A New Start for Kitties
One of the first things you'll notice when you arrive at A New Start Kitty Shelter---no barking. I stopped there last Saturday to take pictures of the kitties for our website and petfinder listings. They estimate they have 80-90 cats divided between two ranch style homes, a mobile home and a small horse barn. Some of the longer term feline residents are even allowed to go in and out at will through kitty doors. Ages range from newborn to seniors in the cats waiting for new homes.
Those cats housed inside are located in “colony” rooms separated by age, sex, and compatibility. There is only one cat that is caged while President Vicky Bly is at work. Baby Girl is a special needs cat that came to the shelter unable to walk. An x ray showed a bullet lodged near her spine. She is such a sweet kitty, and could move her legs, so they were hopeful that removing the bullet would allow her to walk again. So far, that hasn't happened although she still moves her legs. Wearing a disposable diaper with a hole cut out for her tail, Baby Girl easily slides across the smooth living room floor. Despite her disability, she seems perfectly content.
There is an ongoing yard and garage sale going on weekends throughout the summer to help pay for spay/neuters,veterinary care, food, medicine, litter, and cleaning products. The rest is financed by donations for surrenders and adoptions. The items at the garage sale change almost weekly as things are sold and more things are donated.
There are no set fees for adoptions because they believe it's more important to find a good home for a kitty than collect a fee for it. Some people get their cat for free, but many people give generous donations. Most all the cats and kittens old enough are spayed or neutered, vaccinated for rabies and distemper and wormed. For kittens not old enough to be spayed/neutered a refundable $35 deposit is required. The deposit is returned on receipt of proof the kitten is spayed.
I have to say there is hardly anything cuter than a kitten. I love to pick them up and cuddle them whenever I go there. It's easy to understand why people are drawn to them rather than and a full grown cat. They only stay little for a few months though.
No too long ago, while I was working on “spring” cleaning, I found a piece I wrote for the Perry Herald about seven years ago. I had just adopted a neutered senior black and white kitty and I named him Tomas. In the article I imagined a history for him from the time he was a cute little kitten then cast off when he grew into a young adult and started spraying. He wouldn't understand why the human who loved him so much when he was little then threw him away when he wasn't little and cute anymore.
By the time I got him he was 10 years old. He was the sweetest most loving cat I ever had. Almost every night for the last seven years he laid on the bed beside my pillow and purred me to sleep. Tomas died a couple weeks ago. I knew his time was getting near, yet it was very hard to let him go. I am grateful for all the years I had him. Whoever threw him away, their loss was greater than mine.
What a great cat! I sure miss him. cm
