Po' Kitties

The Po' Kitties All Pet Photo Contest!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-06-29T10:17:00.001-07:00

ENTER A PHOTO OF YOUR PET!!!

The Link to the Official Photo Contest Webpage with the latest info:
Photo Contest Link

We will frame it and hang it on the wall of the Red Clover Gallery in Landrum, SC. The photography show will be open to the public from Wednesday, October 15 until Saturday, October 18, 2008 at 3 pm.

On Thursday October 16th, which is not only National Feral Cat Day, but also Po' Kitties 1st Anniversary, there will be a reception from 5 to 8 pm. Promptly at 6:30 pm Randy Grobe will emcee the Awards Ceremony, which will honor the contest winners, acknowledge and thank our generous donors, and distribute a wealth of fabulous prizes....So enter your pet's photo today and bring your family and friends on October 16th to see the photo of YOUR pet hanging in the Red Clover Gallery!

You may enter as many photos as you like and as many categories as you like per photo.

Some of the categories are: Fantastic Felines – Kitten Caboodle --Feral Felines – Most Interesting Markings -Most Relaxed Pet – Best Rescued Pet – Adopted from Foothills – Best Dressed Pet -- Cutest Pet – Funniest Pet -- Most Interesting Mane and Tail – Best Face – Other Pets – Wild Things -- Strangest Pet – Most Interesting Pet -- Kindred Spirits – In Loving Memory

Official Rules:

All photos must be 5x7 unframed. They may be color or black and white. All Photos become
the property of Foothills Humane Society Po' Kitties Program.

You may enter as many photos as you like. Each photo must be accompanied by an Official Entry Form and a check or cash for $5.00. We are also accepting digital photos...please see the Official Photo Contest Website link above for the instructions!

Winners will be announced on October 16, 2008 at the Red Clover Gallery in Landrum, SC. A reception will be held from 5-8 pm and the Awards Ceremony will start at 6:30 pm.

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OFFICIAL PO' KITTIES PHOTO CONTEST OFFICIAL ENTRY FORM

NAME:

ADDRESS:

BEST PHONE # TO REACH YOU:

EMAIL:

NAME AND DESCRIPTION OF PET:

I CERTIFY THAT THIS PHOTO WAS TAKEN BY ME AND THAT IT HAS NOT WON ANY OTHER PHOTO CONTESTS. I AUTHORIZE PO' KITTIES AND FOOTHILLS HUMANE SOCIETY TO USE MY PHOTO FOR FUND-RAISING. I FOREVER INDEMNIFY PO' KITTIES AND FOOTHILLS HUMANE SOCIETY FROM ANY ACTION RESULTING FROM THE PUBLISHING OF THIS PHOTOGRAPH.

SIGNATURE OF PHOTOGRAPHER:

Please make checks payable to Foothills Humane Society, ( FOR: Po'Kitties) and mail with your photo to: Po' Kitties PO Box 39 Tryon, NC 28782

All entries must be postmarked no later than September 30th, 2008.

McSara

2008-05-28T06:37:00.000-07:00

McSara was snatched up by a very brave person from the McDonald's colony. She was one of the females that we had been trying to trap for some time now, and her kittens were all old enough to fend for themselves, so the timing was perfect!

Once McSara was spayed, we realized that while being somewhat fearful, she did not appear to be a feral at all but instead a sweet, tame, and perhaps abandoned, cat. She never once hissed, bit, or attempted to scratch us!

So we decided to find her a home of her own. Lo and behold, a very kind person and her son agreed to take McSara home on a trial basis. It seems to be working out quite well -- although McSara still prefers to come around her new family on her own terms, she is very affectionate and has made friends with the other cat in the family as well!

Please note the notched ear on McSara. This is one of the signs (the other is an ear tip) that a cat has been spayed or neutered as part of Po'Kitties.

We all hope that McSara will continue to do well in her new home as she learns to trust people again.

And by the way, she had some darling kittens who are at the Foothills Shelter waiting for a new home. Please check them out here!
The Foothills Shelter

These kittens have all been adopted except for McBlue! Please contact us if you would like to adopt McBlue who is a silver tabby female and very sweet...she loves to play!

Kittens!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-05-16T07:46:00.001-07:00

Po'Kitties has some adorable kittens from a feral colony that are quite social at this point. They are also lovely...a charcoal gray and two lynx points with blue eyes are available at the Foothills Humane Society for adoption.

Please call 828-863-4444 if you are interested or email danamayer@alltel.net.

We also have some little McDonald's kittens that are going to need a place to go. They are fairly social but could be happy in a barn. And while McDonands is an OK home with great caretakers, we would prefer to see these sweet babies have a home to call their own. They could easily be socialized to be indoor kitties.

Please contact me if you would like to know more about these adorable kittens. I will have a picture up shortly.

Thanks!

Hip-HIP HOORAY!

2008-05-07T07:50:00.000-07:00

103 cats have now been spayed or neutered as of May 8!

Thanks to all the caretakers, volunteers, Po'Kitties' committee members and the Foothills Humane Society!

THANK YOU!

We have kittens from a colony that will be up for adoption through the Foothills Shelter. Two are already there, and they are DROP DEAD gorgeous! Their names are Thor and Tara...check them out here! The Foothills Shelter

Also, the Po'Kittens in the photos above are in foster care and will be available shortly! If you think you might want to adopt them, please hurry because I am so over these little cuties!

Call Foothills Shelter at 828-863-4444 for more information.

Update: June 29th, these kittens have all been adopted! Yippee!
Woof!

CHAMP

A Little Good MEWS!

2008-02-13T09:51:00.000-08:00

Last October on National Feral Cat Day (October 16), Foothills Humane Society kicked off their new feral cat Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) program in an effort to help save some of the feral cats in our area and to allow them to live out their lives without continuing to add to the cat over-population problem with litter after litter of more kittens.

The feral cats that are trapped, sterilized, and released as part of this program either have their ears tipped or notched so one can tell at a distance that they are indeed part of a managed colony. Yes. we keep repeating this so everyone can tell! This procedure is done while they are under anesthesia and they are also innoculated for rabies at this time.

Thanks to the awesome Po'Kitties Committee members and the support of caring folks in our community, a total of SIXTY!! CATS have been trapped, sterilized, and innoculated to date! A really big thank you goes to Landrum Veterinary Hospital and the FEARLESS vet techs and vets there for being willing to not only handle these cats, but also spay and neuter them!
Another big thank you goes to Jay Turney, the Polk County Animal Control Officer. Jay has been helping us trap some kitties and is now able to give folks a non-lethal choice when he is called about feral cats.
We are trapping on a weekly basis to try to keep some of these colonies from producing more Po'Kitties, but we still have a long way to go to make a real difference in the feral cat population.

Several cats have been relocated from dangerous areas, including the "Hot Spot" cats. These beautiful cats are now living the life of luxury in a gorgeous barn with an attentive caregiver -- and they have exotic new names (which I cannot pronounce, much less spell) to go along with their new home!

Six kittens were trapped and socialized by volunteers and adopted out through the shelter to great homes. One of these kittens didn't even need to be socialized -- she already wanted to be a lap kitty! The other five spit and hissed for a few weeks but are now socialized and living with their adoptive families. Guess they decided that life in a house wasn't so bad after all! Three of the adult cats we trapped in a high traffic area turned out to be tame, so after unsuccessful attempts to locate their owners, they were adopted out to wonderful homes!

If you have lost a cat, please be sure to call the shelter at 863-4444 .
Ask them to list your cat on the Lost Cat Report -- we always check it first when we find a cat who may not be feral. Unfortunately, many folks abandon cats, so it is not surprising that we are finding some in the feral colonies. Tame cats cannot be placed back in these colonies because they are unable to survive when they are left to fend for themselves.

Cats must be given food and water on a daily basis. People think that if they don't feed their barn cat, it will catch more mice. Wrong! A well-fed cat is a healthy cat, and a healthy cat is the one who will catch the most mice!

We realize that our feral cat overpopulation problem is not going to disappear overnight, but one by one, we are trying to make this a better community for all of us -- humans and feral cats! If you want to help us make a difference, call Dana at 894-5313 or Elaine at 859-5835.

If you are feeding and caretaking any feral cats, please call us -- we can help with trapping, sterilization, and rabies vaccines for the cats, and may be able to help in other ways.

And if you want more info on Po'Kitties and how you can help, please
visit our website at www.pokitties.com or email danamayer@alltel.net

2008-01-26T09:26:00.000-08:00

Thank you for the awards! Check out this awesome cat site! http://www.catanna.com

A Great Start for Po'Kitties!

2007-12-22T15:39:00.000-08:00

Although we just kicked off Po’Kitties on October 16th of this year, so far things have gone a whole lot better than we expected.

A big, big thank you goes out to all the committee members. You saw the need and responded, and look at the awesome things we have accomplished together! Kudos, and many thanks to each of you!

Thank you to all of the kind and dedicated folks who are feeding and caretaking these colonies. You are true heroes and are invaluable! There are too many of you to mention by name but you are the best. Thank you for all you do.

A big thank you to the staff at Foothills Humane Society Shelter – Dawn, Lani, Peggy, Shirley, Stephanie, Lennie, and Jacquie – for working so well with us, despite the many times we thought we had the paperwork part down…..and we did not! In addition to everything else you have to do, your smiles and willingness to help the Po’Kitties has truly made a difference. Also, thanks to Margo, not only for welcoming our ideas and allowing us to bounce them off her, but also for her ability to wade through the red tape. You all have no idea how much you mean to me personally as well as to the animals. Thank you for all you do.

A big hug and thank you to our trapping mentor, Annette-from-Belmont-Abbey, who so generously taught us the ropes on a hot summer day, and whom we fervently thank again each and every time we manage to trap another feral cat! Annette, you rock!

And a really big thank you to the generous and wonderful folks who have offered three endangered feral cats a home in their barn! You are exceptional and we cannot thank you enough.

Here is an update on the latest happenings.....to date, THIRTY cats have been spayed/neutered, vaccinated, ear-tipped, and released! Thirty cats!! Hooray!!

Thanks to an angel named Mark at the Hotspot in Landrum, the three older feral kittens there have been trapped, spayed/neutered, vaccinated, ear-tipped, and are in a new location! They will have a wonderful, cozy barn loft for a home and since they are bonded not only as a small colony but also as siblings, they should do very well in their new home. Their mother was run over and they were in serious danger of having the same thing happen to them, so there was a real need to relocate them. They will need to be confined for about another two weeks so that they are acclimated to their new home, but they are so cute and have not even offered to hiss….in spite of being in a kitty condo! This small colony is now in a safe place, thanks to the generosity of the owners of the barn!

We have trapped and spayed/neutered five cats from the Columbus McDonald's colony!
Not enough, to be sure, but after the New Year, we will be back trying to trap these cagey rascals. An angel named Randy placed four doghouses lined with straw in the bamboo “jungle” so that the kitties can be sheltered from the elements.

A gorgeous, big, gray tabby was trapped and we named him "Big Mac". He turned out to be declawed and neutered, and was a big purring mush! When his owner could not be located, he was adopted out through Foothills shelter and has a wonderful new home as an indoor-only cat.

An angel named Bobbie managed to get another McDonald’s kitten this week that never hissed once....so she didn't need socializing! She has been named “Mac-zine” and is absolutely adorable. She will be available for adoption through the Foothills Shelter, and she will go fast! When I left the shelter today she was playing with a Winnie-the-Pooh toy that the shelter staff had placed on her cage door.

The colony in Red Fox still has a couple of unsterilized cats, so they are on the list to be trapped as well. The five kittens that were trapped there have all found homes....great homes......the last two were adopted today from Foothills Shelter by a lucky family, where they will be indoor kitties and have a sweet little girl to play with! This absolutely made my Christmas!

The Green River Barbecue in Saluda has a colony consisting of a mother and four kittens that need to be trapped/spayed/neutered/vaccinated/ear-tipped, and we will get to them as soon as we can. They are being quite well-fed and treated like royalty from what we hear!

It has been a great start, but we have a long way to go. I cannot tell you enough how much I appreciate all your help. And so do the cats and kittens! Below are some pictures of the latest and greatest.

Thanks, and Merry Christmas to all!

This is Mac-Zine, the kitty from the McDonald's colony

The gorgeous Hot Spot Ferals

Some of the first Po Kitties' Kitties!

2007-10-24T19:14:00.000-07:00

What a cute crew! If anyone is interested in adopting one of them, please contact us as they are about tame enough to be adopted.

Corey and Carly were adopted today, December 18th to an indoor home together! Yippee!

Photo by Emmy Summers...

What is Po' Kitties?

2007-10-07T08:37:00.001-07:00

This past July the Foothills Humane Society Board agreed to start a program to help the feral cats in our community. The cat overpopulation problem is not going to go away on its own and by last estimate there are now almost as many stray feral cats as there are cats in homes. This number is estimated to be over 70 million cats with no home! Feral cats are, by definition, those cats that cannot be tamed or adopted out. We will be kicking off our new program, Po'Kitties, on October 16th, which is National Feral Cat Day.

Until now, feral cats have been brought to the shelter by animal control and euthanized immediately. Many folks try to place blame on the shelters but what are they supposed to do with feral cats??? These cats are not adoptable and because of people who have abandoned them and not spayed or neutered their cats, many have reverted to being feral, and then they have kittens and the cycle repeats itself. Now, these same feral cats will, most times, have the chance to live out their lives in freedom. Where landowners agree, the cats will be trapped, sterilized, vaccinated, and released to live out their days. They will be under the care of either the landlord who agrees to take care of them or a volunteer who agrees to caretake them. Cats that have been sterilized as part of this program will be eartipped so they can be identified as having been spayed or neutered at a glance. This project will reduce the euthanasia rate of cats in the shelter, save money now being spent rounding them up, and work to reduce the numbers of the cat population over time and SAVE LIVES!!.

For this to work and be successful, it is going to take some time and a change in the attitude of the community concerning cats. Cats that are sterilized and disease free rarely cause the problems that unsterilized cats cause.

So...how can you help?

1) By helping to spread the word that cats deserve better...it is not their fault that they are abandoned and left unsterilized, to have litter upon litter and become nuisances. Many of these nuisance behaviors no longer exist once they are spayed or neutered.
We really need the cat lovers to step forward and support this program and help spread the word!

2) By helping us identify some of the colonies in the Polk County and Landrum areas...
if you know of colonies already being taken care of, please let us know..also, are these cats sterilized or just being fed and having more kitties?

3) Do you have a barn or safe place that you might be willing to allow a few TNR cats to be placed...we would prefer to place them back at the original place, but sometimes these places might not be safe for the cats.....

4) We can use donations to get our TNR fund going to help pay for the sterilization of these cats.....the check would need to be made out to Foothills and be designated for the "PO' Kitties" Fund.

5) And we can always use folks willing to help caretake a colony or help with trapping if that should appeal to anyone out there.

Cats, in general, have not been treated very kindly and we are excited that this will be the start of a kinder, more humane existence for the cats in our area.

We will have a booth with more info and our new Po Kitties t-shirts for sale at the Any and All Dog Show October 14th at Harmon Field.

Please help us help them!

If you would like more info on this project and are being a kind person and feeding feral cats and kitties, please contact us so we can help you with getting them spayed or neutered!!!

Please contact one of these people for more info!

Elaine Rizzo
Email me!

Dana Mayer
Email me!

What is an Ear Tip?

2007-10-07T08:30:00.000-07:00

This photo is of a Noah's Ark ear tipped cat. The tip of the ear is taken off while under anesthesia to denote that the cat has been sterilized at a glance. This means the cat is part of a managed colony.

Po' Kitties Tee Shirts! Get Yours Today!

2007-10-05T11:15:00.000-07:00

We have our tee shirts now! All monies from these go to spay and neuter feral cats for the TNR program! The "yin-yang cats" on the front is our Po' Kitties logo and it was designed by our very own Judy Davis!

These tees are a 50 poly and 50 cotton blend and you can own one for $12.00.

They will be on sale at the Any and All Dog Show at Harmon Field on October 14 from 1pm to 3pm and at the Foothills Humane Society Open House at the Shelter from 10am-2pm....

Or email danamayer@alltel.net and you can get one even sooner!