Winter 1997--#4
Phone: 664-2370 (Carol Raupp)
Campus Cats aims to spay or neuter feral (wild) cats on campus, rescue kittens and tame adult cats and find them homes, and have any campus cats who are seriously ill or wounded euthanized. Efforts underway in the past several years have resulted in over 200 rescues and the spaying or neutering of most cats remaining on campus. Unfortunately, the campus continues to be a dumping ground for people abandoning pets.
IT'S TOO MUCH! SIX MONTHS OF CHEERS AND TEARS
Faithful readers will have noticed the lack of a Fall Quarter newsletter. As you will see as you read on, the past six months have been filled with a roller coaster of triumphs and tragedies. It's been just too much to keep up with!
A MORE THAN FOND FAREWELL TO PHIL WHITNEY
FROM TORTIEGIRL, SNAGGLES, SNAGGLE'S FRIEND, PHIL THE WHINER, PHILOMENA, AND 200+ FELINES & HUMANS
Day after day, year after year, he came to work early or stayed late. His own family could not have any cats at home because of allergies, but he felt endless empathy for the cats living or abandoned here, and he did something about it. Was food needed? He bought the food--he fed them. Was Tortiegirl having endless litters of kittens? He pursued her via devious and ingenuous methods for years until finally catching her this summer and having her spayed. Were those endless litters of kittens safe? He kept a close watch on them, and when they were old enough, caught them and carried them around the campus until he found adopters. Did the Campus Cats foster home need an outdoor enclosure? He helped build it. Who was going to pay for all this? He did.
At the beginning of January Phil Whitney took a new job and career direction, joining the faculty at Bakersfield College. Before he left, he arranged for new feeders to help take care of the cats (thank you, Miho, Katy, Sabina, and Sue). We wish him every success, and know we will miss him sorely.
CATS ON AND OFF CAMPUS
No More Kittens for Tortiegirl! After years of pursuit, Tortiegirl was finally captured by Phil Whitney and spayed over the summer. Not only will this end her stream of kittens (17 last year alone) but Tortie herself can now have a much healthier and longer life. Phil also caught and spayed Tortie's Daughter, a feral mom, and caught and neutered a male cat living in that area of campus. This leaves only one unneutered male among the feral cats on campus, as far as we know. Now if only we could prevent people from dumping cats here...
Loss of Shelter for Cats on Campus We are very concerned because all three of the areas where campus cats have sheltered for years and where we have been feeding them have been damaged in the process of grounds beautification during the fall quarter. The bushes around the Classroom Building have been almost completely torn out and the other two areas have been through intense pruning, reducing the shelter value of the habitat. Campus administrators assure us that effects on the cat colony have been unintentional.
Two Campus Cats Die A feral adult male, Buster, trapped by Carol Raupp this August tested positive for feline HIV and was euthanized. Please note this as another reason to have your male cats neutered--the main transmission of feline HIV occurs via bite wounds among fighting tomcats. In October, Bill Peters found a stray adult male who'd arrived on campus a few weeks before run over on the road east of the Modular Buildings. It's possible that the fencing for the Business Conference prevented him from escaping from the road effectively.
Obituaries for Old-timers Over the summer and fall, two cats taken off-campus some years ago were euthanized. Yodi was among the first litter of kittens ever rescued by Campus Cats. She died of stomatitis. Cejas, another rescued feral who never became very tame but sometimes acted very sweet, died of a chronic upper respiratory infection. Just before Christmas, Cabron was euthanized because of kidney failure. This nice old guy originally belonged to Fred Lopez.
Epidemics Maggie and her three kittens had salmonella when rescued from the campus in June and had to be treated (expensively) in foster care the entire summer to get rid of it. There were a lot of chicken and beef scraps from people's meals set out near their hideout by people attempting to feed them, and it's likely they got salmonella from those scraps. If you see cats on campus, please do not feed them! Instead, notify Carol Raupp of their location.
In a bizarre and tragic outcome for a family rescued last spring, Peachy and all but one of her kittens died in foster care this summer. Apparently a section of Peachy's intestines telescoped and went septic, and the kittens were infected by nursing. Pogo is the sole survivor.
SAFETY REMINDERS
The campus's Safety Committee's December meeting discussed cats on campus because of safety concerns. Phil Whitney and Carol Raupp attended. It is likely that the committee will be sending out an e-mail reminder soon reminding everyone not to attempt to feed or pick up the feral or abandoned cats and kittens on campus. If you see a new cat on campus, notify Carol Raupp. We'll print the full text of the safety tips in our next newsletter.
CATS WAITING FOR HOMES
These cats have their vaccinations and are spayed/neutered. Please contact Carol for details.
RESCUE LOG
These 17 cats rescued over the summer and fall are part of the total 29 cats rescued here last year. Most were abandoned by cruel, irresponsible people. What can you do? Adopt a cat, and be sure to spay/neuter your own.
6/4/96-Maggie, Emma, Inga, GQ--Found in the Cafeteria loading dock, Maggie was an abandoned mother with 3 kittens. Rescued by Carol Raupp after being spotted by Library and Intensive Language program staff. Maggie and Emma are looking for homes. Inga and GQ are not yet ready.
7/3/96-Friendly-Dumped at the Health Center, he's a big 2-year-old male gray and white tabby. Rescued by Debbie Cink and Armanda Ghilarducci. Usually friendly but with a quirky temper, so we have not offered him for adoption. But if you understand cats who "bat" you when displeased, maybe he's for you!
8/29/96-Mother and 3 kittens-Found by Jeanne Furstenfeld abandoned in a cat carrier at the Housing loading dock, we just could not find room for this beautiful tortie mom and her kittens because of a quarantine at our usual foster home and so, very reluctantly, we took them to the SPCA. We hope they were adopted. This appeared to be the all-too-common scenario in which Campus Cats was mentioned in the news and some creep then decided to dump his/her cats here.
9/4/96-Holly-A feral or abandoned kitten seen around the campus for several months by Marsha Oden, Athletics, and finally captured for her waiting adopter, Barbara Brenner, Public Safety.
9/4/96-Whosits-Clearly abandoned (possibly in response to our late August publicity), Whosits came walking up with a shy "meow" to Carol Raupp near the Procurement Office. Luckily, an adopter was found the next day with the help of Dick Noel, Psychology.
9/4-9/9/96-Sage, Delta, James, Fergus, Mojave-This abandoned mom and her kittens were spotted by Health Center and Children's Center staff during the summer and it took about a month to find their hideout. Carol Raupp trapped them. Fergus and Mojave have found great homes. Delta is waiting for a place with plenty of tuna. Sage and James are not ready for adoption.
11/19-Dickens-An unneutered (temporarily!) male, Dickens might have been dumped or might have been a stray. Rescued by Carol Raupp, he remains too wild for adoption.
ADOPTIONS--LUCKY KITTIES!
Congratulations to the families who adopted these fine campus felines!
9/5/96--Holly found a home with Barbara Brenner immediately after her rescue!
9/5/96--Whosits also found an immediate home with Shirley Boren's family, and was rechristened Cleo.
10/26/96-- Fergus didn't have to wait too long for a home, but he had to travel far. With the assistance of Gina Szczypiaski, he found a home with relatives in Ridgecrest and became the best buddy of a little boy.
10/28/96--Mojave is sitting pretty at Jan Roger's, where he was welcomed even though he was originally mislabelled a "she" by Carol Raupp (hey, he's a long-haired calico and therefore a genetic mistake, so I got fooled).
$10 Spay/Neuter Coupons Available On Campus
Kern County Animal Control has agreed to let Campus Cats be one of the outlets for coupons worth $10 toward spaying or neutering your cats. Coupons are available for up to three cats per family and are accepted at every vets. They are good for 30 days after issuance. If you have been waffling about spaying or neutering your cats, please (we're begging!) pick up a coupon and get it done now before another kitten season with all its needless deaths. Contact Carol, DDH D113, -2370.
CAPs Launches Community Program for Ferals
The Cat People, Humane Society, SPCA, and Kern County Animal Control have launched a jointly-sponsored program called "CAP" (Colony Assistance Program) to help those who are trying to manage colonies of feral cats. Colonies consist of established extended families of "wild" cats, usually more than a dozen. Campus Cats is one of the registered colonies. The program has already received and distributed donated food for several colonies and is working on spay/neuter assistance. If you are a feral colony manager, please contact The Cat People, 327-4706, and ask for an application form to register your colony for the program.
CAMPUS CATS CANDY SALE
A new batch of candy has arrived for our annual fundraiser to cover the costs of spaying or neutering the many cats rescued. Campus Cats is again selling See's candy bars (yes, See's!) for the unbelievably low price of $1 each. We have the following scrumptious varieties: milk chocolate (plain, almonds, or with toffee bits) or dark chocolate (plain or almond). You can eat them yourselves or they make great little gifts! Leave a prepaid order at DDH D113 specifying varieties, and arrangements will be made to deliver the candy to you. If you can sell some yourself, call 664-2370.
DONATIONS NEEDED
Please help if you can! Send tax-deductible donations to the Foundation, specifying the Campus Cats account (#3010-471) or send them via Carol Raupp in Psychology. Donations make you a Campus Cats member unless you would rather not belong--i.e., you're donating to keep the cat population down because you don't like cats! Please specify if it's a "don't like cats" donation--we'll take your money anyway with thanks! Campus Cats's wish list also includes the following--candy bar sellers and food contributors.
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DONATION FORM--Return to C. Raupp, Psychology, DDH D113
Name, campus phone & address
___________________________________________________________________
Membership/donation $_______ (Checks to "CSUB Foundation", #3010-471)
(Any amount is welcome--suggested donations are $5 students, $6 staff, $7 faculty)
Thanks to Southwest Vets for all their help! This newsletter is not printed at state expense.