FFRC BLOG: 2025

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