All the cats that had surgery yesterday were picked up and went back to their homes. It was a successful surgery day. We talked to many about when mama cats can be spayed (when kittens are 6 weeks old) and when the kittens can be spayed/neutered (2 pounds, usually 8-9 weeks of age). We also reminded people that the kittens born in the early spring can have babies themselves in the late fall. Time to spay/neuter!
Soon we will be bringing the Niners up for more socialization. It's time to introduce them to the living in the Main Area. We will continue on working on mama's social skills too! As mentioned before, she is super with people, but her babies cause her to be very protective with the other cats. It's hard to believe the milk capacity that she has produced tokeep these 9 kittens going with only a tiny bit of supplementing help with Breezy. She's been a wonderful mama.
This Saturday is the Annual Lilac Festival in Defiance. FFRC will be involved! On this weekend, we celebrate the official flower of Defiance with arts and crafts, free lilacs to the first 500 attendees, a 5K race, the Power of Purple parade, live music, unique food vendors and children's activities. This event is held uptown, right on the streets! Come join the fun and look for the FFRC table!
Please remember to keep on voting for FFRC on the SaveaRescue site. As of this moment, we have 22,892 votes. First place has 26,000. The winnings involve free food of good quality to those organizations! Anayaa and the others are hoping for a big win! Here's the site: http://savearescue.org/online-contest/20000-meals-for-your-rescue/
You all know I love this Rescue Center totally. The only hard part of it is the lack of privacy. For the most part, I can deal with it, but when very sad things happen, it's hardest for me. Sometimes I want to go away and just be by myself, but that is so difficult here. I know and can feel your compassion, your love, your caring ways for this Rescue Center though---that is the truth. Trucker's loss was so very hard. And now we have another loss. At first, I wanted to keep it private and keep it quiet, but that is impossible to do. It's obvious this animal is missing and there's a huge grave to mark the death.
We had to put one of our rescue horses down yesterday--Anna Mae. Upon talking to our ferrier and conversations with our vet--Steve, Dawn, Ashlyn and I knew it was the kindest thing to do for her. Life was very hard for her and it told in her. We made this decision with love. She was put down and buried beside our Wilson. The comforting thought is that Anna Mae had almost 2 wonderful weeks with us. She had clean bedding always, fresh clean water, the filth was brushed off of her body and she had good food to eat whenever she was hungry. She so enjoyed having her neck rubbed. She also received the "special things"--a few sugar cubes, ginger snaps was a favorite and horse snackers. She and Benny had a nice pasture full of grass to graze on--it was pure joy seeing her enjoying this life. But....most important, she was given love and respect. And so the decision had to be made to let her go in a respectful way and always, always with love.
Benny, the other rescue horse, is doing much better. He is gaining weight. We still have wounds to work on but they are healing.And he still needs even more brushing to get his coat clean. He's receiving vitamins too. The strange thing is he and Mercy has developed a very real bond. It's like they've known each other in the past. From the moment they met, they have been super friends. Benny has now joined the rest of the horses but it's always he and Mercy together. Last night, I put Mercy in her stall for the night but she had a melt-down. And so did Benny. I left him in the barn and he went to her and they were comforted. So.....for the first time ever, Mercy spent the night out in the corral with Benny. They have two shelters they can walk in and out of, if the weather is bad. They were peacefully grazing side by side. I keep telling my family they are brother and sister! But, whatever has happened between these two horses, it's very sweet.
Thank you all for caring about our lives here--whether it has to do with the cats, the horses or the activities that goes on here. You are all appreciated. I will pass out many hugs and kisses to the cats today, given to them from you, because you care.
