ANNIE

 Hi, my name is Annie, and they told me you were having some kind of contest, and wanted to know my story. About a month ago, I was living at this house with lots of other cats. The lady who took care of us was very nice and did her best, but it seemed like there were more and more cats every time I turned around. Since she lived on about an acre of land, some cats would just appear, sometimes on their own and sometimes because other people would put them there, and she would do her best to feed them.

But unfortunately, the number of us was just getting overwhelming, so she contacted some group called Animal Outreach. They came out to examine the situation. They inspected all of us, and determined that we were physically well cared for, and most of us were very friendly. They then told her about two of the programs they ran which could help her.

The first program is called Rescue, Foster, and Adoption, and they said they had placed over 2400 cats into new homes through this program (and all of them were altered before adoption so the adopters didn’t eventually get overwhelmed as well). The second is a program called TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return), and it’s useful for those cats who unlike myself will never be able to be real human-friendly because they’re feral (there’s a number of those guys running around here as well), but who still deserve to live. It’s a great program, and the only technique which has proven to be effective and humane in actually reducing the number of cats in this country.

Anyways, back to my story. The day the Animal Outreach people arrived was quite special timing for me. I was just giving birth to four kittens in this cupboard that day. They said they didn’t have a foster home available that day, but two days later they came back and whisked me and my 4 kittens into one that had become available. They also took five other cats with them as well that day (and have taken even more since then), and are still working with that nice lady to help her TNR all the feral cats on the property.

There is a picture of me and my four little ones there on the right, aren’t they adorable. I’ve been spending a lot of time nursing them, and when they’re old enough, they will be adopted, and so will I.

So that’s my story. I hope you vote for me for Queen for the Day, but I already feel like one.

JUNO (a.k.a. Junebug) 

Hi, my name is Juno. I used to live in a small town called Ringwood. I spent a lot of time hanging out with my sister, basically chilling. Unfortunately, after we got involved in some shenanigans....well let’s just say both my sister and I wound up preggo.

The people we were living with already had three other young adult cats besides ourselves, and one of them had given birth a few months earlier to four of those totally boss polydactyl kittens, so combined with my sister’s and my five kittens each, all of a sudden five young cats became 19.....Yikes!

Thankfully, these really cool people from Animal Outreach were able to help. First off, they took both me and my sister, and our brood of 10 kittens, as well as the four polydactyl kittens (who were older than ours and already weaned), and got us nice spots in foster homes. They also made sure that the three remaining cats in my old house were spayed/neutered pronto, no more population explosions there.

I’m really enjoying my time with my kittens, their names are Panda, Flower, Chicklet, Sandy and Rocky. I thought I was going to be one of those really laid back moms, but turns out I’m pretty good at keeping the kids in line when they rough-house too much or go where they shouldn’t.

They say soon, I’ll be up for adoption myself after I’m um....modified. I think it’s great there are people who volunteer to help cats like me and my spawn. I’d love to win this here little contest, but even if I don’t, no biggie. I’m just hoping soon I’ll find my family who won’t see what anyone can see.....in anyone else......but me.  

LITTLE FEATHER

Hi, they call me Little Feather and I’d like to tell you my story. In the summer of 2007, I was living in this tree stump with my four babies. I was doing the best I could, but I had grown really skinny, and I was having a rough time.

I was also a bit confused, as I used to have a home. I’ve always been very sweet and friendly to people, so I’m not sure how I wound up in this stump.

Anyways, this group of friendly people called Animal Outreach took me in. It was really nice, they assigned me and my little ones to this place called a volunteer foster home. I had a good time there, as I got to provide for my babies, and even was able to get myself back up to a healthy weight. My foster family named my babies after some characters in some book called Little Women, but I’ve never read it. I’m not a big reader.

Once they were old enough (and altered), my little ones were ready for their own homes. Joe and Beth actually got adopted together, and Amy and Meg also found great homes. Then they said it was my turn.

They took me to this place called Petsmart, and I lived there for a while. It wasn’t quite as cushy as my foster home, but I got to inspect many prospective families, and they got to see how great I was in person (that’s hard to beat). I even got to help take care of some other kittens that would come in on weekends to be adopted. I really enjoyed helping. It took me a long time to finally meet my people, but Animal Outreach never gave up on me, even when I got a minor urinary infection. In fact, many of the volunteers were a little sad to see me go as they had become quite attached to me and my loving purrsonality.

So there you have it. I really hope you help me win this contest so Animal Outreach can help more moms like me, but I’ve already got my mother’s day present, loving homes for me and my babies.