Rescue Stories, April 2021: Tootsie Anne Shirley, Emery, and More

April 21, 2022 Bernadette

tortoiseshell cat at abandoned house — Anne Shirley is waiting.

I feel like I’m chasing my tail this month, and when I look back I see that April always was pretty busy with cat rescue. Last April’s rescue stories involved everything from tiny kittens to a senior adult, from very feral to very friendly, from picking up a friendly cat to trapping 10 ferals to move them to a farm. Whew!

About the rescue stories featured in this post

Rescue sometimes happens fast, and sometimes it’s months in the planning. In March I was working on TNR with the woman who had the three kittens we were socializing (before we trapped them and their mom), then was contacted about Tootsie Anne Shirley.

At the beginning of April I was feeding Denise’s cats while they visited a friend in Florida, assessed the status of the cats there. I met Emery who had joined the group there in January, clearly a friendly cat and possibly lost, and started arranging to get him scanned for a chip. I also remember wondering what was happening at the house where Simba and Midnight Louie came from, two doors down from Denise’s, and had a prickly feeling that something wasn’t right. Later in the month I met with the caretaker of the 10 cats in Green Tree who needed to have them trapped, neutered and removed, and planned to do the project with the next free clinic at the end of May. Near the end of April the kittens we’d trap with their mom at the end of May showed up along with a few other cats who needed to be trapped, and we added them to the list for the May clinic as well.

We scanned Emery for a chip at the beginning of May, and at the end of May we surrendered him to Beaver County Humane Society. He was adopted over the summer too. I trapped and moved the Green Tree cats over Memorial Day weekend. We didn’t manage to trap the cats and kittens, who would later be fostered and socialized, until early June.

I have links to all the stories below!

Tootsie Anne Shirley

Just after I bought my car last April I followed up with a woman who’d contacted me in March about a tortoiseshell cat she’d been feeding since the previous year, and how she’d like to get her off the streets and into a home. She wanted to know what she could do for the girl. She felt so bad the kitty was living on a filthy porch at an abandoned house when it was pretty clear she wanted more out of life than that. She actually found a shelter placement at a progressive shelter in West Virginia near where her brother, a cat rescuer, lives, who would handle the tortie humanely whether she was friendly or feral and no chance of euthanasia unless some health issue was in place. It must have been meant to be—I went over with a trap, and we trapped her within a half hour, the woman held Tootsie in her garage, then transported her to the shelter the next day. Tootsie was adopted over the summer. Read Tootsie’s rescue story.

Emery

Emery had a chip! I gave the chip scanner to Denise so she could scan as many in her colony as possible. She was surprised how fast it came up–she turned it on sitting next to him and it beeped almost immediately while the number came up in the screen. That would be pretty exciting on your first try scanning a cat! We learned it was traced to one of our local shelters from February 2015. This was even more exciting! But in a little disappointing twist, it didn’t end with finding Emery’s family, but it possibly had an even better ending than that. Read about Emery.

Feral Faces of Anticipation

black and white eartipped feral cat — Chessy

I fed Denise’s feral colony twice each day for about 10 days last April. It’s no small commitment to feed and care for a dozen cats who other humans have abandoned, and you can’t just not feed them if you go away for a few days. But, oooh, I get to photograph cats! And decide who and how to trap some newcomers. See more pictures.

Green Tree Cats

Initially, the caretaker thought there were 12 cats and there very well might have been at one time, but there was no sign of any but the 10 we trapped. They are all now at the farm, and I hear from Birgitta they are doing well as they near the end of their transfer from their home to hers. None had any post-surgery problems, all have eaten well and while they don’t show any signs of wanting to socialize, they aren’t hostile, except for one. Read more about these cats.

Those Kittens!

Those kittens! When they were still outside. Read more.

Simba and Midnight Louie

two black cats on windowsill — Simba and Louie enjoy an autumn afternoon.

“I’m just going to say that I have a couple new #fostercats in the studio, and the #fourhousecatsoftheapocalypse want to know exactly what the story is. Can’t tell them or you right now, but I will soon enough. And I want you to just take one guess about what color they are.” They’ve been camping outside the door, waiting for their introductions and a chance to steal the fosters’ food. Read more about the boys.

Gifts featuring cats you know! Visit Portraits of Animals

Feline Gifts from Portraits of Animals!

I find my feline inspirations in my rescues. Here’s a trio of books of my artwork and also with some stories. Read more.

Copyright

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.