This cat adoption guide is published by Sgolis a cat rescuer, feral cat colony caregiver and shelter provider for feral cats. She also seeks adopters for the kittens and cats that she and her husband rescue. All cats mention in this guide have been rescued, socialized, adopted or are up for adoption. This blog features the topics; health, caring for cats, products used and adoption tips are noted..
For the last several years I have designed a variety of Christmas cat pattern shirts at my Zazzle store. I bought the shirts to give as gifts to my neighbors and friends who helped us throughout the year with the feral cat colony and stray cats that were in our care.
Then to my surprise, one of my neighbors asked if she could buy one of the shirts for her daughter. From that point forward I was in the business of selling my Christmas cat shirts.
As a designer at Zazzle I will do the artwork for the shirt but I do not own the shirt. I earn a royalty for the design when it is sold and this royalty I use to pay for the products that I use for the cats.
So with that said, if you are someone who likes cats then you will love the Christmas cat shirts. To view at my online store you would click on the hyperlink under the photo and this link will take you to the product where you can view it larger and in a higher resolution.
All of the shirts come in a variety of styles which include long sleeves and hoodies. The cat design can be transferred to another product if you do not want cat clothing.
We have a semi-socialized feral cat that shares our home with us. She is not what you would call affectionate. She spends her time being stand-offish but at night when my husband is asleep she will come and sleep on his head and he can hear her purring.
Daisy on my husband's pillow
We trapped this cat when she was 4 months old. We felt we needed to because a neighbors dog had killed all of her litter mates and thought she would be next. As a rule, when feral cats come into a home and are socialized they tend to overeat. Our cat is now older and overweight and due to this, she has developed a lump.
We found the lump yesterday when my husband held her down and I examined her fat belly. The lump is solid and the size of a Kiwi. It could be a fatty tumor called lipomas. This tumor will show up anywhere on a cat and even though they are not cancerous they do not need to be removed unless they hinder the cat from getting around, or make the cat feel uncomfortable.
As a rule, this type of fatty tumor is common in overweight older cats. I made an appointment at the veterinarians because I need to know what this lump is. My veterinarian will do a wellness checkup and may do a biopsy with a needle to get a sample to test fluid inside the lump for cancer.
I think it is a good idea to examine your older cat once a month for lumps and bumps and if you find them to take your cat to the veterinarians. Best to get your cat a checked to know if the bumps are cancer or not.
Learn more about cat lumps or bumps by viewing this video.
The two neighborhood stray cats that have been hanging out in my yard all summer have entered my shed and are using it as a shelter from the cold.The shed has heat lamps and a space heater and it provides the cats with a windbreak, protection from the rain and snow but it is not insulated and is cold. Last night we used a space heater and heat lamps and the shed was 56 degrees. The cats had cozy self-warming beds but with tonight's low in the single digits, we decided to move the shelter cats to a warmer location.
cat tree
It is not a good idea to leave a space heater unattended so I stayed awake last night to check on the unit hourly. I did not get any sleep so my husband and I decided to move the shelter cats to our attached sun porch.
The sun porch is insulated but has no heat. It also has an exterior door that leads to our fenced in patio and dogs kennel. The sun porch is primarily all windows and this room is quite enjoyable during the daylight hours. The sun from the south keeps the room warm and cozy but at night it does feel chilly to cold.
We like that the stray cats can go outdoors during the day and come into the sun porch at night. Overall by allowing the stray cats access to this room we will save on energy because we will not have to use the space heater during the day and I will not need to check on the heater all night long because the room is insulated and we will not have to set the heat thermostat at a high setting.
Another benefit to moving the cats to this warmer shelter is ease of access for my husband and I. We will not have to get dressed, put on rubber boots, coat, hat, and gloves to walk 150 feet to the shed. Now we can walk across the house and look in the glass panel on the door that is located at the entrance of the sun porch. It is a room that was added onto the house that is closed to us and our other cats by a door. An ideal shelter for stray cats during the cold winter months. About the Cats The stray cats have homes two blocks away but their people put them outdoors when they got kittens. The older cats did not get along with the younger cats and when the cats were not allowed to go back into their home the cats found their way to my yard. The owner knows they are in my yard, know that we feed them and give them shelter. The owner never came to get the cats. So they are now neighborhood cats, they visit my yard and my neighbors yard, busy being social during the day but come to my shed for shelter at night.
Getting the Room Ready for the Cats
The only thing that we did was remove the drapes, and the furniture and replaced it with self-warming cat beds, cat toys, litter boxes, a cat tree and food and water bowls. We also added a Feliway Multi cat diffuser to the electrical outlet as this will help the cats to adjust to their new shelterwithout feeling stress.
garden shed for stray cats
* We would like to buy a window unit heater for our shed in the yard. Because I think it is a better shelter for the neighborhood stray cats. But in the meantime, the sun porch will have to do because it is too costly to run a space heater 24/7.
It is never easy to have to put down a rescued kitty. But that is exactly what needed to be done today. For the last month, I have been working to get a pretty calico kitty to become dependent on me for food and water because this kitty was abandoned when her people moved away and was not doing good on her own.
Most cats when abandoned are stressed out and do not trust other humans. When we tried to trap her we found that she ran and hid in the woods and instead of trapping a cat we got a raccoon and a possum. Two weeks ago we were able to get a hold of her long enough to get flea control on her. But at the last minute, she jumped from my arms and got away.
We finally made headway and this little kitty came to us and we put her in our garden shed where there were self-heating cat bed and a space heater to keep her warm and cozy on a cold winters night.
I checked on the kitty and the space heater many times during the night and noticed that she was not eating or drinking from her bowl. I figured it was stress so I plugged in a Feliway diffuser to aid in calming her since she was in a new area. By early morning I noticed that the rescued kitty was hiding, in a self-heated bed behind a storage container and that her eyes were draining and there was a discharge from her nose. I suspect a cat cold and planned on calling the veterinarian as soon as the office opened.
At 9:00 AM I noticed that her breathing had become labored and I called the veterinarian. They saw her at 2:00 in the afternoon and told us that she had Feline Viral Rhinotracheitis. An infection that had gone into her lungs and caused fluid to build up. He also suspects Feline Leukemia or cancer. Her teeth indicated that she was a very old cat and being abandoned and getting beat up by other cats put her at risk for cat disease.
There is no cure for Feline Viral Rhinotracheitis, all you can do is provide your cat with comfort, keep your cat warm and treat the symptoms. Your veterinarian may give you a prescription for antiviral medication. But in our case the veterinarian recommended euthanasia.
We stayed with the little stray kitty throughout the entire procedure, I held her paw and kissed her head told her she was a good kitty. Even though I had not known this kitty for a long time I did feel attached to her. I had thought we could get her the medical treatment she needed, and give her good food and make her a healthy and happy kitty again. But I guess she was outdoors too long and had to too many cat fights, lack of food and shelter and the stress was too hard on her.
We buried her in our yard with all the other stray cats that we could not save.
Know that the only way To prevent your cat from getting infected with Feline Viral Rhinotracheitis or feline influenza is to get your cat vaccinated. The best way to prevent Feline Leukemia is to get your cat vaccinated and keep your cats indoors. A cat that is permitted to go outdoors may easily come in contact with a cat that has infections feline disease:
Tonight is the first cold night and we have three stray cats in our garden shed. This shed is not insulated, but it is dry and protects the cats from wind, rain, and snow.
All cats prefer to be warm, they are heat seekers and that is why you will view them lying on the hood of a newly parked car or lying in the sun on a cool day. I have also viewed cats tunneling under a pile of leaves because the leaves block the cold air. So when it comes to stray cats that are in a cold garden shed we made sure that they all had cozy beds that would keep them warm when temperatures dipped into the low 30’s.
We have dog houses that are filled with straw and self-warming beds that are up off the cement floor. Then one of my neighbors gave us a high-quality space heater that has a thermostat, timer, and automatic shutoff when it overheats or is knocked over. Then another neighbor gave us insulated drapes for the windows and my husband picked up a few Berber area rugs to cover the cold cement floor and heat lamps for the ceiling lights.
Presently the temperatures outdoors is 41 degrees and in the garden, shed thermostat indicates that it is 61 degrees. I am thankful to my neighbors for giving us the products to keep the cats cozy and warm on this cold night in autumn.
Here is a photo card that I created from one of the neighborhood cats that goes to my garden shed for shelter. We call this cat Bob and he is sleeping in a bed of straw.
