FFRC Weekly Blog Week Ending November 16, 2024


FFRC Weekly Blog Week Ending November 16, 2024


Adoptions:
Percy was adopted this week.


This 6 month old boy came to us when he was about one month old.  He had been found on the side of the road.  His eyes were completely matted shut, his nose was matted shut, he had ear mites and ringworm.  He was in rough shape.

He was 13 ounces when he arrived and he was 6 lbs at his last weigh in.  He’s growing up!

He’s going to be an only child for now.  He can be a shy kitty, at times. He and Xavi have become good friends, so who knows!!  He will keep his name!


New Cats:

None. (Birch and Maple, see below under Other Updates).  


Health Updates:

Xavi had his leg x-rayed and is in a cage for a while to let it heal up.  He is anxious to come out but it’s best for him right now to keep him quiet.


Moogy had been sick for a little over a week, she has lost weight and is just so very sad over the loss of her mom.  She went up to the vet and was diagnosed with a bladder infection so is on antibiotics and does feel a lot better after being on meds for about 24 hours.


Oscar had his neutering and for now is in Thumper's room.  We are going to keep him in there for a few days with everything going on in the main room.  We are hoping we can make him an inside cat but will not push the issue.  


Other Updates:

Birch and Maple were both returned.  They were adopted a few months ago and the older cat in the house simply wouldn’t accept them and was very stressed about the two new ones.  The family were heartbroken to return them but they had to think of the well being of their existing kitty who has been with them for many years. So they did the right thing and reached out to us, per their contract.  Birch and Maple are a little confused but adjusting to being back at FFRC.



As many of you know, we have had some staffing issues which will probably continue thru the end of the year.  Due to health issues as well as life issues, we’ve had some of our staff/volunteers unavailable and everyone has stepped up to help but special shoutout to:


Carmine, Mary H., Dawn, Debbie, Edna, Heidi, for all filling in taking extra shifts and doing all that is needed to take care of the cats.  For their part, the cats have done nothing to help, but we’re here for them, and they know it.


We had our annual holiday party for the staff/volunteers on Saturday and it was nice to just all get together and spend quality time just enjoying each other’s company.  When people who love cats and dedicate so much of themselves to making their lives better, get together, it’s always a nice time.  We thank all our Friends for their support and kind words.

Our Kitty Christmas is currently going on.  We are asking, if you can, to send food, monetary donations and supplies for the cats to us. On December 7th, we’ll read all the sender's names and have a fun day planned to celebrate with the cats and our Friends.  See our website for more information.   If sending boxes, please address, if possible,  to Kitty Christmas

FFRC

14597 Power Dam Rd.

Defiance, OH 43512


Thank you.

Holds:
Choco = he has a few more milestones to reach before being cleared to go to his forever home.
 
FYI:

“Everyone you meet is facing a battle you know nothing about.  Always be kind.”   
Maverick:














FFRC Weekly Blog Week Ending November 9, 2024

 

FFRC Weekly Blog Week Ending November 9, 2024


Adoptions:


Sisters, Bella and Luna were adopted, together.  Found and rescued in a trash truck by an observant driver in July, 2024, these newborns survived against the odds and have found their furever home together.  They are now part of a family that includes 2 eight year old kitties.  Sisters forever.  Friends forever.  Family forever.


After waiting over 2 years for a family, Cher is now home!  She’ll have an 11 year old brother and will keep her name. This sweet girl who bothers no one and now lives in Wisconsin where she’ll get all the cheese and football she wants!


Mr. Adorable, Reiko was also adopted.  Reiko came to us from Dr. Darcy’s office in June, after he was found with his brother, Morrison.  Sweet Morrison didn’t make it but Reiko has gotten stronger.  He’s a shy little boy who has come out of his shell.  He’ll begin his new life with a new name, Leo.  And just like Leo the lion, he’ll be fearless and courageous.  He’ll be the center of attention with all the love in the world given to him.
 
New Cats:

Oscar = This big boy has been coming around the property for several months and evaded capture.  Finally, we prevailed and caught him.  He’s now up to date with his vaccinations and will be neutered.  He may not like that, but he’ll live a much better life not having to buy Valentine’s gifts for all the girls.  He is a handsome big guy.  Loves to be petted.  He’s a friendly guy.  We put him at about 5 years old.

Jack = 13 week old kitten was found while someone was camping. Severe ear mites, fleas, ruptured eye from Herpes. His overall eyesight is still tenuous. Overall fantastic demeanor.

Moogy = Moogy was our friend/volunteer Marcia’s senior kitty.  She is 17 and a little lost right now, having lost her mom.  We’re going to try her in Nyota’s room with the girls.  They all have heartbreak in their history and need friends who understand them.  Moogy needs our love, empathy and understanding more than anything.  All things she’s gone through, she is doing well.  


Health Updates:
Thumbelina had her sutures removed.  They were a little tricky but she’s a trooper and fine.
Other Updates:

Spitfire is now eating on his own.  He loves his food. 

Our farm hand, Ray, had to leave for personal reasons. For now, Cindy will be taking on even more responsibilities.  We will look to hire someone to help sometime after January.

Our night time worker, Raven has had to retire due to medical reasons, but she is going to volunteer a few times a week coming in to love, brush and talk to the kitties.

  
FYI: 

"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.'" —Mister Rogers

Spitfire or Yoda? Hmmmm













FFRC Weekly Blog Week Ending November 2, 2024

 

FFRC Weekly Blog Week Ending November 2, 2024


Adoptions:

None (Yellowstone was on last week’s blog)

New Cats:

None


Health Updates:

Junior has been losing a little weight so he went off to the vet for some bloodwork.  He’s doing well, but he does have a little thyroid issue so we are starting him on some meds.  We’ve tried pills but he is not really good with pills so we are going to try some cream in his ear.  Junior and his brother Smokey are office kitties.  Remember, these two brothers  belonged to our moderator Mighty Kat who passed a few years ago. 

Checkers went to the vet to have a tail amputation (and a neuter.)  Remember when Checkers first came here, he had a ‘degloved’ tail.  The tail eventually fell off and we sent him to the Vet to have some ‘cleanup’ done, but Dr. Darcy feels the area has healed very nicely and didn’t need any further surgery. 

Mitzy was sent up to the vet’s to have a double inoculation.  Both eyes had already fallen out but the areas needed to be closed up.  Since doing both is a lot for the little girl, only one eye was closed.  She was also spayed.  Her other eye will be done at a future date.  For now, she’s like a pirate.


Some people have asked about what’s happening with Choco’s hair.  It’s kinda weird, but we love it!  He has multiple colors, from brown legs to gray body to long hair in certain places and not others.  He is one unique cat and we love him!


Moo Moo is doing very well and her rectum is healing very well.    

 
Other Updates:

None

  
FYI: 

As it begins to get colder outside, please remember to tap on your car hood before starting your car as cats (and other animals) may climb up on the engine to get warm.  Think of it as giving encouragement to your car as you begin your journey “You go car, you go”.  That little love tap may just save a life and your car will love you for it.

Choco






FFRC Weekly Blog Week Ending October 26, 2024

 

FFRC Weekly Blog Week Ending October 26, 2024


Adoptions:


Little, itty Boo was adopted!  Our little Boo girl is just 3 months old, and had been surrendered to our Vet.   A family came in and fell in love with her!  She is going to be spoiled.

Yellowstone finally got his own home!  (this was Sunday, Oct 27 but it’s in the w/e blog Oct. 26th)


Yellowstone was one of the Y kittens dumped on our property in March, 2023.  His sister Yamina was adopted last year and is happy, healthy in her home. His other sister, Yama, waits for her own home (we know you’re out there). 

Yellowstone picked his own family when they came to visit.  They adopted Boo and then came back a week later and took home Yellowstone.  He will be loved and spoiled by his new/forever family!  Congratulations to our special guy.


New Cats:

See health updates.


Health Updates:
The new kitty we took in at the end of last week has been named Tulip.  

She also has nystagmus (involuntary eye movement), but is improving.  She still has a head tilt but is now flea free and on meds that will help with any inner ear infection she has that may be causing her head tilt and eye issue.  She is such a happy kitty who loves, loves, loves being petted.  She is a purr machine.


Moo Moo (girl with a prolapsed anus) is doing so much better with just a few days of meds.  Her stool is getting a little firmer and she’s healing nicely.


Delta (girl found on porch bleeding from private area) She was brought up to Dr. Darcy and they did surgery (and a spay) and she’s healing nicely.

Spitfire continues to get better and bigger.  Sadly his little friend, the little kitten (Marsh) brought in very bad shape didn’t survive 24 hours.  But the baby knew love in his final hours and did not pass alone.

 
Other Updates:

Our FFRC family lost a great friend, volunteer and special person as our beloved Marcia M. passed away after a long illness.  She was a volunteer for many years and will be missed by everyone.  May she rest now and be at peace, she has earned it.


We had a Halloween fundraiser to help pay for our recent spike in medical needs.  (can you believe cats come to us sick and injured and demand to see a doctor?)

We really didn’t know what to expect and our Friends blew us away with their kindness and generosity.

We raised $6,285 in ticket sales for your favorite Ghoul kitty.  Then our cammers bumped it up $2,415 for a total of $8,700.  Thank you, thank you, thank you! 

8th place = Gizmo  $375

7th place = Otter $395

6th place = Egypt $435

5th place = Malade $480

4th place = Magic $750

3rd place = Spiker $800

2nd place = Derecho $1,420

1st place = Dagda $$1,630

Total = 1,257 Tickets sold in total = $6,285

 Bump ups = $2,415


Total = $8,700 

  

FYI:  

Halloween can be a time to scare people or a time to have positive, clean fun that young and old can enjoy.  Instead of a ghost story, how about telling the story of A Giant Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.  The world is scary enough, let’s smile this Halloween!


Rest in Peace, Marcia.


FFRC Weekly Blog Week Ending October 19, 2024

 

FFRC Weekly Blog Week Ending October 19, 2024


Adoptions:


Sweet, little Fizzy got her a family and a home!  And waiting for at home is Snooks, who was adopted by this family last month.

Fizzy came to us in late August.  She was found outside of a VFW and had gotten wedged in the dash of the car.  She was healthy except for nasty fleas.  She is now flea free, spayed and has had her last round of vaccines.  Congratulations sweet girl. 


New Cats:
A local couple were having their morning coffee and a little kitty about 3 months old came up to them.  The kitty was bleeding from her rectum, covered in fleas, her paws were covered in mud.  She is very thin and Megan wasn’t sure if she could be saved as she had internal parts outside of her.  She was rushed to Dr. Darcy and her ‘parts’ were put back in with surgery.  She was diagnosed with a prolapsed anus.
She is doing much better but does have a long road to recovery.  She has been named Moo Moo.  She is orange and white.  She loves food and loves to be loved.  Her sutures will stay in for about 2 weeks.

Delta came in with some bleeding in her vagina.  She was sent up to the vets and they determined she was fine and didn’t need any surgery.  She was cleaned up and is now on infection prevention protocol. 

We had three new tigers come in about 10 days ago and they all have names now from the Name A Cat lists:

Perogie = female, light tiger found in a bean field. 

Mr. Carson = male,  black tiger, American shorthair


Teddy = male, light brown tiger.

Taco Belle is now officially Taco Belle (female)



Health Updates:
Despite our best efforts, our prayers,our love, Minnelli did not make it.  She passed peacefully.  She was simply too weak to fight her illness and injuries.  She was in such rough shape and we are comforted in knowing she passed surrounded by love.  She was held and kissed and told over and over that she was loved. 

Xavi was originally scheduled for surgery this week, but it had to be rescheduled for November 8th.  Dr. Darcy’s office had several unexpected long surgeries.


Thumbelina did have surgery on her paw.  The surgery was more involved than anticipated but she handled it well.  Her ingrown nails were more ‘ingrown’ than thought and fortunately, Dr. Darcy was able to fix the issues. 


 
Other Updates:

Because of the unusual number of major medical issues requiring substantial vet visits and treatment, we will be running a Halloween Fundraiser.  We wanted to make it fun and include the cats!  There are 7 cats and one ‘I think I may be a cat” that we want you to pick who is your favorite Ghoul.  The pics are on Facebook and our Flickr Photo site:  flickr.com/photos/fofrescue.  The cats who agreed to participate are listed and for a $5.00 donation for your choice, we will have a drawing on Oct. 25th after updates for some fun prizes.  You can vote by sending with your donation (paypal, venmo or check) which cat you pick.  Each vote is $5.00 but you can vote multiple times for multiple cats.  For example, if you can donate $25, you can vote $5.00 for Spiker, $5.00 for Malade and two $5.00 for Derecho and $5.00 for Magic.  Gizmo would like all votes to go to him.  As always, we appreciate your help.  If you can’t give this time around, we ask that you wish the event, success.

Our fuel that keeps us running and saving lives. 

We have gotten questions asking the difference between staff and volunteers.  We do have about 8 or 9 paid staff.  You simply can not guarantee the consistent level of outstanding support without a paid staff.  We also have around 30 volunteers who are able to help with invaluable support to our cats.  We could not do what we do without our staff, volunteers and supporters.  All are crucial in providing care for our cats.  When we say ‘volunteers’ or ‘staff’ they really are one and the same.  Our paid staff give so much of their time off ‘work’ volunteering for the cats.  They run ‘errands’ which can be 50 mile treks to help a cat in need. 

On November 16 there will be a volunteer/staff party.  This is a nice event to get everyone together to celebrate the past year and the upcoming holidays.  It is a way for us to thank all those who give so much of themselves for our cats.  The party is from 11 to 3 (Defiance time).  During this time, the cam will be lowered and audio turned off.  This will allow all of us here to enjoy the day respecting the privacy of all.

We would like to thank everyone for their understanding for those few times when we do mute the cam.  When Dr. Darcy was here a few weeks ago, everyone was so supportive of us muting the cam.  This enabled us to have private conversations with our main Vet without people misunderstanding or taking things out of context.  We know you would rather the cam not be muted but remember we have sound every minute of every day and maybe have 5 or 6 total hours during the year when sound is off.  The amount of people who support our right to privacy is truly uplifting.  Thank you all for that.

We will have little baskets of thanks for our volunteers.  If you do want to send something in, feel free, but do NOT feel obligated.  These little goodie bags are our way of thanking the people who scoop, feed, clean up many icky messages and overall compassion and love for our cats.


Now into kitty Christmas.  We’re going to do things a little differently this year.  In the past we have all the boxes sent in with our needed items, opened during a special day.  However, this takes up to 10 hours of box opening and this taxes a physical toll on everyone.  So this year we will open as the boxes come after November 15th and read the names and items on cam during Kitty Christmas Day.  We also will have different fun things for everyone during the day so we can all truly celebrate the past year and celebrate our cats. 

Kitty Christmas is more of a ‘needs list’ of things we use to get by day after day.  Food, litter and other basic supplies.

As we get closer to Christmas we will be providing more updates.

About our cam.  As you know we broadcast 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.  Our broadcasts through YouTube are copyrighted.  If you copy from the broadcast then put it on your page without FFRC permission, it is against copyright rules.   We all know about different scams, we have been the victim of some of those.  Not too long ago, someone downloaded our video’s and passed them off as their own (or passed themselves off as being us) and asked for donations to a site that was a scam.  Please be careful of what you copy from our site. 

We know you all want to copy content to help spread the word of FFRC and we thank you.  However, implying (whether it was meant or not) that the content is yours is not legal.  There are some people who download a tremendous amount of content then reposts giving the impression they own the content.  They do not.  All content on our youtube stream is the property of FFRC.



There is a group of FFRC mods/admins that know what can and cannot be shared. If you ever have a question as to what you can or can’t do with our content, just let us know.  Thank you for understanding this.  The world changes daily and technology do’s and don’ts get confusing for all of us. 

And as always, keep in mind we welcome donations but be sure you are donating to FFRC through paypal (our site), Venmo, (our site) check, cash that is walked through our door.  We don’t use Go Fund Me.  Don’t let anyone tell you to send them money and they will make sure FFRC gets it, even if you know the person as they may not be the person you know!.  

  

FYI:  We could never do all we do without our Friends.  If we ever forget to say it, please know we do mean it:  Thank you for being our Friend.  Thank you for everything.  Mr. Carson, Teddy and Perogie.