Thursday, March 28, 2024
animal rescueanimal welfareawardblogging awardFrankencatHCMTHomeless Cat Management Teamhonor/award

Our Petties Award Sponsors a Clinic

petties award winners
The group of us, from top left: Michelle Miller holding FrankenCat, me, Cynthia Buncher Savitt, Heather Long with Pappy, Nene, Candy Finelli and Diamond.

We received our Petties trophy for “Best Blog Post” last Friday, and I thought I’d share a few of the people and animals involved with the story.

Above, the group of us involved in the winning blog post and Homeless Cat Management Team (HCMT), the recipient of the $1,000 from Dogtime Media, from top left: Michelle Miller, board member of HCMT and the person who organizes most activities from rescues to trapping for clinics and sometimes the clinics themselves, holding FrankenCat; me; Cynthia Buncher Savitt who has been involved in nearly every large trapping project and who spends the days before every clinic running traps around and helping people trap cats and kittens and working with the general public; and Heather Long who rescued Old Grand Dad and fostered FrankenCat, with Pappy, Nene, Candy Finelli and Diamond. I wanted to get as many people together as possible for a group photo with the trophy, but it’s darned difficult to get everyone together in one place! Just a few other people who would be in this photo if they could have made it would be Dr. Becky Morrow, who did the surgery on FrankenCat and was and still is his veterinarian, and Lindsay Joyce, who took care of him in the clinic in the days after his rescue, until he went to Heather’s home for foster, and of course anyone who regularly volunteers with the clinics in any way. Lots of hands make this possible. And paws…

five black cats and petties trophy
The Five are proud of their trophy.

And I can also share the plans we’ve made for what to do with the $1,000 donated to HCMT.

I help to manage the HCMT website and saw that the November 17 free-for-ferals clinic had no sponsor yet. That clinic is critical because it catches adult females who can still reproduce from conceiving kittens who would be born in the cold of winter and likely die, and also catches this year’s kittens before they become reproducing juveniles next spring.

I’d been trying to figure out a clever fundraiser for it or someone who might be willing to sponsor. Winning the Petties award I knew I could leverage that donation into an even larger donation and cover that clinic. I asked my friend and customer Deb Chebatoris of Chartiers Custom Pet Cremation if she’d be willing to donate $500 and we could sponsor the clinic together. She said “yes” right away.

Deb has always said she doesn’t want to see anyone’s pet until they’ve had a good long life and left behind a lot of memories. She chooses to host classes and events like Pet First Aid and Dog Aggression classes to help people understand their pets better and help them live longer and fuller lives, and she supports organizations that help support pet owners with the cost of pet care. Supporting this clinic may seem unrelated to cats living on the streets who apparently don’t have an owner, but in a very real way they do with the caretakers who’ve chosen to care for them, and even living outdoors they are cherished and their losses mourned just as those who live indoors. And this clinic also prevents the birth of hundreds of kittens who may suffer and die on the street along with their mothers, and those non-reproducing former mother cats can have a much better life without the burden of reproduction. We can all take better care of the cats we call our own without the burden of more kittens growing into more cats.

So we are proud to partner together and sponsor the November clinic and put that Petties award to use immediately!

Petties Trophy in box.
Petties Trophy in box.

And the boys were really happy to finally be able to open the box!

two black cats with gold box
Mr. Sunshine and Giuseppe are ready to see what’s inside!

. . . . . . .

And FrankenCat has a home!

Heather had fully intended to keep FrankenCat and Old Grand Dad together for as long as OGD lived, but wasn’t sure what would happen when he passed. Well, FrankenCat is apparently a born nurturer of elderly pit bulls because now he has Pappy to care for! FrankenCat is also apparently very comfortable in her home and with all her dogs, and Heather and the dogs are happy with him, so FrankenCat has gone from foster to adoption. He’s found his home.

woman and cat
Heather and FrankenCat.
Petties nominations and awards
Petties nominations and awards

Thanks to every one of you who took the time to choose their incredible story and go each day to vote. To my total astonishment we were nominated for three awards: Best Cat Blog, Best Blog Post and Best Video Post. To win even one is a great honor.

And those cats who will either be spayed or neutered or receive veterinary care will thank you as well, though the boys losing their cojones may not feel that way at first. If I have updates on how the money was used, I’ll be sure to let you know!

And I’m planning an update on Frankencat soon. His work is continuing with another elderly pit bull, and the FeLV he was diagnosed with isn’t showing any symptoms, so he’s got his work cut out for him and seems to enjoy it.

You can read more about the contest in my post all the winners in this post on Dogtime Media.


Browse some rescued cats and kittens—browse here or visit PittsburghCAT!

cats and kittens
Gallery view of Pittsburgh CAT cats for adoption.

All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop 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.


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Weekly schedule of features:
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Bernadette

From health and welfare to rescue and adoption stories, advocacy and art, factual articles and fictional stories, "The Creative Cat" offers both visual and verbal education and entertainment about cats for people who love cats, pets and animals of all species.

11 thoughts on “Our Petties Award Sponsors a Clinic

  • I started from Cheezeburger to read about Franken and OGD and this is the most amazing story ever.

    Reply
    • Isn’t it, Kathryn? Not only is he an amazing cat with other animals, he’s a really nice cat too which is almost surprising considering where he came from. But we are who we are underneath it all.

      Reply
  • Wonderful!! 🙂 What a beautiful post! I heart FrankenCat!

    Reply
  • frankencat !!! way kewl dood !!! a most happee gotcha day two ewe …we bee veree veree happee for ya….

    N mom B…mega conga ratz two ewe & two HCMT !!! we be veree veree happee for ewe az well…de troffee rocks !!!

    ♥♥♥

    Reply
    • Tabbies, Franken is the nicest cat you’d want to meet. Thanks for the congrats, and thanks for doing your part ;)!

      Reply
  • Anne Slevin

    Well deserved, Bernadette. One does not need physical honors to know the good that’s been done but, it makes that knowledge all the better. As Jackie Gleason said. “How sweet it is!”. Congratulations.

    Reply
    • Thanks, Anne! The best honor is being able to help HCMT and all those related to help more cats.

      Reply
  • Every section of this post was better than the one before! Thank you, Bernadette. (And please share how you got all five of those cats to sit still in one place at the same time!)

    Reply
    • Lynda, thanks so much! I’m still in wonder that I won this honor, and it’s even better that Deb agreed to help and we can sponsor that clinic. As for the cats lining up, they do that on their own and I do my best to catch it, but the cabinet is their observation point for the kitchen so that’s where they gather.

      Reply

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