Sep 11, 2009

Have You Met "The Meows" Yet?

Note from Cute: Whoo hoo! We blew past our $1,000 goal for Animal Aid donations, so we upped it to $2,000! I hope we get there!

Hi Cuteheads! In honor of the #chickfest fundraiser on Twitter today, I want to introduce you to two extra-special kitties in my life. If you've been following the Cute for a while, you already know about The Meows, but today I want to share even more.

The Meows are two parking lot kitties I've been feeding at my office parking lot for about two years now. They are Little Meow and Daddy Meow -- together, The Meows. Little Meow, from stories I've heard, is Daddy Meow's baby... hence the names. :)

Daddy Meow has always been fixed, but not so much for Little Meow. She had three litters of kittens while I've been caring for her, but until recently didn't trust me enough to let me grab her. For each of her first two litters, I was able to find and adopt out one kitten each.

This is them! Pirate and Peanut.


They both got happy homes. In fact, Peanuts 1st birthday is tomorrow the 12th!

When Little Meow had her next litter I lucked out and had help. A great friend helped me round up the baby kitties (only 4 days old!) and momma and we got them a foster home through Animal Aid, an amazing non-profit rescue here in South Florida.

(This is why I bring up The Meows today -- 100% of the money raised during #chickfest will go to Animal Aid! Yay!)

Animal Aid rallied behind Little Meow and her new babies and fully funded getting her spayed, feeding and caring for the babies and adoptions when they were old enough. I can't thank them enough.

These are the babies from her "last hurrah" litter: Beanie, Yin Yang, Scruffy and Swirl (clockwise from top left). I loved Scruffy!



Little Meow even ended up taking in three little orphan kitties whose mommy unfortunately died while giving birth to them. She nursed 7 babies! And after she was done being such a good mommy, Animal Aid paid to get her spayed and I was able to bring her back "home" to the parking lot... and back to Daddy.

This is their reunion video. (I cried the whole way through as I was releasing her. So happy.) This is me just making sure they would still know each other before I let her out...



A happy ending! It's been about 6 months since then and Little Meow and Daddy are happier than ever -- with no worry of kittens or getting pregnant -- and some super cute kitties have happy and safe forever homes.

All thanks to the amazing people at Animal Aid.

They are just a few people who spend an incredible amount of time and love on the cats they rescue and help. I can't say enough about what a great organization Animal Aid is.

This is why I'm so excited about #chickfest today -- it's a 24-hour virtual "pawpawty"
(2 p.m. today to 2 p.m. Saturday) on Twitter to raise money for this extra special group.

Animal Aid has a main center with a Cat Room which houses many adult cats and kittens hoping to find mommies and daddies to take them home. They also have several Cat Rooms at Petco and PetSmart locations where people can meet the cats and kittens, and hopefully fall in love with them.

The whole time they are waiting for forever homes, they are loved, petted, played with and cared for. They all have names -- and everyone at Animal Aid knows them by their names. You won't find anyone named Cage #127 here. They are a truly special organization.

If you have a few dollars to spare, and would like to help out Animal Aid so they can continue to do the amazing things they do, please consider donating to our drive. Our goal of $1,000 would go so, so far and do so much for these needy cats and kittens!

Thanks for reading... I'm off to feed The Meows!

P.S. Did you know that all the ad revenue I get from the Cute goes to buying food to feed The Meows? It does! So thanks for your clicks and support.

See you at #chickfest!

Update: I had to help Daddy Meow to the Rainbow Bridge on June 10, 2010. He was losing weight quickly, so I took him to the vet, where I found out he had cancer. There was a large tumor in his stomach, and the vet told me he was probably in pain and that it would be best for him if I let him go peacefully and comfortably. I'll never forget Daddy Meow. He was one of the best cats ever. Thank you all for letting me share him with you.

Updated update: Little Meow is now an inside kitty! She got lucky and I was able to get her out of the parking lot and into the most perfect home. Now she's the princess she always deserved to be!

14 comments:

  1. Aww, what a sweet thing you're doing for these special little ones, thank you for all that you do.

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  2. That's an amazing story. Thank you for helping these kitties.

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  3. You did such a wonderful thing for those kitties! Bless you.

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  4. Thank for your sharing The Meows story. We just donated to Animal Aid :) Go MizzBassie!

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  5. That is such a great story. I am doing almost the same thing. There is a Momma kitty that lives next door and the people don't feed her, and so now she has had 3 litters of kittens and I cannot catch her so far. And she and the kittens all come to my house to eat.
    But that is super what you are doing feeding the meows. And the video is great.

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  6. We have some kitties at work too, but I cannot feed them because I am not there everyday to do so. They do have someone who drops off food, plus they are "mousers" for the buildings there. They look healthy enough, but I sure hate seeing them have litters and litters of kittens.

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  7. I am nine years old, so it's quite a while since I was a kitten. But kittenhood is such a nice time if you have a loving Mommie and fun playmates/sisters&brothers.
    SaraKatt (through Anna)

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  8. What an amazing feel good story this Sunday morning. Brought happy tears....even Demona and Sultan watched the video with me. Hope pawpawty goes VERY well for all! Bless your heart for doing all that.

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  9. Just wanted to add something a friend of mine let me know. There is a program called SPOT in my hometown (Broward County, FL) that gives away free certificates to spay/neuter and release. If anyone would like to help out with strays they feed, maybe check for a similar program in your area!

    Here's what my friend Charlie emailed me about SPOT:

    I noticed that some of the comments mentioned that cats that they fed at work or in their neighborhood keep having litters. I wonder if they know about the SPOT Program in Broward and other counties that offers 4 low cost ($10) spay/neuter vouchers for cats and dogs for low to moderate income people. If they request it and plan to release the cats, the vet will notch an ear to show that the cat has been spayed or neutered. If someone qualifies for the vouchers and can trap the cats, it can help to contain our exploding population of cats without homes. If you haven't written about this, it might be helpful to some cat lovers who aren't aware of the program. It also is a boon for families who can't afford to spay or neuter their pets.

    http://www.broward.org/animal/ani01900.htm

    Hope that helps some kitties out there!

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  10. Thanks for all you do to help the kitties! Several of you have mentioned that you couldn't/can't catch the mommies to get them spayed. There may be a humane society near you who will loan you humane traps. Of course, there are always a few cats who are "trapsmart" and won't go in those traps. I found a site that shows a "drop trap" . I had one of these made and it has helped me catch cats that I had been trying to get for years. The drop trap really works. Check it out if you are not familiar with it. It may be just what you need to get that cat spayed!! http://droptrapdesign.blogspot.com/

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  11. Aww D, I miss the Meows... Tell the property manager NO! Good luck and keep us posted.
    Sara

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