News

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August 14, 2018     

Our Back-to-School Fix-it day was huge! We thought it would be big but then had a couple of additional cats in for surgery. They were feral and often feral cats are difficult to trap twice. Fortunately for all, the clinic staff could work the cats in today for surgery. Our preliminary total is 17 females spayed and 17 males neutered. Many of the cats were young kittens.

Many, many thanks to the Fredericktown Veterinary Clinic doctors and staff for their professionalism and skill. Thanks too to volunteers Toni, Sharon, Robb, Marty, Carol, and Rita and our generous donors and fundraisers.

Our next fix-it day is on Patriot Day, September 11. We are nearly full for female cats. After 9/11, the next scheduled fix-it day is the Autumn Fix-it Day, Tuesday, October 9.  Please remember the fix-it days are first come, first-served and we cannot hold a spot for you and your cat without a registration form and  pre-payment.

August 8, 2018     We had an excellent start at a new trapping project today. There are two mom cats and two sets of kittens. One set of kittens is about 14 weeks old and another set is about 7 weeks old. We were able to trap one mother cat, three older kittens, and three younger kittens. The mom and older kittens were taken to The Animal Health Organization for spay or neuter, a one-year rabies vaccination, and ear-tipping. They will be  returned to their colony late this afternoon or early evening and released then.

We transferred the little kittens to a large dog crate inside the client's home. The client is going to work to socialize them. When the kittens are a little older, the plan is to test them, vaccinate, and spay or neuter them, and find them good homes.

Sometimes we facetiously refer to female cats as "kitten factories"  and young mothers as "teen moms." We laugh but there is a lot of truth to these terms. In this situation, the mom cats had two litters of  kittens already this year. It's possible they could have another set of kittens before the end of the year. And, if there are female cats in the older set of kittens, it is possible they might have kittens before the new year as well.  A colony of two intact females with some neighborhood tom cats could easily grow to 20 cats over several months.  That's one reason we stress to clients to get the female cats spayed right away and not wait for a population explosion--and to spay all  female cats.

August 1, 2018     This morning we had a impressive trapping session--we trapped five kittens at one time, using the drop trap! The client set a plate of food in the center under the trap and one by one, the kittens came out from under a shed to eat. We watched closely and when all five were situated safely under the trap, we pulled the string, the trap dropped, and all kittens were trapped. We then hooked a box trap to the drop trap door and moved them one by one to the safe confines of a box trap. We were able to do all this in about one hour! 

These beauties were transported to the Fredericktown Veterinary Clinic for spay or neuter surgery, ear-tipping, and a one-year rabies  vaccination (if they are old enough). They will recover overnight there and return to their home tomorrow and be released. The client is willing to work with the kittens to try and socialize them and she has found good homes for them once they recover from their surgery and become more used to people. 

July 27, 2019    Mark your calendars! SNACK has been invited by the Humane Society of Richland County to participate in the Strut Your Mutt festival on September 15. Although the Strut is billed as a canine festival, we have been invited to sell some simple crafts and get the word out about our fix-it days for cats and our organization. Hope to see you there!

July 19, 2018    We had an outstanding crafting day today and finished all 36 catnip  socks in a little over one hour! They'll be sold at the Fredericktown  Veterinary Clinic and upcoming holiday craft shows in Fredericktown and  Gambier. We're also working on holiday tree ornaments. Our thanks today  to Laurie, Sue, Gwen, Rita, Marty, Gail, Deb, and Sharon for lending  their talents to us.

Our next crafting day will be in mid-August. We'll announce the date when it's finalized.

July 14, 2018  We had a good turn out at SNACK-a-Palooza 2 today. Silent auction items ranged from a signed Cleveland Browns football to cat food from Mutts & Co. Lunch was a delicious menu of chicken and hot dogs. Perfect summer fare! We thank our generous donors and hard-working volunteers for such a fun event. We made about $1000 that will be used to help fund our programs.

July 10, 2018    We had an awesome fix-it day today. We are seeing the first wave of spring kittens coming in to be spayed or neutered. Hooray for clients who are opting to be hip and snip early! 

The preliminary count today is 29 surgeries--15 neuters and 14 spays. The cats and kittens also received a one-year rabies vaccination as part of their treatment. With a rabid bat found in Fredericktown recently, the rabies vaccination is vital protection for the cats (and humans).

Our thanks today to volunteers, Judy, Toni, Robin, Carol, Marty, and Rita and the skilled professionals at the Fredericktown Veterinary Clinic. Today we had a couple of escapees and we witnessed the staff's excellent response.

Also, thanks to volunteer, Debi B! We are rocking a new beautiful  SNACK banner today, courtesy of Debi. It's a vast improvement on our  vinyl banner.

July 6, 2018    Today we returned to a trapping project/client from 2016. New cats have arrived--Mom, Dad, and a few kittens. Unfortunately, only one kitten remains. The others disappeared--perhaps they fell prey to raccoons or some other predator. Today, we trapped a laid back male (pictured  below) but the female and remaining kitten were suspicious of the traps. We'll try again in a couple of weeks and try a different strategy for trapping the two.

Dad cat was transported to the Fredericktown Veterinary Clinic for neutering and a one-year rabies vaccination. He'll return to the colony tomorrow.