FROM THE HOME FRONT
TALES OF THE SAFE HAVEN KITTIES
BROUGHT TO YOU BY MERRY
WEEK 20: RHODES MOVES IN
Hi everyone!
Safe Haven is running real low on adoptable kitties! I bet you didn’t know that, if you haven’t been able to visit in a while. This has to be an all-time low, at least as far as I can remember, and I’ve been here almost three years!
So, this week I get to talk about some of the kitties we have had for a while, but don’t get too much written about them. Yes, I’m talking about the “Pole Barn 9,” a group of kitties that have been through some pretty rough times. They came from a place that people refer to as a “hoarding situation” where their caretaker passed away and the kitties had no one to care for them. They were either never socialized, or have been through so much that they are pretty scared of everything: humans, other kitties (‘specially ones they don’t know), other critters, things that go bump in the night … you get the idea! They arrived last September, so they’ve been here almost a year.
With the shelter relatively empty, our staff had a great opportunity to bring these kitties into some of the play rooms so they could see and hear people—and other cats—and maybe they could get over being so scared. And that turned into quite a project, ‘cause some of them are more scared than others!
The first one of the PB9, Garland, was lots less scared than the rest of the kitties. Remember him? I wrote about him in Week 9—Safe Haven’s Hall Monitor. He’s been inside the shelter for some time now, and some people are coming in a couple of weeks to meet him and maybe take him home! Wouldn’t that be great!
Last week Rhodes got to move to the main shelter! So that’s two!!
Rhodes is doing really well, ‘specially since no one could touch him for weeks! He’s a big orange and white tabby, and he’s gradually becoming much more comfortable at Safe Haven. He does tend to hide from people he doesn’t know, but if you spend enough time with him, he’ll come around … all the time! And when he decides that someone is a good cat person, he does actually relax, and enjoys being petted and scratched.
And if you don’t believe me, just take a look at the video that Nancy made! Nancy is what’s called the videographer. That’s a fancy word for “takes moving pictures.” I had to look that word up, ‘cause we have more than one Nancy and I had to make sure you knew which one I was talking about. And that “vid” word is a really long one. But it was pretty easy to find ‘cause it starts with the letters that it sounds like. Not like that long word for when you get a bad cold that gets worse … sounds like it should start with an “n” but actually starts with a “p”. Try looking that one up, ‘specially if you are a cat!
OK … I got off the subject. Sorry about that.
Anyway, I’m hoping that Rhodes continues to do really well with people. He’s a very handsome cat, and I think people will be impressed with him. He’s orange, too. People seem to like that. (I’m not sure why, ‘cause torties are the prettiest!) And pretty soon we will be able to bring in more of the Pole Barn 9, and I’ll write to you about them too.
Lovingly,
We have a new kitty at the shelter, and I’d like to talk about her this week. Why? ‘Cause she’s a really funny girl. She’s a young tuxedo who is a bit chubby at 13 pounds! I’ll bet she drops that extra weight really soon, though, ‘cause she gets a really lot of exercise. This girl is amazing! She zooms around her room, hitting all the cat trees, and finally ends up on a (temporary) resting spot. Naturally, all the humans in the room are laughing!
When you think of a bonded pair of kitties who would really love to have a furrever home, who comes to mind? Peeka and Boo, that’s who! These sisters have been through so much change and loss in their lives—way too much for their 8 1/2 years! Well, they now have that furrever home they wanted, and the change in Peeka was really fast. The first night they were home, Peeka crawled up on her new dad’s chest and made herself comfortable! Here’s the first photo we got from her new family—a relaxed, friendly cat, sitting in the middle of the room, watching her mom get ready for the day.
He was a stray, pretty much on his own, until he found a house with a kitty door. So he started going in and out, and adopted the people who lived there. Of course, with a kitty door comes … kitties. There were several of them living there, and Mike must have decided that one more couldn’t hurt, so he immediately made friends with all of them. Well, most of them. He really tried, but there was one cat that did NOT like him—at all.
SPATZI
SPANKY
LUCY-ALICE
So, with the other kitties still scared and Garland doing pretty well, Garland got to move to the main shelter. He’s downstairs in B4, and I think he and Suzie might have a thing going. Remember I talked about the handsome bachelor cat last week? Well, that’s Garland. But now Suzie has competition, ‘cause Miss Pepper just came back to the shelter a couple of days ago, and Miss Pepper and Garland are roommates!
He loves to snuggle into their shoulder and purrs real loud so they know how happy that makes him. There must be an alarm clock inside of him because at 11 am he lets his office staff know it’s lunch time and he’s requesting that his Fancy Feast beef with gravy be warmed to just the right temperature for him.
