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We were recently offered a piece of land to use as a sanctuary for the Operation Hood. This property requires a Purrfect fence, which will be used to contain the cats, as well as keep them safe. You may be asking why we are looking to relocate the cats. To date, we have not gone into much detail about the location in which these cats live. We have shared photos, but nothing more. The cats are living in filth! Most, if not all of the cats, have intestinal parasites, thus causing severe diarrhea. The property reeks of feces and urine. Additionally, there is Bentonite on the property that is causing extreme harm to the cats as they are ingesting it and walking through it. It cakes onto their fur and in their mouths, thus causing SEVERE health problems for the cats, such as rotting teeth and skin, cancer, and extreme anemia. The cats are infested with fleas and some have shown signs of having lice. Also many, many cats suffer from upper respiratory infections and iron deficiencies. Operation Hood MUST relocate these cats to a healthy environment in order for them to become healthy once again.  This is Bentonite. It is causing severe health problems for the cats living at Operation Hood. Alley Cat Allies has offered to pay for a portion of the fence, but but not all. We must order the fence in the next couple days as we have been advised that the company is in short supply and if not ordered quickly the fence will be placed on back order.
If the fence is ordered immediately, the fence can be delivered within the next 7-10 days and we will install it immediately! Once installed, we can begin trapping all of the cats. Those who need to be spayed/neutered will be done at that time and all others will be vaccinated for rabies and given flea/tick/dewormer. Those requiring medical attention will be cared for as well. If the fence is NOT purchased immediately, it could be months before the fence is ordered, installed, and the cats relocated and the cats will continue to suffer. If you would like to contribute toward the fence that will house the cats of Operation Hood, please click here. We MUST raise $3,700 to cover our portion of the fence. Please help!
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 Much of our attention this past week has been toward the care of the cats at Loving Touch Animal Hospital, at the Operation Hood colony site, and those in foster care. Most of the 24 cats at Loving Touch have diarrhea as a result of intestinal parasites that they acquired while at Operation Hood. All of them are being treated accordingly and we are seeing positive results already. One would never believe that a solid stool would make a handful of ladies so excited!!! We are also caring for a two cats that have severe upper respiratory infections. They have been isolated from the other cats so not to spread their illness. They are already showing signs of improvement as they are up and about in their cage and curious as to their surroundings. If you have two to three hours to spare once a week, we desperately need assistance in caring for the cats at Loving Touch. We work in two-three person teams and the more volunteers we have to assist the better! As many may have heard, we trapped Grace, one of the colony's sickest cats on Wednesday. She was taken to CARE Hospital immediately where she was treated and then released to her foster mom. Grace is content being in foster care, but still very scared. She is holding her own though and enjoying meal time. She LOVES to eat!!!
We have also been attempting to trap a somewhat friendly, very pregnant cat. We have a foster on standby in the event that we trap her. She will be given the opportunity to have her kittens before being spayed. Hopefully by then mama kitty will be socialized well enough to be adopted out, along with her kittens! We currently have two volunteers who feed daily at Operation Hood. We trained others this week to assist in the workload. Volunteers were shown where feeding and water bowls are maintained and provided instruction on how much food should be given to the cats. If you have an hour to spare one day a week and would like to help with feeding the cats, please contact A Cat's Friend. We can use the assistance in feeding the many cats of Operation Hood!
We also had our first adoption. Karma, one of our older, more sick cats was adopted by her foster mom. We couldn't be more happy as we know that she will be well cared for and loved!  Karma - Adopted on February 17, 2016. We currently have seven cats and kittens in foster care. Drew and Gypsy, both calico kittens, are available for adoption at this time!!! They are VERY cute! Sanne currently requires medical attention, and Shelton and Oreo require socialization before they can be made available for adoption. You too could be a foster parent. We are eager to get many of the cats at Loving Touch into foster care within the next week or so. If you are interested in welcoming one of these cats into your home so they can recuperate and learn what it is to be loved again, please let us know! We will gladly provide all supplies and food for the cats. A Cat's Friend would like to thank everyone who has donated toward the Operation Hood effort. We have been able to provide medical attention to 37 cats to date and are feeding 150+ cats daily as a result of your financial support and in-kind donations. We have a lot of work ahead of us and there are many, many cats who require medical care. If you would like to contribute to Operation Hood, please click HERE to donate.
 We’ve had another busy week at Operation Hood. We focused much of our attention on trapping (females primarily), caring for the cats at Loving Touch Animal Hospital, and installing insulation in one of the sheds on the colony property. We also had a very successful cat food drive. Sixteen cats were trapped this week. Most of them were spayed and neutered; others who did not require surgery were vaccinated and/or provided medical attention, if needed. To date, 34 cats have been removed from the property. Five are currently in foster care, 26 are being housed and cared for at Loving Touch Animal Hospital, and sadly three passed away due/euthanized due to terminal illness. A majority of the cats in our care do allow us to pet them, however they are scared and must learn to trust humans again. We do not want to return these cats to Operation Hood if possible. We are in desperate need of foster homes. If you are interested in becoming a foster, please contact us. Note, these cats require love and attention and need to be socialized. These are not cuddly, sit in your lap cats YET! Volunteers installed leftover insulation that was donated for shelters in one of the sheds where many cats seek warmth from the cold, wind, and snow/rain. Much of the insulation already in the shed had fallen down over time. Now, the shed is fully insulated and hopefully many, many cats are seeking warmth in the shed. Volunteers also finished building another 20 shelters and they were placed at Operation Hood. We are praying that we have provided enough shelter to keep all or most of the cats warm and dry during this bitter arctic chill. Lastly, we held a food donation drive this past Saturday at 360 Farm and Pet. It was a huge success!!! We received enough food to last us approximately two weeks and enough pine cat litter to last us a week. Our next donation drive will be on March 12th at 360 Farm and Pet. Please note, we are in constant need of pine cat litter, x-large piddle pads, HE liquid laundry detergent, bleach, and Pinesol/Lysol cleaner. It is so important that we keep the cat room at Loving Touch clean. We have another busy week ahead. We are hoping to have the cats in our care socialized enough to move them into foster care starting February 22nd. We also have two cats who must be trapped ASAP—one is extremely sick and may not make it the week and the other is very pregnant! We also hope to begin work on the second shed this coming weekend, along with cleaning around the shed area. Pictured below are just a few of the cats currently in our care at Loving Touch Animal Hospital. We hope to get all of them posted this week!
A Cat's Friend would like to apologize for not posting all week. Last weekend we trapped 11 cats at Operation Hood and they have been keeping volunteers EXTREMELY busy. The 11 cats are currently being boarded and treated at Loving Touch Animal Hospital. Some of the cats are sick and required immediate veterinary care. Others are tamable and are being spayed/neutered and vaccinated. Volunteers are caring for the cats daily. They clean their cages (which can be quite difficult at times), they provide food and water, and they also socialize the cats as much as possible. It often takes three hours a day to clean 11 cages! Sadly, we must report that one of the cats passed away on Thursday. His death touched both the volunteers and veterinary staff, but it helps knowing that he was warm, well fed, and had clean water during this last days. We also cleaned out one of the sheds at Operation Hood. We threw out 28 large bags of garbage. We replaced the blankets with straw, thus reducing the smell considerably. See the before and after photos below! More work still needs to be done, but it is a great start!!! One more shed to go...  We've placed more shelters on the property and we also received an emergency grant from the Ian Somerhalder Foundation. This funding covers x-rays for Sanna and Karma.
Much of the work that has taken place at Operation Hood could not have been made possible without the support of the community. We've had hundreds of pounds of cat food donated, we have placed nearly 100 shelters, and we have been able to obtain veterinary care for 21 cats so far. We have a very long road ahead of us and we are asking for your continued support! Thank you! |
