Everyone needs a home for the holidays . . . Adoption Center Street Address: Hours: Saturdays from Phone: (805)735-6741 Mailing Address: VIVA PO Box 896 Website: http://vivaonline.org Email: info@vivaonline.org
A NON-PROFIT HUMANE ORGANIZATION DEDICATED TO A BETTER LIFE FOR ALL ANIMALS
Whether you send us money or work in the shelter or stay up nights
trapping or helping with the newsletter or giving up your weekends atthe feral cat sanctuary or helping with fund raising or mowing our
lawns or working at our retirement home for cats or doing
maintenance work or weeding and clipping or sponsoring an unadoptable
cat, or fostering or working with the dog program or hauling litter,you are needed and very much appreciated! All that you do is for theanimals. Volunteers for Inter-Valley Animals survives because of you.
In addition to the wish list items that we use every day, we spend
a lot of money keeping VIVA alive. The utilities costs at the shelter
and at Sylvester House seems to go up and up. We buy between 1,500
and 2,000 pounds of litter every week. We spay and neuter as many
cats as we can get our hands on, and beyond that, we have medical
expenses that have reached as high as $2,500 a month. We buy
supplies for the feral cat sanctuary and the retirement home for cats.
We have a small pick-up for light loads and a very large pick-up for
heavy loads such as litter. We have general maintenance costs. We
figure it takes at least $400 a day just to keep the shelter open, and
that doesn’t take into account the sanctuary or retirement home. So
you can see why we appreciate your monetary donations. Please keep
donations are fully tax deductibleif you can itemize.
SOME STATISTICS ON ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES
To the date of this writing, as close to accuracy as I was able to
count, we took in 295 cats this year and adopted out 210. And those
figures do not take into account many of the RTOs (return to owners)
and especially the TNRs (trap/neuter/release back to the area they
were found if someone will continue to feed). The heaviest months of
2 ply paper towels
arrivals were March, May, and June which were peak kitten months. fabric softener dryer sheets
The best month of adoptions was June. liquid bleach
We stil have wonderful kittens waiting to be adopted, preferably
liquid dishwashing soap
in pairs. There are kittens being fostered until they’re ready for
liquid laundry soap
neutering; there are kittens at the shelter, ready to go. There are
13 gallon plastic bags
even older kittens in the kitten room that have grown-up there and
Friskies Buffet canned food
beg for a home of their own. Don’t you have room for one or two
large bags of Purina Cat Chow Science Diet Adult Maintenance
If you have an old or inherited fur or fur-trimmed garment in yourcloset, donate your fur or shearling coats, hats, gloves, muffs, and
fur-trimmed apparel to Coats for Cubs program for use as surrogate
“mothers” to comfort orphaned wild animals. Pack in box or padded
envelope and mail to Coats for Cubs, 2100 L St, NW, Washington DC20037. For added information: humanesociety.org/coatsforcubs.
Yasmin, Yale, & Yancey York:A Rescue Story by Heather Kennedy
In October, Connie at Animal Care Hospital told me she and some clients had seen an adult black manx and two
kittens living in the brush of the median between the ACH and Sansum parking lots. Linda and I made plans to trap.
Our first night out we sat with a baited trap to see who would show up to eat. A little black kitten arrived first with her
mother close behind. We could see the mother cat was not really a manx--she had lost most of her tail as a result of trauma. We decided we should trap her as quickly as possible so we could get her medical attention. The little black kitten feasted in the trap over and over again. Mom finally lowered her guard and decided to enter the trap as well, and we got both mom and baby at once--now named Yasmin and Yancey York respectively. We waited for a couple more hours but no more cats or kittens showed up. We feared the worst had happened and the other kitten had been hit by a car, but we resolved to show up again the next night to see if he was still around. In the mean time, Dr. Shaw spayed the mom cat--Yasmin--and amputated the rest of her tail.
When we showed up the next night, the missing kitten was in a median in the middle of the parking lot meowing at
the top of his lungs. We were upset that he seemed so distressed, but we knew he would be easy to catch. After all, he had to be hungry. We finally left, defeated, at 3 in the morning.
We were very concerned about the kitten being in the parking lot on his own. Mortality rates for feral kittens are very
high and, as a result of our decision to remove Yasmin and get her medical treatment, this little guy no longer had mom to watch over him. We rearranged our schedules to monitor his activity and trap him; I missed class, Linda missed work, and we lived on candy and sodas purchased at the 99cent store. We set traps and food all over the parking lot, and we even tried covering an entire median with a net. That might have worked had the sprinklers underneath not come on. Oops! The security guard patrolling Lompoc Ford at the time watched our activities with great interest. Five nights later, we had finally figured out the kitten’s routine--he hid during the day, wailed in a center median at dusk, and finally returned to one spot, and one spot only, to eat and sleep at about 10pm after the last store closed. Once we figured that out, it took us less than an hour to trap him. In light of his obvious genius, we named him Yale.
Yale and Yancey (right) are now getting braver and more social every day--
they’re watching me as I write this. They’re ready to go to a home together with an understanding family that will let them adjust at their own speed. Like most feral or formerly feral kittens, they feel safer when there’s a big cat around. They’ll be fine in a home of their own, but if you have an adult cat who wouldn’t mind some company, Yale and Yancey would make a great addition to your family. Email or call us if you’re interested in adopting them. And in case you’re wondering, Yasmin York recovered nicely after surgery and now lives at our feral cat sanctuary.
Bring things, buy things, have some fun!
Bone Up On Calcium Supplementation Calcium is vital for bone health in women starting in childhood, and should be taken in doses of at least 1,200 mg. per day for adult women. Calcium has also been shown to help many women deal with PMS (pre-menstrual syndrome) in doses of 1,500 mg. daily. Calcium supplementation is also vital for men over the age of 50 though this is fr
Week of February 18, 2014 EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES Miscellaneous Ads Run FREE Six day vacation in NEED EXTRA INCOME Truck Drivers - Obtain BUSINESS/FINANCE ASSORTED BRAND Orlando, Florida! LOST NEW YEARS Class A CDL in 2 ½ OPPORTUNITY DAY IN HILMAR HALF FIVE 14” TIRES Real USED GOLF BALLS: weeks. Company Spon- C H I H U A H U A / H A L
Everyone needs a home for the holidays . . .
Yasmin, Yale, & Yancey York:A Rescue Story by Heather Kennedy
In October, Connie at Animal Care Hospital told me she and some clients had seen an adult black manx and two
kittens living in the brush of the median between the ACH and Sansum parking lots. Linda and I made plans to trap.
Our first night out we sat with a baited trap to see who would show up to eat. A little black kitten arrived first with her
mother close behind. We could see the mother cat was not really a manx--she had lost most of her tail as a result of trauma. We decided we should trap her as quickly as possible so we could get her medical attention. The little black kitten feasted in the trap over and over again. Mom finally lowered her guard and decided to enter the trap as well, and we got both mom and baby at once--now named Yasmin and Yancey York respectively. We waited for a couple more hours but no more cats or kittens showed up. We feared the worst had happened and the other kitten had been hit by a car, but we resolved to show up again the next night to see if he was still around. In the mean time, Dr. Shaw spayed the mom cat--Yasmin--and amputated the rest of her tail.
When we showed up the next night, the missing kitten was in a median in the middle of the parking lot meowing at
the top of his lungs. We were upset that he seemed so distressed, but we knew he would be easy to catch. After all, he had to be hungry. We finally left, defeated, at 3 in the morning.
We were very concerned about the kitten being in the parking lot on his own. Mortality rates for feral kittens are very
high and, as a result of our decision to remove Yasmin and get her medical treatment, this little guy no longer had mom to watch over him. We rearranged our schedules to monitor his activity and trap him; I missed class, Linda missed work, and we lived on candy and sodas purchased at the 99cent store. We set traps and food all over the parking lot, and we even tried covering an entire median with a net. That might have worked had the sprinklers underneath not come on. Oops! The security guard patrolling Lompoc Ford at the time watched our activities with great interest. Five nights later, we had finally figured out the kitten’s routine--he hid during the day, wailed in a center median at dusk, and finally returned to one spot, and one spot only, to eat and sleep at about 10pm after the last store closed. Once we figured that out, it took us less than an hour to trap him. In light of his obvious genius, we named him Yale.