Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Cats Returning & Clarification

First, the personal news about this colony. After releasing the 13 spayed/neutered cats, I didn't expect to see them for a few days. I mean, were I abducted by aliens, and taken to the mothership for surgery, as this experience must have seemed to the cats, then I wouldn't go near the person responsible either. But actually the cats are starting to be out and about again, albeit slowly. While waiting for the Volunteer this evening (he came by to trade clean traps for dirty-- I *so* got the better end of that deal), I saw Bozo and Athos (who I must say I *really* didn't expect to see today), then Daisy and Walsingham. Then, as it got dark and cats became more difficult to identify, we saw a number more, including Amaranth, Gremlin, Mr Mistoffolees and several oranges. This makes me happy, 'cause even in just the day it's been since their release I'd been missing them!
Secondly, the Volunteer clarified some guesses I'd made in this previous post. AzCATs, as of January, has actually merged with Altered Tails, the owner of the mobile clinic. (AzCATs has become essentially the Feral Cat arm of Altered Tails, which is an organization dedicated to low-cost spay and neutering.) The veterinarian who I met at the mobile clinic is an employee of Altered Tails. The Altered Tails website is being redesigned, but you can still check them out and see their mission. Also, they have been given a brick-and-mortar building to turn into a clinic, but they need to raise money to do so. As Project-Cat has been amazingly successful in gathering funds, you certainly need not donate here anymore (at least not for a while!!) so you may wish to donate to Altered Tails in order to help stop the breeding cycle of the 350,000 stray and feral cats in Phoenix. (The numbers of cats that AzCATS and Altered Tails have spayed/neutered seem high, and stopping the breeding cycle for those cats means all the difference to those individuals, but there has yet to be a decrease in the kill numbers in the area shelters. So, we simply have to work harder.

Sometime in the next I'm-not-sure-but-soon I will be opening a Cafe Press store with Project-Cat merchandise. (Yes, really.) Proceeds from those items will be going to Altered Tails. I will, obviously, be announcing its grand opening here in the blog. :)

Sorry that there's only the one picture today-- the cats came out after dark, past when my camera is of any use.

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