First Update: This is Robert and Brittany and "B" aka Starr. When we got her home we named her Beatrice Kiddo after the lady in the movie Kill Bill, but that name is to long so now we just call her B. Brittany has further evolved this and calls her BeeBee, so I guess since there are two ladies around here I'm out voted and that's her name now.
I got her tag in the mail, thank you for sending it. We got her a collar and put it and her tag on her. We've been having lots of fun with her, she likes to play with the toy we bought her, but as usual with cats her favorite thing we got her is her soft little cat bed
Second Update: Hey, this is Robert and Brittany, we thought we'd catch you up on what Bee Bee's been up to.
We went to Petsmart a few days ago and spent about $150 on stuff to spoil her with. We bought her some Whiskas cat milk because she LOVES milk so we thought we'd get some thats good for her. We also got her one of those cat trees and she absolutely loves it, she likes laying in the top of it because it's the tallest thing in the house and she can see everything and we put it by the window so she could see out. We also bought her a couple of fuzzy string like toys on a stick (like a soft whip that she likes to get). She's really opened up to us and has become very playful.
Thanks again so much for our baby!
Robert and Brittany
Roxie, our beautiful Turkish Van, who had the C-Section and the three babies, who later turned out to be FIV+, has been adopted. This morning Roxie is sporting her pink bejeweled collar in her new home where the toybox is bigger than her bed. Roxie went to a great couple in Longview who researched FIV+ cats and understand the disease. They now know what problems could arise but are also educated enough not to panic when they hear her diagnosis. They have bought her foods with extra nutrients to help keep her healthy, among other things. They have no other animals or kids, so Roxie can be the queen she has always longed to be but never was.
Roxie has certainly earned her crown. I wish her all the very very best, she deserves it.
The tiny kitten, Mattie, was left behind at an apartment complex in Lufkin and recently adopted by a wonderful attorney and his wife who already had two adorable rescued kitties.
The big kitties, Alley (the fluffy Maine Coon Mix, a former feral) and Lucy, are hamming it up for the new baby, Mattie.
For the first five years of her life, Buttercup never felt the touch of a human hand.
Instead, she lived in a colony with other cats, living in groundhog holes, sleeping in abandoned buildings, and only eating when a kind stranger left some food out for her and a few, or a few hundred, of her friends.
Diane Bove was one of those kind strangers. A member of Spay, Neuter and Protect Strays Inc. for the past five years, she spent much of her limited free time locating strays like Buttercup throughout the Monmouth County shore area. After trapping them, the Howell resident would humanely neuter the cats, and then find homes for the adoptable ones.
Bove thought Buttercup would be one of the luckier ones. Guessing her to be 6 months old because of her small size, she knew the stray had a better shot at being domesticated. The older a feral cat is, the less amenable it is to being touched by humans and acclimating to a real home.
The turning point is roughly 2 years old, says Dr. Marilyn Weber, veterinarian of the Sea Girt Animal Hospital in Wall. After that, "if they're not exposed to humans, it's more difficult," she said.
As she did with many of the cats she trapped, Bove took Buttercup in; besides needing a home, she had also broken one of her legs, and needed medical attention.
But bringing the cat into the first home she'd ever known was anything but a Hallmark card moment.
"She was really nasty," recalls Bove, so nasty that her boyfriend, Dave Frischenmeyer, kept Buttercup wrapped in a towel. To make her feel swaddled like a baby? "To protect me from her claws," he says. "She was climbing the walls," Bove continues. "We had a vase with some roses in it, and she was actually climbing the roses," broken leg and all.
And she wasn't the prettiest cat either. Due to a genetic problem she had no front teeth, plus she had a bump on her elbow, she was skinny and her coat was "like straw," Bove remembers. And she would scratch, hiss and spit at anyone who came near her.
And then Bove learned what would be the first of many surprises about the taupe-color tortie- point: She was actually a dwarf, and going on 5 years old. Which meant she'd lasted on the streets a good three years longer than most, says Bove. And while her toughness had enabled her to survive that long, it was that very toughness that would probably prevent her from ever fitting into a real home.
But there was yet another surprising thing about the feline: While wrapped in a towel and watching "endless movies" with Frischenmeyer, every once in a while, she'd let out a gentle purr.
There's some hope, recalls Bove. And whether it was the endless movies, or the endless "love and kisses—all of a sudden, she gave it all back," Frischenmeyer, a Howell resident, says.
And that's when they realized that Buttercup was no ordinary wild cat. Not only was she responding to their touches, but she was asking for more.
So they gave her more. Frischenmeyer, whose father showed prize-winning West Highland white terriers at prestigious shows such as the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show for 30 years, suggested they start entering her in cat shows.
"She tied for second place in her very first show," recalls Bove. In her second show, she received two first place ribbons.
That was just more than a year ago. To date, she's won 14 first-place ribbons, and two Best in Show ribbons. Attending shows sponsored by the Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA), Buttercup competes against anywhere from four to 20 cats in the Household Pets category, which means some might be purebreds, but are prevented from competing as such because they have a slight flaw, says Bove.
And Buttercup is no stranger to flaws. "She's got this bump on this elbow, and she's still winning shows," says Bove with a laugh.
But she doesn't let her flaws, or past, weigh her down.
"When she hears a judge say how pretty she is, she seems to hear it and understand it," says Frischenmeyer. "And she gets mad at the judges if they don't let her kiss them."
Bove says that there is no "written standard" for Household Pets, and that the judges basically make their decisions based on the cat's "uniqueness, pleasing appearance, unusual markings, and sweet dispositions," according to the CFA show's Web site. After that it's up to "the judge's preference."
But as long as Buttercup continues to enjoy the spotlight, they'll continue to put her into it. "She loves the attention," says Bove. "Everybody knows her as a ham."
It's a far cry from sleeping in abandoned buildings. But that's what makes their work for SNAPS worth it.
"People don't want to give them (colonies of stray cats) a chance — but it's not their fault they were born," Bove says. "We just want to stop them from reproducing, and let them live out their lives."
"Maybe we're nuts," says Frischenmeyer. "There are nights we're out there with our flashlights chasing one kitten for three hours." Even when he and Bove take the night off to go out for dinner, they're not officially off duty. "We'll see a cat run by and think "oh god, there goes another one.' "
But when they successfully adopt a cat out to a home, or discover a star in the making like Buttercup, there's no better feeling.
"I can remember when I rescued a cat from a Dumpster or chased her for more than two hours through a parking lot, and when I see her ride off to her new home, it's the most rewarding feeling," says Bove.
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