Friday Feature

I am Pushkin,

Hear me purr

The Russian Blue is known for being a very intelligent and tranquil animal. People have reported Russian Blue's who enjoy playing fetch and are sensitive to human emotions. They develop extremely loyal bonds with their loved ones, yet are reserved and shy around strangers.

Russian Blues have an average life expectancy of around 10–15 years, have few health problems, little to no genetic problems, and are not prone to illness. They are a moderate-sized cat with an average weight of 8-12 pounds when full grown. Males are typically larger than females.

The Russian Blue produces less glycoprotein Fel d 1 and is much less of an allergen source than other breeds of cat. This would suggest that the Russian Blue breed may be hypoallergenic, but others point out that no cat is truly free of allergens.

Pushkin is an eight-year-old female Russian Blue who gets along with other cats but prefers the company of mature companions. She would be perfectly happy being your only pet if it would mean being the apple of your eye. For more information, visit www.atailatatime.org or email info@atailatatime.org.

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Furry Valentine

My best friend, my Valentine. Adopted from a Los Angeles shelter in December 2005, we named her Valentine after a character in one of our favorite books. She's some kind of mutt; we're guessing Chihuahua/Terrier/Gremlin. Instead of licking us she puts her forelegs around our necks and nibbles the ends of our noses. She knows how to sit and stay, walk at a heel, fetch, dance in circles and if we make our hand into a gun and yell bang! she falls over dead. She'll do anything for a belly rub.

This month, in honor of Valentine's Day, A Tail At A Time is doing something really fun. Do you have a four-legged best friend who's photo graces the wallpaper on your desktop? Are you the type of person who whips out your cell phone to show your date pictures of your pet? Do you rush home at the end of a long day with visions of a perfect evening spent curled up with someone warm and purring? Or maybe your warm someone snarfles rather than purrs. Either way. We want to hear about it.

Write a few short lines about your cat or dog and send us photos! We will post your Furry Valentine on our website and the public will vote on their favorite. Furry Valentine pics and stories will be accepted until 11:59 pm February 14th, 2010 and should be sent to info@atailatatime.org. Vote for your favorite Furry Valentine by emailing furryvalentine@atailatatime.org. The winner will be announced on February 16, 2010 and will receive a Valentine catnip bed or dog mat and a toy*.


*The Valentine catnip bed is being hand-made by one of A Tail's co-founders, Tracey. Check out her website to see the other beautiful things she designs! As soon as the bed is made, she'll post photos of it on the website and I'll post them here. Hoorah for handmade pet beds!

Need a hand here

Moby is a sweet 4 year old cat who needs your help.

After being rescued from the ACC, Moby snuck out of his apartment last night leaving him in the inside hallways of a five story building. Moby was found hiding under garbage cans, injured and frightened. His injuries are consistent with a fall of several stories. While we are not exactly sure what happened to Moby in the few hours before he was found, a neighbor thinks he might have been put out on a fire escape by another tenant.  

As of 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 26, Moby is on oxygen in the critical care unit of Emergency Veterinary Specialists. His lungs are bruised and the vet still needs to examine his stomach, liver and kidneys for additional injuries.  Moby will be spending the night in emergency care and will hopefully be released to A Tail at a Time's Vet, Dr. Giagnola.

It is a sad fact that many injured homeless pets are never able to find forever homes due to the overwhelming cost of medical care. Moby was very close to being adopted when this happened. We are asking for donations to help us pay for his urgent veterinary care. Any donation you can give will help Moby have a chance at finding his forever home.

There are three ways to donate:
1. Visit our website and donate via paypal
2. Send a check or money order to: A Tail At A Time, PO Box 1655 Radio City Station, NY NY 10101
3. Call NYC Vet Specialist at 212-767-0099 and tell them you would like to make a donation for Moby under A Tail At A Time


We are very grateful for all of your help and support. We'll keep you posted on Moby's progress. Please keep your fingers crossed.

Monday's Featured Adoptable!

As a rule, orange cats are always male. But Naomi doesn't play by the rules.

Look at those eyes! You can hardly see her face because she's being squished by her beautiful nursing babes, so here's another shot:

Whoops. You can't see her face there either, but you can see what a loving and attentive mama she is. Her kittens are weaned now and she needs someone else to shower with love. Maybe it's you?

She's three-years-old, healthy, current on her shots, and looking for a forever lap to curl up on.

For more information visit A Tail At A Time or email info@atailatatime.org.

Opt to Adopt!

Friday Feature

Once upon a time there lived a pair of cats named Francis and Candy. Francis was a gorgeous orange tom cat with big gold eyes and a coat that glowed like golden embers. He was mysterious, brooding and in love with a tuxedoed beauty named Candy. Candy was a dainty thing who sang torch songs at a local piano bar. Her black coat shone like moonshadows and her bosom was whiter than the whitest snow. She was named for her disposition, for she was a sweet girl.

Francis spent night after night sipping martini's while Candy sang torch songs in the back of a bar. Days flew into weeks blew into months and their eyes never met not once. Until one windy November night at the end of a particularly brooding set, Francis sent a bottle of chilled champagne to Candy's dressing room with a note that read, "Give me your heart and I'll give you everything."

******

If Francis and Candy were real cats, real adoptable cats instead of storybook cats, they'd be right here in New York City. And actually they are:

Francis, The Brooding Tom

Candy, The Crooning Tuxedo

Candy is two and Francis is one. They both tested positive for FIV. As long as they are well taken care of - fed nutritious food, loved, protected from stress and general unhappiness - they can live perfectly normal, healthy, happy lives. If you'd like to learn more about FIV, click here. If you'd like to learn more about Francis and Candy, click here. If you'd like to volunteer with A Tail, foster a homeless animal or adopt, email info@atailatatime.org.

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Your Weekly Cute Overload

This is Eden. She came to one of our last adoption events with her daddy and her little brother. They can't have a kitty for good reason (Mommy is very allergic to cats), but Eva sure did love snuggling up with our adoptables!

She and Ashley The Kitten were both a little scared of each other at first, but they took their time, moved slowly and gently, and before we knew it they were best pals.

This Saturday from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. A Tail At A Time will be at Petqua (2604 Broadway, between 98th and 99th Streets) with several of their adoptables. If you've been longing to hear a sweet little purr, come spend the day with our kitties! We're looking for volunteers, foster homes and forever homes.

For more information visit www.atailatatime.org or email info@atailatatime.org.

Opt to Adopt!

Blue has never been so blue

I'd like to introduce you to Aaron:

Photos don't do him justice. 

Aaron was picked up on the street but his rough life hasn't hardened him any. When it was his turn to be euthanized, (the shelter had run out of room, yet again) the shelter worker didn't have the heart to wake him from his nap. A Tail At A Time got a call and he's been given a chance to have a better life. He loves attention and he's very affectionate. A little on the skinny side, he needs a few good meals to fatten him up. Some of your love would go a long way, too.

For more information on Aaron click here. If you're interested in adopting him, email info@atailatatime.org.

Kittens!

The last post was a little grumpy, I know, but I get so upset when I hear about animal hoarding situations. This one especially rankled because if that woman had taken her original two cats to any one of the free spay/neuter clinics in this city the entire thing could have been avoided.

That being said, we now have three new beautiful, adorable, fuzzy fuzz-balls who need forever homes. I would like to introduce you to Swizzle, Prod and Nod*:

How can you ever survive such cuteness?

For more information about these beautiful babies, email info@atailatatime.org.

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*Not their real names. I don't know their real names yet.

UPDATE: The mama-cat is Serafina and the kittens are Ruby, Apollo and Melanie. 

An Unfortunate Example

This is a prime example of why it is imperative to spay and/or neuter our pets:

ASPCA, working with ten NYC based rescue groups, has just pulled thirty-seven cats from a woman's one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn. This is a woman who started out with two unaltered cats and ended up with thirty-seven cats and kittens. Why? Because unaltered cats will have sex and get pregnant. It's called breeding and the only way to prevent it is to have our cats and dogs spayed and neutered. Abstinence training doesn't work on animals, and I'm pretty sure it doesn't work on people either.

Professionals are calling this a hoarding situation, but it is a situation that would have been entirely avoided had this woman taken her cats to one of the dozens of free or low cost spay/neuter clinics in the city. You can read some articles about the rescue operation here and here.

Please, please, please be a responsible pet owner. Give your pet the happy life it deserves. Irresponsible breeding is not cute or fun and it isn't even necessarily healthy for your pet. The only thing it does is  put to unwanted pets into shelters. In this case, ASPCA and ten other rescue groups are taking responsibility for the cats - Tail At A Time has even been able to take in a momma and her litter of kittens - so this story has a happy ending. But many do not.

For more information on free and low cost spay/neuter clinics in NYC, click here and here.

Spay, neuter, opt to Adopt!

Saturday's With Ziggy

Last Saturday I spent the day with one of the sweetest, gentlest, handsomest kittens I've ever met. Ziggy spent over two hours zipped into my sweatshirt, curled against my heart. Of course, whenever a potential adopter walked by, I unzipped just enough so Ziggy could say hi:

For someone who's really a dog person, Ziggy stole my heart. I knew I was going to spend the day playing with cats, that's what the volunteers do at an adoption event. But I hadn't expected to have so much fun. Ed and Sam and everyone at Petqua made us feel so welcome and the more I work with all of the people who make up A Tail At A Time, the more grateful I am that I've gotten involved with this rescue. This last week has been crazy with work and everything, but one of the loveliest things running through my head has been the day I spent last Saturday, volunteering for A Tail At A Time.  It was the highlight of my week.

A post is coming soon with the photos and stories of all of the cats who were at the event.  Six of them were adopted, by the way! Isn't that great news? Six of our adoptables found homes thanks to last weeks adoption event. In the meantime, I wanted to let you know that the next adoption event is January 23, 2010 at Petqua, from noon to five p.m.:

Click image for larger view

Save the date! If you are thinking about adopting a cat or dog, if you want to foster a cat or a dog, if you don't have plans on Saturday and want to volunteer to spend the day playing with kittens, email info@atailatatime.org.

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Knit Purl Meow

Are you a knitter?

We are in need of some kitty scarves for this Saturday's Adoption Event - KNIT PURL MEOW.

It is so cold and more arctic air is coming thru!

Scarves needed for this Saturday's event:

for adults 15" length x 1 1/2" width (I recommend casting on 10 rows of a small yarn)

for kittens 10" length X 3/4" to 1" width

Let us know if you can bring 1 or 2 or more!

And if you have any questions, as always, email info@atailatatime.org

Adoption Event!

Click the flyer for a larger view

If you are interested in volunteering for this event, we need people to help post flyers in the neighborhood this week, and we also need people to help us set up, work the event and breakdown afterwards.

If you can't help but are interested in learning more about A Tail At A Time, this is a great time to come out and meet some of the animals! We hope to see you there.

For more information email info@atailatatime.org

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Euthanasia

The following comes from JohnSibley.com, a blog written by a good friend of mine who left a career on Broadway to work for the nation's largest no-kill animal sanctuary. I've copied and pasted the post directly from his blog because it's really worth the read.

Euthanasia

"There is no disease or condition of companion animals that takes more of their lives than euthanasia."

-Janet M. Scarlett, DVM, MPH, PhD, Professor of Epidemology at Cornell University, Director of Maddie's Fund Shelter Medicine Program

This quote has been floating around the 'net today, and I find it disturbing. Dr. Scarlett has a very impressive resume and seems to have spent a great and admirable portion of her career working to end the deaths of animals in shelters - certainly Maddie's Fund has been extremely important and influential in that respect. Assuming the quote is accurate, however, it's an exercise in defeatism.

Dr. Scarlett does not seem to be referring to euthanasia here, she is referring to shelter killing. Euthanasia is a term co-opted by apologists for shelter killing to make it seem more palatable to the general public - necessary and noble, even. It is language used to make the slaughter of innocents seem like a good and positive thing.

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, euthanasia is defined as "the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals (as persons or domestic animals) in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy". Killing for space is not euthanasia. Killing because no one has adopted an animal in a predetermined length of time is not euthanasia. Killing because an animal has an easily treated disease, like kennel cough or an upper respiratory infection is not euthanasia. Killing for old age or minor behavioral issues is not euthanasia.

Dr. Scarlett has even written articles for an audience of fellow veterinariansdecrying the number of animals killed in shelters and asking for their help to try to reduce it as much as possible; but isn't a good first step towards that goal to stop using a term popularized in order to make the killing of animals more acceptable to the general public and calling killing what it is?

Language is important. If you want to make the point that the needless death of animals is, in fact, a bad thing, can we all stop using language designed to make it seem like a good thing?