FFRC BLOG: 2025

FFRC Blog week ending April 12, 2025

FFRC Blog week ending April 12, 2025

Adoptions:

Prince was adopted this week! Another survivor story that ends in an adoption and a whole new life, full of love and happiness. Found hit by a car on a rural road, his broken leg had a successful pin put in (which xrays show has healed nicely). He’ll have the pin removed in about a month. He came in a mess and now is in a home full of love and FFRC family! This is what we do, take in the lost, the broken, and get them the medical help they need and help them to heal their spirits and embrace life again. Well done to all! And good life to you, Prince!

New Cats:

None

Health Updates:

As of this blog, Sinopa still has not given birth. The over/under is April 15th and 4 healthy babies. If she can’t get her taxes in by then, she’ll qualify for an extension.

Teddy went to Dr. Darcy’s this week and he has been officially declared cured of FIP!!!! Unheard of a few years ago, here’s hoping advances in cat diseases (and all diseases) continue. Good job Teddy. You are our miracle boy and a very courageous little guy.

Mrs. Charles went to the Vet this week and a ‘small’ polyp was removed from her ear. This removal will make her feel more comfortable and we’ve already seen a slight improvement in her walking. There is a video of Megan and Lynnette showing the polyp in a specimen cup. That part of the video is rated ELF (eat lunch first).

Our Porchie and official welcome kitty, Jimmy James (JJ) went to the vet this week. He’s had a thyroid issue for years which we control with medicine, but lately he has lost more than normal weight. His thyroid level hasn’t gotten lower than expected so we’ve increased his medicine.Everything else on his blood work looked good. Jimmy James is 12 years old and he’s been a loving member of our outside cat family for over 10 years. Why do our outside cats stay so long with us? This is our home, silly! And we love all our Porchies, Covies, Barnies, Fire House cats. We especially love our Jimmy James. If you ever visit FFRC, be sure to say hello to him, but he’ll probably say ‘hi’ first.

Holds:

None

Other Updates:

After much thought, it has been decided that it is the best interest of both Eric and Popsicle to become permanent residents of FFRC. While cats with CH can be adopted (and over the years, have been), because of the care these kittens will need for the first months of life, it is best that they be allowed to grow, knowing this is their home, where they will have the best lives. It would also be hard to separate them as they have a unique bond and asking an adopter to take two cats with CH is quite a lot. Their sister Amy does not have CH and she will make a wonderful addition to any home. Mom, Wispy is also available for adoption.

We have some names for our recent new kitties:

The kitty that Dr. Darcy’s office asked us to take in that has Cerebellar Hypoplasia, is now Skye. She is the brown tiger girl that had been living outside, which is no place for a cat with CH. Her CH is moderate. She’s a sweet girl who is a little shy and we are helping with that.

The infants are doing well and the calico is now Ali and the small gray torti is now Lilo. Debbie is taking good care of them and they did spend an overnight with Megan and rumor has it Megan’s dogs would love them to visit more often!

We had our Hare Raising fundraiser this week and it exceeded expectations. Once again, our FFRC Friends showed their love and commitment to our work. We raised $8,250 with some bump ups still coming in. Thank you to everyone for your help with this, special shoutout to Mike and Lola who donated each basket and EthelWings for her beautiful diamond paintings for each of the baskets. What wonderful friends we have!

Other:

“There are no strangers here, only friends you haven’t met.” -- William Yeats

Our Jimmy James

FFRC Blog week ending April 5, 2025

FFRC Blog week ending April 5, 2025

Adoptions:

Our sweet girl, Bridge was adopted to a nice, quiet family where she will be the center of attention and allowed to be the cat she wants to be. After almost 3 years of waiting, Bridge now has her own beginning. She’s now Rosey. She’s now free to be herself. How wonderful is that! We’ve already had several updates and pictures of Rosey and she is loving life! And her new family mentioned that she loves looking at herself in the mirror! Our hearts are filled with joy.

Mr. Carson was adopted this week. Mr. Carson is a true survivor. If you remember he came to us in September after a woman saw three kittens fall from a car. Sadly, one was deceased at the scene and one passed shortly after arriving here. Mr. Carson survived and has captured the hearts of so many of our staff. He’s a special boy that didn’t deserve his beginning weeks of life but got through it and put the past behind and said “this is my time now.” We will always have a special place for this special boy and wish him the best life ever. He deserves it.

New Cats:

We took in a new kitty this week that came to us from Dr. Darcy’s office. She is about 8 months old and was brought to Dr. Darcy from a wonderful family who live on a farm and have quite a few outside kitties. They are responsible care givers and realized this kitty was having some challenges with mobility. It appears she is a cat that has CH (Cerebela Hypoplasia). She appears to be moderate CH. She is already spayed and given a complete blood test panel to rule out other possibilities. Dr. Darcy asked if we could take her. We are still evaluating what her unique challenges are, as not all cats with CH have the same level of mobility. She can eat on her own, uses the litter box and walks with some wobbles and ‘hunches’ down when she walks. She doesn’t have a name yet.

The Humane Society reached out to us as they had two tiny babies about a week old that they could not find any fosters for. The babies are not weaned so need constant care (feedings and other things a mom cat does for their babies.) We asked Debbie if she would help with them and as always, she couldn’t say no. Taking care of new born kittens is a very time consuming process and having two is, well, twice as time consuming.

One is a gray tortie and the other is a calico. They are so tiny we haven’t yet been able to get a gender on them. The tortie is smaller than the calico. They are both so tiny and could use everyone’s positive thoughts that they thrive.

Health Updates:

Our Malade did have a small seizure on Monday. She’s fine now, but we are monitoring her closely. It was a minor seizure which she popped out of fairly quickly. There’s not really any kind of test that can be done at this point, we just monitor and watch and make sure she is getting plenty of fluids and going to the litter box.

Teddy’s FIP treatment ends soon and he’ll be going to Dr. Darcy to have a complete blood work panel done and once he’s given the ok, he’ll be free to come into the center, if he chooses. After all he’s been through, he gets to pick when he’s out and about.

Mrs. Charles is going in for a polyp check this week.

Prince will visit the Dr. this week as well. He will have an XRay on his leg and his neuter.

Holds:

Prince is still on hold. Remember Prince still has some treatment things to go thru before being adopted.

Other Updates:

Sinopa is now roaming around the center a little bit just to get some exercise. Still no babies yet, but she’s gained some weight and is ready to give birth soon! But she’s definitely holding out as long as she can!

Mrs. Charles is now out and about and is very curious. She walks pretty well, but does have her wobbles. She also ‘over grooms’ herself, which could be being in a new environment.

We are now in the middle of our Hare Raising fundraiser. Check out info on FB, the Blog, our website or ask a mod for details.

Other:

"If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love.” — Maya Angelo

Brown Tiger

Calico baby

Torti baby

April 2025 Fundraiser

Beginning tomorrow (any time, you choose!) and running until April 11 at 9:00 a.m. we are having a special fundraiser featuring some of our special cats.

Now, we all know all our cats are special, but these cats are cute as a bunny and soft as a rabbit, so we’ve put together 7 baskets, each one featuring a picture of a special kitty and very special items.

You can win one of these baskets for $5.00. Just tell us the letter of the basket you want to put your name in for (and yes, you can put your name on multiple baskets or put your name on multiple tickets for one basket). Then on April 11 we’ll have a drawing at noon where all the names are put in the appropriate list. Our special magical computer system will randomly pick a winner for each basket.

You can pay by paypal, venmo, check, call in with your credit card number or, if you are local, stop in waving cash! Just be sure to let us know the basket number you are entering to get. For example, let’s say you want to buy 5 tickets, 4 of them for basket B and one for basket F. Just let us know.

The baskets:

The Marilyn basket. Everyone’s special cuddle bunny contains a photo of our Marilyn, bunny kitchen towels, some soft stuffed bunnies, a bunny basket and a bunny pillow.

The Alma basket. Everyone’s courageous motivator contains a photo of Alma, a bunny tablecloth, a stuffed bunny, a bunny knickknack, a stuffed bunny and a bunny basket. Also, butterflies show up on several of the linens.
The Spiker basket. The cat that makes us smile with every step he takes contains a photo of Spiker, a stuffed bunny that looks a lot like Spiker, a porcelain bunny holding eggs that are guaranteed not to increase in price, a stainless steel coffee thermos, and an eggplant and bunny linens.
The Magic basket. Everyone’s favorite leader of the Center contains a photo of Magic, a reminder to Bee Kind with a bumble bee, bee kind knickknack, plate and bowl of bee’s adding beauty and specialness to every table, a stuffed bunny and kitty dish cloth, a honey jar and something that this writer has no idea what it is, but it’s cute anyway!
The Pania basket. The blind kitty that can see more than any of us, contains a photo of this beautiful girl, a ‘forget me not,’ potpourri spray (lavender), a flowery platter, a cute book of cat thoughts, a plant, stuffed bunny and a table runner.
The Lucy basket. This basket celebrating the cat that loves to sleep under blankets while stealing our hearts, contains a photo of Lucy, a bird house, some birds (not real ones, or are they?) a plush throw and some beautiful bird linens along with a stuffed purple bunny.
The Derecho basket. This basket celebrates the cat that brought CH into our lives and has educated thousands of people about cats with CH contains a photo of Uncle Derecho, stuffed bunnies, bunny linens, bunny washcloths, a bunny serving tray and a kitty tea towel.

The pics attached to this post show them better!

As always, if you can help with this fundraiser, thank you. But don’t feel bad if you can’t. Your support can be in thanking the donors of the items making up these baskets, liking our video’s, or thinking positive thoughts about what we do and where we are going. Having Friends that add positive thoughts to our community and what we do is priceless.

Thank you all for being our Friend.

FFRC Blog week ending March 29, 2025

FFRC Blog week ending March 29, 2025

Adoptions:

None..

New Cats:

Sinopa = This sweet girl was found by volunteer Jackie. She has been hanging around at her house, hiding under the deck. We estimate she is about 2 years old and is missing some front teeth, but otherwise healthy. Oh, we should mention she is very, very pregnant. She looks to be ready to give birth very soon. We’re keeping her in a cage with a nice, warm blanket and set up for everything a new mom needs.

Health Updates:

Nothing really to report. The cats are all doing well, maybe a sniffle here and there, but that’s always the case and if we ever see anything more we will start with meds.

Holds:
Bridge will be adopted on Monday around 3:45 p.m. This sweet girl is almost 5 years old and has been here at the Rescue for 2 ½ years. She came in with two sweet babies and both her daughters have been adopted to loving homes.

Prince of Peace has an official hold. He still has some medical issues to work out but when he is medically cleared he has a loving home waiting.

Other Updates:

After waiting for months, then months and then more months, we finally received confirmation that FFRC is a 501c3 non-profit! This opens up so many doors for us and will ultimately save us thousands in taxes. And our wonderful donors will be able to deduct from their taxes donations made to FFRC. We’re just beginning to learn all the benefits this will bring to us so we’ll give more information as we learn them! For now, Yahooooooooo!. Also, we will be able to participate in contests that previously were for 501c3 only. But remember that all contests must be approved by either Megan or Lynnette, so don’t enter us in contests until you first get approval from Megan or Lynnette. Also, we’ve been a little relaxed in letting people post contests for other rescues or cat contests. We will no longer allow that. So please help us with that. Thank you all for your understanding of this. We know so many other rescues are deserving of contest prize money, but we want to ensure the focus of our Social Media platforms used for fundraising is on FFRC. Again, thank you.

We will be interviewing for some new staff to help fill some holes. As most of you know, Carmine will be starting school up again, so we will be looking for his replacement. We’re also looking for people to fill openings we’ve had for a while. So if you see new people sweeping, scooping litter and keeping things running say ‘hi’ and welcome them to our Family. Also know that in addition to Megan and Lynnette interviewing applicants, there is a cat committee that will be conducting their own screening, checking to make sure the applicant knows the proper way to chin scratch. How to properly distribute treats, equally and fairly as long as the resident cats get treats first. And they will ensure applicants know how to properly brush a cat and when to STOP before the need for claws to come out.

Other:

“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” – Jane Goodall

Sinopa

FFRC Blog week ending March 22, 2025

Adoptions:

None..

New Cats:
We’ve taken in two new kitties. They are brother and sister, both 2 ½ half years old. They came from a very loving family who have recently undergone some major changes. They are bonded so we will do our best to have them adopted together. Macaroni is the male, a brown and white tiger he weighs about 12 lbs.. Pickles is the female, she is also a brown and white tiger and is almost 8 lbs. Both are in very good health.

They are both sweet but a little shy.

Health Updates:

Teddy is doing wonderful and his treatment ends on April 14th. The protocol we’ve followed may be slightly more expensive than past protocol’s but it is less taxing on him (pills vs. liquid) and we have seen a remarkable turnaround in his condition. He is one happy boy!

In the recent past, FIP was a death sentence, now there are positive outcomes and cats can live long, normal lives.

Mrs. Charles = We are still stumped as to what is going on with her. We’ve been treating her with different medicines to do a process of elimination. Her attitude is outstanding. She is playful and happy. She does twirl constantly. This may be a polyp issue or may be CH, She has a great appetite. She does not move when she sleeps. But when awake, she is ever moving and twirling.

Pania has gained another 4 oz! She is now up to 9 lbs 15 oz. At her heaviest she has been 14 lbs. It is wonderful to see her gaining weight.

Several of the cats have the sniffles, this happens this time of year and we are treating them with some mild medicine.

Holds:
None.

Other Updates:

"Nothing is impossible. The word itself says 'I'm possible!'" - Audrey Hepburn

Pickles

Macaroni

FFRC Blog week ending March 15, 2025

Adoptions:

None..

New Cats:

Oz is one of two cats found in a cat carrier at the reservoir by our volunteer, Kathy. Both cats were huddled in the back of the crate (which was open). They were both scared. Oz is about a year and 6 months old. He’s a male black kitty who is neutered.. He is one of the nicest kitties ever!

Clove is the second cat that was found with Oz. This female tortoise kitty is about 5 months old. She came in not spayed but has since been spayed.

Both of these cats appear to be in good health. They were simply dumped. Both names were from the name a cat list, narrowed down by a poll of youtube chatters.

Mrs. Charles is a two month old kitten found on a friend's doorstep. She came in very sick. She has severe fleas, ear mites and tapeworms. URI. She has her adult teeth but appears very small. She may have CH. She is a torti color. Our vet has not been able to pinpoint what is medically wrong (may be multiple issues). We will work with the Vet and do some process of elimination to determine the correct course of treatment. She is very loving.

Health Updates:
Prince of Peace went to the vets on Monday to have a pin put in his leg. We are doing physical therapy now. He’s got a good, positive spirit and is doing well. He’s a little backed up internally and he is going potty but not a lot. We are hoping things will start to flow normally, soon.

Other Updates:

Tulip has actually started to come out more. She spent some time in the Main room and didn’t hide. Progress takes time.

Jo Jo, Mya and Sylvester are now out and about in the Main room and they are doing very well and finding lots of things to play with.

We are still waiting on our 501C application. No update.

The ‘fundraiser that wasn’t planned’ has now raised a little over $32,637. We’ve yet to stop hyperventilating. Thank you, everyone!

Holds:

None.

Final thoughts:

“To move forward, you have to leave the past behind.” -- Unknown Clove