10/30/07

An amazing photographer came in on Saturday, 10/27/07 to take some photos of our resident cats. Lora of http://www.loradavidphotography.com/, is retired but her talent is easy for anyone to see. We'll have her photos up on the website in the coming days to replace those currently on each cat's bio. The hardest part will be picking which photo to use. For a complete slideshow of all of the photos she took check out her album here.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Amelia

StarlightAster
Nemo

Cleopatra

Written by: LH

10/29/07

This weekend was very successful. We had 7 adoptions from Friday to Sunday. Gryffindor was adopted again, we're hoping he found the right home this time. He's out on trial with a man who adopted a kitty from us last year. We're hopeful that the two will get along well.
Apollo was adopted by a wonderful family who have renamed him Shadow. Remy with the bright yellow eyes found a great family where he'll have an 8 year old Chocolate Lab as a big brother.

Tinkerbell and her sister Tanya each found their own forever homes this weekend. Tanya was adopted by a wonderful lady with another kitty Tanya's age for her to play with. Tinkerbell was adopted by the same woman who adopted Felicity last week. She's going to love having a buddy her own age to play with. Little Jackie boy, our recent arrival from SJACC went home for a trial adoption, but we've got our fingers crossed that it'll work out alright for him. Sweet, laid back Luther also found a forever home.

Jesse, our sweet boy, found a new forever home. We hope he settles in and has the peace and happiness he didn't get in his previous home.

Written by: LH

10/25/07

Felicity was adopted yesterday, and left for her forever home. It's hard to believe that this sweet girl was actually in the shelter for 11 days. I was betting that she'd be adopted in moments. She's going to make her new family very happy, I think.

Maine Coon Adoptions is taking another kitty from us. This one is Cowboy a large, 11 lb, 3-5 year old, orange and white tabby, long haired cat. Handsome as can be and very outgoing, this boy was found as an unaltered stray wandering loose in San Jose. He ended up in San Jose Animal Care and Control where he was due to be PTS for having a chipped tooth. We fell in love the moment we met this amazing boy and had to save him.

More happy endings came from Maine Coon Adoptions today, when we heard that they placed two of our kitties in a home together. Martina and Ellie were adopted and are doing very well. See below for the story of their first night in their new home.

Written by: LH

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Martina immediately hid behind the water heater in the kitchen. I came in and sat down on the floor and started reading magazines, and after half an hour she starting darting out, running around, then dashing back in. Soon she was coming up for pets and scratches, and then she started exploring. Around 2 am I heard a crash -- she had jumped onto the stove and knocked down a couple of pans, and was back behind the water heater. So I did a quick put-away of everything that might fall off the counters and went back to bed. By morning, she had eaten all of her food and shredded a catnip stalk.

Ellie curled up on a dresser in my bedroom and eventually hid in the closet. I figured she'd come out and be friendly when she was ready, which happened at exactly 3 am. She was all over the bed, crawling over me, lying on my chest, diving under the covers, etc. She had some poop on the end of her tail so I got up to clean it off, and determined that 'Ellie' is short for 'Elevator Butt', because every time I grabbed her tail to wipe it, she purred, raised her butt, turned around in a circle and headbutted me. It took a while. When I woke up she was back in the closet.

So they are adjusting nicely. I'll send you a picture of me and Martina in a week or two.

Thanks again for two great kitties!
Joanne

Dorthy a.k.a Tia - an update

Its been a month since I first posted the story of Tia's life to date and I have great news. Tia is now completely clear of her ringworm, her coat has grown back fully and she's as soft and sleek as can be. She's put on more than 2 lbs since my September post and is nearly 5lbs of growing, energetic, playful, zooming kitten. We're hoping that she'll continue to thrive and grow so that we can have her spayed and put her up for adoption. We know that this sweet snuggle bug of a girl will make someone very, very happy.

Written by: LH

10/24/07

The past few weekends have been busy ones for the folks at the Nine Lives Foundation. We're nearly finished unpacking and setting up the new shelter. I hope to have photos up of our new place soon.

Dr. Thompson's surgery suite is nearly ready for her to restart her low cost spay/neuter Sundays, which we're very excited about. She and several other volunteers and board members have pulled a lot of cats in the past few weeks. In addition to those mentioned previously on this blog, we have lots of new young kittens and a number of beautiful young, healthy adult cats. Loads of these cats are very healthy and will be available for adoption at this weekend's adoption faire. A few were pulled for broken legs and some for the nasty URI that SJACC seems to have so much of.

I'm working very hard at getting as many of them as I can up on our website and Petfinder site. If you're looking for a new cat, please keep an eye on our available cat listings, or call for an appointment to drop by and see them yourself.

In other news, Steve Wozniak is working hard to help feral cats in Silicon Valley. This is such exciting news for Dr. Thompson and the folks at the Nine Lives Foundation. Perhaps now there will be more money for the wonderful people who tirelessly TNR colonies in their area. Below is the complete article from the Mercury News.

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Goldston: Feral cats have a new champion: Steve Wozniak
By Linda Goldston
Mercury News
Article Launched: 10/20/2007 01:38:01 AM PDT

The homeless cat problem in Santa Clara County went global Tuesday: Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak launched a video on YouTube.com about the estimated 125,000 stray and feral cats here and urged people to get involved.
His video introduces a film trailer about the "Cats Without a Home" documentary, produced last year by Humane Society Silicon Valley.
Tuesday was National Feral Cat Day. I'm delighted someone of Wozniak's stature is taking on the cause. Emmylou Harris, my all-time favorite singer, has gotten personally involved with rescuing and fostering dogs in my home state of Tennessee, and I hope these kindhearted celebrities will prompt many more to step forward.
It takes a big name sometimes to get people involved, which is interesting because so much of the work and so many of the animals are faceless and nameless to much of the world.
"Cats Without a Home" introduces the viewer to six people who are working hard to reduce the homeless cat crisis in Santa Clara County. The volunteers and the film endorse a program called trap, neuter, release - TNR - where cats are humanely trapped, spayed or neutered (and vaccinated, microchipped and ear-notched) and then returned to their neighborhoods.
All tame, healthy cats are placed for adoption whenever possible.
As Wozniak points out on the video, "There are 125,000 homeless cats in my county alone, but the problem isn't just here. It's occurring nationwide."
The computer whiz urges viewers of the video to go to the www.hssv.org site to order the 30-minute documentary and learn how they can help homeless cats in their neighborhoods. Copies of the DVD film are $15 each.
Christine Benninger, president of the society, estimates that it costs about $250 for cities and counties to pick up, house and euthanize one homeless cat. For the same price, she says, five cats can be spayed and neutered.
Burnout is a big problem for the groups that work all the time with this problem. And since the need for help and volunteers is so great, I'm hoping people will contact me.
If we in Silicon Valley can't lick this problem, who can?
"For all the progress we've made in Silicon Valley developing innovative products that changed the world, we still have a long way to go to help animals," Wozniak says in the YouTube video. To view the video, visit: www.youtube.com/catsdogsbunnies.
The Humane Society Silicon Valley Web site has a list of local groups working with cat overpopulation. Please sign up today to volunteer with them or let me know if you're willing to help.
Earlier this week, I received an e-mail from Colleen Peltz of San Jose, who has just the right spirit.
"I would like to be a part of a community TNR program," Peltz writes. "I have one humane trap, and am very willing to help trap, transport, and feed ferals that need a little extra help.
"I have personally used TNR at the horse ranch I used to work at in Half Moon Bay (26 spays and neuters, and eight kittens adopted out!) and also at Golfland in San Jose on Blossom Hill, where my husband works, where we trapped/altered 13, and adopted out six kittens.
"The Half Moon Bay colony is still growing slightly, because after I left the feeding was kept up, but not the continued TNR of new arrivals, but the Golfland population is now down to only one or two cats.
"This is the very best way to manage feral cats, for both the community and the cats themselves. I am very excited about the prospect of a more organized large-scale effort for our county's ferals!"

Send your animal stories to Linda Goldston at lgoldston@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5862

Come to our Halloween Adoption Faire!

Halloween Adoption Faire Weekend!

Friday, Oct 26th from 6 pm to 9 pm

Saturday, Oct 27th from 11 am to 4 pm

Sunday, Oct 28th from 12 pm to 4 pm

All black, orange and white cats (or any combo of)

are a special adoption fee of $50.oo!

Our regular adoption fees apply for all other colors.

$125.00 for all cats under a year old.

$75.00 for cats over a year old.

$55.00 for cats over 3 years of age.

Check out our new shelter and find your purrfect match!

News!

Dr. Thompson is back!
She is now seeing patients at the Palo Alto Pet Hospital. Call now for an appointment.

Palo Alto Pet Hospital
711 El Camino Real
Palo Alto, CA 94301
Phone: (650) 323-8558

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Join us for our First Friday event in November! See our new shelter & our many new arrivals!

On Friday, November 2nd from 6pm to 9pm we're having an

Open House Event and Adoption Faire:
$5.00 all you can eat chili and cornbread

Isobeau (L) and Marabell (R), 9 wk old snowshoe sisters.

10/13/07

Zeno, who arrived from Los Banos Animal Shelter on 8/30/07 was adopted today!

Jack and Gus went out into foster care, in a potential foster to adopt home.

New arrivals from SJACS

Francesca was to be PTS because she doesn't like other cats. Josie was to be PTS because she doesn't like other cats.

Sebastian, his name in the shelter, was supposed to go down for gingivitis and a heart murmur (he has neither). The R's (Romeo, Ramona, Rafe and were undersized. These 4 kittens were undersized. Tyson - was supposed to go down for being withdrawn. Luther - was to go down for having a mild URI. Jackie was to go down for a URI

Why the Nine Lives Foundation exists...

On Sunday Dr. Thompson and I went down to San Jose Animal Care and Services to pick up the last two of the three cats we pulled for Foothill College's vet tech program. These cats will be well cared for an adopted by the students at the end of the Quarter (a much better life than being PTS in San Jose).

While I was there I took a tour through the kennels to look at the cats that were due to be PTS. Needless to say, I ended up pulling 5 amazing adult cats and 2 litters of kittens from their Euth list. One of the cats I pulled was a 1.5 year old tabby tuxedo boy who looks very much like my very own dear, departed boy, Tibby Toes, except a bit heftier. He had come in as an over the counter surrender with a microchip and no notes in his records that the owner had been notified so we contacted the woman listed by Home Again as his last owner.

Enter sob story here: Apparently his owner had come upon very hard times and her cats (2 of them, a bonded pair of brothers) had been being cared for by a co-worker/cat sitter. Apparently said cat sitter grew tired of, or was no longer able to care for them so she surrendered them both to SJACS on 9/18/08. Additionally, only one had a microchip, the one we pulled. When we discovered that Tyson, our name for him as he had been named Harley, had a sibling we called SJACS immediately as Tyson is clearly a very sad cat and misses his brother.

The news was tragic. I discovered that Tyson's brother was PTS on 9/28/07 as soon as his stray hold was up. He never even had a chance. Stories like this break my heart, I can hardly bear the unfairness of it all. This poor boy will never see his brother again and has no idea why his world was turned upside down but in spite of it all he's an amazingly sweet boy.

I know shelters are full to the rafters and healthy beautiful animals die by the millions in the US everyday for no reason other than a lack of space, but I still cry for every loss. Here's some cute Tyson face for you.

Written by: LH

Zeke and Zach a success story!

In October of 2006 the Tehama County Animal Shelter (TCAS) was struggling with too many cats and a management staff that wasn't willing to give adoptable animals more than a few weeks before euthanizing them (New Management has radically changed TCAS and animals today have much more time and a radically better chance at being adopted.)

One morning I got a call from a volunteer at TCAS who told me that they would be doing a mass euthanasia that day and if we wanted to save any cats, we'd have to call ASAP and put a hold on them. So I perused their Petfinder.com site and found a few kitties that I wanted to take. When I called, it was to learn that 34 teenage kittens had already been PTS. Zach and Zeke, a pair of brothers, were all that was left and they too were due to go down. I immediately put them on Rescue hold and within the week they arrived at the Nine Lives Foundation.

A few short months later, near Christmas of 2006, these boys found their forever home together. Below is a letter we just received from their human momma.

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Hello Everyone!

Zeke and Zach are doing just great! Having them for the last 10 months has been wonderful. They have very distinct personalities. Zeke is more reserved and a little cautious. He is sleek and tall. Zach is a tad naughty at times and he's turning into a bit of a fatty catty. He gives me kisses on my nose. Both touch my face with their paws and love hugs and attention. I always look forward to coming home to them! Thank you for caring for them before I adopted them last December!

Katie

Written by: LH

10/8/07

Cobbler has been adopted! Cobbler arrived at the Nine Lives Foundation in May of 2006. Sweet gentle and a little lazy, few people noticed this quiet boy until today, but perhaps that's how things were meant to be. Congrats on your new home sweet boy.

Written by: LH

10/3/07

I got a call from Dr. Thompson not long ago that two of our scaredy semi-feral boys were adopted by a nice lady from Woodside. She wanted a bonded pair to keep her company and kill mice in her house. They'll have a nice screened in porch attached to the house that they can sunbathe in and they'll have each other and a woman who understands that they may never be affectionate with her. These boys are joy to watch together, Armand is constantly rubbing against and grooming Buster.

The saddest part about the recent move was that Buster didn't come to the new building until the last trip and Dr. Thompson accidentally put him in the wrong cage. Armand and Buster were separated for nearly 24 hours. Buster was beyond stressed in a cage with BJ, another black and white scaredy cat. He wouldn't get out of the litter box and Armand was cowering alone in his cage half hidden under his bed. The instant I found Buster the following evening and put him in with Armand they reunited with joy and lots of purring snuggles. These boys aren't happy unless they have each other for comfort.

I'm sure that this is the perfect home for them. I'm so happy.

Written by: LH

Trinity and Dawn a success story.

Just wanted to let you know that Trinity and Dawn are doing well. They are good friends and spend their days snoozing on the bed together, grooming each other and watching the hummingbirds in the tree outside my window. Trinity is indeed "very loving," as you mentioned in your description of her on your Web site -- she's always by my side. She likes to rest her head on my laptop computer while I surf the Internet. Thank you for these sweet girls.

Best,
Lisa

Posted by: LH

9/13 to 10/2 adoptions

In the past two plus weeks we've adopted, placed, or transferred 35 of our cats into forever homes, safe feral colonies or with Maine Coon Adoptions.

1. Monkey
2. Sue
3. Tabitha
4. Magic
5. Timmy - Carl's Jr
6. Onyx
7. Rogue
8. Emmie
9. Spice
10. Sugar
11. Opal
12. Oreo
13. Ellie
14. Riley
15. Ellie
16. Martina
17. Mia
18. Feral momma - Pumpkin
19. Sherbet
20. Conrad
21. Charles
22. Charlie "box kitten"
23. Everett
24. Feral - thyroid tumor kitty
25. Monkey (kitten)
26. Baxter
27. Bethany
28. Veronica
29. Gracie - Skye's kitten
30. Benny
31. Crouton
32. Zaphod Beeblebrox
33. Milly
34. Lauren
35. Mimi
36. Max
37. Elroy
38. Jasper

10/2/07

The move is progressing, not as swiftly as we'd like, but things never seem to go our way. The cats are all safely settled, all 70 of them that are currently in the shelter. We're still working on the new floor plan and layout but we're hoping to have a nice adoption floor set up and at least one free standing playroom for our long term residents.
Milly and Lauren were each adopted and went off to their own forever homes today.

Post weekend update

It was a long, long weekend and boy are we tired. The Nine Lives Foundation move is nearly complete. All of the cats were moved to the new building last night. This is especially awesome as we weren't able to begin the actual move until 3pm on Sunday. The Nine Lives Foundation's new address is:

1255 Annette Avenue
(On the corner of Rolison Road and Annette Avenue)
Redwood City, CA 94063-4541
Phone: (650) 368-1365
Fax: (650) 368-1660

Saturday we had two awesome adoption events with a total of 12 cats adopted. The 9 Lives Morris the cat, Mobile Adoption Tour came through to Redwood Shores on Saturday from 1pm to 5 pm and we adopted out 5 cats with their awesome help. Baxter, Charlie, Veronica, Bethany and Gracie (Gracie was adopted out with Bethany). All five of which went off to their forever homes on Sunday. I couldn't be happier with the adoptive homes. Here are photos of Bethany, Charlie and Baxter with their families (from Left to right). I forgot to get a photo of Veronica with her family.

While I was busy with another volunteer on the Adoption Mobile in Redwood Shores, another group of volunteers and Board Members hosted an additional adoption event in Woodside, a fun Barn Dance event at the Runnymeade Sculpture Farm where 7 cats were adopted out (including a couple of our really difficult to adopt, shy kitties.) The cats below, James, Crouton, Benny and Zaphod Beeblebrox were all adopted, in addition to 3 kittens, Jasper, Elroy and Max. The event had wonderful visibility, hopefully we'll see many more adoptions from this event.

Then on Sunday, after a long day of packing and moving, one of our Board Members took home two of our more unadoptable kitties for "retirement". Essentially, he is adopting them, but without the fees.

Everett, a very sweet and dear old man who sprays constantly and Charles, an FIV+ boy who shreds screens to get outside and has a mouth issue that requires monthly vet care, will go to a nice house in San Carlos where they will have a fully enclosed and cat safe yard to play in with a nice safe and cozy room to sleep and people of their own to love and care for them. I nearly cried, I was so happy to see my Everett boy safely out of the shelter.

He also allowed his tenant to adopt a kitten, who will be able to play with the pair of kittens he and his partner adopted last month. Our weekend adoption total was 15 cats. :)

On Friday we were also able to safely release two of our feral cats into two colonies that are being cared for by a couple of Dr. Thompson's clients.

Oh, and did I mention that Sherbet was adopted on Saturday? The lady who transported her up from LA last month ended up adopting her. She spent the past month thinking about her and her touching story and decided that she had to have her.

It was tiring as heck, but a great weekend all around.

Written by: LH