advoCATS News

Good "Mews" For Hawaii's Cats

Spring 2007

We’re Celebrating Our Current Spay & Neuter Total

4242!

The Kitties on the Big Island say Mahalo!

We couldn’t have hit the 4000 mark without you.

Your kindness, generosity and commitment to our cause means so much.

Sheraton Keauhou Bay Opens Kitty Café

Mahalo to the employees at the Sheraton and General Manager Scott Brooks

    In December of 2006 a guest of the Sheraton emailed advoCATS about a group of feral kittens in the hotel parking area. The visitor had been feeding the kittens while she was staying there and became attached to them. She worried that when she left they would starve or have worse consequences. An advoCATS volunteer located the kittens and set up a meeting with the hotel management. In just over two months time advoCATS and the hotel set up a kitty café. After the café was set up advoCATS came in and trapped and neutered the kittens as well as the young mama cat who by that time already had another batch of kittens.

    If found young enough advoCATS foster moms take them and get them socialized for adoptions into good homes. It’s our goal to have all the hotels on Hawaii Island to implement such a happy ending for the feral cats on their grounds. We know that animal loving hotel guests appreciate the kindness to the homeless cats on the Big Island.

In Remembrance:  Midnight from Kohala & Scruffy from the Old Airport.

Mahalo, Mahalo, Mahalo!

Laura Scott and Ralph Fehlberg for your generous contribution towards our spay and neuter program. Your kindness and caring will go a long way towards helping our cats on the Big Island.
~
IRONMAN for the grant towards our Sanctuary
~
And a special Mahalo to Carolyn Witcher at Witcher Engineering for printing our brochures and newsletters.

March Spay and Neuter Clinic

Females spayed: 15, Males neutered: 17. The first cat went in at 12:00 noon and the last cat came out of surgery at 4:05 p.m. All cats were on their way home by 6:00 p.m.

    On Saturday, March 31st, 2007, at the invitation of Robin Woodley, DVM, advoCATS, Inc. sponsored a spay/neuter clinic at the Kohala Pet Clinic in Kapa’au. Dr. Woodley had participated in our last clinic in Kona on 10/14/06, and was interested in having one in north Hawai’i. She was joined by Shannon Nakaya, DVM, and Matt Belcher, DVM. In spite of working for the first time in a different clinic, the doctors and volunteers quickly established an efficient routine to process the cats. Dr. Belcher and his wife, Emily Claspell, administered the anesthesia. Then Dr. Belcher neutered the males, and sent the females on to Drs. Woodley and Nakaya for spay operations. A core of volunteers who had come from Hilo, Kona, Waikoloa and Kohala, monitored the cats in 3 separate stages of recovery. The recovery process was enhanced by the use of homeopathic remedies prescribed by Dr. Woodley, and by T-Touch administered by her assistant, Rachel Lancaster.
    Special thanks to vet techs Mele and Iliahi from Veterinary Associates, for their help in surgery. Thanks also to the Hawaii Island Humane Society for providing food and sodas to keep the volunteers going during the afternoon and to Dylan Foster for providing delicious organic pizzas at the end of the day. Further thanks to Karen Klein, AdvoCATS president, for all her work of autoclaving the spay/neuter packs, and of course, to the doctors and all the volunteers.     In addition to helping control the feral cat population in Kohala, Dr. Woodley’s goal was to train Kohala volunteers so that they can assist with S/N clinics in the future. Dr Woodley is building a new clinic in Kapa’au which will be open later this year. Details of the clinic: Thirty-four cats were brought in. One was too sick to spay, another had already been spayed and the doctors were able to shave her and find the scar.

Big Island Mayor Harry Kim Declares February 14th AdvoCATS Day

    Long time advoCATS volunteer Ruth Savakinas had a goal; obtaining a statement of approval and support from a local authority for the work that trappers and colony caretakers do every day. Says she: “My heart hurt so much for the cats and for those committed colony caretakers out there on the "front lines" who were in continued jeopardy from an unenlightened populace.”
    Now Mayor Kim has given that support, and in his proclamation it states: Non-lethal Trap-Neuter-Return, accompanied by ongoing cat colony management is the most humane, effective and cost-effective way to reduce homeless cat populations in the long term. He also asks the community to support the TNR work that advoCATS has done since 1999.
    Getting the National Feral Cat Day proclamation was the first step toward Ruth’s goal and we hope that this statement of support will assist trappers in negotiating access to private property to help the cats and reduce the intimidation and harassment of caretakers as well as the attacks on the cats themselves.

Fundraising News

Recycle your Ink Jet Cartridges & Help the Kitties

    AdvoCATS now has an account set up with Empties4Cash. Save your ink jet cartridges and bring them to one of our meetings, garage sales or give them one of our volunteers. Or we can mail you the prepaid mailing envelopes to send them in yourself. AdvoCATS gets $4.00 for every cartridge that is received. A great way to recycle and help the kitties!

IRONMAN TRIATHLON AWARDS ADVOCATS A GRANT OF $500.00

    The Ford Ironman World Championship Corporate Office presented advoCATS, Inc. with a donation in the amount of $500.00 in January 2007. On October 22, 2006, advoCATS volunteers collected all the HI-5 recycles at the Ironman Awards Banquet. Rosalind Butterfield, the recycle coordinator for Ironman, was pleased with the work done by advoCATS (and we were too because we collected about $370.00 for our spay and neuter program). Rosalind graciously recommended advoCATS for this $500. grant to assist with the completion of our sanctuary. Mahalo to Ford Ironman and to Rosalind Butterfield for this donation.

FIRST GARAGE SALE OF 2007

    The sale held on March 3 and 10 was our biggest success so far. We raised $4,435.00 for our spay and neuter program! Many mahalos for all the quality donations from our fabulous donors. Our thanks go out to all the kitty helpers: Roberta Agre, Katherine Florer, Laurel Gregory, Sharain Herrick, Nancy Hitzemann, Judy Kocon, Nancy Matthews, Mike May, Jim and Diane Merriam, Dottie Fredrickson, Pica Mertvago, Jennifer Olson, Wendy and Joe Roosevelt, Kathy Vilander, Linda Welker, and Margie Wolfe. We are grateful to Linda Welker and Linda West for their donation of three new tables. Thanks again to Torun and David Almer for bringing the tables. Last of all, another BIG MAHALO to Kathy Vilander for hosting our sale.

Nursing Kennels for Kitties by Jennifer Olson

    In late 2006, I was again called to see if I could take in a pregnant cat for fostering. I decided that a kennel was needed for this purpose as I had been using my own and my guest bedroom in my house. So I built an 8’x12’ enclosure for the kitties, with 8’x8’ of the kennel being divided into 2 sections. The other 4 feet are my security entrance, to prevent scampering kitties from escaping. Shortly after announcing that it was ready, I received a call from the Humane Society to take in a feral mother and her 5 babies. I also received another call from an advoCATS member to take in a feral pregnant cat. That mother had 4 babies that are currently up for adoption. As space opened up, (some kitties got released, some moved into my house waiting for adoption) I took in another 2 pregnant mothers. One had her 3 babies on Valentine’s day, and the other is still gestating. There is also a waiting list of more needing a place to go. Due to such a great need and the success of my first kennel, I designated a portion of my land for another kennel which can hold another 4 families.

AdvoCATS and advoCATS volunteers helped with funding and building the new kennel. Many thanks to the helpers: Sandy Alexander, Sheila and Dane Nobles, Tess and Stacey Castanette, Sonny and Triani Naboa and Kandice Crusat. Mahalo to Linda and Larry Martz who donated roofing for the kennel, and Sonny Breighaut who donated lumber and used his pickup to pull the trailer with cement on the workday. We are still finishing the kennels and hope to start receiving pregnant kitties soon.

YOU CAN HELP HAWAII’S CATS

____ $120. donation: the cost to spay 2 female cats.

____ $80. donation: the cost to neuter 2 male cats.

____ $60. donation: the cost to spay 1 female cat.

____$40. donation: the cost to neuter 1 male cat.

Please make checks payable to: advoCATS, Inc.

Mail to:

advoCATS, Inc. P.O. Box 4415

Kailua Kona Hawaii 96745

(808) 327-3724

advoCATS, Inc. is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization. Donations are tax deductible.

As of April 2007 we have spayed or neutered

4242

Since 1999

Mahalo To All Our Veterinarians and Staff!

Read our newsletter archives:

Spring 2010 / Winter 2010

Autumn 2009 / Summer 2009 / Spring 2009 / Winter 2009

Autumn 2008 / Summer 2008 / Spring 2008 / Winter 2008

Autumn-2007 / Summer-2007  /  Spring 2007  / Winter 2007

Autumn 2006 /  Summer 2006 / Spring 2006