Kitty shelter "Felix the Cat"

25/08/2013

About three months ago we received Amelie, a kitty that showed up in somebody's backyard dragging her back legs, unable to move them. We found out she had an abscess around her spine, probably caused by a dog bite, and we had to treat her with antibiotics, antiinflammatories and lots of nursing. She had no bowel control, so we had to devise a system to keep her clean and dry all day, and we've learned to do rehabilitation exercises with her, which we do everyday. We were told by many that the best thing for her would be to put her down (the person who is writing this and many others agreed), and it was very hard for us to make the decision to give her a chance; we were afraid that we would prolong the suffering of a hopeless kitty just in order to satisfy our own need for a happy ending.

But she got her chance.

It's been a very hard three months for her and for us, but they paid off. Today Amelie is able to walk with a bit of help (she needs someone to hold her tail while she does), and she's FAST! She can really make us run. Watch her in this short video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4AFOml2GDg

Remember Amelie, our once-paralyzed kitty? Watch her go with a bit of help after months of treatment, rehabilitation and lots of love. Note we're not pulling...

25/08/2013

Folks, this is what awaits you when you enter the kitten room. ALL of these sweet babies are up and ready for adoption, all dewormed and vaccinated and ready to go to their forever homes!

Would you like to adopt one of these beauties? Call María at +420737149735 or write to [email protected]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKvLKhXakqE

Folks, this is what awaits you when you enter the kitten room. ALL of these sweet babies are up and ready for adoption, all dewormed and vaccinated and ready...

07/08/2013

This originally stray kitten, now 3 months old, has been found living in the backyard/cellar of our appartment building in Prague 3. It was possibly left on her own by her mother too soon. It now has the habit of sucking intensely on her back leg toe, purring and massaging the air, simulating breastfeeding.

Towards the end of the video you can see Lola, our own kitten, who was craving some attention as well.

Would you like to adopt this toe-sucking cutie? Call María at +420737149735 or write to [email protected]
http://youtu.be/Wg3vXUwrreI

06/08/2013

Two Prague kitty families in urgent need of help!

A call to all of you who love cats and who have some space at home to provide temporary shelter. We urgently need to find two temporary homes: one for about a month and the other for about three. Our own shelter in Klecany and all the foster families that work with us are absolutely overcrowded, and now of course we hear of these two cases that just cannot wait.

First case:
A lady called us from Černý Most, telling us that there's a cat with three kittens living in a hole between the concrete blocks of the buliding she lives in, a hole leading down below the building. The lady along with other neighbors has been feeding her. But last week they begun to fix the heating in the building and they cemented the hole shut. A neighbor saw that construction workers noticed the presence of the cats and were arguing with their boss, but the boss ordered them to shut it nonetheless, under threat of not paying them, so they did it. The neighbor tore it open again and managed to save the cats for that one time, but it's not a definitive solution: other neighbors are threatening to shut the hole themselves if it's not fixed soon, cats or no cats. So we need to move this family someplace else, but we can't accept even one more soul into our shelter. We estimate this would take a month at most, while the kittens are dewormed and vaccinated and the mother spayed.

Second case:
Another collaborator who feeds cats around his neighborhood found a tortoiseshell cat that's very close to giving birth. He would normally bring her home to let her give birth and raise her babies, but on friday he's going abroad for several weeks. We don't want to let her have her babies outside, where they can be eaten by weasels or by male cats or dogs, or only in the best of cases they'll grow up to reproduce and have even more kittens in need of help. So ideally she would find a foster home where she could stay until her kittens are vaccinated and ready to come to our shelter to wait for their forever homes (in about 3 months time).

If you're willing to take one of these families home with you, we'll give you all the support and help. We'll let you borrow cat toilets, bowls, beds, we'll pay for all veterinary expenses including deworming and vaccines, and if you're low on resources (a student or an elderly person in retirement) we can also provide you with cat food and litter. We really need to get these kittens off the streets.

Please, if you would like to help, call María at 737149735 or write to [email protected]. If you want to help but you can't take them, share this message among your contacts and help us spread the word!

Thank you!

06/08/2013

It hasn't been long since we had to put Lily, the tabby, through two expensive operations in order to save her life, and we already bumped into our next difficult case. A lady who feeds stray cats in Prague 10 called us to say someone brought her a kitten that was injured by a car. The poor kitten had apparently been lying on the street for a while, because his wounds already had lots of fly eggs!

The kitten couldn't stand on its hind legs, so we thought it must have a fracture, and probably an ugly one. We asked the lady to take it to veterinary clinic Fenix, where also Lily had her surgeries, and they found out it had a fractured hip. They recommended to fix it immediately with the use of surgical wires that go through the broken bones and out of the body (you can see this outer part in the pictures, it looks like an egg on her hip), since this would be the best option for a kitten that is still expected to grow. So the kitten, now called Mimi, had her surgery and went home to be cared for by María.

However, she started to have problems eating and going to the toilet, and María found out that the cause could be a hernia, meaning a tear on her abdominal muscles, caused by the accident, through which some of her internal organs come through and then get trapped between the torn muscles and the skin. So poor Mimi had to go under the knife yet again.

She's doing well now and we're very hopeful about her. She's very sociable and playful, very full of life, and she's getting top notch care.

We would like to send out a big thanks to all of you who contributed to help us afford Lily's operation. We received so many donations that we were able to afford this kitten's care too. By making a small donation to us you help us make sure that we'll be able to save the next kitten to come to our hands in need of care. This kitten season has proven to be specially demanding at that.

02/08/2013

Rozarka looks like she was kicked out by someone. She was found in Prague 10, where she joined a group of cats that were living there and being fed by the neighbors, all of them very shy. But Rozarka was unbelievably sweet and sociable, she liked people very much. They soon discovered she was pregnant, so the lady who was feeding her took her to our shelter. We dedicated a room to her, and in early may she gave birth to four beautiful kittens: a black boy and girl, and a tabby boy and girl.

Rozarka is incredibly sweet, adorable, chubby, clean and quiet, but also playful. She's about two years old. She's an awesome kitty mom who immediately licks every kitten she sees. She'll be castrated soon, and she as well as all of her kittens are now up for adoption, waiting for their forever home. You can also see pictures of them in our album "kitten boom!".

If you're interested in any of them, call María at +420737149735 or write to [email protected] to come and take a look.

02/08/2013

Shelter workers found Lily, a one-year-old tabby, laying in front of the shelter doors. We think somebody left her here because she was sick. She was in awful condition: her nose was filled shut with mucus and she couldn't eat. At first we thought she had a bad case of the "cat's cold", but the veterinarian we took her to diagnosed her with calicivirus, which is a very contagious disease that causes big ulcers to appear in the tongue, similar to afts in people but much bigger. That's why she refused to eat.

After it was evident that she wouldn't eat or drink by herself, we decided to take her back to the vet's so he could fit her with a feeding tube. It goes into her neck and down all the way to her stomach, so we can feed her adequate amounts without putting her through the unpleasant experience of being force fed.

While doing this, however, they found out she had yet another problem on top! She had a really bad infection in the middle ear, which caused her vestibular syndrome. She couldn't stand on her feet without falling to the left, couldn't walk straight and she held her head tilted to the left. She couldn't move the left side of her face.

She had an operation to drain the abscess in her middle ear and is now recovering. Unfortunately, the operation and the placement of the feeding tube have cost us over 5000 crowns (about $250), which is an enormous wound to the budget of an organization that feeds 150 cats from only the donations of caring people! For that reason we're kindly asking those of you who wish to help to kindly send your donations to PSOZ, account number 179500872/0300. Each donation, however big or small, means a lot to us and helps us keep our doors open!

01/08/2013

It's kitten season and we have more than 20 kittens ready to adopt, ages from 2 to 5 months, waiting at the shelter for their forever homes, plus about 30 more on the way, still too young to be adopted and currently living in the various temporary homes we have in Prague. All sorts of personalities, some more outgoing, some a bit more shy or quiet, but all of them sweet, cute and playful!

Each one of them would love to find a family that will love it and treat it well, even better if the family comes with another feline (or even canine) friend to play with when the people are gone.

If you would like to welcome one of these beauties into your life, call María at +420737149735, or write to [email protected].