December 26, 2011 to January 1, 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Relocations
Blog Schedule
End of 2011 Update Letter

RELOCATIONS: Placed 3 this week – 2 through adoption and 1 to a garage. The garage is in Little Elm. The cat came from Baylor Hospital and will now have a home along Lewisville Lake. The home owner works at Baylor and wanted that cat – so it all worked out. The placement was on Sunday -- a great beginning to 2012.

Blog Schedule: I will be out of town for a couple of weeks. The next blog entry will be at the end of January.

End of 2011 Update Letter: This is a copy of the update we just mailed this week. Fundraising never ends. It is a constant struggle:

2011 was a good year for the cats at Barn Cats. We are now in our 9th year and have relocated 3,287 feral or semi-feral cats that would have been euthanized if they had been taken to local municipal shelters.

We also worked with many adoption groups to trade adoptable cats that we get for unadoptable cats that appear in their programs. We work with the SPCA of Texas, Operation Kindness, Feral Friends, New Beginnings Cat Rescue, Classy Cats, DFW Humane Society, HS of Lewisville, HS of Coppell, Animal Allies of Texas, Lost Paws, Siamese Rescue, CLASP (Cowtown Loves Animal Shelter Pets), Kitty Save, Kittico, Cool Cats, Casa de Critters, and others. We also take cats from municipal animal services locations in Hickory Creek, Tri-City (Duncanville, Desoto, Cedar Hill), Flower Mound, Irving, Dallas, Fort Worth, Weatherford, Addison, Trophy Club, Bedford, Farmer’s Branch, and several others.

Hoarders continue to be a problem. In late May, we received 4 nursing mothers and 26 kittens from Valley View, TX (just south of Gainesville in Cooke County). …and WE DO NOT TAKE KITTENS! Our great volunteers worked with the moms and kittens to get them old enough and healthy enough to all go to adoption groups. Believe me: We were all glad when the kittens were placed. We still have 2 of the moms – one is semi-feral and the other has neurological problems…but both are sweet!

In July we purchased a new vehicle – a Ford Transit Connect – this year making a $7,000 down payment donated to us from our spring campaign. The former Barn Cats Van had 194,000 miles on it and the AC did not work – not good for this last summer for sure!

Barn Cats also has the best set of volunteers on the planet: Nancy K, Peggy H, Julie F, and Chris J. They show up every Saturday to clean cages and scrub litter boxes. Barn Cats could not operate without their help! Linny H, our resident artist, is on temporary leave and we miss her terribly.

I consulted on a book “Defending the Defenseless” by Allie Phillips this year and Barn Cats, Inc. was featured in the February issue of Cat Fancy Magazine. That article was written by Dusty Rainbolt of Flower Mound and it won a prize at the Cat Writer’s Convention.

See you guys at the end of January and thanks for following the Barn Cat Blog. Peg