Street Cat Rescue
This all volunteer non-profit organization serves the Austin, TX area and its surrounding communities. Their program provides a humane solution for the Community Cats of the Austin area – Helping the Community and the Cats. Donna Powell will share the organization’s mission as well as many of the programs offered to the public.
Click here to listen to the show.
New Products that Feature Your Pets
Tree House Humane Society
Tree House provides a cageless, home-like environment for the many shelter residents. People often ask them why they take their adoption process so seriously. The answer is simple – their goal is not to adopt out the highest number of cats, but to place each cat in a loving home where he or she will live for his or her entire life.
Click here to listen to the show.
New Products that Feature Your Pets
Emancipe+ (awareness + action)
Asha Thune, Director of Outreach for Emancipet, is my guest for today’s show. Emancipet envisions a world where no cat or dog is ever killed just for being homeless. They work towards realizing that vision every day, by providing services and advocacy that effectively and humanely reduce the homeless pet population in the local communities.
Click here to listen to the show.
New Products that Feature Your Pets
Family members enjoying a nap
Some of Benjamin Neer’s best friends
The best cat video you’ll ever see
Amy Angelilli’s cats sleep comfortably
Amy is the Executive Director at Rocky Mountain Alley Cat Alliance
The Debate Over Indoors or Out For Cats
There is probably no single issue in cat care that generates stronger debate among pet owners than the question of whether Kitty should be allowed to spend time outdoors.
Animal welfare associations and most veterinarians urge cat owners to keep their pets indoors, where they will live longer, safer lives. The statistics are sobering: more than 1 million outdoor cats are killed each year by dogs, traffic, and exposure to disease. The average indoor cat lives longer than 12 years, while the average outdoor cat survives for less than five years.
Alternatives to roaming
A growing number of cat owners, concerned about the health and safety issues of unsupervised roaming, have found alternatives to provide Kitty with outdoor time – from fencing the backyard to provide a safe outdoor play area, to providing Kitty with access to a screened porch or balcony, to teaching her to walk on a leash and harness. For more suggestions on creating safe outdoor alternatives for your cat, see www.21cats.org.
It takes patience and work, but, the experts say, an outdoor cat can be turned into a perfectly content indoor pet. The key is to make the transition slowly and to provide lots of attention and stimulation while the cat is indoors. Gradually replace those outside excursions with special periods of play time with you. Introduce new and intriguing toys that will satisfy Kitty’s desire to prowl and pounce.
For tips on helping an outdoor cat adjust to the indoor lifestyle, visit the Humane Society website at www.hsus.org
Keeping safe outdoors
It’s hard to deny that outdoor cats are at much greater risk for injury, disease and death. Still, many cat owners believe that their cats simply won’t be happy unless they can go outside to prowl and exercise their natural hunting instinct.
If you decide to provide an indoor/outdoor lifestyle for your cat, you must be willing to supervise his outdoor play time to ensure his safety from the many hazards of the “great outdoors”:
Don’t allow unlimited access to the outdoor world. Limit the time your cat spends outdoors to a few hours each day.
Never leave your cat alone outdoors when you are away from home.
Always be sure your cat is wearing proper identification when he is outdoors. A cat can disappear in seconds and ID tags increase the chance that he will be safety returned if he is lost or injured.
Best Friends Pet Care Post Summer 2001 Newsletter – Between Friends!
Unconditional Love: A Lesson Taught by our Pets
(In Photo: Tucker Justus age 4, adopted from Town Lake Animal Center in Austin Texas in 2004)
By Mariah Justus, 10th Grade
How can one family live with two dogs, six cats, and a fish? It’s not easy and it can be a lot of work, but apparently it’s possible. Ever since I can remember, we’ve had more than one animal in our household because my family (which consists of my mom and dad, my little brother and myself) believes animals help us be better people.
Before I was born in 1993 in Austin Texas, my parents had three cats, Taz, Romeo and Bookie. When I was a baby, my mother reports “cat” was one of my first words and I was able to imitate cat behavior sometimes by purring or hissing at various people to communicate my feelings. Not something every three-year-old would do. I was also highly influenced by a cat’s independence, how they take charge, and how they are all very self-aware. My personality, even today, is much like that of a cat’s because I’m tidy, careful about choosing my friends, but once I know who one really is, I am very loyal.
Even though I didn’t have dogs at a young age, my mother always told me to never be afraid of them. I liked some dogs, but not nearly as much as cats. This really changed when I started volunteering at our local animal shelter when I was 9 years-old. I began bonding with various dogs of all personalities and realized not all dogs were sloppy, unclean, and well, dumb as I had once thought. Like cats, I learned that dogs just need your patience. This is a good lesson to learn when making friends or dealing with family. Patience is needed in all relationships.
When we had been going to the animal shelter for a while and this led me to think long and hard about how maybe, just maybe, our at-the-time four-cat household (which also included my then 3 year-old little brother Marshall) could welcome in a dog. My parents disliked the idea at first, but my persuasive skills soon won them over and my brother and I both fell in love with an Australian Shepherd and Border Collie mix. We adopted him from the shelter and we named him Tucker. It was an adjustment for our whole family (cats included), but once we moved to Houston that summer, I managed to persuade both my parents into getting another dog amidst all the post-move chaos, this time, a Golden Retriever puppy from Oklahoma City.
Having pets has taught our family so much about life. For one, cats and dogs never judge and will always give humans a chance. Second, they learn (eventually) how to get along in a human living environment. And three, no matter what you do, pets forgive their humans and will always give them unconditional love. Our family tries to emulate how our animals coexist. Even in the hardest times, our pet inspired patience pays off.
Original story posted on Nov 26, 2008 at Houston Pet Talk.
