As the days grow shorter and the sun bids an early goodbye to the day, my thoughts turn to my dream cat sanctuary which oddly enough may just be a stone’s throw away!

As I stand on the back porch looking out into our lush fields, I can well imagine the sight of dozens of cats at play or rest in those fields. A cat-proof fence will be stretched across the pastures, securing the safety of the felines inside and hopefully high enough to discourage anyone from tossing a cat or kitten over its top- but when it comes to people, you just never know. Wire would be buried deep around the fence dissuading any coon or possum from even trying to sample the buffet just within their reach.

The pole barn with the heated floor will lure the cats in at night and they will curl up on the floor or on the ramps and settle for the night.

I have long planned for such a place and I have been informed that the Pepsi Refresh Grant that I have applied for has been accepted BUT if I messed up the application form, they can disqualify me for any reason. I will know the first of November if my sanctuary will be in the running for the grant.

The voting is online and I have to get into the very top five to be awarded the money, or maybe it is ten- I am a bit excited at the moment and can’t quite remember! If you register with the website, you can vote 5 times a day. If you surf in- you can vote once.

In putting this application together, you have to present a business proposal, and mine, I believe is solid. I have found a contractor who is honest and he is also a cat lover! He has quoted me a fair price for the work and says he is excited that finally in Linn County there will be a place where people can bring their cats and they won’t be ignored or harmed.

So, I sit at the edge of my seat, praying that this works for all concerned. I know that I can safely help at least 100 cats and in the process help ease the burden on this community where I live.

So as the sun rises, I stand on the porch visualizing my dream and praying that all will fall into place and this time next year- this place will truly be a haven for cats!

I think I must be wired wrong or something. I am unable to turn a blind eye to the suffering of cats and today I have three more cats here. Three more to feed, three more to vet, three more to socialize. Am I crazy I wonder? I had a long discussion with God this afternoon as I was attempting to trap some kittens who are at great risk of being killed by outside predators (suspect a tomcat is doing the deed). I will spare the details of the two I found, but I ran home and got my traps and set them. I caught the mom, and two other adults. The kittens (the two who are left) were in and out of the trap all day playing, eating and having a blast. They are to young and malnourished to trip the trigger and my kitten traps were loaned out over a year ago and never returned.

So in the introduction cage, I have the mackeral tabby mom (the kittens are weaned). She is barely one year old which explains how two of her kittens were killed either early this morning or last night. Most older moms would have jumped in and fought with the killer- but again she is so young. She is in my introduction cage. The tuxedo boy is in a cage in the haybarn and another tortie is in another cage next to him. I couldn’t leave them in the situation they were in- they were in an awful place. At least here, they are safe.

For some reason, my other post vanished along with the photo and I can’t seem to get in and even delete what is in there now.

So here we go again

Piper and Pippi

Phone rang yesterday-
~”Is this Mary Anne?”

~”Yes it is. What can I do for you?”

“You have to come NOW!”

“May I ask who this is?”

“This is Farmer Windom”

“Farmer Windom, what can I do for you?”

“I have cats I want to get rid of!”

(Inward sigh) “How many cats are we talking about?”

“TEN!” I want to get rid of em now.
They are eating!”

“They are eating?”

(His frustration growing) “Yes, eating- not drinking mom, eating food!”

I see- well, I am sorry but I cannot take ten cats right now.”

“Why aren’t you a RESCUER?”

I did a lot of sighing during that conversation and ended up going over to the farmers place and taking a look at the situation. There were only two adult cats- which I suspect since he doesn’t neuter his “mousers” are the mom and dad and the rest were kittens. All outside at such a young, vulnerable age.
None of them sociable, there was a huge woodshed with wood stacked inside and young kittens were playing hide-n-seek with me as they went in and out of the cords of wood as I tried to grab them.

I managed to scruff two of them and then another friend arrived who also rescues. She will trap the rest and we will go from there.

So here are the two new arrivals who I don’t really have room for- but I took them anyway. The last time I got into this type of situation with such a man- the cats ended up being disposed of in ways I won’t recount here.

So here are the two babies. They will go to the vet today. They were flea-ridden, full of worms and have been de-flead and de-wormed. There is an upper respiratory going on. They are now in the bedroom and the tortie girls are out and about in general population. The newcomers ate two jars of baby food (meat) without stopping!

I don’t play musical chairs anymore, but I do play musical kittens sometimes shuffling these babies around to get them a better place to live then they had before.

This morning, I learned that my website www.felinexpress.com and one of my articles about my beloved Guinevere; Headbumps of Courage won a Certificate of Excellence from the Cat Writers’ Association.

I entered both plus my blog and a poem I wrote in their annual contest a few months ago.

I am thrilled by the recognition. It simply means that out of a score of 100- these scored 90 or better! It also puts me in line for a Muse Medallion. I will know after their convention in November which takes place in New York.

A few days ago, I received an email from a young girl who pleaded for help. She had found a small kitten (barely alive) and was forbidden by her parents to bring the kitten into the house. She decided since it was so young, unable to even crawl- the back legs didn’t work right, to put it into a box with a thin cloth and go looking on the Internet for help. That’s where she found me through kitten-rescue.com.

Turns out, she lives in India and for the past few days, I have been helping her with this baby kitten who she said was abandoned by the momcat. She had seen the mom dump the kitten in the yard and walk away.

It was cute she said the kitten “moos” and she was sneaking out of the house every two hours to feed the baby. But her parents scolded her and told her to leave the kitten alone and the neighbors also made fun of her and told her the kitten would and should die!

So I kept plugging, knowing full well that this kitten was in dire straights and this young girl listened to all I told her to do and this morning, she informed me the kitten crawled out of the box in the yard and “mooed” loud enough that mom came running and grabbed the kitty up and went over to the bushes to feed the kitten!

I have never heard of this happening and I know my prayers weren’t being ignored on behalf of this kitten worlds apart from me.

The girl wanted to thank me and she said her parents now have a greater understanding of the problems these kittens face. Next time, they have promised her that she can bring the kitten inside and care for it properly.

I love it when a plan comes together-

The month of September for me was a learning curve in many ways. I took in more kittens than I intended to-I saw the passing of some great older feline friends, and God brought me to my knees several times a day every day of the month.

My great grand-baby was born and she spent time in the Newborn ICU as they struggled for answers to her seizures. My grand-daughter is getting married to a boy she barely knows and life goes on in an almost uncertain pattern. So these family members are now centered in our prayers.

I reached my quota of spay certificates this year (already!) Which is a good thing and a bad thing, because I have made a difference in the lives of some kittens who have either been adopted out or they will soon be (God willing and the creek don’t rise). But, I still have eight kittens here needing to be neutered and like so many families who are struggling with finances, ours are tight as a drum. I will not even put these kittens up for adoption until they are spayed. I remain part of the solution not more of the problem.

My foot is still giving me fits- the holistic worked for only a few days and then I was back again on my knees giving my foot to Jesus on a daily basis. I will go and see my primary care doctor on the 20th to get his opinion of what to do.

I wonder, when they stopped being a family doctor and turned into a primary care physician? Why you have to make an appointment and then wait weeks sometimes even months to get in to see them?

I see farms around us being swallowed up in foreclosure as good, honest, hard-working folk are unable to make the payments on equipment, land or homes. The younger generation even those willing to put in all the work and sweat to help produce crops are seeing there is no longer profit to do so. They are being seduced by greedy land developers who want to go in and build strip-malls, storage units and take rich valuable soil and concrete it over. So I pray for a change in the market prices and marvel still at the one farm still standing who is paid to grow pumpkins every year, then paid to plow them under? What sense is that I wonder?

I no longer take Brook to the woods to walk her. The trees have long been chopped down and hauled away and the place resembles a graveyard, not a woodsy forest where I used to see owls, deer, coyote and other critters on an almost daily basis.

So, as I wonder where we are headed next I continue to ask God to let me hear Him. To cancel out all the noise and distraction and listen to that still, voice inside. The ultimate GPS. He knows where I am headed, He has known it all along.

As kittens play at my feet and McGee chases my fingers across this keyboard and tries to bite them when they come to rest, I have to wonder- Where will these kittens end up? In a loving home is my hope and although there is enough love to go around this home- it isn’t the ideal place for them. Their cuteness needs to be spread around so they can give to others what they freely give to us; laughter, smiles and a whole lot of love.

This morning in my In Bin there was an email from a gal named Oksana. Her and her hubby adopted Muddy from me early this year. He is an older cat and I was glad to see that they had no aversions to taking a older kitty. After he left, there were so many emails about how he was hiding under the bed, and didn’t want to be petted or loved. It took some time on my part to break through to Oksana and I kept urging her to just let him be. Not to pull him out from under the bed because she had a bad day and she wanted a “kitty hug.”

She finally said she “got it” and then there were no more emails from her. I worried, but gave him to God and asked Him to keep Muddy safe and give Oksana understanding of what to do.

So here is Muddy with his new pal TJ and it gives me such a glad heart to share this with you. I’ve had Muddy since he was 3 weeks old- he is now 6 years old. I miss him every day but he is in the place he needs to be and he is adjusting well.