Help With Rescued Kittens and Another Hoarding Case
It’s kitten season, and as we all try to help more cats, we end up with more kittens. I’m offering another “Donate for a Discount” opportunity to help raise funds for critical veterinary care, food and litter, and ongoing care for a number of rescued cats and kittens for a rescuer who works both on her own and with HCMT. Most recently I offered a Donate for a Discount for the sake of Toby and Bentley, also rescued by Amy Tadija, who paid out of pocket for their care along with many others. She’s been TNRing or vetting and rehoming any cat that will get into a trap rather than finding all the kittens later, but also finding plenty of kittens too, along with injured, discarded adults.
The photos here are of her dog Braxton, also a rescue, dumped with his two siblings along a highway, Braxton was the only one caught. He’s an expert kitten nurturer, as you can see; this isn’t the first time he’s been pictured with a kitten in need of a little big dog energy.
The kittens were found in the eaves of an old garage when someone was repairing it. The man repairing took the neonatal kittens out and his daughter took them to her college friends nearby to bottle feed and also asked for help on Facebook. Amy and Margo, also often mentioned, went back to the garage to see if they could trap the mother of the kittens, and so they did even though they had no idea what she looked like. Friendly and curious, she was in a trap in less than a half hour. Mom and kittens went to foster and are now back with Amy because that foster home is taking some other more needy neonatal kittens, older kittens, young adults, adults, and more.
Washington hoarding house
Some of the details of the hoarder’s home are so extreme and horrific that I will only give a few. An 87-year-old woman moved out of her home after it was sold and was scheduled to be demolished. The person who bought it found the woman had left behind a number of cats and a sick and elderly dog and just wanted them to be removed but had no interest in helping, so Amy and a few other rescuers began going there day after day to trap and remove as many cats as possible before the house was demolished.
Apparently the elderly woman had simply left the house a couple of weeks prior, left no food or water, and had no intention of doing anything with the animals. The house had no running water and was of course filled with feces and urine; not even the dog went outside, but cats were going in and out of broken windows and the chimney. The dog was too sick to save and had to be put to sleep. Five cats turned to eight turned to 11 and still more adults. They found a litter of kittens, then a young lactating female, then found two more litters of about three days and three weeks old, along with a few deceased cats and kittens. The younger nursing female was so malnourished she lost a kitten and could not produce milk, so kittens were sent to be bottle fed and cared for by skilled fosters.
Many of the cats are friendly, and the kittens will be socialized, and these will be up for adoption when they are ready. Those who received no socialization will be placed in a friendly barn to be part of a colony.
The cost of it all
All the cats will be spayed and neutered, vaccinated, fattened up and sent off to loving forever homes. As I always do when we encounter a costly operation like this, I will ask if you can make a donation to help us cover the costs of care for these cats, and below I offer “Donate for a Discount” for this operation, a program through which I give a $5.00 coupon to my animal art website Portraits of Animals for each $25.00 of donated goods or cash.
To give you an idea of the costs for each cat, each cat will receive: FIV/FELV test ($25), Rabies Vaccination ($8), FVRCP ($10), Flea Treatment ($8), Wormer ($8), Spayed/Neuter ($35-50), plus the cost of food and intensive care until they are adopted. The cost of KMR for all those kittens is phenomenal. These cats are being cared for at Fix Ur Pet, which does give Amy a rescuer’s discount, but the care many of these cats have needed has been an expense, then soon the tests, vaccinations and surgeries will come. The little tortie is doing very well after several days of intensive care.
Donate for a Discount
Many of you readers have often been generous in helping these rescuers with the costs associated with rescues, and when I set up my new website I included my favorite reward program as one of the pages, titled “Donate For a Discount”. I will give you a gift certificate toward shopping on my website in thanks—for every $25.00 you donate in goods or cash I’ll give you a gift certificate for $5.00 off a minimum $25.00 purchase.
- $5.00 off $25,00 when you donate $25.00
- $10.00 off $50.00 when you donate $50.00
- $15.00 off $75.00 when you donate $75.00
- $20.00 off $100 when you donate $100.00
- and so on
Let me know you donated:
- Donate directly to http://www.fixurpet.org/. On the home page you’ll see a box on the right that offers “Donate to the Have a Heart Fund for pets in need of medical or surgical care”. When you donate you can make a note that it’s for “Washington hoarding” or “Tadija rescues”.
- You can also mail a donation to them at 2215 Hill Church Houston Rd., Canonsburg, PA 15317.
Email me with your donation information.
- Email a copy of your donation receipt.
- I will confirm with the clinic and send you your gift certificate (discount code).
How to use it:
- Each certificate is good for $5.00 off your order of $25.00 or more.
- Use for individual shopping trips or all at once.
- Use for your own shopping, give as a gift, or keep for later.
- Certificates are good until December 31, 2016, and I can renew them if you haven’t used them by the end of the year.
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All images and text used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission, although links to your site are more than welcome and are shared. Please ask if you are interested in using and image or story in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of an image or a product including it, check my animal and nature website Portraits of Animals to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item. Subscribe to The Creative Cat Preview E-newsletter. © 2022 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski Weekly schedule of features: Sunday: Essays, Pet Loss, Poetry, The Artist’s Life Monday: Adoptable Cats, TNR & Shelters Tuesday: Rescue Stories Wednesday: Commissioned Portrait or Featured Artwork Thursday: New Merchandise Friday: Book Review, Health and Welfare, Advocacy Saturday: Your Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Living Green With Pets, Creating With Cats And sometimes, I just throw my hands in the air and have fun!
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I befriended Amy when she got involved with Braxton and decided to come to West Virginia and rescue him herself and make him her own. She is an absolutely amazing and selfless lady. She is such an angel to these forgotten and unwanted fur babies. Thank you so much for bringing her story and the stories of all these beautiful babies some much needed attention.
Amy is a force of nature! I can’t say how grateful I am for all she does.
Oh my Bernadette…how horrible…two hoardings on top of kitten season…I don’t know how you all handle this…I will send a donation the first week of June..I can’t send much but I know that every little bit helps…I just can’t get over how these people just walk away from these sweet kitties and leave them to die..