with her? Neighbors began to make plans for a new home just in case. On the day the family was to leave, Fiona was nowhere to be found. It was getting dark. It looked as though she would be left behind. Finally, we discovered her hiding under the house and she did leave in a carrier with her mom. All is well for Fiona. I hope she likes the snow.

All 3 of my current kitties, and several before them, were rescued in some fashion from some potentially precarious situation. And several of their stories are in Catscapades, True Cat Tales. I even consider Katy, the Himalayan I bought for $400 in the ‘80s from a pet store, a type of rescue. Who is going to pay that much for a cat that is registered, but not show quality? As it turns out, before she was of breeding age, Katy got a bad infection in her uterus and had to have it removed. So, if someone had bought her for breeding purposes, they might have given up on her once they discovered that she would not produce for them.

As you will read in Catscapades, True Cat Tales, Katy turned out to be one of my most adored and adoring cat companions. She was with me for almost 18 years. I miss her still. But our newest kitty, Lily (the cover girl for the new book) must have talked to Katy before coming to us as she seems to have taken over where Katy left off in the affection department.

I’d love to write more about cats that come to us with very distinct traits or habits that are similar to cats who have crossed over the Rainbow Bridge. I share stories in Catscapades of the similarities between our gentle odd-eye cat, Winfield (who died in 2007) and Lily. I think you’ll find these similarities remarkable.

Order your copy of Catscapades prior to March 15, 2010 and get free shipping plus a free gift. http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades.html

All for Animals Founder Helps Shelter

Karen Lee Stevens Videoing a Shelter Dog

Karen Stevens of Santa Barbara, California does a lot for animals. First of all, she has been involved for many years in cat rescue. She founded an International organization called All For Animals http://www.allforanimals.com. She had a spot on local TV for quite a while where she featured a pet from local shelters each week. And she launched the Adoptable Pet Photo Gallery, in hopes of helping shelter animals get adopted.

Recently, Karen began video-taping cats, dogs and other shelter animals that need homes and posts these at her website. They also play the videos at the shelter so that visitors can experience the personality of a dog or cat that happens to be sleeping at the time of their visit, for example.

All for Animals is not a new pup, er, kid on the block. Since 1997, when Karen Lee Stevens founded the organization as a resource for animal lovers in Santa Barbara, the group has been dedicated to raising awareness about cruelty-free living and the importance of compassion to ALL animals.

But that’s not all. When Karen first viewed a video of an adoptable dog at a local animal shelter a few months ago, she said she had one of those “aha” moments. “I actually got goose bumps looking at this dog’s video and listening to the background music (Rio by James Taylor),” Stevens remembers. “The dog happened to be named Rio and the James Taylor song happens to be one of my favorites. Do you ever have a flash of insight where you just know when something is right? For me, I knew in that moment that I wanted to shoot videos of adoptable pets and post them on the Internet.”

Karen calls herself a “video virgin” as she’d never even held a video camera until last month. That’s when she signed up for an introductory camera class at Santa Barbara Channels, a non-profit organization that helps other non-profits produce and air their own high-quality shows on local public access television. Since then, Karen obtained enough funding to purchase a Sony Handicam camcorder and a Macintosh computer (di riguor for any type of graphics or video work) and got to work. Every two weeks, she spends a couple of hours at local animal shelters, shooting video of adoptable cats and dogs and then coming back to her home office, where she edits the videos and adds narration about each pet.

She has always posted photographs of adoptable pets on the All for Animal’s Web site and she felt that videos would be a natural extension of the Pet Photo Gallery. Karen says, “Video enables potential adopters to get a better feel for an animal’s personality, whether it’s watching a dog catch a Frisbee or listening to a cat purr. We want to make it fun and easy for people to meet and ultimately adopt a new best friend.”

All for Animals gratefully accepted donations to help them continue their important and life-saving work of helping shelter pets get adopted. You can send a tax-deductible donation to: All for Animals, PO Box 3534, Santa Barbara, CA 93130. The 501(c) non-profit organization is also registered with Cars for Causes, and accepts old cars, trucks, motorcycles and RVs (this is a perfect time of year to dispose of your old clunker and get a nice tax break). To learn more about All for Animals, visit the organization’s Web site at www.allforanimals.com.