Fresh starts

Its always nice when cats and kittens find new homes. Its even nicer when you can find out how they are settling in. I took a little time to speak with some people who have adopted through HVCH

Danielle was looking around online for local cat charities and rescues when she stumbled across HVCH on facebook. She got in touch hoping to arrange to meet some of the cats and was informed about the recent adoption weekend so came along to have a look. 

   Her partner and herself each choose a cat or should I say were picked by a cat. Bandit, Danielle's cat most definitely picked her. They sat and the floor to see what happened and Bandit was friendly and playful and came straight to them. Danielle knew straight away he was coming home with them.

 Her partner Kyle saw a very pretty kitten in the corner. Intently watching what was going on but lacking the courage to investigate. Kyle went over and brought the little kitten out for a cuddle. Smokey kept switching between their knees and they just knew he was coming home too.

Bandit took to his new home instantly and was off exploring the second his travel box was opened. Smokey was a little more cautious and took a few days to come out of his shell. For a while they considered renaming him shadow since he appeared to be Bandits shadow, however hes now the main mischief maker. Danielle and Kyle also adapted well Danielle having had cats before new full well she was submitting to a life of servitude and It didn't take long for Kyle to realise the same. Don't they both look to be settling in well!

Crafty cats

You can buy stuff for your cats almost everywhere in Australia. Pet stores, Kmart, Hot Dollar, The reject shop and heaps of other stores sell everything you need for your feline fur baby. However with a little skill and some time you can make some unique stuff yourself.

A pet pillow is a simple project if you have a sewing machine handy.

I used an old doona as the padding encased it in waterproof fabric by overlocking it all the way around, This makes the padded part wipe clean. You can make the pillow as big or as small as you need. Using the inner as a template I cut out two rectangles of fabric slightly larger than the inner to make the cover. Fleece is a good choice because its soft and cosy and does not fray. Put the right sides together and straight stitch around 3 of the edges. Turn your Pillowcase the right way out and fold the open edge 1cm in to create a hem then add press studs or Velcro to create a closure. Voila a pet bed and you can fancy it up anyway you please. I used my embroidery machine to put our logo on, but you could cut a basic cat shape out of another fabric and sew it on or the letters of your cats name.

Here is a fantastic link on how to make your own Scratch post, Ive not been brave enough to attempt this one yet.
http://www.marthastewart.com/919421/making-scratching-post-cats

Use your imagination and the Sky's your limit.I want to make a kitty scratching castle

Now as well as scratching cats love to climb. For the next idea you will need an old bookcase. Not got one? Check out your local free cycle page! This is from   http://www.ikeahackers.net/2010/02/cat-climbing-shelf-in-one-compact-billy.html  You could easily box a shelf in too to give your Kitty a hidey hole.  

Some of the ideas on the net are awesome. I love the concept of wall mounted shelves forming steps and a walkway for cats to climb. I may have to convince the husband we need a cat wall.

One of the best cat makes I have seen is the climb in litter box. A big Lidded storage tub with a hole cut in the lid (and sanded down to prevent injury) then place your standard litter tray in here. If you have a litter digging cat this is awesome no more scattered litter around the box! With the advantage you can disguise the box by painting it no unsightly litter tray and it contains any smells win win.

Funding our rescue

As a currently privately run rescue we are not entitled to any funding. Nor can we give tax receipts to anyone kind enough to make a donation. Keeping this place going does cost money. There is the desexing, microchipping, vaccinating, worming and flea treatments that we do as standard. There is the daily food requirement of the cats and kittens we have on site alongside kitty litter. Add onto that vet care for sick or injured cats. Medication to treat these cats and get them healthy and rehomable. The costs of maintaining our cat habitats and equipment the fuel costs of vet runs or rescue missions and you start to get the picture. This is why we value donations so much. Tracey and Ange our Lovely ladies that are HVCH shoulder much of this cost themselves.

We have a quite new auction page set up at https://www.facebook.com/groups/468216619954568/ This is a fab place to Grab a bargain. All donated by our volunteers and supporters. Often but not always cat related. Some of the items currently up for grabs are make up kits, bath sets, jewellery, stickers, Cat artworks. Occasionally we have HVCH branded goods made by one of our volunteers. So go on over and see if anything takes your fancy and you know if it doesn't right now who knows what will crop up in the future? Maybe you the reader have a business that can donate something for us to auction off? Every penny raised goes towards the running costs and keeping our vet tab down to a manageable level.  Check out these items currently available.

                                          Cute cat bowl

                                     Sex in the City perfume set

                                               Melamine cat tray

                                                Crazy cat lady sticker

                                               Retro bath set

Why desexing is so Important

To get this message across we have to look at statistics. I'm not a fan of numbers but these we will delve into speak for themselves. We will focus on financial year 2011/2012. To narrow it down further we will focus on HVCH home turf, the Hunter region. To shrink the numbers further we are looking only at council run pounds.

We have used the Publicly available Analysis of Council Data Collection for
Seizures of Cats and Dogs. Division of Local Government, NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet.

1158 cats across the Hunter ended up in council run pounds.
51 were released to owner.
28 were re homed/sold.
390 were released to re homing organisations such as ourselves.
655 were euthanized.

Yep you read that right a whopping 58% were killed, a high proportion of which would be young cats and kittens. With the pounds themselves only re homing 2% and organisations like ours managing to take on 35% .

HVCH usually has around 90 cats in care either on site or with our volunteer foster carers. Usually with a waiting list of over 20 cats waiting to come into care at any given time. Thats an awful lot of cats.

Now are you beginning to see why its so vitally important to desex?  We must do what we can to reduce the number of animals, Re home from rescues or pounds and desex there are so many animals needing homes already. This applies to dogs as well.  Support TNRR of unowned cats living in colonies That's Trap Neuter Release or re home

Desexing is also vital for maintaining their health, increasing their life span and preventing antisocial behaviour. If you are experiencing financial difficulty there are many subsidised desexing programmes available in NSW to help you meet these costs. Vist http://www.ndn.org.au/apply-for-low-cost-desexing.html

Your Guide to getting a cat and the costs involved

One of our biggest challenges at Hunter Valley Cat Haven is educating people. It starts with someone getting the notion to get a pet. Ask yourselves to do you have the time and the money? The average Cat lives to around 15 years old but they can go on into there 20s. That's right that cute little kitty is gonna be part of your home for as long as if you had a kid.Although thankfully I've yet to have a cat post toast in the dvd player.

   For the initial start up cost lets assume you have decided to do the right thing and re home a rescue Kitten. Hey your reading this after all.That tells me your a responsible good willed sort.

Your rescue cat (desexed Vaxed and microchipped) is going to cost $100 -$150
You are going to need a carrier to bring it home (The law in NSW states all animals must be secured in cars)  $30
Food and water bowls $10
Litter tray$10
Toys $10
A cat bed is not essential but your new pal will appreciate it unless its a contrary sort that would rather you slept on the pet bed and it took the queen bed with ensuite  $30
Council registration $40
Basic scratching post again not essential but your furniture will thank you,oh boy will your furniture thank you. Hey if your crafty you could even make your own! $20

  So at the lower end we are looking at $250 However compare that with a "free" kitten. Factor in desexing at around $100 Microchipping at around $50 and vaccinations x 3 coming in around $150 and your "free" kitten suddenly cost you twice as much. Not to mention the running about getting it to the vet and hey it lacks the feel good factor of rehoming via a rescue. 

People often think they can cut costs by not having their cat desexed and vaccinated and allowing them to roam. Yes it may save money in the short term but long term its likely to end up more costly. If you have a female chances are she will get pregnant. This gets expensive.  An unvaccinated free roaming cat of either sex is more likely to pick up diseases and medical treatment can be costly. A free roaming cat is more likely to be attacked by a dog or hit by a car or unfortunately even an scrupulous person those vet emergencies are going to hit you in the pocket hard.

Weekly costs of owning a cat lets say
Food $10
Litter $8
worming /flea treatments $2.50
Insurance $3.80    

around $24.30. I highly recommend having pet insurance! Then there is a cattery if you go away or maybe like us your lucky enough to have friends to make use of your foxtel and aircon cat sit.

So you have the facts and decide you can do this. Yay go you, your awesome. Now lets consider the type of cat or kitten your going to re home. Do you lead busy lives? How often are you home? How much time can you devote? I asked myself all these questions and more before we got our rescue baby. I am a busy mum with 5 children including an active toddler. It would have been hard work to bring home a cute fluffy young kitten that requires a lot of attention. Kittens do scratch. Toddlers are rough. I'm potty training a toddler could I cope with a kitten that would likely still have accidents too?

I made the choice to re home a Juvenile or older cat. One that was big enough to get out of the way of my toddler when needed and unlike the toddler know that doing its buisness on my best rug wasnt the best idea. I had great plans I would choose a male tabby.

Heres what actually happened. I rang up and arranged to come look at older cats after been told they had cats of every colour variety.  I didn't choose one. SHE the non tabby picked us. I'm told this happens so often! She in the space of a year has wormed her way into our hearts. She ignores her pet bed choosing to sleep with whoever of our family of seven is in favour and we seem to compete for this honour. Sometimes shes playful, sometimes shes a docile lap cat. What she is first and foremost is part of our family. She has taught the kids so much about responsibility.  They fight over whose turn it is to feed her and argue over who is supposed to be doing the litter tray. She's better than a hot water bottle on cold winter nights. Oh and she eats spiders for that alone she is my BFF. Would I recommend re homing a rescue cat? Hell yeah.

Cys story

Cys story is one from a little while ago but so moving I have decided It needed a blog post. This is the story snippet posted on our facebook page.

Did you see me this morning? I was the little kitten laying in the gutter in agony. It was raining, I was cold and wet, my eyeball was a mangled mess. I had giving up hope as the cars drove past and pedestrians tried not to look at me. I prepared to die, the pain was just to much. Then a kind lady bent down and with tears in her eyes picked me up. I was put in a cage with a warm blanket, then another lady in a car took me for a drive, she to had to wipe tears from her eyes. Now I'm waiting for emergency surgery, I've been rescued.

Little Cy was a very lucky boy. Under the watchful eye of his carer he put on weight until he was well enough to have another operation on his eye where it was cleaned and stitched closed. He was desexed at this time too. He goes from strength to strength and shows no signs of cat flu.

Today he is an energetic baby with a great attitude. Understandably he can still be a little hesitant until he knows you but loves pats and cuddles. He is now looking for his furrever home. Thanks to Jody who found him, Hunter Valley Cat Haven who saved him and Jo who did the two hourly feeds and meds to get this guy through and his carer Kerryn.

Could you be the purrfect furrever family for this boy? Contact HVCH https://www.facebook.com/HunterValleyCatHaven?fref=ts

HVCH gets Blogging.

Hello and Miaow From Hunter Valley Cat Haven! We have just started this blog to share our work with a wider audience. We will use it to share the story of what we do and who we are are. We aim to feature stories on individual animals that come into our care and their journeys. We May ask for contributions from people that have adopted Via us so we can share the continued journey of cats that find their furever homes. We will Give updates on fund raising, Like links to our Auction page where you can grab a bargain and support our efforts at the same time.

You can see the background picture is of our fantastic new air conditioned home from home Kitten flat home to our youngsters awaiting new lives. There will be many Cat pictures to come, I mean who can resist a cute cat picture is that not the whole purrpose (see what we did there) of the Internet.

We hope to make this blog Fun informative educational and a place to get a better more in depth insight into the daily life of a cat rescue. This first blog post is basically to let you know we are here and we hope this blog will be well received. Wishing you a purrfect day