www.bestfriends.org It’s a wonderful organization that, among other endeavors, rescues animals in the face of disasters.

Many of you have read (or experienced) the massive flooding in Iowa. On Tuesday, Wendy happened to read an article on Best Friends website about the many animals that had been plucked from trees, off rooftops, tops of vehicles, etc. There was no place to take these animals, as all the shelters in the immediate area were flooded, and shelters in the further afield areas were beyond full. As a temporary fix, they were taken to the Lee County Fairgrounds in Donnellson, Iowa. The animals were housed, fed, treated, etc. by volunteers from Noah’s Wish, another animal welfare group. Suddenly, they get news that the county wants them gone…by tomorrow. The county has priorities, after all. They have stock car races on Friday night, and then they have to begin setting up for the county fair next week. Where do the animals go? The county didn’t care, as long as they *went*.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

For lack of anywhere else available, the animals in question were taken to the farm owned by the director of the Animal Protection League of Southeast Iowa, which is in Keokuk…about as far south in Iowa as a person can drive. Wendy and I try to reach them all day on Wednesday, with no luck. Understandable, as they were in the process of moving. We try all day on Thursday, and I *finally* reach the director that night. She tells me they currently have 63 cats, 39 dogs, and other assorted animals in need of immediate placement. She also says all the cats have not only received their vaccinations, but have been spayed/neutered, and some are declawed. They have “lots” of ferals, including a mother cat with two nursing kittens. I tell her we’ll take the mother and kittens, as many as 12 ferals (since we have homes for that many right now) and five for our cat room. We decide to touch base on friday morning to make a plan.

Friday morning, Wendy decides we should go that day. A good plan, since these cats need to be relocated as soon as possible. We get the directions and head out with 20 pet carriers, stopping to pick up five 20-pound bags of cat food for them. Almost four hours later, we arrive. There are *not* 63 cats…closer to 35. Dogs? Maybe 15, almost all black ones, and mostly pit bull mixes. All are friendly, and it’s hearbreaking to not be able to take them with us.

We begin pulling cats. For our cat room, we decide to take all the black ones because (besides the fact that I *like* black cats) they’re notoriously difficult to place. There are six of them, but we leave one behind. It had a really runny nose, and we just can’t take the chance that it might be ill and get the rest of our fosters ill, too. We tell the volunteer that if it clears up, we’ll take it on the next trip.

We also take two that were described as “indoor/outdoor” cats, and two that had large, red “Do Not Open” signs on their cages. These are supposed to be the ferals. Right, there are just two. not “a lot” as we were told.

Did I say these cats were “fixed”?  Wrong. *None* of them were fixed, nor had vaccinations. Sigh. Not only that, but one they told us was female, and thus placed in the cat room with our spayed females and the new, *not* spayed females, turned out to be a very horny male. He had to be removed to the bachelor pad in the garden shed until arrangements can be made with our vet. Aptly, he’s named Rudolph, as in Rudolph Valentino, nickenamed Rudy. His roommates are 1) Leo, a big marmalade that appears to be the old man of the bunch, 2) William, a very elegantly mannered white&tabby boy of about two years old, 3) Boo, a sleek, black shorthair (who we really don’t know if its a male or female because it’s so scared of everything, we thought it best to let it be for awhile), and 4) Bentley, another pretty white&tabby, maybe 18 months old, and also terrified.

The new girls are 1) Penny and (we think) her sister 2) Gypsy, beautiful long hair blacks, maybe 8 months old…Penny has pretty copper-coloured tips on her black fur, and did I mention that Gypsy is pregnant??? 3) Daisy, a sweet little tabby, also young and pregnant, and 4) Baby, another all black girl, about 4 months old

Tomorrow, we had an appointment to take one of our other girls in to be spayed, but it looks like  I’ll be taking three cats instead. If Daisy is too close to delivery, our vet will loom at Gypsy. if the situation is the same with her, then our original girl, Gem, will be spayed.  Another cat will go in on Friday, and the rest will take up a lot of appointments next week…

And a HUGE thank you to Best Friends, who kindly  agreed to cover the cost of all the spaying/neutering of the new kids!

Sometimes it seems things just fall into place. Just when we were lamenting that we were so full we couldn’t take any more cats, homes began to open up.

First, our sweet fuzzybutt boy, Diamond, was adopted. His new family lives on a farm, and thay already have over 20 barncats (yes, all “fixed”), but he’s not going to be a farm cat. Oh, no, not him. He’s destined to be a spoiled lapcat.  You see, he looks very much like their recently deceased kitty, and all it took was one look at him, and he was in. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that he had these beautiful aquamarine eyes, dark points like one of his Siamese ancestors, and more than his share of weight. He was our little tank. Lucky for him, his new mom wants to cuddle just as much as he does. We were a bit worried about him, as he was quite the mam’s boy. He never wanted to venture very far from mom, unlike his fearless sister, who’s always up for an adventure!

Next, Priscilla moves into the largest mansion in town!  The place is open for tours, and now she’ll be one of the attractions. What a difference from her days of running from dumpster to dumpster across the busy interstate…

In the midst of the garage sale a couple of weeks ago, I spoke with a lady who mentioned something about cats. As always, I asked “Want a kitty?” (I figure if I ask everyone, eventually someone will say yes.) She says she does, but it has to have long hair. Check. We have that. Then she says it has to be an older kitten. Check again. How does 10 months sound? Another stipulation is that she wants two, and they have to get along. Check number three. SuzyQ and Ralphie are littermates, and inseparable. I take her down to the cat room, and show her the pair I have in mind, and she falls in love. She’s currently moving into a new house, but plans to pick them up later this week!

Wendy’s husband had open-heart surgery last week, and her daughter (who’s an Air Force nurse) flew up here from San Antonio to help out. While she was here, she mentioned needing to have some trousers altered. Wendy takes her to see Mrs. Whipple (nothing to do with tissue!). In the course of conversation, she tells Wendy that she lost both her cats. She’s ready for another. Fast forward a day or so, and she sees our two calico girls. She wants them both! Sadly, one of them doesn’t work out. Cupcake is too freaked out by the move and has to come home…which is okay with us. When the right home comes along, it’ll work. Still, she wants a second cat to keep company with Ursula. We’ll have to see which one she chooses…