FFRC BLOG

FFRC Weekly Blog Week Ending January 18, 2025

Adoptions:

None, but several coming up!

New Cats:

Stubbs: White kitty with black markings. Male about 4 months old with a shortened tail (not sure if short by injury or born that way). He was found wandering around outside by a sister of a friend of a friend of a sister (or something like that!) He’s a purrer, a big biscuit maker and very cool with everything. Speaking of cool, we have no doubt he’s happy to be inside where it is nice and warm.

Health Updates:

Steven’s “pillow foot” is looking a little better after a few days of treatment. This is a long healing process, but Steven actually seems to be enjoying being in his own pen. He likes his beauty sleep.

While there are a few cats with some sniffles and winter yuckies, everyone is doing well.

Other Updates:

The annual Betty White Challenge was a great week of celebrating a wonderful animal advocate while raising money for FFRC. Our Friends, once again, stepped up and helped us pay off some large bills for medicine, litter and insurance.

Last year $11,287.11 was raised and this year $13,475 was raised! Despite inflation, and so many natural disasters affecting so many, our Friends went above and beyond. We are truly blessed. Thank you, thank you, thank you. To those who were able to give and those who couldn’t give financially but gave through prayers and encouragement, we are so grateful and blessed.

And how wonderful is it that over three years since her passing, people all over the world honored and celebrated one person who touched so many lives, both human and furry? Betty White’s legacy lives on and as long as there are animals in need, will continue for many, many years to come.

Holds:
This one will make you smile and shout with joy: Piet will be adopted on Tuesday, time will be announced later.

Piet is 11 years old (yup, you read that right, 11 years old!) and will be adopted by the family that adopted Sanford!! For those who didn’t know, Sanford was adopted as a kitten from FFRC in 2016, he was adopted into a home that had adopted Piet in 2013. So while they were not blood siblings, they were siblings in every other sense of the word. In April 2023 both were surrendered back to FFRC due to family dynamics changing.

Sanford was adopted in August, 2024 and the family decided he needed his sister back so Piet and Sanford will once again be sharing a home together!

More good news, Hooper and Hopper are going to be adopted, together! The brothers get to go together, brothers forever! Adoption is tentatively scheduled for Saturday at 2:00 pmish.

Other:

“Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.” -- Helen Keller

Stubbs

FFRC Weekly Blog Week Ending January 11, 2025

Adoptions:

Sahara got adopted! Our four paw Hemingway cat has been with us since August, 2024 when she came in after being found wandering around in Paulding, OH. She was only 9 months old, living on the streets.

She’s going to have two brothers and a sister at home. She gets along very well with other cats so she should fit right in.

Our sweet Thumbelina got adopted! This sweet 7 month old girl came to us from Dr. Darcy’s office in August, 2024. She was surrendered to Dr. Darcy from her owner as she had a wound and didn’t want to have it treated. She’ll have another cat to play with.

New Cats:

Biscuits. She is about a year and half old Siamese. She has beautiful blue eyes. She is tiny (about 6 lbs). She was roaming around outside of a friend of Denise. She has a broken tooth, which doesn’t appear to be causing her any issues. We’ll eventually get it done along with a spay.

Catalina. She is about a year old. She is all white and came in the day Sahara was adopted, so one white kitty out and one white kitty in. She is a medium hair beauty who was also found roaming outside of a person’s house. The man who found her took her in for about a month but his cat didn’t like the new kitty so she’s now with us.

Health Updates:

Steven has been losing weight and we noticed he has “pillow foot”.

Pillow foot, also known as feline plasma cell pododermatitis (PCP), is a skin disease that causes a cat's paw pads to swell and become painful. The swelling resembles a pillow, which is how the condition got its name.

The exact cause of pillow foot is unknown, but it's likely due to an immune system dysfunction. Plasma cells, a type of white blood cell, build up in the paw pads in response to an infection or inflammation.

The main treatment for pillow foot is immunomodulatory drugs, such as doxycycline. Other treatments include corticosteroids or cyclosporine. Pain medication may also be necessary. Treatment can take several months and can be chronic. Right now Steven is being kept in the back cage for some initial pain meds and other meds. (Spiker had it a few years ago).

Steven is such a good, quiet boy and never complains. He’s being a good patient.

Other Updates:

Someone asked the names of the cats that are in Thumper’s Room. Note: we don’t just house cats there due to illness or injury, some prefer the quiet of the room to the rambunctious nature of the main room. Here are the cats currently in Thumper’s Room:

Jack, Sylvester, Mya, Jo Jo, Steven, Spitfire, Pierogi, Taco Belle, Liebchen, Juniper, Noelle, Spark. Emmy, Tiger Lilly, Tulip,

Remember, we also have different rooms in the center with ‘clusters’ of cats that are segmented due to specific needs (I.e. Nyota’s Nest for our ‘quiet’ girls.)

Butterbean has requested his own private room as he believes he is too dignified to be with the riff-raff. His request has been denied.

Despite what Achoo says, we are fully stocked on lickey licks but we could use: Laundry detergent, appetizers and 33 gallon garbage bags.

Holds:
None at this time.

Other:

Our weeklong celebration of Betty White begins on Monday and runs until Friday, when we will announce the totals. The Betty White challenge is a yearly event being done by animal rescues around the world to honor Betty White who worked tirelessly for the welfare of animals, focusing on the work of animal rescues. Betty would have been 103 years old this year and while she passed two weeks shy of her 100th birthday on 12/31/2021, her spirit lives on and her love for animals and their humane treatment will never die.

Biscuits:

FFRC Weekly Blog Week Ending January 4, 2025

Adoptions:

Sweet Bamboozle was adopted! This little boy was found wandering the streets of Defiance, last September. He was just two weeks old. After much love and a whole lot of bottle feeding, he started to grow and get longer! He’ll have an older brother, and keep his name (although, he’ll be called Bambo). He picked out his new family.

On New Year’s Eve, Checkers got adopted! Our 6 month old boy was found last August in the middle of the road, in obvious pain with cars running over him. He had a degloved tail (which eventually fell off). He was so scared and shy but with lots of love and patience he has learned to trust and has become a true love bug. His new name is Chedder Joe!

Maple was adopted! Maple was one of Brandi’s babies. She had been adopted earlier in the year but returned as the existing cat didn’t want any new cats and made things unworkable for Maple and her sister, Birch.

Maple will be getting a new name, Cassie. She will get to share her home with 3 tiny dogs, two of which are smaller than her!. The dogs have had a cat before and they all got along fine. Her new name, along with her new beginnings is now Cassie!

Porchie has gone to her new home!

Porchie is the nicest girl who just needed her own family. Porchie came to us in July, 2024. She was surrendered with Jefferson. Porchie is almost 6 years old. 6 isn’t old, but once a cat is over 5 it’s harder to adopt them out. So this adoption is so very sweet. She was adopted by former volunteer, Dennis. She’ll have 4 siblings to go home to. Dennis isn’t sure if she’ll keep her name.

New Cats:

Three kittens came in on New Year's Eve. They were caught by a cat rescue group who are hoping the three month old kittens can be adopted out. Their mom is feral and spayed by the group. Their dad was neutered too so their parents can focus on being cats. Hopefully these kittens (two girls and one boy) will get their own homes soon. They are all black and white and hard to tell apart. Each of them have a little (Bodie) in them.

They are:

Mya: she is the smallest one with a tiny little heart on her shoulder.

Jojo: she is the biggest one of the three.

Sylvester: He is the brother and only boy.

They are happy, crazy and playful, just the way we like it.

Health Updates:

Butterbean has some ‘snorkness’ going on and she is on meds. She’ll probably always be susceptible to upper respiratory issues.

Tulip is feeling much better after her eye infection. She is in the back room. Tulip is very shy and really doesn’t like to have a lot of cats around. She’ll probably not really come into the center and is happy being away from the action. We’re hoping she gets adopted by someone in a quiet home with no other cats.

Pania’s skin issue is flaring up again. She’s losing her hair and this is something she has always had and probably always will.

Other Updates:

We will be having our 4th annual Betty White fundraiser in the next few weeks to coincide with her birthday (January 17th). We’ll have more details soon. This has become one of our biggest fundraisers of the year (last year raised a little over $10,000). This also gives us a great way to remember a true animal lover.

Oscar and Salem are getting along much better and Salem seems to be accepting of Oscar! Patience is paying off!

Holds:

Lots of applications, so we are hopeful for lots of adoptions coming up.

Other:

“A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.” -- Carl Reiner

Tulip

FFRC Weekly Blog Week Ending December 28, 2024

Adoptions:

Mr. Mustachio got his very own family on Monday. Our sweet Bodie was adopted last month to a very loving family. Sadly, Bodie got sick and was diagnosed with a large mass in his chest cavity and the decision was made to let him be pain free, humanely.) The family remembered how close Bodie and Mr. Mustachio were so after a few weeks, they asked Megan if they could adopt Bodie’s good friend Mr. Mustachio.

He is now Mr. Christmastchio and doing well in his new home! The family also has Acorn (former FFRC kitty) and Acorn has taken Mr. Christmastchio under her wing. They also have Cheesecake (Dark Cat).

(This blog is based on weekending December 28. There were two adoptions on Dec. 30 which will be on next week's blog!)

New Cats:

None

Health Updates:
Nyota is feeling back to normal, finished with her meds and is now back in her room with her close friends.

On Christmas, Jack’s sutured eye started to bleed. That is normally an indication of an infection that needed to be drained so his little body opened up a little space for it to come out. He’s doing well and has been put on additional anti-biotic.

Murph has a little skin issue. It looks like a dry skin issue and it appears to be getting better.

Other Updates:

Santa came as planned. There were some cats on the naughty list but became extra nice in the past month, so Santa added them to the nice list!

All the cats were very excited by Megan cooking several hams and bringing them in for Christmas dinner.

Oscar is doing well at Megan’s mom’s house. However, her other cat, Salem, does not want to share mom with anyone. Salem is anger spraying around the house. They are not fighting but it’s clear Salem is not a happy cat. Jealousy is a very real thing, as is territorial domination. Salem wants Oscar to know, “This was my house first’. Time will tell what happens. Hope still exists.

Holds:

Lots of applications have been approved so we expect an increase in adoptions in the next few weeks.

Other:

"Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365-page book. Write a good one." — Brad Paisley

Werlor

FFRC Weekly Blog Week Ending December 21, 2024

Adoptions:
Sweet, lovable gentle giant Oscar is now spending his days and nights in a foster home! His new foster mom is…..Megan’s mother! She recently took in Megan’s cat, Salem as Megan’s dogs are not willing to share their home with a cat. So Salem needed a friend and, well it’s a perfect match! It’s hopefully going to lead to a permanent home, but for now, everyone is happy to just take things one day at a time.

Oscar gets a home of his own, a new mom and a sibling. What could be better!

Fostering a pet is very important and if you are not yet reading to adopt, consider becoming a foster. It’s good for the cat but it’s also always good for you too.

Adopt, don’t shop and foster, don’t just sit on the sidelines and be curious.

Winner, winner, give them all a chicken dinner!

New Cats:

None

Health Updates:
Mitzy and Jack had eye surgeries this week.

Mitzy was already missing both eyes and one was already closed. She had surgery to close the other eye socket. We do this on cats that have an empty eye socket so the eye doesn’t get future infections.

Jack: If you remember Jack had already lost one eye to the herpes virus. When the eye ruptures like that, the body actually absorbs the eye ball into the socket. It just needed to be sewn closed to prevent future infections. On his right eye, he can see, but his eye lashes were turned inward (called entropion) and it is a painful condition. Surgery corrects it to have the eye lashes grow out. He is doing so well and happy to be free of that condition. He can now see since his eye lashes are no longer preventing him from opening the eye and seeing.

We’ve gotten questions asking if we will still be giving meds on Christmas and New Years Eve to those cats that get daily meds. The answer is ABSOLUTELY. We’ll be here to give meds. We’ll feed them as normal. We’ll even scoop their litter boxes! We may even sneak them all some treats and chicken!

Pania and Nyota are both doing very well after their recent health issues. It’s amazing what medicine and love can do to make things all better!

Murph is doing much better as his mouth continues to heal from his teeth extractions. Rumor has it, he’s been seen riding the big wheel when no one is watching!

Other Updates:
The two cats that were dumped on the FFRC grounds a few weeks ago (the ‘car’ cats) finally have names!

Spark is the dilute calico who hid in the underside of Megan’s car. She is about 8 months old.

Noelle is an orange kitty that bolted from underneath Megan’s car. She is almost 2 years old.

Both cats are healthy (they both had fleas and ear mites but are now flea/mite free).

Both Megan and Lynette went to Humane Ohio on Tuesday to take a tour with other humane society’s. It was nice to network and now they have some contacts that they can reach out to for advice and sharing of information.

We learned that we are doing really good things here! We aren’t perfect but everyday we learn and do better.

On Friday, we had a visit from the director of one of the other rescues and she took a tour of FFRC. It’s nice to chat with other rescues, it can only help the cats.

We had a last minute flash sale this week that raised $1,515.

Holds:

Mr. Mustachio! He’ll be going on Monday, December 23, to the family that adopted Dark Cat (Cheesecake) and Bodie.

Other:

“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” Mark Twain.

Jack

FFRC Weekly Blog Week Ending December 14, 2024

Adoptions:

None

New Cats:

None

Health Updates:
Dagda had one of those ‘he zigged when he should have zagged’ moments. We watched him closely for a few days and he’s fine. He was in a bit of a bad mood for a little while, but sometimes we all have those days.

Nyota is feeling much better and eating well.

Other Updates:

Dutton is now out and about and adjusting well to his new world.

We had another Humane Ohio day this week, sending up 26 females and 18 males for ‘fixin’. Included in the group were Moo Moo, Taco Belle and Mr. Carson. All came back as new kitties with no worries of how to pay for future child support.

Megan was feeling a bit under the weather this week so there aren’t a lot of updates. But in keeping with the magic of the season, let’s imagine some update:
“All cats waiting for adoption, have been adopted to loving homes.”
“All cats are healthy and don’t need any medical treatment or Vet appointments, except for routine physicals.”

“Every bill that came in, has been paid and there is money left over.”

If you wish long enough and keep a positive outlook, it’s amazing how many dreams can come true.

Holds:

None

Other:
"We are never really happy until we try to brighten the lives of others."-- Helen Keller

Abba