Brierpatch Cats Adopt-A-Thon!!!

As you may know, Brierpatch Cats is a project run by me (Jane Keeler) and my mom (Sandy Keeler). We take care of all the cats ourselves, and we pay all of the vet and other animal related bills ourselves. We do not receive any outside funding. I have been going back to school since August 2009, and as such have been working ultra-part-time (less than ten hours a week at minimum wage). This means that my mom has been paying all of the vet and other animal related bills. We calculated that in 2009, my mom spent a full THIRD of her salary on our animals. Additionally, since I've been working ultra-part-time since August '09, my mom has spent a good portion of her salary buying me food and paying my bills.

The school year is almost over, and I have decided that what I really need is a job. (I already have my Bachelor's degree, BTW, for those of you who didn't know.) I really hate being 31 years old and relying on my mom for gas money, bills, groceries, etc. This is the first time since 2001 that I haven't been self-sufficient, and it is maddening. Unfortunately, while the economy may be on the rebound in other parts of the country, jobs are few and far between here in Waycross. I've applied for several, been interviewed for one, and been hired for none.

Meanwhile, I've received a really good job offer from the school in Daegu, South Korea (where I taught in 2006-2007)! I've decided to go overseas again to teach English (as I did from 2005-2008). The job in Korea pays enough that I will be able to send home a decent amount to help my mom cover veterinary and other animal related expenses. (I've also applied for a teaching position in Kazakhstan, although I've yet to hear back from them.) Additionally, I'm planning to put my house up for sale. (Of course, given the housing market in Waycross, I'm not sure what kind of luck I'll have!)

While having an additional source of income will help a LOT with the expenses of caring for so many animals, AND we'll be able to put money towards fixing the flooded part of the road to the land and improving our facility out there… having me out of the country will make things rather more difficult for my mom, considering how many critters we have at this time. As such, we need to downsize.

See, my mom works full time AND she will be turning 66 in August 2010… Caring for fifty cats, eleven dogs, and two horses is a lot of work. A friend of mine who lives here in Waycross has volunteered to help my mom out with the animals when he can (thanks, Mark!!), although the biggest thing that would be of help to us would be if we could lower the number of animals for which we care at this point in time.

Whether I move to Korea or Kazakhstan, I will be leaving at the beginning of August 2010. As such, we are starting a big push to adopt out as many cats and dogs as possible during the next three months. (Obviously, our permanent residents, feral cats, and horses are not up for adoption and are not included in this.)

Click here to see our adoptable cats
Click here to see our adoptable dogs

We DO NOT charge an adoption fee; however, we DO interview (either via phone or email) all potential adopters to ensure that our animals go to the best of homes. If you live within reasonable driving distance, we will drive the cat or dog to you. If you wish to have an animal shipped to you, we will cover all the local expenses (traveling crate, veterinary health certificate, transfer to airport), but you will be responsible for flight costs.

Please consider adopting one of our cats or dogs today! And spread the word to everyone you know! Thank you so much for your help!!

Theft at Brierpatch Cats! :-(

This afternoon - in a brief lull in the rain - my mom and I headed out to the land to feed the critters.... and I forgot my rubber shoes :-( I had them in my hand as I headed for the door, and yet somehow managed to set them down before leaving. This meant I had to wade through the water barefoot - a somewhat painful experience.

When we got to the gate of our land, this is what we saw:

The lock to the gate had been thoroughly smashed and scratched... and damaged to the point that we couldn't get it open, and had to climb the gate to get in.

Now, if you back up a little bit, this is what the gate looks like from a distance. (We had a LOT of rain today, if you can't tell!)
Behind the van is a shed with a "car port" for the lawn mower...
(Keep in mind that the "road" passing this property is nothing more than a private access track used by us, hunters and those going mudding.)

Anyway, I bet you could guess what was coming.
Yep... no $1500 Husqvarna lawn mower :-(


Sadly, all the rain had obliterated any chance of tire tracks or footprints.


Many drawers and doors in the Spartan had been opened.Luckily, we don't keep anything valuable in the Spartan.

<>
We called the cops, who took a report.
Not too hopeful that anything will come of it, though :-(

I guess we're lucky that they put the lock back on the gate when they left, or else who knows where the horses would've gone! And yes, the horses and all the cats are accounted for, safe and unharmed, so I guess that's something.

Spay and Neuter your dogs and cats!

I wholeheartedly believe that all dogs and cats should be spayed and neutered, other than those which are bred and sold for specific purposes (i.e., herding). While I don’t agree with the idea of breeding pedigreed, show-quality animals to produce more pedigreed, show-quality animals, I can understand where those who show their pets would want to continue doing this. However, if you just want to own a purebred for the sake of having a purebred, go ahead and get it fixed. Additionally, anyone who has a run-of-the-mill mixed breed dog or cat should have it fixed.

I have worked first hand with several shelters and rescues (as a volunteer, as an employee, and as an animal rescuer myself), and I have witnessed the incredible number of homeless, unwanted animals in the US alone. Having worked in a high-kill shelter, I have witnessed first hand what happens to the majority of those puppies and kittens that are brought into shelters by people who choose to belive that someone will adopt them. Homeless, unwanted and stray animals inundate shelters across this country at the best of times, and this problem has increased as our economy has headed south. The best way to cut down on homeless and unwanted pets is for pet owners to spay and neuter their pets. Even if you just own one pet that you keep indoors, all it takes is one escape and it could either impregnate or become impregnated if not fixed! Additionally, dogs and cats that have been fixed are far less likely to stray from home in search of a good time, meaning that they're less likely to be picked up by animal control.

My mom recently received an email from http://petpac.net/ an organization that claims to support animal welfare and pet owner’s rights… but boy do they ever have a bass-ackwards way of going about it. This is the letter my mom just received via email from petPAC:

Last year in Washington D.C. the ‘Congressional Animal Protection Caucus’, formerly known as the ‘Friends of Animals Caucus’, and strongly supported by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) announced their intent to impact federal pet legislation.

Last week in California there was an announcement of the formation of the 'Legislative Animal Protection Caucus’. The Chairman of the California Animal Protection Caucus is Senator Dean Florez, the author of SB 250 which called for mandatory sterilization of pets. The caucus is being pushed by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) who supported AB 1634, the mandatory sterilization bill which was defeated in 2008.

Please sign the PetPAC petition to tell the Federal and California Animal Protection Caucus that mandatory sterilization of our pets results in more dogs and cats being relinquished to shelters and killed.

PetPAC believes the solution to problem animal shelters is a “no-kill” policy. HSUS and PETA have refused to support a “no-kill” policy. Apparently they believe it’s better to euthanize dogs and cats than to develop legislative policies which will help place sheltered animals in loving homes.

Nobody protects our animals more than PetPAC members. We love and care for our pets responsibly. We will stay vigilant to protect against any underhanded agenda by the “Animal Protection Caucus” which will eliminate the rights of pets and their owners.

Please sign our petition today and contribute toward helping PetPAC defend pet owners’ rights from anti-pet groups like PETA.

Firstly: I know many people are surprised to learn that PETA opposes no-kill shelters. I understand why they do this, and I actually agree with it to a certain extent. (I would save everything if I could, but unfortunately, I know that this is simply impossible.) PETA thinks that it is inhumane to keep an animal locked in a tiny cage for the rest of its natural life. I do, too. It is horrible to think of a kitten or puppy spending its entire lifespan in a small cage in a shelter. This is why Brierpatch Cats, the project my mom and I are working on, has cats either in a home environment or out at our land, where they have both the great outdoors to explore and buildings – including a furnished trailer – in which to take refuge at any time. For the kitties, living at BPC isn't going to be too much different from living at an adopted home, assuming they ever get adopted. If they don’t, they’ll just assume that they’re already home.

Now, back to the above letter: These petPAC people try to get everyone focused on how PETA is anti-pet and they manage to equate spaying/neutering with euthanasia… then they segue from that into asking you to sign a petition AGAINST a bill that would require pet owners in California to have their pets fixed. They claim that requiring pet sterilization would lead to more animals being taken to high kill shelters.

And what is their solution to the problem of pet overpopulation? They say that unwanted pets should be taken to no-kill shelters, and that THAT is the solution, instead of fixing the pet to prevent the unwanted pets in the first place. Have these people no concept of how many no-kill shelters it would take to accommodate the vast population of unwanted pets in the US? How much funding that would take? Are they providing this funding? Do they even have a suggestion as to how to fund this?

My mind boggles.

The flooded road and our land after severe rain

Videos of my animals...

Twitter (my chihuahua mix) and Fat Head George (quarantined in my bedroom due to being FIV+ and FeLV+) always play with each other - very, very cute! (Forgive my unmade bed; I have 3 cats in quarantine in my bedroom and three dogs that often sleep on the bed... I have given up making it.)

Big Tabs is a semi-feral. He was neutered and vaccinated and released back into my neighborhood (he eats every day on my porch). Unfortunately, he seems to have run afoul of another male cat in the neighborhood, who managed to maul Big Tabs on the neck. While I had him inside to clean and treat his injury, I discovered that he had a tickle spot...

Mr. Snaggles likes to snuggle with the kittens Zephyr and Eva

Another update on Big Guy

Big Guy is doing well, although he is not yet completely healed. After having the drains in his one wound for a week, he had them removed, and the wound was re-sutured. He got all of his stitches out a week later. That night (this past Monday), the wound where the drains had been popped back open. I took him back to the vet Tuesday morning, and they decided that at this point the best thing to do would be to let it heal on its own. (Apparently, too much flesh and skin were lost during the removal of the necrotic and otherwise damaged tissue for it the wound to successfully close.) Anyway, I now clean it and coat it with medication twice a day. It doesn't seem to be bothering him at all. Additionally, he no longer shows any traces of having been feral. He wants to do nothing more than play with and be petted by me :-)

Update on Big Guy

UPDATE: I just spoke with the vet (it's about five hours since I dropped Big Guy off). Upon closer examination of his wounds, the vet decided to go ahead and keep him overnight to make certain that no further infection developed. Some of the wounds had developed necrotic flesh, and there were several un-ruptured abscesses (including the one in his back foot that he wouldn't let me touch this morning). He has numerous sutures around the area where the dead flesh was excised, and he had a drain installed in one of the worst wounds. Plus, he won't be allowed into a litter box (at least not one with cat litter in it) until the injury in his back foot heals! And did I mention that they went ahead and neutered him, too? Poor guy is not going to be happy! We should be able to pick him up tomorrow morning.

The Misadventure of Big Guy

Big Guy is a semi-feral cat who found his way out to our land all on his own several months ago. At the time, he was completely feral, and it took several months before he would come near us, and even more before we had even the slightest chance of petting him. Recently, though, he’d become quite brave, allowing me and my mother to pet him, and even to pick him up! (Well, he really did not enjoy being picked up, but at least he let me do it.)

Every day when I go out to the land and call, the kitties all come running from every direction. They watch as I feed the horses, then follow me eagerly over to “their” part of the land – the buildings where they’re fed. Friendly and feral cat alike do this every day. Sunday, I noticed that Big Guy wasn’t around. Now, these critters have plenty of land in which to roam, so if one doesn’t show up for dinner one night, it’s not usually an issue. However, when Big Guy wasn’t there on Monday, I began to worry.

The last thing I do every day before leaving the land is to pump water into the horses’ trough. The trough is near the north fence, and beyond that is a tangled wilderness of pine trees, palmetto, and blackberry bushes. As I approached the pump, I noticed what looked to be a cat, lying in the brush. I walked to the fence for a closer look, and sure enough – it was Big Guy. My immediate thought was that he was dead. I called to him and he didn’t respond. So, I went out the front gate and traipsed through a rather extensive bit of brush and blackberry bushes (which, for those who don’t know, are riddled with thorns) to where I’d seen Big Guy.

As I drew closer, he lifted his head and struggled into a sitting position; I could see that one of his front legs was swollen and bleeding. Feral cat or no, I wasn’t going to leave him out there. I scooped him up and carried him back out, through the tangle of thorny blackberries, to my car. I did not have a cat-crate with me. What I did have, was a pit bull. Now, Brin loves kitties, and Big Guy and Brin had met before on numerous occasions, but it was clear that the kitty did not want to get into the car or be anywhere near the dog… much less get into the car with the dog! Nonetheless, I managed to get all of us inside, at which point Big Guy urinated a copious amount all over me and the driver’s seat of my car. Then we drove to my house.

Once I got Big Guy inside, he was amazingly well-behaved – especially for an injured semi-feral! I placed him in my bathroom sink and examined his wounds. Something – probably a dog, though possibly another cat – had managed to sink its teeth into both his front legs, creating three nasty punctures in each, all of which had abscessed. I did my best to drain and clean each injury, and he was very patient with me. When I was finished, he downed a bowl of canned catfood, and snuggled into a laundry basket for the evening

This morning, I noticed that one of his back feet looked large and deformed. At first I thought that perhaps he did indeed have a deformed foot… but when I touched it, it was hot… and he reacted rather violently to my attempts to inspect it. So, after that I took him to the vet. I had to drop him off to go to work/school, but the vet called a couple of hours later to update me.

He said the wounds had been inflicted by another cat, and that in order to treat all of his various injuries, they would need to sedate him. He also suggested that while he was under sedation he go ahead and neuter him - in order to curb his enthusiasm for future catfights. Unfortunately, the local vet is not cheap; however, given that he was already going to be under anaesthetic and given that I'd like him to be traumatized as little as possible, I agreed. I suspect Big Guy is going to be VERY cranky when all of this is over!

Help support Brierpatch Cats!

Help support Brierpatch Cats (the non-profit my mom and I are starting - http://www.brierpatchcats.org) by purchasing a 2010 calendar!Just click here or on the photo above!

Back to School!!

Today was my first day of school in eight years! I feel a little rusty being back in the classroom after so long, especially since the only “classes” I’ve taken since graduating from college were my rather pathetic attempts to learn Korean and Kyrgyz. The students at Waycross College range from those fresh out of high school (most of them probably fall into this category), to those in their twenties and thirties, to those in their fifties! While I’m not the only “old fogie” enrolled at WC (and yes, it totally amuses me to abbreviate it as such) thus far, I’ve only encountered one other person already in possession of a Bachelor’s degree, and she is there simply to take art classes for fun. I don’t think there’s anyone else there in the same situation as myself.

I only had one class today: Physics. I have to admit that physics scares me somewhat. It was the only class I ever dropped when I was at Sewanee, and I did so because I was doing rather poorly. In my defense, I was 19, away from home for the first time, and spending every evening partying like a rockstar. Certainly none of these things apply this time around! It doesn’t seem hard at all as yet, although we covered very little ground in our first class. I suspect it will get tougher as it goes along. Tomorrow – biology and chemistry. I’m looking forward to biology; those of you who went to the same high school as I did and who remember Mrs. Mac probably understand why I can’t say the same for chemistry!

As a side note, WC has super-awesome wireless internet, which means I’ll probably be spending a lot of my free time on campus taking advantage. My mom’s response to this was, “Oh no! I’ll never see you again!” (I have no internet at my house, and have been going over to hers at least once a day to make use of the interwebz.) Of course, she teaches history at WC, so I’m not really sure what she’s talking about :-)

One last tidbit of news – I’ve actually started posting things over on the Brierpatch Cats Blog, although sadly, they're not the happiest. Go check it out. Hopefully there will be some good news over there soon.