12 fe-leuk cats become SAINTS
Canadian rescue builds special room for Pahrump kitties
Sanjaya, Ronnie, Merlin and The Rock were so into the lovin’ that they basically pushed Carol Hines off the sofa in their new deluxe digs at a Canadian sanctuary. Not that Carol minds.
Sometimes good things happen, say these four boys and the other eight cats with feline leukemia from the Great Kitty Rescue. They now have their very own Americana room at SAINTS (Senior Animals in Need Today Society) in Mission, British Columbia.
Carol Hines says the Great Kitty Rescue speeded up plans to build a special place for feline leukemia cats at SAINTS
http://www.saintsrescue.ca/.
“We’ve wanted to have a room set aside for feline leukemia cats since we opened in 1994, but hadn’t gotten around to it. When I read about the cats in Pahrump, I just knew that was the signal to get this done,” Carol says.
SAINTS is an “end-of-life” sanctuary for senior and special-needs animals who have nowhere else to go. It’s a place for homeless pets to be loved and cherished, and receive proper medical care for the rest of their days.
The big hope is to find a home for each and every animal at SAINTS, but until they do get adopted, or if they never find their forever families, Carol, her staff of one, and her volunteers are determined to provide a home-like environment.
Carol wanted to make sure Sanjaya, Ronnie, Merlin, The Rock, Charlie, Tiki, Sunrise, Aladdin, Misfit, Red, Albus and Mosley felt especially at home.
So, the fe-leuk room is decorated in red, white and blue in honor of the cats’ American heritage -- blue walls, red furniture and white shelving and ramps for them to climb around on. They have a brand-new electric wood-stove heater to toast in front of, a small fuzzy red sofa (just like you might find in a Western bordello) and a red upholstered rocking chair. Carol says, “I just bought them a couple of old-fashioned Americana prints to decorate their walls. They will be known as the ‘Ameri-Cats.’”
When the cats first arrived, several of them were developing upper respiratory infections, which Carol felt was to be expected: “These cats had a lot of health issues when first rescued -- starvation, open wounds, viral and bacterial infections, sore mouths, parasites, ringworm and, of course, their feline leukemia. And some of these issues will probably be ongoing.”
But already the kitties are settling in and showing their individual personalities. Please go to Carol’s blog on the SAINTS website to read her endearing descriptions of these 12 Ameri-Cats:
http://www.saintsrescue.ca/wordpress/. Look for the entry titled “just an update on the ameri-cats” (Carol’s not much into capital letters).
Carol has some thoughts on what she has learned from the Pahrump kitties in the short time they’ve been with her: “Life can be crappy and hard, hell can easily overtake you one day, and lucky are you to survive. And maybe by keeping faith and having an open heart, possibly it might get better and happiness will find you again someday.
“I love these cats -- they have survived!”
Story by Barbara WilliamsonPhoto couresy of SAINTS